See you on the other side...
Anne and her friends fight for their lives as the fate of both Amphibia and Earth hangs in the balance.
Full Recap
In a flashback Anne, Sasha and Marcy throw a K-pop Party/Prank at Saint James Middle School in Los Angeles, California, and are then get called to the principal's office. Principal Murphy, recognizing that Anne needs the most help out of the trio, assigns her an essay on what she wants in life and what she's willing to do to get it to force her to think about these things instead of just going along with the flow. Meanwhile, Sasha and Marcy were let off the hook due to utilizing their skills and strengths, only being told to use them for more constructive purposes.
In the present, Anne and the gang are restrained inside the castle's dungeon as King Andrias announces his presence to the humans of Earth via broadcast telling them that his invasion fleet will strip their world of all of its resources to be used to conquer "more impressive worlds," wiping out humanity in the process. The U.S. military responds, but their weapons are no match for Amphibian technology. The General then calls Mr. X. Anne tries to break free using her powers, but Sprig and Hop Pop advise against it because they don't want her to exhaust herself before confronting Andrias. Instead, Polly has Frobo to use his laser eyes to cut everyone's restraints and make a hole in the floor, through which they all fall, landing in a rooftop pool. When the gang sees that Andrias brought over two mind-controlled Herons, a horrified Hop Pop recognizes them as the same Herons that killed Sprig and Polly's parents. As the team engage the Frobots in battle, they encounter Anne's parents armed with advanced battle suits. Mr. and Mrs. Boonchuy reveal that they managed to convince the US government about the upcoming invasion and the US military had been prepared for weeks to fight against Andrias' invasion force. Furthermore, both of them received military training on how to use the hi-tech armor with plasma firearms.
Mr. X states that they need a place to plan for counter-attack and they drive off to Anne's middle school to regroup while Sasha asks how are they going to stop the invasion if Darcy knows their every move, but Anne assures her that they've come a long way since coming to Amphibia and Darcy only knows the "old them". Meanwhile, inside the Core's Mind Hive, Marcy, with pieces of her memory missing, is solving puzzles when a door opens, and she is greeted by King Aldrich who tells her that she is the first human to join the Core and creates a fantasy world for her to enjoy.
Back at the SJMS, General Yunan finds out that she really likes weapons from Earth, especially a plasma handgun given to her by X, while Polly uses the robotics club's resources to create Frobo a new body. Anne and Sasha tell everyone about the battle strategy; she, her mom & Dad, the Plantars, and Mr. X will attack the army head-on while Sasha, Grime, Yunan and Lady Olivia will infiltrate the Castle and shut down the force field generator. Despite Hop Pop's claims, Sprig brushes off the possibility that he and Anne might not be together anymore when this is all over, or that things will at the very least be different.
During Darcy's onslaught, while they are taking great pleasure in all the destruction, Andrias remembers when he first met Marcy; she asks him if she can call him "Drias" but changes her mind when she sees it is a "personal" matter. Andrias took an immediate liking to the girl after she showed some of her quirkiness, but after she left the throne room with Lady Olivia, the Core contacted him via his crown and reminded him of their long-time goal. The Core initially just wanted to kill Marcy to avoid the possibility of her fulfilling the olm prophecy, but Andrias convinced it to trick her and her friends into giving away their powers instead. Back in the present, Darcy and Andrias see that Anne and the others have escaped.
The team manages to destroy a number of Frobots but things go downhill when the herons show up. After Anne, Domino 2 and Frobo rescue the Plantars from the herons, Hop Pop reaffirms their fear of why they hesitated before shouting the herons ruined their home. Anne's parents being attacked by a heron, which mimics the exact scenario that orphaned Sprig and Polly, snaps them out of their funk and motivates them to fight back. After the collars come off the herons, the Plantars use their family dance to tame them and turn them against Andrias and his forces. Darcy, angered by what is happening, orders Andrias to bring them Anne and warns him if he fails he can forget joining them in the Core.
Andrias is ready for his rematch against Anne, piloting an enormous mech-suit, and promises to stop the invasion if she can defeat him in combat. Just before she flies on Domino 2, Anne admits that she didn't really love herself before arriving in Amphibia, and that she just went along with what was easy instead of caring about right or wrong but now more than creation of what she wants to do with her life. With the whole world watching, she arrives at the U.S. Bank Tower where Andrias is at. Andrias believes he finally understands why the stones chose Anne as their champion seeing a true warrior inside her while Anne remembers how he deceived her.
In Marcy's fantasy world, after Aldrich makes a false Anne and Sasha appear, their clothing suddenly changes to match a fantasy setting this causes Marcy to dive deeper into the dream state so she can be assimilated by the Core.
Whilst Anne takes on Andrias in his armor with her powers above the streets of Los Angeles, Sasha and her group fly on Joe Sparrow into the castle. Yunan and Olivia hold off some Cloak-Bots while Sasha and Grime engage Darcy in hand-to-hand combat inside the royal castle. As Anne and Andrias brawl against each other, Andrias claims that everything she loves will eventually crumble away while Anne rebuffs him by saying that she pities him of how he spent 1,000 years of burying his feelings and hating himself; this angers Andrias and he attacks with all his fury. Anne becomes exhausted and powers down. Seeing that Anne needs a boost, Mr. X broadcasts one of her favorite songs, and her family, both biological and found family, cheer her on. With the encouragement of the city and the people in her life, Anne gets her second wind and powers up once again, striking at Andrias with even more ferocity.
Grime ends up pushing Sasha out of the way of Darcy's scythe, losing his entire left arm in the process, to which Sasha quickly tends to his wound. Grime admits that before he met Sasha, he was just a bully in a tower, but she inspired him to be something more, and if she can do that, she can do anything. Sasha, enraged that Darcy hurt her friend, attacks more viciously, but falls prey to Darcy's illusions and with her guard down takes a massive cut to her back.
Meanwhile, in Marcy's fantasy world, after false Anne and Sasha claim that 'they too, like whatever Marcy likes', and realizing that the real Anne and Sasha will not necessarily like everything she takes interest in, Marcy finally sees though the Core's illusions and faces reality, even though the truth is painful sometimes; she claims only a coward would choose this simulated illusion. As Aldrich leaves her to fade into nothing, Marcy says she believes in Anne and Sasha. Later, Anne has Andrias on the verge of defeat, but her powers finally run out and he is left exhausted. Mr. X spots the letter Sprig is holding on to and uses his spy glasses find the hidden message on it and tells them that it's written with special ink that's only visible to red lens. However, Sprig takes his glasses and learns that it is from Leif. He flies a Heron the tower, and holds off Andrias with a Boomshroom to protect Anne. As Andrias prepares to kill them both, Sprigs holds the letter and tell that its Leif's stopping Andrias' assault an emotional freeze. He reads to the letter to him; revealing that despite running away and starting a new life in Wartwood, she never stopped loving him and hoped that he would let go of all of his anger, begging him to not to close himself off from others because of their broken friendship. Andrias is brought to tears now knowing that Leif still considered him as a friend despite everything that she had to do. However, he comes anguished. He notes that over the past 1,000 years, he had crossed too many lines by now to possibly receive redemption or forgiveness and loses his will to fight. In the castle, Darcy prepares to finish Sasha off, but becomes alerted and disgusted by Andrias' weakness. She claims to Sasha, as fellow control freak, she will appreciate her next move, and forces her control over Andrias through his crown, demanding him to fight and while claiming they are all he'll ever need or have.
Sasha, inspired by what Anne told her earlier how 'it isn't about who they were before, but who they are now' that matters, finally puts her former self behind her as she attacks Darcy with the last of her strength. When Sasha attacks Darcy with her sword, Darcy laughs as they believed she missed, but it turns out she hit exactly what she meant to hit; the cord connected to Darcy's helmet, which causes it to break off. Darcy screams in shock, calling Sasha a fool and saying if she knows what she has done before screaming once more in anguish as all the robotic eyes in the chamber shatter and orange energy seeps out of the human body. At last, Marcy is freed and loses consciousness. Now that Andrias is free from the Core's influence, he lets Anne deliver the finishing blow and accepts defeat. The people of Los Angeles, California, her parents, her allies, the Plantars, Principle and even Maggie cheer over Anne's victory. As Andrias lies defeated, he reveals that he had stayed alive for a whole millennium due to cybernetic enhancements inside his body that are now heavily damaged because of Anne's final attack.
After the shield is down, Anne and Sasha rush over to Marcy and hug her, while saying that they love and forgive her, pleading for her to wake up as their tears fall down. Marcy wakes up and apologizes profusely for her actions and getting them sent to Amphibia to begin with as she did not want to lose her friends. Anne tells her it's okay and all is forgiven; stating that whether they like it or not, things change, but Anne assures her friends that neither time nor distance will destroy their bond and everyone present engages in a group hug. While nobody is looking, Darcy's helmet sprouts out 6 mechanical legs and sneaks away.
As Mr. X, the Boonchuys, the herons and the US government are cleaning up LA and gathering all the robot remains; Anne then tells her parents that she, Sasha and Marcy are heading back to Amphibia to bring their friends home, take an unconscious Andrias prisoner and to see if everyone back there is okay. Both Sasha and Marcy ask the Boonchuys to tell their parents that they're okay, to which they agree as it would be easier to explain to them what happened because the battle was broadcasted live. Anne activates the music box and the castle crosses dimensions.
Meanwhile back in Amphibia, the Wartwood Resistance is fighting off what remains of the Frobot army. Just then, they see the castle returning to Amphibia as Olivia announces their victory and everyone cheers. Sasha mentions on how they didn't require the use of the prophecy, prompting Marcy to frantically ask what she's talking about. Sprig asks Anne if things will change between them just like her and her friends. Anne admits she is uncertain but no matter what happens, she reassures Sprig they will face it together. Sprig smiles at this. Just as it seems like everything is going to be okay, Sprig points out that Amphibia's moon is moving closer, leaving a shocked Anne to question the current situation.
*Cue ominous music box credits*
In the present, Anne and the gang are restrained inside the castle's dungeon as King Andrias announces his presence to the humans of Earth via broadcast telling them that his invasion fleet will strip their world of all of its resources to be used to conquer "more impressive worlds," wiping out humanity in the process. The U.S. military responds, but their weapons are no match for Amphibian technology. The General then calls Mr. X. Anne tries to break free using her powers, but Sprig and Hop Pop advise against it because they don't want her to exhaust herself before confronting Andrias. Instead, Polly has Frobo to use his laser eyes to cut everyone's restraints and make a hole in the floor, through which they all fall, landing in a rooftop pool. When the gang sees that Andrias brought over two mind-controlled Herons, a horrified Hop Pop recognizes them as the same Herons that killed Sprig and Polly's parents. As the team engage the Frobots in battle, they encounter Anne's parents armed with advanced battle suits. Mr. and Mrs. Boonchuy reveal that they managed to convince the US government about the upcoming invasion and the US military had been prepared for weeks to fight against Andrias' invasion force. Furthermore, both of them received military training on how to use the hi-tech armor with plasma firearms.
Mr. X states that they need a place to plan for counter-attack and they drive off to Anne's middle school to regroup while Sasha asks how are they going to stop the invasion if Darcy knows their every move, but Anne assures her that they've come a long way since coming to Amphibia and Darcy only knows the "old them". Meanwhile, inside the Core's Mind Hive, Marcy, with pieces of her memory missing, is solving puzzles when a door opens, and she is greeted by King Aldrich who tells her that she is the first human to join the Core and creates a fantasy world for her to enjoy.
Back at the SJMS, General Yunan finds out that she really likes weapons from Earth, especially a plasma handgun given to her by X, while Polly uses the robotics club's resources to create Frobo a new body. Anne and Sasha tell everyone about the battle strategy; she, her mom & Dad, the Plantars, and Mr. X will attack the army head-on while Sasha, Grime, Yunan and Lady Olivia will infiltrate the Castle and shut down the force field generator. Despite Hop Pop's claims, Sprig brushes off the possibility that he and Anne might not be together anymore when this is all over, or that things will at the very least be different.
During Darcy's onslaught, while they are taking great pleasure in all the destruction, Andrias remembers when he first met Marcy; she asks him if she can call him "Drias" but changes her mind when she sees it is a "personal" matter. Andrias took an immediate liking to the girl after she showed some of her quirkiness, but after she left the throne room with Lady Olivia, the Core contacted him via his crown and reminded him of their long-time goal. The Core initially just wanted to kill Marcy to avoid the possibility of her fulfilling the olm prophecy, but Andrias convinced it to trick her and her friends into giving away their powers instead. Back in the present, Darcy and Andrias see that Anne and the others have escaped.
The team manages to destroy a number of Frobots but things go downhill when the herons show up. After Anne, Domino 2 and Frobo rescue the Plantars from the herons, Hop Pop reaffirms their fear of why they hesitated before shouting the herons ruined their home. Anne's parents being attacked by a heron, which mimics the exact scenario that orphaned Sprig and Polly, snaps them out of their funk and motivates them to fight back. After the collars come off the herons, the Plantars use their family dance to tame them and turn them against Andrias and his forces. Darcy, angered by what is happening, orders Andrias to bring them Anne and warns him if he fails he can forget joining them in the Core.
Andrias is ready for his rematch against Anne, piloting an enormous mech-suit, and promises to stop the invasion if she can defeat him in combat. Just before she flies on Domino 2, Anne admits that she didn't really love herself before arriving in Amphibia, and that she just went along with what was easy instead of caring about right or wrong but now more than creation of what she wants to do with her life. With the whole world watching, she arrives at the U.S. Bank Tower where Andrias is at. Andrias believes he finally understands why the stones chose Anne as their champion seeing a true warrior inside her while Anne remembers how he deceived her.
In Marcy's fantasy world, after Aldrich makes a false Anne and Sasha appear, their clothing suddenly changes to match a fantasy setting this causes Marcy to dive deeper into the dream state so she can be assimilated by the Core.
Whilst Anne takes on Andrias in his armor with her powers above the streets of Los Angeles, Sasha and her group fly on Joe Sparrow into the castle. Yunan and Olivia hold off some Cloak-Bots while Sasha and Grime engage Darcy in hand-to-hand combat inside the royal castle. As Anne and Andrias brawl against each other, Andrias claims that everything she loves will eventually crumble away while Anne rebuffs him by saying that she pities him of how he spent 1,000 years of burying his feelings and hating himself; this angers Andrias and he attacks with all his fury. Anne becomes exhausted and powers down. Seeing that Anne needs a boost, Mr. X broadcasts one of her favorite songs, and her family, both biological and found family, cheer her on. With the encouragement of the city and the people in her life, Anne gets her second wind and powers up once again, striking at Andrias with even more ferocity.
Grime ends up pushing Sasha out of the way of Darcy's scythe, losing his entire left arm in the process, to which Sasha quickly tends to his wound. Grime admits that before he met Sasha, he was just a bully in a tower, but she inspired him to be something more, and if she can do that, she can do anything. Sasha, enraged that Darcy hurt her friend, attacks more viciously, but falls prey to Darcy's illusions and with her guard down takes a massive cut to her back.
Meanwhile, in Marcy's fantasy world, after false Anne and Sasha claim that 'they too, like whatever Marcy likes', and realizing that the real Anne and Sasha will not necessarily like everything she takes interest in, Marcy finally sees though the Core's illusions and faces reality, even though the truth is painful sometimes; she claims only a coward would choose this simulated illusion. As Aldrich leaves her to fade into nothing, Marcy says she believes in Anne and Sasha. Later, Anne has Andrias on the verge of defeat, but her powers finally run out and he is left exhausted. Mr. X spots the letter Sprig is holding on to and uses his spy glasses find the hidden message on it and tells them that it's written with special ink that's only visible to red lens. However, Sprig takes his glasses and learns that it is from Leif. He flies a Heron the tower, and holds off Andrias with a Boomshroom to protect Anne. As Andrias prepares to kill them both, Sprigs holds the letter and tell that its Leif's stopping Andrias' assault an emotional freeze. He reads to the letter to him; revealing that despite running away and starting a new life in Wartwood, she never stopped loving him and hoped that he would let go of all of his anger, begging him to not to close himself off from others because of their broken friendship. Andrias is brought to tears now knowing that Leif still considered him as a friend despite everything that she had to do. However, he comes anguished. He notes that over the past 1,000 years, he had crossed too many lines by now to possibly receive redemption or forgiveness and loses his will to fight. In the castle, Darcy prepares to finish Sasha off, but becomes alerted and disgusted by Andrias' weakness. She claims to Sasha, as fellow control freak, she will appreciate her next move, and forces her control over Andrias through his crown, demanding him to fight and while claiming they are all he'll ever need or have.
Sasha, inspired by what Anne told her earlier how 'it isn't about who they were before, but who they are now' that matters, finally puts her former self behind her as she attacks Darcy with the last of her strength. When Sasha attacks Darcy with her sword, Darcy laughs as they believed she missed, but it turns out she hit exactly what she meant to hit; the cord connected to Darcy's helmet, which causes it to break off. Darcy screams in shock, calling Sasha a fool and saying if she knows what she has done before screaming once more in anguish as all the robotic eyes in the chamber shatter and orange energy seeps out of the human body. At last, Marcy is freed and loses consciousness. Now that Andrias is free from the Core's influence, he lets Anne deliver the finishing blow and accepts defeat. The people of Los Angeles, California, her parents, her allies, the Plantars, Principle and even Maggie cheer over Anne's victory. As Andrias lies defeated, he reveals that he had stayed alive for a whole millennium due to cybernetic enhancements inside his body that are now heavily damaged because of Anne's final attack.
After the shield is down, Anne and Sasha rush over to Marcy and hug her, while saying that they love and forgive her, pleading for her to wake up as their tears fall down. Marcy wakes up and apologizes profusely for her actions and getting them sent to Amphibia to begin with as she did not want to lose her friends. Anne tells her it's okay and all is forgiven; stating that whether they like it or not, things change, but Anne assures her friends that neither time nor distance will destroy their bond and everyone present engages in a group hug. While nobody is looking, Darcy's helmet sprouts out 6 mechanical legs and sneaks away.
As Mr. X, the Boonchuys, the herons and the US government are cleaning up LA and gathering all the robot remains; Anne then tells her parents that she, Sasha and Marcy are heading back to Amphibia to bring their friends home, take an unconscious Andrias prisoner and to see if everyone back there is okay. Both Sasha and Marcy ask the Boonchuys to tell their parents that they're okay, to which they agree as it would be easier to explain to them what happened because the battle was broadcasted live. Anne activates the music box and the castle crosses dimensions.
Meanwhile back in Amphibia, the Wartwood Resistance is fighting off what remains of the Frobot army. Just then, they see the castle returning to Amphibia as Olivia announces their victory and everyone cheers. Sasha mentions on how they didn't require the use of the prophecy, prompting Marcy to frantically ask what she's talking about. Sprig asks Anne if things will change between them just like her and her friends. Anne admits she is uncertain but no matter what happens, she reassures Sprig they will face it together. Sprig smiles at this. Just as it seems like everything is going to be okay, Sprig points out that Amphibia's moon is moving closer, leaving a shocked Anne to question the current situation.
*Cue ominous music box credits*
Tropes:
- 11th-Hour Superpower: Polly is able to use the school robotics lab to rebuild Frobo into a full robot even more powerful than he was to begin with.
- Achilles' Power Cord: Unsurprisingly, the incredibly obvious cable connected to Darcy's helmet turns out to be a massive weak spot for them, though they're skilled enough in combat that Sasha can't get a clean hit in on it until Darcy gets distracted by Andrias losing the will to fight in Anne's battle, forcing them to attempt a Villain Override to continue their deathmatch and forgetting about the badly-wounded Sasha. Grime kicking Sasha's sword over to her despite his grievous injuries helps motivate her to stand up despite her deeply-slashed back and slice through the cord, freeing Marcy and deactivating all the Core's minions at once.
- Actor Allusion: Once again, Keith David learns a harsh truth thanks to some incredibly specialized glasses after a long, grueling fight in downtown Los Angeles.
- Affably Evil: Andrias talks very casual about the fact that his forces are invading Earth.Andrias: Hello, Earth! Congratulations on being conquered!
- Agonizing Stomach Wound: Played With. After King Andrias's Heel Realization, he surrenders himself to Anne and allows her to ram through him. In the process, he loses his left arm and leg, and the tip of his tail. He also gets a gap in the left side of his tummy where Anne rammed throught him, and exposing his cybernetic insides. But he still survives the blow without any lasting pain.
- Alas, Poor Villain: Before delivering the final blow, Anne’s shocked to see Andrias willingly exposing himself as a form of silent atonement for his actions. Even Sprig — whom Andrias tried to drop to his death — seems upset at seeing Darcy subject him to a Villain Override in the midst of his sincere breakdown and regret for having come too far to stop the invasion or be redeemed by this point.
- Alien Blood: Sasha cuts Darcy's cheek and it spills a single drop of green blood. Presumably this was a side-effect of whatever modifications and techniques Andrias used to save Marcy from his impalement and make her into a suitable vessel for the Core.
- An Arm and a Leg:
- Grime loses his left arm to Darcy's Sinister Scythe after pushing Sasha out of the way of a fatal blow.
- After Anne's final attack, Andrias is missing a foot, a hand, and the tip of his tail.
- And I Must Scream: Double Subverted. Marcy is first shown locked in the "little room" that the Core previously mentioned, but she's had literally hundreds of games and puzzles fed to her to keep her mind off of it until the Core is ready to try assimilating her. When she breaks through the Aldrich avatar's deceit and refuses to be assimilated, the Core retaliates by trapping her consciousness in a black void where she's fully cognizant but all alone with nothing around her, intending to let her rot there until her personality is completely gone.
- And This Is for...: Sasha takes down Darcy while shouting it's payback for Grime's injury.
- Attack Its Weak Point: Non-videogame case, but severing Darcy's powercord immediately defeats it. Granted, it did do a good job of fending off attacks on it, and Sasha only succeeded because it was preoccupied.
- Autobots, Rock Out!: When Andrias succeeds to punching Anne down to the ground and briefly out of her Super Mode, the Boonchuys have Mr. X broadcast one of her favourite K-Pop sounds throughout the city to give her the backing track, along with her family's heartfelt encouragement, to stand back up again and start thrashing Andrias to the beat of the music.
- Back for the Finale: With Andrias' invasion force on Earth, all of the recurring characters from LA, such as Anne's parents and Mr. X, return to participate in the final battle. A lot of minor characters also made cameos such as Priscilla and Pearl, Bufo, Gabby and Maggie.
- Big Damn Reunion:
- After just barely managing to escape Andrias' castle, Anne and the crew are rescued by Mr X and the Boonchuys.
- After many days of hardship and a very exhausting fight, Anne, Sasha and Marcy are finally reunited. What makes it even more heartwarming is that Anne and Sasha immediately forgive Marcy and they let her know they are just glad she's still alive.
- Big "NO!": Darcy/The Core gives out a truly epic one after Sasha cuts their connection cable, causing the Core to crash.
- Bloodless Carnage:
- As in "True Colors", the wounds from Darcy's energy scythe don't bleed. Grime's lost arm is obscured by his clothing while a slash on Sasha's back glows red just like Marcy's stab wound.
- When Anne punches straight through Andrias' body the damage is obscured by the explosion of his Powered Armour, and it's shortly thereafter revealed that he's partly biomechanical with exposed wiring shown in his severed tail, missing left arm and leg, and his gutted torso.
- Bond Villain Stupidity: Even though Darcy ordered for the protagonists to be brainwashed with mind-control collars in the previous episode, in this one it is shown that they were simply chained up, which makes it much easier for them to escape.
- Book Ends: Marcy getting possessed had her scream in agony. Darcy getting unplugged by Sasha also had her screaming in agony. Bonus points for having the same tone.
- Brick Joke:
- The episode beginning has a flashback to the day before Anne's birthday, showing that Sasha and Marcy roped her into taking part in a prank to throw an impromptu dog dance party inside St James, blasting a K-pop song over the school loudspeakers. In this episode, chronologically the climatic showdown of Anne's journey so far, The Boonchuys have Mr.X broadcast the same K-Pop song throughout the city to give her the backing track along with her family's heartfelt encouragement to stand up and resume beating down Andrias with increased ferocity.Anne: Well, hello there, sweet life-giving K-pop!
- When Anne stands off against Andrias in his mech, Principal Murphy, watching from home, bemoans that she just wanted Anne to write an essay.
- The episode beginning has a flashback to the day before Anne's birthday, showing that Sasha and Marcy roped her into taking part in a prank to throw an impromptu dog dance party inside St James, blasting a K-pop song over the school loudspeakers. In this episode, chronologically the climatic showdown of Anne's journey so far, The Boonchuys have Mr.X broadcast the same K-Pop song throughout the city to give her the backing track along with her family's heartfelt encouragement to stand up and resume beating down Andrias with increased ferocity.
- Bright Is Not Good: In stark contrast to the Core's Red and Black and Evil All Over physical appearance, its inner sanctum in the mindscape (which it shows to Marcy whilst manipulating her to be assimilated) is a grand, brightly-colored library with ghostly golden newts who were previously assimilated mulling about.
- Brilliant, but Lazy: Principal Murphy pegs Anne as this among her friend trio, recognizing that Sasha and Marcy were the ones that pushed her into a prank the day before her birthday, and asking her to write an essay on who she is and what she wants out of life in order to force her to reevaluate herself.
- Call-Back:
- Andrias' battle armor (or at least a prototype of it) first appeared in the background of "The Core & The King" when he and Barrel are chasing Leif.
- When the Plantars face down the herons, they deliver a Pre Ass Kicking One Liner similar to the one Anne gave the Cloak-Bot in "The New Normal".
- The Core uses its illusion-projecting mist once again, to mess with Sasha.
- The Cameo: Several minor characters make appearances during the fight, even Maggie, who only previously appeared in the opening of "Reunion".
- Cardboard Prison: Apparently, Darcy and Andrias placed Anne and the others all in one cell, without fitting the other Resistance leaders with collars like Darcy had hinted in the previous episode — though, given that the invasion happened immediately as they were captured, it's likely the guards hadn't yet had time to get them all custom-fitting collars before they escape. As if that wasn't enough, they somehow neglected to neutralize Frobo, who managed to cut the heroes out of their cell, having presumably underestimated how capable he was even in his cute RC car form.
- Cathartic Crying:
- During their rematch, Anne surmises that Andrias shut himself off from the rest of the world and went through "a thousand years of suffering, of burying [his] feelings". When Sprig arrives with Leif's letter, Andrias realizes that Leif still cared for him and breaks down sobbing before the Core attempts to Villain Override him.
- After a series-worth of troubles, trauma and near-death experiences, Anne, Sasha and Marcy all burst out in relieved sobs once they finally reunite.
- Character Development: Several In-Universe examples:
- Anne admits that she didn't really love herself before arriving in Amphibia, and that she just went along with what was easy instead of caring about right or wrong.
- Sprig brushed off the possibility that he and Anne might not be together anymore when this is all over, or that things will at the very least be different. After reading Leif's letter to Andrias and seeing the girls make up, he realizes that things might not be so easy.
- Grime admits that before he met Sasha, he was just a bully in a tower, but she inspired him to be something more.
- Marcy gets what she thought she wanted in the form of endless adventures with Anne and Sasha... but rejects it because she wants her real friends, even if they disagree with her, not the puppet versions the Core provided. She realises that people do not necessarily need common interests to be friends. Just simply hanging out is more than enough.
- Sasha has been struggling to forgive herself, questioning her own personal development and expressing doubts on how much she's truly moved on from her previous toxic ways ever since Anne came back. Only now, after being reminded by Anne that she's worked to better herself and Grime expressing his unconditional support towards her, she's finally able to recognize that she's not that person anymore.
- Chekhov's Gun:
- The St. James school building, usually featured in the past seasons as part of a flashback to what the girls were up to prior to their transportation to Amphibia, gets referenced again in the beginning of this episode, then used as a temporary base of operations for the united heroes whilst they're coordinating a plan, as well as an opportunity for Polly to upgrade Frobo into a more combat-capable form.
- The Plantar family hunting dance that Leif is shown to have developed in "The Core & The King" is used by her descendants here to protect Mr. and Mrs. Boonchuy from the same herons that killed Sprig and Polly's parents.
- The laser knife that Darcy was prepared to gut Anne with in the prior episode gets used by her here to land a nasty slice on Sasha's ankle when she tries to make a run for the shield generator and leave her open for Darcy's attempted killing blow. Similarly, the Combat Tentacles that they restrained the heroes with also get used to maximise Darcy's advantage in their fight and the hallucinatory images they used to distract Yunan and Olivia during their attempted rescue of Marcy also get used to leave Sasha open for Darcy to give her a nasty cut In the Back.
- During Leif's theft of the Calamity Box in "The Core & The King", she ran through a workshop where pieces of an armored creation could be seen in the background. Said creation is revealed here to be a personalized suit of Powered Armor that Andrias pilots to fight Anne in her Super Mode one-on-one.
- Leif's letter left behind in the Plantar family tunnels is finally read here, revealed to be a personal message to Andrias from his old friend begging him not to close himself off from others due to the fallout of their own broken friendship, which actually gets through to him enough that he loses the will to continue fighting Anne, even if he does acknowledge it's too late for him.
- The device hidden in Andrias' Cool Crown that connects him mentally to the Core comes into play in the climax of both fights, as it allows Darcy to sense when he's lost the will to finish his battle with Anne, distracting them from finishing off a badly-wounded Sasha and leaving themselves open for her to cut their Achilles' Power Cord whilst they attempt a Villain Override on Andrias through the same crown.
- One that actually doesn't fire until the very end, but Sasha notes that the Olm prophecy that foretold of their coming ultimately turned out to be unneeded in stopping the Core and the invasion of Earth, only for Sprig to notice that Amphibia's red moon is moving closer to their planet, implying the prophecy wasn't about the invasion at all...
- Cliffhanger: The episode ends right as Anne and Sprig notice Amphibia's moon starting to fall to the ground.
- Colony Drop: Andrias and the Core have been defeated, but Amphibia's moon is getting awfully close...
- Company Cross References:
- When Andrias's citadel arrives over LA, one of the humans witnessing this bears a resemblance to Pepper Ann, presumably as a result of Matt Braly's watching the show in his childhood
. - Frobo's fists have shooting star stickers.
- When Anne and her parents land inside a parking garage, right next to them is Lightning McQueen.
- When Andrias's citadel arrives over LA, one of the humans witnessing this bears a resemblance to Pepper Ann, presumably as a result of Matt Braly's watching the show in his childhood
- Contrived Coincidence: Not only did Andrias place control collars on the two herons that killed Sprig and Polly's parents, they were part of the invasion force.
- Conveniently Timed Distraction: As Darcy has Sasha down and plans on delivering her the final blow, she halts her attack when she notices Andrias losing his will to fight after Sprig read Leif's letter to him. While Darcy controls Andrias to resume fighting, Grimes uses this moment to kick one of Sasha's sword towards Sasha so she can fight back.
- David vs. Goliath: Tiny, thirteen-year-old one-shoed Anne facing off against King Andrias in a behemoth of a Humongous Mecha that's about as tall as a building, with several panning shots making it clear just how large the size difference is. Ironically however, as the fight goes on it becomes clear that the roles are inverted, as no matter how hard Andrias smashes Anne through multiple buildings and across the city, he fails to do more than Scratch Damage as long as her Super Mode is active, and she proves capable of matching his advanced weaponry with just her powers and Trionio's sword, even one-sidedly pummelling him once she gets her Heroic Second Wind. All it takes is one of Anne's blows to actually connect through Andrias' defences to take him down with near-fatal results, and his suit breaking down towards the end of the fight makes it clear that it wasn't going to hold up under Anne's assault for long, even with her having access to only half her full powers. Just about the only weakness she has is her Hour of Power, and Andrias' almost-victory through exploiting that is presented as a lucky break that saved him from her. The trope name also counts as a sort of punny Shout-Out, considering Andrias' VA's previous roles.
- Degraded Boss: The original Cloakbot was a deadly machine that took a lot of effort to stop. Olivia and Yunnan manage to hold off three of them by themselves, with no signs of injury after the battle. Although, it is possible the trio was simply trying to stall them and were waiting for reinforcements to arrive. Regardless of their reason, they failed at killing them.
- Don't Celebrate Just Yet: Lady Olivia makes the official victory proclamation, and everyone celebrates the war being over, but then Sprig points out the moon about to collide with them, which everyone turns their attention to.
- Don't You Dare Pity Me!: When Anne expresses her Sympathy for the Devil about Andrias closing himself off from everyone, he gets noticeably pissed.
- Dragon Their Feet: Played with. Darcy is defeated first, with Andrias falling seconds later, but Andrias had already stopped putting up a fight by that point — indeed, Darcy attempting a Villain Override to get him back into the fight is what led to their defeat in the first place.
- Easily Thwarted Alien Invasion: Despite all the destruction it causes, the invasion is stopped once Andrias and Darcy are defeated. Justified in that the Core was the center of the Keystone Army, and even before he lost his will to fight, Andrias had said he'd call off the invasion if Anne defeated him in battle.
- Empty Eyes: The illusionary Anne and Sasha in Marcy's dream world have these with a tint of gray, showing how they're only skin-deep replicas of the real deal, since the Core is characterised by its unfeeling demeanour compared to the more nuanced Andrias, showing how it can't trick her as well as he could because it simply doesn't have the ability to properly care about her wants and needs beyond a surface level.
- Empty Shell: Marcy nearly ends up having this trope invoked on her. After she defies the Core's manipulations and refuses to be assimilated by it, the latter sends her to a dark void in retaliation, where her personality would slowly fade until there would be nothing left of her. Fortunately, nothing comes of that threat because Sasha frees Marcy from the Core's control not long after.
- The End... Or Is It?: During the credits sequence, everything looks to be wrapping up. The Earth invasion has been thwarted, Andrias has been defeated and captured, 'Darcy' has been destroyed and Marcy freed from the Core's influence, the royal palace and the Calamity Box are brought back to Amphibia and the fighting on both worlds has ceased. Then, the discarded helmet Darcy was wearing sprouts robotic legs and scuttles away unnoticed by everybody, and Sprig realizes that Amphibia's red moon is somehow falling towards their planet for an unknown reason, just as Leif foresaw 1,000 years ago.
- Evil Cannot Comprehend Good: The Core shows that it has trouble getting the core desires of the trio, especially in how it provides Marcy with copies of her friends that are total yes-men that mindlessly do what she wants, not getting that Marcy wants her friends, even if they might disagree with her.
- Evil Has a Bad Sense of Humor: Darcy jokes about Grime being "disarmed". Sasha is beyond furious.
- Exactly What I Aimed At: When Sasha slices at Darcy, at first it seems that she missed, but it turns out that she hit exactly what she meant to hit: the cord connecting her helmet to the main Core.
- Extra-Long Episode: This episode is 48 minutes long, making it the longest episode in the show.
- Face Death with Dignity:
- Sasha, badly wounded, once Darcy has the blade of their scythe at her neck.Sasha: Do your worst.
- Andrias calmly disarms his armour and gives Anne a solemn look as she blitzes towards him. It's enough to make her switch from fury to visible pity.
- Sasha, badly wounded, once Darcy has the blade of their scythe at her neck.
- Family-Unfriendly Violence:
- Darcy severs Grime's arm with their scythe and later delivers a slash to Sasha's back, with a visible red gash for a split second, though Sasha's longer hair covers the wound for the rest of the fight. This contrasts with Anne and Andrias' epic destructive showdown in the streets, with both landing devastating blows on each other capable of throwing the target into buildings, but neither drawing visible blood, demonstrating how Darcy is ultimately the more malicious enemy they have to face.
- Briefly, as Anne lands the Finishing Move on Andrias' exposed body, he can be seen to be visibly cut through by getting hit with the full force of her Super Mode without any defences, though it's shortly thereafter revealed that he's at least partly biomechanical in order to ensure he could keep serving the Core regardless of his physical aging.
- Fatal Flaw: The Core's obsessive need for control and its sadism sets Darcy's defeat in motion; it senses Andrias' hesitation through the connection it has on his crown, and ignores Sasha so it can force Andrias back in line, relishing in the thought of Sasha being Forced to Watch Anne die. This gives Sasha the opening she needs to sever Darcy's connection to the Core.
- Fighting Your Friend: Sasha has to take down the Core-possessed Marcy.
- Fire-Breathing Diner: Grime has this reaction after tasting the Boonchuy's Thai food.
- Flat "What": In Andrias's flashback to the day he met Marcy, this was Olivia's response when Marcy decides to crawl into his pocket.
- Fluffy Tamer: After the collars come off the herons, the Plantars use their family hunting dance to tame them and turn them against Andrias and his forces.
- Foil: Another parallel between Anne and Andrias is made. Anne realizes that initially she didn't really love herself and decided to do what came easy rather than what was right and wrong, resulting in her succumbing to Toxic Friend Influence, but meeting the Plantars turned her life around. She also notes that Andrias also hated himself for allowing Leif to steal the Calamity Box, and chose to cut himself off from feeling anything for 1,000 years. Realizing the similarity, Anne comments that she pities Andrias, which serves to enrage him.
- Forced to Watch: Darcy elects to ignore the wounded Sasha in favour of forcing Andrias to resume his assault on Anne, with the intent of forcing Sasha to watch her friend die first before killing her. This backfires when Sasha takes advantage of the distraction to sever Darcy's Achilles' Power Cord.
- Foreshadowing: Despite the climatic invasion occurring, nothing happens that could constitute a 'Fall', and Sasha mentions towards the end that the Olm prophecy ultimately turned out to be unneeded, shortly before Sprig realizes that Amphibia's red moon is somehow falling towards their planet for an unknown cause, showing that the prophecy is yet to be fulfilled.
- Forgiveness: After cutting Marcy's connection to the Core, Sasha and Anne beg her to come back and tell her that they forgive her for sending them to Amphibia. Once she does wake up Marcy apologizes for her deceit and Anne promises her that, no matter what happens, they will always be friends.
- Freeze-Frame Bonus:
- On Mr. X's phone in his office, one of the names on the listing is Mickey.
- Several of the shockwaves from Anne's attacks against Andrias are shaped like lotus blossoms, both tying to her heritage and symbolic of her blossoming.
- When Sasha delivers her final attack at Darcy, you can see the tip of her sword hit the cord on Darcy's helmet during the slow-mo shot.
- Giant Equals Invincible:
- The enormous herons from Amphibia prove to be as good as invulnerable to Earth's weaponry, even tanks and Mr. X's experimental laser guns. However, Hop Pop's flashback shows one being dealt a scar by a simple thrown spear, even if that didn't do much except agitate it.
- Andrias is already King-sized, but he takes that up a notch for his rematch with Anne, donning a suit of Powered Armor that also partially works as a Humongous Mecha, enabling him to withstand fighting her in her Super Mode for an extended period of time and enduring the same blows that earlier ragdolled him helplessly in "True Colors". That said, it's also downplayed, as Andrias makes it clear that the main point of the suit isn't to simply outfight Anne, but to stall her until her Hour of Power runs out, and it starts getting visibly damaged towards the tail end of their encounter. On the other hand, Anne's powers do eventually run out, and if Andrias hadn't been convinced by Leif's letter to open his armor up to let Anne's last-ditch attack reach him, he would have won, despite her best efforts and improved handling with her powers.
- A Glitch in the Matrix: When Marcy asks the illusionary Anne and Sasha what quest they should do first, they reply in unison, "Whatever you want, Mar-Mar. We only want what you want". The realization that her friends would never say that finally jolts Marcy back to her senses and causes her to realize she's trapped in an illusion.
- "Good Luck" Gesture: Maggie gives Anne a sincere thumbs up while being moved to tears as the battle with Andrias reaches its conclusion.
- Good News, Bad News: When Andrias addresses Earth when the invasion begins, he says the good news is that Earth has the resources to continue with the conquest of other worlds, with the bad news being they all have to be exterminated.
- Grand Finale: This is Part 2 of the show's final three episodes.
- Growling Gut: When the Boonchuys bring in food they brought from their restaurant, someone's stomach is heard rumbling. Everyone looks to Grime, who admits that it was him while sporting a Luminescent Blush.
- Group Hug: The heroes share one after the Core's defeat (although Yunan has to be brought in for it).
- Happy Flashback: While watching Darcy lead her armies across Earth, Andrias has a flashback to his first time meeting Marcy, when he was reading the morning newspaper and Marcy was getting a tour of the castle, instantly endearing herself to him with her quirks and a gift of a small robot pin. It then cuts to a black void where the Core demands that he kill her.
- Heel–Face Turn: Downplayed as Mr. X was never evil, just a bit grey on the morality scale in his attempts to protect Earth from extraterrestrial threats, but here he has a change of heart after being (presumably) chewed out by Anne's parents and fully cooperates with the heroes.
- Heel Realization: After reading Leif's farewell letter to him, encouraging him not to shut out his heart, Andrias finally realizes just how far he's fallen, but believes that after everything he's done to both Amphibia and Earth, it's too late for him to truly redeem himself.
- Heroic BSoD: The Plantars freeze up the moment they see the herons on a rampage, though it takes seeing Anne's parents in the same position Sprig and Polly's parents died for them to snap out of it and defeat the herons.
- Heroic Sacrifice:
- As Darcy is about to cut Sasha in half, Grime steps in, but he loses his left arm, and it seems shock and blood loss would take care of the rest. Thankfully, Grime survives.
- An understated one, but Andrias realizes both that the Core truly cares nothing for him when it attempts a Villain Override after he loses the will to fight after reading Leif's letter, as well as the fact that he made a mistake choosing his family legacy over his genuine friendship. Aware that he cannot undo the damage he's done, nor just quit the fight and render all his efforts All for Nothing even if his heart's truly no longer in it, he instead exposes his body to Anne's Finishing Move with a somber expression, allowing himself to be cut down and defeated to render himself incapable of continuing the fight, as the only form of atonement he can make at this point, something only Anne seems to understand as the watching citizens celebrate his defeat.
- Heroic Second Wind:
- Anne has seemingly been exhausted by fighting Andrias using her powers, but then Mr. X broadcasts one of her favorite songs while her family — both biological and Found Family — cheer her on, giving Anne the encouragement she needs to get back up. Unfortunately, it doesn't last long enough and Anne tires out again just before she can strike the finishing blow. She can just barely muster enough energy for a final strike, which only connects because Andrias is convinced not to defend himself.
- While the Core is distracted by Andrias hesitating to finish Anne, a badly wounded Sasha drags herself to her feet, motivated by Anne's earlier words about moving forward as better people, and manages to cut the Core's power cord before falling to her knees again, winning their fight and freeing Marcy from the Mind Hive.
- Hidden Eyes:
- Anne has this while imprisoned with the others at the start of the episode. Later, Sasha gets this when Grime passes out from his injury.
- The avatar of Aldrich has massive eyebrows that hide his eyes. All thirteen of them.
- History Repeats: Anne's parents are attacked by herons, which mimics the exact scenario that orphaned Sprig and Polly. For extra drama, they're the very same herons. This time, however, the Plantars aren't going to let it happen.
- Hobbling the Giant: To stop the herons, the Plantars tie up their ankles. Unfortunately, they forget the herons can fly. Fortunately, they manage to tie up their wings as well.
- Hope Spot:
- It seems like Anne is about to defeat Andrias, but then her powers finally start running out.
- Just as it seems like everything is going to be okay, Amphibia's moon starts falling, just like in Leif's vision.
- Hotline: After the military's first strike against Andrias fails, the leading commander demands a phone to contact Mr. X for backup.
- Hypocrite:
- When Andrias notes that Anne's warrior heart underneath her gruff appearance was quite deceptive, Anne retorts that he should talk, mentioning his Bitch in Sheep's Clothing routine. Andrias submits to that with a Touché.
- Leif's final letter to Andrias was her begging him to not close himself away from others because of what she did to him and hopes that he will open his heart to friendship again, but then she hid it away for unknown reasons instead of sending it to him when it could've gotten him to do so sooner.
- Hypocritical Humor: During their first meeting, Marcy scolds herself for unintentionally overstepping boundaries by asking Andrias if she can call him "Drias" (which saddens him because Leif's the only one who used that name). Then she proceeds to see if she can fit inside the pocket on his robe.
- I Let You Win: The only reason why Anne manages to defeat Andrias despite her powers reaching their Hour of Power limit is because the latter loses his will to fight after listening to Leif's letter and experiencing an attempted Villain Override by the Core, realizing that his master doesn't truly care about him and that he cannot simply quit the fight because of everything he's done to get to that point. Instead, he exposes himself and lets her deliver the final blow as a silent form of atonement, which only Anne seems to realize as the rest of the city celebrates her victory.
- Immediate Sequel: This episode picks up where "The Beginning of the End" left off.
- Innocently Insensitive: When Sasha tells Darcy that they can't guilt-trip her, Grime mentions she should know better than to try to manipulate "the queen of manipulation". Sasha sarcastically thanks Grime for that one, and he quickly apologizes.
- Instant Costume Change: In Marcy's fantasy world, after Aldrich makes a false Anne and Sasha appear, their clothing suddenly changes to match a fantasy setting.
- Irony: Darcy and Andrias are both cyborgs, but whereas Andrias has a cybernetic torso, Darcy's augmentation comes from their helmet. However, despite Darcy having a physical heart while inhabiting Marcy's body, they are more ruthless than their servant. Andrias - though it is unknown whether he still has his heart - has a Heel Realization and lets Anne deliver the final blow.
- I've Come Too Far: After hearing Leif's letter, Andrias collapses in tears over the things he has done and the pain he has caused, and screams that it is too late. After the Core punishes him, he defies this trope by dropping his defenses and letting Anne finish him.
- Laughing Mad: Darcy cackles like a maniac three times: while shooting at the tanks through a computer-game-esque interface, after making a very bad joke about severing Grime's arm, and when about to kill the wounded Sasha.
- Laser Blade: Darcy has her laser dagger and wields a laser scythe against Sasha.
- Laser-Guided Amnesia: When Marcy appears in the Core, it's revealed that her memories of how she got there have been suppressed.
- Learned from the News: After the invasion is stopped, Marcy and Sasha ask the Boonchuys to inform their parents they're safe and will be back soon, and since the invasion was all over the news, the Boonchuys are sure they'll be quickly convinced.
- Light Is Not Good: Aldrich and other newts whom were presumably assimilated by the Core in the past at first manifest in the "inner sanctum" as translucent, glowing golden figures. It reminds one of how the Core's stated purpose was to preserve Amphibia's intelligentsia despite turning into a mere cheat against death, and contrasted against the Core's usual Red and Black and Evil All Over, the aesthetic really brings the Light Bringer to mind. The Core shows these forms to Marcy just before Aldrich sets about manipulating the girl into embracing a Lotus-Eater Machine with the aim of permanently assimilating her mind into the collective.
- Locked Out of the Loop: Marcy - who's spent the season trapped in her own mind - freaks out when Sasha offhandedly mentions the prophecy, as she wasn't previously aware of it.
- Lotus-Eater Machine: The Core, King Aldrich in particular, creates a fantasy world for Marcy to keep her happy while it uses her body. When Marcy sees through the illusion and refuses the offer to join the Core, it strands her in a pitch-black void, intending to let her consciousness degrade over time.
- Match Cut: During Anne's battle with Andrias, it cuts from her with the blue sky and white sun behind her, to Sasha in the same pose, but in the dark orange and red room of the Core.
- Militaries Are Useless: The Earth army's tanks and missiles start a counterattack immediately but they can do nothing against the herons or the castle's shields. They're never even shown damaging any of the Mecha-Mooks that named characters are able to beat with melee weapons or their bare hands. Justified in that Amphibia's technology is far more advanced.
- Monochromatic Impact Shot: When Sasha lands the finishing blow on Darcy, the moment of impact is displayed in high contrast black and white before showing the effect in full color.
- Monumental Damage: The Hollywood sign and most of the hill it's built upon are blown up by a shot from Andrias' castle.
- Murder Is the Best Solution: A Flashback shows that the Core wanted Andrias to kill Marcy seconds after meeting her, fearful of the prophecy. Subverted when Andrias, reluctant to kill her, offers an alternate solution (lure her friends to the castle, trick them into giving up their powers, then use the restored Calamity Box to resume their conquests) that the Core agrees is actually better.
- My God, What Have I Done?: Upon learning that Leif still cared for him, and that she hoped he could one day open up to others again, Andrias comes to realizes just how far he's fallen.Andrias: All this time, I thought you had forgotten me... (choking up) like I tried to forget you. My dear friend... (falls to his knees and sobs)
- Necessary Drawback: The forcefield around the castle has gaps to allow its rocket thrusters to work. Sasha and her team take advantage of these gaps in order to sneak in.
- Near-Villain Victory: Both Andrias and Darcy come close to killing Anne and Sasha respectively. If it weren't for Sprig showing up with Leif's letter, which causes Andrias to literally leave himself open, Anne and Sasha would have died.
- No-Nonsense Nemesis: Both Andrias and Darcy showcase different aspects of this during their respective fights with the heroes:
- Andrias makes a citywide broadcast announcing his intent to defeat Anne in Combat by Champion as the fighting starts turning against their forces, even promising to stop the invasion if he loses, and blowing up the Hollywood sign as a demonstration of what'll happen if Anne refuses to come out and fight. This forces the biggest potential Spanner in the Works to face him and exhaust her trump card under conditions that he controls, wearing a suit of Powered Armor capable of withstanding an extended fighting period with Anne's powers at their zenith, and making it clear he's aiming for her Hour of Power weakness, seemingly aware that despite his advantages, her raw might is simply too much to be overcome by their best technology. However, he does legitimately fight Anne fair and square without any dirty tricks involved or outside interference despite this, both out of his sincere enjoyment of a challenging fight and aware that nothing else but him stands a chance against Anne anyway. Despite coming close to losing, he's ultimately able to outlast her and is seconds away from delivering a death blow despite Darcy ordering him to take her in alive due to their concerns about how her death would affect the Calamity Box energy before Sprig delivers him Leif's letter. Ultimately, Andrias was simply unstoppable in combat until he let himself be stopped in the end, despite all of Anne's best efforts.
- Darcy ambushes Sasha and Grime in the shield generator room and proceeds to make full use of their multiple advantages throughout the fight, using Combat Tentacles to overcome their numerical superiority, switching rapidly between targets to strike when their enemies are distracted and at their most vulnerable, and using a laser scythe that leaves permanent maiming injuries on both combatants. When pushed into a corner they even fall back on the same illusionary tricks that distracted Marcy, Olivia and Yunan during their attempted rescue to regain their advantage. Notably, despite being in Marcy's weak, nerdy body and having an incredibly obvious weak spot, Darcy's sheer pragmatism and maliciousness in battle has them actually winning against two of the most combat-capable fighters on the heroes' side, their loss coming about only because they underestimated their tenacity after Darcy had almost killed them both and they got distracted by Andrias' Heel Realisation over at Anne's fight, neglecting to give Sasha the finishing blow so she could watch Anne die at the hands of their servant whilst she watched helplessly.
- Non-Protagonist Resolver: It is Sasha who takes care of Darcy/The Core, the mastermind villain of the series, while Anne is occupied with Andrias, the servant of the Core. That said, it's hinted that the Core is Not Quite Dead.
- Not Afraid of You Anymore: Said by the Plantars to the herons after they're freed of the control collars, followed by using the Plantar Family Hunting Dance to tame them.
- Not Quite Dead: Sasha seemingly disables the Core by cutting the cord of Darcy's helmet, only for the inactive helmet to sprout legs and crawl away. Mother Olm even outright stated the Core cannot die.
- "Not So Different" Remark: Darcy taunts Sasha by pointing out how they've both used people in the past.
- Oh, Crap!:
- Darcy has an epic one when she realizes that Sasha cut her connecting cord.
- Sasha mentions the olm prophecy, causing Marcy to freak out when she hears of it.
- Despite defeating Andrias and the Core, Sprig notices the moon getting closer to Amphibia as Leif had foreseen.
- Ominous Music Box Tune: The end credits have Anne's Theme playing as a broken music box with Amphibia's moon descending towards the planet.
- Offscreen Moment of Awesome: While the heroes were busy fighting Andrias and Darcy's forces on Earth, back in Amphibia the resistance regrouped and are shown fighting tooth and nail against the robot army before the castle returns announcing the end of the war.
- Orbital Shot: When the Core is crashing after Sasha cuts Darcy's helmet cord, the camera does two quick rapid rotations around her.
- Out-of-Character Alert: Marcy realizes her fantasy world isn't real when the copies of Anne and Sasha mindlessly agree to do whatever she wants, when she knows they don't share her interests. This triggers her memories of how she wound up there in the first place.
- Please Wake Up: Anne and Sasha beg Marcy to wake up after she has been disconnected from the Core, telling her that they forgive her and crying over her. Fortunately she does and the three have a long overdue Group Hug.
- Powered Armor: Andrias is wearing one for his rematch against Anne, which, combined with his own size, makes it akin to a Humongous Mecha. It is very effective, able to stop Anne in her Super Mode with a single punch and have her on the back foot, despite her immense abilities.Andrias: It's time for a rematch!!!
- Rank Scales with Asskicking: Andrias and Darcy each demonstrate competence in a climatic showdown with Anne and Sasha.
- Darcy surprisingly proves to be very capable in a fight despite having Marcy’s weak, nerdy body and an incredibly obvious weak spot, actually capable of taking on both Grime and Sasha at the same time with a red-bladed techno-scythe and badly injuring the both of them. However, they do need to use the Combat Tentacles in the room as well as the same illusionary distractions that held up Olivia, Marcy and Yunan before to gain the advantage at a few points, so they're not quite as competent in a straightforward fight as Andrias is, but make up for that with simple pragmatism and more ruthlessness than even him.
- Andrias meanwhile, dons a suit of Powered Armour that's capable of going toe-to-toe with Anne's Supermode for an extended time, and given their technological superiority over Earth's weapons, can be stopped by nothing less than her going all-out against him. Their destructive fighting levels parts of the city from the collateral damage and notably, Andrias doesn't pull any dirty tricks or order his mooks to join in on the fighting, taking Anne on fair and square and even managing to almost beat her in the end if not for Sprig delivering Leif's letter, making him realise how much he's lost by following the Core's will, and ultimately ceding the fight to Anne on his own terms as a means of atonement, rather than being outfought by anybody.
- Reasonable Authority Figure: Anne's principal Murphy turns out to be one of these, recognizing that Anne needs the most help out of the trio and assigning her an essay on what she wants in life and what she's willing to do to get it to force her to think about these things instead of just going along with the flow.
- Record Needle Scratch: After returning to Amphibia, Sasha mentions how they didn't require the use of the prophecy, prompting Marcy (along with a record scratch) to ask what she's talking about.
- Red Filter of Doom: Grime's severed arm is shown with one, and Marcy's brief flashbacks upon seeing through the Core's Lotus-Eater Machine are shown with a more subtle one.
- Red Right Hand: Hop Pop knows the herons attacking Los Angeles are the same ones that killed Sprig and Polly's parents, because one has the same X-shaped scar he inflicted on it with a pair of shovels.
- Redemption Equals Affliction: Grime, having redeemed himself since Season 2, gets his left arm chopped off by Darcy.
- Redemption Rejection: Downplayed. Andrias notes with anguish that he got Leif's letter begging him to not to close himself off from others because of their broken friendship too late, and that he's crossed too many lines by now to possibly receive redemption or forgiveness. Nonetheless, he does metaphorically and literally 'open his heart' by exposing himself to Anne's final attack at the last second, ceding the fight to her and allowing himself to be struck down, body too broken to physically continue even if the Core pulls another Villain Override, thus not quite redeeming himself but also making himself no longer willing or able to commit any more sins against Earth or Amphibia.
- The Reveal: Though hinted at before, this episode establishes that Leif is an ancestor of the Plantars, having come back to Amphibia and changed her name to live among the frogs in secret.
- Robotic Reveal: When Anne tears through his mech, Andrias is revealed to have cybernetic enhancements embedded throughout his body, seemingly to such an extent that his head may be the only part of him left that is still organic, thus accounting for his strong showing in combat despite his advanced age. Andrias credits the technology for his extreme longevity, stating that living a thousand years requires sacrifice.
- Sadistic Choice: As Andrias laments upon finally receiving Leif's message, all it's done is force him into one of these by the current point. He indicates that if he'd heard it sooner, it would have spurred him into a genuine Heel–Face Turn before things got out of hand, but now, he's already started the invasion of Earth and utterly ravaged Amphibia as per the Core's orders, leaving him with nothing to gain by stopping the invasion anymore, even if his heart is no longer in it. Ultimately, Andrias chooses to be struck down by Anne as a monstrous villain rather than continue to enforce the Core's will, as he cannot simply surrender to Anne after all that's he's done.
- "Save the World" Climax: This episode revolves around Anne and the others stopping Andrias and The Core before they can complete their invasion of Earth.
- A Scar to Remember: In Hop Pop's flashback, after returning home to find Wartwood under attack by the herons and Sprig and Polly's parents dead, he angrily picked up a spear and led the villagers in driving the herons off, leaving an 'X' shaped mark on one of them. It's what allowed him to recognize the pair.
- Scream Discretion Shot: While in the school hallway, Anne and Sasha hear Grime screaming he was dying followed by Hop Pop giving him some water. Sasha isn't surprised and figures he tried the Boonchuy's food.
- Shadow Discretion Shot: Darcy slicing off Grime's arm is depicted in a shadow shot.
- Shout-Out:
- The outfits Anne and Sasha wear in the Core's mind bear a heavy resemblance to Link and War Arc Edelgard.
- Darcy's black ensemble and glowing orange energy scythe causes her to bear a passing resemblance to Fate Testarossa.
- Among the "puzzles" Marcy solves inside the Core are the Millennium Puzzle, the Lament Configuration, and a G1 Megatron toy.
- Frobo's upgraded body is reminiscent of Gundam Heavyarms.
- The crowd of people willing Anne back to fight is similar to Sonic Adventure, where the citizens of Station Square cheer Sonic on as he goes Super Sonic.
- Sasha shuts down Darcy's first attempt at a Breaking Speech with "I know what you're trying to do, and it won't work", which is word-for-word what Spider-Man tells Kingpin in Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse.
- Shut Up, Hannibal!: Sasha does this a few times during her battle with Darcy:
- When Darcy tries to guilt trip her over her past actions, Sasha points out that she knows what it's doing. When Darcy then mockingly asks her if she wants to know what Marcy really thinks of her Sasha says it doesn't mater because she is going to save her regardless and defeat Darcy.
- When Darcy claims that they're similar in that they are both Control Freaks Sasha tells her they are nothing alike and follows it up by saying that she is not that person anymore before cutting her connection to the Core.
- Skewed Priorities: After reporting the devastating invasion, a news reporter follows it up by saying Crypto is up big.Hop Pop: Typical L.A.
- Sinister Scythe: Darcy uses a red-bladed technological one to attack Sasha.
- Smug Snake: Darcy carries an aura of loathsome superiority, as it is a collection of the minds of Amphibia's greatest minds and rulers. However, it isn't nearly as smart as it thinks it is. It's revealed that when it first saw Marcy, it demanded her death, with Andrias, whom it constantly demeans, pointing out the more efficient solution. When Sasha cuts its power cord, Darcy loses its composure and briefly becomes terrified, and then smugly mocks her supposed lack of precision when it realises its body is unharmed.
- Soft Water: After falling out of the castle, Anne and the others try to grab onto Joe Sparrow and Domino 2, only to end up landing in a rooftop pool of a high-rise building.Sasha: We need to work on our timing.
- Special Edition Title: The credits show Amphibia's falling moon with a broken version of Anne's Theme playing.
- Spit Take: Principal Murphy has an epic one when she sees Anne fighting Andrias, saying that she just wanted Anne to write an essay.
- Suddenly Shouting: After Anne and Frobo rescue the Plantars from the herons, Hop Pop reaffirms their fear of why they hesitated before shouting the herons ruined their home.
- Swiss-Army Tears: After Marcy is freed from the Core and loses consciousness, Anne and Sasha cuddle her asking her to come back to them as their tears fall down and wake her up.
- Sympathy for the Devil: Anne calls out Andrias for his choice to bury his own feeling and cut himself off from the world for 1000 years, telling him that ultimately she just pities him for what he's become, rather than hate him for the pain he's caused others, noting that enduring all that self-hatred all alone "must have been hard". This just angers Andrias into briefly punching her out of her Super Mode, but later on during the climax of their fight, Anne and Sprig together can only express sympathy towards Andrias' Heel Realization as he laments how he's unable to just quit the invasion despite no longer wanting to continue, and see him suffering under Darcy's Villain Override. When Anne defeats him, she can only stare forlornly at the wreckage of his Powered Armour, aware that Andrias allowed her to strike him down as the only form of atonement left to him.
- Taking the Bullet: Grime ends up pushing Sasha out of the way of Darcy's Sinister Scythe, losing his arm in the process.
- Talking the Monster to Death: Sprig reading Leif's letter to Andrias weakens his resolve enough for Anne to catch her second wind and strike him down, which he doesn't resist.
- Technobabble: Polly brings up some big scientific words when explaining why the group's descent broke their shackles. Sprig states he still isn't used to her increase in intelligence.
- Tempting Fate: Sasha remarks that the prophecy turned out to be irrelevant in the end, less than a minute before Sprig's Wham Line reveals it's not all that irrelevant after all.
- That Man Is Dead: While she struggles not to let them affect her, Sasha isn't swayed by the Core's taunts and seems to finally come to believe she really has changed for the better.
- This Cannot Be!: When seconds away from finishing Sasha off, Darcy stops and hisses to theirself, "It can't be!" when they sense through the Core that Andrias has entered a Villainous BSoD which has made him stop fighting Anne.
- To Be Continued: Earth has been saved, Andrias and the Core have been defeated, Marcy is back to normal, and the three girls are reunited; however, the Core is Not Quite Dead, and it seems to be behind the moon coming straight for Amphibia.
- Took a Level in Badass:
- It turns out Anne's parents were trained by Mr. X with special fighting suits and weaponry to fight in case things went south.
- Polly's tech skills somehow improved so much that she managed to upgrade Frobo to a highly advanced battle suit using rudimentary school lab equipment.
- Anne's control over her Super Mode has advanced enough that she can outright fly and even Summon to Hand Tritonio's 'family sword', charging it with her Calamity gem energy to turn it into a Precision-Guided Boomerang against Andrias.
- Torso with a View: Andrias opens up his mech suit just as Anne charges at him, causing her attack to rip a chunk out of his midsection.
- Touché: When Andrias admits he underestimated Anne when they first met, Anne retorts by calling him on how he went from Santa Claus to supervillain real quickly, with 'touché' being his response.
- Tragic Keepsake: During their first meeting, Marcy gave Andrias a small robot pin she had with her as "a gift to the king of Newtopia". Andrias still has it, and looks at it while Darcy is laughing maniacally.
- Trailers Always Spoil: Between the poster for the finale and the promo, we learned before the episode aired that Anne's parents would be fighting alongside Anne, Mr. X and Jenny are now their allies, Frobo gains a new body and King Andrias would be sporting a battlesuit and facing off against Anne while Sasha tries to free Marcy by taking on Darcy.
- Trap Is the Only Option: When Andrias offers to leave Earth alone if Anne beats him in single combat, the Plantars quickly peg it as a trap. Anne decides that even if it is a trap, she has to do it, especially after Andrias destroys the Hollywood sign if she won't come out and face him. That said, Andrias actually does keep to the letter of his word throughout their fight, not pulling any dirty tricks and taking her on with just his suit's defenses and weapons, even coming close to losing towards the end if not for Anne's Hour of Power starting to run out. As he points out, his goal is simply to eliminate the most dangerous variable to their plan by outlasting Anne, thus it makes sense for him to fight fair and avoid any outside interference from both sides of the conflict, with the additional cravat that he's also looking forward to settling their score from "True Colours", even calling Anne somebody with the heart of a warrior.
- Trash the Set: The Wave-Motion Gun of Andrias' castle blows up the Hollywood sign, and even reduces Mt. Lee behind it to a crater.
- Trauma Button: The herons Andrias brainwashed into his army turn out to be the same herons that killed Sprig and Polly's parents, and the memories trigger a panic attack at a crucial time, forcing Anne and Frobo to pull them away to recover. Luckily, when they see Mr. and Mrs. Boonchuy in trouble, they pull themselves out of their funk and fight back.
- Underestimating Badassery: Just before their fight, Andrias admits that he underestimated Anne, saying that when he first saw her in his throne room, he thought she was just a scruffy teen that was missing a shoe and had leaves in her hair, but underneath it all, she had the heart of a warrior. That said, his actions throughout the series show that he also didn't underestimate the strength of her abilities with the gem, having hidden his real motives until he was certain she'd willingly de-powered herself of them, so its more him commenting on her character as a Worthy Opponent before their rematch.
- The Unreveal: A few things are left unknown by the conclusion.
- Played with - It's confirmed that Leif initially sent the Calamity Box to Earth through its dimensional travel abilities, returning on a one-way portal to Amphibia in secret, but why she did so is left unclear, as well as how she knew to leave the secret message on an apparently-random jar to aid the heroes, only what happened to her after she assumed a new false identity. Also, it is unknown why she didn't try to relay her final message to Andrias and kept it hidden when it could've redeemed him sooner, despite the fact that she and everyone else couldn't have known about the Core's Sinister Surveillance.
- As foreshadowed in "A Day at the Aquarium", Tritonio's 'family sword' is pointedly demonstrated to have a connection with Anne's Calamity powers in this episode, with her being capable of summoning it to her grasp mid-fight with Andrias and charging it with Calamity energy to turn it into a Precision-Guided Boomerang against him, but since Tritonio is still fighting on Amphibia its origins are unexplained.
- A small one, but the source of the mushroom spores for the mind control collars is still unknown.
- The cause of the 'Fall' is unknown, nor why the Moon waited until the royal Palace had returned to Amphibia before starting to plummet down towards the planet.
- Unstoppable Rage: Sasha goes ballistic when Darcy cuts Grime's arm off and makes a bad joke about "disarming" him.
- Victory by Endurance: As Andrias lampshades before their fight begins, he doesn't need to beat Anne fairly, only last long enough that her powers fail her. This isn't to say his armor can't fight toe-to-toe with her — he actually punches her unconscious at one point — but he's correct about her limit and even a Heroic Second Wind isn't enough for Anne to secure victory, her powers failing her just before she can win. Though she musters one last burst of energy, it only works because Andrias allows himself to be struck down as penance.
- Villainous BSoD: Andrias is on the verge of defeating Anne when Sprig shows him Leif's letter (indirectly revealing to Andrias that Sprig and his family are indeed her descendants) and reads the contents aloud to him. Hearing what Leif really thought of him and Barrel in the end after betraying them, and that her last wishes of him run completely counter to what Andrias has become because he didn't get her letter until now, utterly breaks Andrias' resolve to keep on fighting for the Core, and he collapses in open tears as a millennium's worth of suppressed pain, grief, and his overwhelming guilt that he can't take back every evil deed he's done up to now consume him. It culminates in Andrias ceding victory to Anne in a way which ensures that he physically won't be able to keep fighting even if the Core tries to telepathically force his hand.
- Villain Override: After Sprig reads Leif's letter to him, Andrias loses his will to fight, forcing the Core to take control of him so he'll continue fighting Anne. Once Sasha frees Marcy from the Core, thereby freeing Andrias as well, he realises that the Core truly cares nothing for him in the end and that he'd wasted his life choosing his family over his friends, quietly deciding to atone for his mistake by allowing Anne to finish him off with her powers.
- Villainous Breakdown: When Darcy realizes that Sasha managed to cut the cord connecting her helmet to the main Core she has an epic — and literal— one.
- We Can Rule Together: The Core's Mind Hive assigns Aldrich to butter an amnesiac Marcy up with a Lotus-Eater Machine until she's ready to be assimilated herself. However, it fails once Marcy regains her memory of her falling out with Anne and Sasha and has a realization about her own selfishness, firmly rejecting the Core.
- Wham Line: Andrias and Darcy are defeated, the invasion of Earth has been thwarted, and Anne, Sasha, and Marcy are finally reunited. Everything seems to have been resolved... and then...Sprig: Hey, uhh, is it just me, or is the moon getting closer?
- Whole-Plot Reference: The episode shares a lot of similarities with the latter half of Return of the Jedi with the plot points mixed up. The final battle takes place on two fronts, part of the plan involves taking out the force field generator for a flying Wave-Motion Gun, one of the main characters is tempted to join The Dark Side but rejects it, and The Dragon gets a Robotic Reveal.
- Why Don't You Just Shoot Him?: The Core initially just wanted to kill Marcy to avoid the possibility of her fulfilling the prophecy, but Andrias convinced it to trick her and her friends into giving away their powers instead because he was reminded of Leif by her personality quirks, and reluctant to pull such a drastic option again, reasoning out the de-powerment plan as a more pragmatic alternative for them both.
- The Worf Effect: Inverted. The Frobots were initially depicted as Mooks to be taken out en masse by Amphibia's more typical medieval-era weapons, but here they're depicted as capable of overpowering the human military. Oddly enough, Anne and co.'s weapons are still very effective on them, while Mr. X equips Mr. and Mrs. Boonchuy with government technology that also takes care of the Frobots.
- You Can't Make an Omelette...: Andrias uses this saying to justify why he and his army want to wipe out all of humanity. This saying also gives Darcy the idea to unleash the army's two newest recruits: a pair of giant murderous herons.
- You Fool!: The Core screams this twice, in a fashion, at their enemies when irate at said enemies' successes:
- Inside the Core's mindscape, King Aldrich cries this word at Marcy in outrage and bewilderment when she defiantly refuses to be fully assimilated into the Mind Hive, angrily insisting that the outside world is full of nothing but misery and rejection for her.
- Not long afterward, Darcy shouts the phrase at Sasha when they realize that she's severed their Achilles' Power Cord, securing their defeat.
- You Remind Me of X: While he doesn’t say it, one of the reasons why Andrias did like Marcy and was reluctant to kill her is because her energetic and kind personality reminds him of Leif before her betrayal.
- You Shall Not Pass!: While Sasha and Grime go to shut down the castle's forcefield, Olivia and Yunan hold off the gang of Cloak-bots attacking them. While the fight isn't seen, they are shown to have survived after Darcy and Andrias are defeated.
