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Cross-Referenced Titles

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A related form of Idiosyncratic Episode Naming. The title of a new installment is used as a reference to the title of a previous work, especially common when it's used as a Sequel Episode or to indicate a Once a Season event. Other times it may just be akin to Similarly Named Works and there is no intended narrative link. Also can be used across different members of a Series Franchise.

If the two titles fit together to make a phrase, that's Compound Title.

Examples:

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    Anime & Manga 
  • The first chapter of Ayakashi Triangle is "Matsuri, Suzu, and the Ayakashi", while the last is "Matsuri, Suzu, and the Grand Conclusion".
  • Eureka Seven had four episodes with the word "acperience" in the title: "Acperience 1", "Acperience 2", "Acperience 3" and "Acperience 4".
  • Any chapter of Jo Jos Bizarre Adventure Diamond Is Unbreakable featuring Yoshikage Kira as the focal point will have his name in it: for example, the first chapter with him is called "Yoshikage Kira Wants A Normal Life" and the chapter where Stray Cat is introduced is called "A Cat Likes Yoshikage Kira".
  • Kaguya-sama: Love Is War:
    • Several chapters focusing on Kaguya's (Ice) persona reuse old chapter titles, just with (Ice) added to the end (like "Kaguya Wants to Eat (Ice)", or "The Swallow's Cowry (Ice)").
    • The first chapter where Fujiwara unknowingly faces off against one of the Four Ramen Emperors of Tokyo is called "Chika Fujiwara Really Wants to Eat". The second time she faces off against one of them, its "Chika Fujiwara Really, Really Wants to Eat", and the third is "Chika Fujiwara Really, Really, Really Wants to Eat".
  • Neon Genesis Evangelion employs this is several place. Sometimes it is a bit subtle, because every episode has two titles:
    • has two early episodes about Emotionless Girl Rei Ayanami, with the alternate titles of "Rei I" and "Rei II". Much later in the series we get an episode called "Rei III". Because the 3rd clone is pulled out of the jar in that episode.
    • Also done with the endings of the show. The last two TV episodes, Episodes 25 and 26, have the alternate titles of "Do You Love Me?" and "Take Care of Yourself". The End of Evangelion's two halves, Episodes 25’ and 26’, have titles that seems to be direct replies to these, as they are called "Love is Destructive" and "I Need You".
  • Sword Art Online has episodes titled: "The World of Swords," "The Land of Faeries," and "The World of Guns." Each is an episode in which Kirito enters a new game.
  • The final three episodes of Transformers: Cybertron are "End," "Unfinished," and "Beginning." (At least, in the West. Japan typically prefers a different sort of title.)

    Comic Books 
  • The first and last issues of The Filth were called "Us vs Them" and "Them vs Us", respectively.
  • The Invisibles featured two separate storylines in which King Mob's cell infiltrated the same military installation in Dulce, New Mexico: "Black Science" and "Black Science II".
  • Lucifer began as a miniseries called The Morningstar Option. One of the last issues of the main series was called "The Gaudium Option".
  • One of the Fables story arcs is called "The Good Prince". The spin-off, Jack Of Fables, had a story arc called "The Bad Prince".
  • Atomic Robo's 2009 Free Comic Book Day story is "Why Atomic Robo Hates Dr. Dinosaur", and covers the first encounter between the two. Issue 3 of Atomic Robo and Other Strangeness is "Why Dr. Dinosaur Hates Atomic Robo", and covers the events immediately prior to and following said encounter.
  • The DC crossovers Blackest Night and Brightest Day which both reference the Green Lantern oath.
  • A Letter from Home: The alternate title "The Old Castle's Other Secret" is a reference to Carl Barks story "The Old Castle's Secret".
  • Two Superman (Brian Michael Bendis) storylines are "The House of El" and "The House of Kent". Both involve Superman dealing with the unexpected return of family members (Jor-El in the former, Jon and Conner in the latter.)
  • The Detective Comics (Rebirth) storyline "A Lonely Place of Living", which stars Tim Drake, is titled after the storyline that introduced him: "A Lonely Place of Dying".

    Fanfiction 
  • With Strings Attached: Chapter 18 is “Rise and Shine,” and Chapter 19 is “Shine and Rise".
  • All That Shimmers: Chapter 12 is "Running the Other Direction", and chapter 13 is "Running the Same Direction".
  • Pokémon Mystery Dungeon: What Came After: Alesia Versus the Law and Three Klefki Versus the Law.
  • Universe Falls: The "Fusion Fiascos" storyline, which introduces Stevonnie, as well as fusions of Steven with Mabel (Maven) and Dipper (Stepper), is divided into three parts titled "Alone Together", "Together Forever", and "Forever Alone".
  • A Thing of Vikings has chapters that are grouped together by titles that, when joined together, make a longer sentence. Examples:
    • Chapters 16 and 17; "Bindings..." "And Partings"
    • Chapters 24 and 25; "Your Only Hope...", "...Hide, and Pray That It Does Not Find You" (a reference to the entry on Night Furies in the dragon training guides from How to Train Your Dragon, before Hiccup befriended Toothless.)
    • Chapters 42-44; "The Pen...", "...Is Mightier...", "...Than The Sword"
    • Chapters 54 and 55; "We Are Who We Are", "And Who We Make Ourselves To Be"
    • Chapters 60 and 61; "A Threat Perceived" "Is A Threat Achieved"
    • Chapters 74 and 75; "It's Planting Seeds In a Garden..." "...You Never Get To See" (a reference to Hamilton)
  • The Story Shuffle series has the chapters involving Octavia, a musician, have Musical Theme Naming:

    Film 

    Literature 
  • Michael Moorcock: The Corum series: The Knight of the Swords, The Queen of the Swords and The King of the Swords, followed by The Bull and the Spear, The Oak and the Ram and The Sword and the Stallion.
  • Only one of Iain M. Banks' Culture novels is a direct sequel to another: Look to Windward, which follows Consider Phlebas. Both titles are taken from a single sentence in T. S. Eliot's The Wasteland.
  • Doctor Who Expanded Universe
  • In Five Children and It, a chapter is called "Wings", as the children wish for them. The next chapter is "No Wings", when their wings disappear while they are asleep, leaving them stranded on a church tower.
  • In Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban, the first chapter is called "Owl Post", the last is called "Owl Post Again".
  • The first chapter of The Hobbit is titled "An Unexpected Party". The first chapter of its sequel, The Lord of the Rings, is titled "A Long-Expected Party". Other cross-referencing chapter titles in The Lord of the Rings include "Many Meetings" with "Many Partings" and "The Black Gate is Closed" with "The Black Gate Opens".
  • Nero Wolfe:
    • Rex Stout wrote three novels called Too Many Cooks, Too Many Women and Too Many Clients. And a short story called "Too Many Detectives".
      • Hence the Lord Darcy Wolfe pastiche being Too Many Magicians.
    • Other Nero Wolfe novels by Stout are The Mother Hunt and The Father Hunt; there are also the novels Death of a Dude and Death of a Doxy, and the short story "Death of a Demon".
  • Sholem Aleichem has two successive and descriptively named stories, typically translated as "Tevye Strikes It Rich" and "Tevye Blows a Small Fortune". In the first, Tevye has a run of good luck after transporting well-to-do clients in his wagon, and at the end of the story is in a position to better his family's position. However, in the very next story, he is convinced by a distant kinsman, Menachem Mendl (another Aleichem series character) to invest in a harebrained financial scheme and loses everything he had gained.
  • In Lord of the Flies, chapter 5 is called “Beast from Water” (in reference to the suggestion that the beast might live in the sea and come out at night). Chapter 6 follows up with “Beast from Air,” in reference to the dead parachuter the boys later mistake for a monster.

    Live-Action TV 
  • Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D.: The season one episode "End of the Beginning" and finale "Beginning of the End" respectively open and conclude the "Uprising" arc.
  • American Horror Story
  • Baby Einstein has "Language Nursery" and "Numbers Nursery."
  • Babylon 5: had two episodes late in the final season: "Objects in Motion" and "Objects at Rest", references to Newton's First Law of Motion.
  • The 1960s Batman (1966) series did this all the time, as most of their episodes were two-parters. These would usually take the form of a rhyming couplet. Some were clever ("Hizzoner, the Penguin"/"Dizzonner the Penguin"; "An Egg Grows in Gotham"/"The Yegg Foes in Gotham"; "The Riddler Goes Straight"/"Not Yet, He Ain't") and some were not ("That Darn Catwoman"/"Scat! Darn Catwoman!"; "Batman's Anniversary"/"A Riddling Controversy").
  • A handful of episodes in the first season of Best Friends Whenever began with the phrase "A Time To...".
  • The series premiere for Black Hole High is called "Wormhole". The season 2 premiere is called "Wormhole Part 2".
  • The Bob Newhart Show had a trio of season 3 episodes titled, respectively, "Bob Hits the Ceiling", "Emily Hits the Ceiling", and "The Ceiling Hits Bob".
  • Bones: The 4th season finale is called "The End in the Beginning", while the Season 5 finale was "The Beginning in the End".
  • Breaking Bad:
    • The Season 2 episodes "Seven Thirty Seven", "Down," "Over," and "ABQ" feature flash-forwards to a pink teddy bear being fished out of Walter's pool and their names form a sentence explaining how the bear got there.
    • The Season 3 episodes "Half Measures" and "Full Measure".
    • The Season 3 episodes "Thirty-Eight Snub" and "Shotgun".
    • The Season 2 episode "Peekaboo" and the Season 3 episode "I See You".
    • The Season 4 episode "Problem Dog" and the Season 5 episode "Rabid Dog".
    • The Season 3 premiere, "No Más", has Walter leaving the meth game behind after seeing the wreckage. The episode where he decides he wants to get back in the game? "Más".
    • Better Call Saul: The title of season 6, episode 11 is "Breaking Bad." Saul made his debut in Breaking Bad season 2, episode 8, "Better Call Saul."
  • The Buffyverse:
    • The Buffyverse went across shows and episodes. The episode where Angel sleeps with Buffy and turns into Angelus on Buffy is called "Surprise". On Angel, when Angel once again sleeps with someone and we think he is going to turn into Angelus, but he doesn't, the episode is called "Reprise", calling back to the Buffy episode two years previous.
    • Also, the Season 3 episode "Bad Girls" where Faith tries to get Buffy to enjoy her slaying but ends up accidentally killing the mayor's aide, and the Season 7 episode "Dirty Girls" where Faith returns from L.A. to help with the fight against the First Evil.
    • The episodes "Smashed", "Wrecked" and "Gone", all of which dealt with both Willow's addiction and Buffy's destructive relationship with Spike, were so named because they were all euphemisms for "drunk" or "high".
  • Bunk'd had the fourth season premiere called "Who da Boss? Lou da Boss!" the fifth season premiere was called "Lou's Still the Boss, But Now There's a Ross"
  • Castle, most of the episodes concerning Beckett's mother from season 2 to the first episode of season 4 have a fighting motif: "Suckerpunch", "Knockdown", "Knockout", and finally "Rise".
    • Some of the two-part storylines have titles that reference each other; "Tick, Tick, Tick..."/"Boom!" (season 2), "Setup"/"Countdown" (season 3) and "XY"/"XX" (season 8).
  • Charmed's first episode was called "Something Wicca This Way Comes". The seventh season finalé, which looked for some time as if it would be a series finalé, was called "Something Wicca This Way Goes".
  • Cheers had a series of episodes revolving around the gang's feud with rival bar Gary's Old Towne Tavern. The first onenote  was "Bar Wars" (season 6). Then came "Bar Wars II: The Woodman Strikes Back" (season 7), "Bar Wars III: The Return of Tecumseh" (season 8), "Bar Wars V: The Final Judgment" (season 10), "Bar Wars VI: This Time It's For Real" (season 10) and "Bar Wars VII: The Naked Prey" (season 11). (For some odd reason there was no episode titled "Bar Wars IV".)
  • The first season finale of Cobra Kai is titled "Mercy". This is followed by the season 2 premiere "Mercy Part II" and the finale "No Mercy".
  • The two parts of Community's Paintball Episode are titled "A Fistful of Paintballs" and "For A Few Paintballs More".
    • There's also the season 3 Finale, "Introduction to Finality" and the season 4 finale "Advanced Introduction to Finality", and the two Dungeons & Dragons based episodes "Advanced Dungeons and Dragons" and "Advanced Advanced Dungeons and Dragons".
    • Other examples include "Pilot" and "Repilot" "Modern Warfare" and "Modern Espionage", "Cooperative Calligraphy" and "Cooperative Polygraphy", "Course Listing Unavailable" and "Curriculum Unavailable", "Basic Story" and "Basic Sandwich", "Intermediate Documentary Filmmaking", "Documentary Filmmaking: Redux" and "Advanced Documentary Filmmaking",
  • Coupling (written by Stephen Moffat, who is rather fond of this trope) had several examples:
    • "The Girl With Two Breasts", "The Man With Two Legs" and "The Girl With One Heart".
    • Two consecutive episodes titled "Naked" and "Dressed".
    • The final series begins with "9 And A Half Minutes" and ends with "9 And A Half Months".
  • Criminal Minds frequently uses this for a Sequel Episode or a Multi-Part Episode ("The Fox"/"Outfoxed", "To Hell..."/"...And Back", "Hit"/"Run", "The Inspiration"/"The Inspired", "Angels"/"Demons", "Lucky"/"Lucky Strikes", "Profiling 101"/"Profiling 202").
  • Doctor Who
  • Dog with a Blog had an octet of episodes that begin with "Guess Who...".
  • Each episode where Captain Cold plays a major role in The Flash (2014) has the word "rogue" in the title, referencing his position as head of the Rogues: "Going Rogue", "Revenge of the Rogues", "Rogue Time", "Rogue Air", "Family of Rogues", and "The New Rogues", (he only appears in that one in a flashback and as a hologram, but his absence plays a significant role).
    • The two-part crossover with Arrow that serves as a Backdoor Pilot for Legends of Tomorrow has both episodes cross-referenced with both each other and the latter show — "Legends of Today" for The Flash, "Legends of Yesterday" for Arrow.
    • "The Man in the Yellow Tie", which introduces a version of Eobard Thawne who doesn't rembember being Reverse-Flash or hating Barry, is an obvious reference to "The Man in the Yellow Suit".
  • Frasier:
    • The pilot, in which he agrees to look after his dad, was titled "The Good Son". A later episode, where he considered putting him in a retirement home, was of course "The Bad Son". The first episode of the revival, where Frasier moves to Boston to be closer to his son, continues the tradition by being titled "The Good Father".
    • Episodes featuring the return of old Cheers characters were given titles in the "The Show Where ______ Comes Back/Shows Up" format. While this sounds like a Shout-Out to the "The One Where..." titles from Friends, the first one - with Lilith - aired months before the Friends pilot.
  • The last episode of the first season of Friends was "The One Where Rachel Finds Out", where she finds out how Ross feels about her, realises she feels the same way, and discovers he's met Julie. Seven episodes into season two, there's "The One Where Ross Finds Out". (Much later there was "The One Where Everybody Finds Out", but that was a different Romance Arc entirely and is probably a coincidence.) Season 2 also has "The One Where Joey Moves Out" and "The One Where Eddie Moves In".
  • The season 3 Fringe episode "Subject 13" is a Whole Episode Flashback about Walter's experiments with young Olivia. The season 4 episode "Subject 9" is a present-set episode about another Cortexiphan kid, one whose life has been ruined by Power Incontinence.
  • Game of Thrones:
    • Game of Thrones
    • The season two finale is titled "Valar Morghulis". The season three opener is called "Valar Dohaeris". "Valar Morghulis" has since been translated as "all men must die". "Valar Dohaeris" is apparently the traditional response (Melisandre and Thoros use it at their meeting); it means "all men must serve".
      • The season one premiere is entitled "Winter is Coming", the house words of the Starks. The season one finale is "Fire and Blood", the house words of the Targaryens.
      • Two episodes in season three are "The Bear and the Maiden Fair" and "The Rains of Castamere"; these are the two most popular songs in Westeros and both have been sung on-screen.
      • Season four episode "Oathkeeper" and season six episode "Oathbreaker".
    • House of the Dragon: One episode os Season 1 is titled "Second of His Name" in reference to the Game of Thrones episode "First of His Name".
  • Gilmore Girls used these several times: The episode recounting Rory's first day of high school is titled "The Lorelais' First Day At Chilton", and the one about her first day of college is titled "The Lorelais' First Day At Yale". An episode titled "Tick Tick Boom" was followed by "Afterboom".
  • The Golden Girls had three episodes with "Ebb Tide" in the name. "Ebb Tide" and "Ebbtide's Revenge" were somewhat related, about the deaths of Blanche's father and Sophia's son/Dorothy's brother, respectively. The third, "Ebbtide VI: The Wrath of Stan" is not related.
  • The Good Night Show has "Where We Live" and "Where We Sleep," both from Season 4.
  • The last two episodes of Season 4 of House are titled "House's Head" and "Wilson's Heart".
  • How I Met Your Mother:
    • The last two season 2 episodes "Something Borrowed" "Something Blue" and the last two season 8 episodes "Something Old" "Something New" are references to the famous tradition for weddings. The season 2 ends with the wedding of Marshall and Lily while season 8 ends with the preparations for the wedding of Barney and Robin.
    • "Slapsgiving", "Slapsgiving 2: Revenge of the Slap" and "Slapsgiving 3: Slappointment in Slapmarra" all involve Marshall giving a slap to Barney because the latter lost a bet.
    • Season one episode "The Slutty Pumpkin" and season 7 "The Slutty Pumpkin Returns" both have the girl who dresses as a sexy pumpkin for Halloween.
    • Season 7 episode "Good Crazy" and season 8 episode "Bad Crazy".
    • Season 2 episode "First Time in New York" and season 9 episode "Last Time In New York".
  • John Doe: Most of the episodes have unique names. A few, though, try to reference the title of the show as much as possible, usually involving wordplay. Examples: "Doe Re: Me", "John Deux", "John D.O.A.", "Doe or Die".
  • The first episode of Kamen Rider OOO is "Medals, Underwear, and a Mysterious Arm". The last episode is "Tomorrow's Medals, Underwear, and Arms Held".
  • Law & Order: Special Victims Unit had a episode titled "Night". The various plot threads were concluded in the Law & Order: Trial by Jury episode "Day".
  • Lexx featured a mystery episode titled "The Net", followed by its solution, titled "The Web". (The episodes are so similar that in syndication, "The Net" is usually omitted.)
  • Lost did this quite often.
    • Season 2 episode "One of Them" and Season 3 "One of Us", both dealing with individuals who may or may not be affiliated with the Others.
    • "White Rabbit" and "Through the Looking Glass" invoked Jack's Alice in Wonderland motif, while "The Man Behind the Curtain" and "There's No Place Like Home" invoked Ben's Wizard of Oz motif.
    • Season 4 had "The Constant". An episode in season 5 is titled "The Variable".
    • "What Kate Did" from Season 2 and "What Kate Does" from Season 6.
    • "House of the Rising Sun" from season 1 and "Sundown" from season 6.
    • "Everybody Hates Hugo" from season 2 and "Everybody Loves Hugo" from season 6.
    • The premiere of the fourth season — the first episode after the end date was set — was "The Beginning of the End". The series finale was "The End".
  • The Magicians first two season finales, "Have You Brought Me Little Cakes" and "We Have Brought You Little Cakes".
  • M*A*S*H
    • Season 10 episodes "Snap Judgment" and "Snappier Judgment".
    • "Mail Call" (season 2), "Mail Call, Again" (season 4), and "Mail Call Three" (season 6).
    • Not forgetting the various "letter home" episodes, which were usually titled "Dear .....".
  • Maude: About half the episode titles were named "X's Y", with X being a character and Y being something they deal with in the episode.
  • Miami Vice has "Forgive Us Our Debts" and its Sequel Episode "Deliver Us From Evil."
  • Murder, She Wrote had the season 10 episode "A Killing in Cork" and the season 11 episode "Another Killing in Cork". Apart from the setting, and the return of the same police sergeant, the episodes are unlinked.
  • NCIS did this with season 6 episodes "Cloak" and "Dagger", season 8's "Enemies Foreign" and "Enemies Domestic", and season 12's "The Lost Boys" and "Neverland".
    • Any episode with Gibbs, Fornell, and their mutual ex-wife Diane starts with "Devil's Tri-".
  • NCIS: Los Angeles has the season 1 episodes "Missing" and "Found".
    • A Day in the Limelight episodes for a character follows the "Surname, First Initial" pattern ("Callen, G.", "Blye, K.", "Granger, O.").
  • NewsRadio writers, when pressed for episode titles at the end of Season Two, named nine episodes in a row after Led Zeppelin albums. "In Through the Out Door", "The Song Remains the Same", "Zoso", "Houses of the Holy", "Physical Graffiti", "Led Zeppelin", "Presence", "Coda", and "Led Zeppelin II" have little in common besides their titles. A later episode in Season Three is titled "Led Zeppelin Boxed Set".
  • Night Court had a series of episodes all hinging on the conceit that the docket must be cleared by midnight: "A Day in the Life", "Another Day in the Life", "Yet Another Day in the Life", and "Still Another Day in the Life".
  • The six episodes of Nikita's final season are three pairs: "Wanted"/"Dead or Alive", "Set-Up"/"Pay-Off", and "Bubble"/"Canceled".
  • The Once Upon a Time episode that showed how Snow White and Charming met was called "Snow Falls". A later episode, in which their meeting was disrupted by time travelers, was called "Snow Drifts".
  • The last two episodes of Orphan Black's second season are "Things Which Have Never Yet Been Done" and "By Means Which Have Never Yet Been Tried". They come from the same Francis Bacon quote (allowing them to fit in with the season's Idiosyncratic Episode Naming) but narrowly avert Compound Title by the second phrase not directly following the first in the original text.
  • Parks and Recreation did an episode in season 2 entitled "Ron and Tammy" which involves Ron sleeping with his evil second ex-wife named Tammy (his first wife and mother are also named Tammy). Tammy Two returns in season 3 in "Ron and Tammy: Part Two" where they briefly remarry. Tammy Two, the much scarier ex-wife Tammy One and Ron's mother Tammy show up in the season 4 episode "Ron and Tammys". The season 7 episode "Ron and Jammy" has Tammy Two in a relationship with Councilman Jamm.
  • Cross-season teamup episodes of Power Rangers often cross-reference the title of the previous season, such as the Lightspeed Rescue/Time Force teamup, "Time For Lightspeed", or the Ninja Storm/Dino Thunder teamup, "Thunderstorm". Also, the first episode of Power Rangers Dino Thunder, which reintroduced a character from the franchise's first season, was titled "Day of the Dino", a reference to the series premiere, "Day of the Dumpster".
    • Within single seasons, Lightspeed Rescue's premiere was "Operation Lightspeed" and its finale was "The Fate of Lightspeed"; and SPD did the same with "Beginnings" and "Endings".
    • Power Rangers Beast Morphers would return to this trend, with the first episode of season 1 being named "Beasts Unleashed" and the finale of season 2 being named "Evox Unleashed".
  • Pretty Little Liars:
    • Season 4's premiere "A is for A-L-I-V-E" and finale "A is for Answers".
    • Season 6's premiere "Game On, Charles" and midseason finale "Game Over, Charles".
    • Season 6's second and third episodes, "Songs of Innocence" and "Songs of Experience" (respectively).
  • Psych:
    • Art thief Pierre Desperaux is introduced in season 4 "Extradition: British Columbia" and returns in "Extradition II: The Actual Extradition Part".
    • Season 1 episode "Cloudy... With a Chance of Murder" was remade in season 8 under the title "Remake A.K.A. Cloudy... With a Chance of Improvement".
  • Red Dwarf: Series 3's "Polymorph" is about the crew facing off against the titular GELF. Series 6's "Emohawk: Polymorph II" is about the crew facing off against a domesticated version of the polymorph, the Emohawk.
    • "Back To Reality" is about the crew being trapped in a halluncination caused by a Despair Squid. "Back To Earth" is about the crew being trapped in a halluncination caused by an Elation Squid (a female Despair Squid").
  • Episodes of Scrubs featuring the Inner Monologue of characters other than J.D. comprise "His Story", "His Story II", "Her Story", "Her Story II", "His Story III", "His Story IV", "Their Story" and "Their Story II".
  • Shadow and Bone's two season finales, "No Mourners" and "No Funerals", make up the Crows' motto, "No mourners, no funerals." The latter is a Non-Indicative Name since there is a Meaningful Funeral in the episode.
  • Sliders: The fourth season starts with "Genesis" and ends with "Revelation". They have no connection to the season three two-parter called "The Exodus", though.
  • On Aaron Sorkin's first three series, the first-season finale was called "What Kind of Day Has It Been". The fourth, The Newsroom, saved the title for its series finale instead.
  • Stargate SG-1 is fond of these.
    • The original Time Travel episode was titled "1969", for the year it took place. Later, an episode set in an alternative future, in which the characters used the same form of Time Travel, was titled "2010", for the year it took place. When the events described as leading to that future started to occur in the present (but were eventually stopped, of course), the episode was titled "2001" — which was the year the episode was made and aired, making it the year it took place. Adding yet another layer of meaning, in "2010", an plan going on in the background involves converting Jupiter into a star (a major element of the Arthur C. Clarke novel 2010), while the main alien plot has some similarities to another Clarke novel, Childhood's End; and of course "2001" refers to the most famous Clarke novel (to which 2010 is a sequel), 2001: A Space Odyssey.
    • Perhaps the cleverest example involves the SG-1 episode "Grace", in which a concussed Samantha Carter hallucinates a young girl named Grace. Stargate Atlantis would later feature an episode titled "Grace Under Pressure", in which a concussed McKay hallucinates Samantha Carter — at the bottom of the ocean, where the water pressure is a problem.
    • Similarly, the Atlantis episode "38 Minutes" is in part a recapitulation of the SG-1 episode "48 Hours" — both involve people who are stuck dematerialized inside a stargate, and the title of the episode is the length of time everyone else has to figure out how to get them out.
    • Three of the Replicator-centered episodes are titled "Nemesis", "Enemies" and "Menace", which all have similar meanings as well as phonetic structure.
  • Star Trek: Many of the cross-franchise stories played on this:
    • Star Trek: The Next Generation
      • The first season featured "The Naked Now", in which the Enterprise crew faced the same virus that had afflicted Kirk's Enterprise in "The Naked Time".
      • Once a Season Q would show up and his name would feature in the title, such as "Hide and Q" or the more punny "Q-pid". The exceptions would be the series premiere "Encounter at Farpoint," Series Finale "All Good Things..." and mid series episode "Tapestry." This was repeated across Deep Space Nine and Voyager episodes and some novels too.
    • Star Trek: Deep Space Nine visited the original series' episode "The Trouble With Tribbles" in its "Trials and Tribble-ations"
    • Star Trek: Enterprise visited the mirror universe of TOS's "Mirror, Mirror" with "In a Mirror, Darkly". Several episodes of Deep Space Nine also featured the same alternate universe, and also had the word "mirror" in their titles.
    • Deep Space Nine also had episodes titled "Profit and Lace" (referring back to its earlier episode "Profit and Loss") and "Who Mourns for Morn?" (referring back to the TOS episode "Who Mourns for Adonais?").
      • Other examples from Deep Space 9 include:
      • "In the Hands of the Prophets" (season 2 finale) and "Tears of the Prophets" (season 6 finale)
      • "Duet" (season 2) and "Waltz" (season 6)
      • "Children of Time" (season 5) and "Time's Orphan" (season 6)
      • "Defiant" (season 3) and "Valiant" (season 6) (both episodes share the name of Defiant-class starships)
    • There were also the occasional unintended echoes: the Voyager episode "Blink of an Eye" was originally titled "Wink of an Eye", until someone realized there'd been an unrelated (but named for the one story element both episodes share) TOS episode with that title.
    • Star Trek: Discovery had an episode referencing the TNG two-parter called "Unification", about Spock's attempts to reconnect Vulcan and Romulan cultures, revealing that this had been achieved by the 32nd century was titled "Unification III".
  • Supernatural:
    • The season 4 premiere is titled "Lazarus Rising" and the finale "Lucifer Rising". The season starts and ends with someone escaping hell: Dean and Lucifer respectively.
    • "Slash Fiction", "Meta Fiction" and "Fan Fiction", although having distinct plots, all have meta jokes.
  • In the serie, The Mentalist until the moment they caught the main antagonist, all the chapters had the word red, referring to his name, which is Red John.
  • The Walking Dead has season 4's "Us" and season 5's "Them", and two episodes in season 5 titled "Remember" and "Forget".
  • Episodes of The X-Files and Millennium (1996) featuring Charles Nelson Reilly as the same character were titled "Jose Chung's From Outer Space" and "Jose Chung's Doomsday Defense", respectively.
  • Third Watch's first episode was called "Welcome to Camelot", its Grand Finale was called "Goodbye to Camelot".
  • The Zack Files: 13 of the 26 episodes of Season Two include Zack's name in the title. "Run Zack Run" is the only such episode of Season One.

    Music 
  • Newton Faulkner's first two albums were named "Handbuilt by Robots" and "Rebuilt by Humans", however all his other albums have broken away from any naming pattern.
  • Live albums are often titled by a play on the title of a previous album or song. Deep Purple did this twice, with Made in Japan and Made in Europe, and later Perfect Strangers and Nobody's Perfect. Blue Öyster Cult named Extraterrestrial Live after their song "E.T.I.". Motörhead's No Sleep 'til Hammersmith was followed by No Sleep at All.
  • Gorillaz songs "Dirty Harry" and "Clint Eastwood". Also "Every Planet We Reach is Dead" versus "O Green World," and "Tomorrow Comes Today" versus "El Manana."
  • Pond's "You're Not An Astronaut" and "My Dog Is An Astronaut, Though". They aren't directly connected, but both deal with space travel and are on the same album.
  • Lambchop's simultaneously-released albums Aw C'mon and No, You C'mon.
  • From Brentalfloss's first album: "Introspective Duck in Space". From his second album: "Introspective Man in Blue". From his third album: "Introspective Bounty Hunter in Space". All three songs are piano arrangements of another song in the respective album.
  • Lazerhawk's "So Close", from Redline, and "So Far Away", from Visitors.
  • Nine Inch Nails' EP "Broken" and the remix EP "Fixed".
  • The Beautiful South's first two albums had songs titled "I Love You (But You're Boring)" and "I Hate You (But You're Interesting)".
  • Pizzicato Five had the songs "Tokyo Mon Amour" (from Romantique 96) and Mon Amour Tokyo (from Happy End of the World). Aside from the titles, they're unrelated.
  • Richard Swift had "Mexico (1977)", a retro 70s-sounding pop song from his Walking Without Effort album, and "1977 (Mexico)", a minimalist electronic song from his Nothing to Do with Foxy Boxing EP.
  • Four Tet's album Pause and the remix EP Paws.
  • Bad Religion's album Into The Unknown and its eventual follow-up EP Back To The Known - the former was a New Sound Album that temporarily broke up the band, so the EP title was a nod to them returning to something closer to their original style.
  • The first four tracks of Helium's Pirate Prude have paired titles: "Baby Vampire Made Me" followed by "Wanna Be A Vampire Too, Baby", and "XXX" followed by "000".
  • Paul McCartney: The album titles All the Best and Kisses on the Bottom combine to describe the way he usually signs autographs, "All the best, Paul McCartney X X X".
  • Stars (Canadian Band): Two songs from Set Yourself On Fire are titled "Your Ex-Lover Is Dead" and "One More Night (Your Ex-Lover Is Still Dead)". Both songs are about an ended relationship, though it is ambiguous if they are about the same couple.
  • Hank Williams Jr.'s best known song, "All My Rowdy Friends Are Comin' Over Tonight", cross-references an earlier, more somber tune named "All My Rowdy Friends (Have Settled Down)".
  • The Rush album Signals has one tracked called "The Analog Kid" and another "Digital Man".
  • Aphex Twin has four different songs scattered across his discography with the name "[color] Calx": Selected Ambient Works 85-92 has "Green Calx", Selected Ambient Works Volume II has "Blue Calx", Richard D. James Album has "Yellow Calx", and among the mountain of unreleased tracks uploaded as part of his initial 2015 SoundCloud dump is "4 Red Calx".
  • The Real Zebos:
    • Strictly Platonic has two consecutive songs called "Get Down" and "Get Around".
    • Their 2022 album no style and their 2023 EP even less style.

    Radio 
  • Big Finish Doctor Who audio dramas are fond of this, usually to indicate a series of linked stories such as the Excelis trilogy (Excelis Dawns, Excelis Rises and Excelis Decays) but also sometimes apparently for the heck of it, such as the two largely unconnected Eighth Doctor audios set on Martian moons that have become holiday destinations called Phobos and Demios. There are also audio dramas cross-referenced to TV stories, such as most of the stories in The Diary of River Song Vol 5, which are cross-referenced to the story they're a P.O.V. Sequel to (the one exception uses the TV story's Working Title), or the multi-Master stories "The Two Masters" and "The Day of the Master", which riff on the multi-Doctor stories "The [Three/Five/Two] Doctors" and "The Day of the Doctor".

    Tabletop Games 

    Theatre 
  • Ben Jonson wrote a comedy in 1598 called Every Man in His Humour. The following year he presented Every Man out of His Humour.
  • Records exist of a play by William Shakespeare called Love's Labour's Won, which is either a lost sequel to Love's Labour's Lost or an alternative name for a known play that calls back to it.

    Video Games 
  • Braid has a few repetitions (The Pit, Hunt!, Lair, There and Back Again) of level names, a few with question marks in later levels (Phase and Phase?, The Pit and The Pit?), and two paired sets (Movement by Degrees and Movement, Amplified; Fickle Companion and Fragile Companion), all of whose names are meant to tie the levels together and offer occasional hints to train the player.
  • Many level names in Chip's Challenge build on each other or use sequel naming and synonyms, but the best example by far would be Totally Fair and Totally Unfair ( the latter is solved exactly the same as the former, but the tooth monster in the maze must be manipulated without the player's ability to see it).
  • The original tutorial zones for City of Heroes and City of Villains were called Outbreak and Breakout, respectively.
  • The PlayStation Portable port of the first Disgaea game carries the subtitle Afternoon of Darknessnote , referencing the original game's subtitle of Hour of Darkness.
  • Starcraft I:
    • Episode III (playing as the Protoss) is titled The Fall, and Episode IV (again as the Protoss) is titled The Stand. This can be a little confusing, as Episode III starts with the Protoss preparing to make their stand against the Zerg, and Episode IV starts with them abandoning Auir; but technically the former shows the fall of Auir, and the latter shows them making their stand on Shakuras.
    • In the UED campaign, the mission of final assault against Mengsk is titled 'Emperor's Fall', but Mengsk manages to escape. The very next mission is spent hunting him down, until he runs away again, and is titled 'Emperor's Flight'.
    • The fourth UED mission is your initial invasion of Korhal, and is appropriately titled 'Assault on Korhal'. The fourth Zerg mission oversees the UED being driven off of Korhal, and fittingly enough is titled 'Liberation of Korhal'.
    • Finally, the eighth and final mission of the UED campaign is dedicated to capturing and enslaving the Overmind, and is titled 'To Chain the Beast'. The Zerg mission dedicated to killing the Overmind (also the eighth oddly enough, but not the final one), is called 'To Slay the Beast'.

    Web Animation 
  • Battle for Dream Island:
    • First was episode 9 title "Insectophobe's Nightmare", where the challenge was for the teams to play in a “6-legged race” (the viewers didn’t get the titles joke, as insects have six legs), next was episode 24, “Insectophobe’s Nightmare 2”, where Flower accidentally hatches a whole horde of bugs that chase the remaining cast, and in 'Battle for Dream Island Again'', epiosde 2, “Insectophobe’s Nightmare 3”, the challenge was to for the teams to kill all of their bugs.
    • From the first season of BFDI we have episode 17 ("The Reveal")and episode 18 ("Reveal Novum").
  • Homestar Runner: One of the site's earliest cartoons was "The House That Gave Sucky Treats", an interactive Halloween Episode where Homestar and his friends went trick-or-treating and the viewer got to pick candy to give them. Roughly fourteen years later, the 2015 Halloween cartoon was entitled "The House That Gave Sucky Tricks", and was about Strong Bad dreaming up his own idea for a haunted house attraction.
  • Red vs. Blue opened with "Why Are We Here?", and episode 100, which ended the first story arc, was "Why Were We Here?". On Season 14, an Origins Episode was "Why They're Here". Also, season 3 had "Calm Before the Storm" right before season finale "The Storm", and Season 13 had "The End Is Near" followed by the Series Fauxnale "The End".
  • RWBY:
    • In Volume 3, the episode "Beginning of the End" is when the villains make their move against Beacon Academy, and "End of the Beginning" is the end of that battle. Salem sums up the conclusion of the battle by saying "This is the beginning of the end, Ozpin, and I can't wait to watch you burn".
    • In the Volume 1 episode(s) "The First Step", the students are thrust into the woods, where they will form teams for their new life at Beacon. In the Volume 4 episode "The Next Step", Ruby and JNR walk through the woods, debating their new team name as the story establishes their new life after Beacon.
    • The Volume 2 episode "Welcome to Beacon" has Haven Academy students arriving at Beacon. In the Volume 5 episode "Welcome to Haven", Beacon Academy students arrive at Haven.

    Webcomics 
  • El Goonish Shive has several, particularly back when every strip had a title:
    • "There Was Once A Nanase From... Wait, That Doesn’t Rhyme!" and "There Nanase-from-Somewhere-that-Doesn't-Rhyme Goes Again!"
    • "Girls Who Have Kissed Sarah Count = 2" and "Girls Who Have Kissed Sarah Count = 3"
    • "Shields Up! Evasive Maneuvers!" and "Hull Breach! Decompression Imminent!"
    • "Bad Graduates To Worse" and "Worse Evolves To All Sorts Of Bad"
    • "If You Were To Ask, She Would Say You Already Know Her" and "This Wouldn't Be True, But She Would Not Be Lying"
    • "Remember Today's Comic" and "Remember Today's Comic As Well"
    • The ESG:NP storyline "Not A Date At The Mall" (Ellen and Nanase) and the regular storyline "So A Date At The Mall" (Elliot and Ashley).
    • The first two chapters in "The New World" are called "The Legend of Diane" and "The Secret of Sam".
    • The major arcs "Sister", "Sister 2", and "Sister 3" are much later followed up by "Brother" and "Father".
  • Finding Your Roots: Chapter 6, "A Girl and a Dragon", references Chapter 1, "A Girl and an Egg", once the egg hatched.
  • Gunnerkrigg Court: "Chapter 36: Red Gets a Name" and "Chapter 61: Red's Friend Gets a Name Too, I Suppose".
  • Housepets!:
  • The Order of the Stick:
    • A strip titled "Belkar Unleashed" early on, and much later (when Belkar gets the Mark of Justice) "Belkar Leashed".
    • "The Semi-Secret Origin of Elan and Nale" and "The Significantly-More-Secret Origin of Tarquin and Nale".
    • Three strips in a row: "Green Means Go" (referring to the green aura that lets Roy do extra damage to undead), "Red Means Stop" (referring to Durkula's anti-life shell) and "Yellow Means Caution" (referring to the aura that surrounds the clerics when talking for their gods).
    • "Sound Reasoning" has Lien conclude their attacker is "someone new, not connected to Xykon". Three strips later is "Sound, But In This Case Inaccurate" where we see the attacker is working with Redcloak and the Monster in the Darkness.
  • Questionable Content:
    • The sequence of strips in which Faye discusses her dad's suicide and its effect on her were "The Talk" Parts 1-10. The much later strip where she compares her own situation to his is "The Talk II: Talk Harder".
    • Two successive strips in the storyline where Hannnelore's mother sends her a personal assistant named Tilly who is trying way too hard to be a Hypercompetent Sidekick are "Tilly Has No Chill" (in which they climb over the counter to help after being told they're not allowed behind it) and "Absolutely Zero Chill" (in which they burst into tears because Hanners made them a coffee).
  • Sleepless Domain: Chapter 11 is "Flotsam" and chapter 12's original title was "Lagan", highlighting the different directions Undine and Tessa's lives have taken since the start of the comic. Flotsam refers to wreckage that is floating on the sea or has washed ashore, and lagan is wreckage lying on the bottom of the sea; both girls' lives have been wrecked, but Undine has had more support and is in a relatively better place emotionally, while Tessa is more isolated, and becomes more so during the course of her chapter.
  • Square Root of Minus Garfield: "The Sinister Mind of Odie Arbuckle", and seven years later, "The Sinister Mind Of Garfield Arbuckle".

    Web Video 
  • Critical Role:
    • Episode 13 of Campaign Two, "Lost & Found", is mirrored later with episode 26 "Found & Lost". Both episodes center around the character Mollymauk Tealeaf, but in different ways.
    • The title of episode 96 of Campaign One, "Family Matters", would be referenced by episode 96 of Campaign Two, "Family Shatters". Both episodes involve the respective team's cleric reuniting with their long lost family.
  • The title of Matt Santoro's video Winter is WICKED! is a reference to the title of one of his previous videos, Autumn is AWESOME!.
  • SMPLive highlight videos from different perspectives tend to do this frequently:
    • The Assassin Event, featuring numerous Assumed Wins has the hilarious trinity of Joko's "I WON THE ASSASSIN EVENT (kinda)", Connor's "Winning the SMP Live Assassin Event", and Gold's "WE WON THE SMPLIVE ASSASSIN EVENT? Sorta..."
    • Michael's "They Think I'm Herobrine..." and Connor's "Killing Herobrine on SMP Live".
    • Travis's "The Great Minecraft Bird Heist" and Gold's "MY FRIENDS OBLITERATED MY BIRD FOR MONEY..."

    Western Animation 
  • Adventure Time
    • The season 3 episode "Too Young" and season 5's "Too Old", both of which involve a conflict with the Earl of Lemongrab.
    • Season 2 has "Mystery Train", which is followed in season 5 with "Mystery Dungeon" and "Dungeon Train".
    • The last episode of Stakes (the first miniseries) is "The Dark Cloud". The last episode of Islands (the second miniseries) is "The Light Cloud".
  • American Dad! had Season 2's "Four Little Words" and Season 4's "One Little Word", both of which are about Stan's relationships with his wife and his boss and both of which involve him going to extreme lengths to avoid the "words" of the title (in the former he doesn't want to hear Francine say "I Told You So", and in the latter he doesn't want to tell his boss "No").
  • Arthur:
    • "The Long, Dull Winter" and "The Short, Quick Summer" are opposite in both plot and title. In the former, Arthur and his friends try to create a holiday to make the time go faster, and in the latter, Arthur fears that he won't have time to do everything he plans over the summer.
    • "When Carl Met George" and "He Said, He Said" are both Carl episodes whose titles allude to romantic films.
    • (Character)'s [X] Trouble and variations thereof are commonplace. Season 1 in particular had "Arthur's Teacher Trouble", "Arthur's Spelling Trubble", and "Arthur's Substiture Teacher Trouble". Later examples include "D.W.'s Time Trouble" and "Arthur's Toy Trouble". There's also variations that alliteratre but have a similar meaning, such as "Arthur's Dummy Disaster", "Muffy's Soccer Shocker", and "Binky's Music Madness".
    • A few episodes after season 16 are based on popular phrases, such as "Based on a True Story," "Baby Steps," "Just the Ticket," "Opposites Distract," "All Thumbs", "Some Assembly Required", "Too Much of a Good Thing"...
    • "Night Fright" and "Fright Night", 21 seasons apart. "Night Fright" focuses on Binky not wanting anyone to know that he sleeps with a night light, while "Fright Night" follows Buster and Arthur's attempts to catch a mythical creature after hearing a scary story.
    • "The Butler Did... What?" and "The Butler Did It" both focus on Muffy and her family butler Bailey.
    • "Postcards from Binky" is a reference to the Arthur Spin-Off Postcards from Buster. The plots are also similar, with Binky making a video postcard for his grandparents, while Postcards from Buster is about Buster recording his travels to send them to his friends back in Elwood City.
    • Character Name and the Noun Phrase titles are common: "Arthur and the Big Riddle", "Fern and Persimmony Glitchet", "Prunella and the Haunted Locker", "Brain and the Time Capsule", "Francine and the Soccer Spy", "Pal and the Big Itch"...
    • "D.W., Dancing Queen", "D.W., Bossy Boots", and "D.W., Queen of the Comeback" all focus on D.W.
    • "Waiting to Go" is about Binky and Brain waiting to be picked up from soccer practice. The later episode "Waiting for Snow" is similar in concept, with Ladonna hoping to experience her first snow in Elwood City.
    • "The Great Sock Mystery" and its Sequel Episode seven seasons later, "The Great Lint Rush".
  • DC Animated Universe:
  • DuckTales (2017)
    • The episodes "Whatever Happened to Della Duck?!" and "Whatever Happened to Donald Duck?!", two key points of the Season 2 Story Arc.
    • Season 3 has the episodes "The First Adventure!" and "The Last Adventure!".
  • The Fairly OddParents!:
    • The "Spaced Out" trilogy, which consisted of "Spaced Out", "Totally Spaced Out", and "So Totally Spaced Out", the first three episodes featuring the Yugopotamians (minus the Halloween Episode).
    • "Fairly OddBaby" and "Fairly OddPet" are both Wham Episodes that introduce a permanent new character.
    • "Scary GodParents" and "Scary GodCouple" are both double-length episodes.
  • The Family Guy episode "Foreign Affairs" has Bonnie planning to cheat on Joe in France because their marriage is on the rocks. The next season's "Internal Affairs" has Peter and Quagmire convincing Joe to cheat on Bonnie to return the favor.
    • A small trend of titling episodes include ending with "Guy" such as "German Guy," "Amish Guy," "Business Guy," and "Ratings Guy" and Self-Deprecation on part of the series' name as typified by the duo of "Family Gay" and "Family Goy" which perhaps non-coincidentally rank as two of the most controversial episodes in the show's history.
    • There's also the "Road to X" episodes which all involve Brian and Stewie embarking on some kind of crazy adventure. The naming scheme is a shout out to Bing Crosby and Bob Hope's series of Road to... comedy films.
  • The five parts pilot of Gargoyles is titled "Awakening" and the first season finale is titled "Reawakening".
  • Gravity Falls episodes "Dipper vs. Manliness" and "Dipper and Mabel vs. The Future".
  • Kamp Koral has "Help Not Wanted", referencing the SpongeBob SquarePants premiere, "Help Wanted".
  • The Legend of Korra has two episodes named after episodes from the previous series, Avatar: The Last Airbender: "The Earth Queen" after "The Earth King" and "Korra Alone" after "Zuko Alone".
  • Molly of Denali: The title of "Come Back Birdie!" is a reference to the prior episode "Bye Bye Birdie."
  • The first episode of Sky1's Moominvalley was "Little My Moves In". The fourth episode of the second season was "Little My Moves Out".
  • My Life as a Teenage Robot had three episodes each named for one of the three Monkey Morality Poses (except for one called "Ear No Evil"). The title cards were even the same three drawings of Jenny doing the poses, but with a different one in the center each time.
  • My Little Pony: Friendship Is Magic:
    • Many episodes revolving around the Cutie Mark Crusaders have the word "Mark" in the title.
    • Season 2 episode "Sisterhooves Social" and season 5 episode "Brotherhooves Social".
    • Fluttershy-centric episodes "Stare Master" in season 1 and "Scare Master" in season 5.
    • Season 4 episode "Daring Don't", season 7 episode "Daring Done?" and season 9 episode "Daring Doubt".
    • The two-parter that opens season 8 is entitled "School Daze". The two-parter that ends season 8 is entitled "School Raze".
    • The two-parter that opens season 9 is entitled "The Beginning of the End". The two-parter that ends season 9 is entitled "The Ending of the End".
  • The second to last episode of Over the Garden Wall is titled "Into the Unknown". The last episode? "The Unknown".
  • OK K.O.! Let's Be Heroes: The second-to-last episode, which concludes the show's Myth Arc, is titled "Let's Fight to the End", after a line from the opening theme (which gets an extended version in the episode). The Dénouement Episode afterward is titled "Thank You for Watching the Show", after the last line from the closing theme.
  • The Patrick Star Show:
  • The Powerpuff Girls (1998) has the first episode "Monkey See, Doggie Do" and the later "Monkey See, Doggy Two". Both involves Mojo Jojo trying to turn the citizens into dogs with the bust of Anubis.
  • Ready Jet Go! has "How Come the Moon Has Craters?" and "How Come the Moon Changes Shape?" Both of these episodes answer questions about the moon.
  • Regular Show has "Guys Night", "Guys Night 2", and "Fries Night".
  • The Simpsons:
    • Treehouse of Horror: The first involved a series of "scary" stories exchanged in Bart's treehouse, and was named "Treehouse of Horror". Subsequent entries were named "Treehouse of Horror II", "Treehouse of Horror III", etc., despite the fact that the rest don't even have a passing reference to a treehouse. Since then, there has been "Halloween of Horror", a canon Halloween Episode (although a Treehouse episode did air that same year). "Thanksgiving of Horror" is a Thanksgiving Episode take on the regular Treehouse formula.
    • There are lots of titles built around puns on Homer's catchphrase, both in its standard form ("D'oh-in in the Wind") and the way it's designated in the show's scripts ("I, [Annoyed Grunt]-Bot"). The current count is D'oh: 13, (Annoyed Grunt): 4.
    • "Bart Gets an F", "Bart's Dog Gets an F", "Lisa Gets an A", "Bart Gets a Z", and "Lisa Gets an F1".
    • "Marge vs. the Monorail", "Bart vs. Australia", etc. — this pattern even has a sub-pattern involving ordinal numbers: "Homer vs. the Eighteenth Amendment", "Homer vs. Lisa and the Eighth Commandment", "Bart vs. Lisa vs. the 3rd Grade", etc.
    • "Little Big Girl" and "Little Big Mom" are both episodes that focus on Lisa.
    • "The Last Temptation of Homer" and "The Last Temptation of Krust".note 
    • Four episode titles are a pun on the Mona Lisa: "Moaning Lisa", "Moe'N'a Lisa", "Mona Leaves-a", and "Loan-a Lisa".
    • Over 20 episodes have "[character] the [position]" titles: "Bart the Genius", "Lisa the Greek", "Marge the Lumberjill", "Bart the Fink"... The most overt references between these are "Homer the Smithers"/"Homer the Moe" and "Lisa the Beauty Queen"/"Lisa the Drama Queen".
    • There are two episodes almost 20 years apart both about Moe trying to improve the fortunes of his bar, season 3's "Flaming Moe's" in which Homer invents (and Moe steals) a massively popular flaming cocktail, and season 22's "Flaming Moe" in which Moe and Smithers reinvent the bar with a completely different use of the word "Flaming" in mind.
    • Two Ned Flanders-centric episodes both reference Gilbert O'Sullivan's song "Alone Again (Naturally)" in their title: "Alone Again, Natura-Diddily" and "No Loan Again, Naturally".
    • "Mypods and Boomsticks" and "Rednecks and Broomsticks", which deal with Islam and Wicca respectively.
    • Titles based on The Old Man and the Sea include: "The Old Man and the Lisa," "The Old Man and the C Student," "The Old Man and the Key"...
    • There was also a short lived "X in 'Y'" theme, as seen with "Homer Simpson in 'Kidney Trouble'" and "Marge Simpson in 'Screaming Yellow Honkers'".
    • Christmas Episodes "'Tis the Fifteenth Season" and "'Tis the 30th Season".
    • "Duffless", "Puffless", and "Screenless", all episodes about overcoming an addiction. "Bartless" also follows the pattern.
    • "Lisa the Vegetarian" and "Lisa the Veterinarian".
    • "Love is a Many Strangled Thing" and "Love is a Many Splintered Thing" are both episodes starring Bart.
    • "To Surveil with Love", "To Cur with Love", and "To Courier with Love".
    • "The Kid is All Right" and "The Kids are All Fight".
    • "Much Apu About Nothing" and "Much Apu About Something" are both Apu episodes.
    • "Holidays of Future Passed" and its sequel, "Days of Future Future".
    • "The Winter of His Content" and "The Winter of Our Monetized Content".
    • The title of "Homer Goes to College" is directly referenced later with "Homer Goes to Prep School". However, while the former is Exactly What It Says on the Tin, "Prep School" focuses on Homer joining a group of doomsday preppers.
    • "Moe Baby Blues" and "Moe Letter Blues" are Moe episodes. Similarly, "Flaming Moe's" and "Flaming Moe" both involve Moe trying to boost his business.
    • "Gone Maggie Gone" and "Gone Abie Gone".
    • "Oh Brother, Where Art Thou?" and "Oh Brother, Where Bart Thou?"
    • "Homer Simpson, This Is Your Wife" and "Lisa Simpson, This Isn't Your Life".
    • "The Way We Was" and "The Way We Weren't" are both flashback episodes to Homer and Marge meeting. "The Wayz We Were" similarly deals with a defining romance in someone's life, this one between Moe and his eventual fiancée Maya.
    • "Brother From the Same Planet" in Season 4 had the rare honor of having its title referenced thirty seasons later with "Step Brother From the Same Planet" in Season 34.
    • "Kamp Krusty" and its Sequel Episode "Kamp Krustier."
    • "Million-Dollar Abie" and "Million Dollar Maybe".
    • Due to this tendency of the show, any Un-Installment will be this:
      • In "Weekend at Burnsie's," Marge dresses a scarecrow in items of the family's clothing in a Continuity Cavalcade pointed out by footnotes onscreen, which ends by citing the scarecrow's hat as appearing in the non-existent episode "Who Shot Grampa's Hat?"
      • "The Spy Who Learned Me" ends with the promise that James Bond expy Stradivarius Cain will return in "Lisa Gets a B+."
      • "Kamp Krusty" sequel episode "Kamp Krustier" ends with a sequel hook for a supposed third installment, "Kamp Krustiest," to appear in 24 more seasons.
      • "Lisa the Boy Scout," while a real episode, has a very Non-Indicative Title referring to the nonexistent, Strictly Formula Simpsons episode which the bulk of its plot supposedly "interrupts." The story is largely a Bizarro Episode about two hackers taking over the broadcast.
  • South Park:
    • Four episodes had titles which all ended with the number "2000"; they were the first episodes of the year 2000 and satirized the way everything had "2000" slapped on it at the time.
    • There were also "200" and "201".
    • Also "Go God Go" and its sequel "Go God Go XII". Word of God (amusingly), said that this was to make it sound series-like, where all this stuff had happened and we'd missed it.
    • "Cartman's Mom is a Dirty Slut". "Cartman's Mom is Still a Dirty Slut".
    • "Tweek vs. Craig" was followed 16 years later by "Tweek x Craig".
  • Star vs. the Forces of Evil: The season 3 finale is divided into two full-length episodes, "Divide" and "Conquer".
  • SpongeBob SquarePants:
    • Originally, every episode of in which Mermaid Man and Barnacle Boy made an appearance was entitled "Mermaid Man and Barnacle Boy," followed by a Roman numeral (even when the characters only appeared for about a minute as in "Mermaid Man and Barnacle Boy III"). This theme naming ended with "Mermaid Man and Barnacle Boy VI: The Motion Picture" and episodes starring the two characters now have more original titles.
    • There's a naming scheme for episodes featuring characters who return after not appearing for a while: "Squilliam Returns", "Bubble Buddy Returns", "Spot Returns", "Man Ray Returns", and "Dirty Bubble Returns".
    • "Pat the Horse" and "Pat the Dog" are both episodes about Patrick pretending to be an animal. This also gets followed up with "Pet the Rock".
    • In "Home Sweet Pineapple", SpongeBob's pineapple house gets eaten and he needs to find another place to live. In "Home Sweet Rubble", his pineapple rots and his friends help fix it up.
    • Some SpongeBob-centric episodes use the title format "[Adjective]/[Noun] Pants". This includes "Scaredy Pants", "Nature Pants", "Funny Pants", "Gullible Pants", and "Scavenger Pants".
  • Star Wars: The Clone Wars: "The Phantom Apprentice" nods to the movie The Phantom Menace. An appropriate title, considering that it's part of a story featuring Darth Maul, who was the Sith apprentice introduced in the movie.
  • Steven Universe:
  • Transformers: Beast Wars featured Other Voices (parts 1 and 2), Other Visits (parts 1 and 2), and Other Victories (single episode). All revolved around a mysterious alien race and their interference in the Beast Wars.
    • Transformers: Prime has "Operation: Breakdown", about Breakdown being captured by MECH to be dissected, and "Operation: Bumblebee", a two-part episode about MECH stealing the part Bumblebee needs to transform.
  • Vampirina had an episode called "Nanpire the Great", which was eventually followed by the episode "Nanpire and Grandpop the Greats".
  • The Wander over Yonder episodes "The Day" and "The Night", which also seemlessly transition as if they were a single episode and feature an Hourglass Plot: in "The Day", Wander is sleeping and Sylvia has to make sure he stays asleep while keeping the two safe from Lord Hater and his Mooks, and in "The Night", Sylvia is sleeping as a result of the events of the previous episode, and Wander has to make sure she stays asleep while keeping the two safe from Lord Hater's Mooks. In addition, the last scene of each episode serves as the first scene of its sister episode.

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