Stress Test: The family tries to help Bobby get over his test-taking anxieties.
How to Train Your Carl: Carl gets lost in the city zoo after sneaking away from his family to search for a Komodo dragon.
"Stress Test" contains examples of:
- Achievement Test of Destiny: The BAT test is meant to get graduating high-school seniors into college. Carlota passed hers in one go, but Bobby needs quite a bit of help passing his.
- Appeal to Force: Rosa attempts this when she first hears that Bobby failed his BAT test. She grabs a shoe to beat up the people in charge of the BAT test, but Bobby dissuades her from doing so by pointing out that, no, that won't help at all.
- Bathroom Control: Played With in that Bobby doesn't need the bathroom but is concerned he might. When Carlos is helping his nephew, Bobby, study, one of the things he does is have Bobby sleep upside down. When Bobby says, "But what if I have to pee?", Carlos replies, "Hold it."
- Break the Cutie: When poor Bobby fails his BAT test for the fourth time, he collapses in tears in front of his family and briefly crosses the Despair Event Horizon.
- Cosmetic Horror: Played with regarding Bobby's reaction to his cousin, Carlota, in a mud mask. To be fair, Bobby and Rosa have been banging on pots and pans to frighten evil spirits, and Carlota was disturbed by the noise, so Bobby mistook her for an evil spirit.
- A Day in the Limelight: For Bobby, concerning his stress over the BAT test.
- Despair Event Horizon: Poor Bobby. After he has failed his BAT test four times, he nearly gives up on his hopes of going into business school...until Ronnie Anne, as "La Hermana" ("The Sister"), gets the idea of building a replica mercado for Bobby to take his test in.
- Don't Make Me Take My Belt Off!: When Carl, as "El Travieso" ("The Naughty"), tries to beat up Bobby with a newspaper, Rosa smacks Carl with her shoe.
- Empty Nest: When Carlota gets excited about her high score on the BAT-exam, she claims "Fashion design school, here I come!" Frida's happy for her daughter and is her supportive of her ambitions, but then starts crying at the thought of her daughter eventually moving out to leave for college (see Ocular Gushers below).
- Fear-Induced Idiocy: Bobby gets such bad test anxiety that he gets all the answers wrong and misspells his own name as "Booby". Downplayed, since he's usually kind of airheaded anyway.
- Healing Herb: Rosa, as "La Curandera" ("The Healer"), decides to relieve Bobby's stress by feeding him a mug full of boiled herbs, which looks disgusting to Bobby.
- Hope Spot: When Rosa breaks an egg into a glass of water, the yolk seems to foretell an A in Bobby's next BAT test... then it foretells an F.
- Hypocritical Humor: Rosa gets mad at Carl for his tactic of hitting Bobby in order to motivate him into passing, despite the fact that she often threatens to hit others with her shoe. She even threw a shoe at Carl in the process.
- Inelegant Blubbering: After failing his fourth BAT test, Bobby collapses to the floor, weeping hysterically in front of his whole family. By the time he lifts his head off the floor, he's a wet, teary mess.
- Literal-Minded: Before his older sister explains "BAT" really stands for, Carl initially thinks that a BAT-test involves "hang[ing] upside-down and eat[ing] crickets" like a bat would.
- The Makeover: Carlota, as "La Fashionista," gives Bobby a makeover in another attempt to improve his confidence.
- Manchild: Carlos and Maria, who are siblings, squabbling over who won the loteria game, resulting in Rosa stepping in between them.
- No Sympathy: Carl is the only member of the Casagrandes who does not sympathize with Bobby's plight, since Carl only wants Bobby to pass so he can eat some celebratory cake. In fact, when Bobby breaks down sobbing in front of his family, Carl decides to beat him up with a newspaper, only to get a Shoe Slap from Rosa.
- Ocular Gushers: Frida does this as she begs Carlota not to leave her as she goes to fashion designing school.
- Towards the end of the episode, Bobby cries until a puddle is formed on the floor after failing the BAT test for the fourth time.
- Put Off Their Food: When Ronnie Anne sees Rosa rubbing an egg all over (a very ticklish) Bobby, she is disgusted and vows never to eat omelets in the Casagrande apartment again.
- Running Gag: Carl wanting to eat the celebratory cake.
- Screams Like a Little Girl: Bobby when Lalo chases a squirrel while in a wheelbarrow, which Bobby is holding, causing Bobby to lose control of the wheelbarrow.
- Bobby does it again when he mistakes Carlota in a mud mask for an evil spirit.
- Serious Business: For Rosa, taking apart the food she makes is serious business. When Carlos removes the meat, cheese, bread, and beans from Bobby's torta, reducing him to bare-bones vegetables, Rosa beans him with a shoe and exclaims that he's "lost [his] torta privileges."
- Too Hungry to Be Polite: When Bobby finally passes the BAT-test, Carl eats the celebratory cake very messily, much to Rosa's displeasure.
- Training Montage: Carlos, or "El Profesor," puts Bobby through exercise to relieve his stress. Carlos, CJ, and Carl have Bobby do push-ups and chin-ups and make him run laps with Lalo in a wheelbarrow.
- Writing Around Trademarks: This episode concerns Bobby's struggles with getting a good score on the BATs ("Big Academic Test"), rather the SATs ("Scholastic Aptitude Test")* or the ACTs ("American College Testing").
"How to Train Your Carl" contains examples of:
- Aardvark Trunks: Bitsy the elephant speaks with an anteater, which has a similar flexible trunk and makes the same trumpeting sounds.
- All Animals Are Dogs: Despite being a reptile, Keyon the Komodo dragon is easily distracted by a bone Becca throws.
- Artistic License – Paleontology: Carl calls Komodo dragons "the last living dinosaurs." Technically, according to modern paleontology, birds are the last living dinosaurs. Also, dinosaurs are more closely related to crocodiles than to lizards.
- Butt-Monkey: Carl gets the worst of it at the zoo.
- Covered in Gunge: Carl after running into a huge pile of animal dung.
- A Day in the Limelight: For Carl.
- Friend to All Living Things: Becca Chang's animal-whisperer skills really come into use in this episode.
- Malicious Monitor Lizard: Keyon tries to eat Nico upon waking up and seeing him in his enclosure. Though he's not malicious, just a predator.
- Mischief-Making Monkey: Upon seeing Carl with some beef jerky, Nico the monkey decides to follow him to the Komodo dragon. He is exactly as mischievous as Carl, and in fact, they quickly become rivals as a result.
- Ostrich Head Hiding: Priscilla the ostrich is shown hiding her head in the sand.
- Shout-Out:
- This episode's title is a reference to the 2010 DreamWorks Animation movie, How to Train Your Dragon.
- Four of the night monkeys in the monkey habitat have the names and appearances of the members of the iconic band The Monkees.
- Smelly Skunk: Carl gets sprayed with a pair of skunks when an argument between him and Nico ends up waking them up.
- Stock Animal Diet: CJ brings peanuts as a snack for the elephant.
