The Brotherhood resume the journey to the Crimson Claws Archipelago, this time heading for the Zaap portal located in Pandalusia, a Pandawa region renown for its bountiful production of bamboo milk. However, the verdant valley has been reduced to a salt marshlands, and soon the group is attacked by a bunch of zombie-like bamboo beings who can only mutter "Thirst!" and find themselves in deep trouble. Only Amalia survives being turned, thanks to the help of the sole surviving Pandawa, Pandiego De la Vega. The spoiled princess and the rude bamboo farmer will have to join forces to save everyone from becoming Thirsters.
Tropes:
- Abnormal Ammo: Pandiego's milk-pumps, as the name implies, are used to shot bamboo milk at the Thirsters.
- And I Must Scream: The Thirsters seem to possess some remnants of their old selves; the Pandawa ones still react to and dance along with their bar songs, Ruel still desperately tries to pick up fallen kamas (no matter how much they slip through his intangible fingers), and Sadlygrove keeps trying to touch Eva but his hand keeps passing through her cheek.
- Big Damn Heroes: Before Amalia completely transforms into a Thirster, Pandiego takes out the surrounding Thirsters and heals her with a spit of bamboo milk, restoring her to normal.
- Character Development: For Amalia, who learns to get over her distaste for the Pandawa's uncouth and rude methods by working together with Pandiego.
- Cue the Rain: In this case, the rain is caused by Amalia's puppets and it's made of bamboo milk, so that everyone in the valley is cured and all the Thirsters are healed.
- A Day in the Limelight: Amalia gets the biggest focus in the episode.
- Deer in the Headlights: Sadlygrove freezes in his tracks when he sees a thirstified Eva rising up in front of him, allowing her to infect him.
- Elite Zombie: Near the end, Jack Pandaniels becomes a "Brute" example when he's transformed and turns into a veritable behemoth, capable of breaking through the barricaded door with ease.
- Everything's Deader with Zombies: The Thirsters are what happens to Pandawa who drink bamboo milk spoiled with seawater (because of the Chaos of Ogrest), turning into a zombie-like being resembling a bamboo stalk, able to phase through anything that's not original bamboo and turn anyone they touch into another Thirster. Fortunately, they can be turned to normal if they're touched by unspoilt bamboo milk.
- Foreshadowing:
- When Amalia checks on the bamboo stalks Pandiego is trying to grow (in order to make a bamboo plant immune to salt water), she prays Sadida and cries a single tear in the pot. Later, it turns out that thanks to that tear and her Sadida powers, the salt-resisting bamboo could grow.
- In this episode, we see that Amalia isn't half bad at singing. This crops up again in the following episode.
- During the credits, a Sadida guard claims that he has an invitation for the Pandawa Queen. We later see that this was important.
- Fantastic Racism: Amalia can't stand the uncouthness and uncleaniness of the Pandawa people, though to be fair, Pandiego is quite rude, abrasive and not too fond of hygiene. She later comes to terms with these traits.
- Fire-Forged Friends: Pandiego and Amalia grow to respect and count on each other over the course of the episode.
- Freeze-Frame Bonus: A quick shot of Amalia diving out of Yugo's portals towards the screen reveals just how much she's wearing under that skirt...
- Green Thumb: Thanks to Amalia's Sadida powers, she's able to make Pandiego's salt-resistant bamboo bloom and grow, ensuing that Pandalusia will be able to grow new bamboo that won't generate salted milk.
- Heroic BSoD: Played for laughs when Pandiego almost refuses to carry on his plan at the thought of wasting all that good bamboo milk on the Thirsters. Amalia snaps him out of it.
- Honor Before Reason: During the final siege, Sadlygrove, being a knight, refuses to use the milk-pumps, finding them unworthy of his status. He eventually uses them and, when out of milk, brandishes them a clubs.
- I'm a Doctor, Not a Placeholder: When instructed to spray the Thirsters with a milk-pump to fight them, Sadlygrove protests that he's a warrior, not a gardener.
- Intangibility: The Thirsters are intangible and can phase through anything that's not bamboo, so that's entirely possible to accidentally run through one of them and end up transformed by mistake.
- Moment Killer: Pandiego rudely interrupts Amalia and Yugo's reunion (and hug) with an insensitive snark:Pandiego: Good, if you're done counting each other's teeth with your tongues, we've got work to do.
- Nightmare Face: Both Ruel and Evangelyne have a nasty close up of their faces as they're succumbing the transformation into Thirsters. The latter even lunges at the screen.
- Odd Couple: Pandiego, dirty, uncouth bamboo farmer and "expert of bad manners", has to cooperate with Amalia, a spoiled, refined princess.
- The Pigpen: Pandiego doesn't really have high hygienic standards, to use an euphemism.
- Punny Name: Pandalusia? Pandiego De la Vega? Jack Pandaniels? Come on, take your pick.
- Screw This, I'm Outta Here: Upon seeing that the Thirsters are ethereal, Ruel sensibly suggests a retreat.Evangelyne: How you're supposed to fight an intangible enemy?
Ruel: You're not supposed to fight, you're supposed to run! - Ship Tease: Amalia and Yugo: the former insists to rescue him first, professionally quoting his powers and resourcefulness as the main reasons why. However, when he's cured, Amalia proceeds to instinctively hug him.
- Sole Survivor: Pandiego is the only Pandawa who has escaped the transformation into a Thirster. Subverted when he learns that Jack Pandaniels, the owner of the bamboo milk brewery, also survived the transformation (and Slept Through the Apocalypse as he's deaf).
- Spanner in the Works: The presence of Jack Pandaniels to Pandiego's plans: he smashes the latter's reserves of milk and screams so loudly he attracts all the Thirsters of the village to the brewery. Furthermore, he's then transformed in a giant Thirster who breaks down the barricaded door with ease.
- Spit Shake: Pandiego offers one to Amalia when they agree to help each other, which she very reluctantly returns. At the end of the episode, however, she's the one who offers him one first.
- Spit Take: Weaponized by Pandiego as a way to shot the healing bamboo milk directly in the face of the infected. As a Brick Joke, he does it to the Sadida emissary in the credits, as "security measures".
- Surprisingly Creepy Moment: Compared to the other episodes and despite being a parody of Zombie movies, the Thirsters are quite creepy, and the whole situation is serious, as the entire Pandalusia is endangered.
- Swamps Are Evil: Because of a flood caused by the Chaos of Ogrest, the marshes of Pandalusia were tainted with salt water, and the bamboo withered or produced salted milk that turns all those who drink it into Thirsters, and now the swamps are a creepy, foggy place infested by zombies. Rubilax comments that at least it is still friendlier than Rushu's world.
- Weaksauce Weakness: The Thirsters have three: they cannot phase through anything made of bamboo, they turn back to normal if they come in contact with original bamboo milk and, at least for the former Pandawa, they stops in their tracks and start dancing if they hear someone singing Pandawa's inn songs.
- Zombie Apocalypse: What happened to Pandalusia since the defilement of the bamboo caused by the seawater. Thanks to Amalia, everyone is healed and a new type of salt-resisting bamboo can be cultivated.
