Recap / American Dragon Jake Long S 02 E 20 Homecoming

"Before I wish for your annihliation, any last words?"
"Well, considering the occasion, I have just two: Let's. Dance."

Production Code: 218

As the Homecoming ball grows near for the student body of Millard Fillmore Middle School, Jake thinks it's a sign that he can repair his relationship with Rose when the both of them are nominated for King and Queen. However, when the unthinkable happens and the Huntsman obtains all thirteen of the Aztec Skulls, it becomes a very real possibility that the night of the dance could also be the Magical World's very last night in existence.

Tropes

• Accidental Kiss: Spud and Trixie accidentally kiss in the dark prop closet when each believes the other to be their crush.
• Act of True Love: Jake and Rose each do this with the Selfless Wishes they make in the climax of the episode, Rose sacrificing her life for Jake and Jake sacrificing his heart for Rose's well-being.
• Anti-Climactic Unmasking/Stranger Behind the Mask: The Huntsman's face is finally revealed after he tears away part of his clothes post-Jake breaking his dragon helmet by slamming him through a set of elevator doors. However, he's shown to simply be a random bald guy who we've never seen before, though his dragon birthmark is shown to be large enough to extend up his chest and onto his face.
• As You Know: This episode does this quite a bit, likely for the benefit of anyone in the audience who's happened to not see previous important arc-based episodes of the season.
  • At the beginning of the episode, Jake and Rose's discussion of their not-so-mutual break-up comes off this way.
  • When Rose informs the Huntsman that they have the last Aztec Skull, the Huntsman reiterates that uniting all the skulls will grant him the power he needs to kill all magical creatures.
  • When Jake and Rose start to discuss what'll happen to her once the Huntsclan is defeated, Jake brings up the family out there that she was kidnapped from in this manner, even asking her if she remembers her dream.
• Bittersweet Ending: Rose lives in a new reality where she doesn't remember Jake and she's moving to Hong Kong. Still, she's also living a normal, happier existence where she's living with her parents, and Jake is happy for her. What's more, the Huntsclan is no more, so they can't hurt anyone ever again.
• Blackmail Backfire: The Huntsman blackmails Rose into betraying Jake by threatening her parents. It only winds up ensuring the death of him (and all other Huntsclan) at her hands.
• Bound and Gagged: Done to Jake by Rose during the climactic fight.
• Call-Back:
  • At the beginning of the episode, Jake and Rose re-establish the fact that they broke up in "The Love Cruise", with Jake's unhappiness about it also re-established.
  • The reveal from "Dreamscape" that Rose was kidnapped at birth is brought up again in a scene between Jake and Rose, just before the existence of her parents becomes a huge plot point.
  • When Jake's wish for Rose to have never been taken by the Huntsclan is granted by the Aztec Skulls, various scenes from "Half Baked", "The Academy", "Breakout", "Dreamscape", and "The Love Cruise" pertaining to the season's Jake/Rose Story Arc are shown going in reverse.
  • At the end of the episode, when Jake meets Rose again/for the "first" time, it's very reminiscent of how they first met back in "Old School Training", in that, Jake bumps into Rose on his skateboard and helps her pick her books back up after she dropped them. And as this shows, Rose's books are even the same color.
• Calling the Old Man Out: Lao Shi begins the process of lecturing Jake about using the skulls for one's own personal gain when Jake angrily cuts him off, explaining that it would be for Rose's happiness and that she deserves a good life and caring family.
• Caught on Tape/Surveillance as the Plot Demands:
  • The Huntsman discovers Rose's treachery upon reviewing the museum's security footage in his attempt to decipher how Jake stole the skull from her.
  • He also has her parents under constant observation apparently just in case she decided to ever turn traitor.
• Cessation of Existence: Happens to the entire Hunstclan when Rose wishes for the annihilation of all Huntsmen.
• Continuity Nod: To Pooka-Pooka and his show. Apparently, Huntsboy #88 watches it.
• Contrived Coincidence: The Huntsman finally learns that Rose has indeed betrayed the Huntsclan... by seeing her and the American Dragon talking on security footage, with the episode not making it particularly clear how he obtained the footage or even why he was watching it.
• Darkest Hour: The end of the second act could serve as this for quite possibly the entire series. Rose has just betrayed Jake and the Huntsman now holds the power to eliminate all magical life on Earth.
• Disney Death: At first, it seems as though Jake was either too late or his wish that Rose was never taken from her family wasn't enough to save her. Later, he discovers she's still alive, if living a new life where she never met him.
• Drama Bomb: The show's darkest and most dramatic episode, no contest. And while it still does have some comedic tension relieving, this episode minimizes that comedy more than any other episode in the series.
• Final Battle: Jake and the Huntsclan have their final showdown.
• Guilt-Free Extermination War: In the end, Rose doesn't hesitate to use the Skulls' power to wipe out the Huntsclan, and nobody questions it. Jake doesn't question having to defeat the Huntsclan like this, but is only concerned that Rose did so, which essentially included herself. Justified by the fact that the Huntsclan will not stop until magical creatures and any human defending them are extinct, with or without the Skulls.
• Heroic Sacrifice: Rose wishes for the eradication of the Huntsclan so they can't hurt Jake, his family, or Rose's parents, even if it means she will be eradicated too. Jake however, refuses to let this happen and wishes that Rose was never taken by the Huntsclan.
• Hope Spot: The entire first part of the episode serves as this, with Jake and Rose being nominated for Homecoming King and Queen and Rose agreeing to go to the dance with Jake and reignite their relationship once they foil the Huntsclan. The perfect lead into Act 2, where everything goes entirely wrong.
• Howl of Sorrow: After his wish to save Rose is granted, the most Jake can do in response is angrily scream before destroying the skulls.
• I Just Want to Be Normal: Rose confesses to Jake during their private dance that all she wishes for is a normal life where she doesn't have to deal with magical creatures on a daily basis or the fear of working for an organization with plans of genocide.
• I Want My Beloved to Be Happy: Both Rose and Jake do this:
  • Rose wishes to destroy the Huntsclan to protect Jake, knowing that it'll mean her death as well.
  • Instead of wishing for Rose to be spared, Jake wished that she was never taken by the Huntsclan, so she could have a normal life with her birth family. Despite that he already lost Rose before, Jake is content with letting Rose go once more, knowing she's safe and with her family.
• Implied Death Threat: The Huntsman does this in regards to Rose’s parents as a means to blackmail her into betraying Jake.
  The Huntsman: I assure you, they're quite safe, and they'll remain that way as long as you do exactly as I say and bring me those skulls. Tonight.
• It Only Works Once: Once the skulls are assembled, only one wish per person is allowed. Jake and Rose each use one wish.
• Just Friends: What Trixie and Spud agree to being, after toying with the idea of becoming a couple for a bit.
• Karma Houdini: Huntsboys #88 and #89, who ratted out Jake and Rose's alliance to the Huntsman and ruined her chance of leaving the Hunstclan life, essentially duck their karma when they quit the Clan at the last moment. However, there's still the fact that now, they're out of a job.
• Let's Dance: Jake says this in response to the Huntsman's Any Last Words? taunt.
• Mass "Oh, Crap!": Jake, Lao-Shi, Fu Dog, Haley, Sun, Trixie, Spud, and all the present Huntsclan members react with horrified shock when Rose wishes for the destruction of the Huntsclan with the Aztec Skulls.
• Mood Whiplash:
  • Huntsboys #88 and #89 strip down to their underwear and trip down a flight of stairs...after Rose uses the Aztec Skulls to wish for the destruction of the Huntsclan, herself included.
  • Huntsboys #88 and #89 do this again earlier in the episode, when it's revealed that they're spying on Jake and Rose at the behest of the Huntsman. The scene makes it clear that Jake and Rose are going to be in for a rude awakening...and then the mood is killed by #89 starting to choke on his own spit.
• Never Say "Die": In regards to being killed by the Aztec Skull, terms like "annihilation" and "destruction" are used. The most jarring example, however, is when Huntsclan members start dying and #88 and #89 refer to them as being "sucked into a vortex". There is no vortex depicted onscreen, and the Huntsclan members are shown being zapped out of existence.
• New Powers as the Plot Demands: "Breakout" leads the audience to believe that the sole purpose of the Aztec Skulls is to doom all magical creatures if they're gathered. This episode reveals that the skulls actually grant irreversible wishes, so that the skulls can actually be used to destroy the Huntsclan and reunite Rose with her family.
• Nothing Is the Same Anymore: The Huntsclan, the main overarching enemy of the series up to this point, is permanently destroyed along with the man who led them. Rose's life is rewritten so she was never separated from her family at birth, and she moves away to Hong Kong before Jake can attempt to rekindle their relationship.
• Oh, Crap!: Rose has this reaction when the Huntsman reveals he's seen the security footage of her talking to Jake in his dragon form during the mission for the last Aztec Skull, meaning the cat is officially out of the bag in regards to her treason.
• Ontological Inertia: Played with. Since Rose was never stolen from her parents by the Huntsclan (per Jake's wish), she instead exists in a new reality where she never met Jake and is now living a normal life with her parents.
• O.O.C. Is Serious Business: Normally, in a fight, Jake would hurl trash talk and just be overall cocky. When the Huntsclan crashes the Homecoming ball, however, Jake is so angry/hurt that he drops his normal attitude and mercilessly attacks the Huntsman.
• Retcon: One caused by the show's change in animation style and character design. The Huntsman's climactic appearance reveal seriously contradicts what's shown in the season one episode "Act 4, Scene 15". In "Act 4, Scene 15", his birthmark is shown to be on his wrist and hand just like Rose's, but here, it's much bigger and is wound around his face and chest. "Act 4, Scene 15" also shows the back of his head to be deformed, while here, it's relatively normal. This one is actually particularly jarring, as showing that the Huntsman got mauled by an unknown magical creature in a pit as a teenager in "Hero of the Hourglass" serves as a perfectly good explanation for his deformity, only for nothing to come of it.
• Selfless Wish: When they each get a chance to wield the power of the Aztec Skulls, both Rose and Jake make wishes for the benefit of the other, to the detriment of themselves.
• Series Continuity Error: Two rather egregious examples regarding the Aztec Skulls. The first is that the last time they were seen, Jake had collected three of them. Upon collecting what should be the fourth, the series treats it as it only being the third (though considering that Rose previously mentioned the Huntsman had already collected ten of the thirteen, this is more of a retcon to fix a previous error). The second, smaller error is the eye color of the skull Jake steals from the Hunstman this episode is orange for the entire theft sequence, but once all three skulls are displayed in Lao Shi's shop, their eye colors are red, green, and blue.
• Series Fauxnale: Even though the ending of this episode does leave plot points (Rotwood knowing Jake's a dragon, Jake's dad not knowing he's married into a magical family, etc.) unresolved, there is still a lot of finality to this episode, to the point where it could serve as a satisfactory Grand Finale and one could be forgiven if they thought it was. The show's main villain is dead, the overarching threat of the season is neutralized, and Jake and Rose's relationship, which is ostensibly the show's main plot, is seemingly permanently concluded.
• Shoot Your Mate: In the final showdown, Rose fights and chains up Jake to fool the Huntsman into thinking she's subservient to him. It fools Jake, too.
• Status Quo Is God: Downplayed. On top of living in an alternate world where she doesn't remember Jake, Rose has her family back and is moving to Hong Kong. Still, despite the perilous events of the previous night (and accidentally kissing each other), Trixie and Spud are still the same people they've always been. Jake is thankful that although he's had to give up the girl of his dreams, his friends are still their wonderful old selves.
• The Stinger: Huntsboys #88 and #89 try to find a new job with the Huntsclan gone...and fail miserably.
• Surpassed the Teacher: Rose manages to effortlessly beat back several Huntsclan mooks, knock the Huntsman's spear out of his hands, and hold it to his throat in a matter of seconds when she realizes she's been found out.
  Rose: Perhaps you trained me too well!
• Sweet and Sour Grapes: See Bittersweet Ending.
• Trailers Always Spoil: The promo goes about blatantly revealing major events that take place in the episode's last act.
• Tonight, Someone Dies: The promo did this.
  Announcer: And at least one of these characters will be...no more.
• Wham Episode: Perhaps the series' biggest example, with the Huntsclan being permanently gone and Jake and Rose's relationship being extremely altered.
• You Can't Thwart Stage One: Double Subverted. Team Dragon officially beats the Huntsman to the remaining three Aztec Skulls, and everyone's confident that Rose will be able to swipe the skulls the Huntsman actually does have so they can all be destroyed before anything bad happens. However, Rose gets her cover as a spy blown and the Huntsman forces her to steal the three skulls from Lao-Shi's shop instead. After that, the climax of the episode is focused on trying to stop the Huntsman from successfully activating the skulls.
• You Said You Would Let Them Go: A variation of this happens between Rose and The Huntsman after he blackmails her into betraying Jake by promising her the location (and safety) of her birth parents.
  The Huntsman: Excellent work, Huntsgirl.
  Rose: I gave you your skulls, now tell me where my parents are!
  The Huntsman: Not until my plan is complete.
  Rose: What? But you promised!
  The Huntsman: And you promised your allegiance!

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