While Julien's parents are making an effort, they are starting to become a bit too much for Julien in how bad they are at parenting. When they announce their intention to move in permanently, Julien decides to stage a fake kidnapping to scare his parents away, but things get complicated when Karl kidnaps Julienne and Barty for real.
Tropes:
- Affably Evil: As it turns out, Karl, Julienne and Barty are old friends, and he treats them well while he has them kidnapped.
- Call-Back: Karl's backup plan is to hire Captain Ethan's pirate crew to kill him. Once Captain Ethan is dealt with, Julien exploits the crew's fondness of trophies and gives them all a trophy if they attack Karl instead of him.
- Death Trap: Karl's "Love Gauntlet", a quiz game where Julien's parents are asked personal questions about Julien. For every question they get wrong, a trap door underneath gets closer and closer to dropping them all into a Lava Pit.
- The Dog Bites Back: Rob tries to provide Maurice with comforts while he's in the hospital, but Maurice just dismisses him and eventually loses his temper. Then when Rob is put in charge of Maurice's electro shock therapy, he throws in a few extra shocks.Rob: Maybe someone should watch what they're saying when someone is trying to be nice, Maurice.
- Dressed to Heal: As Nurse Phantom, Rob wears a white nurse's hat with a caduceus logo on it.
- Epic Fail: Julien's parents failing the quiz.Love Bot: Is Julien a girl or a boy?Julienne: No one said there would be science questions!
- Foreshadowing:
- Karl's plan relies on him somehow knowing a lot about Julien's personal life, but it's eventually revealed he knows about Julien's favorite toy growing up because he's already stolen it a few years prior.
- The underground kingdom of living bells will turn out to be extremely important to Maurice's past and where he comes from.
- Freeze-Frame Bonus: Doctor S subjects Maurice to a series of random flashing images. A frame of Puss in Boots can be seen among them.
- Gross-Up Close-Up: When Mort says he took care of his "rib problem", he raises his arm up revealing a shaved armpit with a large wound partially covered by a band-aid and the camera zooms into the wound.
- Helicopter Parents: Even though Julien initially wanted have the childhood he never had, his parents have become too hands-on in their parenting for his liking.Julien: (In the hot tub while his parents scrub him down with mops) Mom? Dad? I can't breathe!
Julienne: You needed a bath, Julien.
Barty: You were starting to smell like the middle class, son.
Julienne: Oh, look Barty, he's getting hair under his arms!
Julien: I'm a full grown lemur, I've got hair all over!! - Inkblot Test: Doctor S gives Maurice one of these. Everything he sees is a bell, except for an actual drawing of a bell.
- Irony: Julien's parents technically get a question correct (Who is Julien's best friend?), but since they think Maurice's name is Mark, their answer isn't accepted.
- Killed Off for Real: Captain Ethan falls into the volcano and is not seen for the rest of the episode, and in fact the next time he will be seen is in Frank-Ri La.
- "Not So Different" Remark: Karl's death trap, the titular Love Gauntlet, puts Julien's family closer to death with every question about Julien they get wrong, with the goal of proving they are alike in being unloved by their parents.Karl: Julien, you must know by now that I did this for us. To prove we are the same. My parents never loved me. And I wanted... nay, needed! to prove to you that your parents never loved you either!
- No Water Proofing In The Future: When Julien's parents actually get a question right, the presence of true love causes the Love Bot to cry tears of emotion, which in turn cause it to short circuit and self destruct.Karl: Yes Chauncey, in hindsight it was a terrible idea putting real tear ducts inside the Love Bot.
- Overly Long Gag: Karl offers Julien a seat at the table next to him. Julien initially refuses, and then passive-aggressively sits at every seat but the one Karl wants.Karl: NO! (Slams the table so hard that every chair but the one he wants Julien to sit at falls over) Don't make me assume my ultimate form, Julien!
- Real After All: The constant ringing in Maurice's head and his vision of an underground kingdom of living bells is treated as a demented hallucination due to Julienne's constant bell ringing, but after Maurice is cured, the citizens of the Bell Kingdom lament that their chosen hero can no longer hear their calls.
- Stealth Pun: Julien remembering every member of of Ethan's crew's names besides the lemur's becomes this if one remembers that his name was "No-Name Jack".
- Worf Had the Flu: Thanks to being hit by a bookcase, Clover is completely out of it for the rest of the episode.
- X-Ray Sparks: Doctor S hooks Maurice up to electro shock therapy, and his skeleton is visible when electricity is being applied.
