You'd become a bird brain. You'd not only look like a bird, you'd think like a bird. Your desire to be the person you once were would dissolve, and you'd remain a bird... forever.
— "Father"
Still travelling through the woods, Rapunzel and Cassandra take a walk through the woods and then stumble upon an elderly couple living in a cottage in the woods. When they drink some tea with these people, it turns out it was a magical potion—and now Rap and Cas have been transformed into birds, for what they are told will last an hour. Initially Rapunzel is very happy with this as she sees it as an opportunity to experience freedom, but then they realize the couple has no intention of transforming them back to humans.
Meanwhile, Eugene, Lance and Hook Foot have a brawl and fight about who's the strongest and manliest man.
This episode provides examples of:
- Alice Allusion: This episode has Rapunzel and Cassandra fall into a hole, and then finding themselves in a magical cottage with two strange people having tea.
- Body Horror: The "Mother" collector goes through this when she drinks excess tea in order to speed up the process of changing into a bird to stop our heroes.
- Chekhov's Gun: Cassandra has trained her owl to attack anyone on command (by throwing a green bean at the target, and then give the signal by whistling). She later uses this same trick on the Mother collector.
- Foreshadowing:
- The collectors mention that the teapot is the reason the house, the birds, the toadstools, and even themselves exist. Later, when Cass shatters it, it turns out "reason for existing" isn't just a metaphor for having a purpose: they literally cannot exist without the teapot.
- The fact that the collectors' previous victims could be changed back into humans, even after the 1-hour limit, foreshadows that Rapunzel can still be changed back despite running out of time and going bird-brained.
- Destroy the Villain's Weapon: Cassandra destroys the magic teapot, causing Mother, Father, their cottage and the toadstool furniture to disappear.
- Forced Transformation: Rapunzel and the gang become this, as the collectors change them into birds. There's also a lot of people who were turned into birds before our heroes came along.
- Heroic Sacrifice: Rapunzel gives up the last egg to return Cass to human form at her own expense. Fortunately, Shorty has also been turned into a bird and lays a replacement.
- Idiot Ball: What fool drinks what they are given by complete strangers in the woods? Only Rapunzel. (And then Cassandra.)
- Irony: Rapunzel wanted to stay a bird for a while so she could prolong facing her destiny, because she's afraid wherever the rocks lead could be someplace she won't return from. However, she almost didn't return from being bird-brained.
- The Mind Is a Plaything of the Body: Stay too long as a bird, and your mind becomes birdlike as well. It happens to Rapunzel near the end, but luckily they reverse it.
- Morphic Resonance: When transformed into birds, the characters retain traits of their original human appearances.
- No Body Left Behind: After Cassandra shatters the teapot, Mother and Father disappear into thin air.
- No Ontological Inertia: The teapot was what brought the cottage and the two forest dwellers into existence. Destroying it wipes them, their house, and all their belongings out of existence. It doesn't, however, reverse the transformations.
- "Not So Different" Remark: The "Father" collector makes a point that Rapunzel shares the collectors' liking for "fanciful merriment".
- Not So Stoic: When Cassandra thinks that Rapunzel is lost forever, she actually starts crying.
- Screams Like a Little Girl: When one of their tires breaks, Lance Strongbow (a big man) lets out a high-pitched shriek, again. Rapunzel then lampshades it by saying she thinks she heard a "child" screaming.
- Shout-Out:
- Stealth Pun: A somewhat dark one. When the story reveals that the collectors' collection of birds were once people, we see a close-up of one bird's leg tied to its perch. Turns out, the collectors' offer to become a bird comes with strings attached.
- Tempting Fate: When the collectors are about to cage up the girls so they become bird-brained, Rapunzel basically tells them "When our friends get here, you are in so much trouble!" It's a (bird) Eugene who lampshades this:Eugene: I don't think your friends are going to be much help, Blondie.
- What the Hell, Hero?: After the collectors reveal their true intent and capture Rapunzel and Cassandra, the latter states how Rapunzel's free-spirited whimsy has gotten them in trouble. She even adds how Rapunzel's free-spiritedness can be "selfish" sometimes.
