Recap / Wander Over Yonder S 2 E 22 The End Of The Galaxy

The End of the Galaxy

With just one surviving planet left, Wander and Sylvia lead a band of rebels in a final stand against Dominator, while Lord Hater rushes to conquer the planet first.

Tropes appearing in The End of the Galaxy

• Alone with the Psycho: Wander decides to visit Dominator's ship. She chases him and destroys an ice sculpture of Sylvia.
• And the Adventure Continues: The episode ends with Wander and Sylvia setting out to continue exploring the restored galaxy, and Lord Hater and Commander Peepers trying to conquer it.
• And Then What?: Dominator gets extremely bored —and a little depressed— when she realizes she's destroyed every planet in the galaxy.
• An Aesop:
  • Sometimes enemies are enemies by heart, and won't change their ways no matter what.
  • Even if you get on someone's good side, you can't change who they are; only they can.
• Arson, Murder, and Jaywalking:
  Hater: You can steal my planets, you can capture my enemy, you can even break up with me...
  Dominator: You realize we were never dating?
  • Another example:
    Peepers: Sir, you're on point, you're formulating strategies, you actually remember the Watchdogs' names!
• Back for the Finale: All the survivors on the secret planet are the galaxy's residents.
• Beyond Redemption: Wander has finally seen to himself that Lord Dominator has absolutely zero chances of becoming a friend, and boy is he hurt about that. It’s to the point Sylvia has to remind him an enemy is truly an enemy and cannot be reformed no matter what.
• Big "NO!":
  • Peepers when Dominator destroys Bingleborp.
  • Wander when he thinks Dom has killed Sylvia.
• Bittersweet Ending: The galaxy may not be the same as before (even with the flowers restoring life on the planets), and Wander may have failed to reform Dominator or Hater, but he managed to save the galaxy and bring out a bit of kindness in Hater and Peepers.
• Bond Villain Stupidity: Because she's so bored having destroyed all of the planets, Dominator leaves Wander alive to torment him. She threatens several times to drill the planet only to withdraw, and when Wander begs her to stop, she decides to pin down Sylvia and impale her with the drill, slowly. This gives Hater enough time to get into position and defend Sylvia from the drill.
• Book Ends:
  • Just as "The Greater Hater" started with Wander stealing Hater's flag and Hater chasing him, "The End of the Galaxy" ends with Hater chasing Wander for the flag the latter put down.
  • Also in "The Greater Hater" Wander was easily distracting Hater but Dominator succeeded in ignoring the orange guy. Here in an Hourglass Plot, Dominator lets Wander distract her while Hater is completely focused on defeating her.
  • Hater at the beginning of the season was not considered a villain due to his focus on Wander. Here he's not considered a villain because he's the hero.
  • In "The Greater Hater", Wander tries to offer Dominator a fruit basket while welcoming her to the galaxy. Here, after Dominator is defeated, Wander again offers her the fruit basket while making the same speech.
  • The last scene before the Freeze-Frame Ending is the first shot of the theme song but in reverse; we zoom away from the planets before we cut to the far out shot of the galaxy the show is set in.
• Break Them by Talking:
  • Dominator talks down to Hater via hologram when he's stopping her drill, saying he's never been anything but a loser, and every word causes his shield to receed. Then Sylvia destroys the hologram and leads a chant cheering him on.
  • Wander accidentally sends Dominator even deeper into Villainous Breakdown by kindly pointing out that if she wanted them dead she would have done that already, concluding that she still needs other people even if she wants to bully them.
• Brutal Honesty: Delivered by Sylvia to Wander: "sometimes an enemy is just an enemy".
• The Cameo: Bloo can be seen among the refugees◊.
• Chekhov's Boomerang:
  • The secret planet that saved the other survivors ends up being the final planet in the galaxy and where Hater makes his Last Stand.
  • The flower spores that sprouted last episode end up restoring the planets that Dominator destroyed.
• Childish Tooth Gap: Dominator sports one after her suit and ship blowing up leave her with some noticeable battle scars.
• Combat Pragmatist: Dominator surrounds the survivors on the secret planet with her bots before she releases her drill.
• Continuity Cavalcade: The band of rebels gathered on the tiny planet consists of pretty much every character ever to appear on the show.
• Continuity Nod:
  • Dominator is once more shown as a Bad Boss to her bots.
    • She mentions Bot 13 as one of her friends, then recalls that she destroyed him.
  • Dominator cruelly reprises "I'm the Bad Guy" when trying to kill Sylvia.
  • The small, undetectable planet from "The Secret Planet" is still the one place Dominator hasn't destroyed yet.
  • When talking to Dominator about he opportunities she had to destroy them, Wander brings up the concert in "The Show Stopper" and her hanging out with Sylvia in "The Night Out".
• Dirty Coward: Word of God says the reason the other villains didn't show up to help was because they were too scared of Dominator to fight back.
• End-of-Series Awareness: The episode title itself alludes to the show ending.
• The End... Or Is It?: As Dominator floats off during the end credits animatic, it pans down to a crashed space capsule crackling with the same green electric energy that powers Lord Hater, and we hear his evil laughter and monkey screeching.
• Enemy Mine: Hater and the Watchdogs team up with Sylvia and the survivors on the Secret Planet to bring down Dominator. Peepers warns Sylvia that this is just a one-time thing.
• Epic Fail: Dominator in The Stinger can't peel the orange she "stole" from Wander and the juice keeps hitting her in the eye.
• Even the Dog Is Ashamed: The Watchdogs Face Palm with Sylvia when Hater plans to conquer the planetoid while their boss is being lauded as a hero...Except for Peepers, surprisingly, whose pupil turns into a huge heart.
• Evil Cannot Comprehend Good: Dominator can't understand why Wander would save her when her ship explodes.
• Explain, Explain... Oh, Crap!:
  • Dominator cheers that she's destroyed every planet on the galaxy. Then she realizes there are no more planets to destroy and falls into a Villainous BSoD.
  • Sylvia when she finds Wander missing says there's no other place for him to go... except Dominator's ship. Cue the Lavabots surrounding the survivors.
• Facepalm: Sylvia and the Watchdogs invoke this when Hater announces his desire to conquer the new galaxy, starting with the secret planet.
• Fake Kill Scare: Wander thinks he sees Sylvia's shadow getting her head blown off. Turns out to be just an ice sculpture Dominator made to scare Wander with For the Evulz.
• False Reassurance: Wander's reassured that Dominator's bots won't shoot him. She then says she's going to destroy him personally. Of course, the viewer should already catch onto this, especially since her smirk couldn’t be more ominous.
• Forced to Watch: Dominator tries to kill Sylvia and makes Wander watch.
• Freeze-Frame Ending: The episode ends with a freeze-frame of Wander and Sylvia being chased by Hater's ship.
• Freudian Excuse: Wander believes that Dominator has some reason for being so evil. He's eventually proven right when he realizes she wants the company of others, but can't actually make friends with them, so she bullies them instead.
• Fly-at-the-Camera Ending: The episode ends with Wander and Sylvia flying at the camera in their orbble with Hater's ship behind them.
• Good Cannot Comprehend Evil: Wander is insistent into reforming Dominator, but was forced to give up after Sylvia tells him to stop.
• Good Feels Good: He may have gone back to conquering planets, but Hater thoroughly enjoys the hero treatment he's earned by the end of the episode. It says a lot that the people cheering him don't cower in fear.
• The Good, the Bad, and the Evil: This is the final battle where Wander (good) and Hater (bad) face down Dominator (evil).
• Go Through Me: Hater tells Dominator to do this. She promptly destroys his ship.
• Grand Finale: Although it has a Sequel Hook for a third season, this is ultimately the series finale.
• Grievous Harm with a Body: Sylvia uses Peepers like a sword to fight off some Dominator bots. In turn, Peepers uses Sylvia as a flail to fight off some more!
• Hands Go Down: Sylvia asks for suggestions on what to do about Dominator, adding that hiding until she gets bored and goes away isn't an option. Cut to Something the So and So lowering his hand.
• Hard Truth Aesop: Sometimes an enemy is just an enemy. Even with all her robots destroyed and she's rendered powerless, Dominator refuses Wander's offer of friendship and just runs off bitter about her defeat. He's forced to accept that nothing he can do will redeem her, and some people either can't or don't want to be redeemed.
• Hates Being Alone: Dominator desires companionship besides her bots, but has no idea how to accomplish it besides being a bully.
• Heel–Face Turn:
  • As seen by them joining the survivors, Something the So and So and The Black Cube of Darkness have cemented their heroic status.
  • Subverted with Dominator, who denies Wander's offer of friendship and redemption, and storms off in a huff. Although its clear the events had some sort of positive effect on her beliefs, but to what extent is unknown.
  • Also subverted with Hater, despite the survivors lauding him as a hero.
• Heroic Sacrifice: After Saying Too Much about the other survivors, Wander asks Dominator to destroy him since it's "just him". She doesn't buy it.
• He's Back!: Hater has a grand moment declaring he's going to take over the last planet and protect it from Dominator.
• Here We Go Again!: The Watchdogs, Sylvia and Peepers when Hater chases Wander again for stealing his flag. Sylvia's smiling about it since she knows there are worse things in the galaxy than Hater and she's seen the good in him.
• Hidden Depths: Hater has knowledge of gravity-related physics and thermodynamics.
• Honor Before Reason: Wander won't kill or destroy an enemy, even if they've destroyed his galaxy.
• Hourglass Plot: For most of the series, Hater has been focused on chasing down Wander to destroy him while Dominator has been ignoring the Star Nomad in favor of destroying galaxies. In the finale proper, Dominator focuses entirely on Wander while Hater ignores his "enemy" to save the last planet from Dominator.
• How the Mighty Have Fallen: Dominator's not so impressive without her ship or her robots. Her temper tantrum is equivalent to Hater's many meltdowns.
• Hypocritical Heartwarming: While claiming he's going to conquer the planet, Hater says twice that he's going to save the galaxy.
• Ignored Epiphany:
  • Dominator refuses all offers of friendship, even after Wander points out that she's LONELY without anyone else, and misses them.
  • Hater saves the last planet and is hailed as a hero, then tries to conquer it, prompting everyone except Peepers and Wander to Face Palm.
• Irony: Both Hater and Dominator are now both obsessed over Wander, although it’s a bit more layered in the latter’s case. Dominator was already the top villain and had destroyed all the planets, but as a consequence, she has trouble feeding into her sadistic lust with everything gone. Therefore, she looks to milk Wander’s suffering for all it’s worth.
• Last Episode Theme Reprise: An instrumental version of the theme song plays over the last scene.
• Leaning on the Fourth Wall: The "past season...of our lives!" line is used twice, both by Sylvia and Peepers.
  "She's had us on the run this entire season...of our lives."
  "Where has this guy been all this season...of our lives?"
• Let's Get Dangerous!: Lord Hater when he mounts the offensive.
• Laughing Mad: Dominator. That is all.
• Meaningful Echo:
  • "An enemy's just a friend you haven't made yet."
  • Sylvia repeats her "season... of our lives" Character Catchphrase when rallying the survivors to fight Dominator.
  • "Hate's Great! Best Villain! Hate's Great! Best Villain!"
  • "Nothing ever changes."
• Mood Whiplash After saving the galaxy, Lord Hater is awestruck by the planets which are now starting to recover. And just when it looks like he’s about to undergo a Heel–Face Turn, he instead goes back to his wicked ways declaring he will conquer all of these worlds, starting with the very same planetoid he’s standing upon.
• Music for Courage: When Lord Hater falters against Lord Dominator... Sylvia starts up a Crowd Chant of "Hate's Great, Best Villain", inspiring him to win once and for all.
• Nice Job Breaking It, Hero: Wander accidentally reveals the location of the last planet while trying to find Dominator's Freudian Excuse.
• Nice Job Fixing It, Villain:
  • Dominator chasing Wander and Sylvia over a flower in the previous episode leads to the flower's spores restoring the galaxy.
  • By incapacitating Wander, Hater's major weakness, Dominator inadvertently takes away the only distraction that has stopped Hater from beating her before.
• No Ontological Inertia: All of Dominator's bots fall inactive when her ship explodes.
• No-Sell: Hater upgrades the Skullship and aims his entire arsenal at Dominator's ship, ready to destroy it. Then Dominator fires one shot and the Skullship falls apart.
• "The Reason You Suck" Speech: Dominator gives one to Lord Hater, playing off of his insecurities so his barrier would weaken, and it nearly works...until Sylvia crushes the robot projecting her and starts chanting his battle cry.
• Redemption Rejection: Wander convinces Dominator to make friends in life and make a Heel–Face Turn, but she coldly rejects him and runs off. Sylvia tells Wander that sometimes an enemy is sometimes just an enemy deep down, and he should quit trying to reform Dominator, to which he sadly obliges to.
• Red Herring: None of the survivors get a chance to fight Dominator, despite their weaponry. Instead, Hater has to save them.
• Save the Villain: Wander saves Dominator from the wreckage of her ship before it explodes.
• Saying Too Much: Wander accidentally reveals that there are survivors from Dominator's rampage when trying to appeal to her better nature.
• Screw This, I'm Outta Here: Dominator's final fate is rejecting all offers of friendship, and storming off to be alone.
• Sequel Hook: Lord Dominator floats by a crashed space capsule (possibly with a United States flag on it) that sparks with green energy.
• Shut Up, Kirk!: Lord Dominator rejects Wander's offer of friendship and heads off by herself in an orble bubble, only taking his fruit basket so she'll have something to eat.
• Slasher Smile: Dominator sports one when she sees Wander come on her ship.
• Stating the Simple Solution:
  • Starbella's cat Mittens suggests hiding in the secret planet until Dominator gets bored and moves on to another galaxy. Sylvia shoots that down because she doesn't want Dominator to destroy another galaxy.
  • Meanwhile, a Dom bot suggests moving on to another galaxy. Dominator freezes it up out of spite and says she doesn't want to start from scratch.
• Status Quo Is God: At least where Wander and Hater's friendship stands, "nothing ever changes" as Peepers and Sylvia put it.
• Suspiciously Similar Song: The tune that plays when Wander talks to Lord Dominator after Hater wrecks her ship is based on "Journey of the Sorcerer" by The Eagles, the theme song to The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy (1981).
• Tears of Joy: Peepers after Hater's Let's Get Dangerous! moment. He lies that they aren't tears.
• Tempting Fate: All season, Wander believes "an enemy is a friend you haven't made yet". Well, this is totally untrue with Dominator, and Sylvia has to remind him sometimes it's the opposite, and Dominator cannot be reformed.
• Took a Level in Badass: Lord Hater displays a level of drive and determination that even Commander Peepers finds amazing.
• Triumphant Reprise: "Who is the universe's awesomest evildoer?"
• Tsundere: A non-romantic version with Dominator's parting words to Wander.
  Dominator: I'm taking this because I'm hungry, not because we're friends or anything.
• Victory Is Boring: Dominator finds no joy in destroying the entire galaxy, as there are no more planets to destroy and people to torment.
• Villainous Breakdown: As soon as Lord Hater starts to actually resist Dominator? She SNAPS. Wander's psychoanalysis and pure kindness make it even worse. To quote Wander, "I think I see a crack in your armor."
• Villainous Rescue:
  • Hater and the Watchdogs rescue Sylvia. Peepers assures Sylvia that it's a one-time thing.
  • In the end, it's Hater who defeats Lord Dominator, inspired by Wander and Sylvia.
• Villainous Valor: Peepers warns Sylvia that their Enemy Mine is a one-time thing. She accepts it gladly, and the return to the status quo.
• Wait, What?: Wander's reaction when his Rousing Speech rallies the survivors to "Destroy Dominator!"
• We Will Meet Again: Dominator promises this in The Stinger while trying to peel an orange.
• What You Are in the Dark: Sylvia would rather fight Dominator than let her destroy another galaxy, even though they're safe on the secret planet.
• Who Would Be Stupid Enough?: Dominator asks who would be stupid enough to torment. Cue Wander coming onto the ship.
• Why Don't You Just Shoot Him?: Wander points out that Dominator could have easily destroyed him, Hater, Peepers and Sylvia when they first met, or when she and Sylvia had that night out, causing him to realize that, even if it was in the context of being a bullying enemy, she wanted their companionship.
• Wingding Eyes: Commander Peepers gets a heart-shaped pupil of admiration when Lord Hater resolves to conquer the new galaxy.
• The Worf Effect: Pretty much everyone on the secret planet gets overwhelmed with relative ease so Hater and the Watchdogs can save them. Practically parodied with Major Threat aka Jeff, a powerful former villain and telekinetic who is introduced in the episode with Sylvia asking him for help due to his power...only for him to shrug and admit he's got no idea what to do. Even after the Watchdogs turn the tide, only Sylvia is really shown fighting.

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See ya, Space Wanderers! ^{Or...is it?} 

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