Everwhen
Directed By: Josh Ornelas
Written By: Jason Weight
Written By: Jason Weight
After jumping into the Everwhen, Donut travels back along his own personal timeline to try and convince the other Reds and Blues of what's going on. Unfortunately, his efforts are less than successful.
- Note: This episode's tagline is "Donut discovers what an innuendo is."
This episode has examples of:
- Ambiguously Bi: Donut's near-constant innuendoes and absurdly camp personality have all but confirmed that he's Camp Gay, but this episode establishes that he also thinks that Chrovos' new female "Vengeance" form is "sexy".
- Arbitrary Skepticism: Discussed; Season 3-Grif actually muses that Season 17-Donut's utterly insane-sounding ideas regarding time travel are credible to him since (from their perspective) they'd just been blown into the future via a malfunctioning bomb.
- Bad Liar: Chrovos' desperate attempts to persuade Donut to not go to the period of time after the paradox are hilariously terrible, coming complete with her bursting into nervous laughter and talking way too fast to come across as convincing.
- Bond Villain Stupidity: After Donut's initial attempts at fixing everything via the Everwhen fail, Chrovos proceeds to mock him, explaining how the paradox will soon set her free due to causing chaos to occur backwards from it. Donut quickly realizes the significance of her word choice, and takes the time gun to go find Wash in the present.
- Butt-Monkey:
- Poor Donut goes through a wringer in this episode.
- Doc also falls into this, with him even halfheartedly grumbling over Season 17-Donut first interrupting and then monopolizing the conversation he was having with the other Reds and Blues during the events of Season 15.
- Cassandra Truth: No one believes Donut's attempts to warn them about Chrovos.
- Character Development: This episode has Donut finally realizing his habit of spouting Innocent Innuendoes has made him a No-Respect Guy and Butt-Monkey, and so he actively tries to avoid them to come across as more serious and worthy of being listened to. He's also becoming a cleverer person and less of The Ditz, such as quickly figuring out his need to go to the point in time beyond the paradox to find Wash and fix the whole mess.
- Comedic Sociopathy: Donut getting shot by Wash becomes a Running Gag starting in this episode, and it's established to hurt a lot every time Donut accidentally flashes back to it.
- Continuity Cavalcade: Donut travels back to the events of the Recreation finale "Think You Know Someone", Season 15's "Rigged", Season 10's "Reckless", and Season 3's "Make Your Time". There's also flashbacks to Caboose's time in Valhalla from during Recreation, Lopez 2.0 taking control of C.C. in Season 11's "Ready... Aim...", and Wash growing a beard from Season 15's "Previously On".
- Distinction Without a Difference: Donut laments about how Chrovos will soon get free and destroy everything. Chrovos then politely corrects him that she will actually "unmake" everything.
- Easily Forgiven: Hilariously lampshaded; Donut angrily complains to the Reds and Blues during the events of Season 10 about how unfair it is that he's still a No-Respect Guy while Wash is basically treated as The Leader despite being the guy who'd previously shot and nearly killed him.
- Everyone Has Standards: Played for Laughs; for all his own habits of spouting Double Entendres, Tucker refuses to listen to whatever Donut has to say because he's sick of constantly hearing Donut's innuendoes and "values his time".
- "Eureka!" Moment: Donut catches onto Chrovos' word choice and realizes the need to travel to after the paradox happened to find Wash and figure out a way to outsmart the Titan.
- Failed Attempt at Drama: Lampshaded by Season 10-Sarge, who complains that Season 17-Donut has taken all the wind out of the sails for his epic Rousing Speech to go and save Carolina and Epsilon-Church.
- Faux Affably Evil: Donut lampshades this tendency of Chrovos, complaining that he'd wish she'd stop being "fake nice to me".
- Foreshadowing: Chrovos claims to Donut in this episode that she's so old "It's a wonder I remember my own name!" Her incredible age and (comparatively) weaker memory explains why she can't remember her previous identity of Genkins.
- Hidden Depths: This episode reveals that Sarge is a fan of the works of Neil Gaiman. Grif and Simmons are appropriately surprised.
- Hypocritical Humor: This episode has Tucker proclaiming that he's sick of Donut's innuendos and refuses to listen to them, saying that he "values his time". Keep in mind that is coming from Tucker, a.k.a. the king of Double Entendres.
- Internal Deconstruction: While the Running Gag of Donut spewing Double Entendres is still Played for Laughs to an extent, this episode also deconstructs it by showing that it's genuinely unintentional on Donut's part, and his constant habit of doing so has contributed to the rest of the Blood Gulch Crew being unable to take him seriously. And now, when Donut is the Only Sane Man and vital for helping save the universe from Chrovos and Genkins, his status as a No-Respect Guy is making his efforts to convince everyone almost worse-than-useless.
- Jerkass Has a Point: After reliving literally every sentence he's ever said, Donut concedes that Tucker was right and he really does use way too many innuendoes in his speech.
- Leaning on the Fourth Wall:
- After exploding at Wash in Season 10, Donut awkwardly comments that it's "been a weird three minutes". Roughly three minutes have passed in terms of this episode's runtime from Donut getting shot by Wash to his above comment.
- This entire episode is basically about Donut finally realizing that he's the Plucky Comic Relief and No-Respect Guy Butt-Monkey among the Reds and Blues. Much like the audience prior to the previous season, basically none of the series' characters take Donut seriously since Donut was never really written to be a serious character up until incredibly recently.
- Let Us Never Speak of This Again: When Donut brings up having been shot by Wash after traveling back in time to Season 10, Wash laughs nervously before trying to deflect the conversation as much as possible.
- Major Injury Underreaction: Once Donut's finally in another memory that doesn't involve being shot by Wash, the below exchange happens. Admittedly, there isn't any actual injury — it's just that Donut is still feeling the pain from getting shot by Wash and wasn't able to come up with a good excuse for Doc fast enough.Season 15-Doc: Donut? You okay?
Season 17-Donut: Just... a little... hemorrhage! (moans in pain)
Season 15-Doc: You have internal bleeding?!
Season 17-Donut: Blood's meant to be internal, right? So no biggie!
Season 15-Doc: There's no bigger biggie! This is the biggest biggie that ever bigged! - Mood Whiplash: Donut's first attempt at time travel within the Everwhen being him getting shot by Wash is initially a genuinely shocking and horrifying moment... but it almost-immediately dives into hilariously dark Black Comedy when Donut keeps accidentally sending himself back to this same moment multiple times.
- Mythology Gag: Simmons complains that Donut's "Everwhen" term "sounds like a Pearl Jam album". This was actually the same reasoning
used by Jason Weight (the season's primary writer) for not using "Everwhen" as the season's overall title. - Nice Job Breaking It, Hero: As Chrovos rather cheerfully notes, the failed attempts Donut made at waking up the other Reds and Blues within the Everwhen in this episode only succeed in creating more Alternate Timelines, further hastening her release.
- Nice Job Fixing It, Villain: Chrovos inadvertently gives Donut the idea to find Wash in the period of time after the paradox, stopping him from giving up and making sure he can still impair her escape.
- No-Respect Guy: Donut's status as this among the Blood Gulch Crew is really underlined in this episode, with Season 15-Tucker even telling him that since he values his time, he's not going to listen to whatever ridiculous innuendoes Donut's going to be spouting.
- Not Helping Your Case:
- Immediately following Donut claiming that he doesn't get what Tucker's saying about Donut's habit of speaking in too many innuendoes, he says "Guys, we are inching towards an explosive climax!" Tucker even lampshades this, exasperatedly noting "That, that is what I mean!"
- Overlapping with Lame Comeback; Donut grumpily tells Chrovos that he didn't come right back to her after he "fled" from Season 3's "time travel pageant" scene... he instead "got shot by Wash a couple more times".
- Oh, Crap!: Chrovos immediately starts to panic as soon as she realizes that she had accidentally given Donut the idea to travel forward in time to after the paradox and find Wash.
- Old Shame: Lampshaded In-Universe; Wash clearly doesn't like talking about the time when he shot Donut and Lopez. When Donut angrily brings it up in Season 10, Wash's response is to laugh nervously while looking back and forth before stammering out "Heh, that, that was a long time ago!"
- Overly Long Gag: The opening of the episode has Donut dramatically screaming in fear as he falls through the Everwhen... for a good thirty seconds.
- Rule of Three: Ignoring the times when he's getting shot by Wash, in this episode Donut travels to three different points along his own timeline to try and convince the Reds and Blues of the truth.
- Running Gag:
- Starting in this episode, poor Donut seems to be cursed to keep winding up right back at the moment where Wash shot him.
- Also starting in this episode, whenever someone says "Everwhen" (Donut's name for the "soft time" singularity everyone is reliving), an eagle's cry can be heard in the background.
- Saying Too Much: Chrovos accidentally lets it slip to Donut that only the part of the timeline prior to the paradox has become the Everwhen.
- "Shaggy Dog" Story: None of Donut's attempts to convince the other Reds and Blues about Chrovos work. The most "tragic" one is easily the Season 3 instance, since Grif is actually on the verge of legitimately believing Donut until Sarge and Simmons ward him off.
- Shout-Out:
- Along with the Pearl Jam comment above regarding "Everwhen", Sarge remarks that the term sounds similar to "a Neil Gaiman novel" (specifically, Neverwhere).
- When Sarge is telling Donut to shut up during the latter's last attempt at explaining the Everwhen, Sarge is singing the phrase "Shut shut shut, up up up!" to the tune of "Blue Skidoo".
- Strange Minds Think Alike: Simmons and Sarge both agree with Chrovos (albeit unintentionally) that "Everwhen" is a terrible name.
- This Is Gonna Suck: When Donut is starting to spout off his explanation regarding time travel and Chrovos in Season 3's "time travel pageant" scene, an exasperated Sarge mutters "Lord above" under his breath.
- Time Abyss: Deconstructed by Chrovos, who briefly gives a Motive Rant to Donut where she talks about how she's a Talkative Loon because she's spent literal eons without any form of contact and is almost deliriously happy over the fact that for once, something is finally happening.
- Wham Line: Below is the moment where Donut realizes what his plan of attack should be:Chrovos: Time became chaos from the second the paradox was created, backwards.
Donut: And... after that?
