Season 1, Episode 11:
A Whole World Out There
A group of college students sit in a creepy graveyard (in the creepy dark) in order to cast a spell. Talking about the research of one Jacob Shaw, they decide to cast a spell from the book he claims allowed him to travel to other worlds. Having clearly never seen a horror film in their entire lives, they decide to explore the dark (and creepy!) dimension they end up in... and John gets into the mix when they turn out to be students of his old friend Ritchie.It really doesn't help matters when they also start to end up dead.
Tropes present in this episode include:
- Agent Scully: Miranda. It doesn't save her.
- A God Am I: Shaw, who feels like one. Ritchie proves him wrong, and then averts the trope himself.
- Apathetic Teacher: Ritchie is this at the start of the episode, being such a Nervous Wreck that he teaches his class via tape recordings. It's subverted when he learns that his students are in danger.
- Big Fun: Carter, who makes some good-natured cracks, and ends up dead first.
- Bitch in Sheep's Clothing: The guy who isn't a member of the group, and asks to be hidden? He's actually Shaw in disguise.
- Break the Cutie: Poor Lily. Although she shows signs of a possible recovery in the end, she's still pretty messed up.
- Cowardly Lion: Ritchie is freaked out at the thought of going to Shaw's dimension, but he still buckles down to save Lily.
- Crucified Hero Shot: John gets a brief one while in Shaw's dimension, complete with nails going through his hands.
- Cue the Sun: How Ritchie defeats Shaw.
- Dare to Be Badass: John's speech to Ritchie has shades of this.
- Drowning My Sorrows: John starts the episode with a toast To Absent Friends (specifically, Gary).
- Empathic Environment: Shaw's dimension, which is dark and creepy as long as he's in charge - but once Ritchie takes over, it becomes a beautiful, sunlit meadow.
- Final Girl: Although John and Ritchie survive, Lily still fills this role to her friends.
- Four Is Death: The group of students who tries out the spell is made up of four people. Only one survives.
- Hoist by His Own Petard: Shaw's downfall is aided by the presence of Adam and the other kids who he'd killed and sent to his dimension.
- Hope Spot: Lily seems safe from Shaw before she tries to call her mother and ends up caught by him through the reflection of her cell phone screen.
- I Choose to Stay: Narrowly averted by Ritchie, who gets called out with an Anti-Escapism Aesop by John. Played a bit straighter with Adam, Miranda and Carter, who reject Lily's pleas to escape the dimension, due to recognizing that they're already dead in the real world and choose to stay as the house collapses, awaiting whatever comes next for them.
- Impaled with Extreme Prejudice: How Miranda dies.
- I Need a Freaking Drink: John, at the start of the episode. Lily and Ritchie echo the sentiment at one point.
- It's All My Fault: Adam, who feels responsible for the deaths of his friends. His sense of guilt leads him to go back into Shaw's dimension - where, tragically, he dies.
- Ritchie blames himself for Adam getting a hold of his book (and thus going to Shaw's dimension to begin with).
- Manly Tears: Ritchie, being consumed by guilt over Adam's fate. John manages to blink his away.
- Morality Pet: Adam is the only student who Ritchie seems to show attention towards or connection to at the beginning of the episode.
- Mythology Gag: It might be a coincidence Ritchie having the opportunity to take a higher power that involves leaving behind his physical body is a storyline he also had in the comics (although unlike there, he chooses not to).
- Nervous Wreck: Ritchie is still this after Newcastle. He's taken to self-medicating. The end of the episode indicates that he's decided to try and pull himself out of it.
- Psychopathic Manchild: Shaw, who treats the poor students running around as toys, and is Faux Affably Evil until someone points out what a pathetic waste of space he is.
- Reality Warper: Shaw, as long as he's in his dimension. Ritchie becomes a stronger version than he, having actually studied the principles extensively.
- Skeptic No Longer: Miranda tries to deny what they saw after Carter and Adam die. Being killed herself and ending up in the dream realm cures her of this, and she's accepting of what happened and helpful to the group afterwards.
- Slashed Throat: How Adam ultimately dies, although he gets defensive wounds.
- Soft-Spoken Sadist: Shaw is this, with a dash of Faux Affably Evil.
- With Great Power Comes Great Insanity: Implied with Shaw - and it's also how John convinces Ritchie to leave the dimension.
- You Could Have Used Your Powers for Good!: Ritchie's view on Shaw.
- Your Mind Makes It Real: How Shaw's dimension works.
