Recap / Infinity Train: Seeker of Crocus: The Harvest Moon Car

A day after the horrors of Palimpsest, the Red Lotus Uprising and Windchasers hope to rest in a small little farming town. Except that the Harvest Moon is coming, and Chloe knows what that means...

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• Accuser of the Brethren: Tomie takes this role against the rest of the Fujihachi family; even after Kurune and Ikuo start to realize where they went wrong with Chloe, Tomie refuses to give them slack and claims they deserve to go to the Infinity Train, and despite Goh repeatedly showing he wants to atone for being wrong about her, as soon as he begins to say the wrong thing, Tomie wastes no time putting him down and making him rethink everything yet again. In Part 4, he asks his grandma to stop this because it's not helping anybody at all — least of all, himself.
• Adaptational Context Change: In Blossoming Trail, Chloe was the one who thought of the name "Red Lotus Trio" due to a distant memory of seeing lotus blossoms at the park. Here, it's Atticus who decided the name after handing Chloe a red lotus carving.
• Adaptation Expansion:
  • Amelia reveals more about Hazel's past. Turns out, Amelia didn't have the heart to raise a girl that could turn into a denizen and shipped her off to a random car. Said car was the Deep Jungle Car.
  • In the original Blossomverse, there was no explanation as to why Chloe just suddenly loved monsters outside Parker mentioning that it was due to her watching a playthrough of Shin Megami Tensei III. Here, we get a story that an experience meeting with a Shiny Pumpkaboo that made her want to know more about them. There's also two students who show that there were a lot of people who were on Chloe's side this whole time.
    • In addition to Chloe's love of horror, we also learn why Kurune and Ikuo never mentioned Chloe in any of their short appearances. They resented her for how her trip with Goh nearly ended with him drowning, and how Chloe showed no concern over Goh's potential sickness, only caring about when he would be ready for the next adventure.
  • In the show, it's never shown if Atticus ever learns Amelia's story. In the story, he does, and he is less than pleased to learn that Amelia was One-One's assistant, usurped him and refused to properly communicate what the Train does.
  • In the anime, the flashback of Goh meeting Tokio ended just as Kurune asked what happened. In the story, Goh told his parents everything, and they became worried when he got sick from the rain. It's also implied that he was sheltered to keep him from being hurt by false friends who would potentially endanger him yet again, tying into why Kurune and Ikuo never mentioned Chloe up above.
• Adaptational Explanation: Professor's Cerise's reason for telling Chloe "Don't tackle a Ghost" despite Chloe not being a battler here is because she was confused when Yamper failed to land a hit on Gourgeist when she was younger and he explained it to her. He was helping to jog her memory of the last time she tried that move.
• Adaptational Karma: Darmanitan got away with being a smug prick in the anime who boasted about his fire ability that caused Goh and Scorbunny's friendship to hit a snag. Raboot returns the favor by kicking him in the face with his newly learned Ember.
• An Aesop: Part 4 has a couple that both Chloe and Goh learn over the course of this car:
  • Don't take things for granted, even if they seem small or insignificant. And even if they don't vocalize it, people do appreciate what you do.
    • On that note, don't do good deeds just for the sake of recognition; you should do them simply because it's right.
  • People will love you as your true, genuine self if you take the time to show it, but you also must be willing trust others and not assume the worst.
• All for Nothing: Goh wanted to catch a Vivillon for Chloe. He ends up nearly drowning and catching a fever and Chloe found herself more interested in a shiny Pumpkaboo instead.
• All Part of the Show: In the Part 3 flashback, many students assumed that Chloe's paint splattered witch costume was staged, not sabotage by Sara.
• Ambiguous Situation: It's unclear whether or not the Gourgeist would have taken Chloe and Goh back to their campsite if Chloe didn't get the flowers herself, given that there is a moment when the Pokémon does recognize that Goh is sick.
• Apologetic Attacker: Specter starts apologizing for attacking London when the latter has turned into some sort of reptile monster.
• Arc Words:
  • "Annoying", which is what is used to describe Chloe and represents how she feels like a burden that doesn't deserve anyone's kindness or forgiveness.
  • "Be kind", which is what Goh vows to do from now on.
• Armor-Piercing Question:
  • As Parker obliviously talks to Goh's Pokémon (who have already formed a punch line for when Chloe returns), he asks a hypothetical question about his dad dying and Chloe failed to save him.
    Parker: If Chloe didn’t come back because she failed to save Dad, she'd never forgive herself. And what happens next? Would you guys hate her?
  • Goh hits Chloe with lots of these regarding her belief that he wouldn't care if she decided to end her life over her loss to Ash.
  • When Goh notes how Chloe acted during the camping trip is similar to what he's doing now, he asks why his parents hate her for being a reckless fool when he's been just as bad for far longer yet gets away with it.
    Goh: Maybe she was reckless about wanting to do what she wanted with hunting ghosts and didn't show more concern for me, but I’ve done the same things and you never brought them up to me or corrected them. We’re no different and you hate that you see a lot of me in her, don't you?
  • Goh later asks his parents if they will continue to spite Chloe even after she becomes a slave to make amends for all she's done and then asks if he should've acted like them when he finally learned the truth about Tokio.
  Goh: If she suddenly apologized for what happened three years ago, would you accept it or is it too little, too late? Should I have done the same when I finally learned why Tokio left me?
• Armor-Piercing Response: When Tomie asks why Chloe should've captured a rare Shiny Pumpkaboo, Goh answers because her dad is a Professor, so of course she should capture it! Tomie doesn't even give him a chance to finish that sentence by responding with:

  Tomie: She's Chloe Cerise and you're only seeing her through the eyes of her father, like your classmates did once upon a time. Tell me if I'm wrong, Goh Fujihachi.

• At Least I Admit It: Goh tells Chloe in his tirade against her that even he is a coward like her, but still tries to face his problems head on instead of running away when things get tough.
• Attention Whore: Chloe confesses that this was the true reason why she did things for Goh and why she kept harassing her classmates with her hobbies despite knowing full well that they hated it; she just wanted someone to pay attention to her.
• Author Tract: The Car features two: Parker obliviously shaming Goh's Pokemon about how great his sister is, and Goh genuinely reading them the riot act over them holding a grudge against Chloe, both being a response to the scene where Goh's Pokemon draw lots to attack her when she returns, a scene written by Crossoverpairinglover in the previous car that the co-writer has made no secret to disliking.
• Bait-and-Switch:
  • When Chloe summons Bune, she only gets a fireball that strikes Augustine. What was initially seen as a warning shot of Chloe calling upon an irate dragon demon, it's revealed she did summon him. Or rather, she summoned his soul which leaped into Augustine's body.
  • In Part 2, there are numerous fireballs floating about with it looking like they are seen to be monstrous. Part 3 reveals that they're...actually adorable little messenger dragons who are delivering mail from the Harvest King himself.
  • Throughout the Harvest Moon Car, there's a creepy air as Chloe assumes that the events of Scooby-Doo on Zombie Island will play out. Then Part 3 reveals that it's more Pottsdale from Over the Garden Wall as the zombies are just coming back to celebrate the holiday with their loved ones.
  • Colette's two Paldean Pokémon are revealed to be this way. Something big and massive...and then they're just a shiny Clodsire and three-segment Dudunsparce.
  • Buné looks ready to blame Chloe for what happened to him, but when he repeats that Anubis didn't send the warnings...he groans in annoyance that this is all Anubis' fault. Moreover, when Chloe asks him to put her out of her misery, he complies...by hugging her and giving her that well-deserved space for her to unleash her bottled emotions without complaint.
  • The end of Part 4 has Simon worried out of his mind that Grace is in trouble. The Stinger reveals while she is stuck in some cheap hotel room and under watch by one of Elipzo's goons, she's eating well and is already planning her escape.
• Bait-and-Switch Comment:
  • Parker shows off the Snom Goh caught for Chloe. Chloe, who loves nightmarish stuff, goes that it's so...CUTE!
  • When Sara mocked Chloe for losing to Ash, a Year 1 student said it's so...cool that Chloe even had the guts to fight a champion and later start talking about how brave she is.
• Berserk Button: A flashback shows that anyone taking Chloe's side or showing her any kind of support causes Sara to devolve into a screaming fit.
• The Bechdel Test: Passed. Amelia and Chloe have a talk in regards to Amelia's sins and the creation of Hazel before Chloe gives Amelia the go-ahead to sort things out with Grace and Simon.
• Big Damn Hug: After Chloe finishes her call with Goh, she's ready for Bune to kill her (specifically "put me out of my misery"). So he readies his claws to slice her head off...and hugs her instead. This hug is what breaks the wall around Chloe's heart by showing her a huge act of compassion and telling her that she is worthy of love and a second chance.
• Big Eater: Augustine's appetite in the Harvest Moon Car has him drink a large bowl of a spicy shrimp soup without any after-effects (especially when the nurse says only three sips is needed). This is actually due to being possessed by a demon who loves spicy things and peppers.
• Big "WHAT?!": Wepwawet roars this when he learns Anubis didn't read his extra glyph mail from way back in the Cyan Desert Car.
• Bland-Name Product: Anubis plays games on something called a PtahStation 5, with it being a play on the Egyptian God, Ptah and the PlayStation console.
• Bookends: Chloe entered the Train after Goh yelled at her for lacking any dreams or goals, which she misinterpreted as Goh bragging that her problems are beneath him. It's ultimately another one of Goh's chew-outs that finally forces her to drop her bad attitude for good and start working on changing herself for the better, understanding that he's saying this out of concern for her.
• Born Lucky: Colette has both a Shiny Clodsire and a three-body Dudunsparce. Oh and she caught Suicune, not Goh, in her world.
• Both Sides Have a Point:
  • In Part 2, Goh's parents and grandma argue over how they should react around Chloe. The former are mad because her emotionally abusive behavior broke Goh, plus she keeps getting praised and defended by random people who have no real context for her actions. The latter points out that Chloe did apologize to Goh for her actions and is trying to make up for them by risking her life every day on the Infinity Train.
  • Regarding the camping trip incident, while Goh did get sick because he ignored Chloe's warnings not to jump in the river, Chloe still prioritized the shiny Pumpkaboo she met over her friend's health and dawdled instead of bringing him straight back to their campsite.
• Brick Joke: In Part 3, Garchomp gets dragged away for a game of dress up. Scenes later, she's shown in a bonnet and dress.
• Broken Record: Part 2 has a scene where Goh rewinds to the last part of his recorded battle of Ash and Chloe. Specifically, he keeps repeating how he praised Ash for winning and ignored Chloe looking ready to kill herself, highlighting how he's never paid attention to her struggles and realizing his recording was for nothing.
• Butterfly of Death and Rebirth: A recurring motif for Chloe in the arc. Parker reveals that Goh caught a Snom that evolves into a Frosmoth, the entire Pumpkaboo saga was caused by Goh taking Chloe to see Vivillon (and nearly drowning to catch one), and after Chloe comes to terms with herself, Buné draws a butterfly tattoo on her wrist and her cloak now lets her summon fiery butterflies and gives her butterfly wings instead of gryphon ones. In a sense, the old spiteful Chloe is dead, and the one full of kindness and forgiveness to herself is reborn.
• Call-Back:
  • After Chloe recalls that Augustine called Reverend Blackwood a good "Cat", Asher remarks that this logic is how Yuri and Vaillant realized Augustine was brainwashed back in the Twisted Lab Car — he wasn't using Pokémon equivalents.
  • Daiki mentioned that no one in Chloe and Goh's class was willing to deliver Goh's assignments after Chloe ran off (as it's been more than two months at this point). Back in the Cyan Desert Car, only Chloe was the one choosing to take the high road to do it. Everyone else flatly refused to do so.
  • Oscar asks if he can partner with Ash's Hawlucha. Rey Mysterio vs the Cosmos revealed that Oscar's favorite mon was Hawlucha.
  • The cookies Yugure gave are brought back here, as Chloe reveals that it was a hidden message of the two Goetias that were helping them. The number 28 was a hint that Goetias 2 and 26 (Agares and Buné) were on their side. Augustine also brings up Kaito's remarks that demons usually take the form of someone who contracted them, recalling that Yugure was Kaito dressed in black and that Kaito had a second covenant aside from Agares.
  • During Amelia's talk with Simon about Milton Finch, Amelia describes how it was said he made a deal with a demon that helped with construction, before she recalls that she did a "Cosplay" of him back in the Fashion Runway Car — Malphas. Moreover, there's also a reference to the Unfinished Kingdom Car which Asher had a flashback to in the Act 2 Prelude.
  • Goh's promise to go pick up Chloe's homework is stemmed from UnCerise asking him if he would've done the same for Chloe back in the Cyan Desert Car, along with how he said he was never grateful for her kindness because it was "just homework".
• Cathartic Crying: With Buné's permission to not let her anger hide her grief, Chloe cries her heart out as she finally lets loose all of the anguish she's felt throughout the Train.
• Cellphones Are Useless: Goh and Chloe's trip back to the campsite would've been easier if Goh didn't put the cellphone in his pocket. When he landed in the water, the phone is basically ruined, making their return trip even more difficult. However, given that Goh didn't get electrocuted from his little dip in the river, the phone might have still been fine to use, but Chloe probably didn't know that in her panic.
• Central Theme: Learning the difference between hating someone and being annoyed by someone. Chloe is constantly chewed out for her antics and "annoying" is the arc word for the car. Alighieri hates her and wishes she dies, but the heroes point out that for all her faults, they don't hate her because she's still done good on the Train. Goh criticizes Chloe for being annoying, but he also does his best to save her from suicide when he realizes how his antics have also been annoying others. In contrast, his parents despise her so much that Ikuo said she deserved to die. Chloe herself comes to accept her flaws while also gaining reassurance from Buné that she's still a good person deep down. Sara hates Chloe so much, she states that she doesn't give a damn if the red-haired idiot died while the classmates ultimately realize they were just plain annoyed with Chloe's love of horror.
• Cerebus Call-Back: Chloe gushes over the adorable Snom and its evolution, with Parker amazed that his sister likes butterflies; Goh himself noted in the previous car that he wasn't sure if Chloe would like it. Cue Parts 2 and 4 revealing how her and Goh's friendship started to suffer because Goh attempting to catch a Vivillon for her nearly ended with him drowning.
• Chekhov's Gun:
  • That Glyph mail that Anubis dismissed after giving Chloe the Halo of Valac way back in the Cyan Desert Car? Turns out it came with additional warnings from Wepwawet.
  • When the festival starts, there are five torches by the bonfire with only three lit. Thanks to an off-hand comment by Vailant, Yuri realizes that the torches are lit in a specific way as a code between the denizens and their Harvest King. Moreover, there's a lot of emphasis on the bonfire in Parts 2 and 3, which is revealed to be the signal that allows the barriers between the living and dead to break once a year when Buné lights it up.
  • In the camping story, Gourgeist asks Chloe to gather some lilies in a cave. Just before Ikuo is about to toss them into the fire, Talia points out that the flowers Chloe got helps to reduce a fever...which is perfect, considering that's what Goh his suffering through.
  • The storage orb that Augustine carries is how Chloe figures out how the peppers went missing.
• Chekhov's Gunman: Buné, the Goetia Chloe tries to summon, ends up being the Harvest King.
• Circling Birdies: When Vailant shakes her down, Chloe sees origami cranes circling her vision.
• Clawing at Own Throat: Chloe begins doing this as her intrusive thoughts begin to overwhelm her.
• Commonality Connection:
  • Parker asks why Chloe would love a Snom since it's a tiny ice grub compared to something like a Grimmsnarl. Chloe responds that Snom is like her — lost and trying to figure out its place in the world.
  • In Part 3, this is how Ash and Colette figure out Pokémon partners for their friends: Ash goes with how the Alola gang have a type that they master in and gives them Pokémon associated with that type, along with making it up on the fly with Ground-types for Rey and Fighting-types for Oscar. Colette focuses on attributes that are associated with her partners: Jesse gets Wartortle because he was on the swim team, Lake gets Yamper since Tulip also was partnered with a corgi, and Spencer gets Alcremie because they're both shy.
• Continuity Nod:
  • Upon entering the Horrorland Car, Gladion knows that the White Gestalt will have to go through another evil amusement park car.
  • The denizens in the Harvest Moon Car state that they know about Augustine and Chloe's feats because they have relatives in the Ninjala Car.
  • Ash's Rotomphone and Rotomdex have the same reaction to Clodsire as it did to Gary's Electivire and Alexa's Helioptile and Gogoat. However, Ash's Rotomphone is an international device, not a regional Pokedex, so it should not have this reaction, making this an error on the writer's part.
  • Colette makes an offhand reference to her Ash wanting his own Dunsparce, which he showed twice in the series (once in Black and White the other in XY).
• Contrived Coincidence: Buné is not only the Goetia Chloe tried to summon, but also the Harvest King of the car that the heroes have entered.
• "Could Have Avoided This!" Plot:
  • The heroes and Buné are not happy to learn that this entire saga could have been avoided if Anubis spent time to read the message his brother sent him about how the Halo of Valac worked instead of ignoring it, with Wepwawet pissed off to learn that his brother hadn't opened it despite the message being very urgent. Even Anubis admits that yeah, this is his fault.
  • Zigzagged with Buné himself; he sent messages to the denizens of Little Paws to keep calm and wait for his signal. However things could've been more easier since Asher actually knew Buné's real identity and could've told Chloe to not go through her summoning. Yuri even asks why the hell he kept quiet about, to which Asher points that his master is very secretive and he was punished the last time he uttered it out in the open.
  • Goh points out that Chloe could've saved him and herself a lot of trouble by just demanding that the Gourgeist give her the flowers needed to cure the former's fever instead of trying to find them herself. That way, she would've gotten Goh back to camp sooner, and Kurune and Ikuo might've been more willing to hear her out.
• Country Matters: Tomie almost says the c-word after she starts pretending she's Kurune and Ikuo screaming at Chloe under the pretense that she got Goh on the Infinity Train and that she should go and die if she can't save him. She stops when she sees Goh gasping in horror.
• Courtroom Episode: A variation; Part 3 dedicates its last part to having Alighieri and Yuri up on trial to decide whether Chloe should continue on her trek towards the Fog Car or be separated from the RLQ until she learns to stop whining and work on herself. It ultimate ends with Yuri's point of view winning.
• Creepy Doll: Amelia sneaks into the bedroom of Dahlia's daughter, Helen, and picks up a doll that starts repeating "I love my daddy!" over and over and over again.
• Cruel to Be Kind: Tomie becomes a raging monster who is very close to calling Chloe the c-word as she imitates Kurune and Ikuo's apathy towards a ten-year-old suicidal girl risking her life to find her father on a death trap far away from home who can return at any moment as a corpse dumped in the alleyway if she makes a mistake. She then apologizes to Goh for acting this way, as she feels as if this is the only way to finally stop the blame game and move forward. While Goh appreciates it, he honestly wishes that everyone stops blaming one another and request that all of them help him out.
• Cry into Chest: Chloe breaks down into tears and hugs Buné (who is possessing Augustine at the moment) as she's finally allowed to feel her grief over everything that's gone wrong.
• Cuteness Proximity:
  • Chloe coos over the adorable little Snom that Goh caught for her. Gaon is also mentioned having cooed at seeing Snom.
  • In the camping story, Chloe found the Shiny Pumpkaboo to be cute, much to their annoyance.
  • Lake initially acts aloof towards Yamper but eventually ends up giving him baby talk and saying he's a good boy.
  • After Colette shows off her Clodsire, someone is mentioned to be cooing over them. Oscar eventually gives into Clodsire's cuteness after being glomped by them.
• Death Glare: Sara, and her lackeys have numerous students glaring at them when they don't stop talking how much that they don't care if Chloe dropped dead or how she's a weak little girl who lost to Ash. Yeardley's sexist remark in particular pisses off several girls.
• Deceptively Silly Title: The first half of the arc has the heroes enjoying a nice harvest festival with some Creepy Good cat denizens. The second half is about trying to stop Chloe from committing suicide while revealing what caused her and Goh to drift apart.
• Desperate Plea for Home: As Chloe connects to her grief, she begs to go back home so she can be with her family again and actively start going on Pokémon journeys with Ash and Goh.
  Chloe: I just wanna go home. I want to go back and see my family again. I want to be brave enough to be myself. To love myself. I want to travel the world with Ash and Goh. I want to have ice cream with dad like we used to…and I am so sorry that I have been so apathetic and unkind to everyone and never thought about their concerns at all. I've been selfish and unsympathetic when all I ever wanted was to be loved. I'm so scared about what's going to happen or if I make it out alive or if everyone will still stand by me after everything I've said and done! I don't want to go at this alone…
• Devastating Remark: Goh caps off his tirade against Chloe by calling her "annoying", which nearly triggers her to kill herself.
• Didn't Think This Through:
  • None of Goh's Pokémon ever considered that assaulting Chloe just after she's leaving her pains and troubles behind on the Therapy Train was going to pan out, as it could very well retraumatize her, if not outright send her back to the Train forever. Ultimately subverted when, after Chloe finds out about it and Goh assures her that he won't let things get out of hand, she accepts that she deserves it for how she treated him.
  • Atticus admits that his trip with Tulip was short-sighted, given how long it would take to even make it to the Engine. By the time the last three episodes of Book 1 happened, Tulip was on the Train for five months.
  • Sara didn't learn to hold her tongue when she boasted how Chloe ran away from her loss to Ash, because she just admitted to hundreds of students that she could care less if Chloe died. Even when her classmates are telling her to zip it, she still goes on her tirade as Mr. Bradbury, who is known to be one of, if not the only teacher who likes Chloe, stands right behind her, hearing every single thing.
  • During the ghost hunt flashback, it never occurred to Chloe to just simply demand that the Gourgeist give her the fever-curing flowers or deliver them straight to their campsite instead of wasting time trying to look for the flowers herself when Goh was in desperate need of medical attention. Goh himself even lampshades this in his tirade against her.
  • When Ikuo decides to tell Goh that his friend deserved to drown, Tomie points out that this statement could potentially destroy his and his wife's reputation. After all, what's stopping Goh from calling Talia and telling her what he said about her daughter? Or how she could tell everyone on the Internet about this damning phrase?
• Does Not Like Spam: A plot point; Asher points out that Augustine is eating a lot of spicy foods, but he notes that he's seen memories of Augustine loving sweet foods. Chloe exploits this by making a super spicy shrimp curry (so spicy that Vaillant screams for water) that he devours easily. But when she gives him some tarts, he complains that they're too sweet.
• Does This Remind You of Anything?: Amelia, a Caucasian woman, mutters that the scene of her tazing Grace, who's black, could very easily be taken the wrong way.
• Dog Pile of Doom: A non-fatal version. Once Amelia finds herself surrounded by numerous undead children, she is covered in their furry bodies as they ask for her help to take them to their families. Thankfully, Murky uses Double Team to distract them so she can get away.
• Double Standard:
  • Goh points out that he was unfair to Chloe and the mons have a right to be mad at how she reacted. What he doesn't get is why none of them are mad at him because he's just as guilty as having bad social skills that got her sent onto the Infinity Train, the fact that none of them actually tried to help him or Chloe out, and also brings up that Raboot is no better than Chloe because Raboot did many of the same things Chloe did: shut himself out, abused Goh both physically and emotionally, and refused to apologize or forgive even after he tried to make amends by helping him find an unconventional method to learn Ember.
  • If Augustine becomes suicidal and takes control of a runaway train for a few hours, he gets the brunt of everyone's anger and a massive guilt complex. If Amelia — who got on the Infinity Train because she was contemplating suicide — takes control of a train for 30+ years, she doesn't get punished with a giant guilt complex; instead One-One (who was technically her boss) keeps her to help create instruction booklets, nor is there an angry mob wanting to kill her or make her be punished for her crimes.
• Dramatic Irony:
  • During a flashback, Hannah claims that one of the reasons why Chloe's better than Sara is because she neither throws temper tantrums nor tells people to die just because. This is despite the entire reason Chloe got on the Train being because she threw a hissy fit at home because she felt ignored, and an earlier flashback showing Chloe beating up Sara with a paint can, and then yelling at her classmates that she would kill them if they crossed her again. And that's without mentioning both the multiple fits Chloe has when faced with adversity or bad times on the train, sometimes reverting back to her base personality in the process, or the many revenge fantasies and stories she wrote about the people who wronged her suffering horrible fates.
  • While talking with Goh, one of the things Chloe mentions is how his drive to find Mew made him popular among his classmates. Just one chapter earlier, the opposite was confirmed: His classmates hate him because he can't even be bothered to show up to school. "Firefly Funhouse Car" elaborates more on this statement, however.
• Dungeon Bypass: In Part 2, Chloe, Asher and Hewie end up in a corn maze while zombies are chasing after them. Chloe escapes by flying with her cloak while the latter two just race through the corn field itself.
• "Eureka!" Moment:
  • As the Windchasers and Red Lotus Uprising discuss how there are many suicidal and depressed passengers who are a moment away from killing themselves without guidance, Yuri notes that there has to be a way for denizens to become therapists...and then suggests to pitch this idea to One-One.
  • When whoever is possessing Augustine notes that the chances of them figuring out their identity is like them trying to summon "a three headed dragon demon", Chloe realizes just who is possessing Augustine.
• Everyone Has Standards: A lot of characters are shown to to have lines that even they wouldn't cross.
  • A lot of students at Vermillion International School were shocked at Sara stating that Chloe should just die for all anyone cares. It's also implied that the rest of 5-E were also worried, given their strained laughter as everyone is glaring at them for their apathy.
  • For all their resentment of Chloe for her lack of concern for Goh's health, Kurune and Ikuo make it clear they only wanted her to stay away from Goh, not dead.
  • Goh rightly calls out Chloe for prioritizing her Pumpkaboo friend over the fact that he had a fever, for even he knows when to focus on helping a sick person.
  • Chloe makes it very clear that she hated everything that transpired between her and Goh, but she never truly hated him.
  • The heroes in Part 3 shut Alighieri up by refusing to ditch her by despite of all the issues they have with her.
  • Bune refuses to commit assisted suicide as he instead gives Chloe a hug, ridding her of her nasty attitude.
  • Victor and Gloria wince when Goh states he will not return to his home until he turns 18 after what he learned of his parents' actions.
• Exact Words:
  • Yuri begs Chloe not to summon a demon like Astaroth or Belial. Chloe vows she's not summoning either of them. She's going to summon Buné, a three-headed dragon.
  • Colette says that the only way to beat a psychic is with another psychic. Oscar assumes that in order to defeat Mega Mewtwo (X), they'll need another Mega Mewtwo. Colette elaborates that they need someone with psychic powers, before revealing that she is capable of telekinesis.
  • Chloe says that she wants to summon a three-headed dragon demon...she failed to explain until Part 3 that the three heads were not dragon heads. Buné usually has heads of a human, dog and gryphon.
  • Chloe asks Buné to "put her out of her misery" to which he complies...by hugging her and giving her advice to help her finally let all her grief out of her system. Lampshaded by Asher.
  Asher: What are you doing?!
  Buné: I am doing what the Demon Lord requested. To put her out of her misery.
  Asher: But she said for you to kill her!
  Buné: Oh, I am. I am killing the girl who wants to kill herself out of spite by giving her kindness.
  • Chloe requests Buné to release himself from Augustine...but is confused when the draconic features on Augustine stay the same. Buné said that Chloe never asked for the Goetia to do such a thing and calmly tells her that she needs to really think about what she asks from the demons she's going to be summoning in the future.
  Chloe: [in regards to not directly telling Bune to remove the draconic transformation on Augustine] I thought that was implied!
  • When Chloe reminds Goh on his last birthday that she spent with him in how he said, "I don't want lots of friends", he explains that it's true. He didn't want lots of friends because he already had a good friend in Chloe.
• Explain, Explain... Oh, Crap!: When Amelia describes what she knows about Milton Finch's whereabouts, she adds that she heard rumors that he made a deal with some demon to create his perfect car...and then she remembers a Goetia that Chloe mentioned named Malphas, who is one of Asher's fathers.
• Failed a Spot Check: Raboot is on the "Beat Chloe to a bloody pulp when she comes back" list even though Goh points out that Raboot literally stood next to Chloe back at the Cyan Desert Car to destroy the Unown.
• Faints in Shock:
  • The Little Paws librarian does this when she gets a message from the Harvest King.
  • When Chloe refuses to fight Alighieri, some denizens faint in horror.
  • Asher faints after he sees Buné not kill Chloe (she asked to be "put out of her misery") but instead, just giving her a hug. Or as Buné puts it, he is killing Chloe. With kindness.
  • Yuri does this constantly over hearing Augustine getting a contract with the necromancer dragon demon.
• Female Misogynist: Hannah reveals that Coach Zee was this, constantly picking on the female students simply for not being physically strong like the boys.
• Flat "What": Yuri's reaction to Chloe deciphering Yugure's cookies is this trope.
• Food Porn: Once again, there is lots of food. Once again, Green Phantom Queen is willing to detail it out to the audience.
• Foreshadowing
  • When Tomie tells how Ikuo and Kurune are such assholes towards Chloe, she states that one of the things that Chloe is probably doing at the moment is clawing at her neck. That's exactly what's happening on the Train, up to the point that might have died that way had Goh not called her in time.
  • Buné remarks that he's been observing Chloe both in the Harvest Moon Car and Cyan Desert Car as well which is impossible because Buné first appeared in the Harvest Moon Car. Chloe later reveals that he actually was in the Cyan Desert Car, just in disguise.
  • When Augustine announces the opening ceremony to the festival, he calls Reverend Blackwood "my good cat". This was a hint that Buné was taking control, because Augustine would've called him a Feline Pokémon equivalent if it was really him.
  • Atticus notes that it's impossible for someone to steal an entire acre of peppers unless they had "strange magic or tech or even a storage orb". Upon seeing the peppers in Buné's cave, Chloe comes to the conclusion that Buné in Augustine used his storage orb to place all the peppers inside.
  • One that's easy to miss is Parker's comment on seeing Chloe gushing over a picture of Frosmoth and how he wasn't expecting his sister to like a butterfly-like Pokémon. Cue the next chapter when it reveals that Goh tried to "catch" a Vivillon for Chloe in the past and Part 4 reveals that Chloe did like seeing a bunch of Vivillon during a camping trip.
  • Wepwawet getting pissed off at how his brother was not paying attention to his messages until it was too late is foreshadowing to Part 4, when Chloe reveals that she's mad at how Goh never listened to her warnings.
  • When Goh tells Raboot he'll intervene if his Pokémon go to far in beating the snot out of Chloe, the first example is if Scyther cuts her head clean off. Come Part 4, he intervenes in what would've been Chloe's final moments while unaware that Chloe is minutes away from Buné about to behead her.
  • When Tomie talks about the Lugia incident, she notes how reckless Goh was over everything. Turns out the drowning incident with Vivillon was also due to Goh being an immature and reckless boy who refused to look before he leaped no matter how many warnings he was given.
  • The Double Standard moment between Augustine and Amelia from Part 1? Replace Augustine with Chloe and Amelia with Goh and you get the mindset of the Fujihachi parents.
• Gave Up Too Soon:
  • Yuri and Amelia decide to concede to the librarian's wishes to leave after they dug too deep on finding the Harvest King's identity. But if they stuck around a little longer with Lexi, they would've learned that one of the king's messengers sent a letter saying that it was okay to reveal his name to the heroes. Yuri himself lampshades how they shouldn't have walked away so quickly.
  • Chloe ran away from home in fear of having to face mockery over her loss to Ash. Turns out while Sara had a laugh, when others at the school hear about it, everyone else was amazed that Chloe was still willing to fight back despite the difference in skill.
• Gentle Giant:
  • Colette's Clodsire and Dudunsparce are quite large, but are also friendly Pokémon. Clodsire is given greetings by Colette's other Pokémon and loves glomping others while Dudunsparce curls up around Rey Mysterio. Meanwhile, Ash's Snorlax doesn't mind when Oscar jumps on his stomach like a trampoline.
  • Buné is a humongous three-headed black scaled dragon, but he is also a benevolent king of the dead who allows the denizens of the Harvest Moon Car to spend one night with their loved ones, and helps Chloe confront the grief that she's carried for years, killing the spiteful persona and saving her from suicide with his kindness.
• Get Out!: The Little Paws librarian screams this at Amelia when she asks for the name of the Harvest King.
• The Ghost: Goh's new homeroom teacher, Miss Valente, is mentioned in passing but doesn't appear in person.
• The Glomp: Blurpleberry the Clodsire acts like this whenever someone tells him to get the jump on a target.
• Heartfelt Apology: Both Chloe and Goh have problems apologizing to one another, but Part 4 has them give one of these to each other to cement that they want to start again: Goh for all the times he ignored Chloe and never fully appreciated her; and Chloe for her lack of empathy and support for him.
• He-Man Woman Hater: Just like in Blossoming Trail, Yeardley dismisses Chloe as a weak girly-girl who can never be a Trainer. This does not sit well with numerous girls who are about to pummel him with their backpacks. More ironic is that he's also saying this in front of Sara and Patricia, two girls he hangs out with on a regular basis and also want to be Pokémon Trainers.
• He Who Must Not Be Named: The Harvest King is never referred to by his true name by the denizens of the Harvest Moon Car, to the point that the books don't reveal his name at all. The librarian notes that if his name is revealed, other parties might exploit it. Chloe reveals the answer after piecing it together; it's a Goetia named Buné.
• Hidden Disdain Reveal:
  • Part 2 reveals that Goh's parents have hated Chloe for quite some time...and then proceeded to lie to their own son to prevent the two from hanging out and show complete apathy towards her. Even after she was strangled by her own father.
  • A comment from Daiki reveals that Goh's classmates never liked him to reveal with, seeing as none of them were willing to pick up the slack delivering his assignments for the past two months after Chloe's disappearance or remind him that he still has school to go to.
• History Repeats:
  • Deconstructed. The Fujihachis are so concerned over Goh because Chloe and Tokio both hurt him, either directly or indirectly; and they'd rather not see him heartbroken, or worse, dead, by neglectful friends who focus on themselves than his safety. Unfortunately, they were unable to see that neither of them intentionally meant to hurt Goh as Tokio was sick and Chloe had run herself ragged trying to get back to the camp and took the Gourgeist's quest out of desperation to save Goh.
  • Goh jumping over a body of water to catch a Pokémon. The difference between the Vivillon attempt and Lugia one is that the former nearly had him drown and cause his and Chloe's friendship to suffer while the latter had him succeed and he met up with Ash.
• Honor Before Reason: This is what got Chloe in trouble with Goh's parents back when they were younger. Not only did she waste valuable time trying to look for flowers instead of bringing the sick Goh straight back to camp, she never thought to simply demand that the Gourgeist give her the flowers or deliver them to their parents.
• Hope Spot: How Chloe details her final moments with Goh before she killed herself: She calls him in the hopes that he'll acknowledge her...only for him to hang up on her because he's "too busy" with Ash and his job as a research fellow. But she shouldn't worry at all, because he promises to call back later! The real Goh is downright horrified at this twisted interpretation of himself and says he would demand that Ash give him Dragonite to let him fly back to Vermillion before she was gone forever.
• Hourglass Plot: Chronologically, Chloe and Goh's friendship split apart when Chloe had to save Goh from drowning after he jumped into a river because he didn't listen to her and only focused on himself. The two end up repairing it when Goh vows to save Chloe if she decided to jump off the school's rooftop after he patiently listens to her, putting his entire focus on what she's trying to say.
• How Do I Shot Web?: Chloe tries using the Halo of Valac and Hestia to summon Buné...and instead strikes Augustine with a fireball which she quickly cancels. She then decides to text Wepwawet over what's going on and to ask him if she's doing it right. Part 2 reveals that Anubis had instructions for this sort of thing and didn't bother to read it. It's revealed that the amulet only calls upon the soul of a certain Goetia to be possessed by a host for a single command before returning.
• Hypocrisy Nod:
  • Amelia notes that Grace is not good mother material and Chloe silently looks at Amelia to remind her just who raised Hazel and that she gave Hazel up to whatever random car would take care of her. Amelia is quick to amend her statement.
  • When Goh confronts his parents about how they hate Chloe's guts, Goh is quick to point out that every single trait they hate about her applies to himself — a stubborn boy who only cares for what he likes, refuses to let go of biases, lets stuff go in one ear and out the other repeatedly, and finds it hard to show gratefulness or apologize until it's too late.
• Hypocrite: In the Pokemon world, it seems like hypocrisy is a recurring trait in the Fujihachis.
  • Raboot resents Chloe for her abuse of Goh. This, as Goh reminds him, is coming from the same bunny who kicked his ass just for not letting him learn a Fire-type move.
  • Kurune and Ikuo hate Chloe because she called Goh up after he was sick just to go ghost hunting, never once wondering if he was actually okay. Tomie is quick to tell them that they never cared about Chloe after all the things she did to save everyone from Sara (up to and including being strangled by her father) and how she's risking her life on the Infinity Train (to rescue her father).
  • Likewise, while Tomie did try her best to take care of Goh in as bets as she could, she herself proves her just as bad as Goh's parents. While she's reading them the riot act over not caring about Chloe, she completely disregards Goh nearly drowning to instead focus on his friend, only paying attention to him briefly when she notices him being startled when she starts shouting, only to go right back to focusing on Chloe moments later.
  • Goh is shocked over how his parents never thought about how he'd feel about them keeping the camping trip a secret, completely forgetting that he pulled the same trick on Chloe for the past three years by never bringing up Tokio before she ran away from home.
• Ignorance Is Bliss:
  • Parker is oblivious to how Goh's Pokémon are lining up to attack his sister when she leaves the Train. And it's best that it stays that way.
  • Subverted with Goh. Goh has been unaware about anything not Mew or Pokémon related and didn't know about Chloe's problems because she never said anything to him. After multiple people reveal things in regards to Chloe that he's been clueless to, he decides to stop stumbling around in the dark and face these problems head on, regardless of how painful it is.
• I Just Want to Be You: During their talk, Chloe reveals that the reason why she acted so reckless during their ghost hunt was because she was trying to be like how Goh acts in regards to looking for Mew since he can put all his focus on them yet disregard everything else. This is also her true motive becoming "Chloe of the Vermillion"; she wanted to become what she thought Goh wanted in a best friend.
• Impossible Thief: Some thief picked a peck of peppers in the middle of the night, with no signs of where they could have gone. Chloe figures it out when she learns that Buné was possessing Augustine — he used the Storage Orb to put them inside before dumping them in his cave.
• In Spite of a Nail: Juran tells Goh that even if he had been better with Tokio and Chloe and proved to have more social awareness, it wouldn't have made a difference anyway. Tokio would still blame himself for not being able to see Goh again, and Chloe still had many issues to work through.
• Instant Humiliation Just Add Youtube: What Chloe fears would happen if Goh had uploaded the video of her loss to Ash.
  Chloe: "I even had it pictured in my head. The class laughed at me when I gave a play-by-play of what happened, telling me I did a "good job" before saying me that only an idiot would use Tackle on a Ghost-type and boasting how they would never do such a thing and that they couldn't believe I accepted the dare because they all knew ahead of time that I was going to lose. And now that it was on the Internet, everyone would see it, and the shame would never ever go away."
• Internal Reveal:
  • Chloe learns from Parker that Ash is in Alola to fight Rainbow Rocket and that Goh caught a Snom for her.
  • Grace and Simon learn the story as to why Amelia was even in the Pumpkin Car and One-One's videos on what to do on the Train.
• Ironic Echo: Chloe states that she's going to summon a "three-headed dragon demon" (Buné) to test out her Halo of Valac. Near the end of Part 3, whoever was possessing Augustine notes that the chances of anyone figuring out their identity is like "summoning a three-headed dragon demon", which makes Chloe realize who is taking control of Augustine at the moment.
• Ironic Echo Cut: Before going to bed in Part 1, Lexi hopes White Gestalt hasn't encountered any creeps. Cut to Specter having to attack London who has somehow transformed into some reptilian monster.
• Irony: Chloe always believed that she was unpopular at school because she wasn't into Pokémon, and also states they would hate her because of her stupidity to Tackle a Ghost. Turns out that the school likes her despite the fact that she's not a Pokémon fanatic, but rather how she's brave enough to be herself. They also forgive her for her blunder because any newbie would've made the same mistake.
• Is That Cute Kid Yours?: Ash asks Rey if Oscar is his son — since Oscar is wearing his blue mask at the time — but Rey has to state that he's not Oscar's father.
• It Runs in the Family: In Part 4, Goh bitterly notes that he got his stubborn streak and inability to listen to reason from his parents after he tells them that they all royally screwed up when it came to his and Chloe's friendship faltering.
• It's Okay to Cry: Buné's lesson for Chloe is to tell her to not mistake her anger for grief, and that she should finally let herself cry so she can start healing.
  Buné: Your frustrations with everything prevent you from truly feeling sad, and only when you feel that grief will you allow yourself to let others into your life and start healing. So go ahead and acknowledge the sorrow you have in your heart, for how you have lost something precious to your well-being.
• It's All My Fault: Much like in the Fog Car of Blossoming Trail, Chloe goes a tangent in Part 4 of this car where she blames herself not just for the incident with the Harvest King, but for everything that transpired back home; from her constant rejections of outside help when it was offered, to her inability to accept Goh and his love of Pokemon.
• Jerkass: Alighieri shows no pity towards Chloe, tackling her out of the sky and telling the heroes to just cut her loose, not caring that she is close to getting her head cut off by Buné (his boss). Even after Bune has forgiven her, he still feels like it's right to spite her for not being a true believer in the Goetia.
• Jerkass Has a Point:
  • In a retroactive sense, this chapter proves that Goh's initial point about his Pokémon assaulting Chloe when she returns was actually correct; given the bad state of mind that Chloe was in during the arc, and how she's constantly closed herself off out of fear of opening up to people and tends to blow things way out of proportion, having her return from the Train only to be greeted by hundreds of Pokémon wanting to attack her would likely cause her to have another freak out, and either return to the Train instantly or die for real if Goh hadn't had his talk with her.
  • In Part 3, Alighieri makes a lot of good points about how Chloe isn't exactly hero material.
  • Goh agrees that his parents had a right to be angry at Chloe for her behavior regarding the fever he got and that she never needed to go through with that quest to get flowers from Gourgeist. She could've just asked the Gourgeist to take them to the campsite sooner.
  • In the flashback, Goh calling Chloe a coward when she tried to stop him from chasing a Vivillon wasn't without merit, as Chloe has repeatedly shown to be unwilling to try anything new unless forced to.
  • Never My Fault aside, Kurune and Ikuo rightly point out that Chloe was being a Sore Loser regarding her loss to Ash, and that Parker should have done more to address his sister's problems and help her.
• Jerkass Realization:
  • The first part of Part 2 is Raboot realizing that he acted no better than Chloe, even going as far as physically abusing Goh for saying the wrong thing.
  • Thanks to Goh's Tough Love, Chloe starts recognizing the final piece that grants her "Melissa" moment; that for all she's improved, she still acts like Sara.
  • Goh and his family get theirs throughout the car. Goh finally realizes how his constant no-showing at school and lack of appreciation for Chloe giving him his homework has affected them both, and his parents and grandmother realize that their inaction toward him is part of the reason why Goh grew up with such poor social skills and listening problems.
• Karmic Nod:
  • Goh admits that Raboot had every right to kick his ass when they argued over whether or not Raboot should learn a Fire-type move.
  • Parker admits to Goh's Pokemon that he deserves his broken leg.
  • Chloe initially snarks over getting beat up by Goh's Pokemon, but ultimately accepts the punishment.
• Knight Templar Parent: Kurune and Ikuo keeping their son from seeing Chloe is no doubt a jerk move, but that's only because he nearly died while on a dangerous expedition to look for Ghost Pokémon, after which Chloe showed little concern over his wellbeing and only wanted him to get better so they could do another hunt.
• Just Eat Gilligan: Discussed in Part 3. Alighieri tells the heroes to just abandon Chloe if they all really hate her after airing out their grievances toward the girl. The group responds by saying that while they do have their problems with Chloe, leaving her alone wouldn't solve anything at all.
• Lampshade Hanging: When Sophocles hears how Colette saved Jesse and Lake from a rampaging CarnEvil cabinet, he questions why Chloes like that game so much.
• Leeroy Jenkins: Goh chased a Vivillon flying over a river even as Chloe told him not to. He refuses to listen to her and nearly drowns as a result.
• Literal Ass-Kicking: Goh mentions that Raboot, as a Scorbunny, kicked his butt when they had an argument over whether or not Scorbunny should learn Ember. He also tells Chloe that Raboot is ready to do this to her when she comes back.
• Little "No": When Alighieri demands Chloe to fight him, she just gives him this in response. However, this is so horrific of a response that many denizens faint on hearing Chloe of the Vermillion refusing a battle.
• Mass "Oh, Crap!": The Alola Gang have this look when Oscar reveals that Rainbow Rocket Giovanni comes packing with a Mega Mewtwo.
• Metaphorically True: Chloe requests Buné to kill her. Buné instead gives her a hug to which she breaks down in tears. When Asher exclaims that Chloe expressed the desire to die, Buné replies that he did kill her. Or rather, he killed the old jerkass Chloe and brought back the kind-hearted girl she always was.
• Minor Insult Meltdown: Chloe becomes this close to killing herself just because Aligheri and Goh both called her "annoying".
• Mood Whiplash: When the Fujihachis first bring up the Kalosian forest incident, they initially talk about it in a light-hearted, joking manner. But when Goh starts asking why they never mentioned this sooner, they suddenly become agitated and reveal everything that went down that day, including their reasons for resenting Chloe.
• My Fist Forgives You: Downplayed on the "forgiveness" part, but this is essentially what Goh's Pokémon plan to do to Chloe once she returns. Goh initially calls them out on it because he thinks this will retraumatize her after everything she's gone through up to that point. However, he ultimately decides to allow it so long as he supervises everything. Chloe also consents to it because she believes she deserves it.
• My God, What Have I Done?:
  • In Part 3, Goh finally realizes how much Chloe handing him his homework meant to her since no one else had been doing it since she's vanished and he's a complete stranger to his new class.
  • Conversely, when Goh spells it out to her that he always cared about her and chews her out for acting like Sara, Chloe finally realizes how badly she's mistreated him.
• My God, You Are Serious!:
  • Oscar laughs at Colette in disbelief over how Dunsparce gets an evolution. Colette just stares at him long enough to realize that she's not lying.
  • Chloe realizes how Goh is serious when he says that he would demand to be taken straight back to school to save her from suicide, because she always assumed that Goh always wanted to hang out with Ash over her. At the same time, Goh realizes how bad his actions have affected Chloe when she confesses that she was ready to end her life over the Gengar battle and that the last talk she would have with him is him hanging up when she's about to drop off a rooftop.
• Mythology Gag:
  • Julie had a nightmare of Chloe committing suicide on the school's rooftop, which is one of the nightmare therapy simulations Zeno gave Goh in Blossoming Trail.
  • Chloe calls Frosmoth a "Specter Moth", which is the name of Boiling Point Chloe's Butterfly-Peacock Unified Miraculous form.
  • In a Call-Forward sense, Magine and Vroon are helping Talia with her workshop. In the finale of Zenkaigers, they help run a school together.
  • When Colette reveals that her pen is a rapier/pistol combo and how it's kinda illegal for people to go around carrying guns unless you're an Officer Jenny, Ash mutters under his breath in regards to a paranoid Safari Zone guard. It's a reference to the banned Dratini episode from the original series, due to the Safari Zone guard repeatedly pointing a gun at Ash.^note In Japan, the scene would be seen as something played for comedy. The feeling's not mutual for the West.
  • Goh and Chloe having an adventure involving Pumpkaboo in the Kalosian forest was previously seen in Infinity Train: Cherry Bloodlines, though the different contexts of the event happening render the results very different to what Cherry Chloe and Goh experienced (which was a net positive to their relationship, along with Chloe's relationship with Lita).
  • Daiki and his Pidove are a reference to the same Daiki and his pet Pidove from Infinity Train: Melancholy Afterlife.
• Nervous Tics: Parts 2 and 3 highlight that Chloe is scratching her neck in this matter. Keep in mind that her gloves have sharp tips on them like claws...
• Never My Fault: Chloe tries to shift the blame when Goh criticizes her for prioritizing the shiny Pumpkaboo she met over his health during their camping trip by claiming that he would have died if she hadn't accepted the Gourgeist's task to retrieve the healing flowers, to which Goh quickly counters by asking why she didn't just demand for them instead.
• No Good Deed Goes Unpunished: Seven-year-old Chloe risked her life to bring the fever-stricken Goh back to their campsite, only to have his parents accuse her of endangering him without letting her explain what happened.
• Not Helping Your Case: During the ghost hunt flashback, Chloe admits to having been spending time looking for flowers instead of bringing Goh straight back to camp when she's trying to explain to his worried parents that she saved him from drowning. Since they are unaware of the flowers' healing properties by that point, they end up believing that Chloe knowingly endangered their son and started preventing the two from hanging out together in the present.
• Noodle Incident:
  • Colette apparently had two encounters with LoliRock, the second involving a black train, and she caught a Suicune which apparently helped her in some big battle while her Ash and Goh were fighting off an evil group hoping to summon Arceus.
  • Atticus makes remarks on three adventures he had: one involving crimson butterflies, one involving backrooms and one involving a creepy red-eye homunculus and a juggler partner. He also tells the Necrosouls the time that he, Lexi and Chloe entered the Friendship Asylum Car with Chloe adding that she saw someone draw Ose's seal with...something that makes Asher shut her up before she reveals it.
  • Speaking of the red-eyed homunculus, Simon apparently met up with them at one point and had to refuse when they tried to feed him some red and white mushrooms.
  • Whatever happened with White Gestalt in the Horrorland Car that involved Specter in a clown costume.
• "Not So Different" Remark: Goh tells Chloe in no uncertain details that she and Sara are practically sisters because of how alike they are.
• Not Quite the Right Thing:
  • Chloe telling Goh at his birthday to use the Mew magnet as a guide for his quest is a sweet gesture. However, considering that Goh was still reeling from losing Tokio at the time, she essentially enabled his obsession instead of addressing the actual problem and trying to help Goh get through his angst.
  • Goh's parents decided that the only way to protect him was to break off his friendship with Chloe and keep him from seeing her. While this did keep him safe in case Chloe were to potentially endanger him again, it leaves him as a sitting duck for being persecuted by those at Vermillion School, who have no real connection to him and just want him to suffer.
• Not Using the "Z" Word: The undead that attack the Harvest Moon Car are labeled as "zombies" by the heroes, although Buné calls them "Necrosouls".
• Now You Tell Me: Chloe decides to try out the Halo of Valac by summonoing Buné, to which a purple fireball strikes Augustine and she ends up having to cancel the summoning. It's not until after she nearly has Buné slice her head off that she learns the truth from Anubis. She's not summoning the demon, she's transporting their soul into a nearby vessel. Needless to say, Buné and Asher are not happy to learn that Augustine was a victim of Demonic Possession that nearly ended with Chloe's death.
• Oblivious Guilt Slinging:
  • Parker has no idea that Goh's Pokémon have drawn lots to who gets to attack his sister when she returns. Instead, he talks about how brave his sister is and how she's gonna go save his dad, along with the pains and struggles she's gone through. Not to mention that she nearly died trying to save them from Sara. By the end of it all, Sobble starts bawling as the guilt settles in, causing the other Pokémon to join in, but Parker thinks everyone is crying because he complimented them.
  • Tomie says that she's proud of Raboot being a good partner for Goh...completely unaware of how they had a spat over Raboot not being allowed to learn a Fire-type move and that Goh had scolded him over wanting to beat up Chloe.
• Oh, Crap!:
  • When Yuri goes to see some cats polishing off some stones, he notices that there's flowers and carved on the stones are names and dates...he quickly rushes off once he realizes what he's seeing.
  • Chloe and Asher have this look when they realize that Chloe accidentally has a Goetia possessing Augustine. And said Goetia is the Harvest King himself.
• Odd Friendship: Or partnership in this case. Rey Mysterio ends up being partnered with Ash's Gible.
• Offscreen Moment of Awesome: White Gestalt survived some sort of trial with a man called Jonathan Chiller that involved Specter beating London when he turned into some reptilian mutant. The only scene the readers get is Gladion about to take Chiller's photograph before refusing, and then London knocking him unconscious.
• Once More, with Clarity:
  • At the beginning of Part 2, Tomie looks at a photo of Chloe watching Goh blow out the candles of his birthday cake. Scenes later, she sees what Chloe looks like in that same photo: completely giving up hope that Goh will ever see them as best friends forever.
  • In Part 1, Chloe recalls how Goh coldly told her how [he] "didn't want friends, only Mew" at the last birthday party they shared together. In Part 4, Goh clarifies that what he actually said was "I don't want lots of friends, because I have you."
  • The scene of Chloe accidentally striking Augustine down with a fireball is revisited through the point of view of Bune, the demon she was trying to summon, somehow finding himself in Augustine's body and looking at Chloe.
• Only One Finds It Fun:
  • Ash is the only person who actually is excited on seeing Colette's three-body Dudunsparce (a very rare evolution since normal Dudunsparce have two segments). Or the fact that Dunsparce even has an evolution.
  • Chloe lampshades the fact that no one in her class liked ghosts, which is why she developed an interest in them and tried to get everyone involved with them.
• Opinion Flip Flop: At first, Goh was perfectly okay with, or at least understood why, his Pokemon would want to draw lots to punch Chloe when she returns. In Part 1, he suddenly decides it's bad enough that they deserve to have the riot act read to them out loud. The following part reveals that he's panicking and stressed out over what happened in the Cyan Desert Car — particularly Chloe nearly dying in front of his own eyes while he stands around like an idiot unable to stop UnCerise from strangling her — and he takes potshots at how he still sucks at empathy. Ultimately, he decides that he'll allow them to beat Chloe up as long as he's there to supervise them if things get out of hand.
• Platonic Declaration of Love: In Part 4, Chloe tells Goh that despite everything that happened between the two, she could never bring herself to hate him.
  Chloe: [....] Because you're my friend.
• Plot Parallel: At least twice, the background between Chloe and Goh is played out between different characters.
  • A character gets annoyed at another character because the latter pays little to no attention to the former's message and didn't know or care about what the former was trying to tell them until disaster is looming...wait a second, is this the tale of Wepwawet/Anubis or Chloe/Goh?
  • Alighieri's character of spiting Chloe and not giving a damn if she died is the same with Kurune and Ikuo also hating Chloe and stating that she should've drowned instead of Goh. They hate her for a mistake that she had no idea about because the two groups never talked to her about it in the first place!
• Poor Communication Kills:
  • If Anubis actually read the message his brother sent him back in the Cyan Car instead of dismissing it as garbage, everything throughout the Harvest Moon Car would not have happened. The message revealed a warning on how the Halo of Valac worked, and thus Chloe was blamed for a mistake that could've been avoided if he wasn't so lazy or dismissive. On the flipside, had Wepwawet explained just what the message was sooner, or even told Chloe when they met in the Cyan Desert Car, she would've had an easier time figuring what to do.
  • Auric immediately blames Chloe for what was goingon with the Harvest King but never explains it to her, nearly leading her to commit suicide.
  • Likewise, Asher also gets flak from everyone when it's revealed that he knew that Buné was being in disguise as different characters this whole time — being Auric and Yugure in previous chapters — to which he can only explain that his master is secretive and doesn't like his identity out in the open. The same could be said about the denizens in the Harvest Car. If they understood how urgent the situation with the Harvest King was, they would've been more willing to reveal his name.
  • Goh subverts this. Most of the time, he often takes what people tell him at face value without realizing there may be something else to it. He specifically calls Chloe to learn the full story of the Shiny Pumpkaboo incident instead of buying into his parents' bias that she was an apathetic brat.
  • Daiki admits that he and several other students did try reaching out to Chloe, but she kept refusing. At the same time, they assumed she was getting help from the teachers.
  • Goh's parents were the reason for Goh and Chloe's communication problems, and this would nearly end Chloe's life because they would rather ensure she never got near Goh after he caught a fever. Moreover, they never asked how Goh got his fever in the first place as it was a result of him ignoring Chloe's warnings.
• Prelude to Suicide: The entire car is essentially this for Chloe, as she grows from trying to make a step forward to everyone and her own inner thoughts blaming her for her mistakes before she asks Buné to end her life.
• Quote Mining: Goh originally (and accurately) told Chloe at his birthday that "I don't want a lot of friends because I only want you." However, Chloe read it as "I don't want friends, only Mew".
• A Rare Sentence:
  • When Goh brings up how he's far behind in homework because no one has been giving it to him since Chloe left:
    Goh: It was one of those small things you have no idea that you'd miss until it was gone. It meant that you cared.
  • During her phone call with Goh, Chloe tells him she is proud of him for being strong and moving forward, something he points out she's never said to him.
• "The Reason You Suck" Speech: Goh tells Chloe without sugarcoating that she is annoying and acts just like Sara.
  Goh: All of this [becoming Chloe of the Vermillion] is to get attention! You make a big spectacle out of minor things and if it doesn't go the way you want it, you decide to do something so outrageous that everyone has no choice but to see who you are and give you sympathy. [....] Admit it! For all you claim to not be like Sara, the two of you are very much the same. Almost like sisters! You demand things from your fathers and get upset if they don't give it to you immediately. You crave attention yet also insult people behind their backs. You get violent, you don't care who gets hurt along the way just as long as you get to smile and shovel all of the cake into your mouth, you only like people who think the same as you and refuse to let others in so you can do something new, and worst of all, you never apologize unless you're forced to. It's not sincere, and you never do anything to admit that you did wrong and to not make the same mistakes again. No wonder you're just so…so…so annoying!
• Red Herring: A bone trinket — a piece of bone carved to look like a dragon's claw — is thought to be an Artifact of Doom that's making Augustine, Lexi and Atticus act weird. Chloe assumes that because she found it, she's about to be a sacrifice because of the zombies coming after her. Buné reveals that it's not cursed at all. Atticus and Lexi are mostly trying to keep things calm before Alighieri influenced them to attack Chloe, and Augustine is currently possessed by Buné himself.
• Repeat What You Just Said: While having lunch at a tavern, Asher notes that Augustine is being nice to the cat denizens. Chloe is about to eat her food...when she looks at Asher in surprise and asks him to repeat that last phrase. Because she recalled that Augustine called Reverend Blackwood a cat and not a Pokémon equivalent.
• Rewatch Bonus:
  • The Reveal on what Wepwawet's letter meant back in the Cyan Desert Car comes into this trope, same with the initial scene of the purple flame that hit Augustine being Bune's soul.
  • Kurune and Ikuo's reactions also shed light on their aloofness and why Goh was a shut-in.
  • Finally, Bune playing triple duty as Auric, the Barista, the same Goetia who made a contract with Kaito and Yugure changes everything about their apperance in the Cyan Desert Car.
• Ridiculously Cute Critter: Bune has numerous messenger dragons, small dragons who deliver the mail, at his beck and call.
• Rule of Symbolism:
  • Numerous pictures in the Fujihachi residence are of Goh with Chloe, with his parents never there. It reflects how Chloe was always a presence in Goh's life but his parents never bothered to actually care.
  • In the flashback that details Sara losing her composure over others supporting Chloe, Yeardley is about to get pummeled by numerous girls with backpacks that are adorned with various non-girly and non-cute Pokémon keychains, highlighting that girls aren't just into cute things.
  • Aligheri's heart, judged by Anubis, is black to reflect his apathy and nihilistic attitude.
  • Chloe's Mew Magnet. It's a heartfelt gift for someone she cares about, but the recipient criticizes that it isn't perfect. This reflects Goh's mindset over how he wants his perfect goals in mind, ignoring how he still has someone looking out for him and wanting to help as much as she could.
  • Just like with Augustine and Calem's Vivillon, a butterfly effect happened all because Goh chased a Vivillon when he shouldn't have.
  • The homework sheets Chloe gives Goh represented her contribution in small ways, keeping him focused on the now. However, Goh rejected them because they didn't relate to the future he wants in the palm of his hands. When Chloe is gone, no one delivers his homework or barely acknowledges how he's a student, and now he's come to realize how important Chloe is in his life.
  • Goh catching a Snom for Chloe. Aside from the butterfly motif, Snoms only evolve into Frosmoth if they have a high friendship level at night. Chloe and Goh fully reconcile when it's the night of the Harvest Moon festival. Snom are also Ice-types, reflecting the chilly attitude and cold shoulder Chloe gave Goh for the longest of times.
• Rule of Three: Chloe told Goh three times not to chase after a Vivillon flying above a river. He refused to listen and nearly drowned.
• The Scapegoat: Once Kurune and Ikuo's connection to Goh and Chloe's strained friendship is revealed, Tomie makes it clear to them they're completely responsible for the fallout, ignoring not only how Goh and Chloe's issues (bad communication skills and lack of empathy respectively) were present long before they got involved, but the role that the Cerise parents and Tomie herself had in the fiasco. In contrast, neither Chloe nor Goh blame the parents for their mistakes, with Chloe telling Goh to not get them on the Infinity Train.
• Self-Deprecation: Parker is quick to tell Chloe that she needs to stop obsessing over her "Specter of the Black Forest" OC and try something new, a pot-shot at how Green Phantom Queen really likes Specter.
• Self-Fulfilling Prophecy:
  • Amelia tried to give Hazel a better life by having a porter bot transport her to a random car because she didn't feel fit enough to raise her. That car ended up being the Deep Jungle Car and Grace and Simon would find her due to Amelia unknowingly activating her pulse at the Turtles University Car when the Apex was rampaging. The rest is history.
  • After Goh verbally tears her apart, Chloe realizes that trying to not be like Sara made her become just like her. She almost laughs at this realization.
• Self-Serving Memory:
  • Chloe's recollection of her argument with Ash in the previous car focuses entirely on him finding her annoying as part of her downward spiral towards suicidal thoughts, not remembering any of the other parts of the argument beyond that. She also has hallucinations of the denizens putting her down.
  • Goh explains to Chloe that he said "I don't need a lot of friends because I only want you" to her at his birthday party, but her mind warps it into him saying "I don't need friends, just Mew."
• Series Continuity Error: When Goh describes his earlier thoughts on Chloe being stuck on the Infinity Train, he says he talked about it with Ash and that unless Chloe didn't shape up about her problems, she should just stay on the Infinity Train forever. When those earlier thoughts were said however, what happened was that Goh thought to himself that if Chloe couldn't figure out how to apologize properly, she would stay on the Infinity Train forever.
• Shaming the Mob: Goh is quick to tell his mons that it's mean and hurtful that they still have this grudge on Chloe despite how she's suffering and she was willing to sacrifice herself to save their asses from Sara's manipulations. He then dares his Pokémon to attack him cause he's just as equally at fault for Chloe's problems or tell Talia and Parker about their plans, just so they're in the know.
• Shoo Out the Clowns:
  • Parker is seen in the beginning of Part 1 talking with Chloe about her new Snom and talking to Goh's mons about how he hopes Chloe and his dad are doing okay. After that is Goh chewing out his Pokémon for their plans to beat Chloe up despite the fact that she was risking her life to save them from Sara.
  • The only light-hearted scene in Part 3 is at its beginning, in which Ash gets into hijinks like Oscar wanting to partner with his Hawlucha or bouncing on Snorlax's tummy like a trampoline, and everyone learning about Blurpleberry the Clodsire or how a Dunsparce has an evolution. The end of the chapter and Part 4 is dealing with Chloe's fraying mentality as she's on the verge of suicide.
• Shout-Out:
  • The song the cat denizens are singing is "O Death", which is a song that was sung in Until Dawn and the games in The Dark Pictures Anthology.
  • Lexi tells Alighieri — a gryphon dragon — "Flock off, feather face!"
  • Amelia uses the analogy of why she sticks with Chloe with the famous answer to Big Bird's question to why Mr. Hooper had to die, "Because. Just Because."
  • Colette names her shiny Clodsire Blurpleberry.
  • Reverend Blackwood wears a black veil over his face, referencing the Nathaniel Hawthorne short story, "The Minister's Black Veil".
  • Juran's advice to Goh is a paraphrase of the "It gets easier" speech from Bojack Horseman.
• The Simple Gesture Wins: After Chloe has worked so hard to transform herself into the girl that she believed he wanted, Goh has come to admit he never wanted that. All he wanted was the kind, supporting girl who willingly handed him homework and homemade birthday presents because it showed that someone cared about his well-being.
• Skewed Priorities: The Fujihachis get angry at Chloe for wasting valuable time picking flowers (even if they did turn out to have healing properties) over getting the sick Goh to safety. And even after that, she still failed to show to any concern for Goh while he was recovering, instead constantly calling his parents to ask when he'd be ready for another adventure.
• Sneeze Cut: When Chloe exclaims that Frosmoth looks like a "Specter Moth", Specter starts sneezing. Downplayed in that he says it's due to Easter putting too much pepper in his ramen.
• Spit Take:
  • When Asher drinks some of the hot cocoa brewed by a cat, he spits it out because the taste is familiar to that of his master's.
  • Augustine spits out the tart Chloe made because it's too sweet...which is what reveals that someone is possessing Augustine because the real professor has a Sweet Tooth.
• Stealth Pun: In the judgement scene, Yuri's heart is symbolized with wisps of wind. It ends up being light as air when it's weighed on Anubis' scales.
• Stop Drowning and Stand Up: When Chloe was tasked to find lilies for a Gourgeist, she ends up seeing a community of Pumpkaboo and Gourgeist by a body of water. After she's knocked off the super large Gourgeist she was riding on, she starts asking for someone to get her out of the water...only for the Shiny Pumpkaboo she met earlier to bonk her on the head and make her realize that the lake was pretty shallow.
• Suicide is Shameful: While Goh does understand the gravity of Chloe's situation, the first thing he does when she explains her suicide plot to him is berate her for trying to kill herself for attention, specifically over her loss to Ash.
• Surprisingly Realistic Outcome:
  • Due to the expulsion of most of Goh's classmates and Chloe having run away, he's the only member of his classroom left, so he was transferred to another classroom whose teacher, whom he doesn't have connections with, would rather he come in more to get his assignments due to her own preferences differing from Goh's previous teacher.
• Symbolically Broken Object: Amelia's tablet, which played One-One's message on how to survive the Train, gets stomped on by Grace. The message is clear: Grace refuses to go along with any narrative that's not hers.
• Take That!:
  • Green Phantom Queen notes that one of the inspirations of the car is Little Hope (the town is called "Little Paws") but also says the events of this car are real, referencing how numerous fans were very divisive over the Twist Ending of Little Hope being nothing but schizophrenic illusions from the bus driver.
  • When Oscar brings up how Giovanni has a Mega Mewtwo [X], Ash looks in shock. Oscar then asks if he forgot about the Genesect thing (which had Mega Mewtwo Y) before remarking that "everyone wants to forget the Genesect thing", due to the controversy of the movie trying to replace the Mewtwo of the first film.
• Tastes Like Friendship: Colette says she became friends with her Clodsire because he loved the smell of the Oran Berries she carried.
• Tempting Fate: Just as he's about to catch a Vivillon, young Chloe repeatedly warns Goh not to do it or he'll fall into the river. Goh brushes off the warning, even saying that his friend is just too scared before proclaiming that he's not gonna fall into the river. Guess what happens not five seconds later.
• Theme Naming: Many of the denizens in the Harvest Moon Car have names based off characters throughout the Silent Hill franchise like Dahlia, Cybil and Nurse Garland being from Silent Hill 1 and Reverend Blackwood from Silent Hill Downpour.
• Trampoline Tummy: Oscar ends up doing this with Ash's Snorlax, having wanted to do that for a while.
• The Unapologetic:
  • Goh calls Chloe this as he is verbally browbeating her, saying that her apologies are insincere because she only says sorry when forced to. In the end, this makes her finally realize how nasty she's been acting, and she gives a truly genuine apology of her own accord.
  • Ikuo shouts at his son that his friend deserved to drown. Even when berated by Augustine, in which Kurune says they don't want Chloe dead, he refuses to apologize.
• Undead Child: Many of the Necrosouls in the Harvest Moon Car are children.
• Unexpectedly Dark Episode: While one could say that Crocus has many dark episodes, this one focuses on Chloe's deteriorating mental health as she's on the verge of suicide, even detailing the fantasy she had in her mind to Goh, along with her begging Buné to grant her a swift and painless death of decapitation if it means that she can atone for her sins.
• Ungrateful Bastard:
  • One of Goh's questions for his Pokémon is whether or not they're completely ungrateful how Chloe risked her life to save them from Sara "gifting them" to his former classmates, reminding them that she was strangled to death by her own father and was about to get her head smashed in by a baseball bat while he did nothing.
  • Chloe tried to gift Goh a Mew magnet she made for him on his 8th birthday. Goh rejected it at first because he was still bitter over Tokio's seeming deception at the time. It takes Chloe telling him to use the magnet as a symbol of his future dreams for him to change his mind.
• The Unreveal: Colette's Clodsire hops onto Spencer and when he sits up, his hood is down. But before the narration reveals what he looks like, he's quick to pull the hood up and cover his face with his phone.
• Unusual Euphemism: The denizens like to talk about things going "Full Circle" and Chloe herself asks if she should be punished this way after admitting she's mostly at fault for everything going wrong in the festival. Given the Silent Hill influences, the term probably means to be perpetually punished until they can be absolved of their sins.
• Unusually Uninteresting Sight:
  • Oleana doesn't seem fazed at seeing two talking robots, compared to Gary screeching in surprise.
  • Discussed by a student in Chloe's school. Apparently no one in the Alola region seemed to point out how Mallow used a Shaymin in the Battle Royale.
• Unwitting Instigator of Doom:
  • Anubis is completely at fault for the entire Harvest Moon Car debacle going to Hell. All he had to do was just read just one insignificant email from his brother as soon as he got it. However, he waits until Wepwawet arrives to explain how important the email is, and by the time he makes it to Little Paws, Chloe is on the verge of suicide for what should've been an easy fix.
  • If Goh properly listened to Chloe to not jump after a Vivillon over a river, his friendship with Chloe would never have suffered (at least not as badly).
  • Finally, if Goh's parents took the time within the last three years to talk to Chloe instead of shunning her, she would've been more understanding.
• Verbal Backspace: Nurse Garland says the Harvest Moon Car has beds so the heroes can rest in peace...before correcting herself and saying they'll rest peacefully.
• Villainous Breakdown: Downplayed since she's more of a massive jerk than an outright villain, but when a handful of students start praising Chloe for having the courage to challenge Ash to a Pokémon battle before she ran away and saying positive things about her, Sara absolutely loses it, screeching at the top of her lungs that Chloe doesn't belong on this planet and should just kill herself.
• Wham Episode: This episode reveals more into how and why Chloe and Goh started becoming distant and nearly ends with Chloe ready to end her life there and then. Thankfully, Goh saves her just in time and directly forces her to confront the issues that have been plaguing her for so long before confessing how he always cared and wishes he told her sooner. Through this, Chloe is fully ready to start making a recovery and Goh decides to truly start being kind and be grateful for what he has in life.
• Waxing Lyrical: When Chloe tells Goh that she could never hate him, she quotes lines from Alex's Theme from Silent Hill: Homecoming.
• Wham Line:
  • Chloe's "Eureka!" Moment reveals just who is in Augustine's body.
    The name of that dragon was…was Duke Buné, Rank 26 of the Goetias!
  • Amelia saves a young girl, Heather, from some child Necrosouls. But...
    Amelia: I was trying to save [your daughter] from the Necrosouls who wanted to take her away!
    Dahlia: Those were her friends. They all died in a terrible fire last year!
  • Goh, at the end of his tirade against Chloe:
    No wonder you're so...so...so ANNOYING!!
• Wham Shot:
  • Amelia saves a young female kitten from a bunch of Necrosouls and is about to wipe the tears from her face...but she gasps in horror upon seeing the kitten is undead.
  • As further proof that Chloe accidentally took the soul of Buné into Augustine, Buné drags Chloe to his cave and forces him to see an unconscious body of a giant three-headed dragon, before revealing an image of said dragon somehow waking up in Augustine's body, staring at Chloe in a first-person perspective.
• What You Are in the Dark:
  • Simon has the opportunity to use the nanobots the Cat gave him on an unconscious Grace, which he does in the show. Simon resists the urge to do so and decides to watch over her while they're in the Hitchiking Ghosts' Car. Unfortunately, as he nods off to sleep, Grace gets kidnapped...
  • Amelia doesn't have to teleport to Simon and Grace's car to warn them, but she leaves Chloe to visit them in Part 2 and clarify what awaits the Apex leaders if they don't change their ways.
  • Goh is alone when he calls Chloe and has every right to never forgive her for everything she's done to him...but he spends the entire time trying to talk her down when she's about to end her life, proclaiming he would go back for her and he always cared about her safety and what she does for him.
• Whole-Plot Reference: In-universe. Chloe assumes that The Harvest Moon Car is going to play off like Scooby-Doo on Zombie Island due to the presence of cats, a harvest moon, a god whom they give offerings to and chili peppers. Deconstructed that while there are many elements from the movie, it's not exactly like the movie.
• Wrong Genre Savvy: As stated above, Chloe assumes the events of Harvest Moon Car is going to play out like one of the darkest films of the Scooby Doo franchise...it turns out that while the cat denizens are unsettling, it's more like a Dia de los Muertos celebration where they can celebrate with their deceased loved ones.
• You Should Have Died Instead: In what was implied to be a Moment of Weakness, Ikuo shouts that Chloe should've drowned in the river instead of Goh.
• Zombie Apocalypse: Subverted; the zombies do appear, but they actually are quite friendly and want to have one night of fun with their families.

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"It’s time I leave my fantasy behind, and see what I can give back to the real world."