The Nice Guy
A simple request for a drink turns into an ordeal for Wander, due to his overbearing politeness.
Tropes appearing in "The Nice Guy"
- Apathetic Clerk: The cashier at the convenience store is a snarky teen who is mildly annoyed by Wander's hijinks and tries to ignore him.
- Arc Words: “Never hurts to help.”
- Arson, Murder, and Jaywalking: When Wander is going through the bottles in the freezer, he goes through several variations of the Thunder Blazz slogan "Fizzy, refreshing, and totally blorped" (i.e. ""Totally blorped, and fuzzy and refracting", "Fraudulent, reflarzled, and eternally blorked") until the last bottle, which says, "Mid-grade industrial rocket fuel supplement, not for consumption".
- An Aesop: You don’t always have to help everyone, even if you feel like it.
- Bag of Holding: Wander is somehow able to hold 198 pennies in his shoes.
- Bottle Episode: Most of the episode is set inside the convenience store Wander and Sylvia stop at.
- Friend-or-Idol Decision: Right as Wander is about to pay for the final Thunder Blazz he found, a little girl walks in and cries upon seeing there's none left. Wander is then left with the decision to either give the drink to Sylvia or the sad girl. He chooses the latter, whom surprisingly gives it to the former.
- Laser-Guided Karma: After finally getting the beverage Sylvia wanted, Wander ends up giving it to a sweet little girl with her mother giving thanks. Said little girl ends up giving it to Sylvia because she noticed she was thirsty, even saying Wander's words: "Never hurts to help."
- Nice Guy: The crux of the episode's problem is that Wander is too nice for his own good.
- No Good Deed Goes Unpunished: Wander's constant niceness and willing to help overcomplicates his task. Happily subverted in the end
- Noodle Implements: While the cashier is on his break, Wander has to ring up a panicky customer who desperately needs "this purple jelly, this length of hose, and these chili-pepper refrigerator magnets" to solve some dire emergency.
- Overcrank: Wander running up to the counter to finally pay for the drink, only to trip on the mat and spill it.
- Overly Long Gag: Wander holding the door open for the centipede-like customer, and Wander trying to mix the fountain drinks just right to get something like Thunder Blazz.
- Right on Queue: Everytime Wander turns around to pay for the drink, there is a long line to the register. He even lampshades on it at one point.
- Shout-Out: After going through all the bottles, Wander says, "Bottles, bottles everywhere, but no Thunder Blazz to drink!", a play on the phrase "Water, water everywhere and not a drop to drink" from Rime Of The Ancient Mariner.
- Spanner in the Works: Unsurprisingly, the lumpy mat.
- Sudden Eye Color: When Wander whimpers at the cashier upon learning he's short on cash, his eyes turn blue.
- Super-Stoic Shopkeeper: The cashier speaks in a very deadpan tone, and rarely looks up from his magazine.
- Surprisingly Happy Ending: At first it appears that things are going to be bittersweet as Wander willingly gives the Thunder Blazz to the little girl, but then she suddenly gives the Thunder Blazz to Sylvia, which revives her and ends the episode on a good note.
- Tempting Fate: Double subverted. The last time Wander goes back to pick up the Thunder Blazz-esque drink, he says to himself: “I'm gonna turn around, there's gonna be another huge line, and something's gonna happen that keeps me from getting Sylvia her Thunder Blazz-esque drink!”. He turns around, there’s no line, and he happily runs to the counter...then he trips on the lumpy mat and spills the drink.
- Wham Line: "Oh no, the mat!"
The Time Bomb
Wander surprises Sylvia by entering her in the Galactic Conjunction 6000, but is soon witness to her infamous nickname of "The Time Bomb"
Tropes appearing in "The Time Bomb"
- An Aesop: Don’t let your anger hinder you; it’s important to control it. Otherwise, he who angers you conquers you.
- The Big Race: The episode’s plot revolves around the Galactic Conjunction 6000 race.
- Cheaters Never Prosper: Horvax uses a fake proboscis to win but is disqualified for doing so, giving the win to Sylvia.
- Continuity Nod: A planet alignment is seen again.
- Disqualification-Induced Victory: How Sylvia wins the race.
- Embarrassing Nickname: Sylvia gained the nickname "The Time Bomb" due to her competitiveness and "explosive" temper costing her the race all the previous times she's entered the Galactic Conjunction 6000.
- Establishing Shot: Actually, this is the only episode not to open on a shot of a planet. Instead the screen is black with only Sylvia speaking and the camera cuts to Wander covering Sylvia's eyes in anticipation of a surprise for her.
- Happy Place: Wander encourages Sylvia to use this method to tame her temper.
- Little "No": Wander utters one after Sylvia rages the second time.
- Morality Pet: Wander serves this purpose for Sylvia, trying to keep her calm so she doesn't lose her focus.
- Kick the Morality Pet: Sylvia snaps at Wander twice while in Time Bomb mode. Both times, she severely regrets it.
- No Indoor Voice: Time Bomb!Sylvia speaks like this.
- Red Eyes, Take Warning: Sylvia gets these whenever she slips into Time Bomb mode.
- Sweet and Sour Grapes: Sylvia comes in second but is content to have won the contest within herself. (Then she wins anyway).
- Unsportsmanlike Gloating: Sylvia, for which Wander calls her out on in the end. Justified, in that Horvax and Stok have apparently been taunting Sylvia mercilessly and repeatedly to take advantage of her temper for many races before this one.
- Unstoppable Rage: When Sylvia becomes the "Time Bomb," it means trouble for any racer in her way.
- Mildly deconstructed as its this rage that ends up impeding her and keeping her from winning. Sylvia's rage, usually part of her Determinator status, works against her in this case.
- Victorious Loser: Sylvia comes in second, but is happy because she conquered her rage. Of course, when the winner is disqualified and Sylvia is declared the winner, she can't stop gloating.
- When the Planets Align: ...they provide the perfect racecourse for the Galactic Conjunction 6000.
