This strip has more references than we usually include, so here are some quick panel-by-panel annotations.

Panel 1: The hypno-kit was last mentioned in strip #18.

Panel 2: This panel speaks for itself, I think.

Panel 3: In NetHack, the "apply" command (default keystroke: a) is used for credit cards and unicorn horns, among other things.

Panel 4: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pascal's_Wager

Ben is into molly-coddling, it would appear. I figure you guys can fend for yourselves with respect to the references, but he decided you needed help.

This theorem initially gave us some difficulty to derive, largely because we were going about it the wrong way. See, we had the dialogue initially laid out in a way that made some of the lines very difficult to script so that they would express what needed to be expressed and be sensible things for the respective characters to be saying. It was very satisfying to realize that it wasn't because what we thought to be a theorem was false, but instead because we were assuming the wrong premises. Once we fixed the dialogue (who was establishing what and in what order that was being done) the strip fell into place with the sort of naturalness that reminds us we are merely discovering these plots, not creating them.