The gang splits up, competing for the title of "Middle School's Best Friends," creating a rift between the group.
How The Best Was Won
- Everyone Went to School Together: Apparently Zach and Rusty's dads went to middle school together, and were voted Middle School's Best Buds. As such, Zach and Rusty seek to continue the family legacy.
- Food Fight: The animosity between Lincoln and Clyde with Rusty and Zach gets so intense that they delve into this while trying to do a cooking challenge. Liam and Stella are quite annoyed by this, and yells at them to stop before chewing them out.
- Gasshole: Throughout the episode, Rusty constantly burps loudly, which affects the competition. He blames this on the liver and onions he had for lunch. The audience watching this (Girl Jordan and Rachel in particular) react with disgust.
- Group Hug: The six friends all share this after making up.
- Jerkass Realization: While Liam and Stella are scolding them for letting their rivalry get in the way, the friends realize just how awful they've been behaving, and apologize to them.
- Plot-Mandated Friendship Failure: Lincoln and Clyde get into a fierce rivalry with Rusty and Zach, with Liam and Stella caught in the middle.
- Portmanteau Couple Name: As usual, Lincoln and Clyde call themselves Clincoln McCloud. Zach and Rusty end up with their own portmanteau friendship name, Zusty Spurdles.
- Rage Breaking Point: Liam and Stella are observing all of the brouhaha between their best friends, and don't like it. They try to let the others know how they feel about this, but are constantly pushed aside and ignored. It takes until the food fight between them that Liam and Stella finally lose their patience, and give their friends a furious What the Hell, Hero? for their obnoxious behavior, and tell them that they don't want to be friends with people whom act this way, and begin to leave in annoyance.
- Secret Handshake: Rusty and Zach create one to show everyone what great friends they are. Lincoln and Clyde try to counter them with their own handshake, but get interrupted when school starts.
- Shout-Out: The episode title is a parody of How the West Was Won.
- "The Reason You Suck" Speech: Liam and Stella gave one to Lincoln, Clyde, Zach and Rusty for being jerks.
- Trust-Building Blunder: As part of the competition, each team has to do challenges that represent their trust for each best friend. The first one involves a trust fall, and the second involves skating while blindfolded. Lincoln and Clyde fail the former when Rusty farts on Lincoln causing him to drop Clyde on the mat, while Rusty and Zach fail the latter when the same thing happens to them causing Zach to lose control and crash.
- We Interrupt This Program: Invoked by Clyde and Lincoln when they abuse the fact that they present the middle school news to show everybody a slideshow of their best friend moments. Then Zach and Rusty beat them at their own game by hacking the newscast to show their own friendship video.
Lana struggles to find homes for the exotic pets at the Royal Woods Animal Shelter, before they're moved out.
Animal House
- Answer Cut: Lana assures Sam that her parents will be fine with her adopting the exotic animals. The scene shows Mr. and Mrs. Loud saying no.
- Brick Joke: Before Larry leaves, Lana gives him Lola's sash to eat on the trip. Later when Lana is video chatting with Larry, he is eating the sash, which Lola is unhappy about.
- Day in the Limelight: For Lana.
- Dream Deception: As Lana is sneaking the animals up the house stairs, Lynn Sr. (who is sleeping on the couch) wakes up and is confused at what he is observing before him. Lana convinces him that this is just a dream, so he goes back to sleep.
- Eating Pet Food: Lana accidentally admits to doing this in the animal shelter.
- Literal-Minded: The episode begins with Lana and Willy paying Go Fish. Lana tells him to "go fish" and he tries eating a nearby fish in a bowl.
- Secret Pet Plot: Lana doesn't want to part with three animals she befriended at the pound (a llama named Larry, a sugar glider named Squirt, and a penguin named Willy). So, she asks her parents if they can keep them, but they say no since the family already has many pets. Lana then keeps Larry, Squirt, and Willy secretly in the attic, but gives up when they escape in the house and she realises that it's because they're bored.
- Shout-Out: The title is a reference to Animal House.
- Surprisingly Realistic Outcome: Lana tries to talk Mr. Grouse, Liam, and the McBrides into adopting the exotic animals, but they're reluctant since, being exotic animals, they require high maintenance care. Even when Lana offers to handle all the pet care, she quickly realizes how exhausting it is to take care of three animals in three different places.
- Troublemaking New Pet: Willy the penguin floods Mr. Grouse's kichen with water and bubbles, and Larry the llama starts a fight with Liam's pig. The animals continue to cause trouble even after Lana sneaks them into her house.
