Ramona invites Hedgehog and Oscar to participate in a special holiday ritual.
Tropes:
- Bargain with Heaven: The backstory of the Midnight Quittance is that time used to skip around randomly until the Anthropomorphic Personification of Time found two monsters making soup, liked it, and struck a bargain. Every year, Time returns for more soup, and in return, will keep going forward.
- Candlelit Ritual: The candles are important to the Quittance ritual; since it takes place in Liminal Time, the candlelight protects the participants and they are unable to leave outside it until the ritual is done. This becomes a problem when Oscar has to retrieve the salt from the closet and needs to carry his candle with it.
- Chekhov's Gun: The episode begins with Oscar asking Hedgehog if she remembers what they had for lunch on the last day of school. Later, as time skips randomly after the failed Quittance ceremony, Oscar finds himself back on that last day of school and tells Hedgehog to remember what they had for lunch later. This gives Oscar the idea to wait until he reaches the moment when he checked his coat at the Quittance and takes the salt shaker out of the coat.
- Creative Closing Credits: "Witches Lullaby" plays during the credits, indicating it's a "lore-building" episode.
- Imperfect Ritual: Because Oscar left the salt for the soup in the coat he checked in the closet, the ritual is incomplete. He tries to retrieve the salt, but falls asleep just as Time arrives, and as a result, time stops going forwards and skips around randomly.
- Older Than They Look: Turns out Oscar is older than Hedgehog by five months. Who knew?
