Greg, Beatrice, and Wirt are forced to take shelter in a tavern full of people who only view people according to their vocation. The tavern keeper forces Beatrice out for being bad luck, and she befriends a horse named Fred in the stable.
Tropes:
- Animation Bump: The Highway Man's dance, animated by the show's art director Nick Cross, is much more fluidly animated than anything else in the series.
- Big Eater: Greg is shown to be one, as he's seen placing a bunch of food on his plate during the Highway Man's dance.
- Cringe Comedy: Wirt's song.
- Deranged Animation: The Highwayman's dance. Think Cab Calloway's rotoscoped dance from the Betty Boop cartoons he starred in minus the rotoscoping.
- Everyone Calls Him "Barkeep": All of the tavern's patrons are referred to by their occupations, including, of course, the tavern keeper. They try to drag Wirt into it as well.
- Five-Second Foreshadowing: Two leading up to the Beast's first appearance.
- When Beatrice sees the Woodsman's light, you can hear singing... but it sounds nothing like the Woodsman's voice.
- After the boys 'rescue' Beatrice from the Woodsman, she reveals he didn't attack her, she got freaked out by a weird shadow and flew into a tree.
- Foreshadowing:
- Beatrice gets offended by the tavern keeper trying to force her out for being bad luck, noting that Bluebirds are said to bring good luck and "joy and happiness". When the tavern keeper insists on forcing her out, she attempts to curse the tavernkeeper. We find out the next episode that she also mistreated a bluebird and got cursed as a result
- Wirt is in denial that he's trying to win the hand of a girl (Adelaide) and he is known as "The Young Lover"...five episodes later the audience learns the entire plot happened because he was trying to not let the girl he had a crush on hear his mix-tape.
- Before he attacks and overwhelms the Woodsman, Wirt blows out his own lantern, hinting at the events in the finale.
- "I Am" Song: First there's the Highwayman's song. Later Wirt is forced to improvise a song of his own.
- Musical World Hypotheses: As the title suggests, the tavern is full of characters spontaneously bursting into song.
- Real After All: After four episodes of vague and unreliable warnings, we finally get to see the Beast.
- Red Herring: The Woodsman is mistaken for the Beast because he holds the lantern.
- Shout-Out: The Highwayman's odd dance is based on Cab Calloway's rotoscoped dance from the Betty Boop cartoons he starred in. The dance here isn't rotoscoped, however. It's just weird.
- Smurfing: Parodied when Fred says "Nice to horse your acquaintance." He never does it again.
- Stylistic Suck: Wirt's awkward "I Am" Song is choppy, off-key, and is in direct contrast to the polished songs sung by other people in the Inn. Justified in that he had to compose it on the spot, with the entire room watching him.
- Talking Animal: Fred is revealed to be the one in the end.
- Uncanny Valley: The Highwayman's odd, boneless dancing is apparently this in-universe, as Wirt looks creeped out by it too.
- "The Villain Sucks" Song: The tavern keeper singing about the Beast.
- Warning Song: "The Beast Is Out There
", an eerie little number sung by a tavernkeeper warning Wirt and Greg about the Beast, an Eldritch Abomination who lurks in the woods outside.Ooh, ooh, you better beware
ooh, ooh, the Beast is out there!
Ooh, ooh, you better be wise
And don't believe his lies! - Wisdom from the Gutter: At one point in the story, Wirt tries to ask the tavern patrons for directions to Adelaide's place, in hopes it will lead them home. In response, the lowly Apprentice tells Wirt "You don't need directions. You just follow that compass inside your heart." In the last episode, it turns out this was sound advice: Wirt only needed to want to go home in order to return.
