Recap / Red Vs Blue S 15 E 5 Previously On

Previously On

Directed By: Joe Nicolosi
Written By: Joe Nicolosi

Having finally cornered the Reds and Blues to the isolated and otherwise uninhabited moon Iris, Dylan Andrews and Jax Jonez interview them to see what they were doing while left on their lonesome for the past ten months.

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This episode has examples of:

• Achievements in Ignorance: Somehow, Simmons managed to became fluent in Esperanto while actually trying to learn how to speak Spanish (as he mistook Esperanto for the Spanish name of the Spanish language, "Español").
• Bad Liar: Tucker, Simmons, and Grif sound incredibly unenthused, nervous, and terrified respectively when stating that Carolina is totally a great singer.
• Bus Crash: Tucker's bitter remark that the Meta suit was "useless" and "empty" following their victory against Charon Industries heavily implies that the Epsilon Fragments didn't survive for that long after Epsilon-Church's Heroic Sacrifice.
• Character Development: Ten months' worth of shenanigans have done Carolina's mental state wonders, with her goofy antics in this episode clearly conveying her as having gone native and truly becoming one of the Blood Gulch Crew.
• Continuity Nod:
  • The Temple of Procreation first mentioned in Season 13's "You Better Watch Out" is mentioned as having been activated by Tucker to celebrate the Reds and Blues capturing Hargrove.
  • Just like at the end of Season 2 of The Blood Gulch Chronicles, the Reds and Blues get into a huge argument on whether or not the situation they were in was ironic or not (previously, it was about forming an Enemy Mine, and in the present day, it was regarding the prospect of getting eaten by dinosaurs).
  • Caboose managing to somehow tame the dinosaurs native to Iris is likely an allusion to him making fast friends with first Andy the Bomb in Blood Gulch and Freckles on Chorus.
  • The special mushrooms Grif finds on Iris give him a Motor Mouth and Super-Speed, just like when he tested out a Freelancer Armor Speed Unit in Revelation.
  • In the Season 3 episode "Defusing the Situation," Lopez created an army of robots for O'Malley to use against the Reds and Blues. Here, Sarge created his own army of robots to fight the Reds and Blues so he could have a glorious death in battle during the Blood Gulch Crew's ten month "retirement" on Iris.
  • Wash sadly remarking on how the Season 13 finale wasn't the "first time" Church had given up everything to save them is obviously an allusion to Alpha-Church's Heroic Sacrifice in the finale of Reconstruction.
  • "Contact", the main Theme Tune of The Chorus Trilogy starts playing in the background when the Reds and Blues start to somberly recall what had happened aboard the Staff of Charon after the Season 13 finale.
• Cool Versus Awesome: Hilariously spoofed; An epic battle between an army of malfunctioning battle robots and ferocious dinosaurs happened during the Reds and Blues' retirement... but it occurred just off-camera, though according to Wash it was the greatest thing he'd ever seen.
• Dumbass Has a Point: When everyone is throwing out ideas for a new form of government to use instead of the Red and Blue Teams, Caboose suggests a "malarkey" government. Simmons objects to this, explaining that malarkey isn't actually a form of government, and just means meaningless talk and nonsense. There's then a lengthy Beat as everyone silently realizes that "meaningless talk and nonsense" pretty much is how the Reds and Blues have always governed themselves.
  Wash: (in the present day) Malarkey won.
• Epic Fail:
  • Donut somehow managed to burn down a water park. According to him, it's because "lube isn't normally flammable".
  • Jax also completely forgot to record the Reds and Blues talking about what they'd done during their retirement.
• Fantastic Drug: Iris features a form of mushroom that, as described by Simmons, "are basically crystal meth on crystal meth".
• Fluffy Tamer: Caboose somehow managed to tame the dinosaurs native to Iris.
• Foreshadowing: When everyone else is staring in Stunned Silence after hearing Church's message, Grif loudly growls "God-fucking-dammit." His annoyance at having to yet again go and rescue Church sets up his decision to leave the Blood Gulch Crew in the next episode.
• Freeze-Frame Bonus: Pausing the screen during the flashback showing Donut burning down the water park will show some of the pool water being inexplicably set aflame.
• Gilligan Cut: Simmons remarks that Sarge was hopelessly depressed after not dying heroically on Chrous. Sarge calls this "baseless slander", to which Simmons responds with a flashback:
  Flashback-Sarge: (to the rest of Red Team) I am hopelessly depressed after not dying heroically on Chorus!
• Going Native: Carolina has clearly gone native regarding the Blood Gulch Crew's insanity, having chilled out a ton and being quite eager to join in on their craziness. See, for instance, her instantly signing up to join Grif, Tucker, and Caboose's band.
• HA HA HA—No: When Dylan asks Grif if he can help them, he literally bursts into laughter before bluntly asking who she and Jax are.
• Holding in Laughter: A few cases, reflecting this being a Breather Episode with incredibly low stakes; Wash sounds like he's trying not to smile after learning about Sarge's "War on Gravity", while Carolina is clearly trying not to laugh while commenting how Grif was able to convince Simmons that Game of Thrones really happened.
• Hollywood Tone-Deaf: Carolina is all but stated to have an awful singing voice, as given by everyone being comically Bad Liars in reassuring her that she sings "...so good".
• Homoerotic Subtext: Grif and Simmons apparently slept together while both of them were literally locked in a closet during the Temple of Procreation's activation.
• In Medias Res: The episode opens right in the middle of the Reds and Blues' chaotic shenanigans, with Dylan and Jax stumbling in while completely out of the loop. It's not until near the very end of the episode that context is given for all of their weird actions (such as Sarge crashing a jeep off a cliff).
• Insistent Terminology: A tragic case when the Reds and Blues are recalling Epsilon-Church's Heroic Sacrifice:
  Caboose: (sadly) I miss Church.
  Dylan Andrews: (cautiously) You mean the Epsilon A.I.?
  Tucker: (frostily) No, he means Church.
• Let Us Never Speak of This Again: Grif and Simmons both utterly refuse to talk about what happened between them during the Temple of Procreation's activation, and angrily insist for the subject to be changed whenever anyone brings it up.
• Male Band, Female Singer: During their shore leave, Tucker, Grif, and Caboose form a band, and Carolina joins them as their singer. The boys quickly regret it.
• Mood Whiplash: This episode is mostly a comical recap of the Blood Gulch Crew's absurd antics during their retirement. Things turn somber when Dylan asks them what happened on the Staff of Charon where Church deleted himself to power the Meta's armor for Tucker.
• Naked People Are Funny: Donut spends a significant portion of this episode naked since he was skinny-dipping. Thankfully, he's kept off-screen until he's back in full armor.
• Noodle Implements: According to Donut, flammable lube is the reason for why he accidentally burned down a water park.
• No Place for a Warrior: A comedic example. After the war on Chorus, the Reds and Blues settle into a life of peace. Sarge and Carolina, whose identities are more tied up with being soldiers, have the hardest time adjusting. Sarge is hopelessly depressed over not going out in a blaze of glory and looks for a new enemy to fight (cue the rest of his team scattering), while Carolina ends up seeking lessons in laziness from Grif.
• Not So Above It All: Wash eagerly jumped for joy alongside the simulation troopers after they'd finished creating "the galaxy's greatest water park". Carolina, for her part, not only joined the band Tucker, Grif, and Caboose were setting up, but also became Grif's apprentice in learning laziness and is also clearly trying not to laugh when mentioning how Grif was able to convince Simmons that Game of Thrones really happened, suggests Matriarchy when discussing a new form of government, and believes the "weirdest thing that happened" was when Wash grew a beard.
• Overly Narrow Superlative: Donut claims that he didn't really burn down the whole water park, "just the park part!"
• Painting the Medium: During Donut's (thankfully offscreen) time outside of his armor, his voice prominently lacks the helmet filter given to the rest of the Reds and Blues.
• Punctuated! For! Emphasis!: When Carolina says what she believes to be the weirdest thing that happened to them.
  Carolina: Wash. Grew. A beard...
• Rapid-Fire Comedy: The various jokes in this episode are given practically a mile a minute.
• Ship Tease:
  • invoked For Grif/Simmons; it's all but stated that they had sex with each other during the Temple of Procreation's activation on Chorus.
  • There's also a subtle one for Wash/Carolina in this episode, with the below exchange during Sarge's "War on Gravity" making them come across Like an Old Married Couple (which makes sense, as they pretty much are the Team Dad and Team Mom of the Blood Gulch Crew by this point).
    Carolina: (wearily) Are we really going to let this play out?
    Wash: (genuinely amused) Why not see where it goes?
• Shout-Out:
  • When she's trying to learn how to be "the best at being lazy," Carolina goes to Grif and tries to learn from him in a similar way to Luke trying to learn how to be a Jedi from Yoda in The Empire Strikes Back.
    Carolina: (dead serious) Help me, Grif. Help me be the best at being lazy.
    Grif: (in a wise and mysterious tone while sitting in the lotus position) You're not ready yet, padawan.
    Carolina: I can try!
    Grif: invoked No. There is no try.
  • Apparently, Iris (the isolated moon that the Reds and Blues decided to retire on) was inhabited by dinosaurs and other prehistoric beasts.
  • Caboose apparently got trapped in the Upside-Down from Stranger Things at one point, though the accompanying visuals actually bear a closer resemblance to the black Void Between the Worlds Eleven could astrally project herself into in order to hear other people's thoughts.
  • Grif was able to convince Simmons that Game of Thrones really happened.
  • Grif and Tucker repeatedly argue over the possible names for their band, which include "The Blue Fighters," "The Grateful Reds," "The Blue Goo Dolls," "Redmau5," "Motley Blue," "The Talking Reds," "The Red Kennedys," "Blue Tang Clan," and "Red Zeppelin."
  • Church's supposed distress call looks very similar to that sent by Princess Leia in A New Hope.
• Suspiciously Specific Denial: Simmons is very quick to state that the Reds and Blues aren't just saying Carolina's a good singer since she'd probably kill them otherwise.
• Super Gullible: Grif only needed to repeat "Dude" several times to convince Simmons that Game of Thrones really happened.
• Take Our Word for It: Quite a few incidents described in this episode happened just off-screen. Or, like in the case of Wash growing a beard, were hidden by the 24-Hour Armor.
• This Is Gonna Suck:
  • Played for Laughs when Lopez mutters "Meirda" following Sarge's furiously ranting that, after he destroyed Red Team's Warthog as part of his "War on Gravity", the Red vs. Blue simulation war must resume.
  • Played for Drama when Grif loudly complains after the Red and Blues hear the distress call supposedly sent by Church at the end of the episode.
• Turned On Their Masters: Parodied, subverted, and somehow inverted in this episode. Unable to live without an enemy to fight during their off-time, Sarge built a robot army to be that enemy. However, the robots malfunctioned and waged war against the local dinosaurs. All entirely off-screen.
• Unexplained Recovery: Dylan is utterly baffled by Caboose casually walking off the fact that he'd just fallen off a cliff.
  Dylan Andrews: You—You're okay?
  Caboose: Oh, pfft, yeah! Y'know, I fell down and stuff, but y'know I landed on my head and that's okay because that's the part that's most used to it, so yeah I'm fine, things are good now, yeah I'm gonna go lay down. (runs off)
• Wham Line: Kimball's forwarded holographic message is finally played. What does it say?
  Church: This is Church from- [static] -Alpha. If you're getting this, it's an emergency. Send. Help. Please! Send help!
• Wham Shot: The holographic message Kimball gave to Dylan for the Reds and Blues is played... and it shows Church begging for help.

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