In which Paradise comes with a price...
- All for Nothing: Chloe sadly confirms that the massive
#CallingChloe movement barely helped her out, both because of her anger at the time and the simple fact that it was happening completely separate from her, and ultimately ended up causing more harm than good. - The Atoner:
- Deconstructed with Kenny. His need to 'do things right' traps him in a spiral where he all but refuses to give himself any break or relief since it would be him either being selfish or giving up before he'd truly made things right. Alain helps him understand that sooner or later he has to move on.
- Titus discusses this about himself as to why he's helping Kenny between him being a Nice Guy and hoping to make amends for not realizing his son was buried sooner.
- Behemoth Battle: Between Mothdron and Gigantamax Inteleon.
- Bittersweet Ending: To Alain's time on the train, being both the best and worst time for him to leave.
- Brainwashing for the Greater Good: Megatron's solution to Vox's virus is effectively this: a signal that would purge the virus from the Transformer's system by replacing it with Decepticon loyalty, and then shutting off the control.
- The Bus Came Back: Phryne Fisher and Jane Ross reappear in this car.
- But Now I Must Go: Alain gets to leave the Train and returns to Sycamore's lab, so he can warn everyone about what's going on in the Train.
- But Thou Must!: When the Mayor sees the Trainer trio have released Kenny by having Waspinator's arm stuck in his place, he snaps, claiming it must be Kenny's finger.
- Call-Back:
- Hop reminds Kenny that he mentioned a grandfather back in the Fog Car.
- The solution to the problem in Omelas is through the form of Waspinator since the Apex loved taking apart his limbs. Titus mentions how Waspinator even sent a letter to Lexi as thanks back at the end of Blossoming Trail.
- The Raihan's Rival Returns Cup brings to mind how Leon took a step away from battling in the Masters Eight after Hop vanished and Raihan covered for him in the meantime.
- Kenny recalls how he loved spraying substances into people's eyes and confirms that he's the one who sprayed Tokio's eyes with hot sauce in Knight of the Orange Lily.
- Circular Reasoning: Between guilt and delirium, Kenny is stuck in this mindset.
- Did Not Think This Through: Vox learns the hard way that having mindless robots who need fuel won't be able to vocalize that they need a refill so easily.
- Everyone Has Standards: Titus and the trainer trio find Kenny's situation horrifying with Alain and Paul having trauma from their Fog Car experience.
- Five-Second Foreshadowing: Titus states he'll give the Trainer Trio some time to talk...just before Hop sees that Alain's number has gone all the way down to 0.
- Foreshadowing: If you pay close attention; the message Alastor picks up says the name "Tiffany". Now, what did Tiffany reveal about herself in the Bake-o-Life Car again?
- Giant Food: What the Giant Farmstead Car provides to the rest of the train. Apparently, it's possible to make synthetic Energon out of the fruits.
- Gilligan Cut: In a reversal from the previous story, immediately after Chloe worries about Goh breaking we cut to a confident Goh taking down Mothdron with his friends.
- Imagine Spot: Chloe's Eevee imagines herself as Gigantamax Eevee-bus, with her tail knocking down a tower full of bricks.
- Lame Pun Reaction: Arnold's pun of the giant Inteleon being Intalleon gets this. He then muses how Carlos was probably rubbing off on him.
- Laser-Guided Karma: Played both ways. Kenny decides to be the sacrifice for the black hole to pay back for how he pretty much sacrificied other deniznes for the sake of nothing special. Later, The Mayor of the Omelas Car had said young boy desperate to atone stick his finger in a black hole and leave him there, all alone. When he tries removing Waspinator's arm to enforce this, he finds himself stuck in place.
- Must Have Caffeine: Specter has been drinking numerous cups of coffee to keep him awake as he finds a way to contact London.
- Mythology Gag: Raihan's team against Ash uses the weather strategies his anime self has not demonstrated use of yet.
- "Not Making This Up" Disclaimer: The mayor stating this about the hole in their can only be plugged with a finger.
- Off Screen Moment Of Awesome: Ash winning the Raihan's Rival Returns Cup is mostly offscreen, though we get some descriptions of it.
- O.O.C. Is Serious Business: Gladion notes that something is wrong with Specter if he keeps frantically trying to contact London.
- Powerful and Helpless: Right off the heels of his triumph over Raihan, Ash gets reminded that he can do almost nothing to help Goh in his current situation, much to his worry.
- Reasonable Authority Figure: Subverted in the case of the mayor of the Omelas Car. When the Trainer Trio and Titus first arrive in his Car, the Denizen presents himself as a kind-hearted ruler trapped in a bad situation. He informs his guests that there's nothing to be done about the system, that regrettable as it is, his Car simply won't function without a sacrifice. However, the Denizens celebrate the sacrifice of every volunteer, and "provide them with everything they'll need." Which, in the case of Kenny, seems to consist of food, a cushion to sit on, and
a bucket at regular intervals. He also implies that there's nothing stopping one of the Trainer Trio from switching out with the "town hero" to allow him some rest, they just need to think carefully before they do anything drastic. But once they actually do manage to solve the issue, the mayor's facade is quick to collapse. Not only is he suspiciously quick to check on his "town hero" when things aren't going as intended — apparently two second-long intervals count as "The most times we've felt the vacuum in one day" for at least some time — but he is not happy to learn that the Car won't need any more "heroes". Far from celebrating the sacrifice of all the Car's victims, the mayor actually takes them for granted as a way to cement his Car's status as one of the best rest stops on the Train — everything good has to come at a price, so eliminating the need for a sacrifice is just "cheapening the Car". He actually yanks the robotic arm right out of the Unrealistic Black Hole, only to immediately have his own finger sucked in to block it. - Senseless Sacrifice: A definite theme in the Omelas Car, as befits the source material. When Titus and the Trainer Trio first arrive in the Car, the mayor claims that the situation is very straightforward- as a payment for the Car’s bounty, one “town hero” must keep disaster at bay by plugging up a black hole with their finger. When the visitors protest the inhumane solution, the mayor assures them that the Denizens of the Car had already tried everything else- brick walls, corks, glue- and the only thing that works is someone’s finger. “Everything good in this world comes with a price” - for the Car to be a paradise, someone will need to be sacrificed. But not only is it already hard to believe that there is nothing in an infinite chain of pocket worlds that could help this situation, but it takes Titus about 15 seconds to come up with a solution that might work in Waspinator’s regenerating limbs. This alternative works perfectly, and it turns out that the mayor was fine with the “town hero” system because he appreciated the symbolism. Even worse, the latest “town hero,” Kenny, was well aware of Waspinator from his time in the Apex. He didn’t even mention the possible solution because he’s so desperate to atone, and he believes that you can’t atone without suffering for it.
- Shout-Out:
- A pretty clear one to "The Ones Who Walk Away from Omelas".
- Kenny's scenario is based on the Wander over Yonder episode "The Hole Lotta Nuthin".
- Mothdron is taken from Dewy's Adventure.
- An Eevee Bus brings to mind My Neighbor Totoro and the Cat-Bus.
- Apparently, Megatron met a mind-control scientist who wouldn't stop raving about bandicoots.
- Stylistic Suck: The radio show the former Apex put on. That's not how you're supposed to use adjectives, Toby.
- Town with a Dark Secret: Much like the story it's named after, the Omelas Car is an appealing car...at the cost of one person's misery.
- Unrealistic Black Hole: One of these threatens the Omelas Car, and a finger must be plucked into it in order to stop it from destroying everything. The current finger belongs to an ex-Apex member known as Kenny, and not anybody important like the Red Lotus Quarto, so everybody is perfectly okay with this until the Trainer Trio arrive. They later get a solution to use one of Waspinator's limbs since he can regenerate those easily.
- Wham Episode: Alain's number drops to 0 and he can leave the Train.
- What Were You Thinking?: London questions his decision for having sequins on the crotch of his pants.
- You Were Trying Too Hard: The ultimate assessment of everyone's efforts with the #CallingChloe hashtag.
