Wirt, Greg, and Beatrice are riding a ferry run by frogs to Adelaide's home. Wirt wonders how Greg's frog fits in with the other frogs, but they run into trouble when the crew realizes they came on board without paying.
Tropes:
- Acting Unnatural:Wirt: Just act natural.
Greg: Drum me! Drum me!
Wirt: I said natural.
Greg: This is natural. I'm a drum. - Break the Cutie: You can hear Wirt's voice crack when he asks Beatrice if she had planned to betray them all along.
- Brick Joke: Greg complains about his frog seeming out of place because he is the only frog on the ferry who's not dressed, saying he should at least have some socks on. Later on in the episode, he is seen wearing long socks after receiving his recording contract.
- Cannot Spit It Out: Beatrice cannot admit to Wirt why she becomes hesitant about going to Adelaide's. It's particularly egregious because Wirt asks her several times if she's all right.
- Chekhov's Lecture: Adelaide keeps warning Beatrice that the outside air will kill her. Good thing Beatrice remembered.
- Chekhov's Skill: Wirt's ability to play clarinet allows him to replace the bassoon player on the ferry, after accidentally knocking him over.
- Civilized Animal: The frogs on the ferry.
- Et Tu, Brute?: Wirt's reaction on realizing why Beatrice led the boys to Adelaide.
- Furry Confusion: Most of the frogs on the ferry dress and act human, but don't talk, though the tadpoles cry like human babies. Greg's frog acts like a normal frog mostly, but sings a song while some other frogs play instruments, and the audience seems surprised.
- Healing Shiv: Though it's narrowly prevented from happening on-screen, Adelaide's cure for Beatrice's transformation is cutting her wings off with a special pair of scissors. Adelaide certainly acts as if it would have worked, though Beatrice is still forced to trust a very senile old woman knows what she's doing.
- Hidden Depths: Greg's frog can sing!
- Hope Spot: It seems they party is on their way to Adelaide, and thus a way for Wirt and Greg to get home. But it turns out her intentions for them were to enslave them.
- Not What It Looks Like: Said word-for-word by Beatrice at the end when she is found at Adelaide's home.
- O.O.C. Is Serious Business:
- Beatrice goes from rushing Wirt and Greg to Adelaide as quickly as possible to advising them to slow down or even give up. She also tells Wirt she believes he can play the bassoon after he says he thinks he can't, instead of constantly mocking him. Both of these hint that she was trying to sabotage their efforts to reach Adelaide because she knew what they were really headed to and changed her mind about sending them there.
- Wirt is so happy to get home that he actually sings with Greg and dances with Beatrice, and at the end we hear him laugh for the first time in the series.
- Oh, Crap!: Beatrice gets more nervous the closer they get to Adelaide's house.
- Poor Communication Kills: At the end, Wirt doesn't give Beatrice a chance to explain herself; he and Gregory leave as soon as they're free, and Wirt says he should have known better than to trust someone.
- The Power of Rock: Wirt's bassoon playing and their frog's singing allows them to stay on the boat without paying the fare. Some of the frogs even sing along.
- Screw This, I'm Outta Here: As soon as Adelaide dies, Wirt and Greg pull this, not waiting for Beatrice to explain herself.
- Ship Tease: Wirt dances with Beatrice at the beginning, in an attempt to cheer her up. He knows that Beatrice is actually a human girl.
- Spanner in the Works: Wirt and Greg mess up Adelaide and Beatrice's conflicting plans.
- Springtime for Hitler: Beatrice encourages Wirt to replace the bassoon player in the hopes of getting the boys and herself thrown off the boat. Instead, Wirt's performance with Greg's frog earns them their fare, and Beatrice sadly admits that Wirt is "good".
- Take Me Instead: Beatrice offers herself as a child servant to Adelaide, so that she won't take the boys. Could have been a Batman Gambit since being a servant would mean that her family would turn back to human as well.
- The Reveal: Beatrice is actually bringing the boys to Adelaide because she made a deal with her to bring kids to help her do chores so Adelaide would undo the spell. Adelaide was actually planning on making the children her slaves.
- Running Gag:
- The tadpoles getting knocked onto the floor.
- The waiter tripping and losing the flies on his tray, which other frogs then catch with their tongues.
- Title Drop: Gregory's frog sings a song that contains the lyrics "Over the Garden Wall"—according to the full version on Youtube, that's also the song's name, making it a double example.
- Totem Pole Trench: Wirt disguises himself with a large coat and puts Gregory's frog on top of his head.
- Was It All a Lie?: Wirt asks Beatrice a variance of this when Adelaide ties him and Greg up, to stuff their head with fluff and brainwash them. Beatrice denies it, but the evidence looks bad against her.
- Wham Episode: Beatrice turns out to have been using Wirt and Greg and they leave her behind, and the way home they'd been hoping for is a dead end.
- When He Smiles: Wirt, especially when he sings!
- Wicked Witch: Adelaide. She even has the hat, as well as the habit of melting...
