The Secrets of
"Best Friends Forever"

the Golden Gates - usually it's the pearly gates of Heaven one sees, not the golden gates.

Peter at the Gate comes from the Catholic teaching that Peter has the keys to Heaven, the power to bind and loosen, which comes from the New Testament comment Jesus made to Peter and then to all the apostles: "Whatever you bind on Earth will be bound in heaven, whatever you unbind on earth will be unbound in heaven."

"YOU, are the only hope." - Star Wars, natch. They've used this reference before, notably in "Cat Orgy."

The song playing the montage is Isaac Hayes' "Run Fay Run," featured in Kill Bill, Vol. I

"Basically, Kenny, you... are Keanu Reeves." - Keanu Reeves has hit it big as Neo, The One in The Matrix but has also taken other roles with messianic overtones. He is now the guy to go to if you want someone to fill such a role. In this case, the reference is to Constantine.

The small hooded figure with Satan is Emperor Palpatine, or Wormtongue in The Lord of the Rings trilogy, or Satan himself in The Passion of the Christ.

LotR references: The battle between Heaven and Hell comes from the Battle at Helm's Deep, in which Gandalf and the King had to fight off the armies of Sauron and Saruman. "Open the gate!" said when Elrond brings reinforcements to Theoden at Helm's Deep. Satan's demon army sounds a lot like the Ork army, especially from the Return of the King. Satan killing Kevin parodies Theoden casting out Grima. "This is even bigger than the fight in the LoTR movie."

"No! There is another." - Yoda's line hinting that Luke Skywalker was not the only hope for the Jedi.

Matt and Trey have said being 8 is the best age for a kid. Kyle forgets they're in fourth grade now and should be 9 years old.

The graphics of HBC World News evoke the ones for ABC World News.

Kenny has a little sister to go with his older brother now.

Satan's facial structure, horns, shorts, and hoofs are different. And the lava fall is new, too, but you can see that it was inspired by the one in Syndrome's lair in The Incredibles.

George Bush being able to hear Kevin points back to Bush's religious faith. Some people say he's running this country on what he thinks God wants him to do, that he's running the country as if he's being given directives from above, as if he's hearing from angels ... and demons

The hospital has changed the position of its sign and added small red-shingle rooftops to its towers. The hospital beds look mich nicer, too.

M&T have taken a liberal point of view on an issue and bashed Republicans. A lot of people have noted their conservative leanings, so this is rare.

According to Nobby, whose memory on this is somewhat hazy, The Last Starfighter was about a young kid - about 16 but was poor so he couldn't go to college -was playing an arcade game, like Kenny was playing the PSP, getting higher and higher scores than anyone had ever gotten before. A guy from the company who made the machine comes out to meet him and ask if he would join an alien military force. He refuses. They're all killed and he becomes the only hope of saving earth. He gets the girl, of course. What ties Kenny to The Last Starfighter is his use of a console. The Last Starfighter used an arcade console, Kenny uses a PSP.