While practicing martial arts late at night, Sticks discovers a mysterious figure trying to hypnotize the village in their sleep. The gang doesn't believe Sticks, telling her it isn't real and her paranoia is out of control - that is, until they fall victim to it...
Tropes
- Beware the Silly Ones: Once again Eggman has a pretty well thought plan. Using a robot to hypnotize everyone through their TVs while they're asleep and then using the hypnotized villagers to build a device to enhance Dreamcaster's signal is pretty ingenious, it's only foiled because Sticks uses a tinfoil hat to protect herself and then the rest of Team Sonic who promptly wipe out Eggman's robots including Dreamcaster.
- Breaking the Fourth Wall:Eggman: You [Sticks] weren't affected by Dreamcaster's control because you're the only one in town without a TV! What's wrong with you? What do you do on Saturday mornings? What do you talk about by the water cooler?
Sticks: I knew TV was just a big conspiracy to control everyone's minds! (turns to the camera, as if she is now talking to the audience) I'm not talking to you. You keep watching. - The Cuckoolander Was Right: Sticks' friends don't believe Dreamcaster exists and march her off to jail for inadvertently breaking into Comedy Chimp's TV studio the night before. Once she's out of the picture, however, Dreamcaster appears, revealing that he had Sonic, Tails, Amy and Knuckles under his control already.
- Everyone Can See It: When Sticks tries to wake up Sonic upon spotting Dreamcaster, this exchange occurs:Sticks: Sonic, wake up!
Sonic: Whaddya say, sugar plum?
Sticks: (irritated) Don't call me "sugar plum." I'm not Amy! - Foreshadowing: Sonic's sugar plum dream - at the time it just seems like mundane dream weirdness, but is actually a sign of Dreamcaster's hypnosis taking root, as sugar plums are the imagery it utilizes.
- Immune to Mind Control: Dreamcaster's mind control only works on those who own a TV, meaning Sticks is unaffected.
- Mind-Control Eyes: People under mind control by Dreamcaster can have their eyes changed, straight-up removing the pupil so that only the iris' color is showing. Emphasis on "can", because when the rest of Team Sonic arrests Sticks, their eyes are normal as long as Sticks can see them - they switch to mind control eyes when Dreamcaster reveals himself. In the later half of the episode, all mind controlled villagers have their eyes changed due to being mind controlled. The effect gets undone for all victims (and without any signs of aftereffects) when Dreamcaster is destroyed by Sticks.
- Mythology Gag: The Dreamcaster is a fairly obvious one to the Sega Dreamcast; his uncloaked form bears a resemblance to the console itself
◊ (and his glowing eyes are in reference to the Dreamcast's orange swirl symbol). - Pun: In the beginning of the episode, Sticks is out in the middle of the town during nighttime, boxing and kicking a canvas while smearing said canvas (and herself) with paint. When the badger finishes her painting, she proudly calls herself a mixed martial artist.
- Shaped Like Itself: "I was right in the middle of a really sweet dream! I was dancing with sugar plums! (beat) You know, when I say it out loud, I kinda regret having said it out loud."
- Suspiciously Specific Denial: During one of his mind-controlling TV monologues to hypnotize the villagers, Dreamcaster says this:Dreamcaster: All you have to do is follow my silky voice to the land of sugar plums where you want to go of your own free will and not because you're hypnotized.
- Talking to Themself: After Sticks tried to show the unknown figure (Dreamcaster) creeping around the TV studio to Sonic and the hedgehog went back to bed because he thought Sticks was making this up, the following lines occur:Sticks: (looking in one direction) That's the trouble with being a paranoid kook: When something really is going on, nobody believes you!
Sticks: (looking into the other direction) You can say that again!
Sticks: (changing her viewing direction again) I know, right? - The Voiceless: Cubot appears in this episode, but has no dialogue.
