Garfield Logan tests out a pair of Goode VR goggles. Then the goggles test him!
Tropes Featured in this episode:
- Affectionate Parody: Of Teen Titans Go!, considering that they used the convenience of sharing voice actors in Greg Cipes and Khary Payton to facilitate the joke. TTG! did a similar gag when they had Payton voice Aqualad in one episode.
- Ambiguous Situation: Most of the A-Plot. As a reflection of the events of Garfield's life, how accurate is it? How much of it was distorted by Goode Goggles and Gar's own biases?
- The monkey. He freely admits that he's Gar's brain interpreting... something, hints that Beast Boy's powers are more complicated than a combined metagene/Martian blood transfusion, and something must have interfered with the Goode Goggles for them to go off like that.
- One particular oddity that can't be easily explained by the mundane: During the scene with all the dead heroes on the starship, we see Wally's death scene played right down to his last words. But Gar couldn't know that. The only people who witnessed that were Barry and Bart (and Wally, obviously). Gar was at the Arctic, but he only arrived near the very end with the other heroes and wasn't inside the speed vortex to witness Wally's 'ceasing' (and none of the heroes could see or hear from outside of it). So his mind alone wouldn't be able to recreate that scene. In-Universe, it's perfectly possible he heard the details of how Wally died and spent a lot of imagining the scene.
- It's unsure if the implication that Mento was the only survivor of the Doom Patrol because of his cowardice is true or this was a projection of Beast Boy's anger towards him for shamefully abandoning him before.
- The pair of Goode Goggles Beast Boy uses was revealed by Queen Perdita to have been sent to her room by an anonymous benefactor, implied to be either The Light or Granny Goodness, but who was their target? Beast Boy, knowing he'd be the type of person who would want to try it out, so they could have a bargaining chip to use against the heroes? Or Perdita, in order to activate a potential metagene, brainwash her and take control of the Vlatavan throne?
- Animation Bump: Compared to the traditional Teen Titans Go!, which is animated by Flash, this version seems more hand drawn.
- Are You Pondering What I'm Pondering?: M'gann and Conner are discussing how their new houseguests are making it difficult to spend time together, and M'gann comes up an idea and asks the trope question:Conner: Secret base!
M'gann: Date night!
Both: What? - Art Shift: Beast Boy has a hallucination in the style of Teen Titans Go!. Later, Miss Martian appears in his dream drawn in style similar to her appearance in "Let's Get Serious".
- Black Comedy: The Doom Patrol singing an upbeat song about how they're all going to die.
- Breather Episode: Somewhat. While it isn't nearly as heavy on the action, and has long stretches of visually comedic sequences due to taking place in Gar's mind, it's still heavily focused on Beast Boy's long string of emotional traumas and is thematically a pretty dark episode.
- Call-Back: Two of Marie Logan's costars from her Hello, Megan! days- Paul Sloane and Rita Farr (both of whom were featured in the Hello, Megan! title sequence shown in Season 1) - appear in this episode, both as teenagers and as adults. Rita is said to have been dead for some time, and thus only features prominently in Gar's hallucinations. Paul is now Garfield's costar in Space Trek 3016.
- Casting Gag: The Teen Titans Go! segment sees the original 2003 cast return as the Doom Patrol, to the extent of having Negative Woman instead of Negative Man to fit in Tara Strong. For extra points, Greg Cipes switches back to his original Beast Boy voice.
- Comic-Book Fantasy Casting: Scott Menville sounds like he's channeling his inner Alan Rickman (especially Rickman's portrayal of Severus Snape) in voicing Steve Dayton.
- Continuity Nod: The crew in Gar's mental version of his show's ship are the holograms of deceased League and Team members, including Ted Kord/Blue Beetle II, Jason Todd/Robin II, Tula/Aquagirl, and of course, Wally West/Kid Flash I.
- A Day in the Limelight: For Beast Boy.
- Doing in the Scientist: An Invoked Trope by the monkey, who claims to be a god that chose to empower Beast Boy, about the true origins of his powers by pointing out that his abilities shouldn't function as they do. After all, Martians are overall shapeshifters, so why is it he can only become animals? Or how is it he can take forms much larger than himself if conservation of mass is in effect? It would take something more than pure science for his powers to function.
- Elephants Never Forget: During the Doom Patrol Go bit, Gar transforms into an elephant to remember why he was chasing the monkey, expressing this sentiment as to why.
- Even the Dog Is Ashamed: When M'gann and Conner botch their Are You Pondering What I'm Pondering? moment, Wolf just hangs his head in shame and walks off.
- Expy: Fittingly, Captain Tom Bender in Space Trek 3016 speaks like Captain Kirk.
- Flashback with the Other Darrin: Gar's visions show him as he appeared in seasons one and two, with Greg Cipes still providing his voice.
- He's Back!: The episode finishes with Gar deciding to return to active superheroics.
- Lampshade Hanging:
- The monkey points out some of the oddities of Beast Boy's powers, namely that he can only become animals and violates conservation of mass.
- Who could have guessed that a team called the Doom Patrol might get wiped out in battle?
- Leaning on the Fourth Wall: A meta-example, Megan from Hello, Megan! tells Garfield, "Sorry, but you weren't in this episode."
- Mood Dissonance: The Hello, Megan! sequence starts out as straight comedy, but then Gar starts seeing flashes of his mother and Queen Bee crashes the party, all while the goofy sitcom laughter and cheesy jokes are still going on.
- Mythology Gag: In the comics, Garfield got his powers after being turned into a West African green monkey by his parents to save him from a life-threatening disease.
- Nightmare Sequence: Beast Boy's VR-induced hallucination, which takes him through his various traumas.
- Punctuated! For! Emphasis!: "Don't...call me...Mento".
- Relationship Upgrade: Brion and Violet are seen kissing near the end of the episode.
- The Reveal:
- Where did Halo's power come from? A Mother Box.
- The Goode VR googles are a brainwashing device.
- Show Within a Show: This episode is notable for featuring two of these: Hello, Megan! (which Gar's mother Marie worked on in the late seventies) and Space Trek 3016 (which Gar works on in the present day).
- Spelling Song: Before Doom Patrol leaves Beast Boy, they sing how they are on their suicide mission, repeatedly spelling out die.
- Stock Scream: One of the Klamulons lets out a Wilhelm scream when punched by gorilla Beast Boy.
- Subverted Sitcom: "Nightmare Monkeys" briefly dips into this. Garfield has been hallucinating allegories for his past traumas throughout the episode, and at one point imagines himself inside his dead mother's sitcom, Hello, Megan! When he tries to talk to the characters, they unsettlingly tell him that he isn't supposed to be there, before morphing into their adult forms, shocking him.
- Take That!: The Teen Titans Go! segment feels like the production team throwing shade at Cartoon Network for screwing over the original Young Justice (as well as Beware the Batman and the entire DC Nation block in general) in favor of going all-in on the former.
- What Did You Expect When You Named It ____?: The Doom Patrol song admits they were really asking for a terrible outcome when they chose their team name.
- Wicked Stepfather: Gar remains firmly convinced that Steve don't-call-me-Mento Dayton was this for him. Reportedly a bullying Stage Mom who wanted to capitalize on Gar's acting career and a Dirty Coward who left the rest of the Doom Patrol (including Rita, his wife) to their deaths... but so far, we haven't actually seen any of this firsthand. He and Gar don't make any secret of their dislike for each other.
