Can "Whole Plot Reference" be just for one episode?

Does Whole-Plot Reference have to be for an entire work that's a re-creation of something else, or can it just be for individual episodes of a work? Because examples of the latter are very commonly listed under this trope. We already have Homage for this.

I don't see why not. I know a lot of shows with episodes that reference specific stories, even if the whole work doesn't.

An episode is a "whole work", just part of a larger work. The story of The Odyssey is only one part of the entire Homeric epic, yet is "whole" on its own.

And a lot of series usually have self-contained episodes/chapters anyway.

The trope is almost exclusively about episodes of a serialized work. If a standalone work does it there will be claims of plagiarism.

Well, no. There are plenty of retellings of public domain works that aren’t straight adaptions but are clearly references.

Yeah, a homage isn't at all plagiarism. It's only plagiarism if you pass it off as your own work. Most of these stories are self-referential or at least self-aware about the tropes they're using and the works they're mimicking, and they don't pretend to be anything other than shout-outs.

I mean, look at Cinderella Plot and how many standalone works there are on there. That's just one subtrope.

The trope is much bigger than an homage, otherwise it is just a Shout-Out. The trope is in general about being more creative with how they reference the material, like Shakespeare plays being constantly reimagined in different cultures and time periods. But if it isn't creative about it there will be talk of it being a knock-off, even if plagiarism isn't a legal avenue for anyone to explore.

The popularity of the trope though is highly based in an existing cast taking on the roles of another work for an episode, which ranges from a step by step parody to more a long sequence of in-jokes.

A knock-off / bootleg / Shoddy Knockoff Product work is way different, though. I don't think anyone would say that a movie made in 2022 would be a "knock-off" of Hamlet, no matter how similar, because there's nothing to gain from ripping off the story. There's no monetary value or trickery to do because nobody would confuse a random movie with the actual Hamlet, and Shakespeare is so famous that you can't plagiarize his work (and, to be technical, he plagiarized all his works anyway, so you'd just be ripping off the rip off). When works are "knock offs" it usually means it's someone trying to cash in on the more popular thing and trick people, where a Whole-Plot Reference is a reference by nature and is simply adapting the plot into a new format and setting.

Right, but as part of the thread question the trope is flexible enough to apply to both standalone works and as an episode of a serial work. If it was more restrictive where you couldn't adapt cast members of a show to fill those roles for an episode, the distinction between this trope and stock plot or follow the leader would be negligible. The name itself implies it is a one episode thing.

The subplot of South Park S 14 E 3 Medicinal Fried Chicken is a reference to Scarface, but it's merely listed as a Shout-Out.

Don't forget about some segments of Treehouse of Horror that are whole plot references.

Edited by Nen_desharu on Feb 23rd 2022 at 9:17:23 AM