There's a reason why it's good manners to shut the door behind you.
Production Code: 210
While exploring Rotwood's subconscious for answers to a secret test that is Jake's last chance to not be held back a grade in school with their dream charms, Jake and Rose both accidentally unleash a Chimera into everyone else's dreams. Now, the two of them, teaming up with Trixie and Spud, must hunt through the entire dream world to recapture it.
This episode provides examples of:
- Alan Smithee: In-universe, the Dream Door next to Spud's bears this name.
- *Bleep*-dammit!: Due to the Chimera disrupting their sleep, Jake's parents are so grouchy that they get into an argument in the morning. They resort to turning on the mixer whenever they curse each other out, which is constantly.Jake: Okay. I'm just going to get a bite at school where everybody's a little less hostile.
- Catchphrase: In his dream world where he's a superhero, Spud uses "Tally-ho!" as his. Jake tries giving it a shot after they catch the Chimera, but ultimately decides that It Will Never Catch On.
- Catchphrase Interruptus: Rotwood stops Jake in the middle of one of his "Aw, man!" exclamations, claiming he does it too much.
- Classical Chimera: The Chimera appears as the central antagonist of the episode.
- Covert Group with Mundane Front: It appears that the Huntsclan has a mole stationed in most hospitals to alert them whenever a baby is born with a dragon-slaying birthmark.
- Dark and Troubled Past: Rose learns that on the day she was born, the Huntsclan stole her away from her family, meaning her parents are still alive.
- Dream Land: The Dream Realm, where everybody's dreams are connected via doors in a hallway and where anyone's dreams can be entered by anyone who can get in through the dreamer's door.
- Heroic BSoD: Rose gets a somewhat downplayed example of this trope once she learns that the Huntsclan kidnapped her. Her first response is to collapse against the wall, but the Chimera forces her back into action. After the Chimera is captured, Rose starts to zone back out as the Huntsman's words haunt her, but Jake questioning her forces her to act like everything's fine.
- Hidden Depths: Trixie shows signs that she might have a future as a doctor in this episode. At the end of the episode, Trixie even remarks that she likes the sound of "Dr. Trixie Carter".
- Interrupted Declaration of Love: Implied when Jake and Rose are on a dream date at the beginning of the episode. Rose starts to tell Jake that there's something she'd "never have the courage to tell [him]" in the real world and starts to say what it is, only for Jake to be woken up in his bed by his alarm clock. Very likely confirmed in "The Love Cruise", when Fu Dog tells Jake that Rose loves him, since her being hit with Cupid's love arrow made her suddenly hate him.
- Never Say "Die": A notable aversion. When asked by Jake at the beginning of the episode, Rose explicitly refers to her parents as having died. By the end of the episode, both Rose and the audience learn that her parents aren't dead.
- Nightmare Weaver: The Chimera, this episode's villain.
- Pants-Pulling Prank: Jake gets randomly pantsed while in Rose's dream due to her having watched some America's Wackiest Home Videos before bed.
- Shout-Out: Spud's dream world and superhero identity are this to Adam West's Batman.
- Sleep Deprivation: Since the Chimera only exists in people's dreams, it can't do any real damage. However, the constant nightmares it creates keep people continually waking up every time they try to sleep, resulting in them being highly irritable and slow to react.
- Small Name, Big Ego: Jake deduces that the "great scientific mind" Rotwood is going to base his test around could only be Rotwood himself considering how often he complains about being an unrecognized genius.
- The Stinger: Spud advertises many of the potato-themed attractions of his dream world Spudopolis.
- Talking in Your Dreams: Jake and Rose have "dream dates" in this episode.
- This Explains So Much: It's no wonder Rotwood has such a crappy attitude when he's had a Chimera living in his subconscious for who know's how long.
- Wham Episode: Rose learns the shocking truth behind what happened to her family and how she wound up in the Huntsclan.
- Wham Line: Rose's memory of her birth is FULL of them.Doctor: Congratulations, they're twins!
Rose’s Mother: I'm going to call her... Rose.
Doctor: Look at this strange birthmark. It looks almost like a...dragon.
[…]
Nurse: Huntsmaster, we have a new initiate.
The Huntsman: (snatches newborn Rose out of her mother’s arms) Come, little one. You are one of us.
Rose: My parents didn't die… the Huntsclan took me from them! I have a family… - Wham Shot: The entire memory of Rose's birth.
