Friendships are tested and sacrifices are made when the gang finally reaches the Heart of the Forest.
Tropes:
- Abandoned Area: The Heart of the Forest lies inside an abandoned soda factory.
- A.I. Is a Crapshoot: Xavier’s drones end up turning against him and he has to run away from them with the rest of the kids. Even his toy cars attack him, due to all of them being interconnected.
- Aw, Look! They Really Do Love Each Other: When Kenneth finds about about Xavier and the others' predicament, he rushes out to help them.
- Big Damn Heroes: Just as Craig is about to be attacked by the soda monster, Bernard arrives to save him. And not long afterwards, Kenneth arrives in his SUV.
- Blob Monster: Two drones covered in congealed soda reactivate, making the mass of soda look and act like a monster that attacks Craig.
- Both Sides Have a Point: Maya calls out Xavier on thinking one afternoon of effort was enough to win over everyone else, but also calls out Omar for holding a grudge against him when he still accused her of working against him without hearing her out.
- Compromising Call: The Stump Trio are trying to hide from the drones when Bernard calls Craig on his phone, giving them away.
- Equivalent Exchange: As in the anime, the Heart of the Forest requires a sacrifice to grant wishes. Craig parts with his map of the creek in order to get J.P. and Kelsey back.
- Exact Words: Xavier instructs his drones to not let anyone get through… which, unfortunately, includes him.
- Explain, Explain... Oh, Crap!: When Craig and his friends realize they can't get home, Craig mentions how his map is always on hand, but then he remembers he threw it in the Heart of the Forest.
- Group Hug: The episode ends with all the kids hugging each other. Then they end up stuck to each other because they were covered in old soda.
- Hypocrite: Craig. He wants to wish on the Heart of the Forest so that Kelsey, J.P. and Omar will only be friends with him and not hang with other people. However, Kelsey points out to Craig that he hung out with numerous other characters multiple times without them.
- Maybe Magic, Maybe Mundane: As usual per the show's take on imagination, the Heart of the Forest turns out to be an overgrown tree within an abandoned soda factory where an abyss (the pond) sometimes overflows with expired cherry soda in the convenient shape of a heart. Craig gives up the map he's drawn of the Creek to get Kelsey and J.P. back, who turned out to have washed down the abyss and show up after Craig throws his map down to it. Regardless of sacrificing anything, things just happened to Craig and, by extension, Kenneth, so Craig ended up losing the map, thinking that was what brought his friends back.
- Party Scattering: During the chase, the Stump Trio get separated from Xavier, Maya, and Omar. Later on, Craig gets separated from Kelsey and J.P.
- Reformed, but Rejected: After the ending of the last episode. Xavier continues to use this trope as a justification for his betrayal, until Maya finally calls him out on it, and tells him that it was unreasonable to expect everyone to like him after just one afternoon of good behavior.
- The Reveal: The thing Kenneth had to give up to the Heart of the Forest to grant his wish? It was the friendship pendant from his time with Mark, Barry, and David that he was unable to show in "In Search of Lore".
- Villain Reveals the Secret: Xavier tells everyone how Craig was going to wish that his friends stayed with him forever, with the implication that they couldn’t make any other friends.
- What the Hell, Hero?: Kelsey and J.P. call out Craig for being upset that they were drifting away from him, pointing out that Craig has had adventures with everyone else in the creek without them.
- You Are Better Than You Think You Are: Maya also reassures Xavier that if he has the mettle to train enough to pull off backflips, then he has enough to put in the long-term effort to earn people's trust and make genuine friendships, which cements his Heel–Face Turn.
- You Shall Not Pass!: While Omar and Maya get on the elevator, Xavier stays behind to fight his toy car.
