Yasper tells Aniq that there's a secret security camera in Xavier's bedroom. Culp and Danner accidentally delete the footage, resulting in them needing to bring other people in for questioning. Yasper tells his story in the vein of The Musical, with multiple musical numbers throughout the episode.
He had arrived at the reunion hoping to get Xavier to feature on one of his songs, and asks him when he pulls him away to give Aniq and Zoe alone time. Xavier dismissively responds with "yeah, sure, whatever", which Yasper misinterprets as agreement. He drives Aniq and Chelsea to the afterparty, where he gets a text from Xavier about the feature. Yasper heads upstairs to the recording studio, where he finds the track Xavier had mentioned. He plays a video of one of their old performances on the screens before getting distracted by the screams signifying Xavier's death.
As Aniq tries to gather everyone's handwriting samples, he realizes Jenn 2 has gone missing. The police find a flask near Xavier's body belonging to Chelsea.
Tropes:
- Aside Glance: After offering to take an inebriated Chelsea to the afterparty and her responding "Yeah sure whatever", Yasper glances at the camera since it was the name of the song he just sang.
- Auto-Tune: Yasper and Aniq's voices are autotuned in the chorus of "Two Shots" to create a distorted effect.
- Comically Missing the Point: Danner says Yasper's story is "like a rosebush blossoming from a pile of bullshit" which he takes as a compliment to his drive, not that Danner clearly knows this tale is crap.
- Dumbass Has a Point: "Two Shots" mostly highlights how Yasper is in denial about losing out on his chance at musical stardom, with him nonsensically claiming that "we all get one shot [in life] twice." However, the examples he cites actually make a pretty good case for his philosophy being right:Your first band, The Quarrymen, doesn't move the needle?
Form a second band and call it The fucking Beatles! - Funny Background Event: During the "Two Shots" musical number, Walt can be seen moving slightly out of sync with the rest of the background dancers and generally looking confused about what he's supposed to be doing.
- Immediate Self-Contradiction: One of the songs featured in Yasper's testimony is titled "Two Shots", which is all about how we all get one shot to make it big in life... twice. Justified in that Yasper is a Future Loser desperate for another chance at fame.
- Medium Awareness: Yasper absolutely relishes the standard musical tropes of his episode and occasionally acknowledges them.
- In "Yeah Sure Whatever", he pokes fun at the inherent idea of people randomly bursting into song and meticulously choreographed dance numbers and how people who dislike the medium often cite this as unrealistic.This dance is spontaneous
It's totally not choreographed
And now I'll stand up on this table and tap dance! - In "Three Dots From Stardom", he grows impatient with Xavier for taking over 3 minutes to type out a reply to his text.Who the hell types for this long
The entire duration of a song?
- In "Yeah Sure Whatever", he pokes fun at the inherent idea of people randomly bursting into song and meticulously choreographed dance numbers and how people who dislike the medium often cite this as unrealistic.
- Musical Episode: It's The Musical's turn in the show's Genre Roulette, so important events are punctuated by song and dance numbers led by wannabe musician Yasper.
- Shout-Out:
- Yasper's name is shown in lights at the start of his flashback. The presentation is similar to the one used for the High School Musical logo.
- The "Two Shots" number would not be out of place in Hamilton.
- Take That!:
- During the “Two Shots” musical number, Aniq mentions that losing his chance with Zoe made him “fall apart like The West Wing after Sorkin left”.
- The audience is expected to understand that Yasper and Xavier's old high school band was lousy before so much as hearing one of their songs solely on the grounds that they played Ska music.(from "Two Shots") Exactly, somehow I didn't make it with my ska band / Apparently, pop-punk with brass doesn't win you fans
