Ryan races to cure Mary before she becomes Poison Ivy permanently. She teams up with Jada to do so, but Marquis has his own plans, while Mary and Alice bond, pushing the former closer to villainy.
Tropes:
- AB Negative: Alice is O Negative. While that means that she is an universal donor, she herself can only receive O Neg.
- All for Nothing: Ryan has to trade Wayne Enterprises to Marquis so he won't smash the vial containing the Poison Ivy cure, only for Mary to reject and destroy it herself.
- Artistic License – Economics: Let's just say that very little of Marquis's takeover of Wayne Enterprises is accurate to real life, especially the timeframe.
- The Bad Guys Win: Poison Ivy takes over Mary completely, and Marquis gains control of Wayne Enterprises.
- Bait the Dog:
- Marquis goads his mother into comforting him, so he can overpower her.
- Played with in regards to Alice and Mary. Because while Alice initially seems to be just manipulating Mary in order to get her to remove the nanobots, she sincerely does seem to care about her as a sister, in her own, twisted way.
- Big Sister Instinct: In her own twisted way, Alice actually starts caring for Mary.
- Blood Transfusion Plot: Alice needs a full blood transfusion to flush the nanobots out of her system. After Mary swipes some equipment, the two hang out in a bar searching for people who match Alice's blood type.
- Call-Back: Alice reminds Mary of the last time she (Alice) had a blood transfusion, during the Nocturna incident. Mary reminds Alice that she (Mary) was in danger then because of Alice putting the Desert Rose in her system and killing her mom, suggesting she should give Alice an embolism. But she doesn't, because Alice is her only friend right now.
- Calling Your Nausea: Mary, after waking up and learning what she did to her friends.
- Car Fu: Alice injured a Police Officer by running over him when she and Mary were trying to escape in the stolen RV.
- Comically Missing the Point: When Mary asks Alice for her type (meaning blood type), she responds "Tall, dark, and brooding."
- Continuity Nod:
- Luke's arm is still in a sling after Mary crushed it last episode.
- When Mary wakes up as herself, she is still holding Luke's Batwing AI that she ripped off the previous episode.
- Luke brings up the nanobot trackers inside Alice's blood.
- Jada perfecting the Freeze serum to use on Marquis was revealed a few episodes ago.
- The G.C. Jitters Alice and Mary stop by is just outside of Metropolis.
- The Corrupter: Alice encourages Mary in embracing her new self throughout the episode. It works.
- Deal with the Devil: Ryan gives Marquis control of Wayne Enterprises in exchange for the cure.
- Decoy Convoy: Alice places her blood on a number of random cars driving along the road, creating dozens of decoys to keep the Bat-team busy while Alice continues her plan.
- Deleted Scenes: Represented by "Earth Prime", a comic series depicting events occurring between episodes. We have Ryan fighting the Arrowverse version of Clayface (continuing the Legacy Character theme, it's a bullied student who was pushed into the Clayface mud and absorbed its powers), Luke having dating troubles with Stephanie Brown, and Ryan having a meeting with Lena Luthor about wanting access to Mr. Freeze's freezing serum as a stabilizing agent for a renewable power source. Said serum could also be used to freeze Clayface, which of course is what happens.
- Downer Ending: Mary is completely taken over by the Poison Ivy identity, and Ryan is unable to save her and the cure is destroyed. Marquis executes a hostile takeover of Wayne Enterprises which prevents the team from accessing the Batcave, leaving them with just the Batmobile and Batsuit to defend the city.
- "Eureka!" Moment: Luke realizes that Mary's coffee addiction is a good way to find her, tracking her coupon to a G.C. Jitters.
- Evil Costume Switch: After fully embracing her dark side, Mary switches into a traditional Poison Ivy outfit, complete with red hair.
- Evil Feels Good: Mary steadily embraces her dark side, at first pointing out how she doesn't even feel bad about stealing from a small business by hypnotizing the bar owner into giving her and Alice free drinks.
- Faux Affably Evil: Marquis fully reveals his true personality here, still acting jovial, while relishing in his evil acts and mocking his sister for the fake affection he showed her.
- Hidden Disdain Reveal: Marquis takes great pleasure revealing he's been playing Ryan like a fiddle and never meant one word of the "sibling bond" they had.
- Hope Spot: Despite everything that's happened, Ryan seems like she's about to convince Mary to take the cure, but then Mary hypnotizes her to reveal what she would do if Mary didn't take the cure (keep her restrained until they figured something out), and calls up vines to trap Batwoman and destroy the cure.
- Human Pincushion: Marquis has a thing for stabbing, it seems. Not only does he stab a Wayne security guard with a pen, he also leaves a doctor stabbed in a freezer.
- Hypnotic Eyes: Mary's eyes have permanently turned bright green now that her Poison Ivy pheromones have kicked in.
- Internal Reveal:
- Sophie learns about Mary being infected and turning into Poison Ivy.
- Ryan learns about Sophie sleeping with Montoya.
- Mary learns about having attacked her friends.
- It's All My Fault: Luke blames himself for not understanding Mary well enough in the past and Sophie blames herself for taking her eyes off Alice.
- Lured into a Trap: What Ryan does to Marquis in the opening scene, helping Jada abduct him to put him on ice.
- Mind-Control Eyes: Whenever Mary takes control of someone, their eyes flash bright green.
- Not Staying for Breakfast: After Montoya and Sophie make love last episode, Renee leaves before Sophie wakes up, though leaving a letter behind.
- The Pen Is Mightier: Marquis uses the pen Luke received from his father as a weapon to kill a Wayne Security Guard.
- Pheromones: Mary's Poison Ivy mind control pheromones kick in along with her eyes turning green, which she first uses to manipulate the bartender for free drinks. Then she charms a series of guys into letting her cut them and check their blood type, looking for a compatible donor for Alice, and presumably keeps the one they find compliant while they take three pints of his blood offscreen. Finally, she makes Ryan tell the truth about what she would do if Mary didn't take the cure and lose her powers.
- Redemption Rejection: Mary refuses to be locked up, restrains Ryan with her vines, and destroys the cure vial.
- Sadistic Choice: Marquis threatens to destroy the Poison Ivy cure unless Ryan resigns as CEO of Wayne Enterprises. She reluctantly agrees.
- Shout-Out: Mary's plant-based infection gets compared to Swamp Thing.
- Title Drop: By Alice when telling Mary to choose between her and Arkham.
- Trailers Always Spoil: Not quite a trailer, but Mary showing off her Poison Ivy outfit at the end of the episode loses some of its impact as DC and WB heavily promoted a poster showing off said costume the previous week.
- Villain Team-Up: Mary and Alice plan on doing this with Marquis as of the end of the episode.
- Wounded Gazelle Gambit: Marquis plays up being scared in front of Jada as he's being frozen so she'll get close to comfort him, then breaks his cuffs (weakened by the cold) so he can grab her as a hostage.
