Recap / Sam And Max The Devils Playhouse 305 The City That Dares Not Sleep

Max is transformed into a giant eldritch beast thanks to his Superego and begins terrorizing New York with both massive property damage and dream-eating spores that resemble his disembodied head. It's up to Sam and a small team of adventurers to journey inside Max and return him back to his normal size before he and the city are destroyed.

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Tropes:

• Back for the Finale: Sybil and Abe Lincoln, who had been absent from the series since the finale of season two, return for this episode.
• Bittersweet Ending: In the end, Max dies after everything Sam did to save him, but he manages to teleport away from the Earth before he explodes, and he takes Skun-ka'pe, Girl Stinky, and Sammun-Mak with him in the process. Thankfully, the alternate timeline Max from "Chariot of the Dogs" appears, having lost his Sam in similar events, and the two team up.
• The Bus Came Back: Past Max, after having disappeared with Past Sam in Season 2, returns at the very end of the episode. When Current Sam asks where his past self is, Max remarks that he turned into a monster and had to be blown up.
• Doing In the Wizard: In the cloning facility, Flint Paper finds a bunch of clues that he says indicate "Girl Stinky" isn't really a transformed "Cake of the Damned", but a con woman who tricked Stinky into thinking his recipe worked so she could plot to steal his restaurant.
• Exact Words: The Narrator throws up pictures of every single character shown in the three seasons so far and states that "One of them will betray you". He's talking about himself, since he's also shown within all those portraits.
• Foreshadowing: The Reveal of the Narrator being the villain is hidden when he reveals how "one of them will betray you". The thing is, when he mentions the "one of them", they're all portraits whereas he is the only one moving about. He's the one pulling the strings!
• Head-Tiltingly Kinky: When Sybil's water breaks, we see a reaction shot of Sam, Papierwaite, and Norrington looking shocked as slot machine noises play in the background.
  Norrington: ...pennies?
• Heroic Sacrifice: Sal risks his life to help Sam activate the arm controls in Max's body, and ends up dying of radiation poisoning (pointing out that the cockroach's immunity to radiation is just an urban legend).
• Hope Spot: Sam tries to clone Max, but Momma Bosco's machine is unable to decode the lagomorph's DNA and the process fails.
• I Am the Noun: When Sam wonders what the narrator is doing inside Max's brain:
  Narrator: Inside Max's brain? I am Max's brain!
• Not So Stoic: The normally unflappable Agent Superball actually loses his composure and breaks down in tears when it looks like Max is dead for good.
• Pet the Dog: When Sybil goes into labor and the Max Spores become obsessed with protecting her, this convinces Max's Superego that Max does have a hint of genuine goodness in him.
• Pregnant Badass: Sybil, at the time of the mission, is fifteen months pregnant with her and Lincoln's child. She largely proves to be a valuable asset, but unfortunately, she starts going into labor at a very inopportune moment.
• Red Herring: The Narrator states how one of the characters will betray the audience before showing portraits of every character so far from the past three seasons. This is all to hide the fact that it's him who will betray the audience.
• The Reveal: The Narrator is actually Max's Superego.
• Take That, Audience!: If Sam states the "You're lying" line towards The Narrator. Said Narrator goes on a tangent that he's actually some guardian angel protecting the Freelance Police (referencing a common fan theory about the Narrator's role in the game). When Sam asks if it's true, the Narrator states that it's stupid before reiterating how he's "the manifestation of the superego of a psychic rabbit detective mutated into a gigantic beast by a toy-box filled with powerful toys from another dimension." He then adds, somewhat sarcastically, "Sometimes the simplest answer is the correct one."
• Title Drop: Lampshaded; after the Narrator/Max's Superego gives a speech on how "an idle mind is the Devil's Playhouse", he glances at the audience and says "Didn't think I'd be able to work the title in, did you?"
• Wham Line: When Sam asks what the Narrator is doing in Max's brain, he responds that he is Max's brain.
• Wham Shot: Played for laughs; as the Narrator recaps the possible masterminds behind Max's hideous transformation, a door opens behind him... and it turns out to be the same door Sam was just opening.
  Narrator: Do you mind? I'm right in the middle of... oh, now you've ruined it.

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