How is dunking your head in popcorn butter even supposed to be a display of strength?
Production Code: 222
Hoping to get back into the realm of dating, Jake takes part in a school auction where two girls—one attractive and one geeky—bid on him. But once the auction is over, Jake starts showing signs that he may be under the thrall of a siren who is bent on his destruction.
Tropes
- Bachelor Auction: The main motivating factor for Jake to attempt to get with Danika, as Spud and Trixie set one up for the Hungry Puppies and People Who Get Sick When They Play Video Games in a Moving Car Foundation.
- Bitch in Sheep's Clothing: Vicky. She may seem like a nice girl with a kind attitude to go with her humble appearance. Nope! In reality, she's a jealous, manipulative siren who tricked Danika into accepting her siren necklace as a gift so she could remotely control Jake into putting himself in harm's way.
- Bittersweet Ending: While Vicky has been stopped, poor Jake has lost his second chance at love.
- Call-Back: Rose's memory loss and her moving to Hong Kong are brought up, both of which convince Jake that maybe it's time for him to try finding love again.
- Contrived Coincidence: Trixie just happens to knock over a grail in the museum that triggers a trapdoor underneath her, so she can escape Vicky and the hypnotized boys.
- Death Glare: When Vicky says that it was easy to use Danika as the pawn in her scheme because "people always assume pretty girls are evil, anyway", Jake, Spud, and Fu Dog all shoot a glare at Trixie, since that was pretty much one of her main reasons for thinking Danika was the siren.
- Foreshadowing: Vicky frequently having to perform ear drainage to relieve her swimmer's ear is the main clue that she's the siren.
- Glowing Eyes of Doom: The eyes of any male who hears a siren’s song glow a bright cyan blue.
- Good All Along/Sheep in Sheep's Clothing: Everyone assumes Danika is the siren because she's pretty and every time Jake is controlled, she's nearby. Nope, Danika's just a sweet, ordinary girl with a beautiful heart to go with her beautiful face.
- Henpecked Husband: Spud suffers from this via Trixie after she accidentally buys him at the auction. He spends the next week as her manservant.
- If I Can't Have You…: Vicky's motive, more or less stated word for word.
- Immune to Mind Control: A siren's song can't affect women, so Trixie is able to fight against Vicky when she brainwashes Jake, Spud, and Fu.
- Mind-Control Eyes: Anyone under Vicky's power has Occult Blue Eyes.
- Moose and Maple Syrup: The Canadian girl who Spud attempts to have bid on him is dressed in a full parka while indoors and uses the classic "Eh?"
- Never the Obvious Suspect: Taken advantage of by Vicky, as she knows that sirens are all stereotypically thought of as traditionally attractive and water-based, so setting up Danika as the scapegoat is easy with her good looks and being captain of the swim team.
- Our Sirens Are Different: The siren was originally thought to have been Danika, but it was actually Vicky. Unlike sirens of myth, the necklace she wears is key to attracting victims.
- Psychic-Assisted Suicide: The threat of the episode is that a siren is enthralling Jake into doing deadly acts, like running in front of a bus and walking off the roof of a building.
- Red Herring: Everyone suspects Danika is the siren, but it turns out that it's actually Vicky, the girl believed to be the innocent victim of Jake's shallow bias because she wasn't as attractive as Danika.
- Second Love: Jake tries to make Danika this, but by the end of the episode, Danika wants nothing more to do with Jake because she thinks he wrongfully accused her of being a thief.
- Sequel Episode: Could be considered one to "Homecoming", in that it deals with the aftermath of Jake losing Rose by having him try and move on.
- Spoof Aesop: Jake, Trixie, and Spud attempt to decide what the lesson they learned following the episode's events is, but they find themselves confused because in this particular case, Jake being prejudiced against Vicky was actually the right call but for the wrong reasons. Fu eventually settles on not listening to a cootie catcher for love advice.
- The Stinger: Fu Dog shows off Jake's absolutely pathetic attempt at trying to apologize to Danika through song.
- Women Are Wiser: Humorously pointed out by Vicky when Trixie fails at getting the boys to overcome her brainwashing.Trixie: What is wrong with you that you can't show just a little bit of willpower?!
Vicky: Duh! They're boys.
Trixie: Oh, right. - Wrong Genre Savvy: Jake and his friends assume that because she's beautiful, Danika must secretly be evil. Despite their suspicion, Danika really is a nice person, and her appearance has nothing to do with whether she's evil or not. And despite being exposed, Vicky calls Jake out for his shallowness.Vicky: Like a siren has to be some "oompha la la cutie mama" or something?
- Your Costume Needs Work: Brad dressed in Trixie's knight armor mocks Jake's "lame dragon costume."
