Nightmare Fuel / Inside Job (2021)

Inside Job (2021)

• In general, the thought that the world is secretly controlled by a shadowy conspiracy... that is being run by these nutjobs.
• Many real-life figures have an active role in the secret societies making Earth a Crapsack World. No matter how many humanitarian acts they do, it's all a front masking callous evil. For example, Elizabeth II and Al Gore, both noted environmentalists, are in fact Reptoids, who are encouraging climate change so their race can control the world. Keanu Reeves, a noted Nice Guy in real life, is a predatory vampire, though he turns out to be the least evil of his peers.

Season 1

Unpresidented

• Reagan creates a robot AI of the President, who after Rand plays with his code to go rogue if Reagan was taken off Cognito's payroll and exposed to flashing lights, becomes self-aware and instigates a plan to make an "Ameri-Cube", to make America withdraw from the world. Think "Trump's Wall" on an even bigger scale.
  • Even worse, after Reagan tries to fix the problem by proving America isn't perfect via 5 minutes on Facebook, ROBOTUS decides to end mankind and activate all the nukes. Reagan then laments how she caused The Singularity.
• When Rand hears about Brett, despite not knowing anything about him or the situation other than that he's the new co-leader, the very first thing he does is tamper with ROBOTUS so that he'll go rogue if Reagan is fired. He does this even after Reagan tells him not to help her, and he doesn't tell her what he's done until it happens. He reacts like she should be calling him a genius for sabotaging an operation with the potential to impact the entire world out of paranoia. If that isn't a hint at his true character...

Clone Gunman

• While Reagan has him safely contained and in pieces, ROBOTUS is still active and still very genocidal.
• After Brett burns the JFK clones, exposing them to heat, they morph into a hideous monster that's part Tetsuo at the end of AKIRA^note which Brett and Reagan even lampshade, part The Thing and part, well... JFK.
  JFK Blob Head: (Looking up a woman's skirt) I do declare...
• The fact that the real JFK really was assassinated, not by rival politicians, or business interests, or even the mob, it was because he had sex with the alien that crashed at Roswell, and was going to give birth to it's offspring, endangering the entire planet!

Blue Bloods

• Reptoids exist and live among us. Also, they're paying Cognito Inc. to do nothing about Global Warming so the world will stay at their preferred temperature. Also, they are plotting to overthrow humanity and become the true rulers of the world.
  J.R.: They say that every year, but they're never gonna do it.

Sex Machina

• The episode starts with Cognito Inc. acquiring data from a dating website (An Expy of Tinder), which they plan to use to blackmail people who aren't already under their control. Talk about Paranoia Fuel for anyone scared about what companies could do with their social media data...
• Reagan can call an extraction team to deal with loose ends and black-bag anyone at a moments notice. Which is useful if she accidentally let's slip that the Shadow Government is real.
• The results of Glenn and Brett's Face/Off Surgery
• While Bryan-Bot is nowhere near as dangerous or ambitious as ROBOTUS Alpha-Beta, he still proves to be a threat, creating Reagan-Bot when he learns that Real Reagan is leaving him for Real Bryan. Reagan-Bot, upon activating, proceeds to overpower Real Reagan and strongly implies she will marry (or kill) the real Bryan, depending on how the date goes.
  • It might not just be the Cloning Department who could replace Reagan without anyone noticing...
• Reagan casually mentions that the extraction team couldn't find the remains of Robo-Reagan. Meaning there could be a robot version of a super-smart inventive woman with a desire to take over the world and with zero self-doubts still out there...
  • Worse is that we don't know whether Robo-Reagan left the scene by herself, or if someone took her from the scene. While Reagan showed off Bryan-Bot to the rest of Cognito, no one knew he had made Robo-Reagan until she told them so they could extract her, leaving no clue as to who might've taken her. What's worse: an advanced robot able to repair itself and is out there plotting who-knows-what, or an unknown force acquiring an advanced robot to either repair her or salvage her technology for unpredictable purposes?

The Brettfast Club

• The Town of Still Valley was targeted by Cognito Inc as the testing grounds of a mind erasing Chem Trail, leaving the whole town's citizens mentally stuck in 1984. And Cognito re-sprays them every few years so they can sell outdated and dangerous products to them for profit. As a result, the people of Still Valley are effectively caught in Purgatory, even if they don't know it. They'll grow up, go to school, get jobs, get married, have children and families, but those children are simply born to relive the lives of their parents. The same movies, same tv-shows, same books, same toys, same cars, same everything. Society will never change or progress, news from the outside world will always be the same, the Cold War will never end, and Ronald Reagan will always be President! And this is the best case scenario, because at least here they still have a stable, if stagnant and meaningless society. There's two other options;
  • One, that Cognito will decide to terminate the project, which considering the impracticality of reintergrating an entire town, will almost certainly mean that the citizens are simply wiped out.
  • Two, that the masquerade is somehow broken without Cognito to cover it up, or that Cognito itself falls, in which case Still Valley will find itself thrust into the 2020's, find out that everything they knew about the world and themselves has been a lie for 40 years, and that most of them have effectively wasted their lives reliving the same year.
  • Still Valley, even if you're a fan of the 80s decore, fashion and dangerous toys, isn't a nice place to live by modern standards, seeing as Andre is bombarded with racist comments and the school has no problem 'correcting' students with corporal punishment.
• After being exposed to the Nostalgia Max Formula, mixed with the dangerous chemicals in recalled 80s toys, Brett turns into a Nostalgia Monster, who can inflict Nostalgia upon anyone (Which is Worse Than It Sounds) and control all eighties' products.
  • Seeing Brett become a nostalgia-mad Person of Mass Destruction is pretty unsettling in general. It plays out like an eighties horror film at first, with Brett first hunching over in pain when he gets exposed to the chemicals, only to quickly succumb to its influence. Its especially jarring considering that the otherwise placid and kind Brett suddenly starts laughing evilly and speaking with a Voice of the Legion, complimented with him floating and sporting glowing green eyes.
    • Even worse, Nostalgia Monster-Brett's plan is to essentially overload all of his coworkers with nostalgia (which J.R. outright calls a form of brain damage) and prevent them from ever leaving Still Valley, presumably so they can continue to act out his fantasy of a healthy sitcom-esque family.
  • Also, not only can Brett infuse others with nostalgia overload, but he can also sic eighties' paraphernelia on them, as Glenn, Andre and Myc learn the hard way. They're ambushed by Cabbage Patch Kids and board darts that are thrown hard enough to pierce car windows.

My Big Flat Earth Wedding

• The Earth isn't flat. It is, however, hollow and filled with mole-people, all the ancient sea creatures that used to be on old maps and the family from Land of the Lost (1991).
• The D.C. Flat Earth Society Chapter are able to take over a Mega-Yacht filled with people, including members of the Shadow Government, just by having guns.
  Reagan.: They're adult men who still use chat rooms. Of course they have guns!.

Ghost Protocol

• Where do you start with Masters, Rafe Masters? He's an Entitled Bastard who strongly believes he is God's gift to women who acts up and causes a scene when Reagan tries to break up with him in public, and even after Reagan fakes her death just to get away from the guy, he hunts down the rest of the gang because he believes one of them was responsible for her death. And even when you ignore all of his Stalker with a Crush tendencies, he is still a secret agent who can kill a room full of henchmen within minutes. Seconds if armed with Reagan's gadgets. And because he is so universally renowned, they are honoured to be taken down by him.
  • Even Dr. Skullfinger, the supervillain who made a mind-wiping superweapon and tried to steal The Nile with a laser could see that what he and Masters had was 'Super Toxic'.
  • What many see as the biggest red flag in a sea of red flags is that Rafe put a tracker on Reagan's phone. What's worse, he claims that he does this in every relationship. Everyone at Cognito Inc is disgusted by this. Even Brett, who was practically worshipping the man.
• While Dr. Skullfinger is Affably Evil at best, even though he's wanted in 21 countries, he has made a Mind Erasing weapon that can wipe a person's mind completely clean. So it's far more dangerous than the mind erasers Cognito Inc. use.

Buzzkill

• Buzz Aldren tricks Reagan into upgrading The Moon's energy cells so he can take the moon out of The Earth's orbit, causing global flooding just so the Moon can be the superior society. Also, since his Co-Colonizer Neil Armstrong was against this plan, Buzz killed him. Furthermore, Reagan describes him as "Villianously horny".
  • The fact that Buzz escapes, with plans to conquer other moons.
• Rand finds Buzz's device that can control The Moon, and takes it so "It doesn't fall into the wrong hands". Considering the events of 'Inside Reagan', you can easily say it already has...
• The real fate of Neal Armstrong, who supposedly died some time earlier during a Moonworm attack. Then, Reagan finds out about Buzz's real plans.
  Reagan: You're Insane!!
  Buzz: That's what Neal said too...
  • While searching for Rand's missing sunglasses (which he had misplaced when he and his then-wife visited the moon colony decades before), he and Brett find them over by the original moon landing site... on the corpse of Neal Armstrong, who's skull has a bullet in it's head.

Mole Hunt

• In the shot of the planets aligning, the moon is clearly being moved by the rocket engines Buzz installed. The engines with the remote controller that Rand claimed in the previous episode. Add in the Robes' lines about the event happening 'early' and it becomes clear that Rand made this Robe-choosing ceremony happen. Gives a lot of credit to the theory that he ordered Bear-o to steal the file in a plot to take control of Cognito.
• The very concept of Shadow Prison X. Nobody knows where it is, or what actually happens to you when you get there, but it can't be good. Even worse, J.R. isn't against sending people there "for funsies". He even says when you go to Shadow Prison, you get erased from history.
• J.R.'s final act as the head of Cognito Inc: flooding the building with Krav Maga Trained Shark-infested water to prevent a mole (And every innocent member of staff) from escaping.

Inside Reagan

• Rand's memory manipulation tech is pretty creepy due to the lack of Ripple-Effect-Proof Memory, if you alter your memory in any way then as far as you are concerned, occasional A Glitch in the Matrix aside, it was always that way, which can lead to messing up your own memory entirely by accident.
• The entire reveal that Rand erased the memories of Reagan's Only Friend, Orrin, and quite possibly many more memories of hers, has horrifying implications and puts all of his other actions into context. And, when Reagan confronts him, he never shows an ounce of regret and clarifies that he really did do it to achieve his own entirely selfish goals. Up to this point, the audience has been mostly led to believe that Rand, while severely negligent, did really care for Reagan deep down, but the reveal basically torpedoes any chance of him being more than a narcisstisic Abusive Parent. He's been like this the whole time, and the audience didn't realize how serious it was until it was too late.
  • Even without the mind manipulation, Rand's excuses and altering of Reagan's psychology can feel disturbingly similar to real life abuse victims. His deflecting, belittling of her feelings, his insistence that he caused her harm for both of their benefit, and his literal rewriting of history to suit his goals could hit some a bit close to home.
• Looking at the photos in the repressed memory section, they're mostly random images of Reagan doing random stuff. But looking closer, there are pictures of her in the dress she wore for the Reptoid gala (and with the joke that she always wore the same dress previously, we know this was actually from that gala and not sometime else), and one of when she was investigating Brett in episode 1. Neither of these moments were so bad that she would repress them (she openly talks about investigating Brett in episode 9 with no fear or trauma), but they also had nothing that Rand would want to erase, so what's going on? Whatever the answer, no doubt it's nothing good.
• When Brett interacts with Reagan's memories, there's a moment where the memory version of her tells her parents that she's going to prom with a random 30-year-old she found in the bushes. Her parents' response? An acknowledgment and nothing else. Her mom even asks her to bring home a college boy for her if she finds one. This memory of Reagan's would have been 10-11 years old at the time.
• Rand succeeds in his goal to become CEO of Cognito Inc. again, mostly as a way to get back at Reagan for cutting ties with him and kicking him out of the house. So, now, for the time being, Reagan is stuck with her abusive father as her boss.
  • There's a theory that Rand set up the entire mole incident to take over the company. Think back to how he had the controller for the engines that were clearly pushing the moon into position to start the Robe-choosing. How he never answered the question of what he was doing at Cognito on the day of the breach. How he took the boxes containing Bearo's parts from Tamiko's house and immediately put him together despite having no reason to do so. How he blackmailed JR into giving him more shares of the company, a factor that contributed to the Shadow Board choosing him for CEO. The only question is how much of the finale events, like Reagan finding out about the mind-wiping and cutting ties with him, were unexpected factors that he worked around, or were all somehow part of his plan. When JR said he was a master manipulator, he was not exagerating.

Season 2

How Reagan Got Her Groove Back

• As demonstrated by the sneak peak, Rand has wasted no time in turning Cognito into his own totalitarian state, complete with propaganda, disappearing anyone who bad-mouths him… and putting cameras in the women’s restroom.

Whoas-Feratu

• Keanu Reeves is initially as friendly and wholesome as his real-life counterpart and Reagan is delighted to have him replace Rand as her dad. Then she catches him drinking blood through a coffin…
• It’s revealed Keanu and various other young Hollywood stars are actually Serial Killer vampires who woo young women, drain their blood and kill them.
• While Keanu turns out to have truly fallen in love with Tamiko to the point of being willing to give up his immortality for her, his fellow celebrity vampires are not so romantic. Rebuking him for growing soft, they prepare to drain Tamiko’s blood in front of him before killing him.

Reagan and Mychelle's Hive School Reunion

• While Reagan is watching Sex and the City, Carrie suddenly says that it's a hallucination, breaks the fourth wall and tells Reagan to wake up in a distorted voice.
• Myc’s hive reunion is seemingly a particularly obnoxious assignment where Reagan and the team have to fake being his cluster. However, the colony are secretly planning vengeance on humanity and after assimilating Myc, trap the team so they could mimic them and launch an invasion in humans.
• Myc’s monotone voice after he assimilates into the hive.

We Found Love in a Popeless Place

• The mission’s premise: in order to secure a contract for a simulated Hell, Rand sends Reagan to brainwash the progressive-leaning Pope into becoming a religious fanatic. The rest of the clergy cooperates with him.
• When Reagan tinkers with Staedtler’s device to speed up their date, the Pope goes mad and decides to bring actual hell on the Vatican.
• Reagan’s reactions to innocent civilians getting murdered is just to snark about the situation, showing little remorse for getting people killed through her impulsiveness.

Rontagion

• Brett has Andre create a friendship virus so he would like Staedtler. When it fails, Reagan forces him to drink beer to get him drunk enough to like Staedtler. The virus spreads as others drink from the same beer as him. They soon become obsessed with Staedtler and chase him and Reagan down.

Project Reboot

• Rand, in his desperate last-ditch effort to get his wife and daughter back, comes within a button press of destroying reality itself.

---