The Symphony Upon the Ship
As Yor escorts the Gretchers to a storage area on the ship so they can get on a lifeboat and then get picked up by their rendezvous, they are nearly spotted by the two civil servants on their way to the casino. As they make their way to the storage area, the assassin leader recognizes them and begins stalking them. While Loid and Anya make their way to an upper deck for the fireworks show, Yor detours the group's escape route when thinking anyone she sees may be an enemy assassin, and since she can't fight them without attracting attention, she leads the group to the top deck. As they make their way to the top of the ship, they are startled by the fireworks show, and a sniper takes a shot that grazes Yor's arm, and the other assassins make their appearance. As the sniper lines up another shot, the Director kills him and provides cover fire for Yor as she's rushed by the enemy assassins.
Under the director's cover fire, Yor orders the Gretchers down a hatch, where Zeb takes several pistol rounds to the back, saving Olka and Gram, but leaving him in pain despite the bulletproof vest. Once the Gretchers are safely under cover, Yor kills the assassins while the fireworks show is underway, which Loid and Anya enjoy, while the civil servants win and lose in the casino. Once the sniper rifle runs out of ammunition, the Director gets down from his observation post and helps Yor by killing some of the assassins and cleans up the corpses and blood.
Once the fireworks show ends, Yor tells the assassin leader and his surviving accomplices to walk away before anyone else gets killed, only for the assassin to tell her that they already received a down payment for the hit. As he and the Director debate about their ideals, a katana-wielding assassin knocks the Director unconscious, and after a series of unrelenting attacks, the swordsman disarms Yor and forces her into submission. The assassin leader offers Yor a share of the prize money if she lets them kill the Gretchers, but she refuses, and as she's at the mercy of the swordsman, she questions why she's still an assassin, if getting noticeably injured means abandoning Anya and Loid, whom she believes would be better off without her, and doesn't need the money to take of Yuri.
However, when she remembers Olka saying that she quit organized crime to lead a quiet life where she could raise Gram in peace, she becomes determined to keep them alive. As she realizes that even if she had to leave Loid and Anya behind, she would do what she could to keep them safe, even if they were not a family anymore, and would be happy that she died keeping them safe if she ever got killed during a mission. Yor breaks the tip of the swordsman's katana, and gets up to finish the fight one way or the other.
Sis's Herb Tea
As Yuri and the captain chase a suspect at the same time the Forgers are on the Lorelei, Yuri collapses, and the captain takes him home where he's surprised that the usually Made of Iron Yuri suddenly catches a cold, which Yuri blames on being so far from Yor. As Yuri sleeps he remembers a time when he and Yor were children and he got sick. Yor nursed him back to health, by applying home remedies and going into the forest to forage for medicinal herbs, where she tells Yuri she got stung by bees when she got the honey needed for the tea she wanted to make for him. Seeing her do this, Yuri promises to grow up to be strong so he can protect his sister. After he drinks the, very questionable, tea he says that he doesn't feel the effects of the cold anymore. When Yuri wakes up, the captain serves him a cup of herbal tea, and when Yuri drinks it, he excitedly proclaims he's ready for action, only for the captain to order him to keep resting.
The Symphony Upon the Ship
- Bare-Handed Blade Block: When Yor has her Heroic Second Wind, she grabs the sword pointed at her and breaks the blade with her bleeding hand.
- Bathos: After the Swordsman comes close to striking Yor with his sword, she has an Imagine Spot of her having to explain her new "haircut" to her family.
- Bowdlerise: Unlike other instances of the show, this episode averts this. Yor killing the assassins clearly shows splatters of bright red blood and even some close-ups of her stabbing her targets. The enemy assassins also make it no secret they intend to kill the baby, too (as previous episodes made it more ambiguous).
- Cacophony Cover Up: Thanks to the extravagant fireworks show the cruise is holding, Yor and the Director are able to go all out with eradicating the assassins without fear of being exposed by the passengers.
- Cliffhanger: Yor gets her Heroic Second Wind and faces off against the swordsman, determined to help the Gretchers escape, or die trying.
- Cold Sniper: One of the assassins takes a position on a crow's nest and takes a shot at the group, and the shot grazes Yor's upper arm.
- Continuity Nod: Yor's Acquired Poison Immunity helps her pass through one assassin's Poison Gas attack.
- Contrast Montage: During the ambush, Yor killing the enemy assassins is contrasted with Loid and Anya enjoying the fireworks show with the rest of the passengers, and the two bona fide civil servants winning and losing in the ship's casino.
- Cowardly Lion: As the Gretchers make a run for safety as the Director provides covering fire from a rifle he commandeered from a sniper he killed, an enemy assassin empties a pistol magazine on Gretchers. Zeb, who was shown to be the most scared in the group, jumps on top of Olka and Gram, shielding them as he carries them down a hatch and slams it shut when they're safely inside. As he lies on the floor Olka checks on him, and Zeb complains that the Bulletproof Vest he wore did nothing to stop the pain.
- Death Montage: Several assassins get a few seconds to introduce themselves before it cuts to them on the floor at death's door.
- Elite Mook: While Yor and the Director had no problem killing the other assassins, the swordsman knocks the Director unconscious and beats Yor into submission, and is in a position where he could easily kill her.
- Friendly Sniper: When the sniper lines up a headshot on Yor, the Director kills him, and commandeers the rifle, providing cover fire for Yor and the Gretchers.
- Funny Background Event: After the sniper rifle runs out of ammo, the Director climbs down from the crow's nest, and as Yor kills the assassins, the director is seen following close by with a broom, sweeping the corpses into the sea.
- Guns Are Useless: Several enemy assassins use handguns during the ambush, none of them hit her, and she and the Director kill them with ease. Subverted with the Director who manages to shoot several assassins, both with the rifle he took from the sniper, and with his own silenced pistol.
- Heroic Second Wind: Yor contemplates letting the swordsman kill her since Yuri doesn't need her anymore, and Loid and Anya would be better off without her. When she remembers Olka saying she wants to lead a quiet life to raise Gram in peace, Yor breaks the tip of the swordsman's katana and declares that she's ready to leave her family if it means they'll be safe, and is willing to die protecting them from harm. She gets up and gets ready to face off against the swordsman again.
- Kicking Ass in All Her Finery: Yor battles the baddies wearing a gala dress and high heels.
- Knife Fight: Several enemy assassins use knives to fight Yor, but she's faster and uses her daggers to quickly dispatch them.
- Nightmare Face: The Four-Eyed Assassin gives a sadistic grin when he identifies his targets as they navigate the cruise.
- No-Holds-Barred Beatdown: Yor and her superior go through a brutal beatdown as they take down the Carnival of Killers while sustaining serious injuries throughout each of their battles.
- "Not So Different" Remark: The assassin leader tells Yor that the both of them kill to make a living, and even Yor acknowledges that she became an assassin to earn money to raise Yuri.
- Old Master: The Director shows he's a good shot both with a sniper rifle and a silenced pistol, and helps take out Yor some of the assassins. The Swordsman only knocks him out due to the element of surprise, and due to the Swordman's skill and strength as he also battered Yor into submission.
- Only in It for the Money: The assassin leader tells the Director that instead of killing for some lofty ideal, they should just kill in order to earn a living, which the Director refutes as just pure Greed.
- Rapid-Fire Fisticuffs: Yor kills one of the assassins by rapidly punching his torso.
- Shout-Out: The episode revolves around Yor trying to keep her clients safe, while fighting a large group of Professional Killers on the highest level of the ship, with the occasional comedic interlude, and one of the surviving assassins even has a slight resemblance to John McLane.
- Skewed Priorities: Yor, Yor, Yor...
- At one point, Yor worries the swordsman will cut off some of her hair, which she'll have to explain to Loid as to the new haircut she got during the cruise.
- When Yor is hit unconscious by the Swordsman who's attempting to kill her for good, what Yor worries first about her death are... Loid's shirts that are still at the dry cleaners, and the books she checked out for Anya at the library. To be fair about this one, there's a good chance she had a concussion.
- Taking the Bullet: Just before an assassin can kill Olka and her baby, Zeb uses his body as a human shield to take the bullets before taking them down the hatch. Thankfully he was wearing a Bulletproof Vest.
- We Can Rule Together: The Four-Eyed Leader offers Yor to join him given their shared profession.
- Wingding Eyes: Yor gets stars in her eyes after the Swordsman knocks her against a metal crate.
Sis's Herb Tea
- Amusing Injuries: Yor laughs about getting stung by bees when she reaches into the hive to get the honey needed for the herbal tea.
- Breather Episode: Compared to the action-packed "The Symphony upon the Ship," "Sis's Herbal Tea" is a simple heartwarming story of the Briars' past.
- Flashback: While sick on the couch, Yuri remembers when his youth and how his sister did everything in her power to cure his cold.
- Gratuitous Japanese: Romanized Japanese shows up in the package of the herbal tea the Lieutenant buys for Yuri: Kuma-san Kaze-you Herb Tea ("Mr. Bear Herbal Tea for Colds")
- Lethal Chef: Subverted. While the herbal tea Yor made for Yuri tasted awful, an herbal tea implied to be based on a similar recipe and made by the First Lieutenant at Present Day tastes just as awful, indicating the major cause of the taste is the recipe itself.
- Little Miss Badass: Yor not only manages to trek a nearby mountain for the ingredients needed to make an herbal tea, but she manages to kill a boar and bring it home.
- Mood Whiplash: The Briar siblings have a tender moment with Yuri promising to grow up strong so his sister can live an easier life to repay her for her kindness. And then he has some of her homemade tea.
