The one where it all ended
The three-part Grand Finale in which the fate of the universe is decided in a final battle between Pops and his Evil Twin brother.This page contains unmarked spoilers.
Tropes:
- And the Adventure Continues: During the Park reunion, an older and reunited Mordecai and Rigby go to see if the old video games from "Just Set Up the Chairs" are still in the shed. Knowing this show, more wacky shenanigans are bound to ensue.
- Animation Bump:
- The scene where Anti-Pops powers up and Pops hugs him is animated much more dramatically than the rest of the episode.
- The third part starts with the first few minutes of the first episode, "Power", which highlights the differences the show has gone through in eight seasons.
- Attack of the 50-Foot Whatever:
- Benson, Skips, Eileen, the Baby Ducks, Gary, Party Horse, the Guardians of Eternal Youth, and Carter and Briggs all fuse into one gigantic being to help combat Anti-Pops.
- Both Pops and Anti-Pops become bigger than a planet when battling.
- Apocalypse How: Anti-Pops wants to erase the entire universe, making it a Class X-4.
- Babies Ever After: Muscle Man comes home to discover his wife gave birth to a daughter in his three years of absence. By the Distant Finale, he's a grandfather while all the park crew have children, except Skips (who seemingly remains out of the dating game because no one can replace Desdemona) and Benson (he and his wife instead raise animals).
- Back for the Finale: The Baby Ducks, Carter and Briggs, the Guardians of Eternal Youth, Gary, Death, Party Horse, HD DVD, Blu-Ray, Chance Sureshot, Toothpick Sally, and Recap Robot all come to the aid of the Park Crew in the final battle, with Streaming coming to the aid of Anti-Pops and the Baby Ducks' older brother making a cameo. Margaret, Mordecai's parents, Rigby's parents, Don, Starla, Pam, Celia, Techmo, Del Hanlon, Apple Sauce, and Mr. Maellard all come back in the epilogue after sitting the rest of the season out.
- Back from the Dead: Everyone except Mordecai, Rigby, Pops, and Anti-Pops is erased from existence, but are all restored when Pops finally defeats Anti-Pops for good.
- Back to the Early Installment: The last of the three part finale has the universe initially reset to the first episode of the series "The Power", it starts off exactly as that episode begins until halfway through the opening moments, Rigby realizes they've done it all before and what has happened. Eventually he managed to restore Mordecai's memories and they use The Power to go back to the fight between Pops and Anti-Pops. Also during the said fight Pops somehow gets flung back to the student film that first features him before making his way back to the battle.
- Bait-and-Switch: The third and final part is named after "The Power", the first episode of the show, and it starts off in the exact same way as that episode. The viewer might think that there was a mistake in the broadcasting schedule until a minute in, when Rigby realizes they've done this before.
- The Big Damn Kiss: Rigby and Eileen share one upon returning to Earth.
- Big "NO!":
- Pops when he sees Anti-Pops erase Muscle Man and Fives.
- Anti-Pops gets two. The first one when Pops' hug weakens his negative energy with Pops' brotherly love, the second moments later when he realizes what Pops is intending to do.
- Bittersweet Ending: Pops manages to stop Anti-Pops but at the cost of his life to stop the cycle. The Park Crew are brought back from being erased and finally return home after spending three years in space. Families and loved ones are reunited, but the crew likewise have to inform Mr. Mallerd of Pop's sacrifice when they return. Pops is given a statue in the middle of the park honoring him and the crew soon all go their separate ways to either pursue other ventures, start families or continue working in the park. When they reunite 25 years later, Mr Mallerd is revealed to have passed on as well. Indeed while the characters lead happy lives, they never forget that it was thanks to Pops that allowed them to have it.
- Bookends: The final part is titled "The Power", the name of the first episode of the series.
- Breaking the Fourth Wall: As reality begins to fall apart, Pops flies through the show's title, Rigby becomes a post-it note test animation, and Mordecai is in a storyboard panel.
- But Now I Must Go: After the Park returns to Earth, Mordecai and Rigby leave their jobs and go their separate ways, Mordecai to pursue a career in art, and Rigby to raise a family with Eileen. Muscle Man and HFG also presumably quit their jobs off-screen. Only Skips and Benson stay behind.
- Call-Back: In the montage, High Five Ghost and Celia are performing at Prague - the city Celia went to study at for four years.
- Pops remembers the Seer's statement that "Sometimes doing something different makes all the difference" shortly before his Heroic Sacrifice.
- Chekhov's Boomerang: 'The Power' from the very first episode. When Mordecai and Rigby realize that they're the first in a resetting universe to reawaken, they use the Power to get back to the fight between Pops and Anti-Pops.
- Chekhov's Gun:
- The Blu-Ray collection the gang buried in the park in the episode before helps Mordecai remember the entire series up to this point.
- Pops saves the universe by giving his brother sugar.
- Cloning Gambit: Chance Sureshot returns after his Heroic Sacrifice, thanks to having backup clones, one of which is actually a good shot.
- The Constant:
- Skips in the Distant Finale, as he is shown to be the only employee who still works for Benson at the Park.
- Lolliand is this as well. While the rest of the universe always resets itself during the cycle, Lolliland always goes unchanged, so as to keep record of the battles between Pops and Anti-Pops.
- Cooldown Hug: Pops defeats Anti-Pops by giving him what he needed the most: a hug.
- Dance Battler: While taking control over the mecha, Party Horse managed to land some kicks to Online Streaming using a break dancing spin.
- Death by Irony: A Running Gag was that Anti-Pops would always give every service a one-star rating. He ends up being killed by one star.
- Did Not Get the Girl: Zig-Zagged. Mordecai never ends up with either Margaret or CJ (the latter of whom doesn't appear at all) but rather Stef, a bat woman (and fellow artist) he meets at one of his art showcases.
- Died Happily Ever After: Pops dies saving the universe, even insisting that makes for a "happy ending", and is remembered fondly by his friends and everyone else. The last shot of the series is him viewing the rest of his friends' lives from Fluffy Cloud Heaven.
- Disney Death: Most of the cast, except Pops, Anti-Pops, Mordecai, and Rigby get erased from existence during the fight. However, as Pops makes his Heroic Sacrifice, they come back.
- Distant Finale: After the final battle ends, the Park returns to Earth months after the other parks and three years after they left. We then see them progress through 25 years of their lives before the last scene takes place at a 25 year reunion.
- Earn Your Happy Ending: Boy do they ever!
- Eternal Recurrence: Subverted. As established in previous episodes, Pops and Anti-Pops have always fought every 14 billion years, and their fights always end in a draw that resets the universe. However, Pops finally manages to break the cycle by hurling himself and his brother into a nearby star.
- Family Man: The "Where Are They Now?" Epilogue only shows Rigby and Muscle Man with their wives and children instead of their future careers, suggesting both consider raising their respective families their highest priority. It's implied Mordecai does so as well though it cuts to the reunion before we see him interacting with his kids.
- The Fellowship Has Ended: Some time after Pops' funeral, the Park's crew besides Benson and Skips leave to take their lives elsewhere: Mordecai finally pursues his dream of being an artist, Rigby moves in with Eileen, High-Five Ghost becomes a DJ, and Muscle Man raises a family with Starla. It's not clear how often they saw each other until the reunion 25 years later.
- Final Battle: It's in the title. Pops, the Park Gang, and a lot of allies vs Anti-Pops, his minions, and Streaming. It's as epic as it sounds.
- Final Boss: Anti-Pops is this for the series as a whole.
- Glasses of Aging: After the Time Skip, Mordecai is wearing glasses (as well as a beard).
- Good Hurts Evil: How Pops manages to defeat Anti-Pops: instead of fighting him, he hugs him with genuine, brotherly love, which cancels out his negative energy and weakens him enough for Pops' Heroic Sacrifice.
- Grand Finale: This is the culmination of everything that has transpired over the past eight seasons series.
- Heel Realization: Pops' Care-Bear Stare seems to cause Anti-Pops to regret some of his actions—at the very least all the one-star reviews—in the moments before his death.
- Heroic Sacrifice: Pops sacrifices himself by hurling himself and Anti-Pops into a star, ending their cycle of fighting and saving the entire universe.
- Hope Spot: The gang decide to lay down traps to stop Anti-Pops before he and Pops can fight. The traps bury him under rubble, burn, and even hit him with a train. But despite all that, Anti-Pops simply gets up and says "That tickled".
- Hurl It into the Sun: Pops kills Anti-Pops, and himself, by restraining Anti-Pops with a hug and allowing both to fall into a star.
- I Lied: Anti-Pops makes a deal that if Pops can knock him down, he will leave everything alone. Pops eventually does knock Anti-Pops down, but Anti-Pops goes back on his deal, saying that "a deal is only as good as the one who makes it."
- Killed Off for Real: See Heroic Sacrifice. It's even confirmed in the epilogue where Pops is watching a VHS of the series from the afterlife. Mr. Maellard also dies as well, albeit of old age.
- Killed Offscreen: Mr. Maellard dies in between the crew's return to Earth and the reunion scene 25 years later.
- Last Episode, New Character: We finally see Lolliland, and are introduced to Frivola-Kranus, Quadravi-Kranus, and Weird Mushroom Guy, as well as the Guardian of Lolliland, who has been observing and recording the fights between Pops and Anti-Pops for eons.
- Leaning on the Fourth Wall: The final line of the series is both Pops' Character Catchphrase ("Jolly good show.") and End-of-Series Awareness.
- Moving-Away Ending: Mordecai and Rigby move out of the park following the climax. It's unclear if the rest of the Park crew (sans Skips and Benson) decided to move further away from the Park after (presumably) quitting their jobs, though HFG and Celia are seen DJing in Prague and Skips is seen running his own auto shop on the side.
- Mythology Gag:
- The three Loliland beings the crew meet (Frivola-Kranus, Quadravi-Kranus, and Weird Mushroom Guy) were actually prototype designs for Pops before JG settled on his current one.
- Towards the end, Pops is thrown into 'The Naive Man From Lolliland' - one of the two student films made by J.G. Quintel, whose protagonist was a proto-Pops.
- Mordecai wishes he could reincarnate as a dolphin after Pops makes his sacrifice to throw Anti-Pops into the sun, which references his prototype origins in '2 in the AM PM'.
- No-Sell: The Park Crew try to pre-emptively take out Anti-Pops with traps when the fight begins. Despite hitting him with a variety of things, including a train. It doesn't do anything to him with Anti-Pops commenting that it tickled.
- One-Winged Angel: After Pops knocks Anti-Pops off the platform they're fighting on, he rises back up as a demonic giant. Pops transforms into a giant form as well after Muscle Man is erased.
- Outliving One's Offspring: Mr. Maellard's death comes many years after his adopted son Pops'.
- Power Nullifier: Instead of trying to overcome Anti-Pops with brute force, restarting the universe in the process, Pops instead uses his equal and opposite power to cancel out both of their Physical Godhoods long enough for them to both die by crashing into a star.
- Psycho Rangers: Anti-Pops has a group like this to aid him in the final battle.
- Ridiculously Successful Future Self:
- Mordecai goes from a slacker sitting on his brief experience from art school to a painter with his own exhibit.
- High Five Ghost and Celia form a DJ Creator Couple who get their own European tour.
- Reset Button Ending: Taken to its logical extreme here. Part 2 ends with the universe resetting to the beginning of the series, except since Mordecai and Rigby interfered with the battle, the timeline got screwed up, allowing them to retain their memories of the events and time travel back to the fight.
- Ripple-Effect-Proof Memory: The Guardian of Lolliland is subject to this, as her purpose is to observe and record every battle between Pops and Anti-Pops' incarnations. Rigby also has some level of this, as he quickly remembers that events are repeating before finding the Blu-Ray boxset of everyone's memories.
- Satellite Love Interest: The bat woman that Mordecai ends up marrying is only really known as such. Since she only appears in the montage, we never learn anything (even her namenote [1]
) about her beyond the fact she's also an artist (implied by the fact she was also signing autographs there in the museum.) - Sheathe Your Sword: Pops finally defeats Anti-Pops and ends their universe destroying cycle when he stops fighting and instead hugs Anti-Pops, weakening him with his positive energy enough to restrain him and make him cower while both of them to fall into a star.
- Ship Sinking: In the end, Mordecai ends up with neither Margaret nor CJ.
- Shout-Out:
- One of the tapestries shows Pops and Anti-Pops in an kamehameha beam struggle.
- Pop's powering up after watching Muscle Man and Hi-Five Ghost's deaths is similar to Gohan going Super Saiyan 2 after Cell killed Android 16.
- The Distant Finale montage plays out to an apt (and unironic) performance of "Heroes".
- Similar Squad: During the montage, we see Benson and Skips alongside new coworkers, who visually resemble Mordecai, Rigby, Muscle Man, and Hi-Five Ghost.
- Small Parent, Huge Child: In the future, the short Rigby and Eileen have two tall daughters. They likely take after their tall grandparents and uncle Don.
- So Proud of You: When Rigby returns to Earth, his father is visibly proud of him for once.
- Taking You with Me: Realizing that if they fight, they'll destroy the universe, Pops hugs and weakens Anti-Pops before hanging on as both fly into a star and die.Anti-Pops: This can't work Pops! The minute you let me go, I'm going to blast you into nothing!
Pops: I know, so I'm not going to let go... - Third-Option Love Interest: Stef, the bat woman Mordecai ends up with.
- Time-Passage Beard: Mordecai and Rigby have a full beard and a mustache, respectively, at the reunion, while High Five Ghost is shown with a goatee during the montage. Benson showed some stubble during the montage as well, though he shaved it off by the reunion.
- Time Skip: After the fate of the universe is decided, the Park Crew finally returns to Earth three years after they left. And then 25 years pass between that and the reunion.
- Took a Level in Kindness: Implied with Benson. When we see him in the "Where Are They Now?" Epilogue giving morning announcements to his new employees plus Skips, he is noticeably more happy and cheerful about it than he usually is. His marriage to Pam most likely had something to do with it.
- Transformation Is a Free Action: Parodied. During the mecha's Transformation Sequence, one of Anti-Pops' mooks asks if they should attack during the transformation, and another says "no, I want to see what their final form is."
- Villain Team-Up: Wanting revenge on the Park Crew for the events of 'Meet the Seer', Online Streaming comes to the final battle to lend Anti-Pops a hand.
- The Voiceless: Any of the characters that appear in the epilogue when the characters return to Earth. The Similar Squad, the bat woman that Mordecai ends up with, and the children of Mordecai, Rigby, Muscle Man, and High Five Ghost are this and No Name Given.
- The Watcher: The Guardian of Lolliland, who is supposed to stay impartial as she witnesses the battle between Pops and Anti-Pops. However, when Muscle Man asks for help, she decides to join in the fight anyway.
- What Happened to the Mouse?:
- Despite having a major role in seasons five and six, CJ is completely absent, not even showing up to welcome Eileen back like Margaret does. Due to the events of said seasonsnote , Word of God revealed CJ cut all ties with the gang and went her own way.
- It's not specified if Earl or anyone else Anti-Pops erased came Back from the Dead like the ones present for the battle.
- Thomas is even absent during Pops' funeral. However, as "Guys Night 2" showed, this is likely because Thomas is still on the run for committing treason (and he now lives in a submarine in international waters).
- Despite having a major role in seasons five and six, CJ is completely absent, not even showing up to welcome Eileen back like Margaret does. Due to the events of said seasonsnote , Word of God revealed
- "Where Are They Now?" Epilogue: We see what becomes of the crew after the final battle and their return to Earth. Mordecai leaves the Park to become a successful artist and starts a family with a fellow artistnote , Rigby and Eileen get married and have kids, Muscle Man and Starla continue to raise their family (it's not known if he still works at the park, but it can be assumed that he doesn't, since Benson hired new workers, except for Skips) with him even becoming a grandfather by the 25 years reunion, High Five Ghost becomes a successful DJ and is happy with Celia while even having a child with her, Benson hooks up with Pam and continues to manage the Park, and Skips continues to work at the Park alongside its changing crew.
- World-Wrecking Wave: Giant Pops and Anti-Pops' Punch Parry restarts the entire universe outside of Lolliland. Mordecai and Rigby's interference putting a ship between them causes an imperfect restart that goes back to the first episode.
- You Have GOT to Be Kidding Me!: Benson is very displeased that the Combining Mecha the Baby Ducks make of most of the heroes, instead of making him a pilot, mounts his head on top like some kind of ball-bearing.Benson: Oh, come on!
- You Fool!: Anti-Pops calls Pops this when he sees Pops is about to let both of them fly into a star, since that would kill them both.
- Jolly good show.
