In the Grand Finale of Dinosaurs, the Sinclairs are awaiting the arrival of the Bunch Beetles, who always fly into the area on May 14, bringing color to the sky and also eating cider poppies that would otherwise grow out of control without them. However, the Bunch Beetles don't show up (Ethyl notes that they've never been late before). A few days later, cider poppies have grown out of control, covering most of the Sinclair household. One Bunch Beetle, Stan, actually shows up, informing them that the babies eat the cider poppies and that he's lost on his way to the swamp to find a mate. Charlene takes him to the swamp, only to find that WESAYSO tore down the swamp to make a wax fruit factory and sprayed all the Bunch Beetles to their death, making Stan the final surviving Bunch Beetle.
Charlene and Stan appear on the news to report on what was happening, which gets Mr. Richfield and his boss worried, but when Earl appears on the news to defend WESAYSO and progress, Richfield gets the idea to start a task force that would take attention away from their troubles, knowing well that he can get Earl to volunteer to run the task force. Poison is sprayed on the cider poppies, but it also manages to kill off all plant life on Earth. Needing plants to grow in order to survive, Mr. Richfield knows that plants will grow when it rains and figures that rain comes whenever volcanoes go off, so he has bombs thrown into volcanoes to get plenty of rain. Earl temporarily suggests they reconsider since the last plan worked too well, but he gives his approval when Richfield tells him it's no time to mess with progress. Instead of rain, however, the volcanoes produce snow, leading to the Ice Age.
When Earl calls Richfield, he finds that Richfield sees it as a good thing because now WESAYSO is making a profit in blankets, heaters, hot cocoa, and other things to keep warm, missing the point that the world is coming to an end and only caring about his money. Meanwhile, Earl explains to his family what he's learned, and they explain what's happening to the Baby, stating that no matter what happens, they'll always be a family.
Includes examples of:
- Bookends:
- The first episode has Howard Handupme cover a news report about the potential extinction of the dinosaurs thanks to an asteroid. Here, Howard announces that the end of the dinosaurs is near thanks to an Ice Age.
- Also, if you want to get technical, Howard has the first lines of this episode to announce the Bunch Beetle migration and the last where he says goodbye to his viewers, both in the show and in real life, for the final time.
- Brick Joke: Roy comes up with a theory that the Bunch Beetles were on their way before realizing that they left the stove on. When Stan, the last of the Bunch Beetles, shows up, he says that he's late because of the very thing Roy guessed.
- Buffy Speak: During the Task Force's press conference, Earl and Roy are grilled by reporters for the use of a poisonous defoliant. Earl claims that poison is too harsh of a word and that the Task Force prefers the term "botanical bye-bye juice".
- Darkest Hour: Of the entire series as explained below. But unlike most examples, there is no light at the end of the tunnel.
- Death Glare: Twice in the same scene. When Howard announces that the world has frozen over, the Sinclairs all glare at Earl. Then when Howard says the freezing will last for tens of thousands of years, they glare at him again, this time looking at him slower to emphasize just how badly he's screwed everyone over.
- Description Cut: Twice by Howard Handupme in the first two scenes of the episode:
- During the leadup to the Bunch Beetles:
Howard: Anyone with even the smallest appreciation for beauty is gazing skyward.
[Smash Cut to the Sinclairs' backyard, where Earl is looking down, fiddling with his new barbecue ]
Earl: Adjust gas flow meter to desired output.- During the first news report on the cider poppy crisis:
Howard: Anyone with even the least awareness of the world around them is asking, "What happened to the bugs?"
[Smash Cut to the Earl in the kitchen, looking for his beer among the cider poppies ]
Earl: What happened to my beer? - The Dinosaurs Had It Coming: Big Time. Both Earl and WESAYSO are ultimately responsible for the extinction of the dinosaurs, first by causing the Bunch Beetles' extinction, killing all plant life, and then causing an ice age accompanied by smoke clouds.
- They start off by building a wax factory over the breeding grounds of the Bunch Beetles and kill all of them except for Stan.
- Then, after the Cider Poppies, a type of creeper vine, starts growing out of control without the Bunch Beetles to keep their numbers in control, the dinosaurs spray defoliant all over Pangaea, which successfully kills the Cider Poppies - but also kills all other plant life as well.
- The final straw is when Richfield has the brilliant idea to make rain clouds to bring the plants back - by dropping bombs into volcanoes. In the end, however, what comes out of the clouds that the erupting volcanoes produce is not rain, but snow, and Pangaea is now a snow-covered, barren wasteland of endless nighttime that will last for tens of thousands of years, and as a result, the dinosaurs are doomed to extinction.
- Downer Ending: And how! After the efforts to take care of the excessive growth of cider poppies results in all plant life on the planet being killed, attempts to make plants grow again leads to the Ice Age, ensuring that the dinosaurs including the Sinclairs will die from any mix of starvation, chilling temperatures, and lack of oxygen. It's also implied that, except for the mammals, birds, cavepeople, and other creatures that survived the Cretaceous extinction, everyone is going to perish due to the dinosaurs' stupidity.
- Dramatically Missing the Point: When Earl tries to explain how the company's actions may have triggered The End of the World as We Know It, Richfield doesn't get it. All he sees is dinosaurs buying WESAYSO winter gear products in droves, making him tons of money.Earl: I think you're missing the point, sir! The world may be coming to an end!
Richfield: Well, that's a fourth-quarter problem! We'll drop a bomb on that bridge when we come to it! Right now, my biggest problem is trying to figure out… what to do with all this money! (he begins laughing as he throws heaps of bills into the air) - Earth-Shattering Kaboom: The Earth when WESAYSO bombs the volcanoes comes off as resembling this.
- Enraged by Idiocy: Richfield asks Earl and Roy what causes rain to fall. The stupidity of their answers nearly cause him to explode in rage.
- "Everyone Dies" Ending: The episode ends with the beginning of the Ice Age, and it is implied that the dinosaurs, including the Sinclairs, will die and go extinct.
- Foregone Conclusion: While it is known that the dinosaurs went extinct and this takes place in the years when dinosaurs were around, nobody really expected this series to end with them facing extinction.
- Foreshadowing:
- Throughout the series, Richfield has threatened to kill Earl and his entire family. Well, this episode makes that prophecy come true, even if he wasn't intending to do it.
- The cold open shows how misguided Earl's faith in technological progress is when his high-tech new barbecue burns the family's food to a crisp and ruins their cookout.
- From Bad to Worse: First, all but one Bunch Beetles are wiped out by the WESAYSO Corporation to built a wax fruit factory on their breeding ground, causing the cider poppies to grow out of control. Then all the plants are killed by the poison used to kill the cider poppies. And finally, in an attempt to revive the plants, the dinosaurs drop bombs on volcanoes to create clouds, only to create even denser clouds that block out the sun, provoking the ice age and dooming everyone.
- Gilligan Cut: Earl's statement (after the plant life is annihilated) tries to reassure his panicked family is immediately trashed.Earl: Hey, let's not get panicky! Our Task Force Technical Advisor will know exactly how to bring back the plants!
[Smash Cut to the WESAYSO trailer where Richfield shouts...]
Richfield: How the heck should I know?! I'm a captain of industries, not a gardener!!! - Glacial Apocalypse: This is the end result of the attempts to fix nature: the clouds from the volcanoes bring about snow, darkness, and extreme cold for thousands of years.
- Gosh Dang It to Heck!: Played straight and averted within a couple of minutes. When Earl and Roy ask Mr. Richfield about what to do about the now-destroyed plant life, he responds with "How the heck should I know?". A couple of sentences later, Earl describes Richfield's plan to drop bombs into volcanoes as "unleashing the holy fires of Hell".
- Grand Finale: While seven "lost" episodes aired later in syndication, this episode serves as the final end for Dinosaurs, considering it ends with their extinction and all.
- Green Aesop: This episode's lesson is that taking improper care of the environment will result in the end of civilization.
- Heel Realization: At the end of the episode, Mr. Richfield's rant about bulldozing over those standing the way of progress is what causes Earl to realize how misguided his own faith in progress really was.
- Implausible Deniability: Earl denies the blatantly obvious damage caused by Richfield and WESAYSO's methods until it is far too late to be reversed.Robbie: You've destroyed the global food chain. No plants means no food at all.
Earl: Nonsense. There's a wide variety of commercial snack foods that have virtually no natural ingredients.
Fran: Earl! We can't live on Ho-Ho's!
Baby: I can! - Karma Houdini: While Earl gets (and eventually, accepts) the blame for approving of poisoning plant life and causing the Ice Age, it is really the fault of Mr. Richfield and WESAYSO. WESAYSO is responsible for killing off the Bunch Beetles, while Mr. Richfield forms a task force just to keep their troubles away, volunteering Earl to lead so he'll get the blame, and the Ice Age succeeds in bringing profits to the company. Richfield doesn't even care about the world coming to an end since he only cares about the money he's making. The public doesn't realize that WESAYSO organized a task force, evident when Earl declines to say what company provided the defoliant. We all know Richfield can only enjoy his earning for so long once the Ice Age claims his customers, and he won't be alive long enough to really enjoy his earnings. So yeah, no on-screen karma, but it's a nice thought to know he'll get his just desserts eventually.
- Last of His Kind: Stan is the last of the Bunch Beetles.
- Nice Job Breaking It, Hero: Earl is partially responsible for what happens with a crucial point being he could've objected to the plan in WESAYSO's efforts to regrow the plants which caused the Ice Age in the first place. Both Robbie and Charlene even tried to offer less destructive solutions. But when the time came to speak out, he ultimately folded and let the plan go on, dooming the dinosaurs.Ethyl: I always knew you'd screw up... I just didn't know how bad.
- Out of the Frying Pan: Both attempts to fix nature backfire spectacularly on the dinosaurs, dooming them to extinction.
- Plot-Triggering Death: The extinction of the Bunch Beetles makes the Cider poppies grow out of control, and the dinosaurs' attempts to control this only dooms them to extinction.
- Series Continuity Error: "Power Erupts" established Richfield's boss (and WESAYSO's CEO) to be named "Mr. Ashland". But when Richfield is seen being called by his boss here, he addresses him as "Mr. Getty".
- Soapbox Sadie: While Robbie certainly isn't on board with any of Earl's terrible plans, Charlene is even more outspoken than him, going on television to talk about the plight of the Bunch Beetles.
- Stating the Simple Solution: Robbie and Charlene both disagree with the idea of using poison to kill the Cider Poppies, and ask Earl if they could use more harmless solutions (like living with this discomfort for a while, hoping that nature would find its way to fix itself), but the latter rejects it as it would be too boring and time consuming.
- Tempting Fate:Earl: I'm sure it will all work out okay. After all, dinosaurs have been on this earth for 150 million years. And it's not like we're going to just... disappear.
- Too Dumb to Live: The dinosaurs themselves brought upon their own extinction as Earl and Richfield prioritize economic progress over the environment. In the end, the earth is void of plant life and becomes a frozen wasteland where snow is falling, and the sun won't shine for tens of thousands of years to come. Earl does realize he made a fatal mistake that doomed him and his whole family. Richfield, however, overlooks the fact that he'll perish from freezing temperatures and starvation all because he's become exponentially richer from extorting the extinction of dinosaurs by forcing them to pay hard cash for heating supplies. He's last seen swimming in his cash not knowing how to spend it.
- Unwitting Instigator of Doom: The WESAYSO corporation building a wax fruit factory over the Bunch Beetles mating ground and sprays them with insecticide, causing the entire species to become extinct, making Stan the Last of His Kind. The company also kills the cider poppies with defoliant, but also destroys all plant life, resulting in a famine. Mr. Richfield then comes up with an idea: drop bombs inside the volcanoes in order to create clouds, which would bring rain. Soon, the thick clouds cover the entire planet and block out the Sun, thus causing temperatures to drop dramatically. On the news, Howard Handupme reports that it would be tens of thousands of years before the Sun shines again, creating the Ice Age.
- Villain with Good Publicity: Zigzagged. When Charlene goes on TV to blame WESAYSO for the extinction of the Bunch Beetle and the cider poppy crisis, she succeeds in turning public opinion against the corporation. When Earl undermines her efforts, Mr. Richfield gets the idea of making Earl the face of WESAYSO's attempts to deal with the issue, allowing them to rehabilitate their reputation with the public. By the end of the episode, dinosaurs are purchasing WESAYSO products in droves to stave off the oncoming cold.
"And taking a look at the long-range forecast: continued snow, darkness, and extreme cold. This is Howard Handupme. Good night... Good-bye."
