Release date: May 1, 2020
WARNING: Untagged spoilers ahead. Read at your own risk.
Tropes
- Armor-Piercing Response: After Roman laughs at and mocks his newly revealed name, Janus (Deceit) retorts back that only Roman's lack of a mustache makes it clear who the "Evil Twin" is. Roman is rendered momentarily speechless.
- Earlier, he gives one to Patton when he calls him out during the latter's breakdown. It ultimately winds up bringing Patton to his senses.Patton: Treating yourself is something you can take too far!
Deceit: You can take anything too far, Patton. You've taken things too far. The plane is going down. You need to give Thomas… some room to breathe.
- Earlier, he gives one to Patton when he calls him out during the latter's breakdown. It ultimately winds up bringing Patton to his senses.
- Bland-Name Product: In one 8-bit sequence, Thomas visits a "GameStore" with the logo in the familiar white and red design of GameStop.
- Cathartic Scream: Done by Patton just before going berserk mode when he got overwhelmed by the dilemma he was unable to solve for Thomas.
- The Cameo: Renowned Broadway actor Leslie Odom Jr. makes a surprise appearance in person after being referenced or appear in sprite-form for most of the episode.
- Cluster Bleep-Bomb: Thomas right at the beginning of the episode.
- Cry Laughing: Roman's reaction after he presumably thinks Deceit confirmed him with a nod that Thomas was lying when he said Roman was his hero. He first chuckles, then utters an ironic "Wow!" and then quickly covers his mouth and nose with his hand because tears are jumping onto his eyes.
- Easter Egg:
- A lot of Thomas' friends appear as various sprites.
- Patton's inventory has references to certain objects from past episodes.
- Some signs in the status bars featured in different video game segments had significant meanings related to the missing Sides in the episode.
- The score in the Super Mario segment reads "80085" in green numbers, which in a calculator reads as "BOOBS", something very Remus to say, hence the green color.
- In the same segment, in the time sign, instead of the seconds left, it featured, all of them in purple letters, the signs "Limited", "Being Lost", "Poorly Spent" and "Wasted", something very Virgil to say to define anxiously how Thomas was spending his time in the video game.
- Later, in the "Final Fight" segment, the score reads "07734" in orange numbers, which if put on a calculator and then turning it upside down, it reads as "HELLO", foreshadowing the hypothetical future orange Side that is saying hello to the audience before his proper introduction in the future.
- Finally, in both the Mario and Final Fight segments, it is indicated that Thomas has 8 lives, remarking that there will be seven Sides and Thomas is the 8th character.
- Et Tu, Brute?: Roman's reaction when he realizes that Thomas and Patton are agreeing with Janus at the end after Janus attacked him back after Roman mocked his name.Roman: Are you guys seriously going to take his side!?
Thomas: [mumbling] No, I...
Roman: Over me!?
Patton: [also mumbling] Well, he...
Roman: Thomas! [pause, then with a face of huge pain and his hand on his heart] I thought I was your hero.
Thomas: You are!
[Roman looks at Janus, he looks at Roman, then nods with a sad face. Roman chuckles in disbelief]
Roman: Wow! [he covers his mouth as tears burst to his eyes] I can't believe this! [yelling] Did you forget that he's evil! You're not! You're not supposed to be, you're supposed to be good! You can't!
Patton: Roman! [Roman looks at Patton with an angry face] Everything's gonna be okay, kiddo. [Roman can barely contain sobbing, his face grimaces in angsty sadness and pain and his cheeks are all red] We love you.
Roman: [serious face, sinking down] Right... - Freeze-Frame Bonus: Logan throughout the episode, showing his facts in his popup "Logan Lowdown" window. Text appeared and disappeared at a speed that didn't let viewers read what he was saying and pay attention to the action at the same time without pausing the video to read.
- Frog Men: Patton turns into a giant one under the stress of not knowing how to guide Thomas in life-or-death situations.
- Gasp!: Twice in succession by Patton after Thomas says "F friends" and then, after Patton interpreting he could mean "Friendly Hugs", reaffirming that he meant the F word.
- Given Name Reveal: Deceit reveals his true name as a sign of solidarity: Janus.
- Heroic BSoD: Patton goes through this when his head overflows while trying to understand what's the right thing for Thomas to do in a dilemma. He transforms into a big toad-like video game creature and, thinking he's attacking Deceit, he attacks Thomas instead, rendering him unconscious.
- I Am What I Am: Thomas accepts that Deceit is a part of him and that doesn't mean that he's evil or a hopeless fibber, just that he's not perfect, just like anybody else.
- Jerkass Has a Point:
- Just like "Selfishness v. Selflessness," Deceit isn't fully in the wrong here. Unlike that episode, however, this one goes one step further, and has Thomas acknowledging that he's right.
- Likewise, while Roman was very rude towards Janus at the end of the video, it’s understandable when one remembers both that Janus had manipulated Roman in his previous two episodes (exploiting his insecurities and need for validation through flattery) and that Roman had gotten a lot of flak from Patton and Virgil for “siding” with Deceit in those previous episodes.
- "Just Joking" Justification: Clearly Janus didn't mean it when he said Thomas should shove his professional competition down the stairs. Totally.Janus: There are so many other, more fun forms of sabotage...
- Last-Second Word Swap: Roman's comment on the "Mustache Meister".Roman: He does have a stu-uper, duper, unique mustache.
- Meaningful Background Event: In the thumbnail, Virgil is grouped in with the Dark Sides, implying Thomas's opinion of him may have changed. Additionally, a blank silhouette is included with the Dark Sides, teasing a new one.
- Medium Blending: Part of the episode is live-action while other part is animation in an 8-bit video game style.
- Monochrome Past: The initial recap of the previous part is shown in glorious black and white.
- Mood Whiplash: Patton asks Janus with a dejected voice if there's a limit to say "sorry", Janus, answers him, Patton says that he knows who to apologize to... and then out of nowhere, Leslie Odom Jr. shows up in person in front of him and everyone applauds him.
- The Nicknamer: Roman gives two nicknames to Deceit, Faux-gan and Slow-gan.
- O.O.C. Is Serious Business: To prove he's serious before the big name reveal, Deceit takes off one of his gloves, something he's never done before.
- Running Away to Cry: Roman does this when he thinks Thomas and Patton are siding with Deceit, against him. He has to fight hard to avoid sobbing right in front of them.
- Shout-Out: To many classic video games, as well as movies and even the Sanders Shorts. Some examples follow:
- Throughout the episode, curse words are censored with the coin block effect from the Super Mario Bros. franchise.
- The recap song, "Rhythm Redux," is in the style of a Rhythm Game, with additional illustrations in the style of Ace Attorney.
- Patton explains his preference for feeding the homeless vs. buying a new video game in a sequence inspired by Pokémon. (The new game in question is a hypothetical installment of Frogger.)
- The famous Trolley Problem is illustrated in the style of Mother 3.
- The concept of doing good deeds in order to gain a material reward is illustrated with a sequence patterned after Super Mario Bros..
- Roman slashes at Logan's oversized text box with his sword while emitting a yell identical to Link's from The Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time.
- Final Fight is the inspiration for a sequence where Patton promotes volunteering at a soup kitchen rather than spending time playing video games.
- The climactic sequence with Patton's One-Winged Angel transformation uses sprite designs similar to Megaman 7, while Lilypadton's item inventory is right out of Stardew Valley.
- Thomas defends self-care with a scenario patterned after Final Fantasy VI, using the example of healing oneself in order to withstand a hit that KO's the rest of the party, so you can then heal the party.
- The above example features the RPG gang from the Sanders Shorts, Biggs, Luna, Bubu and the villain Kafkaroth, originally played by AJ, Dahlia, Davi and Dominic. From another RPG gang short, there's also Ophelia as the game store owner, originally played by Cam.
- Roman yelling I, for one, am tired of this morality-fighting snake on this metaphorical plane is a shoutout to the movie Snakes on a Plane, where Samuel L. Jackson yells "I have had it with these motherf*** snakes on this motherf*** plane!"
- This one is probably a coincidence, but with the overall Video Game theme of the episode, one can't help but be reminded of Chrono Trigger when the villain reveals that his name is actually Janus and then joins the party.
- Subverted Rhyme Every Occasion: Occurs at the end of the Rhythm Redux song.Roman: It is a pity to admit he could have done more than just sitting at that wedding feeling sh-Thomas: Quit reviewing!Roman: Kay.
- Sure, Let's Go with That: Patton blanks on the word "guy" when talking about the creature subverting a kingdom. Roman helps him by saying "Reptilian Rappscalion" and Patton agrees to use that name, even if he misuses it as "Reptilian with Scallions".
- Vaudeville Hook: Deceit uses a shepherd's crook like this to jank Logan off the screen after Patton chooses to skip his explanation on Nietzsche, as well as to pull Thomas behind him after Patton becomes Lilypadton.
- Waistcoat of Style: Although he starts the episode with a full suit, Thomas quickly takes the jacket off, rolls up his sleeves and spends the rest of the episode in his vest, and even all his representations as video game characters feature him in the vest.
- Wham Line: "My name is Janus."
- What the Hell, Hero?:
- Logan and Janus — and to an extent, Thomas and Roman — call Patton out for his extreme moral rigidity. Janus even points out that it's really hurting Thomas more than it helps anyone else.
- No one is impressed by Roman making fun of Janus' name.
- You Are What You Hate: When Roman harshly and hurtfully makes fun of Janus' name revelation, Janus accuses Roman of, among Roman and Remus, being the evil twin. When Roman notices that Patton and Thomas are looking at him as if agreeing with Janus, and even though Patton tries to assure him that they still love him, Roman leaves the living room on the verge of crying.
