Teaming up with Trish to stake out Sallinger, Jessica makes a startling discovery. Jeri's plot to expose Peter yields unexpected consequences.
This episode contains examples of the following tropes:
- Barrier-Busting Blow: Subverted. By the time Jessica attempts to use her Super-Strength to punch through the wall of the tanker, she's too weakened by the chemicals to manage it, though she does inflict some damage.
- Booby Trap: The tanker with the body parts has a trip-wire inside that shuts the hatch and starts a spray of chemicals when set off.
- Didn't Think This Through: Jeri's plan to expose Peter to get Kith all for herself backfires, since Peter is so desperate that he commits suicide. In the aftermath, Kith doesn't want to speak to Jeri anymore either.
- Do Not Call Me "Paul": Berry hates being called Brianna, her full name.
- Driven to Suicide: Kith's husband Peter slits his wrists in a bathtub after Jeri exposes him stealing money from their dead daughter's fund to buy presents for his many girlfriends. He takes a video of himself trying to turn the public against Jeri in his dying breath.
- Eating the Eye Candy: Erik's sister Berry finds Malcolm attractive.
- Friendship Moment: After Trish saves Jessica from the tanker, the two seem to take their first steps of reconciliation.
- From Bad to Worse: Not only did Trish's and Jessica's attempt at getting Sallinger fail, he also takes Erik hostage at the end.
- Idiot Ball: Jess climbed into the tank that Sallinger was stashing the bodies in without pausing to consider that it may have an oxygen-deficient atmosphere, or that if something happened, the only way in and out was via a ladder.
- Insane Troll Logic: The entirety of Peter's videotaped suicide note consists of this. He admits that his embezzling from his dead daughter's foundation was wrong, but at the same time claims that Jeri exposing those crimes was somehow evil. And then to cap it all off he ties the whole thing to Jeri's work defending super-powered people, and accuses her of creating an army of super criminals at her beck and call. What makes it even more bizarre is that for a change, Jeri's connection to supers played no part whatsoever in her interactions with Peter.
- Leeroy Jenkins: Trish constantly opts for the most aggressive approach, like dangling Sallinger from a rooftop until he confesses, much to Jessica's annoyance.
- The Mentally Ill: Sallinger is clearly not right in the head. He is seen talking to himself weepingly at the beginning of the episode. Of course, it's possible that, since he clearly has no empathy for others, he was simply practicing performing emotions, like a lot of real-life psychopaths do.
- Oh, Crap!: Erik gets hit by a massive migraine when he enters his apartment. It only takes him a second to realize that means there's a psycho there.
- Revenge by Proxy: Sallinger targets Erik's sister Berry.
- Sex for Solace: Distressed from the issues they're facing with their respective sisters, Jessica and Erik end up sleeping with each other.
- Thanatos Gambit: As noted under Insane Troll Logic, Peter's accusations against Hogarth make very little sense and would probably be ignored as the self-serving ranting of an exposed criminal. However, him making them on a video where he's slowly bleeding to death gives them enough of an emotional punch that they threaten to destroy Hogarth's business.
- Title Drop: Trish wishes she hadn't killed Jessica's mom. Jessica wishes her mom hadn't been a mass murderer.
