http://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/Recap/SamAndMaxFreelancePoliceEpisode106BrightSideOfTheMoon
Realizing the secret identity of the mastermind behind the
Mass Hypnosis, Sam and Max must go to the moon in order to save the entire world from hypnotic enslavement.
Tropes:
- Adam Smith Hates Your Guts: Bosco's "earthquake maker" will cost you one hundred trillion dollars, which is steep even in comparison to his previous inventions.
- Artificial Stupidity: In-Universe, Tic Tac Doom. The Computer opponent is so incompetent that you have to actively try to lose to advance the plot.
- Back for the Finale: Every single character from the past six episodes that isn't already dead makes a return in this episode, even if they are relegated to minor cameos in the end credits.
- Bait-and-Switch: The "Do You Have Any...?" back and forth with Bosco gets an interesting variation in this episode, where it turns out Bosco has a number of oddly specific items behind the counter which would have been useful in earlier episodes, much to the shock and frustration of Sam and Max (especially Max). He does not, however, have Hugh Bliss tied up behind the counter.
Sam: Hey, I was on a roll!
- Bat Deduction: How Sam figures out that the mysterious "Roy G. Biv" is actually Hugh Bliss.
- Batman Can Breathe in Space: Neither Sam nor Max have any apparatus to let them breathe — not even their "penny conscious moon gear" from the "Bad Day On the Moon" comic/cartoon episode — yet it doesn't seem to bother them. They're even the image for the trope!
- Big "NO!": Sam screams this when Hugh Bliss removes Max of his tail, stomach and paw, making him a chipper blissed out version of himself.
- Can't You Read the Sign?: The downfall of Violent Max. You defeat him by sending him through a roller coaster with a bent spork in the path that lops his shooting hand off at the wrist. Naturally, there is a sign above the roller coaster that warns riders to keep their hands inside the ride at all time under threat of grievous bodily harm. Which Violent Max doesn't read until it's too late.
- Church of Happyology: Prismatology, with Hugh Bliss acting as its de facto cult leader. Turns out to be a Scam Religion created by a hive mind of space bacteria to feed on the happiness of a brainwashed global population.
- Drowning Pit: The "Cleansing Bath of Annihilation" that Hugh traps Sam in. Fortunately, Sam can swap out with Hugh. Bacteria can't drown, but they CAN be pasteurized...
- Embodiment of Vice: When Hugh Bliss decides to "separate [Max's] bliss", he creates clones of Max that represent the sins of Wrath (from Max's violent hand), Gluttony (from Max's stomach), and Sloth (from Max's tail).
- Everything's Better with Rainbows: Hugh Bliss loves rainbows. So much so that he's decorated his entire evil lair with a rainbow motif.
- Faux Affably Evil: Hugh Bliss. He seems nice enough in previous episodes, but that all goes out the window after he separates Max's bliss. Meaning he forcefully removes the "sinful" parts of Max's anatomy, leaving the latter a creepily tranquil shell of his former self. After restoring Max and accidentally hypnotising the world to be like Max, Hugh puts on a deadly magic act with Sam as the victim and Max as the audience, all while still talking like a typical showman.
- Getting Smilies Painted on Your Soul: Max having his bliss "separated" leaves him a spaced-out, perpetually cheerful goody-goody, something Sam finds intolerable.
- Hive Mind: Hugh Bliss turns out to be a spacefaring colony of sentient bacteria that feeds off of the happiness of sentient life.
- Homemade Inventions: Bosco's "Earthquake Maker". AKA the remote control for his Anti-ICBM satellite. Only one of the buttons still works, and pressing the button will cause the satellite to crash. It's needed to get Max's tail back from Slothful Max.
- Hypocrite: Hugh Bliss is also guilty of the sins linked to the parts of Max that he doesn't like:
- Gluttony: His ultimate scheme was to set Earth to permanent forced bliss to gorge on their endorphins forever.
- Wrath: When his plan is foiled by Max taking his place in the Hypnobeam, Hugh sets about torturing Sam with the intent of making Max suffer while he watches helpless.
- Sloth: His ultimate scheme was to use hypnosis to force people happy rather than doing the work to make people happy. Also, so sure of his invulnerability, Hugh makes no effort to stop Sam tampering with his torture devices.
- Kill It with Fire: Hugh Bliss is defeated this way: the excessive amounts of heat from a rocket's engines boils the water he's floating in.
- Knife-Throwing Act: Hugh Bliss' "Wheel of Death" is this minus the throwing knives in spite of Max's requests. Still an unpleasant experience for poor Sam.
- Losing Your Head: Due to Hugh Bliss being a sentient colony of bacteria, Sam has the option to saw his head off, rather than sawing him in half with the magic box.
Sam: I'm becoming quite the expert on decapitation!
- Major Injury Underreaction
- Max seems to be no worse for wear despite the forced removal of his right hand, stomach and tail.
- Justified for Hugh Bliss as he turns out to be a sentient bacteria colony and is thus unable to be harmed by such things as bullets, decapitation and drowning.
- Played straight for Hugh Bliss's death as he's boiled alive. After screams that sound more like he's being tickled, he ends with a weak "Owie."
- Misère Game: The episode has a puzzle where the player needs to help the COPS develop the AI for their game Tic Tac Doom (a ripoff of Tic-Tac-Toe). The problem is that Sam plays the game against Bluster Blaster, who's a terrible tic-tac-toe player. The way to complete the puzzle is to intentionally lose the game against him.
- Monster of the Week: Hugh Bliss, the mastermind behind almost all of season 1, leader of Prismatology, and a hive mind of space bacteria that seeks to brainwash the planet to feed on humanity's bliss.
- Moose and Maple Syrup: Sybil has been crowned the new Queen of the country. Since this is a comedy series, this trope is naturally in full effect.
Sybil: You're already helping out enough by not making any of the obvious Canada jokes.
Max: Who would make obvious jokes, eh?
Sam: Yeah, Sybil! That's just not what we're aboot.
- New Jobs As The Plot Demands: Sybil is now the Queen of Canada.
- Paper-Thin Disguise: Bosco is dressed up as his own mother. Which basically amounts to him wearing a gray wig and makeup.
- Playing Cyrano: One puzzle involves Sam and Max helping the head of Abraham Lincoln from Episode 4 ask Sybil out on a date by telling him what to say.
- Pull a Rabbit out of My Hat: Philo Pennyworth is attempting to do this trick. Except in this case it's done with a rat. Specifically Jimmy Two-Teeth. Sam later uses this trick to get Max's stomach back from Gluttonous Max By feeding him Jimmy Two-Teeth and then pulling Jimmy back out of the hat.
- A Rare Sentence: When Sam learns Hugh bliss's true nature.
- Saw a Woman in Half: Except it's not a trick. And the woman is Sam. Fortunately, you can swap out with Hugh Bliss and turn the tables on him. Unfortunately, since Hugh is a bacterial hive mind, it doesn't have any effect. You can however, use the saw to destroy the rocket.
- Shout-Out: When Sybil announces "We have become the queen of Canada," Max replies "I thought Rush was the Queen of Canada."
- Straw Nihilist: Slothful Max ends up lying around outside the Blister of Tranquility, moping about how dull and pointless life is.
- Stress Vomit: Helping Abe get a date with Sybil leads him to get so nervous he pukes, which thankfully gives Sam and Max access to the Gastrokinesis talisman they need.
- Swallowed Whole: Sam and Max end up trapped in Gluttonous Max's stomach if they get too close to him, but fortunately Sam escapes with the help of the Gastrokinesis talisman.
Blissful Max: I'm enjoying the womb-like meditative quality of the pyloric sphincter.
- The Three Trials: Two lots.
- Played with for the talismans; there are only two required to enter the inner sanctum, but another is needed to get the third one of them since Max swallowed it to smuggle it past security.
- Played straight for Max's vices, with Sam having to contend with physical representations of Max's violence, gluttony and sloth.
- Unicorn: Sam is given a porcelain unicorn and must rub its horn to a red color in order to enter Hugh Bliss's lair. Or, if you know that it's essentially like a mood ring, you can always microwave it at Bosco's to simulate it. Using it on other characters will have Sam ask then "Wanna rub my unicorn?" for funny reactions.
- Villain Ball: Hugh Bliss is so confident that Sam can do nothing to stop him because he's a sentient bacteria colony that can't be killed by conventional methods, he does nothing to take the talisman that swaps places with the user and him and even fakes suffering in the torture devices just to taunt the Freelance Police. This proves to be his downfall when Sam creatively combines the assembled death traps to boil Hugh Bliss alive.
