Written and storyboarded by Madeline Queripel and Hilary Florido
Rigby, on the advice of his future self, tries to stop Mordecai from kissing a girl on New Year's Eve.
Tropes
- Ambiguous Ending: It's left ambiguous how CJ and Mordecai felt about the kiss after finding out who they were kissing and whether or not Rigby was supposed to stop them or Mordecai and Tracy, although the next episode, 'Dodge This' shows that they both felt awkward about it (though they do reconcile, and become friends and later a couple).
- Big Damn Kiss: Mordecai and CJ.
- The Bus Came Back: CJ from "Yes Dude Yes" returns.
- Call-Back: Rigby declares it the "Year of The Rigby", something he previously commented on in "Bank Shot"
- Dramatic Irony: Mordecai and CJ were surprised that they kissed each other once they removed their masquerade masks, but viewers were fully aware that was obviously CJ under the mask due to the mask not covering her entire face and the fact that she's the only cloud humanoid to appear on the show so far.
- Gorgeous Gorgon: Tracy, the girl that Mordecai meets at the coffee shop and asks to the park masquerade party.
- Inexplicably Identical Individuals: Robert, Mordecai's date's boyfriend, looks just like a human Mordecai.
- It's All About Me: Rigby declares it " The Year of the Rigby!". This both helps him (Giving his future self something to prove who he really is by knowing about it) and hurts him (Mordecai assumes his actions are just him being a self-centered jerkass).
- Momma's Boy: What Rigby thinks of Thomas' declaration to help his mom more.
- New Year's Kiss: Rigby learns from his future self that Mordecai kissing a girl at a New Year's masquerade party will lead to a catastrophic chain of events, and it's up to the present Rigby to stop it. Mordecai ends up getting friendly with somebody named Tracy, and it's soon revealed that she plans to kiss Mordecai just to make her boyfriend jealous. At midnight, Rigby tackles who he thinks is Mordecai kissing Tracy, but it turns out to just be Tracy's boyfriend, as they'd made up. Mordecai does end up kissing somebody at midnight: CJ from "Yes Dude Yes", who runs off as soon as they realize who they kissed.
- Not Me This Time: Rigby, who isn't being his selfish usual self and is genuinely trying to help Mordecai avoid a massive mistake.
- Operation: Jealousy: Mordecai's date Tracy is just using him to make her boyfriend Tommy jealous, especially after she loses interest in the former as she finds him weird and they have nothing in common.
- Red Herring: The set-up of the episode makes it seem like Rigby's future self is trying to warn Mordecai against kissing Tracy since she only would do so in order to make her boyfriend jealous, however, he actually ends up kissing CJ after he found out Tracy was just using him.
- Set Right What Once Went Wrong: What Future Rigby's trying to get past Rigby to do
- Stable Time Loop/You Can't Fight Fate: When Rigby goes to Skips for help regarding stopping Mordecai, Skips tells him this, that no matter what he does, the kiss he's trying to prevent will happen. The ending leaves it ambiguous as to whether Mordecai and CJ's kiss was the kiss he was supposed to stop.
- Time Stands Still: Or slows down anyway, thanks to a stopwatch future Rigby gives past Rigby.
- Vagueness Is Coming: Future Rigby is very vague about just how Mordecai's life will be ruined by kissing a girl on New Years Eve. Justified as Future Rigby says he can't say much more.
- Wham Episode: CJ from "Yes, Dude, Yes" returns and kisses Mordecai on New Year's Eve, which he mutually returns, setting her up as his new love interest.
