The Date
Wander and Sylvia are on the valentine-shaped planet Lemoria, enjoying a lovely dinner, when Wander spots Lord Hater sitting a few ways away, chatting with Peepers about how he got stood up by Lemoria's king's daughter. While Sylvia gets a huge kick out of seeing this, what with Hater assaulting his waiter, Wander feels pity for him, and encourages Sylvia to go on a date so Lord Hater won't blow up the whole planet. Sylvia hesitantly agrees, and using a wig made out of a mop head and a tablecloth as clothing, disguises herself as a pretty lady who was stood up by her boyfriend. Linguini Von Breadstick. As Lord Hater spritzes his cologne and struts over to Sylvia, Wander says it's working, to which Sylvia replies, "It's really not."
Lord Hater goes and sits across from "Lin", and chats her up. The date is pretty much a disaster. Hater spends the entire night talking on and on and on about himself, while Wander pretends to be a waiter and offers Sylvia handy things to say to him to keep him happy so he'll stay in a good mood. Hater eats a bunch of things off the menu, ordering and offering nothing to "Lin". Finally, though, dinner is over. Sylvia is about to breathe a sigh of relief when Hater eagerly announces it's time to get on with the rest of the date. Before she can say a word in protest, it's off to the nearby carnival, where Hater wins a stuffed toy, bangs into her with a bumper car, and rides the Ferris Wheel with her. He leans in for a kiss, but that's a line Sylvia's not prepared to cross. Hater doesn't take the hint and she has to physically shove him away with hands and feet.
Hater takes this rejection hard and begins sobbing. Wander shows up to remind Sylvia that Hater will likely blow up the planet if he's upset about the date going bad, so Sylvia swallows her revulsion and kisses Hater on the forehead. Hater immediately leaps joyously into the air, returning to propose to "Lin", saying that thinking of even a second without her makes him want to blow up all the planets in the entire universe. Having no choice with a consequence like that if she says no, Sylvia-as-Lin accepts.
Aboard the Hatecraft, the wedding is taking place with Peepers prepared to officiate. When the ceremony gets to the "speak now or" part, Wander shows up — disguised as a fangirl who only realized her deep love for Lord Hater at the prospect of losing him to someone else. Hater takes this as indication that he's a chick magnet, and that he need not settle for either of them when he could do better. He sends them on their way, only to have Peepers reveal that they were Wander and Sylvia in dresses.
- Anywhere but Their Lips: When Sylvia must force herself to kiss Hater, she kisses him on his forehead — through his hood.
- Bait-and-Switch Comment: Peepers marrying "Linguini" to Hater:Peepers: Dearly beloved, we are gathered here today to marry this stunning vision of loveliness to some broad he met at a restaurant.
- Big "WHAT?!": Hater when he found out he dated Wander and Sylvia.
- Disguised in Drag: Wander's fangirl costume.
- Fast-Forward Gag: During Hater's date with a disguised Sylvia, the scene fast-forwards through his dialogue five times.
- Ferris Wheel Date Moment: Hater tries this, only to be rebuffed by Sylvia who is in no way interested in kissing him. At all.
- Footsie Under the Table: Hater tries this, and Wander, who is under the table to "help" Sylvia on the date, reciprocates until Hater kicks him across the restaurant.
- Fourth-Date Marriage: Hater proposes to "Lin" after having gone on one date with her. At the wedding, Peepers only refers to her as "Some broad [Hater] met at a restaurant."
- Heart Symbol: The planet Lemoria is valentine-shaped, complete with a Cupid's arrow
sticking out of it. - It's All About Me: Hater's idea of romantic dinner conversation is talking about himself.
- Jerks Use Body Spray: Hater douses himself with a ridiculous amount of body spray before going over to talk to a disguised Sylvia.
- Line-of-Sight Alias: While disguised as Hater's date, Sylvia gives the alias "Linguini von Breadstick" ("Lin for short!") based on what the passing waiters are carrying.
- Madness Mantra: Sylvia has three of them, each in increasing succession with each new event. First when on a date, she repeats, "It's just dinner." Then when Hater takes her to a carnival, it becomes, "It's just dinner and a carnival." Last, when she is forced into marrying him, it becomes, "It's just dinner and a carnival and a lifetime of misery."
- Nice to the Waiter: Hater is assuredly not. He was prepared to run out on his check while stood up; he did so after the enormous amount of food he ate with "Lin".
- Paper-Thin Disguise:
- Sylvia's "Linguini von Breadstick" outfit is a tablecloth dress and a mop wig.
- Wander's "competition" outfit is a pink dress, blonde wig, and pink hat, but it does nothing to disguise Wander's orange fur.
- Picky Eater: Hater makes Wander disguised as a waiter get him a new meal because a pea was touching his mashed potatoes.
- Sexiness Score: It's revealed that Lord Hater gives numerical ranking to women based on their attractiveness, after a date stood him up and Sylvia had to stand in to prevent him from going on a world-destroying rampage. After he almost marries her (long story), and Wander intervenes dressed in drag (longer story), Hater is convinced he's actually desirable, and why should he settle for a 6 and a 4 when he can have all the 10s he wants. Sylvia and Wander are off the hook and leaving, when Sylvia notes, "I'd better have been the 6, or I'm gonna go back there and deck him!"
- Shotgun Wedding: Played with. It isn't Hater who's in danger of getting shot, but at least one planet.
- Stood Up: Hater's date was apparently promised to him by the King of the planet Lemoria, but the princess never showed.
- Tempting Fate: When Wander asks her to be Hater's date, Sylvia replies that he'll be okay and "it's not like it's the end of the world." And then Hater calls Peepers to prepare to blow up the world.
- Valley Girl: Sylvia adopts this accent when in disguise as Linguini Von Breadstick.
The Buddies
The episode begins with Wander Walking The Plank inside the Hatecraft. Hater gloats that this is finally the end of his rivalry with Wander — that he will soon banish the little orange pest to the dimension which Hater sends all his enemies. Wander doesn't seem to mind. He glances down at the glowing, whirling portal and declares it pretty. Hater is enraged, and tries to get wander to show fear or at least say goodbye. Wander says, "Hello."
Hater rants that it's goodbye, but Wander continues, "...Sylvia." The Zbornak has come in the nick of time to save her little friend.
In the ensuing battle, both Wander and Hater fall from their respective perches and end up falling through the portal. In the fight, the portal is damaged, so there's no way back. Wander, of course, doesn't mind, but Hater wants to go home and leave Wander behind...that is, until a bunch of scary, rough, tough aliens appear and loom threateningly over Hater with rage for his having sent them there over ... really trivial things. Back aboard the Hatecraft, Sylvia is frantic to rescue Wander, only Peepers has showed up to train a beam gun on her.
Wander steps in and says he can't have his friends giving a hard time to his other friends. They react with incredulity that Wander and Hater are friends, and demand that Hater prove it. Wander is okay with that, and immediately takes them through a secret handshake, and one of those two-part Best Friends necklaces. Hater loses his temper at Wander a couple times, but when threatened with the wrath of the other guys, has to rein it in. Time passes, seasons change, and Wander remains his cheerful self. Hater tries to cope as well as he can before finally succumbing to sing and dance with Wander. Oh, wait: that was just a dream.
A sand worm nearly eats Wander, but the aliens force Hater to rescue him. Finally, the portal is fixed, and Hater is delighted. He crows about leaving everyone behind, angering the aliens who jump him. Except the portal's tractor beam picks up Wander. It was Sylvia who fought all the Watchdogs and fixed the portal to retrieve Wander. Wander refuses to leave Hater behind, though. "He may not be my buddy, but I'm still his." He sends the beam back for Hater, then realizes all the aliens are his friends, and widens it to bring them all back. Sylvia and Wander depart happily, the latter tossing Hater's half of the Best Buds necklace to him, which upsets Peepers, who has half a necklace of his own. As the pair Orbble off into space, the fight begins again.
- All Just a Dream: Hater's Heel–Face Turn turns out to be just a very bad dream.
- All There in the Script: The credits list the giant blue-purple thug's name as Thrax.
- Bait-and-Switch Comment: After nearly being eaten by a giant sandworm, Wander exclaims, "This place is AMAZING-ly horrible."
- Because You Were Nice to Me: Wander happens to be in good favor of all the thugs Hater banished to the prison dimension, because Wander was nice to them in one form or another.
- Befriending the Enemy: Inverted with Hater, who's forced to do this to avoid a beating by every monster he sent to the banishment realm.
- Big Ball of Violence: The aliens jumping in to whale on Hater, which is only stopped by Hater befriending Wander.
- Catapult Nightmare: At first it seems that Hater has become friends with Wander... and then he bolts up screaming.
- Demoted to Extra: Sylvia is only seen briefly at the beginning and end.
- Disproportionate Retribution: One of the thugs is salty towards Hater for destroying his bookstore because he politely refused to sell Hater's book in said-bookstore. On top of destroying the bookstore and then subsequently banishing the thug to the prison dimension they're in. It's no wonder he (along with the other thugs) despises Hater's guts.
- Friendship Song: Hater and Wander during the dream sequence.
- Ironic Echo: Peepers throws Sylvia's Pre Ass Kicking One Liner ('Sup) back at her when he gets the upper hand.
- Laser-Guided Karma: Hater has this twice: once when he is thrown into a dimension full of monsters he banished and again when he breaks his friendship with Wander.
- Near-Villain Victory: By Hater, who decided to let Wander be consumed by the sand snapper and die, until he's forced to save him by the thugs.
- No One Gets Left Behind: Wander is rescued by Sylvia, but insists that Hater be beamed up too because "he may not be my buddy, but I'm still his." Hater gloats to all the others being left behind... until Wander beams them up too because "they're all my buddies!"
- Sand Worm: The sand snapper in the prison dimension, which almost eats Wander. Hater was going to let him, but the monsters would beat him up so he had no choice.
- Save the Villain: After Sylvia frees Wander, he decides to free Hater as well.Wander: He may not be my buddy, but I'm still his.
- Secret Handshake: Wander creates one on the spot for himself and Hater.
- Shower of Angst: Played for Laughs during the credits when Peepers is sitting in the shower, crying when he thinks Hater replaced him as his buddy.
- Silence Is Golden: Not a word passes between the point Hater and Wander spend a night together and Hater waking up in the following scene.
- Ungrateful Bastard: Wander pushes Hater out of the way of the Sand Worm, saving him from getting sucked in. Hater's response is to leave him to die, until the thugs force him to rescue him.
- Villain Episode: This is really Lord Hater's episode, despite Wander playing a major role throughout.
- Vitriolic Best Buds: Hater is forced into this with Wander or else the monsters will beat him up.
