Spoilers: These aren't the demons you're looking for...
After remembering a past event, Mugman tries to scare Cuphead in a haunted maze.Meanwhile, down in the Underworld, tormented by his failed attempts to take Cuphead's soul, the Devil is forced to send... not his finest demons, but a squad of demons nonetheless (and King Dice) to go after the Cup.
Tropes:
- Accidental Hero: The only reason Mugman wasn't affected by the 4 Horsemen was that he had his back to them and he had just made a joke with Cuphead using a toy horse head. Mugman turns around to see what had horrified Cuphead so much and he accidentally scares the horses away, which knock the horsemen off their horses and into a pool of water. It's fortunate for Cuphead and Mugman that the Horsemen are too lazy to get their horses back.
- Accidental Murder: Played for Laughs. After summoning his best demons to combat Cuphead and Mugman, he accidentally kills them in a fit of anger by reducing them to ash. He does the same again a second time and is stuck with his 3rd finest demons.
- Breath Weapon:
- Burpsy‘s burps can unleash a deadly fire that can destroy creatures much bigger than him.
- The vulture demon can spit acid, which it uses to melt a hole in the hay maze.
- Burning with Anger: The Devil incinerates two sets of his finest demons to ash because, everytime he tries to explain their mission to them, his rage peaks at each recounting of Cuphead's victories over him and he bursts into flames.
- The Bus Came Back: King Dice returns from "Roll the Dice".
- Can't Kill You, Still Need You: After losing his temper and incinerating his finest demons, and then his second finest demons, the Devil has to restrain himself from doing the same to the third finest demons because they're so pathetic that he can't begin to imagine what the fourth finest demons must be like.
- Chekhov's Gun: The fake horse mask, which Mugman wears in his attempt to scare Cuphead and keeps in his possession all through the maze, ends up being the one that saves the day by scaring the Horsemen's horses when they think they see a dead horse.
- Color Failure: In a flashback, a young Cuphead is terrorized by the scary horse mask, which drains him of all color. Later in the episode, Cuphead, King Dice, and the ticket guy freeze and lose their color when they see the Four Horsemen.
- Concealment Equals Cover: Both times that the Devil is about to lose his temper, Henchman hides behind a rock to shield himself from his boss’s fire. He drags King Dice with him the second time.
- Continuity Nod: The Devil mentions the events of the previous season as he explains to the demons why he wants Cuphead's soul, starting with Cuphead losing a game of Soulball, Mugman stuffing Cuphead's soul back into his body, and destroying the Carnival in the first episode "Carn-Evil", then how Cuphead lost on "Roll The Dice" by failing to identify "Twinkle Twinkle Little Star" (the Devil, however, didn't mention that Cuphead got a loss after breaking the dice by rolling them too hard) in the episode, "Roll The Dice", then how Cuphead kept the Devil from stealing his soul by wearing an invisible sweater in "Sweater Off Dead" and "Sweater Luck Next Time". The sweater from those last two episodes is revealed to have been given to Stickler.
- Closest Thing We Got: After the Devil accidentally destroys his best and second best demons, he has to settle with his third best (and King Dice). It's only when they start failing that he's forced to unleash the Horsemen.
- Determinator: After being idle for several weeks, the Devil returns with even more persistence to obtain Cuphead’s soul.
- Dramatic Irony: Cuphead and Mugman mention that they haven't seen the Devil since Sweater Luck Next Time, mentioning that they ain't too worried about it. Of course, the 3rd Finest Demons, King Dice, and the Four Horsemen were looking for Cuphead to claim his soul on orders from the Devil, who decides to take matters into his own hands when they all fail.Devil: (Screams angrily) If you want something done right, I guess you have to (speaks in a deep demonic tone) do it yourself!
- The Dreaded: The Four Horsemen. Henchman describes them as a primordial uncontrollable force that terrifies everyone who sees them. And any time someone sees them, they turn board-stiff and pure white from terror.
- Even Evil Has Standards: Although he works for the Devil, Henchman is terrified of the Four Horsemen and thinks that sending them just to capture Cuphead is a bit much.
- Extra-Long Episode: The show's second double length episode.
- Flaming Skulls: The Four Horsemen have these, until they get thrown off of their horses and land in an apple bobbing tub.
- Godzilla Threshold: Henchman considers the Four Horsemen to be the most fearsome creatures ever when the third-finest demons are all gone, leaving the Devil with no choice but to send them to Cuphead.
- Horrifying the Horror: Mugman's scary horse mask scares the horses of the four horsemen who flee the maze, leaving their horsemen behind.
- Horsemen of the Apocalypse: The Devil turns to the Four Horsemen when none of his demons prove effective in capturing Cuphead.
- Hourglass Plot: The Devil originally didn't want to get Cuphead's soul, but was pestered by Stickler in order to so. Here, near the end of the episode, it's Stickler who orders the Devil not to get Cuphead's soul due to the rule that if a soul is not collected in 30 days, it stays with its original owner forever and cannot be collected after, much to Old Scratch's chagrin, who wanted to get the soul.
- Humiliation Conga: The Devil really goes through Hell in this one: his anger issues lead to him destroying his first-finest and second-finest demon squads, his third-finest demon squad is pathetic and gets destroyed by King Dice, his Horsemen take the day off after their horses are frightened away, he can't take Cuphead's soul himself due to his claim being expired, and he can't even kill Stickler because he's wearing the invisible sweater. And then his elevator breaks down with him and Stickler in it.
- Know When to Fold 'Em: The Horsemen lose their horses after they are frightened by Mugman's horse mask. They decide to leave their assignment and have fun.
- Lost in the Maize: As a little kid, Cuphead was terrorized by a scary horse mask in a corn maze, but in the present, he denies it ever happened. Mugman takes him back to the same maze to prove it did happen, but they don't realize that a gang of demons is there too—and after Cuphead's soul.
- Modesty Towel: As Henchman is watching the demons' disastrous work, the Devil steps in wearing a pink towel up to his chest (with a second wrapped around his horns) to ask how they're doing.
- Musical Nod: As the Devil reads a book on how to relax, "Twinkle Twinkle Little Star" plays softly in the background—the song that Cuphead wasn't able to guess on "Roll the Dice." He brings up that exact event later in the episode while complaining to his demons.
- My God, You Are Serious!: After the Devil sends out his third finest demons, King Dice butters him up on his orating skills, thinking that he won't have to go and hunt the boys himself. Until he's ordered out, and is shocked that the Devil would do such a thing to his number one. The Devil gives Dice a Fascinating Eyebrow, and he gets the point.King Dice: You mean Number 1's got to..do it too?
- Never My Fault: While informing his finest demons of their mission, he blames Cuphead and Mugman for destroying his entire carnival, when in reality, it was his doing.
- Post-Mortem One-Liner: After King Dice has forced Burpy to blow himself up by tickling his nose with a feather and triggering a Sneeze of Doom:King Dice: Gesundheit.
- Plot Armor: Stickler literally wears this in the form of Mugman's invisible Sweater, saving him from the Devil's wrath and forcing him to relent.
- Punch-Clock Villain: Turns out the Horsemen are these. Once their horses ran away and their inner flames put out when they fell in a tub of water, the Horsemen decide to happily chill out at the festival and one guy is going for some pumpkin pie.
- The Reveal: The end of the episode. The Devil is about to march into the cottage and swipe Cuphead’s soul when Stickler steps out of the elevator with some big news. Because Cuphead’s soul hasn’t been claimed for 30 days, his debt is now expired and Mr. S no longer has any claim to it, much to The Devil’s frustration.
- We also learn what happened to the invisible sweater, when Henchman took it to an "undisclosed location". For some reason, he decided to give it to Stickler.
- Rule of Three:
- Before he sends the Four Horsemen to find and capture Cuphead, the Devil has Henchman rally his finest demons. Unfortunately, his rage burns the first two, leaving him with a third, not-so-stellar set. He sends them out before he loses his temper again so he doesn't have to deal with a fourth set.
- The Devil releasing the demons to "Requiem: Dies Irae". The first group of demons stumbles out of the gate (with the blind cyclops walking in the wrong direction), a panicked King Dice runs out to catch up with the demons after realizing he's on the mission too, and the 4 horsemen simply break through the gate before it finishes opening.
- Running Gag: The Devil referring to Cuphead simply as "Cup", and Henchman adding the word "Head" immediately afterward.
- Running Gagged: After Devil mentions Cuphead's no longer wearing the sweater to his 3rd Finest Demons, Henchman mentions that it's in an "undisclosed location", but upon Mr. S glaring at him for saying that, Henchman immediately says "Thank you, Henchman" so his boss wouldn't have to say it himself.Henchman: Uh, thank you Henchman.
- Scared of What's Behind You: Mugman thinks he scared Cuphead stiff with the horsehead, but in fact he was scared by the Horsemen of the Apocalypse standing behind him.
- Standard Snippet: Whenever the Devil unleashes his demons, they exit to the sound of the Dies Irae from Verdi's Requiem (which also plays during the title intro).
- Surrounded by Idiots: Zigzagged. Initially, when the Devil first sees his finest group of demons he's practically gushing from how amazing they are. But while ranting about Cuphead, he unintentionally roasts them. So the 2nd finest group gets promoted and they seem almost as great until Devil accidentally kills them too. So the 3rd finest group is up and the quality drops off completely. One example was a mighty giant who's completely blind, prompting the Devil to say "A Cyclops with an eyepatch, how does that work?" and a slapstick moment later "Not at all".
- Team Killer: King Dice either sets up or deliberately kills off the other demons he's working with so that he can seize the glory of capturing Cuphead for himself. It doesn't last when the Four Horsemen arrive.
- Tempting Fate: Stickler mentions that at least the day can't get any worse after explaining the deadline rule to the Devil. Cue the elevator suddenly getting stuck.
- Title Drop: The Devil says the title when he finally sends his demon army to find Cuphead.
- Trauma Button: Mugman remembers Cuphead being scared of an old horse mask propped at a fall festival hay maze when they were kids. When Cuphead denies this memory, Mugman takes him back to the maze to prove his point. It doesn't exactly work, though he is scared of the Four Horsemen's demon horses for a while, but it allows him to admit his past fear.
- Uncomfortable Elevator Moment: Stickler and The Devil awkwardly ride the elevator back down to the underworld when it suddenly gets stuck. Devil bemoans the situation, while Stickler starts singing "999 million souls in the vault, 999 million souls, take one out, do a recount..."
- Villain No Longer Idle: The Devil tries to get his demons, King Dice, and the Four Horsemen to capture Cuphead so that he can finally collect his soul. When all his minions fail him, the Devil decides to take matters into his own hands. That is until Stickler shows up and tells him that he no longer has a claim on Cuphead’s soul.
- Whatever Happened to the Mouse?: The blind cyclops is nowhere to be found after aimlessly wandering away from the other demons.
- You Are Too Late: As the Devil attempts to get Cuphead himself, Stickler reveals an interesting rule in his job called the "Soul Debt"; if he is unable to obtain the soul owed to him, i.e. Cuphead's, in a full month (30 days to be precise), he must forfeit the pursuit. Devil tries to do away with the accountant but, thanks to literal Plot Armor, he finally gives up since he is a day late and a soul short.
- Your Costume Needs Work: The turtle demon is the only one to ever interact with Cuphead and Mugman. Unfortunately, he's so unscary that an unenthusiastic Cuphead mistakes him for part of the hay maze instead of an actual monster, calling him "the worst one yet" before pushing him to the ground with ease.
