Fed vs New
The Federal Army and New Republic fight, and the Reds and Blues try to take out the Space Pirates' radio jammer.
Tropes
- Bittersweet Ending: The Reds and Blues succeed in exposing Felix and Locus to the Federal Army and New Republic, but by the time the fighting stops dozens of soldiers on both sides have been killed, Locus and Felix get away, and Tucker and Wash were both seriously injured in the battle. The episode ends on a Cliffhanger with Tucker passing out as Kimball tries to radio them, asking where they are.
- Chekhov's Gun: The helmet cams that were last seen in "Training Daze" come back to play a major role here, being used to expose Felix and Locus to the two armies.
- Deadly Dodging: When the shooting between the two armies begins, the lieutenants all duck, causing the Fed soldiers surrounding them to accidentally open fire on each other, killing themselves.
- Engineered Public Confession: Tucker goads Felix into some Evil Gloating, all while taping it with his helmet-cam. Then, Church transmits the recording to the capital after the others take out the jammer.
- Et Tu, Brute?: When the video of Felix's confession goes out across the capital, Kimball and Doyle are both clearly hurt seeing that their mercenaries, who they thought they could trust, have been manipulating them for years.Felix: (recording) Vanessa? Oh, I just made up some story about how you all died heroically! You should've seen it man, I gave the performance of a fucking lifetime! Got all broken up, threw in a few dramatic pauses, and they just ate it up.
Kimball: (muttering) You son of a bitch...
Felix: (recording) The entire reason you sim-troopers were allowed to live this long, it's because you're all losers! Locus and I figured we'd let you rack up the casualty count, then kill you after a few weeks.
Doyle: Locus...? - Know When to Fold 'Em: After the aforementioned Engineered Public Confession, Locus decides to “follow protocol” and move out.
- Spanner in the Works: As Wash notes, the Mercs forgot to take into account "The genius, and the dog." AKA, Dr. Grey installing Freckles into Caboose's rifle, catching the Space Pirates off-guard.
- Spotting the Thread:
- During the face off between the Feds and Rebels before the shootout begins, Kimball notices how Doyle claims the New Republic apparently destroyed a Fed outpost and killed the Reds and Blues, even though Felix previously stated the Feds killed the Reds and Blues after they saved their friends. But it is subverted since before she can properly put two and two together and realize Felix lied, one of the Pirates snipes a New Republic soldier, thus starting the shootout between the two armies.
- On a lesser note, Felix notices that there are more guards than assigned to patrol the transmitter, and quickly figures it's Carolina using her camouflage equipment.
- Throw the Dog a Bone: Lopez gets his head shot off his body once again during the fight with the pirates at the radio jammer. But instead of being rendered immobile again he realizes he can now control his body remotely even without a head and easily knocks out the pirate with one punch before reattaching his head.Lopez: Pues... eso salio mejor de lo esperado. [Well... that worked out better than expected.]
- Villain: Exit, Stage Left: After being exposed, the Mercs use a teleportation-grenade to leave.
- We Will Meet Again: Despite him and Felix failing their mission, Locus takes a moment to assure the Reds and Blues "this is not over" before he and Felix teleport away.
- Wham Line: From Tucker, following the reveal that Epsilon is with him instead of Carolina.Felix: What the... what the fuck is this?
Tucker: Oh this is Church. He's the AI that helps me run my equipment.
Felix: What equipment...?
Tucker: (tauntingly) My helmet cam. - Wham Shot: Following Tucker's Wham Line, we cut to a P.O.V. Cam of his helmet where we see that he is indeed recording Felix, with a line of text reading "EPSILON UNIT CAPTURING FOOTAGE".Epsilon: Oh-ho! Someone just got fucking busted.
