Boy meets Girl (and Lion Cub).
Tropes in this episode:
- Ambiguously Brown: Invoked and discussed during Jean and Nadia's first meeting, as Jean's initially uncertain if Nadia's of Indian or African descent.
- Asshole Victim: Sure, using Counterfeit Cash in a transaction isn't the best thing to do. But when the seller set to receive this money is a brutal ringmaster who just sold one of his charges to criminals, then he more than deserves it.
- Badass Adorable: With the help of King, Nadia manages to fight Hanson and Sanson by stomping on their heads.
- Big Damn Heroes: Jean rescuing Nadia from the Gang at the Circus and then later from the Gratan in the skies above Paris.
- Bittersweet Ending: Jean rescues Nadia from the Grandis Gang, but to do so he also has to sacrifice his aircraft and thus does not win the competition and its prize money. Nadia also cannot return to the Circus now (and wouldn't after the Ringmaster sold her to the Grandis Gang).
- Consolation Prize: As he cut lines to save Nadia, Jean was disqualified but he still receive a special prize for his great performance.
- Cool Uncle: Jean's Uncle, in addition to be a fellow engineer, is also very interested in helping his nephew find love, telling him life is short and made to be enjoyed.
- Counterfeit Cash: This is what Grandis use to pay for Nadia.
- Defrosting Ice Queen: Nadia is understandably frosty during her and Jean's first meeting on the Tower. It's only after he saves her that she starts warming up to him (as does King).
- Establishing Character Moment:
- Jean's first scene in his boat instantly establishes he's equal parts genius and goofball.
- Nadia's first scene establish her aloofness, anti-social behavior, and uncertainty about her past.
- Fire-Forged Friends: Jean and Nadia by the end of the Pilot.
- Foreign Culture Fetish: Nadia initially feared Jean was only curious due to her skin colour.
- Foreshadowing:
- The Sea Monster attacks.
- Grandis and the Gang have been searching for the Blue Water and someone matching Nadia's description. So, who told them what to look for? Who else is out there trying to find this girl and her jewel?
- During their escape from the Circus, and facing a still-hostile Nadia, Jean guesses that Nadia simply isn't used to being treated kindly by people. Jean's guess is right on the money, as it's both a key flaw in Nadia's psychology/personality and ultimately part of her character arc/development.
- Nadia feeling depressed at the end of the episode. Was she simply fearing for her safety from the Grandis Gang, or was she depressed due to her life?
- Jungle Princess: Nadia is made to play the role in the Circus.
- Laser-Guided Karma: The Ringmaster selling Nadia to Grandis. He not only loses one of his top performers, but his figurative 30 pieces of silver are worthless thanks to Grandis using counterfeit money.
- Last Day of Normalcy:
- Both Nadia and Jean experience this during the Pilot. Jean came to the 1890 Paris World's Fair to see his uncle's planes and Nadia worked as circus acrobat. Both meet Grandis and her henchmen wanting the Blue Water and have to flee her, thereby starting the whole story.
- In a retroactive way, it ends up being one for the Grandis Gang, too. Grabbing Nadia and her Blue Water and then collecting the paycheck was just supposed to be another gig for the thieves. Instead, their pursuit ends up ultimately thrusting them into extraordinary circumstances and a life-altering journey they never could've imagined.
- Let's Get Dangerous!: After Jean interferes at the Circus, a pissed-off Grandis has finally had enough and gives Hanson and Sanson permission to play rough. This leads directly into the Gratan making its entry into the Pilot.
- Long-Lost Relative: Grandis approaches the Ringmaster claiming Nadia was really her sister.
- Love at First Sight: Literally the catalyst for the entire series plot. Jean takes one look at Nadia bicycling by the docks and he instantly falls for her. Amusingly, it's not reciprocated (at least not at first).
- My God, What Have I Done?: Downplayed example, but the last we see of the Circus Master after he sells Nadia is him sitting in silent shame before Grandis' payment.
- Never Found the Body: While Jean's Father is MIA and presumed dead due to the Sea Monster attacks, Jean also points out the death hasn't been confirmed and thus hopes he's still alive somewhere.
- Rescue Romance: Jean saving Nadia, which will gradually play out and develop over the course of the show's run.
- Sad Clown: After her performance, Nadia, on leaving the show, looks depressed.
- A Simple Plan: Kidnapping Nadia and acquiring her Blue Water was supposed to be a quick, simple, and easy job for the Grandis Gang. Instead, it blows up in their faces.
- Small Role, Big Impact: The Ringmaster. While he only appears in the Present Day here in the Pilot, his selling Nadia to Grandis is one of the catalysts for the plot. More importantly, flashbacks to Nadia's early years with the Circus in later episodes reveal his multi-level abuse (verbal, emotional, and physical) were *crucial* to shaping Nadia's own flaws and dysfunction in the Present.
- Surprisingly Realistic Outcome: Jean, if you try going up to a pretty girl you've never met and boast of showing her the world and making her fly, then said girl will, quite naturally, be weirded out and not take you seriously.
- We Will Meet Again: More or less Grandis' final line in the Pilot.
- Would Hurt a Child: The Grandis Gang is essentially committing armed robbery against a teenage girl and then doing human trafficking afterwards with the same girl.
- You Can't Go Home Again: A variation. While Nadia's circus isn't burned down or destroyed, she understandably won't be going back to a man who sold her to a thief like Grandis.
