Tylor is finally promoted to Jokester but is torn between accepting his promotion and leaving his newfound friends. Meanwhile, Mike and Sulley are confronted with an ultimatum to generate one million "gigglewatts" or get shut down.
Tropes:
- Ambiguous Situation: Mike acknowledges that Roze conveniently took the day off the same day Roz returned, openly questioning if Roze was just Roz in a Paper-Thin Disguise all along. It's not revealed whether he was right.
- Big Damn Heroes: The scream canisters have run out before the Monsters meet their goal. Then Cutter brings the canister that Tylor asked her to make earlier in the episode.
- Back for the Finale:
- Roz returns in this episode after last being seen in the first episode. To Mike's suspicion, her sister Roze is conveniently absent.
- Winchester returns after last being seen in Episode 2. He even greets Tylor and is seen giving another monster banana bread.
- Call-Back:
- The events of "Little Monsters" two episodes prior convinced Mrs. Flint to give Tylor a shot at the Laugh Floor.
- Fritz finds Tylor's acceptance letter in his box.
- When Tylor asks whether Sulley misses being the top Scarer, he mentions that he is unwilling to go back to that after seeing Boo's reaction to him accidentally frightening her.
- Call-Forward:
- Tylor suggests they create a larger laugh canister to hold more energy, which will mean less loading and unloading time. Those same canisters would be implemented at the end of the original film—and guess what turns out to be the key to keeping M.I. open?
- The final scene takes place during the epilogue of the original film, just before Mike takes Sulley to see Boo's fixed door.
- Continuity Nod: Sulley mentions that rival company Fear Co. still uses Scream power, which was previously hinted at in Monsters University.
- Dawn of an Era: This episode hammers home that the age of laughter has begun, best shown by how they’ve run out of scream canisters to be replaced with larger laugh canisters. The party held at the end was actually to celebrate their 1 million GiggleWatt milestone.
- Door-Closes Ending: The season ends with Tylor entering through a door which closes behind him.
- Earn Your Happy Ending: After struggling with trying to keep Monsters Inc. afloat for ten episodes, Mike and Sulley prove that their company is capable of powering Monstropolis with children's laughter, though anyone who watched the original film would already know they would succeed in doing so, with the company rolling in a surplus of electrical power. For Tylor, he's finally achieved his new aspiration of being a comedian after having to put up with the antics of his MIFT team and unsuccessfully trying to be hilarious, thanks to his klutzy nature.
- Epic Fail: Fungus tries using a faulty canister when all the others run out. It doesn't go well.
- Heel Realization: Sulley discusses this with Tylor. When Tylor expresses how he wishes they could go back to Scream Power because it is what both of them are good at, Sulley explains the fear he saw in Boo's eyes when she was scared and didn't like it, or what he saw in himself. So even if Laugh Power isn't as easy as Scream Power, it's still the right thing to do.
- I Choose to Stay: Subverted; Tylor says he was going to stay at MIFT after his day as jokester-in-training is up, and the team—save Duncan—was happy for that, but after Fritz sees Tylor's acceptance letter, he encourages Tylor to keep the jokester position. Val later on joins Tylor as his assistant.
- In the Style of: Unlike previous instances, the end credits in this episode use the full version of the show's a capella theme.
- Instantly Proven Wrong: When Mike and Ms. Flint talk to Tylor about how he is funny and can be a Jokester, Mike proclaims Tylor's a natural, only for Ms. Flint to point out he auditioned fifteen times, so Mike amends it to he's persistent.
- Only a Model: Tylor explains his idea for bigger canisters to improve production by drawing a small diagram on the whiteboard. Fritz is worried that the canister will be the same size as the sketch and suggests that they make it bigger.
- Reasonable Authority Figure: When Roz informs Mike and Sulley that their lack of proper energy production will lead to the company's shutdown, she gives them a day to generate 1 million gigawatts to prove her wrong. She then gives them an extra day to come up with an idea to double their output.
- Retcon: In the recreation of the ending of the first movie, George Sanderson is shown to still be shaved, even though in the movie his hair has grown back, though justified given the finale is set about a month after Waternoose was arrested, thus George hair would've not grown back yet.
- The Reveal: Roz isn't just the head of the CDA—she's also the head of the Monsters Energy Regulatory Commission.
- Season Finale: Season 1's last episode.
- Sequel Hook: In The Stinger, Fritz can be heard lamenting the end of the series, asking if there's a possibility of a second season. Sure enough, a second season was indeed announced not long after — by Henry Winkler himself, no less!
- Synchronous Episodes: The final scene takes place exactly during the final scene of the first film with Sulley about to see Boo's fixed door. And as this video
shows, the two of them are perfectly aligned with each other. - Tempting Fate: In the Cold Open, Mike says that things couldn’t be brighter at Monsters Inc. The power goes out at that very moment.
- Worthy Opponent: When MIFT is celebrating Tylor's promotion with a party for him and everyone is saying something nice about him, the only "nice" thing Duncan can bring himself to say (after repeatedly being ordered to by Val) is "thank you for being a worthy, stupid adversary".
