"You have to let her go."
Production Code: 231
The Long family's trip to Hong Kong over the summer is derailed when the Dark Dragon, Chang, and Bananas B kidnap Lao-Shi, using him as leverage to force Jake into slipping a mind control potion to all the world's dragons so the Dark Dragon can finally have his army. With the Dark Dragon more powerful than ever before, will Jake be able to find the help of an old enemy-turned-ally... or will he have to take on the threat alone?
Tropes
- Aborted Arc: In "Dreamscape", it was revealed that Rose had a twin sister. Whatever happened to that twin is never explored.
- Arch-Enemy: Fu Dog is able to get vengeance on Bananas B by personally chasing him out of the temple when Bananas feels the fight isn't going his way.
- Big Damn Heroes: Jake's family pulls this off to save him from the Dark Dragon, with Haley shooting a fireball through the entrance and at the Dark Dragon just as he's about to kill their grandpa. Later on, Rose does the same when the Dark Dragon seems to have defeated everyone.
- Big Red Button/Self-Destruct Mechanism: Jonathan accidentally activates this when he and the others are perusing the Huntsclan layer.
- The Bus Came Back: Rose appears again for the first time since "Homecoming". Due to the show's cancellation, this doubles as a case of Back for the Finale.
- Call-Back:
- When Jake is trying to convince Rose to remember who he is so she can help him, he pleads with her to look into his eyes, referring back to "The Hunted", when before Jake reveals himself to her, Rose notes that there's something familiar in the eyes of the American Dragon.
- Spud's idea to raid one of the abandoned Huntsclan bases for anti-magic supplies calls back to when #88 and #89 did the same in "Shaggy Frog".
- Character Development: When Jonathan found out in the past that Susan came from a dragon family, he broke up with her believing she was a monster. He takes it much better now when the whole family sits down and explains everything, including that his son and father-in-law are actually magical protectors and Susan has no powers. In fact, his bigger concern is realizing that Jake is in danger and needs help.
- Chekhov's Boomerang: Rose back in the first season said her destiny was to kill a dragon, as noted by her birthmark. She ends up being the only one able to match the Dark Dragon blow-for-blow. It turns out the destiny was a little different: lock up one dragon for eternity and save the magical world.
- Chekhov's Gun:
- Jake's photo of him and Rose at the dance. He accidentally leaves it behind when Rose's parents call the cops on him. Rose sees it, regains her memories, and goes to help Jake fight the Dark Dragon.
- Transformation Tea, which is served to Johnathan at the magical restaurant he obliviously goes to with his family. Near the end of the episode, Jake swaps the mind control potion for the tea, allowing him to trick the Dark Dragon into thinking he went along with his demands.
- Credits Montage: The Stinger is a series of humorous clips and one-liners from throughout the season.
- Dutch Angle: Most shots of the Dark Dragon are from a slanted angle to emphasize his size.
- Earn Your Happy Ending: After an entire series of being star-crossed lovers, Jake and Rose can finally be boyfriend and girlfriend in peace. He also is thrilled that his dad knows the truth and is happy with him being the American Dragon.
- Evil Laugh: The Dark Dragon has one when he shows up in the Hong Kong convention center. Spud finds it cliche and/or stereotypical.
- Fainting: Similar to in "Hero of the Hourglass," Jonathan returns to his old habit of passing out upon learning of the existence of magic (namely that his daughter is a dragon and Fu can talk).
- Final Battle: The Dark Dragon has returned, and Jake must defeat him for good. However, he’s only imprisoned with the temple, and won’t be return for another 1,000 years.
- Foreshadowing: When Jake is told about the Council's Thousand Year Gathering that takes place during an eclipse, the visual representation of the temple the Gathering is to take place in vanishes off the map when Fu Dog mentions that the eclipse only lasts a couple hours, hinting at how the overpowered Dark Dragon is defeated in the final showdown.
- Grand Finale: Rose gets her memories back, she and Jake rekindle their relationship, the Dark Dragon is sealed away for a thousand years, Chang and Bananas B are either arrested or scared away for the near-future, and Jonathan is aware and fully supportive of his magical family.
- He's a Friend: When Rose arrives at the temple, to the shock of everyone.Andam: Look! It's a slayer!
Kulde: But how? Who is she?
Jake: Let's just say she's an old friend. - Karma Houdini: A heroic example. Jake pretty much gets away with escaping from the authorities seconds after they throw him in the truck. Sure he resisted arrest, but since Rose recovered her memories, she doesn't have any hard feelings for what happened.
- Lampshade Hanging: Spud makes sure to point out what a Mind Screw the aftermath of Jake wishing that Rose was never kidnapped by the Huntsclan is.Spud: This photo of you guys shouldn't even exist. It's only because you had it with you when you created the parallel... reality of, uh... oh, my head hurts just thinking about it.
- Let's Get Dangerous!: When Jonathan learns his son is fighting an evil foe that nearly killed his father-in-law, he weaponizes his flash photography to give him a fighting chance. Jake is very impressed.
- Magic Pants: One of Jonathan's questions regarding dragons is what happens to their clothes when they transform.
- Meaningful Echo: When Rose is trapped under some debris of the already crumbling temple that’s being sucked into a vortex, and with the Dark Dragon advancing on them, she tells Jake, "Let me go", just like she did in "Homecoming". Jake doesn't listen this time.
- Milholland Relationship Moment: Similar to Trixie and Spud, Jonathan takes learning of his family's magical secret extremely well (though he has to recover from a quick fainting spell).
- Mistaken for Insane: Jake attempts to remind Rose about her life as Huntsgirl so she'll help him. Of course, she believes he has "powerful delusions" and calls her parents to have the cops arrest Jake.
- My God, What Have I Done?: When Jake is arrested and dragged out of Rose's family's apartment by police, pleading for Rose to believe him the whole way, the look on Rose's face makes it abundantly clear that she's having second thoughts about having called her parents and tricking Jake, so he could get "proper psychological help" in jail.
- Next Tier Power-Up: Having already been a massive force to reckon with before his resurrection, upon his revival the Dark Dragon was given so many superpowered enhancements by Chang that he became strong enough to defeat all the world's dragons working together at once. Had he not gotten trapped in the temple, he likely would have gone on to conquer the entire planet with ease.
- Not So Above It All: Jonathan may be a grown man, but once he learns about the existence of the magical world, he asks Fu Dog (with genuine wonderment, mind you) if the Easter Bunny and Santa Claus are real (they are, by the way).
- One-Man Army: Even with Chang and Bananas defeated and his Shade Demons dispelled, the Dark Dragon still has more than enough power to take on all his opponents singlehandedly.
- Reunion Kiss: After Rose regains her memories and the Dark Dragon is defeated, she and Jake share a kiss as not only to celebrate their victory, but to make up for the lost time between them after the events of “Homecoming”.
- Rewrite: This episode gives us a different explanation for how Jake's wish with the Aztec Skulls affected Rose. "Homecoming" leads us to believe that the skulls completely altered Rose's life and deleted all of Jake and Rose's history, while this episode suggests that it's more like Rose's Huntsgirl days are a past life that she can't remember and her new life is one she's essentially been reincarnated into. When Jake confronts Rose as she leaves her new school, his rambling explanation to her even suggests that her Huntsclan life is her true life while her normal life is an artificial creation of Jake's.Jake: The happy life that you're living now is an alternate reality that I wished for you. You're actually a mythical dragon slayer who was kidnapped by the Huntsclan and trained since birth to fight and slay dragons.
- Sealed Evil in a Can: The final fate of the Dark Dragon is being sucked into a portal that leaves him trapped for 1,000 years in a temple in another dimension.
- Shout-Out:
- Since there are too many humans for him to Dragon Up around, Jake opts to instead turn the plank underside of a wooden crate into skateboards in reference to Back to the Future.
- One of the dragons in the background during the fight against the Dark Dragon is a clear expy of Freakazoid!.
- Shut Up, Hannibal!: Spud isn't having any of the Dark Dragon's speech before the final battle, and interrupts it to say he wants to skip ahead to the kung-fu fighting. Councilor Andam seconds the motion.
- Shut Up, Kirk!: Jake pulls one on Lao-Shi when he attempts to stop him from going back into the temple to save Rose.Jake: I'm not losing her again!
- The Stinger: A Clip Show of random moments of Season 2 episodes.
- Taking It Well: Zigzagged. Jonathan does faint when he finds out his daughter can change into a dragon and the family dog starts talking. When his family finally sits him down and explains everything, he's much calmer and more accepting.
- Taking You with Me: The Dark Dragon attempts to drag Jake and Rose into the portal with him, but Rose succeeds in using her spear to cut the end of his tail off.
- This Explains So Much: After he gets over the initial shock, Jonathan starts reasoning how Jake and Haley's sudden disappearances and hiding secrets make sense. Then he realizes that Jake is in trouble and tells the family they need to rescue him.
- Total Eclipse of the Plot: Of the less common lunar variety, the once-every-thousand-years eclipse causes the First Dragon Temple to appear on Victoria Peak for a few brief hours, during which time all the world's dragons convene for a summit. Once the eclipse ends, the temple and anyone left inside are pulled into another dimension until the next eclipse.
- Trigger Phrase: The photo of Jake and herself at the school dance acts like this for Rose. As it shouldn't exist in Jake's post-wish reality (only doing so because it was on his person when he made the wish), seeing it unlocks her memories of her former life.
- Wham Episode: Johnathan knows his father-in-law and children are dragons, the Dark Dragon has been defeated, and Jake is reunited with Rose. All understandable, seeing as it's the show's final episode.
- Wham Line: In-universe when Haley, Trixie, Spud, Fu Dog, and Jake's parents pull a Big Damn Heroes.Haley: Sorry, Tall, Dark and Ugly!
Trixie: But if you want them…
Susan: You’re gonna have to go through us, too!
Jonathan: All of us!
Jake: Dad? - What the Hell, Hero?: Jake's friends are rather quick to call him out on how creepy it is that he looked up Rose's new school.
- You Have to Believe Me!: Jake says this to Rose verbatim when she doesn't buy his story of her former life as a dragon-slayer.
