Abigail and Raelle stick the landing at Citydrop. Tally… not so much. Raelle links with Tally to heal her, which leads to her seeing Tally’s memories of finding out Scylla is Spree. Furious that she turned Scylla in, and still wanting to believe her girlfriend is innocent, Raelle blows up at her despite Abigail’s pleading to keep things together.
Anacostia briefs the cadets on Citydrop. There will be trained officers posing as Spree agents, and if anyone has to be pulled out of the exercises, War College is off the table. While clearing their avenue of mines, the tension between Raelle and Tally comes to a head, leading to them setting off a trap and getting themselves covered in a temporary, mild form of plague.
Raelle is adamant that Scylla isn’t Spree while Tally insists she was just protecting Raelle because Scylla was going to turn her over. Raelle stalks off to find Anacostia, reluctantly followed by Abigail and Tally, but they don’t manage to catch up to her before they’re ambushed by two of the fake Spree agents. Meanwhile, Raelle runs into Helen, whom she believes she had guard duty with in a previous episode, but is confused when Helen doesn’t recognize her.
Abigail continues to punch out the fake Spree agents even after they’re neutralized, still traumatized from the attempt on her life at the wedding. She’s chastised for this before the cadets are given their next mission – a hostage rescue at a nearby high school. Abigail and Libba lead the way in, but it’s Tally who takes charge of the fractured unit. She begs Raelle to consider the possibility that she’s telling the truth and Scylla really is Spree.
Libba and her unit come to Abigail’s aid when she’s ambushed, and the two of them exchange some slightly more friendly words, and Raelle sleeps another agent that Tally is up against, signalling that their friendship is starting to mend. On the way out, Anacostia and Helen call Raelle aside, informing her that the person Raelle had met on guard duty was an imposter, as they have recently learned Spree can use magic to change their appearance. That, coupled with the questions about Porter’s death, lead to Raelle’s crushing revelation that Scylla is indeed Spree.
Meanwhile, there is a mission about to take place at the armory from Scylla’s memories, but before the army can carry out the raid, the building explodes not long after two trucks have driven away. Alder realizes the link, stating that they need to locate the trucks. Trucks which, as they soon learn, are headed for the airport in Boston. The nearest strike team won’t get there in time, so Alder suggests the cadets at Citydrop, as they’re close enough to cut them off. Izadora protests that the cadets aren’t ready, but contacts Anacostia at Alder’s instruction.
Anacostia receives the message and breaks it to the cadets that Citydrop is ending because there is a real mission at hand. This is not an exercise, this is a full combat situation, and their rules of engagement are to eliminate the targets. On the helicopter ride over, Abigail and Libba share a friendly moment, and Tally accepts Raelle’s wordless apology. Anacostia tells Raelle that the Spree targeted her because she’s strong, although Raelle feels anything but.
Anacostia and the cadets form a barrier in the road as the trucks approach. They wait until the first truck is close enough and then, as one, blast it clean off the road. Raelle is assigned to take care of anyone who might walk away from the crash, and Tally uses her Sight to report that the Spree in the second truck are arming the mines they have onboard. Not only that, but they have civilian hostages.
Raelle, on the lookout, turns the corner to see… Scylla. Only it’s not really Scylla, it’s a Spree agent using her face to try and lower Raelle’s defenses. It doesn’t work. Raelle doesn’t care whether she’s actually Scylla or not, she still fights her, taking her out as she says that everything about her is a lie.
Anacostia uses Farspeech to inform Alder that the Spree have hostages, but Alder says the mission hasn’t changed. Anacostia obeys, and Raelle reappears just as the second truck approaches the line. This time, they have to Windshear the truck, which means letting it get within feet of them. Tally doesn’t participate, she simply closes her eyes, as the truck is torn to shreds on top of the cadets.
Abigail wakes on a stretcher in the helicopter, having taken a hit to the head. Anacostia reassures her that Tally and Raelle are fine, but as Abigail sees a body under a sheet, admits that not everybody made it. Abigail pulls back the sheet to reveal Libba, yelling at her to get up, before collapsing back into Anacostia in tears at the death of her long-time rival.
Tally tells her unit that there were civilians in the second truck. Abigail protests that they wouldn’t have been ordered to take out civilian hostages, but Tally knows what she saw and felt. Raelle points out that they were sent into the mission before they’d even finished basic, and promises Tally that she believes her this time. Later, Adil comforts a despondent Abigail when she tells him what happened and that it shouldn’t have happened like that. Libba shouldn’t be dead.
Alder and Anacostia are at odds over Alder’s decisions. The unit’s varying levels of faith in Alder are also dashed completely when Alder lies in the public address, confirming that there were indeed civilian hostages, but claiming that the Spree chose to execute them. The episode ends with Alder taking questions from the press, and the Bellweather unit clearly have some of their own.
Tropes Used:
- Call-Back: Helen Graves makes a reappearance, although since the time we saw her last she was actually Scylla in disguise, this marks her first actual appearance. Nonetheless, Raelle brings up their night of guard duty from episode 2.
- Character Development: Raelle spends most of the episode convinced Tally is lying about Scylla. After Tally is proven right, Raelle is much more inclined to believe her about the hostages.
- Et Tu, Brute?: Raelle at first considers Tally reporting Scylla to be this.
- Freeze-Frame Bonus: The chalkboard in one of the classrooms has a timeline of this universe’s major wars, some of which are very different from our own.
- Graceful Landing, Clumsy Landing: After jumping off the chopper in the previous episode, Abigail and Raelle stick the landing. Tally does not and needs Raelle to Fix her so they can continue with the exercise.
- He Didn't Make It: Anacostia tells Abigail not everybody made it out. Abigail then pulls back the sheet to reveal Libba’s body.
- How Dare You Die on Me!: Upon seeing Libba's body, Abigail shakes her and orders her to get up.
- I Did What I Had to Do: Alder says that, because of her decision to send in the cadets, a probable international attack was averted.
- Insult of Endearment: Abigail and Libba's usual barbs are a lot softer in the helicopter.
- Immediate Sequel: This episode picks up with the cadets still flying towards the ground.
- Love-Interest Traitor: Raelle finds out her girlfriend Scylla is working for the Spree.
- Meaningful Echo: Near the end, Abigail brings up an exchange with Adil from the previous episode.Abigail: Someone once told me I was ignorant of the world. I’m a little less so now.
Adil: Whoever said that sounds like an idiot. - Percussive Therapy: Abigail beats the absolute shit out of some fake Spree agents that are part of Citydrop.
- Sacrificial Lion: Libba, a recurring character, dies in this episode.
- Stress Vomit: Glory promptly throws up upon being told they’re being sent into a real mission.
- What the Hell, Hero?: Anacostia gives Alder as much of this as she can without speaking freely. Raelle and Tally also give an indirect one to Alder when they shut down Abigail’s defense of her by pointing out she sent them into an operation before they’d made it through basic training.
