Bravestarr and Thirty-Thirty are dealing with a rash of problems related to a drug called Spin, which someone is peddling to New Texas miners, but things get that much worse when the drug-dealer targets younger customers.
This episode includes examples of the following tropes:
- The Aggressive Drug Dealer: A drug dealer is pushing a drug called "spin," which causes feelings of intense euphoria but can later lead to extreme paranoia and even death. He is extremely suave and persuasive, but insists on targeting people with very little (or no) money, apparently just so he can persuade them to steal what they owe, suggesting he's more interested in corrupting people rather than actually earning a profit. Also, he actually manufactures the drug himself rather than getting it from a supplier, and once Bravestarr takes out his factory, New Texas is freed from the devastating influence of spin, tying everything up in a neat little bow. Sadly, not before a young boy has died from the drug.
- Cry into Chest: A rare male-on-male example; Brad cries into Bravestarr's chest in sorrow that he didn't tell him about Jay's downward spiral earlier.
- Death of a Child: Jay, a pre-teen/teenage boy, dies after becoming an addict to drive home the message.Thirty-Thirty: I'll call Doc Clayton.Bravestarr: Don't...bother. It's too late.
- Descent into Addiction: A teenage boy named Jay becomes hooked on "spin" and gets progressively more focused on getting more.
- Downer Ending: Bravestarr busts up the drug ring, but Jay, the kid we've been following through the bulk of the episode, dies from his addiction, much to the grief of his mother and his friend Brad (who has to live with knowing Jay might be alive if he told someone sooner).
- Drugs Are Bad: Jay actually does overdose and die. Shocking for a cartoon of that era, it's one of the best episodes of the series. The episode goes even further by having his death by overdose come as a result of the batch his drugs came from being tainted, which was a second part to the warning that is Truth in Television about illegal drugs.
- Everyone Calls Him "Barkeep": The drug dealer is never namedropped by any of the characters, only ever referred to by his occupation, which is what's really important to the show.
- Faint in Shock: This happens to Brad at the sight of Jay's corpse in the clubhouse. Even worse, Brad was on the clubhouse ladder as he fainted, but thankfully Thirty-Thirty was there to catch him.Thirty-Thirty: Easy son.
- Hats Off to the Dead: After Brad comes to him, Bravestarr tracks down Jay at the clubhouse. When he discovers Jay overdosed, he takes off his hat as he tells Thirty-Thirty that it's too late to call Doc Clayton.
- Killed Offscreen: Jay overdoses in his clubhouse with no one, including the viewer, seeing it. Bravestarr only finds his corpse after it's too late to help him.
- Mushroom Samba: What users of Spin experience, if a high Jay's delirious mumbling about "smiling flowers" is anything to go by.
- Nobody Likes a Tattletale: Brad doesn't like Dealer and is suspicious of the effect he's having on Jay, but he doesn't want to tell on his friend. Jay exploits this by calling him a "fink" as his condition worsens. Shaman ultimately talks Brad around to the position that sometimes, one needs to spill a secret. However, by the time Bravestarr tracks Jay down, based on Brad's testimony, he's already taken the fatal dose. Dealer asks sarcastically if Brad's happy about telling on him to the law and Brad strangles out a reply that the only thing he regrets is not overcoming his reluctance sooner, before breaking down into Bravestarr's chest.
- The Stool Pigeon: Brad is suspicious of the drug dealer from the beginning, but initially doesn't say anything because he doesn't want to be a "fink." Jay takes advantage of this as his addiction progresses. Eventually, after some advice, Brad does tell Bravestarr about it for Jay's own good, but by that time, it's too late.
- Too Dumb to Live: Brad wisely declines the Dealer's offer of Spin since he knows what it has done, but Jay takes it just to prove he's not a coward and calls Brad a chicken for not trying it. Even after when Brad informs his friend about all the Spin addicts in town who got locked up or taken to the hospital, Jay brushes it off as "they simply couldn't handle it but he can". This mindset costs him in the end.
- Tranquil Fury: When one of the Dingoes says that Spin is just "fun" and doesn't hurt anyone, Bravestarr grabs him by the lapels of his jacket and just from the fury in the Marshal's words you can tell he's barely keeping himself from breaking the crook's neck.
- Unexpectedly Dark Episode: You think you're in for another preachy Drugs Are Bad episode, but then the ending hits you like a nuclear blast of feels. The episode deals with a kid who is turned onto a topical controlled substance called Spin. The perps are caught but the tag is tainted: The boy is found in his treehouse, dead of a Spin overdose. The episode ends with the boy's mother in agonized hysteria, with the final "pro-social message" scene showing Bravestarr laying a wreath at the boy's grave.
