This episode was originally released as episode 2 of Sanders Asides. Since September 2023, it is officially considered an episode of Sanders Sides.
Release date: October 10, 2020
WARNING: Untagged spoilers ahead. Read at your own risk.
Tropes
- Animated Episode: The episode became this by necessity due to the COVID-19 Pandemic, done in an animatic style for all but the beginning and end.
- Antiquated Linguistics: Roman lapses into this kind of speech when he spots a cute guy a few tables away.Roman: Oh! What lad is that which doth enrich the Mac on yonder slate?Thomas: Huh?Roman: (sighs) Cutie at 12 o'clock.
- Art Shift: In the animatic the character design changes between scenes, sometimes it's more realistic when the mood is serious, other times it becomes cartoony and rough when trying to achieve a comedic effect.
- Call-Back:
- Roman and Virgil's shared appreciation of The Nightmare Before Christmas, with the sticker on Nico's laptop even reading, "It's simply meant to be," which is what Roman claimed of himself and Virgil's posters.
- Thomas's tendency to magnify when he says the wrong thing to a cashier, first brought up in "My Negative Thinking".
- After being told again and again that he's wrong in all and every way, this time Virgil takes action to prove Roman right and get the boy.
- Cannot Spit It Out: When Nico first talks to Thomas to give him the carrots, because both Roman and Virgil started panicking in his mind, Thomas gets completely unable to speak until he utters some words that, to Roman and Virgil's cringy embarrassment, only make Nico get away politely. Good for Thomas that he had a second chance to correct this mistake moments later.
- Cardiovascular Love: Roman's pupils turn into hearts the moment he sets his eyes on Nico for the first time.
- Casting Gag: Joan, real-life Thomas' friend, and co-writer of the series, voices the random stranger who character Thomas pretends is his friend to avoid an awkward situation (made funnier when said stranger refuses to play along, making the awkwardness worse).
- Cringe Comedy: Basically the entire episode.
- Crush Blush: Thomas can't help blushing when thinking about Nico or when he's spending time with him in the end. He also blushes when he's rehearsing his Love Confession in the bathroom.
- Crush Filter: Nico appears with sparkles around him throughout the episode. Thomas even calls Nico "radiant" during his bathroom monologue.
- Friendship Moment: As Roman resigns himself to yet another missed opportunity at happiness (and another failure as he's been repeatedly told he's wrong in all and every way), Virgil goes against all his instincts and pushes Thomas to do the one thing he's been trying to avoid the entire time: actually talk to the cute stranger. As he and Thomas hit it off Roman genuinely thanks Virgil and commends him for his bravery. Virgil tries to play it off but Roman simply lays his hand on his shoulder with a smile that Virgil returns.
- Garbage Hideout: After tripping over a garbage can in the middle of the food court on his way to talk to Nico, Thomas (along with Roman and Virgil) hides in said garbage can in shame.
- Insecure Love Interest: After Virgil and Roman once again call Thomas out over his tendency to lie and Virgil questions if being deceitful would be fair to Nico if starting a relationship, Thomas comes to the conclusion that he's not good enough for Nico and that he will be better off without Thomas, so he's ready to give up to talk to Nico altogether and leave the mall without confessing his feelings at all.
- Longing Look: Or as Roman and Thomas call it, "gay eyes". Thomas tries to stare intensely at Nico from afar, trying to communicate non verbally his interest on him. Nico notices the stare, but the plan backfires when Nico thinks Thomas is looking at something behind him and weirds him out, causing Thomas to panic and look away awkwardly.
- Love at First Sight: This happens to Roman, and by extension to Thomas, since Roman is part of him, the moment he first sets his eyes on Nico.
- Love Confession: It took time, rehearse, panic and a little push from Virgil, but in the end, Thomas was finally able to confess his newfound feelings to Nico, even if he had to struggle a bit to let the words out of his mouth.
- The Matchmaker: Roman, and to a lesser extent Virgil, take this role trying to push Thomas into talking to Nico.
- Medium Blending: Due to the team practicing social distancing, it was impossible to film the episode in live-action. Therefore, the majority of the episode is visualized through an animatic. The opening and ending scenes are live-action.
- Mistaken Declaration of Love: Thomas rehearses in the bathroom a beautiful Love Confession... and one guy that was sitting in the bathroom accidentally thought Thomas was talking to him and, all emotional, was ready to requit that love back, to Thomas' akwardness.
- Mood Whiplash: Thomas rehearses what he's gonna say to the cute guy. The monologue in front of the mirror gets progressively more and more heartwarming, until it ends up being a tear jerker... and then suddenly the door behind him opens and a random stranger appears emotional while Thomas stares at him completely speechless in an awkward comedic silence.
- Not So Stoic: Virgil, in the end card, becomes nearly as giggly and excited as Thomas and Roman are over the prospect of romance.
- Oblivious to Love: Nico throughout the episode. It's true that, with the disastrous plans he comes up with, Thomas doesn't make it easy for Nico to realize Thomas is trying to find a way to woo him, but at least the gay eyes he threw at him should have been understood to a certain degree. It's only at the very end, when Thomas finally says verbally that he thinks Nico is "really cute", that Nico finally takes notice and decides to eventually woo Thomas back.
- Power-Up Full Color Change: When Roman or Virgil, especially Virgil, get specially heightened in animatic form, their whole body becomes red or purple. If interrupted during the heightening, they return to their normal line-art form.Roman: [suddenly turning all red] STOP playing with people's hearts, Thomas!
Virgil: [turning all purple, with a creepy low-pitch voice] No, do look at yourself Thomas, 'cause that was a test and you FAILED!
Thomas: [shrinking back] You were testing me?
Virgil: [back to his normal form and voice] No-no-no, I wasn't testing you! [smiles] I was just panicking. [suddenly back to full purple form and low-pitch voice] No, the UNIVERSE was testing you and you chose to be a LIAR! - Punctuated! For! Emphasis!: Roman and Virgil have this reaction when they see The Nightmare Before Christmas sticker on Nico’s laptop.Roman and Virgil: Oh. My. God.
- Race for Your Love: When Virgil realizes that Nico is leaving the mall and that Thomas is gonna loose the chance to at least talk about his feelings to him, and especially when he realizes how this is going to crush Roman, Virgil, in a fit of anxiety, pushes Thomas and makes him run after Nico.
- Returning the Handkerchief: Or in this case, returning the boiled-mayo carrots, which is what Nico does as soon as he sees Thomas getting out of the bathroom, thinking Thomas has forgotten them on his table. Of course, Thomas wouldn't have wanted to recover the carrots, but at least this gave them both the chance of engaging in a conversation for the first time, with Nico taking the initiative in this intent. Thomas messed up on this first try, but Virgil's push and, again, the excuse of giving Nico the carrots because Thomas didn't want them, gave him another chance to talk to Nico and, this time successfully, confess his feelings over Nico and find out that the sentiment was, somehow, requited, leading to them into engaging in a more natural and lively conversation where they started to know each other.
- Running Gag:
- "Dude, it's okay. People do that, like, 30 times a day. Please relax."Virgil: DON'T TELL ME TO RELAX!
- Roman's age jokes.Thomas: Maybe things are finally changing for our old friend Thomas.Roman: (rises up) Emphasis on the "old."Thomas: Stop! Get out! The episode is over!
- "Dude, it's okay. People do that, like, 30 times a day. Please relax."
- Shaped Like Itself: Thomas suggests using the pins as a conversation starter, but Virgil shoots it down, claiming that using information he snooped for would be like cyber-stalking... only real life.Roman: So... stalking.
Virgil: ...OH YOU'RE RIGHT! - Shout-Out:
- Many of Nico's stickers and pins, including
- Disney, specifically The Lion King
- Paramore
- John Malkovich
- The Nightmare Before Christmas (see Call-Back above)
- Yu-Gi-Oh!
- Los Angeles Lakers
- The Truman Show
- Romeo and Juliet: When Roman first sees Nico, he says "What lad is that which doth enrich the Mac on yonder slate?". This line is based on the line that Romeo says when he first sees Juliet, "What lady is that which doth enrich the hand of yonder knight?"
- While commentating on Thomas's process of trying to get a closer look at the pins on Nico's bag, Roman and Virgil begin Waxing Lyrical using a familiar Radiohead song:
- Many of Nico's stickers and pins, including
- Squee: Thomas, Roman, and surprisingly Virgil in the end card.
- Yawn and Reach: Played with. Thomas doesn't reach his arm around Nico, because he still doesn't know him and mostly because Nico's a few tables away and Thomas doesn't have stretchy arms like the Sides, but he stretches his arms and yawns loudly, saying out loud that it's late and he should be going, in a desperate effort to call Nico's attention and make him take the initiative to talk to Thomas before he's gone. Of course, the plan is a total failure, as Nico is focused on his phone and doesn't even hear Thomas.
- We Were Rehearsing a Play: Played with - Thomas was technically rehearsing, but being caught rehearsing a Love Confession meant for someone else is not the same as being caught rehearsing a play, the excuse Thomas gives.
