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Recap / Unbreakable Kimmy Schmidt S 4 E 09 Sliding Van Doors

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  • Alternate Timeline: Taking reference from Sliding Doors, where two timelines run at once, the episode shows would happen if Kimmy and Titus attended a screening of said movie (she would've gone the same day the Reverend took her, while it came out the day he ran from his wedding to New York).
  • Awful Wedded Life: Jacqueline married Mikey mistaking him for a rich entrepreneur, and they're living with five kids in Lilian's tugboat. Kimmy's wedding to her college sweetheart is also failing for her being a self-centered workaholic.
  • Book Ends: The episode opens with Kimmy fending off a potential murderer by being savvy enough to see through his ploy. The alternate timeline scenario ends at the present with Kimmy and Titus instead falling for the murderer's scheme and presumably dying.
  • Butterfly of Doom: As the writers note, Kimmy's absence makes lives all around worse.
  • Celebrity Casualty: Donald Trump suffers a fatal heart attack having an affair with Jacqueline on the plane.
  • Church of Happyology: Cosmetology, which even has a particular focus in bringing actors.
  • Evil Old Folks: Lilian becomes a gangster in the alternate timeline.
  • For Want Of A Nail:
    • Kimmy doesn't go in with the Reverend, so he instead kidnaps a bunch of nursing students. This makes Titus's bus stop in her city in search of the missing women.
    • While Kimmy takes inspiration from Sliding Doors and decide to work in public relations in London, Titus is only hindered by the movie, making him miss his bus and be forced to wait for the next one leaving to New York.
    • When Titus is forced to run to still get to his The Lion King audition, he bumps into Jacqueline and pukes on her. This leads to both him not arriving in time and instead joining the nearby Church of Cosmetology, and her not getting the NetJets stewardess job that would've landed her a husband, instead flying for the much more budget airline Delta.
    • Jacqueline would eventually marry Mikey, mistaking the construction worker for an entrepreneur. Along with an Awful Wedded Life, he would have never came out.
    • Having not been kidnapped, Gretchen joins Cosmetology, rising up in their ranks, and Donna Maria becomes Kimmy's maid, eventually having an affair with her husband.
    • Lillian never found tenants as Titus didn't come into her building, making her join East Dogmouth's gangs.
  • In Spite of a Nail:
    • Kimmy still loses part of her life by a tragedy that comes to define her (albeit here she embraces being "coma girl" instead of trying to shed her "mole woman" history).
    • Cyndee is still one of the captive women.
    • Titus still has an affair with Mike.
    • Kimmy and Titus are still bound for each other, with her serving as The Beard.
  • It's All About Me: The alternate Kimmy is self-centered and bitchy, as opposed to the very selfless regular one.
  • Match Cut: Kimmy closing her room's door to teenage Kimmy opening the Reverend's van door.
  • Precision F-Strike: Kimmy drops an F-bomb once!
  • Pun-Based Title: A reference to both Sliding Doors and the doors of the van in which Kimmy was taken.
  • Shout-Out: Among the people who Lilian killed is Gustavo Fring.
  • Stage Names: Cosmetology makes Titus the world famous Jack Straightman.
  • Suspiciously Specific Denial: The founder of Cosmetology died of natural causes, and Gretchen's husband Shelly Chalker is alive.
  • Theme Naming: Jacqueline names her kids after the luxury brands she wanted to have instead of a life of poverty - Lexus, Pandora, Rolex...
  • What If?: What if Kimmy never went in the reverend's van and if Titus didn't get to his audition on time?

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