When two local students go missing, Alaric sends Hope, Lizzie, MG and Landon to Mystic Falls High to investigate. Meanwhile, as Josie helps Rafael adjust to his new life at the school, his reluctance to follow the wolf pack's rules puts a target on his back. Lastly, an unsettling discovery puts Alaric and Sheriff Donovan at odds with one another.
- Asshole Victim: Both Dana and Conner end up as victims of the Arachne and are dead by the end of the episode. Considering every single second of screen time they had prior to this episode is them being jerks to the Salvatore School Students (save maybe MG end they were in an affair (or at least contemplating one) behind one of their friends backs its hard to feel bad for them.
- Bait-and-Switch: It's believed Dana is turning into a vampire after displaying similar signs of being in transition however she ends up dead.
- Giant Spider: The Monster of the Week is revealed to be an Arachne which MG describes as "a beautiful woman who was cursed by a jealous god and turned into a giant spider". It wears the skin of its victims in order to move around innocuously during the day and wears Conner's skin as a disguise before Landon inadvertently tears of the skin.
- New Transfer Student: Part of the Salvatore School Boarding group's ruse as part of an 'exchange program' in order to figure out what happened to the missing Mystic Falls High schoolers.
- Ordinary High-School Student: Hope invokes this trope in order to fit into public school.
- Papa Wolf: At the end of the episode, after Kaleb's secret feeding on the townies is revealed, Matt warns Ric that if his kids become a threat, they'll be dealt with.Matt: I've been doing this too long, Ric. If your kids are a threat, I'll be coming for them.Alric: If you threaten my kids, Sheriff, I'll be the one coming for you.
- Red Herring: Initially it seems that the missing high school girls were the work of a vampire especially when Dana is found with bite marks on her neck and seems to be in the middle of transitioning. Then Dana literally pukes her guts out and the group finds out that she was actually killed by an Arachne whose bit heavily resembles a vampires.
- Shout-Out: Subtly referencing ‘’Riverdale’’ a another CW series about high schoolers when Hope meets an cheerleader named Cheryl and gets an pair of cat ears from her later in the episode clearly an nod to Josie And The Pussy Cats.
- Title Drop: Alaric says that to the twins, indicating that they shouldn't try to imitate Hope.
- What the Hell, Hero?: Back at the boarding school Landon privately calls Hope out on her earlier behavior which leads her slightly remorse for it.
- You Just Told Me: When Sheriff Donovan confronts Kaleb about the various cheerleaders from Mystic Falls High School that have bite marks on them Ric tries to defuse the situation. Kaleb angrily says that Ric isn't on his side and asks him who from the group told him about what he has been doing. Ric says that Kaleb himself just did since, while Ric had suspected for a while now, he never had any direct prove of what Kaleb was doing.
