Dark
"I know... you're here."
Written by Miles Luna
Directed by Dustin Matthews
Directed by Dustin Matthews
"I... I can see it. It's outside Winter's old room. I- You can kill it? Can't you?"
— Willow Schnee
As Ruby fights the Hound at the Schnee Manor, she experiences a shocking revelation.
Tropes in this episode include:
- Call-Back:
- Nora recycles Blake's advice to her in "Strings" by telling Penny that the part trying to control her is just a part of her, and that she shouldn't forget about the rest.
- The Hound tries to kidnap Ruby, Weiss attempts to summon an avatar of a Giant Nevermore, which calls back to the Volume 1 Grimm that was Team RWBY's first kill as a team.
- Back in Volume 7's "Cordially Invited", Willow asks Weiss not to forget about her brother. In this episode, Weiss creates an ice wall to shield Whitley and Willow from the Hound, and tells Whitley "I didn't forget you".
- In Volume 7's "Ace Operatives", Yang describes the Centinel she's facing as "disgusting". When Blake confronts an Alpha Centinel, she complains "Why did it get more disgusting?"
- Come Out, Come Out, Wherever You Are: Once the Hound enters the study, Whitley hides behind his father's desk. The camera gives dual shots of Whitley cowering in fear as the Grimm slowly approaches saying "I know you're here".
- Dead-Hand Shot: Once the Hound is flattened by a giant suit of armour, only its hand can be seen sticking out of the rubble. It dissolves away to reveal blackened and withered human bones underneath.
- "Eureka!" Moment: As Weiss brings up "company perks" to explain why the Schnee Manor has access to a private power generator, Whitley realizes that he can use his father's computer to deploy SDC's own cargo fleet with drone pilots to evacuate Mantle's citizens from the crater.
- Facial Horror: The Hound's original face is gruesome. The right eye is covered by terrible white scarring while the left eye exudes black ooze like tears. The left-side of the face is burned and his jawline is peppered with bone protrusions as Grimm teeth grow through his skin. The skin is stretched tight across his face and neck, torn in places to reveal the muscle underneath.
- Fighting from the Inside: After regaining consciousness, Penny spends most of the episode paralysed between her warring programming as she tries to fight Watts's hack. Nora stabilises her for a few moments until the hacking takes over completely.
- Heroic BSoD: Ruby mentions early in the episode that with the mounting problems with Nora, Penny, Atlas, and Mantle she's starting to feel overwhelmed and hopeless. Blake's talk with her helps her recover somewhat, but she can only freeze in shock upon discovering the man inside the Hound. After he's killed, she falls to her knees in despair and numbly says "That was...a person.".
- Hope Spot: Penny appears to be slowly losing her fight against Watts's hack of her system until Nora takes her hand; Penny regains her sense of self and seems to have won until the hacking abruptly takes full control, guiding her to open the vault and self-terminate. She's only stopped by the Hound knocking her unconscious.
- Human Shield: The Hound uses its claws to Penny's throat, threatening to slash it if Ruby's team gets too close. Ruby is able to bypass this by activating her silver eyes, stunning the Grimm into releasing Penny.
- Madness Mantra: The Hound mentions the phrase "take the girl" a few times in the episode. Once Ruby blasts it with her silver eyes, it becomes so fixated that it repeats the phrase in increasingly maddened tones.
- Mama Bear: Willow spends the episode so close to a nervous breakdown that she can't even drink; however, upon realizing that the Hound is headed for the defenseless Whitley, she resolves to charge down to the study and unleash a Boarbatusk avatar, distracting it long enough for Whitley to escape from the room.
- Not Now, Kiddo: An inverted example occurs when Willow realizes that the Hound is heading towards Whitley. She calls his scroll to warn him, but Whitley is frustrated with her and urgently needs to finish reprogramming the Schnee drones to start saving lives, so he promptly hangs up.
- Over-the-Shoulder Carry: After breaking Watts out, Cinder uses a fireman's lift to toss him across her shoulders. This enables her to depart with both of them as soon as soldiers respond to the jailbreak by flying away using her Maiden powers.
- The Reveal:
- The Hound is revealed to be a silver-eyed Faunus who was transformed into a Grimm, thereby confirming both the Hound's identity and that Faunus can have silver eyes.
- It was already clear that Penny had been hacked to send her to open the vault, but the full command is revealed to include an order to self-terminate as soon as she's done so.
- Tranquil Fury: Once the Hound has Penny at its mercy, Ruby instantly intervenes with a single calm but extremely firm command to stop before activating her silver eyes to end the stand-off.
- Trauma Button: After Willow learns about the Grimm heading her way, she drops her drink and flees to her room in despair. She's barely able to pull together enough to monitor it on cameras for the others and begs them to kill it, and only the realization that her son's life is in danger gives her the conviction to actually go save him. Throughout the whole thing she's shaky and terrified in a way that resembles a nervous breakdown or PTSD episode.
- Underestimating Badassery: Though the Hound demonstrated its prowess in "Refuge", Ruby and Blake had no idea it even existed until it attacks them. They try treating it like it's just another Grimm, but the fight unfolds exactly the same way it did against Yang's team; Ruby is therefore captured and knocked unconscious just as fast as Oscar was. The Hound then abandons her upon realising it's captured the wrong girl.
- Worf Had the Flu:
- Part of what makes the Hound so dangerous is its adaptability, perceptiveness and strategic mind. However, once it's blasted by Ruby's silver eyes, it mentally shuts down, becoming hyperfocused on Penny while repeating its instructions to take her like a Madness Mantra. It therefore becomes oblivious to Willow and Whitley maneuvering a statue to crush it.
- Penny was already injured from the crash, and the hacking renders her incapable of independent thought and cuts her off from the Maiden powers. As such, all she's able to do is block the Hound's arms and is unable to adapt to the Hound growing a third one and then repeatedly bashing her against the ground until she falls unconscious.
- You Are Better Than You Think You Are: Ruby has fallen into a Heroic BSoD, given the scale of the disaster Atlas is facing, while also dealing with several criticisms of her leadership decisions. Blake tells her that what she admires most about Ruby is that she always tries even when she doesn't know what to do; by reassuring her that she values Ruby's leadership, Blake helps Ruby get over her despair.
"Take! The! Girl!"
