Written and storyboarded by Calvin Wong & Casey Crowe
While Eileen and Rigby go out of town to see Don's (Rigby's brother) black belt ceremony, Mordecai and Margaretnote decide to have a friend's night out, but their unrequited feelings for each other complicates things, and only a psychic teppenyaki chef's griddle can help them figure out if they have a future together.
What are these tropes going to be? A couple? Just friends?:
- Better as Friends: The plot of this episode is mainly centered around this, whether or not it would be wise to rekindle the lost love between Mordecai and Margaret which had died when she moved away to college, or to just have a platonic friendship. They choose to have a friendship rather than rekindle the spark they once had.
- But Now I Must Go: Rigby is called by his father Sherm because Rigby had forgotten about Don's black belt ceremony in Tai Kwan Do, much to Mordecai's dismay because he doesn't trust himself around Margaret when they're alone.
- Continuity Nod: This episode answers the question of what the fate of Margaret and Mordecai's relationship will be after the love triangle Mordecai had gotten himself into with C.J. and Margaret in the last season. The fate of their relationship? Rather than rekindling their lost love and being happy together as lovers, they ultimately decide to be friends and nothing more.
- Just Friends: The episode's title is the very namesake of this, and the plot also centers around it. It revolves aroudn the question of whether or not Mordecai and Margaret should get back together as lovers or extinguish romantic feelings once and for all as friends. Ultimately, they decided to be just friends and nothing more, having been overwhelmed by the future that Chef Daisuke had shown them.
- Let's Just Be Friends: The final fate of Mordecai and Margaret's relationship at the end of the episode. Perhaps, it was for the better that it ended this way.
- Seers: Chef Daisuke definitely qualifies as this, more specifically he can show potential couples the future via his cooking and steam from the food of what could happen should they decide to get together. This ability of his can help either make, rekindle, or break a romantic relationship.
- Title Drop: Expect to hear "Just Friends" and variations of it frequently in this episode.
- Unresolved Sexual Tension: Mordecai and Margaret's time together revolves around this, among many moments of awkwardness between the two because it seems like that no matter where they go or what they do, it's like the whole universe wanted them to get back together.
- What Could Have Been: If the two did rekindle their relationship of lost love that night, Chef Daisuke reveals to them both the future: Mordecai proposes to Margaret, they buy a house boat and have children together and an overall sunnier future as lovers and they would've eventually retired, being well off, and died happily together in their last moments, as revealed by Chef Daisuke. This pretty much marked the end of their unrequited love as they decide to be friends and nothing more, both being overwhelmed by what they witnessed.
