http://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/Recap/SamAndMaxFreelancePoliceEpisode202MoaiBetterBlues
A roaming Bermuda Triangle brings Sam & Max brings to the tropics where they try to get Max to become high priest to a trio of Ocean Chimps that worship feet to stop their dead goldfish from causing a volcanic eruption.
Tropes:
- Bratty Half-Pint: Making Sam and Max drink from the Fountain of Youth (see below) will temporarily transform them into their soft, marketable baby versions, who make a habit of annoying everybody around them by asking too many questions and saying childishly inappropriate things.
- Bread, Eggs, Milk, Squick: Glenn Miller seems to think kids are still into trains, sock hops, swing dancing, and methamphetamines.
- Cessation of Existence: The unfortunate side effect of taking one too many drinks from the Fountain of Youth (see below). At one point, Sam and Max are forced to do this to Jimmy Hoffa in order to get him out of the way.
- Chekhov's Gun: The technique used to solve the first puzzle in the game (stopping a Bermuda triangle by tossing a red octagon into it) is used to solve the last puzzle in the game.
- Cuteness Proximity: Max is instantly smitten by Baby Jimmy Hoffa.
- Death by De-aging: Jimmy Hoffa, who is already a baby, gets tricked into drinking more of the fountain of youth, causing him to disappear.
- Either "World Domination", or Something About Bananas: While translating Mr. Spatula's evil monologue, one of the Sea Chimps mistranslates "rain of fire and drowning in lava" as "herbal tea and foot rubs".
- Foreshadowing: The end of the episode has Sam wondering where the redirected lava flow from the volcano is going to end up. The answer will be revealed at the end of episode five.
- G-Rated Drug: Basalt turns out to have an effect not unlike marijuana on one of the Moai.
- In-Universe Factoid Failure: When Sam asks the C.O.P.S. for into on Easter Island, this the best they can come up with.
Curt: Accessing, ellipsis, Easter Island was founded in 1914 by former members of the 80s progressive rock band Asia.
Bob: Located off the southwest coast of
Your Mom, the island is considered by many to be the birthplace of television personality Ryan Seacrest, as well as American jazz music!
Sam: I see you guys are still doing all your research on the Internet.
Bluster Blaster: INFORMATION WANTS TO BE WRONG!
- Fountain of Youth: It turns out there's a fountain of youth on Easter Island, and Sam and Max encounter baby versions of famous lost people. They also have to drink some of the water themselves and become kids to solve one puzzle, but it turns out to only have a temporary effect on them.
- Inadvertent Entrance Cue: After Sybil gets upset with Lincoln for ignoring her in favor of the middle Moai Head, she mentions that it's her birthday. Similar to the previous episode, this causes a Mariachi with a guitar to appear out of nowhere ("Did somebody say... BIRTHDAY?") and start playing a celebratory song.
- Living Statue: The sentient moai complain a lot about being stuck in the ground for hundreds of years.
- Magic A Is Magic A: It turns out the portal to Easter Island can be summoned by ringing a red gong... which includes a regular gong that's been painted red with the secretions of a sea snail. Max observes that the mystic forces behind the portal must be pretty gullible.
- NPC Roadblock: Jimmy Hoffa, who refuses to let Sam and Max into the secret underwater cave.
- The Stinger: After the credits roll, there's a scene of the three talking Moai being ripped out of the ground as they're apparently abducted by "Them".
- Shout-Out: The vault from Lost is found in the Sea Chimps' cave.
- Messing with the radio next to the vault can also get you in contact with the Mission Control from Metal Gear Solid.
- Skewed Priorities: when Sam tells Jimmy Hoffa they’re freelance police, Jimmy takes more umbrage over them being freelancers than cops.
- So What Do We Do Now?: After Sam and Max save the island and leave for home, the three Moai lament that they now have nothing to do but stay where they are for another couple of centuries. They get abducted by T.H.E.M. before they can get too bored, however.
- The Stinger: After the end credits roll, we see a brief scene of the Moai being abducted by a mysterious green light.
- Stock Unsolved Mysteries: Sam and Max encounter a number of famous missing persons on Easter Island, including Glenn Miller, Amelia Earhart, Jimmy Hoffa, and D.B. Cooper.
- The Three Trials: Lampshaded when after being told by the Sea Chimps that there are trials to pass to prove Max is the true High Priest, Max quips that he bets there's three of them. Sure enough, he has to be "anoited" by the feet of the Moai (by having Sam play a "toe-tapping" tune for one of the Moai), produce miraculous foodstuff from water (by stealing some Banang from Bosco), and reveal his own visage to the Sea Chimps (by getting a stressed-out Moai with earthquake powers to relax and shake a stalactite loose, to complete a formation that almost, but not quite, looks like Max).
- Vacation Episode: Though it turns out to be more of a Busman's Holiday for Sam and Max when the local Moai Heads recruit them to stop the eruption of a volcano.
- Waxing Lyrical: If you mess with the radio in the Sea Chimps' cave, the first station has a voice quoting the opening of "Comfortably Numb" from Pink Floyd's The Wall: "Hello? Hello? Hello? Is there anybody out there? Just respond if you can hear me. Is there anyone at home?"
