History Recap / RedDwarfSeasonVBackToReality

* HilariousInHindsight:
-->'''Lister:''' This is a very ''very'' bad dream, right?

The former boys are more than a little dubious about all of this, and concerned since their memories aren't returning, but they're quickly shuffled off to a nearby lounge, to try and figure things out while a new bunch of players take their place. Red Dwarf's a popular game, after all. In the lounge, they quickly learn their identities: The Cat is actually a sad, unfortunate nerd called ''Duane Dibley'', Kryten is actually a cop named Jake Bullet, working in Cybernautics, Lister is an affluent man called Sebastian Doyle, and Rimmer is his destitute half-brother William.

** Lister is told his ultimate objective in the game was to wind up with [[TheLostLenore Kochanski]] in an epic romance story. Then he's told he's the head of the secret police for a totalitarian government.

* OffsceenMomentOfAwesome: While the Boyz were trapped in the hallucination, Holly killed the Despair Squid with limpet mines.

As for the Despair Squid, Holly took care of it while the boys were out. ("Limpet mines. There's enough fried calamari out there to feed the whole of Italy.") With that done, and no reason to stick around, Starbug heads back to Red Dwarf.

* MundaneSolution: Andy claims that the Despair Squid could only be defeated by the guns on the science ship, which would have required some quick lateral thinking on the part of the Boyz. Holly took it out limpet mines instead.
-->'''Holly''': There’s enough fried calamari out there to feed the whole of Italy!

* PsychologicalTormentZone: What the Despair Squid's ink causes in a full on dose. The hallucination is shared, but hits each victim in a way designed to utterly destroy them.
** Rimmer is first told he wasn't supposed to be the total prat he usually is, that was a deep cover identity which most players of "Red Dwarf" quickly suss out. Then he's robbed of any ability to blame his parents and upbringing for his crappy station in life by being the half-brother of the successful and rich Sebastian Doyle.

On an expedition to an ocean moon, the boys from the Dwarf find something alarming: Not only is there an abandoned Space Corp Seeding Ship filled with corpses, everyone and every''being'' on-board has committed suicide. It's not long before Lister, Kryten and the Cat find themselves coming down with crippling depression. Rimmer, back on Starbug, has worse news: Something, the thing responsible for all the suicides, a gigantic squid monster, is coming for them.

* DespairEventHorizon: The end result of the Despair Squid's toxin. It works on men, cats, holograms, droids and even ''fish''.
* EpicFail: The hallucination claims the boys had accomplished a grand total of ''four'' percent playing Red Dwarf. Not to mention Rimmer was supposed to find out early on he was actually a top-flight badass meant to guide Lister to his ultimate destiny, rather than be the smeghead he usually is.

* ARareSentence: Upon encountering a haddock-like fish species that appears to have "voluntarily closed its own gills", Lister raises a pertinent question, only to then quickly realise it's a question that isn't asked every day.
--> '''Lister:''' Why would a haddock kill itself? ...Why am I even asking that question.

* SimulatedFantasyPostApocalypticReality: Already set in the series' post-apocalyptic universe, the episode is set on an ocean world where the Despair Squid has wiped out all life on the planet, including the researchers who were testing the enhanced evolution in the first place. The Boys From The Dwarf soon discover that the squid's ink is a hallucinogen so powerful that it plunges them into a shared dream designed to attack their self-esteem and [[DrivenToSuicide drive them to suicidal despair]]. Ironically, this particular delusion begins with them waking up to find that their experiences on Red Dwarf were just a four-year-long VR gaming experience.

* ARareSentence: Upon encountering a haddock-like fish species that appears to have "voluntarily closed it's own gills", Lister raises a pertinent question, only to then quickly realise it's a question that isn't asked every day.

* ArsonMurderAndJaywalking: Rimmer despairs that he's on the run from the fascist police with a murderer, a mass-murderer and a man in a bry-nylon shirt.

* {{Irony}}: In his fantasy, Rimmer is Lister's half brother ("same mother").[[spoiler: As revealed in "[[Recap/RedDwarfSeasonXTheBeginning The Beginning]]" and material that's AllThereInTheManual, John Frank and Howard are only half brothers to him too, again [[ReallyGetsAround same mother]]. And the man they call 'Father'? He didn't father ''any'' of the them.]]

Fortunately, Holly manages to get a signal to Kryten, getting him to open up an emergency extinguisher, actually releasing a mood stabilizer into the ship. Before the crew can actually kill one another, they snap out of it. Turns out the Squid's toxin was responsible, pushing them into trying to kill themselves via sheer despondency, via subverting their natural traits. Cat, via his mind-melting shallowness, Rimmer by removing his ability to blame his parents for his crappy life, Lister by convincing him that he's a mass-murderer for a totalitarian state, and Kryten via his guilt.

Suddenly, things snap back to Starbug, where the four really are, stuck in a group hallucination, despite Holly's best efforts. In their fantasy, the group flee, "pursued" by the agents of the fascist government. They wind up in an alley, each despondent at their apparent lot in life, Kryten still massively overwhelmed by killing a human. At Duane Dibley's suggestion, they all decide to kill one another...

Fortunately, Holly manages to get a signal to Kryten, getting him to open up an emergency extinguisher. Before the crew can actually kill one another, they snap out of it. Turns out the Squid's toxin was responsible, pushing them into trying to kill themselves via sheer despondency, via subverting their natural traits. Cat, via his mind-melting shallowness, Rimmer by removing his ability to blame his parents for his crappy life, Lister by convincing him that he's a mass-murderer for a totalitarian state, and Kryten via his guilt.

** Lister is told his ultimate objective in the game was to wind up with [[TheLostLenore Kochanski]] in an epic romance story. Then he's told he's a mass murderer for a totalitarian government.

* OopNorth: In addition to Lister, we have Creator/TimothySpall putting on a Birmingham accent as Andy the Technician.

* FacePalm: Rimmer does this when it's revealed that Jake Bullet is really just a traffic cop.

* NamesToRunAwayFromReallyFast: {{Subverted}} when Kryten tries to sound tough with the name Jake Bullet ... only to discover that his Badass-sounding 'Cybernetics Division' is traffic control.

Fortunately, Holly manages to get a signal to Kryten, getting him to life up an emergency extinguisher. Before the crew can actually kill one another, they snap out of it. Turns out the Squid's toxin was responsible, pushing them into trying to kill themselves via sheer despondency, via subverting their natural traits. Cat, via his mind-melting shallowness, Rimmer by removing his ability to blame his parents for his crappy life, Lister by convincing him that he's a mass-murderer for a totalitarian state, and Kryten via his guilt.

* ArsonMurderAndJaywalking: Rimmer despairs that he's on the run from the fascist police with a murderer, a mass-murderer and a man in a Brie Nidel shirt.

* ARareSentence: Upon encountering a haddock-like fish species that appears to have "voluntarily closed it's own gills", Lister raises a pertinent question, only to then quickly realise it's a question that isn't asked every day.
--> '''Lister:''' Why would a haddock kill itself? ...Why am I even asking that question?