Airdate: November 4, 2012
Written by: Adam Modiano
Story editor: Janine DiTullio
The Warden attempts to curb excessive violence in the inmates by employing a new virtual reality system called "Cyberjail". However, at the same time, the Twins wind up having to transform the jail when they wind up lying to impress their elder siblings ("The Triplets"), who have demanded to visit the alleged kingdom that the Twins have "conquered".
"The Trouble with Triples" contains examples of:
- Abusive Parents: Although he may have seemed easily defeated the last time around by the Twins mocking him and refusing to come home, Ozzal gleefully lives for brutality amongst the family and society. He's also shown to neglect any children who can't please him in that regard, and only lets the Twins win because he believed the Warden stabbing him was their doing and that they thought to include him in the fun and violence. His method of having his children "study" is also brutal itself.
- A Day in the Limelight: Although the episode previews tried to downplay it to avoid spoilers, this is the first Twins-centric episode of season 3 and also introduces the Triplets. Compared to the last time they got the main spotlight, this particular day isn't a very lucky one.
- Alien Blood: Lime green blood is witnessed from all the creatures of the Arthropiaks species that the Triplets captured for their battle, as well as from Ozzal.
- Unusually, the Twins are shown bleeding in red during their brainwashing/studying session at the end, from their noses and ears being ripped into with wires.
- Big Brother Bully: The Triplets themselves, of course. They seem to live to taunt and antagonize the Twins, and that's the least of what they can do.
- Bizarre Alien Biology: The Triplets and Ozzal continue the theme of showing just how strange the Twins' species really can be.
- Continuity Nod: Those power crystals that the Twins carry around have sure come in handy this time.
- The two bored inmates from "Combaticus" are among the first men to be grabbed for the Warden's body scanner.
- Jean and Paul's "Rainbow Python" attack against the Arthropiaks aliens refers back to their gang names from "Gay Wedding" (The Double Rainbows and the Purple Pythons). In this case, it's worth noting that the same writer was behind both episodes.
- Ozzal's ship from "Hot Chick" returns, except he's actually riding inside it this time.
- The Warden's rail car from "Ladies' Night" is shown again. The Twins proceed to transform it into an alien creature with their crystals.
- The alien language from "Bunny Love" is shown again, but this time on the Twins' computer screen rather than their keyboard.
- Guns (from "Special Needs") is seen among the inmates fighting the Arthropiaks in the alien arena.
- The way that the Twins are made to study mirrors one of the Doctor's human experiments in "Combaticus", right down to the fluid being forced through their noses and all their facial orifices being stretched or ripped into. The only difference is that the Doctor's experiment didn't have lasers fired into his eyes, and that the viewers could directly see the images that he was being forced to look at.
- Cruel Twist Ending: Combined with a bit of Gainax Ending. So the Twins "win" their battle after all, but are forcibly taken home by their father to train to be real overlords. And the final shot is of their faces being painfully stretched and ripped by the machine their father is using for them to "study" with, with their complaints increasing from it being boring to them wanting to die. While shortly before this, the oblivious Warden (who was responsible for injuring Ozzal and impressing him about his sons' "brutality") comments that this is a situation where "EVERYBODY" wins. Meanwhile, to add to the "Gainax" part, the Triplets have apparently enveloped the Earth in some strange red glow in their rage.
- Gory Discretion Shot: Conveniently used when Jailbot removes the contraband from inmates' anuses.
- Humiliation Conga: And how, for the Twins. They worry about only being mocked if their lie is exposed, but what happens to them as a result of keeping up the masquerade is so much more: Brutally beat up by the Triplets, fed to a worm monster that messily defecates them out as further humiliation for them, threatened with the possibility of losing Superjail (thanks to them lying about conquering it), being made to take part in a brood war against their will, winding up threatened with the possibility of disqualification from their father being injured only to win on a technicality- and nonetheless be taken from Superjail to be ACTUAL overlords and do "real work", and subjected to their father's methods of torture.
- Laser-Guided Karma: Basically, all the misfortune that happened to the Twins was a result of them lying to impress the Triplets.
- The Triplets wind up having karma backfire as well when the Twins' illusions and transmutations are reset. The three then realize that Superjail was not some majestic planet but a mere "playground", that they staked their claim on such a useless place, and they appear to self-destruct in their rage (or do something strange to Superjail and the Earth in that rage). To add to their rage, they'd expected their brothers to be disqualified, only for their father to suddenly change the rules out of being impressed and wanting to make the Twins overlords (though as far as the Twins are concerned, their father may as well have punished them).
- Mind Rape: What the Twins are both subjected to in the end by their father, as a way of them "studying" for overlording.
- The Noseless: The Triplets lack any sort of visible noses on their face, although nostrils are seen on one in a brief frame gag. Otherwise, there's just a big blank space where it should be.
- Parental Favoritism: Ozzal prefers the Triplets as his favorite hatchlings, since they're strong and can actually conquer, while the Twins are considered more "prodigal" sons. Until he decides to want to take the Twins home anyway when he's impressed by "their" brutality (with him assuming that the Warden stabbing him was their doing), and abandons the Triplets at the jail.
- Pet the Dog: After catching Jacknife, Jailbot gives the two girls who were playing all the toys of the crank game he was disguised as.
- Power Crystal: The Twins utilize these to grow and create tangible illusions from scratch (in the case of the second Twin), as well as using them to transmute objects and change their entire appearance and behavior (in the case of the first Twin).
- The Triplets wield their own power crystals on their necks, used to summon their father. Then there's the matter of the ones they store within their own bodies.
- Stock Footage: The television screens are re-used from "Best Friends Forever". Watch for the ones of Ash, the dinosaur hand puppets, and Janice.
- The stock character models of the Triplets (where they're smiling, staring straight forward, and standing with their hands on their hips) get re-used a bit during the battle, leading to some oddness of them seemingly grinning obliviously as their father's about to be stabbed.
- After the Triplets appear on the Twins' monitor, the back views of the Twins in the later shots are character models recycled from the ending of "Combaticus", complete with the shadowed color scheme.
- The cages of inmates being loaded into the body scanning room all have the same inmate character models, duplicated for each cage. The piles of inmates are also copy and pasted from each other.
- When the Twins first teleport atop the Warden's tower, a pair of redesigned stock character models are briefly used for them (based from the original stock art but redrawn to feature their "fancy" uniforms) before the next frame switches to another artist's rendition.
- Strong Family Resemblance: While the Twins have Ozzal's shape of nose and his hairstyle, the Triplets avert this. The only thing even connecting the three to their father and younger brothers would be the unibrow, and them being blond (albeit with darker blond hair).
- They Killed Kenny Again: Fatty winds up the victim of the Twins' prank, with getting a cheese grater teleported inside his stomach specifically so Jailbot can violently rip it out through his rectum. He gets better later in the episode, as his usual fate goes, well enough to kill one of the illusionary alien "game bosses"note and impress the other inmates.
- Voluntary Shapeshifter: The Triplets' guard aliens, who can change shape to kill their targets in whatever way necessary (be it impalement or deadly lasers fired through them).
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What Could Have Been: There was some very brief talk and wondering among the crew if this episode would be used as the season finale, but the idea got no further than that. Had this been the finale, it does leave the question of if the plot would have been resolved as a hook for season 4, or just ignored as "Time-Police" was and if Karacas had wanted the ending to just be an ignored gag in that case.- Elliot Byrne's original layout of the planet that the Triplets conquered had an Ohm (of Nausicaä of the Valley of the Wind) visible as one of the creatures. The finished layout in the episode has the creature much less visible and moved nearly off-screen. The Triplets' ship colors were also tweaked, to have the details and lasers on it be red (to go along with their theme color) rather than light blue/cyan.
