In Orange Country to look for a heavenly Acres timesharing flat, VIP bumps into Lit lead-singer A Jay Popoff in his boxers, pursued by the souvenir hunters who took his pants, so the rock band hires them. AJ also assigns Val to recover his lucky charm, an Elvis type 'Cat Eye' belt buckle. They succeed at Stiles souvenir shop, but get pursued for it by goons working for Thelonius Brock, an arms dealer. Although X-rays prove it's plastic, not real precious jewels. However, the same x-rays also prove that the buckle contains encrypted military data that would fetch a high price on the black market.
As Lit and the team are out celebrating the buckle's safe return, Brock and his goons return and kidnap A.Jay, holding him ransom in exchange for the belt buckle. This forces Val and Tasha to go undercover as Swedish arms dealers in order to rescue the hapless lead singer.
After recovering A.Jay (and a couple snafus along the way) Val winds up in a car chase with Brock and his goons as she rushes to get A.Jay and the Lit boys to their concert on time.
At the end, the team watch the music video for Lit's song "Miserable", featuring Val.
The episode is available to watch here
Hard Val's Night contains examples of:
- '60s Hair: At one point in the episode Val is sporting a huge bouffant wig while talking with A Jay.
- All That Glitters: A Jay thinks that his lucky belt buckle is covered in real diamonds, only to learn later that they're plastic. However it gets subverted when it turns out there's actually encrypted military data hidden in the buckle.
- Ascended Fangirl: Val is a fan of Lit and gets to hang out with them and help them rehearse for their concert while she's protecting them.
- As Himself:
- Lit played themselves in the episode.
- In-Universe Val also plays herself in the music video at the end. Albeit a gigantic, male-eating version of herself.
- Attack Of The 50 Ft Whatever: Val in the music video at the end.
- Bound and Gagged:
- A. Jay gets kidnapped by arms dealers he gets tied to a chair inside their hideout.
- After Val blows her cover while trying to save him, Val gets tied up too.
- Before either of them, a pawnshop owner gets tied up and interrogated by the arms dealers when he doesn't have the belt buckle that they were promised.
- The Casanova: Allen Shellenberger is shown to be a fun-loving flirt and even hits on Kay at one point. This is in line with Allen's real life persona, as his band mates have noted he had a natural charisma around women. It also makes Val eating him at the end of the episode somewhat ironic.
- Casanova Wanna Be: While he (and the other members of Lit) are mostly popular with the ladies Allen Shellenberger has a moment of this when he tries flirting with Kay during the climactic car chase. He puts his arm around her and tries hitting on her, but Kay either doesn't pick up on it or too weirded out by the timing to reciprocate. At first.
- Comedic Underwear Exposure: When Val first runs into A.Jay he's wondering around in his boxers because someone had stolen his pants along with his lucky belt buckle.
- Chase Scene:
- Car chase, in this instance. Val gets into a car chase with the arms dealers while also trying to get Lit to their concert on time.
- The music video also features one of Giant Val chasing down the guys in Lit and eating them alive.
- Chekhov's Gun: The practice stage in Lit's club house. First the band is shown working on, then performing on it with lots of flashing lights and stage effects, which Val is toying with. Then when the bad guys show up to kidnap the Lit members, Val uses the lights and stage effects to disorient them while her team mates fight them off.
- Costume-Test Montage: At the same time as the Hard-Work Montage, Val and Lit are shown trying on various costumes and outfits, set to Lit's 3rd hit "Zip-Lock." While most of Lit's outfits are over the top (Elvis-style disco suits and white shoes with red stars, Greco-Roman helmets with a hula skirt) Val's outfits are more traditionally sexy and she strikes several sexy poses while trying them on. This partially sets up Val starring their music video at the end of the episode.
- Death by Music Video: Lit at the end of the episode.
- Dissonant Serenity: Val, during the climax of the music video.
- Drives Like Crazy: During the big car chase at the end of the episode, Val is flying through traffic like a maniac while trying to both get Lit to their concert on time and escape the arms dealers chasing them. The guys are simultaneously terrified and impressed by her driving. This is also one of the rare times where it's a net positive, as she takes out the arms dealers and gets the band to their show in one piece.
- Downer Ending: The music video at the end of the episode. At least for Lit. Val, by contrast, fares much better.
- Eyepatch of Power: Brock's lead goon sports a very pirate-esk eyepatch over one eye.
- Foreshadowing: Early in the episode, Nikki tries to pitch Jeremy Popoff an idea for their next performance, which she does by showing him a model stage with a tiny version of Lit on it. However, something goes wrong and the pyrotechnics on the model malfunction, and the tiny versions of Lit are destroyed, which leaves Jeremy less than impressed. Then, at the end of the episode, we see the Lit guys in miniature again, performing on top of a giant Val, and again something goes wrong with the performance only this time, it's not the band catching fire, it's Val devouring them alive.
- Good Luck Charm: A.Jay's considers his belt buckle one of these, which is why he is so intent on getting it back before their next gig. When he loses the belt buckle a second time while escaping the arms dealers, he wants to drop everything and look for it. However Val quickly convinces him that it's really just a Magic Feather situation.
- Gushing About Guest Stars: The episode does this quite a bit.
- Hard-Work Montage: Early in the episode Lit and the (male) members of V.I.P. are shown working together to set up the latter's practice stage, fittingly set to a Lit song.
- Helpless Kicking: Both A.Jay and Allen invoke this in the video at the end when Giant!Val eats them alive. A.Jay's kicks are especially frantic when Val tosses him into the air and catches him in her mouth.
- Human Shield: Val acts as one of these during her first meeting with A. Jay, while Tasha deals with the thugs trying to kidnap him.
- Irony: A subtle bit of irony exists when the episode is viewed with Miserable, which had its world premiere at the end of the episode both in-universe and out. After spending the whole episode protecting and saving Lit, the music video at the end features a giant version of Val pretend to be nice to the band only to then devour the guys as they try to run and hide from her.
- Loveable Sex Maniac: Allen Shellenberger is portrayed this way. He's shown hitting on or flirting with several girls throughout the episode, including several of the female members of V.I.P. When Nikki berates him during the episode and tells him to shut up flashes a smile as if he's into it. Yet he's still shown to be a likeable guy, even if he's the band's resident horndog. And at the end of the episode he's shown playing the drums on top of Giant!Val's hip and butt.
- Macguffin: A. Jay's belt buckle is what gets him and his band mates targeted by criminals. However, it's not because the belt buckle is incrusted with diamonds, since those are revealed to be fake, but because the buckle has codes encrypted on it that would be worth a lot on the black market.
- Magic Feather: Val convinces A Jay that his belt buckle is ultimately this when he's about to go onstage and realizes that it was damaged during his rescue from Brock and his goons.
- Nobody Loves the Bassist: A downplayed example. Of all the members, Kevin Baldes, the band's bassist gets the least amount of lines and blocking wise, is usually positioned behind the other members. And in the music video at the end of the episode, he's the first one Val eats. Though at least one of the V.I.P. gals thinks he's the cutest guy in the band.
- Off Hand Back Hand: Quick takes out the female mook with an elbow to the face as she's charging him, without even having to look.
- Painted-On Pants: Val wears these as part of her disguise when rescuing A.Jay.
- Pinball Projectile: At one point Allen Shellenberger hit a golf ball on top of a table inside a building. The golf ball bounces off various surfaces before finally landing in Jeremy Popoff's martini.Jeremy (sips martini with the golf ball still in it): "It's a little dry."
- Pop-Culture Pun Episode Title: The title is a pun on "Hard Day's Night" and Val is following around four musicians.
- Power Dynamics Kink: When Nikki bosses around the members of Lit and gets their name wrong, Allen is smiling from ear to ear and asks his band mates if any of them were also turned on by that.
- Product Placement: As to be expected, Lit songs are all over the place.note Lit songs are used as background music, one of the VIP gals is seen listening to a Lit CD and singing along, and at a couple points the episode even all but stops while the band perform a song off their then-current album.
- Sexy Slit Dress: Early in the episode, Val is wearing a very revealing, dark red dress with a long slit up one side that exposes her leg. For added fanservice, it also has a good deal of cleavage, and she has on high heels reminiscent of the ones she wears in the music video at the end.
- Later during a montage Val is shown posing around in a glittery silver dress in the same style and striking poses similar to the ones she winds up striking in the music video at the end.
- Skewed Priorities: When A.Jay realizes that one of the jewels on his lucky belt buckle is missing, he tries to have everyone go back to where he thinks it fell off and find it, despite having only 2 minutes before he's supposed to perform on stage. Thankfully, Val talks him out of it.
- The Smurfette Principle: There is one female member of Brock's goons, most notably appearing at the beginning trying to kidnap A.Jay and steal his pants, wielding a pipe. Quick knocks her out with an elbow to her face.
- In the music video, Val is the only woman present. All the other people in the music video are the four male members of Lit. she's also the only one to survive.
- Spandex, Latex, or Leather: Val's outfit when posing as a Swedish arms dealer in order to get A. Jay back is a skin-tight sky blue jumpsuit made of either latex or spandex.
- Special Guest: The band members of Lit were the guest stars and central focus of the episode. In-Universe, Lit return the favor by having Val be the big guest star of their latest music video.
- Strange Stage: The music video at the end shows guest stars Lit performing a song on top of Val's butt.
- Yank the Dog's Chain: As stated under Nobody Loves the Bassist, Kevin Baldes gets somewhat shafted, receiving the least focus and attention compared to his three band mates. However, at the end, while the V.I.P. gals are watching the Miserable video and debating who the most attractive member of Lit is, one of them emphatically states "Kevin is the cutest!" This is literally seconds before Giant!Val eats him alive.
- Too Dumb to Live: Despite being wanted by arms dealers, the Lit guys hang out at a public bar and draw as much attention to themselves as possible, flirting with girls, dancing and the band's drummer Allen hitting golf balls off a table. As to be expected, the arms dealers find them almost immediately and take A.Jay hostage. Lampshaded by Tasha.
- Too Many Halves: When Val gives A.Jay a pep-talk before the band's big show, she says that luck is 10% determination, 10% perspiration, etc. Tasha points out at the end of her speech that Val's speech added up to thirteen tens.
- Walking Swimsuit Scene: Val at the end of the episode.
- Would Hit a Girl: During his fight with Brock's goons, Quick has zero qualms about fighting the lone female goon, even elbowing her in the face and knocking her out for the rest of the fight. Notable in that there is a female member of V.I.P. present, yet at no point do she and the female goon engage in combat.
