Recap / Superjail S 1 E 8 Dream Machine

Airdate: November 23, 2008

Written by: Christy Karacas, Stephen Warbrick, Aaron Augenblick, Chris Burns, M. Wartella

Revisions by: John Lee, Jon Glaser

A nightmare has convinced the Warden that he'll be betrayed by someone in his jail, and that he and the rest of his staff will be violently murdered. He brings out the "Dream Machine" in order to spy on everyone's dreams and weed out the culprit, but soon finds himself growing increasingly paranoid and violent by the fact that his killer could be anyone within the jail.

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"Dream Machine" contains examples of:

• Attack of the 50-Foot Whatever: The Warden grows to a gigantic size to fight off the inmates and staff in the dream world.
• Body Horror: In the climax in the dream world, the Warden experiences Jared's head growing out of his own crotch, unnerving him. Then he sees Alice decompose and become a zombie before his eyes.
• Bury Your Gays: Though usually inverted with them surviving bloodbaths, the Gay Inmates are crushed to death by the Warden. Although, it was the dream world too.
• Continuity Nod: The Middle-Eastern inmate and the bald black one from "Superbar" are both seen among the musicians in the Warden's first dream. The goateed Asian inmate also makes a cameo, polishing a glass.
  • Later, in the dream world, the gray-haired man from the bored duo in "Combaticus" is shown among the crowd of inmates.
• Dream Within a Dream: Warden first dreams of having a date with Alice, only to wake up and be murdered- only to wake up and realize that too was just a dream.
• Fan Disservice: Alice's antioxidant seaweed mask, which has eels and crabs writhing about in it. There's also the matter of Jared's dream, which the Warden quickly becomes disgusted by, to the point where it makes him dive into a toilet to get away.
• Foreshadowing: The Cold Open has Jacknife going to a strip club called "Dream Land". The main plot is about The Warden exploring the dream world.
• Freeze-Frame Bonus: Watch for the Twins being blown back by the force of the Dream Machine's explosion.
  • When the Twins meddle with the buttons at Warden's desk, besides the "Sleeping Gas" button, a "Bad Clams" button can be seen. In the animatic, the other buttons' messages can be seen more clearly, and include "Bad Karma", "Hairy Hair", and one that is still somewhat obscured but might read "Nosy Neighbor".
  • In the Warden's dream of the inmates murdering him, the bald mustachioed Gay Inmate can be seen among the crowd rushing through the door.
  • Some of the inmates that fall past the Warden in the "falling dream" that he visits aren't even human ones, with one shown to have a gray cube for his head.
• Gainax Ending
• Gross-Up Close-Up: Viewers get a very detailed shot of Alice's mucus-filled nose, along with her stubble and acne.
• Hyperspace Wardrobe: The Warden strips off his bedrobe and cap to instantly reveal his full suit and top hat underneath.
• Medium Blending: Jailbot's dream is an all-CGI world, save for the observing Warden, who's still animated in 2D Flash style. Then there's the ending, shot entirely in live-action.
• Refugee from TV Land: As a result of this episode's Gainax Ending, the Warden wakes up as some bum in the real world, where apparently Superjail doesn't exist. But then there's that matter of the Warden poster and its message...
• Stock Footage: The inmates that fall past the Warden in the "falling dream" are the same batch of guys looped over and over.
• Those Two Guys: Two particular inmates wind up terrified from being unable to sleep, and go to get coffee together. They're not the same guys from "Combaticus", although they seem to also be voiced by Richard Mather and bear a few similarities in their designs (with both pairs having bulbous noses, one man in each pair being a bald black man, and the other man having graying hair^note Judging by the tattoos on the bald one, he seems to be the inmate from "Superbar", recycled for this scene). As with the "Combaticus" duo, these two inmates also immediately precede a moment involving the Twins.
• Wrap Around Background: The same few inmates and walls are looped as the Twins pass by with the hoops that they're playing with.