"Why does there have to be a prize? Why does it have to be sexual? Why can’t men just do something for the challenge of it, ‘cause it’s fun?"
— Dee
Dee arranges for the gang to participate in an at-home escape room event at Mac and Dennis’s apartment, causing them to split into rival factions as they compete to win the game.
This episode provides examples of the following tropes:
- Blatant Lies: Dee claims she stopped searching, even after Amanda informed her she can see Dee.
- Bottle Episode: Aside from the first and last scenes, the entire episode takes place inside Mac and Dennis’s apartment and only features one additional character.
- Butt-Monkey: Dee gets locked in Dennis's room by the guys at the very beginning of the game, and later falls off the side of the building while trying to escape.
- Comically Missing the Point: When Mac says the game needs more stakes, Frank says he'll buy a steak for the winner.
- Competition Freak: The gang immediately splits into teams and becomes obsessed with "winning", despite the fact that the whole point of the game is to work together.
- Call-Back: Dennis scratches Mac's face again.
- Continuity Nod:
- Charlie says that Frank doesn't like confined spaces thanks to his time in the nitwit school.
- Mac's dildo bike makes another appearance, and Charlie warns Frank not to touch it.
- Control Freak: Dennis gets angry when he isn't in control and explains to Mac that he must "assert [himself]."
- Crazy-Prepared: Deliberately invoked by Dee, who secretly plays the exact same escape room scenario beforehand so she can know all of the answers and then "solve" the puzzles to impress the guys. Game runner Amanda points out how pathetic that makes her look.
- Divided We Fall: Not only do the gang quickly split into factions in a game about cooperation but they lock Dee (who having played through this exact scenario before knows the answers) in a soundproofed room. They then proceed to waste time trying to outdo each other in power plays and negotiations to the point that they only officially start the game with two minutes left on the clock.
- Epic Fail: The Gang's usual dynamics causes so much needless conflict, not only do they do everything in their power to prevent everyone else from doing anything constructive (like locking Dee in the other room because she wanted to be the maverick), but by the time they even read the very first clue, they only have a few minutes left.
- Exact Words: As mentioned under Loophole Abuse, the men claim that they "escaped" the room because they followed the instructions exactly by getting out in the allotted time; the fact that Amanda only unlocked the door to get Dee much-needed medical attention is inconsequential to them.
- Explain, Explain... Oh, Crap!: After Dee's been sealed inside Dennis's room, she chats with Amanda via walkie-talkie, and quickly realizes why no one can hear her:Amanda: Can you think of any reason why your brother would soundproof his door?
Dee: ...Oh. Oh no. Oh God. (disgustedly) Yeah, yeah. There is. Dennis, you psychopath. - Freak Out: Frank has a brief one when the door to the apartment is locked.
- Gilligan Cut: Dee warns Amanda that if the guys are left alone, they'll immediately start breaking everything in the room to find clues (even though the game runners specifically tell people not to do this). The scene immediately cuts to the guys doing just that.
- Hypocritical Humor:
- Dee scorns Amanda’s British accent as terrible before letting loose with an even worse one of her own.
- In-universe, Amanda remarks that the idea of Dennis locking people in his room and having them try to get out is sick. Dee snaps that she does that very same thing for a living.
- Insane Troll Logic: Mac seems to think that all games must have a point-system that determines winners and losers because that's how it works for Football.
- Loophole Abuse: Amanda is forced to open the door with two minutes remaining when Dee is injured falling off the fire escape, leading the gang to claim it as a win since she never specified how they had to get out of the room, only that they had to do it within the allotted time period.
- Metaphorgotten: Dennis wanders off into some very strange territory while complaining about Frank chewing gum to assert his dominance.Dennis: You see by constantly chewing very loudly, he’s sending a very clear message that he is the head cow. And as we all know, the head cow's always grazing.
Mac: Aren't all cows female?
Dennis: Well, that was a metaphor. - Oh, Crap!: After spending fifty-eight minutes debating who exactly gets to insert a key into a lock, the men finally do it... only to find it was the first puzzle in a room absolutely full of them. They immediately panic and lose.
- Dee realizes that the guys can't hear her... because she's in Dennis's room.
- Only Sane Woman: Dee, as is more typical for her than the rest of the Gang, plays the Straight Man, partially due to knowing the game already and partially because she's genuinely smarter than them (relatively). Unfortunately, she gets locked into a separate room. Which, since it's Dennis's, is sound and escape proof.
- Pet the Dog: The guys are genuinely impressed by Dee managing to escape from Dennis’s room and congratulate her on winning them the game, even allowing her to take the first bite of steak in order to cement her position as the alpha.
- They're also concerned when Dee is out on the ledge of the apartment and warn her to be careful since it's so high up.
- Politically Incorrect Villain: Initially, the male members of the gang all object to Dee being in charge on the basis of her being a woman.
- Room Escape Game: The basic premise of the episode involves the gang participating in a room escape game using Dennis' apartment and having to solve various puzzles in order to escape. This being the Gang, they don't even get to the actual start before they only have two minutes left.
- Running Gag: Dennis's status as a sexual predator is once again brought to the fore, as it's revealed that his room is soundproofed, locks from the outside, and has an automated recorded message from him.Dennis: Remember, if you're having too much fun, it ruins it for me.
- Shout-Out
- The escape room scenario is themed around Sherlock Holmes.
- Dee trying to shut down Dennis' twisted sex game is met with taunts of, "Ah ah ah, you didn't say the safe word." Dennis also later calls Dee a "clever girl" when she figures out how to escape from his room.
- Dennis's automated room - complete with a self-activating recording of himself - is exactly the kind of thing Jigsaw would do.
- The Sociopath: Dee calls Dennis a psychopath when she accidentally triggers a disturbing sex game that involves locking his conquests inside his bedroom. Later, Dennis enforces the trope by violently stressing that she is the only woman to ever get out.
- Strange Minds Think Alike: Both Dennis and Frank apparently believe that herds of cattle have a "head cow" which is constantly grazing.
- Dee also deliberately invokes this trope when she's sealed in Dennis's room. She's the only person in the world who understands how his twisted mind works, and is able to escape because of that knowledge.
- Super-Senses: Played for laughs; Dennis can hear Frank chewing gum from another room.
- Take That!: The Gang keep chanting "Art of the Deal" as a way to reaffirm their machismo-based negotiation tactics, which only succeed in making an otherwise simple problem worse.
- Throw the Dog a Bone: Dee finally gets the approval she's been craving for so long.
- What the Hell Is That Accent?:
- The guys' reaction to Dee's "British" accent.
- Dee has the same reaction to Amanda's attempt at an accent.
