Goodbye, boys.note
"Since it's our last day of summer, we're thinking a grand finale is in order!"
On the inevitable 104th day of summer vacation, the season — and the series — is quickly coming to an end and it’s Candace’s last chance to bust her brothers, who build huge playground equipment for the finale of summer. She is quickly foiled, but when she goes to return a DVD to Vanessa and finds Dr. Doofenshmirtz’s Do-Over-Inator, she finds an opportunity to redo the day, which results in other consequences like rips in the space-time continuum, the shortening of days and the disappearance of her brothers.
Tropes:
- Actor Allusion: At one point, Phineas and Ferb's invention gives the gang the live-action heads of their respective voice actors, as a tribute to their contributions to the series. Phineas becomes Vincent Martella, Ferb becomes Thomas Brodie-Sangster, Isabella becomes Alyson Stoner, and Baljeet becomes Maulik Pancholy. Buford, however, turns into an octopus. It was explained by the writers that this is because Bobby Gaylor, who voices Buford, is in his 50s, so putting a 50-year-old man's head on a preteen bully would seem weird.
- Armor-Piercing Question: Vanessa says one to her father about his new job as Tri-Governor of the Tri-State Area:Vanessa: I don't think this lifestyle choice is making you happy either, is it?
- The Bad Guy Wins: Dr. Doofenshmirtz manages to take over the entire Tri-State Area (for the second time) by creating a political position for himself, Tri-Govenor. He even signs a legislation preventing Perry and the OWCA from thwarting him and his schemes until his term is over. The first time was in "Phineas And Ferb Save Summer".
- Victory Is Boring: Of course, he eventually reaches an epiphany, realizing that his success didn't bring him any happiness as he expected.
- Big Finale Crowd Song: As the Grand Finale of the whole series, naturally this trope would apply here. "Thank You For Coming Along" has the cast recapping some of the their major adventures with even Doofenshmirtz and Monogram getting in on the number, along with Phineas and his friends.
- Bookends: Perry, whose method of entering his lair to receive his mission was Different in Every Episode, uses a remote-activated door at the side of the house just like in the first episode.
- Call-Back: "It's muffin time, sir!"
- Chekhov's Gun: The spoon is the first object that disappears in the space-time. At the end Candace saves the day by throwing a spoon at the self destruct button of the Do-Overinator.
- Cloudcuckoolander: Isabella seems more distracted by the capri pants than by the severity of everything disappearing from existence.
- Continuity Porn: Being the show's final song, "Curtain Call/Times Spent Together" is full of this.
- Continuity Snarl: The first time Candace wakes up after Phineas and Ferb disappear from the timeline, her alarm clock somehow still has Phineas's voice on it saying, "I know what we're gonna do today".
- Dance Party Ending: The series closes out with all the characters jamming out while thanking the audience for watching.
- A Day in the Limelight: Candace and Doofenshmirtz take the spotlight in the finale, as their actions drive the plot of most episodes of Phineas and Ferb.
- Description Cut: With Candace, Phineas and Ferb stuck outside the timeline, Candace figures out their parents never had kids and assumes they now must have boring lives. The viewers get to see that their lives are anything but.
- Disney Acid Sequence: "No One I'd Rather Go Nowhere With", which takes place on Phineas and Ferb's big idea, and also "When Tomorrow Is This Morning Again", with the final shots of the latter paying tribute to "Busted", but with Doof in place of Vanessa.
- Distant Duet: When Tomorrow is This Morning Again
is sang by both Candace and Doofenshmirtz. - Door-Closes Ending: The final shot (as seen above) has Phineas wave goodbye to the viewers before closing the door.
- Dumbass No More: After spending 104 days on making many schemes that invariably fail on his part, Doof finally puts a scheme that goes to his favor on a grand scale. Given to the fact that he went through 23 time loops to actually learn from his mistakes, he made sure to carefully set his traps for Perry in case the latter would try to escape from them one-by-one. And when Perry is finally trapped (offscreen), Doof wastes no time in creating the Tri-Governor's mansion and putting up a voting booth to gather enough votes to legally win the office and sign up a law forbidding O.W.C.A. to thwart him again.
- End-of-Series Awareness: The title of the special itself alludes to the show ending.
- Eye Am Watching You: Done by Candace to the boys as everyone goes inside at the end, which is followed by a smile and point.
- Good-Times Montage: Of a sort. During the "Times Spent Together" song, The gang (including Candace) reminisce about the awesome summer they had, while Doof, Perry, Vanessa, and Norm have their own reminiscing session. What they are saying is obscured by the song, but their miming seems to make clear which adventures they are talking about.
- Graceful Loser: A little zigzagged with Perry and Monogram. Upon seeing that Doof has succeeded in taking over the Tri-State Area, Perry is very upset as he can do nothing but to mope over his failure; even Monogram regretfully admits to Perry that the latter will be suspended from work thanks to Doof's new anti-thwarting law. Despite this, they are both willing to accept defeat as Monogram states that they will have to get used to Doof's new job as Tri-Governor until his term is over; even Perry is willing to live with it as he happily encourages Vanessa to come clean with Doof about her intent to join OWCA's internship program.
- "Groundhog Day" Loop: For Candace and Doofenshmirtz, who were both inside the -inator's bubble upon its activation, so they both relive the last day.
- Heel–Face Turn: Doofenshmirtz gives up evil for good in this special. "Phineas and Ferb: Act Your Age" makes it clear that it stuck. Even Norm tags along as well.
- Internal Deconstruction: This special effectively deconstructs both Candace and Doofenshmirtz's life goals.
- As Linda subtly implies (twice), Candace has essentially wasted the entire summer attempting to bust her brothers. Her refusal to give up this goal drives her to activate the Do-Overinator, so she can obsessively continue her attempts to bust her brothers, to the detriment of the fabric of space-time. After the escape from limbo, Candace seems to have realized how pointless her obsession was, as she decides to simply sit with her brothers and their friends in the back yard for the rest of the day, happily reminiscing over all the fun things they did over the summer.
- As Vanessa points out, Doof wasted the entire summer creating schemes to take over the Tri-State Area in order to assert that he's evil, when in actuality, he's only doing this due to being bitter and petty about his hilarious yet tragic childhood. She also pointed out that even though Doof has finally accomplished his goal by being elected as the first Tri-Governor, his victory has brought no happiness to him either. Realizing this, Doof decides to rethink over his life by retiring from evil, and spends the rest of the day with Vanessa, Norm, and Perry.
- The Last Title: "Last Day of Summer" is the subtitle, with emphasis on the word "last".
- List Song: The final song has the kids mentioning some of the adventures they had.
- Literal Metaphor: When Buford says he has "some notes" on Phineas and Ferb's ultimate ride, Phineas says "Back to the drawing board!" Ferb then pushes a button that turns their enormous structure into an actual drawing board with a blank blueprint on it.
- Minimalist Cast: This episode focuses mainly on the main protagonists, which is why characters like Stacy, Jeremy, and Irving don't appear. The only semi-recurring characters to appear are Roger and his secretary, Melanie. Carl and the Fireside Girls don't even appear until the final song.
- My God, What Have I Done?: Candace is horrified when Phineas and Ferb are pulled out of existence, and even moreso when she learns the time loop is becoming smaller, to the point where all existence will eventually vanish.
- Doofenshmirtz gets into this when he realizes that even with his machine gone, the rifts are still erasing things from existence and that the time loops are becoming smaller that would endanger the space-time continuum.
- Nap Inducing Speech: Buford gets annoyed upon hearing Baljeet explain ripples in the space-time continuum.Buford: Oh, PLEASE stop talking!
- No Fourth Wall: The song "Curtain Call/Time Spent Together" breaks the fourth wall in various ways. The characters acknowledge events that occurred in the series that they normally would not know about, such as the events of "Phineas and Ferb Get Busted", "Across the 2nd Dimension","Night of the Living Pharmacists" and "Act Your Age". Isabella is surprised by the last part. The song also has the characters singing to the audience, thanking them for watching. At the end of the song, Phineas waves goodbye to the audience before closing the door. During the song, Phineas also mentions that "Unfair Science Fair" has "two parts".
- Non Sequitur: When Doofenshmirtz is talking about how Vanessa is going to move out and live at Charlene's house full-time, Norm randomly says "I like pancakes!"
- "Pan Up to the Sky" Ending: Done just before the final musical number.
- Prove I Am Not Bluffing: Having succeeded in becoming Tri-Governor, Doofenshmirtz revealed to Perry that he just drafted a new law declaring it illegal for anyone to thwart the Tri-Governor until his term is over, and that it's been declared legal. Doof even showed Perry the legislation paper to prove his point, leaving Perry very depressed.
- Race Against the Clock: At the climax, Candace is stuck in a loop where she and her friends return the Do-Overinator to the timeline, only for it to be too far away to reach before the loop point, which is becoming shorter and shorter by the loop, while Doofenshmirtz has completed the Time-Straighten-Outinator, but wastes valuable time being Mr. Exposition.
- "The Reason You Suck" Speech: Vanessa gives one to Doofenshmirtz after his becoming the Tri-State governor fails to convince her that he's a "successful" villain. Granted, it's less about tearing Doofensmirtz down and more about convincing him that he's better than he thinks he is, but Vanessa does make the point that his "evil" is more an obligation to his "tragic" backstory than actually being evil.
- Recycled Animation: Some animation of Phineas and Ferb and Isabella playing their instruments is reused from "Phineas And Ferb Save Summer"
- Recycled Soundtrack: When Isabella sees Phineas and regains her memories of him, the background is the same as "Act Your Age" from when the two had The Big Damn Kiss.
- Regained Memories Sequence: Zig-zagged. Isabella and Baljeet regain their memories of Phineas and spoons when they are sucked into the alternate dimension. Buford expects it to happen to him with oranges, but it doesn't.
- Ret-Gone: A secondary effect of the -inator is that spacetime rips absorb things and living beings, after which everybody (save for Candace and Doofenshmirtz) forgets they exist. This includes Phineas and Ferb.
- Riddle for the Ages: "But we're still baffled by the Giant Floating Baby Head."
- Sequel Hook: Vanessa got an internship at OWCA, and at the end, she tells her father that OWCA was searching for a few good animals. Since Doof was raised by ocelots, that makes him a good candidate. This is followed up with in "The OWCA Files" with Doof being a new recruit, but Vanessa is not shown interning and instead, Carl is still seen working there despite supposedly having left for college.
- Series Fauxnale: As the title states, it's the last day of summer which was the season the series was set in, and thus the final episode. However, it became a Fauxnale when the series was renewed for two additional seasons in 2022.
- Shout-Out: "You there, boy! What day is this?"
- Spotlight-Stealing Squad: Despite being the Series Finale, the episode is more focused on Candace and Doofenshmirtz. Somewhat justified in that the previous episode tied up Phineas and Isabella's plot line as well as that of most of the other main characters, with the exception of Candace and Doofenshmirtz — the latter of whom was revealed to have had a Heel–Face Turn, which we see here.
- Strange Minds Think Alike: When Baljeet realizes the loop point is becoming shorter, he uses a hook and a piece of paper to explain it to his friends. Later on, Doofenshmirtz says he'd use those things to explain if he had them.
- Subverted Catchphrase: When Isabella finally remembers Phineas, she simply says, "Hey, Phineas!" but she does not say the other two words of that catchphrase.note
- Tempting Fate: When Doofenshmirtz's plan to become Tri-Governor works, he decides to deactivate the Do-Over-inator to prevent it from undoing his victory but it gets sucked out of the timeline before he has a chance to. Doof then hopes that the inator won't be able to cause time loops where it is. Cue the next time loop.
- Thanking the Viewer: The song "Curtain Call/Time Spent Together" has the characters singing to the audience, thanking them for watching. At the end of the song, Phineas waves goodbye to the audience before closing the door.
- Then Let Me Be Evil: Vanessa points out that Doofenshmmirtz indulges in his evil schemes only because he feels obligated to do so by his horrendously difficult childhood.
- Those Two Guys: Buford and Isabella fill this role in between P&F disappearing and everyone else being sucked into the alternate dimension. (Normally, Buford and Baljeet fill these roles.)
- Throw the Dog a Bone: Doofenshmirtz finally gets one by taking over the Tri-State Area and usurping his brother, right before he reconciles with Vanessa during the time loops, and even thinks he saved the day (it was really Candace since the -inator to fix the loops wasn't plugged in, but Perry never reveals this to him).
- Writers Cannot Do Math: Cosinus equal to 17 is by definition an impossible result.
- Yank the Dog's Chain: Doofenshmirtz finally takes over the Tri-State-Area, but his victory becomes moot when the Do-Over-inator undoes it. However, Doofensmirtz has had his Heel–Face Turn and reconciled with Vanessa, so he doesn't really care.
- You Are Too Late: Doof gave one to Perry as he signed a law forbidding any O.W.C.A. agent to thwart him until his term as Tri-Governor is over, which left Perry extremely depressed.
- Aaron Daniel Jacob: It's just about the time we spent together,
It's just about the time we spent together...
With you.
