While looking for a genuine "feel-good" story, Diane and Guy discover the dark secrets of the megacorporation Whitewhale Industries.
Tropes:
- Birds of a Feather: With Guy, Diane finally found a man who cares about progressive causes as much as she does. Even when they disagree on something, they remain respectful of the other's opinion.
- Call-Back: During the party, Diane gets uncomfortable with Guy putting his arm around her waist since associates this with Mr. Peanutbutter, as she said in "The Dog Days Are Over".
- In "Underground", Diane refered to Mr. Peanutbutter the only non-shitty thing that ever happened to her. Here, she says she can't stay with Guy if he's the only good thing in her life.
- Cerebus Call-Back: Back in season four, Diane saying Mr. Peanutbutter is "the only non-shitty thing that ever happened to [her]" was a pretty heartwarming moment. Here, Diane, clearly having come to believe that was one of reasons their marriage failed, tells Guy she can't stay with him if he's the only good thing in her life.
- Gone Horribly Wrong: Diane and Guy's attempt to make a feel-good story not only doesn't pan out, but also gets Whitewhale to buy Girl Croosh.
- Fantastic Racism: Parodying the Redskins, Chicago instead has the Baby Humans team, whose mascot is a caricature called Waa Waa Baby Human narrated as a "furless, featherless dolt" dumb enough to drink poison. Diane is deeply offended by this but Guy assures her it just "references [her] proud Human heritage".
- Furry Reminder: Guy offers Diane his coat whenever she's cold. While mainly to show how kind he is, it's probably also a nod to bisons (and midwesterners in general) being extremely resilient to cold.
- Literal Metaphor: Jeramiah Whitewhale thinks he can get away with murder just because he's a billionaire.... he can, they passed a law.
- Make It Look Like an Accident: Subverted. Diane and the audience think that Minnowman's death as a "workplace-related accident" was a coverup, but when she interviews the company CEO, Whitewhale, he openly tells her he murdered Minnowman and doesn't care if she tells people because murder was legalized for billionaires.
- Non-Indicative Name: Continuing a bit of a series tradition where emotional episodes have positive-sounding, upbeat titles.
- [Popular Saying], But...: Diane says "crooshness" is hard to define, but she also doesn't know it when she sees it.
- Pop-Cultural Osmosis Failure: Jeremiah Whitewhale doesn't the villain in Harry Potter is called Voldermort.
- Put on a Bus: Stefani leaves the series after Girl Croosh is bought out by Whitewhale.
- Relationship Labeling Problems: Guy fumbles on introducing Diane to his friends, settling on calling her the "woman [he] works with." While she's initially okay with not having a label on their relationship, she's later angry about his struggle to commit to her, particularly that he hasn't introduced her to his son.
- Running Gag: This season, Diane's ringtone is played by Michael Barbaro, the host of The New York Times podcast The Daily. This marks the only time that Diane's ringtone is played by a podcast personality rather than a public radio personality.
- Screw the Rules, I Have Money!: Jeremiah Whitewhale freely admits to Diane that he killed Minnowman and isn't afraid of punishment. In a bizarre twist, it is immediately revealed to be because of a recent bill passed by Congress legalizing murder for billionaires like him.Whitewhale: Look, don't take it so hard. If you want to do something about it, just make a billion dollars, then murder me! Ha ha!
- Shout-Out:
- Whitewhale's initiation video is a Cuphead-esque tribute to 1930's rubberhose animation.
- Diane and Guy meet up with a woman who's obsessed with taking down Whitewhale, as a very obvious reference to Captain Ahab's obsession with hunting the "White Whale" in Moby-Dick. She also introduces herself as Isabel in an almost identical way to the book's first line ("Call me Ishmael").
- She also brings mention to a green light and chides Diane for not getting a Gatsby reference.
- Take That!: The Whitewhale corporation merging with every company they can get their hands on could be seen as this to Disney's take-over of Marvel, Star Wars, and most of Fox (the last of which happened the same year as this episode was released).
- A Freeze-Frame Bonus reveals that the new law legalizing billionaires to murder has the full endorsement of "Prancy Filosi".note
"Wow, we finally agreed on something!" - There Is Only One Bed: Invoked by Guy as a cute, romantic surprise for Diane when they get to their hotel room.
- Wham Episode: Diane decides to move to Chicago to pursue a relationship with Guy, complete and publish her book of essays, and escape the toxicity of Hollywoo.
