Despite coming back from another run in the caverns following a grisly death, a young explorer is determined to see what lies deeper within. However, as she becomes more worn out from frequent failures, a veteran gives her inspiration to keep going while looking at death in a new light.
Tropes featured in this episode include:
- Double-Meaning Title: "Tally" refers to the number of times the explorers have died, represented by tally marks, and return to the entrance. In the end, Liz tells Ana that the marks should be treated like the number of adventures she has begun.
- Decon-Recon Switch : Similar to the Spelunky games, and roguelike games in general, Ana plays with the Death Is Cheap trope lightly since she can simply come back from death with no repercussions. This attitude changes the more she dies, which emotionally affects her before Liz sets her straight. Ana learns that she should treat her marks as less of when she died and more of the adventure she had, especially since each one is radically different in terms of both dangers and wonders.
- Death Montage: As Ana enters the caverns again and again, she finds herself dying in numerous ways. By the time she hits her slump, she had died 82 times.
- Exact Words: Liz tells Ana about the time she died from "mines". Ana asks if she really did die in the mines, as in caves. Liz corrected that she died from "a mine", as in landmine.
- Gory Discretion Shot:
- Ana's first death in the short has her punched by a trap and falling into a pit of spikes fading to black with a sickening squelch to mark her being impaled.
- Liz tells her how she once died from a mine, and a flashback shows her caught in the explosion, only showing a boot flying off.
- The World Is Just Awesome: The wisdom that Liz imparts when Ana is eventually worn down by how Death Is Cheap (and frequent) for them. That even though each run has ended in a gruesome demise, the wonders and adventures they experience each time are what make it worthwhile.
- Wham Shot: When Ana has her hope renewed by Liz, she notices that the marks Liz put on the outside walls are only some of them. Just inside the door, the walls are covered in marks.
