Recap / Sanders Sides S 1 E 14 Making Some Changes

Thomas is unsettled because of all the changes that have been happening lately in his life. So much so that the first thing he does in the video is reversing the change that happened at the end of the last episode, leaving the Mind Palace Roman and Patton had created, and returning to his own apartment for his conversations with the Sides. It is soon that Anxiety points out that he feels that way because he spends too much time away from his friends, and Anxiety needs them to have constancy. At Roman's suggestion, the Sides use their shapeshifting powers to change into Thomas' friends' appearance. Logan changes into Joan's shape, Patton into Terrence's and Roman into Valerie's. Anxiety doesn't want to participate, but Thomas forcefully changes him into Talyn's face. Still Thomas feels something's not completely right about them, so the Sides try rotating shapes to see if they can find one that can work for Thomas.

Release date: May 23, 2017

WARNING: Untagged spoilers ahead. Read at your own risk.

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Tropes

• Aborted Arc: The Mind Palace, which had been introduced in the previous episode as the new location of the series. However, in this episode, the Mind Palace only appears in the beginning for continuity purposes, then they all go back to the previous location and never come back.^note That location had technical issues with the sound that rendered it unusable, so they decided to leave it until a new location was found. Eventually they stayed in the old location permanently.
• Breaking the Fourth Wall: Anxiety lampshades it when Patton, while in Terrence's appearance, leaves his usual spot and walks in front of Thomas. He does it several times and even hugs Thomas.
• Callback: Logan shapes into Valerie's form to tell him "El príncipe es estúpido" ("The prince is stupid"), the phrase he was learning in Spanish in My Negative Thinking.
• Comically Missing the Point: Logan needs three tries from Roman until he can make him remember that they all have shape-shifting powers.
  Roman: What if his friends never leave?
  Logan: Unrealistic.
  Roman: What if his friends take his Sides?
  Logan: Why did I think it was a good idea to join forces with you?
  [Roman groans in frustration and snaps his finger to shape-shift off-screen]
  Thomas: You guys can shape-shift!
• Cryptic Conversation: Anxiety gives an example of how he doesn't want to be specific when talking about issues.
  Anxiety: When you're in these new settings and situations, you know something is off.
  Logan: What?
  Anxiety: Something.
  Logan: You can't even give an example?
  Anxiety: Something is off.
  Thomas: I hate it when you're just vague!
• The Dreaded: Thomas and the Sides were on the path to solve the issue... then Anxiety shows up and no one is pleased about it except Patton.
• Involuntary Shapeshifter: Anxiety doesn't want to change into Thomas' friends' shapes. However, he keeps being changed against his will by Thomas and the other Sides.
• Lame Pun Reaction: Patton does quite a few puns in the episode, and Logan gets frustrated about it, to the point of telling him "You're dead to me".
• Medium Awareness: Roman mentions he doesn't know if the series would continue if Thomas stopped having dilemmas, then Anxiety tells him to be careful, they're doing the episode, not the DVD commentary. Logan chastises Anxiety for chastising Roman for being meta and then getting even more meta himself.
• Moe: In-Universe. Anxiety-as-Talyn. The other Sides can't help but gush over how cute he is... even when he hisses at them.
  Patton: He's like a little kitten now!
• Odd Friendship: Patton had been nice to Anxiety when nobody else was for several episodes already. However, this episode marks the first time that this attitude starts rubbing into Anxiety and he starts feeling sympathetic towards Patton, even if only for a couple of seconds.
  Anxiety: [to Patton] Just here to say I'm on your side.
  Patton: Whose side? My side? What am I arguing?
  Anxiety: Quiet... just let me do the talking.
• The Reason You Suck: This remark Logan makes to Roman:
  Logan: El príncipe es estúpido.
  Roman: What?
  Logan: It is my understanding that you speak Spanish, so I really wanted to help you get it through your thick self-agrandizing skull in both languages. You're vapid and slow-witted.
  Roman: Wow! That was a wounding remark. I thought we'd agreed to work as a team on this one. Besides, I learned Spanish first, so who's the stupid one now?
  Logan: Still you.
• Rule of Three: Roman needs three tries to make Logan remember that they can shapeshift.
• Shout-Out: Thomas mentions that Anxiety in Joan's shape reminds him of a wet bandit from Home Alone.
• Synchronization: For the first time, Thomas and the Sides give proof of their sync. Whatever affects Thomas affects the Sides and whatever affects the Sides affects Thomas.
  Patton: [to Logan] You're so smart, you could solve anything. [tearing up] Why don't we talk more? [...]
  Thomas: [emotional] I've become... sentimental.
  Patton: [to Logan, on the verge of crying] With you, I'm always home...
  Logan: You need to chill out.
  Thomas: I do need to chill out.
• The Unreveal: Anxiety teases to the others that he might reveal his name to them... but he just shapes into Talyn's form and says that his name is Talyn. He tells them they shouldn't expect him to open up after forcing him to change his shape again and again without his consent.
• Voluntary Shapeshifting: This is the time where the Sides' shape-shifting power is first introduced in the series. In this first instance, their clothes remained the same while they changed into Thomas' friends forms, which was particularly notable when they turned into tiny Talyn and the clothes went too oversized. This trait wouldn't be seen in later examples of this power where the Sides would transform with clothes and all if they wanted.