Star searches for a way to defeat Mina and her Solarian Warriors.
Tropes:
- Because Destiny Says So: Star gets a vision of her own finished tapestry in the Grandma Room, showing her how she stopped Mina and restored peace to Mewni: by destroying magic entirely. However, Star learns that she'll be separated from Marco — who'll be sent back to Earth and unable to return to Mewni — in the process, and Glossaryck will die permanently. While she has a choice, Star knows that she can't keep hiding in the tavern forever with Marco and their friends. With no other options, Star decides to go through with her plan and fulfill her destiny.
- Birds of a Feather: Janna and Quirky Guy start to bond over their shared pride in weirdness, a few seconds before the latter dies.
- Broken Pedestal: Star loses all respect for her mother because of the consequences of her choices placing Mewni in danger.
- Call-Back: In "Butterfly Follies", Glossaryck told Star that restoring the Realm of Magic may have been a mistake. Now, with an army of magic-powered soldiers ready to kill every monster in Mewni, Star concludes that it really was a mistake.
- Calling the Old Man Out: Star immediately calls Moon out over how all that's happened on Mewni is her fault.Moon: Star, let's just take a seat and we'll talk about this.
Star: What is there to talk about, exactly? We can't go back to Mewni because we'll die from a situation that you caused! So just stay far away from me. Or better yet, just stand over there* , where you don't exist! - Choosing Neutrality: Hekapoo has abandoned the Magic High Commission, but isn't actively opposing them, instead choosing to hide out in the eponymous tavern. However, she did decide to save Star, Marco, Moon, Eclipsa, and Meteora and invite them to stay with her.
- Continuity Nod:
- Once again, Toffeenote makes a wild face and cries "SURPRISE!"
- Mina rounds the monsters all up planning to shove them all over a cliff, the same thing she wanted to do to humans in "Starstruck".
- In "Conquer", Hekapoo suggested Marco's party "hang at the tavern" during Meteora's attack. In this episode, we see the tavern she was likely talking about.
- "Could Have Avoided This!" Plot: Star angrily tells off her mother for creating the situation they're in, since if Moon had been reasonable at any point, then Star wouldn't be forced to sacrifice magic.
- Creepy Changing Painting: Star is disturbed when she notices the tapestries in the "grandma room" are missing the deceased queens, leaving behind brightly-colored silhouettes. Turns out its their ghosts coming out to stare at Star. As soon as she looks away from them, they've all returned to their portraits.
- Then after realizing her destiny to destroy magic, she looks towards Moon's tapestry, noting how she now agrees with Toffee's mindset. The image of Toffee then suddenly turns to face Star with a manic grin and cries "SURPRISE!", causing Star to appropriately flinch in response.
- Darkest Hour: The Solarians have conquered the monster village, and are ready to kill all the monsters there as soon as they find Globgor. One of Star's allies dies from his Solarian blade wounds, Globgor is close to the same as River races him to treatment at the Magic Sanctuary, and many others aren't far behind. Star, Marco, Moon, and Eclipsa are regrouping in a distant edge of the multiverse, Star now hates her mother, and the best plan they (or rather, Glossaryk) can think of is to destroy magic entirely, even if that will separate people from different worlds forever.
- Death Is the Only Option: Glossaryk knows that destroying the magic will kill him, and insinuates that there is no other way to achieve the best possible outcome.
- Does Not Like Magic: Despite being a magic-user herself, Star concludes magic causes more problems than it solves, mostly from her family abusing it. A lot of the other patrons of the titular tavern came there to get away from magic as well, and cheer Star on in her rant that things would be better without it.
- The Extremist Was Right: Star concludes Mewni would be better off if magic was destroyed, which she realizes means she now agrees with Toffee.
- Family-Unfriendly Death: Quirky Guy explodes while Janna is trying to console him, and she's screaming in terror a few seconds later.
- Figure It Out Yourself: Glossaryk clearly knows there is only one scenario where Star wins, which is what is shown in the Tapestry. Without giving too much detail, he is nudging Star towards that outcome to allow her figure it out on the way.
- Heroic Sacrifice: Star decides to sacrifice magic, her growing relationship with Marco, and the ability to travel between dimensions, to save the monsters on Mewni from the Solarians and Mina.
- I'm Standing Right Here: Glossaryck is lightly offended when Star only notices Marco's absence from her tapestry and not his own.
- Irony: It was Star who brought back magic during the events of "Toffee", and now it's Star who is planning to destroy magic once and for all.
- Jump Scare: When Star starts to agree with Toffee, his picture suddenly turns his head towards her and yells "SURPRISE!" Also counts as a Mood Whiplash.
- Kick the Dog: Whilst corralling the monsters to be pushed off a cliff, Mina threatens Katrina, making the latter cry.
- Killed Off for Real: Poor Quirky Guy succumbs to his wound and explodes into light, a sign of what will happen to everyone who was wounded by the Solarian Warriors' blades.Pony Head: We're all gonna die!
- Laser-Guided Karma: Moon undermined everything Star tried to do for the sake of monster equality in Mewni because she had an Irrational Hatred of Eclipsa over something that was Moon's fault , and she stupidly granted Mina Loveberry an army capable of committing genocide thinking she could rein Mina in. As a result of her lack of faith in Eclipsa and Star, Moon's been driven out of Mewni, has been separated from her husband, has unleashed a wave of devastation across Mewni when she was trying to avoid such a catastrophe, and Star bluntly tells Moon she wants nothing to do with her ever again, therefore disowning her.
- The Magic Goes Away: Star comes to the conclusion that she needs to make magic go away by casting the Whispering Spell inside the Realm of Magic. Using magic to solve problems only causes more problems, and the ones using it are all idiots who don't deserve the power they have, her own family included. It's better to not have it than let it be abused by the corrupt and stupid anymore. And even though it could potentially separate her and Marco forever, it's her best and only plan to stop Mina.
- Magic Is Evil: Played With. Star decides that using magic to solve problems only causes more problems, and the ones using it are all idiots who don't deserve the power they have, her own family included, and the cause of all problems by the end of the series. It's seen as a good thing when Star decides to destroy magic because it cannot be used responsibly, and it causes more problems than it solves.
- The Man Behind the Man: Eclipsa (correctly) deduces that Moon put Rhombulus up to releasing Globgor to try to frame Eclipsa for it.
- My God, What Have I Done?: Moon is shaken that Star has disowned her, and as Star pointed out, they've been displaced from their home and returning would be a death sentence. Oh, also it's Moon's fault that Mina is going to commit genocide on Mewni note . Star also says what her mother did was unforgivable and there's nothing to talk about. More so, Moon is guilty and baffled that despite her overthrowing Eclipsa, the deposed queen is happy to give her advice on how to make up with Star.
- Nice Job Breaking It, Hero: Moon's actions have ensured that either millions of monsters (and non-prejudiced mewmans) will die due to her prejudice against Eclipsa; or her daughter's happiness with Marco and all the magic in the realms will be sacrificed to save everyone. Star bluntly tells her mother that what she did was unforgivable and she'd be better off not existing. In other words, she's been disowned by her own daughter.
- No Challenge Equals No Satisfaction: Mina and the Solarians have rounded up all the monsters and plan on pushing them off a cliff, but Mina thinks it doesn't feel right unless Globgor, the King of Monsters, is there with them. She holds off the execution until they find Globgor.
- Not Afraid to Die: While Glossaryck is initially shocked at Star planning to destroy the magic, which will kill him, he quickly recomposes himself and accepts that she may do it anyway. He even lets her know Marco will be fine, just stuck on Earth.
- O.O.C. Is Serious Business: Janna, who is normally wacky, morbid and unflappable, is clearly in over her head and is visibly unnerved by what's going on.
- Pet the Dog:
- Despite Glossaryck's dedication to neutrality, he's sympathetic and comforting to Star as she is forced to the painful choice having to destroy magic and thus separate her and Marco for good.
- Eclipsa considers Moon releasing Globgor a favor, since it wasn't a necessary part of Moon's overall plan.
- Pop-Culture Pun Episode Title: The title is a reference to the book The Restaurant at the End of the Universe.
- Prophecy Armor: Suggested; Star's tapestry shows everyone surviving Mina's attack after Star destroys the source of all magic. Despite the events already being in motion, Star tries to undo the tapestry when she realizes that Marco will be sent back to Earth with no means of returning to Mewni. Glossaryck sympathetically tells her that it can't be undone.
- Rule of Symbolism: The very title of the episode sounds something like "The Tavern at the End of the [Series]", as though the tavern itself is situated at the chronological end of the entire show.
- Sadistic Choice: Star sees a vision of her tapestry completed where destroying the magic in Mewni saves everyone from the Solarian army, but permanently separates her from Marco. She reluctantly decides she needs to do so anyway.
- Seen It All: Moon doesn't understand how Eclipsa can want to play pool with how awful everything's become until Eclipsa shares some perspective with her.Eclipsa: My whole entire life has been "A time like this," Moon. You learn to enjoy these moments.
- Take a Third Option: Eclipsa explains they have three options in front of them. They can either stay in the tavern, or Moon can give Eclipsa the wand back and Eclipsa can unleash the Total Annihilation spell in a move that might destroy what's left of Mewni alongside Mina's army, OR Moon can apologize and make up with Star so together the three of them can stop Mina Loveberry and save everyone.
- Turn the Other Cheek: Eclipsa is quick to put Moon's attempt to overthrow her behind them, as she shoos away a patron tactlessly commenting on Moon's situation with Star and offers a game of pool to calm her down. She even thanks Moon for telling Rhombulus to release Globgor, despite it being part of a Frame-Up.
- Twilight of the Gods: Star's best and only option is to destroy the source of all magic because nobody can use it responsibly and it causes more problems than it solves. Once the source is destroyed, the Solarians will lose their powers, and Glossaryck will die since he is composed of magic (how this will affect similar magical beings, like the Magic High Commission, is unspecified). Sadly though, Marco will be sent back to Earth and he and Star will never be able to see each other again.
- Wants a Prize for Basic Decency: Hekapoo expects everyone to be grateful to her for taking them to the Tavern after being a willing accomplice to the coup that she had to save them from in the first place. She doesn't even seem all that sorry for it either.
- Wham Episode: Star declares she hates magic now after learning her mother used to betray her and what Mina did to it, and decides to destroy all magic forever.
- Wham Line: "I hate magic. I'm... I'm gonna destroy it."
- Whispering Ghosts: Before she sees her tapestry, Star's attention is drawn to it when she notices that the previous wielders of the wand are missing from their portraits. They're all gathered around her tapestry as ghosts and whispering.
- Yank the Dog's Chain: Star and Marco finally got the courage to start dating or consider each other boyfriend and girlfriend. Now, Star has to confront that the only way to save Mewni will completely, permanently separate them as a side effect.
- You're Not My Father: As a result of Moon's actions, Star disowns her as her mother.
