As a Moments subpage, all spoilers are unmarked as per policy. You Have Been Warned.
"Welcome to Monsters, Incorporated"
- The episode opens up with Tylor passing his scare exam with flying colors, to the delight of Professor Knight. He then happily delivers an acceptance letter from Monsters, Inc. informing Tylor that he's going to be a scarer. Tylor is overjoyed at this, knowing his life-long dream has come true.
- It's also nice to see Professor Knight still at his profession, even ten years after Monsters University. The fact he still has great respect for Sulley, in spite of him being expelled and kicked out his program, is evident by how eager he is to give Tylor his acceptance letter—a letter of which was made possible by Sulley's own recommendation. It's nice to see that in contrast to "One horrifying face does not a scarer make."
- A deleted scene right after shows Tylor at his graduation. He speaks proudly to his fellow graduates, while his parents gush on at his accomplishments of a 4.4 GPA and being made "Scarer Cume Laude". They're just so proud of him, as any parents would be.
- In the midst of all the chaos from Monsters, Inc.'s transition from scream to laugh power, everyone is a bit of a panic. Celia is trying to help figure out what's going on, when Mike and Sulley enter the room to her delight. He happily greats her with a Schmopsie-Poo, and she in turn responds with a hearty Googly Bear. The two have since fully made up after their little kerfuffle in the film, and it couldn't be cuter.
- Best yet, despite Mike mostly happy that he's getting a chance to show off his comedic chops, he's grateful that the plant is still open and that everyone gets to keep their jobs. Well, mostly no angry mob going after him and Sulley, but still.
- Upon being promoted to the owners of Monsters, Inc., the first thing Mike does is call Celia and give her a long overdue promotion to Floor Supervisor. And as this episode and those that follow show, he wasn't just promoting her because she's his girlfriend; she's kick-ass at her job and Mike knows it. She earned that promotion mostly by skill. Plus, Mike knows a thing or two about wanting to move up in the ranks, and gave Celia that chance the first opportunity he got. That's true love.
- Even though Tylor is very uncomfortable with how crazy his coworkers are, it's sweet to see Val and Fritz roll out the red carpet for him, determined to make him feel right at home.
- It's small, but Cutter still diligently remembers all the MIFTers who died in the line of duty, even if it's done in a very humorous way.
- Fungus is seen getting Mike's door station ready, and goes to thank Mike for letting him keep his job. Mike thinks nothing of it, as the poor guy was clearly not willing to work along with Waternoose and Randall's plot.
- After Tylor's klutziness takes the Laugh Floor offline and makes a huge mess, he walks away somberly, apologizing profusely for his mistake and thinking he's going to get fired. Instead, Sulley is able to recognize him from his own personal recommendation for the scarer position, and both he and Mike cut him a break given how chaotic things have been around the factory. In fact, they not only encourage him to take up comedy classes Mike decides to start teaching, but speak from experience about wanting to cross the safety line, having worked up from the mailroom themselves to get where they are. And when Tylor gets his hat and ID from Roze? The two of them encourage him to call them Sulley and Mike instead of Mr. Sullivan and Mr. Wazowski.
"Meet MIFT"
- Tylor's mom takes him to work so he doesn't have a bad second day like his first day was. A little embarrassing, but sweet nonetheless.
- Tylor's initiation ceremony. It's hilarious to see how uncomfortable he is, and they're clearly not getting he's not planning on staying there forever. Yet it's also touching how much fun everyone besides him is having (even Duncan to an extent), and how quick they are to welcome him into their ranks.
- Mike's pushing himself very hard out there on the Laugh Floor to help keep the lights on, in spite of how much of a toll it's taking on him. He still doesn't want to stop, so Sulley helps give him a minute to get some coffee in his system, while Needleman and Smitty volunteer to share their 36 and a half hour energy drink to keep him going.
- Also, Fungus seems to really mesh well with Mike and it appears that everyone is treating him as an equal too. A far cry from his time with Randall, it seems like Fungus really is content right now.
- Duncan, in spite of being the Token Evil Teammate, still fondly cuddles his emotional support pet, and gets defensive when Tylor questions if pets are allowed at work. He may have a lot of Randall's nastier traits, but he still has somewhat of a heart.
- A serious situation occurs on the Laugh Floor when a power outage traps Mike in a door. MIFT comes to the rescue to get him out, but a misstep from Mike causes his door to fly off towards the door vault. Duncan needs to reverse the track, but the nut is rusted shut. Tylor, in spite of having messed up wrenching the initiation nut earlier, is encouraged to do it, and yanks it open to where they can get the door back and get Mike out for good.
- And right after? He falls asleep, having burned out the entire energy drink in two hours. Sulley and Celia get him a blanket so he can take a well-earned rest.
- Poor Fritz is crushed when he learns that Mr. Banana Bread, or rather Winchester, is leaving MIFT to become a Jokester. The poor guy feels disappointed that Winchester didn't find the group special enough to stay, so Tylor happily gifts him the very same can of Drooler Cooler that Fritz gave him as a welcome present to cheer him up. Fritz is touched, and gives Tylor the old desk Winchester sat at in return.
"The Damaged Room"
- Despite all the painful Slapstick Phlegm puts himself through we see in the prologue that he genuinely enjoys making kids laugh. When he goes into Snore's room he eagerly greets the infant, calling her his favorite girl before doing his usual routine.
- Mike spends the entire episode watching over a human kid—a kid he names Snore—pretending he won't get attached to it like Sulley did with Boo. Yet he spends the entire time acting like a dotting parent, trying his best to keep her calm and happy, even though he's trying to enjoy a baseball game, has to deal with both a rowdy fan and Sulley poking fun at him, and managing to do just that. He really is that good with kids.
- What's best is that when said rowdy fan insults Snore, Mike is quick to rush to her defense and be willing to fight a guy ten times his size in retaliation. He was way out of his league, but it's still cute that he'd go to any lengths to help her—a far cry from how he was so quick to try and rid himself of Boo early on in the movie.
- Sulley is clearly having fun making Mike squirm over how he's doing the exact same things with Snore that he was angry at Sulley about for doing with Boo, but it's more touching how he knows that Mike really is a good guy deep down. The smile on his face when he sees Mike singing to Snore sells it.
- After a long day, Mike is finally able to get Snore back home, and puts her to sleep with a lullaby claiming he really doesn't care about her, when it's clear he really does, sweetly bidding her farewell and leaving her with the record-breaking baseball he got at the game.
- Throughout the whole episode, Val has been reminiscing about her time with Tylor at college—times of which he can't remember and is getting annoyed about being mentioned. He then finally learns why it's so important; Val remembers how Tylor was the only student at MU who noticed her with a simple question about if the desk she was sitting in for their History of Fear Class was taken. He then remembers right afterward that she responded with saying the desk was the best seat in the house, and she shared some of his favorite candy with him. She's so thrilled that he finally remembered that moment, allowing the two to grow closer as members of MIFT.
"The Big Wazowskis"
- MIFT happily forgiving Tylor for his actions towards them and staying by his side.
"The Cover Up"
- Tylor stepping up to take most of the blame of the power outage for Duncan. This is followed by Duncan interrupting him to take the blame, the first truly selfless action he has done for Tylor.
- After this, a very proud Fritz interjects and asks Sulley and Mike to forgive the two workers. Which Sulley and Mike do.
"The Vending Machine"
- A minor one, but when Fritz says he will retiring to keep one of his friends from being fired, Tylor says he should be the one to be let go. Duncan quickly says not to sell himself short and will go easy on him as the new supervisor, in his own gruff and proud way Duncan basically told Tylor You Are Better Than You Think You Are.
- Fritz is depressed when Vendy, the vending machine belonging to MIFT, is broken by Tylor. At the end of the episode, Tylor manages to fix Vendy and presents "her" to everyone else, much to Fritz's delight.
"Adorable Returns"
- When Tylor is finally given the chance to become a Jokester, he ends up giving it up so he can help get Abominable (Adorable) Snowman un-banished, especially after learning he was unjustly banished by Waternoose in the first place.
- Mike and Sulley are actually happy to see Adorable again, and Sulley immediately un-banishes him after learning about what Waternoose did to him. Mike even gives Adorable a promotion, making him the snow cone seller at Monsters Inc, helping him gain friends like he always wanted.
- Adorable learning from Tylor that Sulley and Mike, two monsters he recognize from the mailroom days, are now running the company, he couldn't be more happy for them.
"Little Monsters"
- In a blink-and-you'll-miss-it moment, Miss Flint smiles when Thalia asks Otis how his Mom is doing. She wasn't prompted to do this at all, and her mom clearly thought it was sweet of her.
- All the members of MIFT bonding with their respective Little Monsters; Val having fun with a kid who has as much energy as her, Cutter showing her kid the remains of previous MIFTers, Fritz gently helping a quiet girl open up, and even Duncan develops a bizarre bond with his kid. Finally, Tylor and Thalia have by far the rockiest time with each other, but end up with the closest bond.
- Seeing how far Tylor's come as a MIFTer. He might not be as skilled a mechanic as the others, but he's grown to respect the work they do and take it seriously.
- While Thalia isn't impressed by Tylor's attempts at humor, she actually considers him a good MIFTer.
"It's Laughter They're After"
- Ms. Flint seeing her sourpuss daughter smile for the first time in what appears to be so long.
- After all Tylor went through during the season, he finally becomes a Jokester, with Val as his assistant.
- Even though Tylor initially attempts to stay with MIFT, his fellow MIFT-ers convince him to stick with being a jokester.
- When Mr. Crummyham calls the MIFTers "A bunch of weirdos", Tylor defends them, saying that "they grow on you eventually".
- Crossed with Tearjerker, but Sulley has a heart-to-heart with Tylor when the latter expresses nervousness about officially becoming a jokester, wishing that they were still doing Scream power because he knows he's good at that, and he's scared that his attempt at actually being a Jokester in the field won't work out because he's never prepared for it quite like he had for being a Scarer throughout college. Though he doesn't deny that it'd be easier if they were using Screams again, and that it's more secure than the experimental steps the company is taking with Laugh power, Sulley mournfully recounts to Tylor the time he accidentally scared Boo, noting that what hurt him most was what he saw of himself in her eyes when she was scared of him, realizing what he'd been doing to so many children. The point is made clear—even if the whole world went back to Scream Power, Sulley wouldn't go back to being a Scarer. His focus on spreading Laugh Power as a new energy source is not only his way to keep his friends and colleagues in a job, but to make sure that no more kids get emotionally hurt by the monsters who're simply doing their jobs. The moment is capped off by a brief rendition of Boo's Leitmotif as Sulley remembers what he did, and underlines his declaration that Laugh Power is not only better than Scream Power, but that it's the right thing to do, no matter how difficult the job gets.
- The final shot of the season, with Tylor going through a door and making a kid laugh so much that he fills up the whole larger canister in seconds.
"A Monsterous Homecoming"
- The kid that Tylor visits, Ben, has apparently been visited by Tylor often enough that he calls him by his name.
- When Tylor unintentionally scares the girl at the end, he is quick to apologize and offer a donut as an apology.
Opening Doors
- As Val fills in for Tylor, she goes into a girl's door and, rather than just try to tell jokes or do slapstick, she sits down and talks to her first, getting to know her before playacting with her toys. Val's approach gets more laughs because she connects with the kids on a personal level, rather than just get shallow laughs.
"Powerless"
- Ben forgiving Tylor for scaring him.
- Tylor and Val playing with Ben is broadcast all over Monstropolis, and monsters stop to watch the sweet display, bonding together over it. It goes a long way in getting them to come around over laugh energy, even Alistair Clawbottom, the old monster railing against it in "The C.R.E.E.P. Show".
- Of note is when Val tells Bernard's "fish and ships" joke and it finally gets a laugh.
- Stubby Lizzardo, the coach in "Field of Screams" sheds one Single Tear and says, "Home run, kid. Home run."
- A small one, but when Mike and Sulley come in and presents everyone with brand new Jokester cards, officially legitimizing their professions, Phlegm receives a copy of his very own card. From a struggling recruit scarer to a top class Jokester, Phlegm really came around.
