"That's not your mother anymore, that's a whirlwind of fury!"
The family pesters Nicole for some candy during an outing to the grocery store — but when she is pushed over her limit, the family must face her Unstoppable Rage.
Tropes:
- ...And 99¢: Anais talks about techniques supermarkets use to get people to buy more. After she says the most important part is to make everyone think they're getting a bargain, the amount displayed by a register changes from $8.00 to $7.99.
- Bread, Eggs, Milk, Squick:Richard: (mocking Nicole) Your children deserve a better example! You need to grow up! Don't forget your appointment at the cardiologist!
- Can't Get Away with Nuthin': Richard shoplifts and eats a candy bar and this somehow sets off an alarm while they're still in the store. That said, it could have been a coincidence and the guard might have confused them for the actual culprit.
- *Crack!* "Oh, My Back!": The massage Nicole gets from the hexagon lady (who usually works the deli) cracks something in her back, temporarily paralyzing her. Her kids take advantage of this to give her an intentionally terrible makeover for not getting them a treat. So Nicole forces herself to move, leaving her with a back forced into a zigzag for the rest of the episode.
- Cross-Popping Veins: Gumball shows an angry face he claims is better than Darwin's. Darwin tells him it would be better if it throbbed, so Gumball makes it and partially pops his eye out until Anais shoves it back in.
- Deadly Disc: Spoofed. Richard tries to defend himself against Nicole by throwing the plate free samples were kept on, but the plate is made of paper, so it only goes a few feet before stopping in midair.
- Death Glare: Nicole does this twice: first to Richard, which sends out a shockwave that knocks all the nearby cans off the shelf. Then to a security guard, which causes him to grow white hair and wither.
- Disproportionate Retribution: The kids do a lot of mean things to Nicole for not letting them get any candy, but they're still far better than Darwin's original plan.Darwin: You know what we should do? We should make full-sized paper models of ourselves, set the car on fire, and push it off a cliff to teach Mom a lesson.
(Gumball and Anais recoil in shock)
Gumball: I think I have a better, less horrific idea. - Double-Meaning Title: "The Limit" either refers to Nicole's Rage Breaking Point or the limits the kids are willing to go to get their candy.
- Everyone Has Standards:
- As far as they're willing to go for candy, Gumball and Anais are still disturbed by Darwin's idea mentioned above and quickly shoot it down
- Darwin himself has bit of this at the start: when Richard proves willing to go along with their first plan to get candy behind his wife's back, Darwin is disgusted enough to give up the gig. He gets over it later though.
- Also, despite the absurd links the kids will go to for candy, when Richard suggest they just swipe some, they can't go through with it.
- Fireball Eyeballs: Nicole gets stuck behind a plastic sheet, so Richard lectures her on setting a bad example. Then Nicole's eyes turn red and melt through the sheet.
- Five-Finger Discount: Richard's last resort for getting candy is to just take it, but the kids don't go along.Gumball: (struggling to grab candy) I—
Richard: Come on, son! Eat it!
Gumball: I just can't take stuff without paying for it. (slaps his own face, slumps shoulder) I've been raised too well. - Furry Reminder: Nicole going on a rampage makes her claws visible for the first time.
- Head Smashes Screen: Nicole is brought to her breaking point and chases her family around the store. Richard stands in front of a video camera that broadcasts his face on the surrounding TV sets and he screams in terror as Nicole charges towards him... but it turns out that she's running into another TV displaying Richard, causing her face to flatten against the screen, cracking it and pulling several other TV screens to fall off the shelves and onto her. Her Raised Hand of Survival amongst the broken metal and glass shows that it barely hinders her Unstoppable Rage.
- Heel Realization: It takes looking into a mirror for Nicole to realize that her Roaring Rampage of Revenge has gone too far.
- Hypocritical Humor: When Nicole's rampage is temporary halted, Richard has the nerve to criticize her for setting a bad example for the kids, after spending the episode actively encouraging their actions that drove her to that point in the first place. This gives her just the anger boost she needed to break free and continue chasing him.
- I'm Standing Right Here: Richard pins Nicole down, then Anais, Darwin, and him talk as if she wasn't there.Richard: (still on top of Nicole) You should be ashamed of yourselves! What would your poor mother think of this kind of behavior?
- He then tries to take a cut of the sweets in exchange for looking the other way... again, while Nicole is just beneath him and probably hears him.
- Idiot Ball: Anais concocted an elaborate plan to use the subtle phycological techniques used by supermarkets to influence their shoppers to manipulate her mother into buying them candy... which they don't actually get to try, because the four of them, her included, decide to celebrate too soon while in the store, out in the open, and predictably get caught by Nicole.
- Jerkass Ball: The kids and Richard grabbed the ball hard in this episode. And all just for some candy. Nicole herself also grabs it with her reactions, ESPECIALLY durin the climax when she goes on a rampage over it all.
- Jerk with a Heart of Jerk: Gumball, Darwin, and Anais pretend to apologize for their misbehavior to Nicole and they were revealed to have made a deal with the security guard to get candy behind their mom's back.
- Karma Houdini: As stated above, the kids manage to use their mother's rampage to extort some candy out of the security guard and get away with it, despite the fact that it was their want of candy that drove Nicole to the breaking point in the first place.
- Kill the Lights: When Nicole reaches the limit, her monstrous self punches her fist into the electricity control panel. This turns off all the lights in the supermarket, making the atmosphere ominous.
- Let Me Get This Straight...: Nicole says this when hearing that Richard actually encouraged their children to shoplift.Nicole: Let me get this straight, I ask you to finally step up as a father and set a good example for your children. And the way you interpret that was to take them shoplifting?
- My God, What Have I Done?: Nicole, when she sees her family cowering in fear and her reflection in a freezer behind them. The others have this same reaction when they realize how they are treating Nicole and went WAY too far.
- Nightmare Face: Nicole during her monstrous rampage, complete with glowing yellow eyes and sharp teeth. Adding to the horror is the crazy makeup on her face.
- Out-of-Character Moment: While they apologize in the end, the kids and Richard usually know full well the stress Nicole has and how she expresses it. Here, they intentionally push her to the breaking point and she ends up apologizing first. Anais is also this. She acts very childish here, while she’s usually the most intelligent and levelheaded member of the family.
- Pec Flex: Richard tries to flex his saggy man-boobs, but instead of becoming tight they just turn ninety degrees to point forward.
- Persona Non Grata: After the kids stop Nicole in exchange for finally getting candy, the security guard weakly pleads that they never come back.
- Rage Breaking Point: Nicole spends most of the episode being harassed by her kids and husband because she won't buy them candy, but finally gets sent past the limit when Richard tells the kids to just shoplift what they want.
- Resist the Beast: When sent past her Rage Breaking Point, Nicole has to physically stop herself from attacking Richard, instead punching out the market's fuse box. With that, she gets Glowing Eyes of Doom and a demonic voice before warning everyone to run.
- Rule of Three: At the beginning of the episode, the children are asking Nicole that instead of getting milk, eggs, and bread, that they instead get chocolate milk, chocolate eggs, and chocolate bread.
- Say My Name: Nicole, already in a rampage, sees Richard giving Gumball some candy, and bellows out an incredibly deep, demonic "RICHARD!"
- Self-Defenseless: A security guard hits Nicole with a taser, which makes her stop for all of three seconds.
- Shout-Out: Nicole runs at a TV and is knocked over in a manner similar to the raptors in Jurassic Park (1993).
- Skewed Priorities: Richard stops in the middle of running for his life to eat a free sample platter clean.
- Tantrum Throwing: Nicole sees Gumball about to do this, and begs him not to. But he does it anyway.
- Too Dumb to Live: Gumball, Darwin, Anais and Richard for their antics pushing Nicole over the edge even though they can clearly see she's close to her boiling point. That being said, Richard takes the cake. Even after provoking Nicole into an Unstoppable Rage by unapologetically shoplifting, and after they've finally gotten her corralled and close to calming down, he just has to engage in some Hypocritical Humor Unsportsmanlike Gloating that winds her up again.
