Charlie enters the Tower looking for some bit of normalcy, but Howard remains suspicious as she grows close to Ali.
- A Day in the Limelight: The episode primarily focuses on Charlie and new character Ali…
- A Death in the Limelight: Well, this is what it really is for Ali.
- Apologetic Attacker: Howard apologizes to Ali before throwing him to his death.
- Being Evil Sucks: At least, Howard starts to feel this way. While he murders Ali for the latter's actions, he doesn't seem to take great joy in doing so.
- Can't Kill You, Still Need You: June bets on this as to why she currently has more worth to Victor than even Howard.
- Coming of Age Story: For Ali as he seeks to prove he is capable of joining the Tower’s Rangers.
- Driven to Suicide: Howard and the others claim Garcia committed suicide after realizing his radiation burns put the Tower at risk, but it quickly becomes evident this wasn’t the case.
- Downer Ending: Ali is murdered by Howard, and Charlie has contracted radiation poisoning with no way to save her. The only thing preventing this from being a pure dark ending is that June manages to keep Howard from throwing her out of The Tower, but even then the two of them can only lean on each other for support.
- Even Evil Has Standards: Howard doesn’t enjoy killing people to maintain the Tower’s safety, and is seen reeling from executing Ali.
- Face–Heel Turn:
- Downplayed. Charlie seeks to join the Tower, which is the primary antagonistic group of the season due to Strand’s leadership, but also contains sympathetic heroes like the Dories and Wendell. And at the end of the episode, she reveals that she indeed is just there to try to undermine the Tower.
- John Dorie, Sr. pretends to have done this, claiming to be fully loyal to the Tower and Victor, but he’s scheming to become Victor’s right hand to try to change things.
- May–December Romance: Ali is clearly quite a bit older than Charlie, but they still have a brief romance that spurs up over the course of a day.
- Mama Bear: June comes to Charlie’s defense and bargains for her to remain in the Tower.
- Mouth of Sauron: Howard speaks on Victor’s behalf through the episode.
- Mundane Made Awesome: The intention of the bowling scene is to give the two youngsters a chance to do something fun that they haven’t had the chance to do since the Fall, which happened when they were very young.
- Properly Paranoid: Howard is suspicious of Charlie’s intentions throughout the episode and is ultimately proven right when at the last minute, she turns out to have indeed been a spy for Morgan.
- Ship Tease: Between Charlie and Ali. By the end they share a romantic date together and kiss several times.
- Tempting Fate: Ali knows he’s deliberately invoking this, knowing he is due to suffer Victor’s wrath when he returns.
- Theme Twin Naming: More like Theme Sibling Naming. Ali’s brother was named Muhammad, as their father was a big fan of boxing.
- Villain Has a Point: Howard knows the Tower has been threatened with war and is the only character who acts like it. He is suspicious of Charlie all the way to the end and is proven right, and the execution of Garcia was ruthless but justified given his incurable radiation sickness. When Ali turns traitor, he executes him as well.
- We Hardly Knew Ye: Like the previous episode, a new character dies in the same episode they’re introduced.
- Written-In Absence: Victor is absent from the episode with Howard leading the Tower in his absence.
- Your Days Are Numbered: Charlie's now dying of radiation exposure.
