Left in the Dark: Lincoln tries to beat his sisters to the couch so he can watch the season finale of his favorite show, but a power outage complicates things.

Get the Message: When Lincoln leaves an angry voice message for Lori, he tries to find a way to delete it from her phone before she hears it.

"Left in the Dark"

• Big Ball of Violence: The girls have one in Lincoln's flashback.
• Big Brother Instinct: When Lola and Lana are scared of a possible ghost in the basement, Lincoln comforts them, saying that he's here to protect them. And when Lincoln and his sisters think that there really is a ghost, he loudly states he'll protect them all and goes to tackle the "ghost".
• Big "NO!": Lincoln screams this when Lucy says she was at the couch before him, combined with a Skyward Scream. He does it again when he makes it to the couch only to find out that he just missed his show.
• Big "SHUT UP!": Lincoln yells "Quiet!" when he silences his sister's argument.
• Bittersweet Ending: Lincoln may have missed the finale, but he (in a way) experienced the show for real, and gets to relive it over and over since Luan recorded it.
• Company Cross-References: During the flashback to the girls fighting over the remote, the TV briefly shows a picture of a yellow sponge and a pink starfish.
• Early-Installment Weirdness: Since this is the first episode produced, the animation is different than that of the rest of the series, such as Lisa's shirt is dark green instead of chartreuse, Lucy's hairline is raised up a little, and Leni's dress appearing a slightly disaturated shade than usual. The backgrounds are also abnormal, most notably the upstairs scene.
• "Eureka!" Moment: Lincoln decides to plug in their father's old black and white TV when Lucy mentions that she wished that Edwin "wasn't from another century".
• Flat Scare: Lucy says "Boo" to scare Lynn.
• Fooled by the Sound: Lori thinks she hears a ghost moaning, but it's only the pipes settling, then Leni hears a scratching sound and also thinks it's a ghost, but it's only their cat Cliff using a scratching post.
• Ironic Echo: When the power goes out, Lori asserts that she's in charge while the parents are gone, since she's the oldest. Lori then asks why she has to go into the basement to turn the power back on. The others retort with "Because you're in charge".
• Pun: Making Luan glow in the dark is like inviting her to make these:
  Luan: I always knew I was the light of your life! [giggles]
  [Everyone else groans]
• Running Gag: Lucy appearing out of nowhere saying "You forgot me".
• Squee: Lola squees when Lincoln gives her a tea party set to play with. Lana does the same thing when Lincoln gives her frogs to play with at the tea party.
• Stock Audio Clip: Lincoln's same Big "NO!" sound clip was used twice.
• Three... Two... One...: By Lincoln when he gives to cue to when Lori's phone will ring, distracting her.
• Title Drop: Said by Hunter Spector in the beginning of the episode.
  Hunter Spector: Sunday night at 8 PM! Don't miss it, or you'll be left in the dark! ARGGH!

"Get the Message"

• And Then What?: Lincoln, in the heat of his anger, sends an offensive audio message to Lori on her smartphone, but he doesn't stop to think that doing so won't make Lori reflect on what she did, rather, it will only fill her with anger too, and leave her wanting to beat him.
• Big "NO!": By Lincoln when he sees his destroyed goggles.
• Comically Missing the Point: This gem:
  Lincoln: I've got eyes on the package.
  Clyde: Package? What about Lori's phone?
  (Lincoln facepalms)
• Cut His Heart Out with a Spoon: Lori threatens to turn Lincoln into "a human pretzel" if she catches him in her room again.
• Daydream Surprise: The scene where Lincoln's plan goes perfectly and he deletes the message turns out to be a dramatization of how the plan should work.
• Disproportionate Retribution: Lori threatens to turn Lincoln into a human pretzel if she catches him in her room again, even though he wandered in by accident. Not to mention the room also belongs to Leni. When she walks into Lincoln's "worst sister ever" letter in the bathroom, she immediately goes after Lincoln to make good on her threat.
• Downer Ending: Although Lori fortunately didn't get to hear Lincoln's message, Lincoln's plan to not incur her wrath is rendered moot when Lori finds out about the disparaging letter intended for her in the bathroom, forcing Lincoln to run away from the now ticked-off Lori.
• Dramatic Irony: Lori buys a new pair of game goggles for Lincoln, and commends him for being very mature about her destroying his old pair right after he left his intentionally scathing message.
• Early-Installment Weirdness:
  • Since this was long before Lori Took a Level in Kindness, she gives Lincoln a ground rule to stay out of her bedroom and to never call her phone, else he gets it, and she's pretty nonchalant about her compensation for breaking his goggles. Following this, she no longer minds if he enters her room or calls her, and she's more sensitive and hearty when she has to make up for something.
  • Lincoln himself also has a case of this, when he blurts out insults to Lori via voicemail for breaking his gaming goggles. Later episodes would see him resorting to far less petty methods of retribution, with fluctuating levels of exceptions towards his family.
  • Lincoln uses a duck-shaped telephone in his bedroom to call Lori, which is never seen again on this episode. He instead uses his cell phone in later episodes.
  • Lori is shown to keep a security system next to her bedroom door, complete with a keypad to enter a password to lock it. That keypad was never seen again after this episode, though some later early episodes would allude to there still being a security system.
• Epic Fail: The whole plan, from Clyde given Lincoln a licorice rope, to Clyde failing to distract Lori from her room.
• Facepalm: Lincoln does one in the vents after Clyde asks about Lori's phone when the former says that he has eyes on the package.
• Felony Misdemeanor: Punishable offenses from the twins' perspective include running, telling bad jokes, and not wearing a diaper (or just walk around naked). In response to Luan doing one of these too many times, the twins lock her up in a cardboard jail cell.
• Five-Second Foreshadowing: When Clyde distracts Lori the first time, he acted normally when near her, when as seen in the previous episode, he would barely get one sentence out and act like a robot. Minutes later, it's revealed the succeeded plan is really an Imagine Spot.
• Freeze-Frame Bonus: When Lucy stops Lincoln from falling into the bathroom and things fall out of his pants, his "worst sister ever" letter can be seen on the floor long before he realizes he doesn't have it.
• Here We Go Again!: In the end, when all is well, it turns out Lincoln left his "worst sister ever" letter about Lori in the bathroom, leaving her to unleash her wrath.
• Hidden Depths:
  • Lola is a "princess", but she likes the idea of being a police officer (in fact, due to her temperament, it would make more sense for her to actually be a police officer than a princess).
  • Lucy isn't like Lynn Jr, but she's strong enough to hold Lincoln by the leg and stop him from falling through the bathroom ceiling.
• Imagine Spot: Lincoln successfully deleting his message off of Lori's phone turns out to be a dramatization of how his plan should go.
• Irrevocable Message: The main plot of the episode.
• Jerk with a Heart of Gold: Even though she's rather condescending about it, Lori does buy Lincoln a new pair of game goggles after stepping on his old pair.
• Literal-Minded: It would seem the twins have taken a "no swearing" rule to face value, as when Lincoln swears he'll walk within speed limit, Lana scolds him for swearing.
• Mickey Mousing: When Lincoln dials Lori's phone and it rings, Luna briefly jams to the last note of the ringtone.
• Nightmare Face: Lori's face is so frightening when Lincoln accidentally enters her room that it catches him off-guard.
• Oh, Crap!: Lincoln's reactions throughout the episode: first when he realizes he left his gaming goggles at the bathroom when Lori kicked him out, then subtly when Lori brings him a new pair, and lastly when he realizes Lori has just read the note containing his scathing message.
• Police Are Useless: Played with. When the twins, who are pretending to be police officers, catch Lincoln running the second time, he bolts downstairs, and they decide to let him go since the first floor is out of their jurisdiction.
• Running Gag: The twins' hall monitor antics.
• Say My Name: Lori shouts Lincoln's name angrily when he unknowingly enters her room during his VR game, and again at the end when she finds his "worst sister ever" letter in the bathroom.
• "Shaggy Dog" Story: In the end, when it seems like Lori will hear Lincoln's offending message about her, she immediately deletes it. For added punch, she ends up finding the note with the message, and reading it anyway.
• Shout-Out: The Episode Title Card has Lincoln running in front of a spotlight like Tintin in the opening of The Adventures of Tintin.
• Slow "NO!": Lincoln does this when Lori begins to listen to his message. Luckily for him, she deletes it before it gets to the scathing part.
• Sound-Effect Bleep: Lincoln's message to Lori isn't heard due to Luna bursting into his room and rocking out on her guitar. Luna does it again when Lori sees Lincoln's "Why ____ is the worst sister ever" letter on the bathroom floor and threatens him.
• Vomit Discretion Shot: Lincoln does this when he realizes that he sneezed on Lily's diaper.
• Worst. Whatever. Ever!: The letter Lincoln writes out has the heading "Why ____ is the worst sister ever." He puts Lori's name in the blank.