Recap / Sanders Asides S 1 E 03 Can Plushies Improve Our Mental Health

Thomas decides to do something simple that doesn't require too much mental effort, so that he's not "haunted" by his Sides about it, and he decides to list simple house chores, starting with making the bed. But even there, Logan rises up and starts questioning Thomas about why he is still keeping on his bed his childhood teddy bear, Benjamin, when he's a grown up adult, and suggests Thomas to get rid of it and give it to a child who might need it. Patton, later joined by Virgil and Roman, opposes to this and shows Logan a VHS made by the three of them where the Sides, using plushie versons of themselves, give Logan several valid points about why is it still good for mental health to keep a childhood plushy through adulthood.

Originally released as a Sanders Sides episode, in September 2023 it was officially reorganized as a Sanders Asides episode instead.

Release date: August 27, 2022

WARNING: Untagged spoilers ahead. Read at your own risk.

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Tropes

• Enemy Mine: First Virgil, then Roman, join forces with Patton, even though both of them are separately in not good terms with him, because they all have a common antagonist in Logan because of his opinion about plushies, so they all participate in Patton's VHS to try and convince Logan to change his mind.
• MacGuffin Location: The episode starts briefly as usual in the living room, but with the intention of showing casual chores Thomas does in his life, he goes to his bedroom to show how he makes his bed, only to be interrupted by Logan about the teddy bear. From that moment on, Thomas and the Sides do the rest of the episode in the bedroom, but there's no difference to any other ordinary episode in the living room, and the chores thing is totally forgotten until the conversation is over, and never expanded upon.
• "Open!" Says Me: The way Patton enters the living room, yelling and kicking the door open, a reaction to Logan first asking Thomas to get rid of his teddy bear.
• Product-Promotion Parade: The main point of the episode, out of universe, was to show the Youtooz Sanders Sides plushies, which would be available to purchase later on. As such, the explanations featured in the VHS are made by the Sides puppeting each their own plushy.
• Self-Serving Memory: Patton shows in the VHS recording a flashback of Thomas as a kid playing with the teddy bear... and suddenly the kid starts Breaking the Fourth Wall and talking right to the camera, chastising Logan for wanting to get rid of the bear. Even present Thomas notices that was out of character for him.
  Young Thomas: I love you, Benjamin... [slowly turning his face to the camera] and I would NEVER do something as heartless as throwing you out!
  Present Thomas: Did I actually say that? I don't...