Recap / Red Vs Blue S 17 E 6 Self Fulfilling Odyssey

Self-Fulfilling Odyssey

Directed By: Josh Ornelas
Written By: Jason Weight

Donut has been struggling to keep Genkins occupied while reliving the events of Blood Gulch. Now, arriving in a Pelican right at the time of the Season 5 premiere, Wash has come into the picture — with Carolina in tow — and both Wash and Donut work together to awaken the rest of the Blood Gulch Crew from the Everwhen.

• Note: This episode's tagline is "Sarge gets a 2-for-1 deal on Pelicans this week!"

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This episode has examples of:

• Alas, Poor Yorick: Caboose reveals that after Epsilon's Heroic Sacrifice in Season 13, Caboose would apparently do this with Alpha-Church's helmet to help him work through his grief over Church's death(s).
• Ambiguous Syntax: Caboose's comments regarding Alpha-Church's helmet seem to strongly imply that the helmet Caboose has been wearing throughout the whole series is actually Alpha-Church's helmet but re-painted, but it's intentionally made vague and could just as easily be him only talking about taking it as a Tragic Keepsake.
• Ask a Stupid Question...: When Caboose calmly, but firmly, demands that Genkins "put [Church's] body down", Genkins makes a point of asking "Or what?" The answer to that?
  Caboose: (knocks Genkins down with his rifle) AHHHHHH! (begins beating Genkins' face in with his rifle) GIMME BACK CHURCH!
• Beware the Silly Ones: Caboose is known to be quite cuckoo but he's also known to kick serious ass when Genkis refuses to leave Church's body.

• Character Development: Caboose admits his issues regarding processing grief when confronting Genkins-Church on defiling his best friend's memory.

• Continuity Nod: Most of the episode takes place during the same time period as the first few episodes of Season 5 (as in, roughly all episodes prior to Tucker waking up after giving birth to Junior in "Strong Male Figure").
• Curse Cut Short: Donut is about to engage in a Precision F-Strike while charging Genkins-Church when Wash's Pelican squashes him.
• Did You Just Punch Out Cthulhu?: Caboose beats the shit out of Genkins when the Trickster God refuses to leave Church's body.

• Does This Remind You of Anything?: Genkins half-heartedly trying to decide on specific moments in the Everwhen to screw up at the beginning of the episode comes across like a long-time fan struggling to make up their mind regarding what specific episode they want to re-watch.

• Five-Second Foreshadowing: When Donut manages to convince everyone else what is going on, they all experience the same head glitching effect to signify them be awoken in time, excluding Donut, Wash, Genkins (while possessing Alpha-Church)... and Doc.
• Funny Background Event: A rare verbal case; When Caboose is confronting Genkins-Church and he absentmindedly mentions that he kept Alpha-Church's helmet as a memento after he initially killed him with Sheila in Season 1, Sarge shouts offscreen "Badass!"
• Foreshadowing: After everyone else is woken up, Caboose casually admits he figured it out a minute prior and offers to explain what's going on for everyone else. While this comes across as an off-the-cuff joke, the next episode has Caboose time travel on his own, despite Donut and Wash not teaching him that yet.
• Kick the Dog: When Grif confronts Genkins-Church over "ruining pizza", the Cosmic Power is very smug in noting that if Grif thinks that was bad, "Wait until you figure out what I did to Huggins!" Notably, this response genuinely throws Grif off and leaves him stunned while giving a Flat "What".

• Locked Out of the Loop: Apparently, Carolina doesn't know about Junior as, between her and Wash, only Wash knows what Donut meant by saying Tucker is busy "[giving] birth to an alien".
• Logic Bomb: Invoked by Wash and Donut, with the two of them forcing the rest of the Reds and Blues to realize that they can remember events together that haven't happened yet in their timelines, causing them to all awaken in time.
• Mood Whiplash: Caboose beating the absolute shit out of Genkins while he's possessing Church is initially treated as a triumphant and awesome moment... but it quickly dives into comedy when Genkins stops possessing him and poor Church starts freaking out over Caboose continuing to hit him.
• My God, What Have I Done?:
  • As soon as she and the other Reds and Blues have been "woken up", Carolina shakily asks if she and the others had "broken the universe".
  • Played for Laughs when Sarge is initially freaking out over him starting to remember Wash, Carolina, and Kaikaina.
    Sarge: (in the background while Wash and Donut are talking) I feel weird! It feels like I've been Sarged! Oh, what have I been doing to people?!
• No-Holds-Barred Beatdown: Upon realizing that Genkins is possessing Church (and he's refusing to stop), Caboose starts to beat the shit out of him with the butt of his rifle. And he keeps doing it even after Genkins leaves, leaving poor Church very confused as for why he's being assaulted.
• Oh, Crap!: Genkins-Church exclaims in horror when both Wash and Carolina step out of the second Pelican.
• O.O.C. Is Serious Business: It really says something about how utterly furious Caboose is with Genkins for possessing Church when he actually starts to show some Tranquil Fury while talking to the demigod.
• Once More, with Clarity: This episode ends by taking us back to Genkins killing Huggins with a black hole in "Lights Out"... only for the audience to learn that Huggins survived and wound up being deposited near what looks like a red giant.
• The Reveal: This episode reveals that when Caboose accidentally killed Church with Sheila in Season 1, he chose to keep Church's helmet for himself. Additionally, Huggins isn't actually dead — the black hole she was sucked into spat her out in what looks like deep space.

• Sad Clown: Discussed, with Kaikaina at one point noting that she sometimes tells jokes when she's panicking.
• Screw This, I'm Outta Here: Genkins flees from Church's body after Caboose beats him up.

• Shut Up, Hannibal!: Caboose shuts down Genkins' attempt at ranting by calmly explaining his lingering hang-ups with Church's death, before firmly telling Genkins to get out of his body and to stop defiling his best friend's memory. And then he beats the snot out of the demigod when Genkins doubles down.

• Shout-Out: When trying to decide on what points in time to mess up, Genkins dismisses several moments as "Too fast, too furious."
• Skewed Priorities: Grif is (naturally) angrier about Genkins ruining pizza more than Genkins ruining time and space itself.

• Stylistic Suck: Grif and Simmons are ordered by Sarge to provide the background music to his "The Reason You Suck" Speech to the Blues following the second Pelican's landing. Because neither of them have instruments, they instead do so using their mouths. Cue Grif and Simmons giving hilariously horrible impressions of a bugle and drum respectively.
• Survival Mantra: Huggins starts desperately singing "Light is information, and thus it can't be destroyed!" as she's being sucked through the black hole created by Genkins.
• Tragic Keepsake: This episode reveals that Caboose took Alpha-Church's helmet as a memento after he accidentally killed him in Season 1.
• Tranquil Fury: Caboose, of all people, showcases this when talking to Genkins-Church. After politely asking Genkins to leave his dead best friend's body, he then growls with barely disguised rage "Put. Him. Down." When Genkins yet again dismisses this, Caboose furiously tackles him and starts beating the shit out of him.
• Wham Shot: This episode goes back to Huggins being sucked into a black hole... and ending up in front of what appears to be a giant red star.
• Worthy Opponent: Amusingly subverted; During Sarge's epic "The Reason You Suck" Speech to the Blues, he mentions that while the Blues "obviously" don't have his respect, he does feel something similar for them.
• You Have to Believe Me!: Wash and Donut are finally able to convince the other Reds and Blues by having Wash and Carolina arrive in Blood Gulch years before they were supposed to, and Genkins is unable to do anything about it.
• Villainous Breakdown: Genkins finally starts losing his cool when Wash and Carolina arrive at Blood Gulch years before they were supposed to, causing the rest of the Reds and Blues to recognize them. He starts freaking out and ineffectually trying to convince them that they don't know them, which only makes his façade that much more obvious.

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