Witch
"So just to be clear, none of you have a question for me?"
Written by Eddy Rivas
Directed by Paula Decanini
Directed by Paula Decanini
Oscar: What are you going to do?
Hazel: What Gretchen would have done. And that starts with getting you away from here. Both of you.
Hazel: What Gretchen would have done. And that starts with getting you away from here. Both of you.
While the Ace-Ops deal with the Grimm, Yang's team finally confronts Salem in her whale.
Tropes in this episode include:
- Alien Blood: Salem fights in a very alien way, being able to contort and stretch her limbs in a similar way to the Grimm and completely unlike the human she used to be. To emphasize this inhumanity, every time she's damaged enough to bleed or be torn apart, her body instead exudes the same reddish-black ooze of the Grimm. The ooze also reforms as she regenerates back to full health as if she's now made from the same substance as the Grimm instead of having a normal human body.
- Attack! Attack! Attack!: Salem's fighting strategy in a nutshell. Due to her immortality and regeneration she doesn't even bother trying to avoid or block attacks from Yang or Hazel. What makes it even more devastating is that she can attack even while she is regenerating, making her virtually unstoppable.
- The Atoner: Hazel attacks Salem to give Oscar and his rescuers time to escape, causing her to observe he must have given up his vengeance. He retorts that he's decided to do what Gretchen would have wanted. So, he fights Salem to a stand-still before setting them both on fire, to give the others a chance to escape.
- Bathos: A dramatic moment, of Marrow in the midst of a hellish battle quietly praying for Jaune's success, is made comical by also revealing that Marrow still thinks Jaune's name is Juan.
- Bear Hug: When the gang is finally reunited with Oscar, Jaune excitedly calls out to him before running over, lifting him up and pulling him into big hug. He tightens his embrace so much that the still-injured Oscar winces in pain before giving in to the hug.
- Blow You Away: During her battle with Hazel, Salem uses wind magic to form a tornado beneath her as a means of flight. Hazel also uses wind dust to create a similar tornado, to launch himself at her.
- Bloody Horror: During their fight, Hazel destroys Salem's face completely, and the camera zooms in for close-ups as her face regenerates through all the gore back to full health. When he whales into her torso, he flattens her, splaying her Grimm-like insides all over the ground next to her. It doesn't even slow her down; she continues fighting even while regenerating.
- Burn the Witch!: After spending the fight using magic, Salem is brought to a halt by Hazel grabbing her tight. He then immolates them both by crushing Fire Dust between his teeth, thereby ending the episode with a witch burning scene.
- But for Me, It Was Tuesday: Yang angrily calls out Salem for failing to handle one bad thing happening in her life as a comparison to how much Salem has taken away from her. Salem simply asks her to elaborate on who she took from Yang in a near-bored tone, indicating she has no interest in the people she's killed or the pain of their surviving relatives. Subverted when Yang reveals that it was her mother, Summer Rose; Salem's demeanour changes to delight at the mention of that particular name.
- Call-Back:
- In their first on-screen interaction, Ironwood challenged Ozpin's way of doing things by asking if Ozpin truly expects his academy students to fight a war. Ozpin revealed he was hoping they wouldn't have to. In this episode, it's revealed that Ironwood is putting his own academy students on the front line, including Team FNKI, to hold the space they need to try and bomb Salem's giant whale Grimm.
- Marrow refers to Jaune as "Juan"; he didn't know how to pronounce Jaune's name in Volume 7's "Pomp and Circumstance", but Jaune just went with it instead of correcting him.
- When Jinn is summoned and realizes no-one wants to ask her any questions, she's a little indignant, but mostly amused by the realization they don't actually want her for anything at all. In Volume 6, Jinn warned Ruby she'd never permit anyone to use her without a question again, but did enjoy the cleverness of Ruby's time-freeze plan.
- Yang yells at Salem because of all the death Salem has caused and how much Salem has taken from her. An indifferent Salem asks her to elaborate on exactly who she was supposed to have taken from Yang. It echoes Volume 5's battle at Haven, where Jaune yelled at Cinder for all the hurt and suffering she had caused, and Cinder simply asked him who he was.
- The final scene closes with Oscar creating a green orb around his body which crackles with green and gold lightning, while unleashing a stream of gold-tinged white light that whites-out the scene. Ozpin did the same thing in his Volume 3 fight with Cinder: he created the green orb, launched himself at Cinder and then summoned the gold-tinged lightning and white light as he charged her, whiting out the scene to end it.
- Child Soldiers: The Academy students are drafted to the military effort, assigned to protect the landing zone of the bomb from the Grimm. Among the recruits are Team FNKI. Marrow is alarmed by this because they're just kids to him.
- Cliffhanger: At the end of the episode, Oscar summons a blinding flash of green and gold magic from his cane that lights up the entire area and surrounds himself, Hazel, and Salem.
- Cold-Blooded Torture: After learning the Lamp has been stolen, Salem targets Emerald for the information. She pins her to the wall and summons her magic, which crackles with lightning, holding it close to Emerald's face. She looks forward to her time alone with Emerald, implying that she intends to enjoy torturing her. She's stopped by Hazel punching her.
- Conveniently Timed Distraction: As Emerald and "Hazel" (Oscar in disguise) try to leave the whale, they run into Salem who asks "Hazel" if he got the information out of Oscar/Ozpin. "Hazel" doesn't know how to respond, but luckily, the Seer alerts Salem that intruders are in the whale and she tells them to deal with the intruders while she goes to check up on the Lamp.
- Defiant to the End:
- Yang knows she's doomed when Salem has them all pinned, and decides to tell Salem exactly what she thinks of her, dismissing Salem's backstory as "something bad happened to you once upon a time" and essentially calling her feud with Ozma childish and petty.
- Hazel knows full well that he can't kill Salem, but he still decides to fight her so that Oscar and his rescuers have time to escape. When Salem mocks his attempts, he defiantly claims he's doing what his sister would have done.
- Dramatic Irony: Salem targets Emerald and Oscar because she wants to know who has stolen the Lamp. However, the heroes and Emerald don't actually know why the Lamp is missing. None of them know that Neo was last seen sneaking up to the Lamp just before the alarms went off.
- Evil Cannot Comprehend Good: While Salem understands the power of hope to keep people going even against terrible odds, she doesn't understand Ozma's attachment to this second form of humanity. She can't understand why he diminished his own abilities to help them, and she can't understand why he keeps coming back instead of giving up the fight to save a ruined world.
- Five-Second Foreshadowing:
- As Hazel, Oscar, and Emerald are leaving the room with the Lamp, Jinn's eyes drift toward the right before she starts disappearing. It isn't long before Neo is revealed to have camouflaged herself against the back wall, from the same direction Jinn was glancing at.
- When Hazel and Emerald run into Salem, Hazel's body language is off and he seems more frightened and unsure than he should be. When they run into Yang's rescue party a short time later, he's revealed to be an illusion that's protecting Oscar from discovery.
- Grievous Harm with a Body: When Oscar blasts Salem with a bit of offensive magic in an attempt to free Emerald and Yang from her grasp, Salem responds by tossing Yang at Oscar, knocking them both to the ground and allowing her to restrain the heroes with her Summon Magic.
- Heel–Face Turn: When the Relic of Knowledge works exactly as Oscar said it would, Emerald and Hazel realize that Ozpin has been telling the truth about Salem. Now understanding just how bad the situation is, they turn on Salem and rescue Oscar.
- Held Gaze: When Hazel decides to fight Salem to give Oscar and his rescuers a chance to escape, he shares a long, tender look with Emerald before telling her to go and leaving.
- Helmets Are Hardly Heroic: The squad chosen to hold the bomb's landing zone consists of helmeted soldiers led by unarmored military Huntsmen. Team FNKI are trainee Huntsmen; they wear armor like soldiers, but are un-helmeted like Huntsmen. It helps distinguish the heroes from the generic Red Shirts while emphasizing they're still only student Huntsmen.
- Heroic RRoD: Although Yang's team charged into the Monstra to rescue Oscar, they've been on the move almost non-stop for at a few days. They're at their limits, so as they travel through the whale, they begin to struggle to maintain their Auras and keep their Semblances active. Ren's Aura eventually shatters and Jaune's is placed repeatedly under stress, which is a sign it's close to collapse.
- Heroic Sacrifice: Hazel fights Salem to buy time for the others to escape. However, Oscar realizes he'll have to do something magical or even Hazel won't be able to hold her off long enough for them to be free of her. When Hazel captures Salem in a body hug, he immolates both of them so that Oscar has the time he needs to activate his magic.
- Hidden in Plain Sight:
- After Emerald, Hazel, and Oscar leave the Lamp's chamber, it's revealed that Neo was in the room all along, using her Semblance to make her look like she was just part of the wall and fully blended in with her environment.
- To get Oscar out of the whale, Emerald walks him through corridors disguised as Hazel. When confronted by Salem, Oscar's nervous body language makes Salem suspicious, but she never sees through the illusion. She's disgusted with Emerald once she realizes the Semblance fooled even her.
- Hint Dropping: Jinn's "So, none of you have a question for me?" was an attempt to tell Hazel, Emerald and Oscar that they were not alone in the room. However, she is so vague about it that they don't catch on.
- Kill It with Fire: During their fight, it doesn't matter what Hazel does to Salem, she shrugs it off or regenerates with barely any sign of pain or concern. However, when Hazel finally pins her in a body hug and sets them both on fire, she begins to scream and squirm, indicating that even she's not prepared to deal with being burned alive.
- Lightning Bruiser: Despite her delicate frame and the fact she rarely engages in fighting, Salem is more dangerous than she appears. She can use both Grimm and magical abilities to give herself inhuman speed, make herself physically stronger than expected and her immortality allows her to keep fighting or come back from any attack.
- Lovecraftian Superpower: Salem is able to use Grimm-like abilities to augment her magical abilities. She can stretch her arms, summon Grimm hands from portals to restrain others, and fire webs of black liquid to drag Yang towards her. When she moves at inhuman speeds, it's not by moving her body; she leans at a strange angle before zooming across the ground on a plume of black smoke. Her regeneration also seems to have become linked to this, as injuries reveal her body contains a mass of black ooze that reforms her body when regenerating.
- No-Sell: Salem takes an entire barrage of punches from Yang without even flinching, and is merely inconvenienced when Yang detonates at least half a dozen sticky bombs to destroy the upper half of her body. Hazel's assault on her fares slightly better, but she still effectively shrugs off everything he throws at her, including caving her face in.
- Rubber Man: When Emerald tries to flee from Salem, Salem stretches out her arms from the shoulders to grab Emerald and then pull her body forward to catch up.
- So Much for Stealth: Yang, Jaune, and Ren start off their infiltration of the whale by using Ren's masking abilities to avoid detection. However, his Semblance runs out of juice right next to a Seer, forcing them to go loud.
- Stalker Shot: When Hazel takes Oscar to the Relic of Knowledge, he thinks they're alone until Emerald demands to know what they're doing. After they communicate with Jinn and decide what they're going to do, they leave the chamber. In the shadows, Neo has witnessed everything while blending into the environment with her Semblance. Jinn is implied to have been aware of her, but no-one else was.
- Stepford Smiler: When Yang tries to make light of Ren and Jaune appearing to be friends again after their previous falling out, Ren informs her that she doesn't need to cover up her fears with jokes all the time. She simply smiles and states she's relieved to not be the only one who's scared.
- Stranger in a Familiar Land: Oscar and Ozpin talk a bit about a fairy tale called The Girl Who Fell Through the World. It's a story about a girl who has amazing adventures but, after she returns home, is very lonely and sad. Ozpin states that it's because she's not the same girl anymore. Oscar admits he could never understand why she'd be so lonely and sad when she's had such an adventure, but he now understands how she felt.
- Super-Strength: Salem's battle with the heroes and Hazel shows that she is far stronger than her lithe physique suggests, casually tossing them about like ragdolls. At one point, she grabs Hazel by the back of his head and repeatedly slams his face into the ground.
- Tears of Fear: Salem doesn't believe Emerald when she denies knowing what happened to the Lamp. When Salem makes it clear she's going to go ahead with the torture and enjoy it, Emerald starts crying in terror.
- Took a Level in Badass:
- Emerald is now strong enough to affect multiple people with her Semblance, including Salem, without getting a headache. When Salem realises she was tricked she lampshades that Emerald has indeed been honing her abilities.
- Oscar appears to now have full control of Ozma's magic. He strikes Salem with streams of green magic, is able to summon the full barrier that Ozpin produced in Volume 3, and can also summon an ability that releases gold lightning and whites out the screen, something else that Ozpin was strongly implied to have activated during his fight with Cinder.
- Unskilled, but Strong: The fight with Hazel reveals that Salem doesn't appear to have any combat skills. She's relies on her Grimm abilities and magic to fight while relying on her regeneration to compensate for the attacks she can't stop striking her. However, she has so many abilities, along with inhuman speed, strength and immortality, she can do a great deal of damage to opponents; at her worst, she can simply outlast any strong and skilled fighter due to her immortality.
- What the Hell, Hero?: Marrow calls out Winter for continuing with her plans to drop the bomb, despite Jaune, Ren, Yang and Oscar still being inside the whale. He asks what she'd do if Weiss was inside, and what she'll tell her sister if she gives the order to kill Weiss's friends. Winter simply tells him that she would tell her sister what she'd done and she'll do it because it's her duty.
- You Killed My Mother: While Yang rants about Salem causing endless death because something bad once happened to her, she points out that Salem killed her stepmother Summer. Unfortunately for Yang, the mere mention of Summer's name makes Salem smug and amused.
"Do it."
