Season 4, Episode 8
Home Improvement
Alice reluctantly agrees to help Zelda, while the quest for the next piece of the Monster's body is sidetracked by the unexpected return of Poppy.Tropes That Appear In This Episode:
- Be as Unhelpful as Possible: The East River dragon has Harold the Herald tell Julia that her condition is temporary and to seek out "The Binder" to rectify it. When Julia asks for something more specific, Harold just smiles and leaves.
- Bizarre Alien Biology: Even though dragons are basically fancy fish, the comic book implies that they often live in non-aquatic habitats, and their eggs seem to require warm, dry areas to develop properly.
- Bizarre Alien Reproduction: Although dragons appear reptilian, according to the comic book, females in heat form eggs within themselves, and lay them. The eggs stay unfertilized until soaked by a male's seed, in a manner rather akin to fish. Actual copulation is is performed over any eggs which have been laid, so that eggs within and without are affected. If anyone or anything touches the egg while the fetus is forming, its pheromones compel them to nest, becoming extremely protective and making an environment suitable for its health.
- Blatant Lies: Poppy claims to have turkey-basted herself with dragon semen, but thanks to her dragon porn, Kady realizes that dragon eggs take three years to gestate, so she wouldn't be as visibly pregnant as she is, having stolen the stuff only the previous week.
- Brainwashed and Crazy The dragon egg emits pheromones which cause anyone who touches the egg to immediately become protective of it. It wears off if they're kept away from the egg long enough.
- The Bus Came Back: Poppy returns after ditching the group last season.
- Don't Touch It, You Idiot!: Penny tries to avert this by putting on oven mitts before touching the dragon egg, but the pheromones get him anyway.
- Earthquake Machine: Dragons are earthquake love machines, as their mating creates seismic vibrations.
- Exact Words: As a condition of helping Zelda, Alice insists she free Sheila and bury Sheila's book. When Alice has fulfilled her end of the bargain, Zelda reveals that Sheila has willingly joined the Library and as such her book is being kept in the poison room, where no one will be able to read it.
- Exploited Immunity: Julia uses the fact that magic does not work for her to grab the egg without falling victim to its effects.
- Fetish: Poppy writes dragon erotica. Reading it proves vital to figuring out that she stole a dragon egg, because she wrote a lot of scientifically accurate detail into it.
- Groin Attack: Carol uses the sex voodoo dolls to repeatedly hit the Library agents in the groin, since it's the only part she can actually target.
- His Name Really Is "Barkeep": Julia and Quentin are directed to the East River dragon's herald. His name turns out to be "Harold". He says he answered a really confusingly worded Help Wanted ad.
- Hybrid Monster:
- According to the comic book, it's uncommon but not unheard of for males and females of different species of dragon to mate.
- Poppy claims that dragons can crossbreed with anything, but she may be lying.
- I Didn't Mean to Turn You On: Carol's sex voodoo doll attack on the Librarians does this until she figures out how to attack properly.
- I Have Your Child: The fertilized egg they think belongs to the East River Dragon actually belongs to a rival of hers. The ERD hints that this is going to be a bad thing for said rival.
- I Need a Freaking Drink: Julia goes to get a drink when Kady brings Pete in to help. Penny 23 joins her because he has to give Kady a message from Penny 40.
- I Owe You My Life: Pete is willing to do whatever Kady wants because she saved his life and he thinks she's someone worth pledging his loyalty to.
- It's All About Me: Margo joins Fen on her quest because, as she reasons, Fen's dreams all involve her. Fen is annoyed, but Margo turns out to be right when the Napster reveals that the dreams really are about Margo. Except that the Napster wants Fen to overthrow Margo.
- Lockdown: Alice triggers a magical lockdown on her mother's house, which her father had installed after watching The Purge.
- Lost Him in a Card Game: Poppy claims to have won the egg off another dragon.
- Loud of War: The Library agents trigger "Screamers" in the books inside the house, causing them to loudly announce their contents all at once.
- Motherly Scientist: At the end of the episode, Poppy says that the experience of taking care of the egg caused her to develop actual maternal instincts for her real pregnancy. And then starts talking about all the weird experiences she's eager to expose her baby to.
- Muggles Do It Better: To keep Fen asleep long enough for her to catch the Napster, Margo gives her some Ambien to make sure she won't wake up. The Napster is frustrated when her attempts to startle Fen awake have no effect.
- The Needs of the Many: Kady tells Pete to turn in the hedge witch that bombed the Library branch in Modesto, because as it stands they cannot stand up to the Library and need to take the heat off until they figure out a means of fighting back.
- Our Dragons Are Different: According to the Poppy and the comic book they seem to be more closely related to fish than reptiles. Since the ones we've actually seen in person appear to favor aquatic habitats, this makes sense.
- Out-of-Character Alert: Fen realizes she's dreaming when Margo starts talking about marrying Josh and asks Fen to give her away.
- Parallel Porn Titles: Poppy's dragon erotica is called The Dragonriders of Porn.
- Phony Psychic: Since the location where Napster appears in dreams corresponds to the Fake Napster's home and yard in the real world, pilgrims to whom the Napster has appeared keep trampling the place up. Fake Napster thus chooses to masquerade as the real thing in order to get them (specifically Fen and Margo in this case) to clean the place up and do chores.
- Power Perversion Potential: Inverted. Carol has developed voodoo dolls which specifically only affect genitals, for use as marital aids. Alice's mother reports her to the Library because "a voodoo doll for fucking is still a fucking voodoo doll" and can be used to torture the one it's tuned to. Carol exploits this to disable the Library agents trying to apprehend her.
- Really 700 Years Old: The East River Dragon says she's over twelve thousand years old, and regard this as too young to be a mother.
- Seen It All: Pete thinks he's going to impress Quentin and Co. by telling them dragons are real, but between them they've already met three.
- Specific Situation Books: Kady quickly figures out what's going on thanks to a very informative dragon pregnancy porn comic book written by Poppy herself. Possibly also illustrated by Poppy, since her pictures the only one on the back cover.
- Squick: In-universe. Penny isn't that pleased to learn about dragon pregnancy porn, no matter how much information lies within. He's especially unhappy after he learns the blue-stained elixir bottle he fished out of the garbage (and had been holding/idly fiddling with) used to be full of dragon semen.
- Thicker Than Water: After repeated accusations that she sold out Alice to the Library, Alice's mother tearfully admits that though they may not like each other, Alice is all she has left and she would never betray her.
- Wax On, Wax Off: Discussed. Margo refers to the fake Napster making them do landscaping as "some Mr. Miyagi shit". Fen wonders if this is actually training them to fight.
- Wham Line: Fen catches the Napster in her dreams and demands to know her destiny. The Napster tells her that she will soon stand beside Margo at a gathering of Fillory's rulers... and must then overthrow her, violently if necessary.
