When the Emperor arrives to oversee progress at Mount Tantiss, Omega and Crosshair have to make their escape.
Tropes:
- Always a Bigger Fish: Double subverted. As they flee through the wilds, Omega and Crosshair run into some of the local wildlife in the form of a Dylax, which is mobbed by the lurca hounds... only for it to get a second wind and start swatting them down.
- Ambition Is Evil: As he mentions to Palpatine, Hemlock aspires to rise to the position of science minister, which would make him chief scientist for the entire Empire's Imperial Science Corps. Palpatine implies that if Hemlock can see Project Necromancer to fruition, the job is as good as his. He’s careful to simply imply as much, rather than promise it outright, to keep Hemlock motivated.
- Androcles' Lion: Contrary to Doctor Hemlock's predictions, Batcher has survived in the wilds outside Mount Tantiss despite being domesticated, and shows up to save Omega from the TK Stormtroopers.
- Bittersweet Ending: Omega and Crosshair successfully escape from Mount Tantiss, but because Omega wasn't able to destroy her blood sample before it could be tested, Hemlock and Emerie discover that she has the highest M-count of any clone tested; they're free, but Hemlock is now even more motivated to hunt her down.
- Bulletproof Human Shield: Crosshair uses one of the TK Stormtrooper guards as a shield to block the other's stun blasts.
- Call-Back: Palpatine's attitude towards Hemlock's work echoes his remarks about The Dark Side to Anakin Skywalker in Revenge of the Sith; in both cases, Palpatine speaks positively of forces that many would regard as crimes against nature, framing the use of such forces as a necessity and appealing to a driving force in the other person's life to make his case (Anakin's desire to save Padme, Hemlock's ego). Unsurprisingly, Palpatine meets a lot less pushback from the cold-blooded Hemlock than he ever did from the conflicted Anakin.
- Call-Forward: Palpatine’s primary project on Mount Tantiss is confirmed to be the mysterious Project Necromancer, mentioned in The Mandalorian episode "The Spies" to be a mission being undertaken by Commandant Brendol Hux’s faction of the Imperial Remnant.
- Can't Kill You, Still Need You: Hemlock orders Omega and Crosshair shot down when they steal the Rho-class transport shuttle that was sent to retrieve them, but reluctantly rescinds the order when Emerie reveals that Omega's DNA is the key to making Project Necromancer work.
- Chekhov's Gun:
- The tunnels used to release the lurca hounds from their cells, with Batcher's pen remaining empty since he escaped, serve as an escape route for Omega and Crosshair.
- Shuttle 135, the crashed Nu-class attack/transport shuttle from "Confined", doesn't provide the assistance Omega was hoping it would, but does prove useful as a trap.
- Doomed by Canon: Mercifully, anyone who was watching The Mandalorian knows Project Necromancer isn't going to provide the results the Emperor is really hoping for any time soon, as it's still running into problems during the New Republic's time. Even by the end of the Sequel Trilogy, while they do have clones capable of using the Force, none of them are stable.
- Even Evil Has Standards: Alluded to when Palpatine says that many, even within the Empire, would regard the results of Hemlock's experiments to be "abominations" (with good reason, judging from the slither vines in the previous episode).
- Eye Lights Out: One of the Commandos disabled by Crosshair has his blue visor go black.
- Fiction 500: Palpatine promises that Hemlock will have a blank check going forward in regards to funding Project Necromancer and the Advanced Science Division.
- For Your Own Good: Emerie once again tries saying this to Omega, but she doesn't get through the whole sentence before Crosshair zaps her. Unfortunately, she still triggers an alert before she goes down.
- Indy Ploy: Omega has no real plan for getting herself and Crosshair out of Mount Tantiss over than "improvise and hope". In her defense, the opportunity to escape was sprung on her unexpectedly.
- I Want Them Alive!: Emerie manages to successfully talk Hemlock into not shooting down Omega and Crosshair, but he makes it absolutely clear he wants Omega back.
- Nothing Is Scarier: The Emperor sees the best result of Project Necromancer, but the audience does not.
- O.O.C. Is Serious Business: From her first appearance, Emerie has been soft-spoken and deferential towards Hemlock, so when she raises her voice and tells him not to shoot down Omega and Crosshair, it's clear that she has a very good reason to do so, as well as revealing perhaps a little too much of her own emotional investment. Hemlock himself, normally placid, is very agitated after learning of the escape and is barely able to keep his temper when he realizes they must take Omega alive.
- Out of Focus: As in the season premiere, Hunter, Wrecker, and Echo don't appear, and the episode focuses almost entirely on Omega and Crosshair.
- Pet the Dog: Mistaking Omega's odd behavior around the lab (actually an attempt to destroy her own blood sample before it can be tested) for illness, Emerie gives her the day off.
- Race Against the Clock: The machine periodically scanning clone blood samples represent the amount of time Omega has to escape the facility by whatever means. Nala Se warns her about this as Emerie is supervising the scans. Omega and Crosshair successfully escape, but mostly because Hemlock called off the attack after Emerie discovers and shows the positive M-Count in Omega's blood.
- Red and Black and Evil All Over: The main room where the Project Necromancer results are kept is lit in this style, with black floors inlaid with glowing red lines.
- Refuge in Audacity:
- Crosshair distracts the TK Stormtrooper guards outside his cell by straight-up ordering them to let him out and hand over their weapons. The guards are so amused by Crosshair's gall that they don't notice Omega opening the cell door, allowing Crosshair to overpower and stun them.
- When they learn that only the Emperor's own shuttle hasn't been locked down during his visit, Omega suggests that she and Crosshair steal it to escape, but Crosshair shoots the idea down, as the ship would be too well-guarded to capture.
- Nala Se surreptitiously gives Omega her tablet and tells her to use it to escape, then claims to Hemlock's face that she couldn't have been involved, as she's spent the Emperor's entire visit right next to him. Hemlock can't prove anything, but he's not amused and has Nala Se imprisoned.
- The Reveal:
- Hemlock has been rounding up clones to test their M (midichlorian) counts for use in "Project Necromancer", with Crosshair already ruled out.
- The reason why Nala Se has spent months secretly discarding Omega's blood samples is because she is a clone that has the positive count needed for the project. Because neither of them had the chance to get rid of the most recent sample before Omega and Crosshair escaped, Hemlock now knows how valuable the former truly is.
- Project Necromancer is producing an army of Force-empowered abominations in service to the Empire. Palpatine describing it as the way to secure the future of the Empire strongly implies the endgame is his own resurrection in the event of his demise, as was seen to have come to quasi-fruition in The Rise of Skywalker.
- Snark-to-Snark Combat: Crosshair and Omega trade a few sarcastic remarks about the validity of her escape plan (or lack thereof).
- Tempting Fate: As he's leaving, Palpatine emphasizes the importance of Mount Tantiss and the work there being kept a secret, unaware that Omega and Crosshair are currently in the midst of an ultimately successful escape attempt (though they only know the barest details of Hemlock's work, not even knowing the name of Project Necromancer).
- Thou Shalt Not Kill: Despite everything he has done, and that's been done to him, Crosshair only shoots the TK Stormtroopers and Emerie with the stun setting. Omega is a bit less careful in firing at the TK troopers after hijacking their Rho-class transport shuttle, though it's not clear if any of them were killed.
- The Unreveal: Whatever is in the big container Doctor Hemlock shows Palpatine, the most successful of Project Necromancer's results to date, the viewer doesn't get to see it.
- Wham Shot: Omega's blood samples maintain a very high M count when mixed with another sample, much more than Crosshair or the other Clones imprisoned on Mount Tantiss.
- Worf Had the Flu: His time in Mount Tantiss and his shaking hands means Crosshair's aim is severely off. Good thing Imperial troops are about as accurate as usual. And Crosshair's considerable skill, particularly in engaging close-range snap targets, somewhat compensates for his disadvantage.
- The X of Y: Shadows of Tantiss.
- You Have GOT to Be Kidding Me!: Crosshair's response to hearing that Omega's breakout plan is basically to improvise and hope for the best is to ask if the whole thing is a joke. His incredulity is redoubled when he finds out that the escape plan is being carried out while the Emperor is visiting (in fairness to Omega, she only knew that there was a special visitor, not who it was).
