Dr. Zygote returns, having mastered the abilities of his new futureman form. He captures Gadge, a teenager with telekinetic powers, to study and learn more about mastering evolution.
Tropes:
- Ascend to a Higher Plane of Existence: How Zygote's ultimately dealt with. Max runs him so far into his evolutionary future that Zygote leaves the corporeal world behind entirely.
- Battle in the Center of the Mind: Dr. Zygote attacks Max telepathically at one point and makes him imagine he's being attacked by evil versions of Virgil, Norman and his mom. He breaks the spell by remembering none of them would ever betray him.
- Brain Monster: At the episode's climax, Zygote briefly becomes a floating brain with eyes as he evolves.
- Evolutionary Levels: Gadge's powers are supposed to be the next step in human evolution, therefore implying that evolution proceeds by discrete steps.
- Goal-Oriented Evolution: Dr. Zygote evolves even further than he did last time, beyond his body with an evolved brain but an atrophied body, to a fowl-like configuration like Virgil, to a disembodied brain, then finally to an orb of pure mental energy.
- Mind over Matter: Possessed by both Zygote — who has learned to master his new powers since his last appearance — and Gadge.
- My Brain Is Big: Zygote still has the huge brain he gave himself in his previous appearance.
- "The Reason You Suck" Speech: When they get out of Zygote's lab, but it turns out Virgil was captured in the process, Gadge doesn't see why it's his problem and tries to run away. Max, who used to want to stop being the Mighty One and just be a regular kid, tells Gadge that some things are a lot bigger than one person, and running away isn't an option.
- Restored My Faith in Humanity: Everyone Gadge has ever known, up to and especially Dr. Zygote, has just tried to exploit him for his powers. When he manages to escape Zygote's lab, he considers it a lucky break and is happy to run away. Seeing Max and Norman willing to risk their lives to go back in for Virgil shows Gadge that people can do things just out of loyalty to someone else, prompting him to go back and help too.
- Serial Escalation: In his early appearance, Zygote evolved himself into a big-brained man of the future. In this episode, he evolves through all future stages of evolution until he becomes a being of pure thought.
- Shout-Out; The part with Mighty Max stopping Zygote alludes to "The Man Who Evolved" by Edmond Hamilton, where the titular character wants to rule Earth at one point (to use as a lab), so the narrator convinces him to evolve until he wants it no more than ruling an anthill.
- Third Eye: Zygote briefly gains one via his experimentation.
