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Recap / Star vs. the Forces of Evil S2 E20 "Is Mystery"

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Worried about his tadpoles' futures, Buff Frog investigates the hole in the Mewman force field.


Tropes:

  • A Day in the Limelight: The episode Is about Buff Frog investigating the hole in the Mewman force field.
  • Apologetic Attacker: Buff Frog apologizes to Ludo after punching him in the face.
  • Being Evil Sucks: Meatfork asks if he can join Buff Frog in escaping, since he doesn't like being the overseer.
  • Call-Back:
    • Buff Frog investigates the hole he found in the force field around the royal corn fields in "On The Job".
    • Ludo offers Buff Frog his job back as a right hand man, which was Buff Frog's job from the beginning of the series.
    • Buff Frog knows that he has to warn Star about Ludo, since she has become a valuable ally to him and has helped him out of a few bad scrapes.
  • Can't Kill You, Still Need You: Ludo's wand convinces him not to have Buff Frog killed, telling him he may be useful to Ludo.
  • Combat Pragmatist: Buff Frog shows the best way to handle a tiny monster with a wand that shoots green energy blasts; punch him in the face so that he's knocked out and then try to take the wand.
  • Continuity Nod: Ludo instructs his bird minion to kill Buff Frog by eating him, using the same command of "Just swallow it" that Toffee gave in "Storm The Castle" when ordering Ludo's own failed execution.
  • Did I Just Say That Out Loud?: Buff Frog has the habit of saying aloud whatever he's writing down on his journal. Meatfork catches his and comments on it multiple times, and at his final loging, Buff has to make sure he's not speaking so nobody knows about Ludo's plans and his plans of warning Star about them.
  • Everyone Has Standards: Buff Frog is horrified that Ludo is planning to destroy the Mewni castle with the help of the rats.
  • Eye Cam: After being knocked out, Buff Frog slowly opens his eyes to discover the rat creatures hoarding corn, the shot using his viewpoint.
  • Heel–Face Turn: Buff Frog proves that he has cemented it by refusing to join Ludo or work for him, attempting to take the wand (an attempt that fails) and deciding to warn Star about Ludo and the plot to destroy the Mewni castle.
  • He's Back!: Something that Buff Frog mentions: Ludo has half of the wand, an army of rats and monsters, plus all the corn he can eat, Ludo has taken over the underground. Buff Frog is somewhat impressed by this, though he tells Ludo to quit while he's ahead while Ludo plans of bigger things.
  • His Name Really Is "Barkeep": Turns out "Meatfork" isn't a code name Ludo gave his head guard, but "a family name".
  • Hulking Out: Meatfork does this when he catches an escaped Buff Frog in the cornmeal storage.
  • Know When to Fold 'Em: Buff Frog knows he can't take on the eagle and spider head on, so that when they attack, he runs for it.
  • Little "No": Buff Frog lets out three in a row when he stands up to Meatfork.
  • Made a Slave: Buff Frog is briefly chained and forced to perform manual labor at fork-hand point.
  • The Man Behind the Man: The events of this episode make it clear that the mysterious voice coming from the dark wand is not simply advising Ludo anymore; it is telling him what to do.
  • Mistreatment-Induced Betrayal:
    • Meatfork decides to defect from Ludo because he hates being the overseer and answering to a bigger boss.
    • A minor bit; Ludo was the one who kicked Buff Frog out of his home, and gave him tadpoles as a means of buying his friendship to take back his castle. It's no wonder that Buff Frog refuses to join him and escapes the hole.
  • Never My Fault: Ludo seems to blame Buff Frog for turning away from him and thinking he was dead by ordering the eagle to eat Buff Frog, when Ludo dug his own grave by trusting Toffee more than Buff Frog, burning all the possible bridges he had, and trying to grab the wand which led to Toffee ordering the chicken monster to swallow him.
  • No Mere Windmill: Buff Frog doesn't believe Ludo's wand is talking to him, thinking he's just gone crazy.
  • Not the Fall That Kills You…: Buff Frog survives his second fall down the hole by landing on a giant pile of cornmeal. Justified in that Buff Frog has super toughness and regularly jumps that high on his own.
  • Oh, Crap!:
    • Buff Frog when he sees the rats destroying the cornmeal model of Mewni.
    • Also Buff Frog every time he falls down the hole.
  • Pragmatic Villainy: Ludo, or his wand rather, won't kill someone if he finds them useful.
  • Punch-Clock Villain: All the guards for Ludo, monsters and rats, aren't really that mean. When off-duty two of them have a debate about which corn recipes are better.
  • Save the Villain: Buff Frog saves the slave overseer Meatfork when the latter is knocked unconscious by Ludo's wand blasts.
  • Screw the Money, I Have Rules!: Buff Frog turns down Ludo's offer to come back under his employment because of the sense of morality he has been growing since adopting the tadpoles. That, and he is quick to notice his ex-boss is Drunk with Power.
  • Sequel Hook: At the end, Buff Frog writes in his journal that he needs to warn Star about Ludo.
  • Stating the Simple Solution:
    • Buff Frog while manacled tries to steal Meatfork's keys with his tongue. After struggling with this, he accidentally swallows the keys and Meatfork's pants. Then with a resigned expression, he picks the lock with his tongue, with considerable less effort.
    • He also tries to point to Ludo that he has corn, rats and a wand he doesn't needs monsters anymore, sadly Ludo (or the wand) has bigger plans.
    • Buff Frog tries to take the wand after knocking Ludo out. The spider monster refuses to let him have it, though.
  • Talk to the Fist: When Ludo offers to give him Meatfork's job as the slave overseer, Buff Frog punches Ludo in the face.
  • Title Drop: It's the first line of the episode, spoken by Buff Frog.
  • We Can Rule Together: Ludo offers to hire back Buff Frog as his slave overseer, to replace Meatfork, since the wand tells him that Buff Frog can still be useful. Buff Frog responds by punching him unconscious.
  • Wham Line: "I must warn Star."
  • Wham Shot: The rats destroying the corn model of Mewni from the inside out.
  • Wheel of Pain: Ludo has one of these in his lair, forcing enslaved monsters to grind corn into cornmeal.
  • You're Insane!: Buff Frog thinks Ludo has lost his mind, and tells him so.

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