The new Justice Society goes on a mission to capture the Gambler, but things quickly go south.
Tropes:
- Acting Unnatural: Paula and Crusher give Artemis a lame excuse about going on a date in the city, which even she finds bizarre since they never go on dates.
- Arch-Enemy: The Gambler was Dr. Mid-Nite's arch-enemy, so when the Gambler hacks into Empire Enterprises, Chuck immediately recognizes the activity and reveals it to Beth.
- Armor-Piercing Question: Rick to Courtney: "If Pat asks for your staff back, are you giving it to him?"
- Arrow Catch: Wildcat catches one of Tigress's arrows.
- Baddie Flattery: After being a jerk for most of the brawl, Sportsmaster compliments Stargirl's moves and Hourman's feats of strength.
- Battle Couple: Sportsmaster and Tigress work well as a team, managing to overpower Stargirl together.
- Beneath Notice: Beth talks to Chuck heedless of the fact that people around her might be listening because no one pays attention to her.
- Big Damn Heroes: S.T.R.I.P.E. flies in just as Sportsmaster and Tigress decide to stick around after the mission to eliminate the heroes, convincing them to retreat.
- Blood from the Mouth: Hourman bleeds from the mouth after getting hit with several baseballs by Sportsmaster.
- Blood Knight: Both Sportsmaster and Tigress are chafing under the act of being normal people, and are ecstatic when Icicle gives them a mission. When the heroes show up, they're enjoying themselves thoroughly as they fight them.
- Cat Scare: As the heroes sneak into Empire Enterprises, Sharpe hears something making a racket and pulls out his pistol to investigate. When he leaves the room, he finds his cat Juniper rolling around on his mini-bar, revealing he's performing the hack from home and isn't the one in the building.
- Combat Pragmatist: Since Beth isn't a fighter, she contributes by grabbing a fire extinguisher and spraying Tigress when she's about to kill Wildcat.
- Comically Missing the Point: Pat getting Courtney to vent about her teammates, not realizing she's perfectly describing herself from his perspective as well.
- Continuity Nod: The team shot after S.T.R.I.P.E. arrives is the same one from the final episode of Crisis on Infinite Earths (2019).
- Curb Stomp Cushion: While two veteran, adult, hero-killing warriors are obviously going to come out victorious against four teenagers with no training (and one with no combat capabilities whatsoever), the kids are surprisingly able to hold their own for a while, and survive long enough for S.T.R.I.P.E. to arrive and ward them off.
- Disappointed in You: Pat is clearly not happy about Courtney going behind his back by taking the JSA's equipment and recruiting three people she barely knows to be the successors of Wildcat, Dr. Mid-Nite and Hourman after he specifically told her there would be no more heroics until he said so. He is also obviously hurt that Courtney did not respect him enough to honor his wishes and orders her to retrieve the equipment she gave Yolanda, Beth, and Rick.
- Disproportionate Retribution: Crusher and Paula kill the school's football coach because he benched Artemis during practice when she punched one of her teammates. And he's actually the third coach of hers they've murdered for trivial reasons.
- Even Evil Has Loved Ones: Paula and Crusher truly care about their daughter (even if they take it to extremes), and Jordan shows true affection for his son and deceased wife.
- Even Evil Has Standards:
- Played for Laughs. Paula and Crusher may be the kind of people to kill a coach for benching their daughter, but they don't tolerate littering on school grounds, as Paula sternly orders Steven Sharpe to pick up his bag of peanuts and throw it away as he's leaving.
- Also downplayed with Crusher in his fight with Hourman. While he is willing to give Hourman a good beating, he also recognizes that Hourman is Just a Kid and offers him a chance to stand down. Tigress, on the other hand, is much more willing to go for the kill against Wildcat.
- Evil Is Petty:
- Crusher bashes the new coach's head in for benching his daughter after she slugs a teammate for a late tackle. He's the third coach in two seasons Crusher and Paula have knocked off, implicitly for similarly petty reasons.
- Sharpe litters not two feet from a trash can. Paula barks at him to pick it up.
- Fastball Special: Sportsmaster and Tigress open their attack on the new JSA this way.
- Innocently Insensitive: A waitress overhears the Mahkents talking about a birthday, and brings a complementary slice of cake to celebrate. It turns out it's the late Mrs. Mahkent's birthday, but fortunately (for her), Jordan accepts it with grace.
- Internal Reveal: Courtney tells Pat how Rex Tyler died, and the identities of the heroes she recruited.
- I Resemble That Remark!: Courtney complains about the team not listening to her and nearly getting themselves killed as Pat agrees with her. She then realizes that she's been doing the same from his perspective.
- Jerkass Has a Point: Looking aside how insensitive and disrespectful Rick was towards Pat by questioning what it was Starman saw in him and essentially calling him useless, he does have a leg to stand on when he criticizes Pat for not suspecting earlier on that the deaths of his parents were orchestrated by the Injustice Society, especially since Pat knew Rex was tailing the ISA long before he reached Blue Valley and has encountered two of the JSA's members alongside Courtney since arriving in Blue Valley himself.
- Know When to Fold 'Em: Sportsmaster and Tigress are confident they can beat the heroes, but when S.T.R.I.P.E. shows up, they decide not to push it and retreat.
- Leeroy Jenkins: Hourman and Wildcat both have a problem with this, the former more than the latter. Courtney has to rein Hourman in several times for a more subtle approach, and he immediately tries to attack Sportsmaster while Wildcat takes off after Tigress. Predictably, both teens get their asses kicked.
- Made of Indestructium: Sportsmaster attaches an exploding puck to the Cosmic Staff, which flies up to keep Courtney safe. When it falls back down, it isn't even scratched and recovers in moments.
- Mythology Gag:
- A local theater is playing "Strange Adventures", named for an old DC comics sci-fi series.
- The access code to Empire Enterprises is 1941, the debut year of the Justice Society of America.
- Non-Action Guy: Rick accuses Pat of being this. He's not wrong... right up until Pat shows up in S.T.R.I.P.E. to save them all.
- Beth also falls under this category during the team's first encounter with Sportsmaster and Tigress, though it's justified given that her goggles offer no offensive measures and she has no combat skills like her teammates.
- Oblivious Guilt Slinging: Pat instructs Courtney to retrieve the JSA gear from the others, something she is already reluctant to do, that Yolanda and Beth tell her how much getting said gear from her has made their lives better even makes her feel worse.
- Oh, Crap!: Pat has one when he learns that, instead of coming home, Courtney is hanging out with her friends from school.
- Poor Communication Kills: Rex coded his diary in case the Injustice Society got their hands on it, but this means Pat had no idea how to decode it and thus assumed Blue Valley was more benign than it actually is.
- Pragmatic Villainy: Icicle berates Sportsmaster and Tigress for killing the coach who benched their daughter because he's the third in two seasons they've killed for petty reasons and it could draw unwanted attention.
- Smoke Out: Sportsmaster uses a badminton shuttlecock that doubles as a flashbang to blind the heroes so he and Tigress can escape.
- Spanner in the Works: Project New America requires Brainwave's powers to work, making it rather inconvenient that he was put in a coma four episodes ago.
- Surprisingly Realistic Outcome:
- Sportsmaster and Tigress are two seasoned Badass Normal villains who fought the original Justice Society, while the new ones are a bunch of teenagers with virtually no training. Courtney is the only one who barely holds her own, and that's only because the Cosmic Staff is able to fight with her. Once Sportsmaster and Tigress tag-team her, she's beaten handily. Courtney admits after the fight that Pat's arrival is the only reason they're alive.
- Speaking of S.T.R.I.P.E.'s arrival, Icicle and Brainwave's powers allowed them to handle S.T.R.I.P.E., but Sportsmaster and Tigress immediately know that their arsenal is inadequate to defeat a giant, armored robot, so they immediately flee.
- Underestimating Badassery:
- Rick isn't impressed with Pat when they first talk, taking the man's inaction against the Injustice Society to be uselessness. He changes his tune when he sees S.T.R.I.P.E.
- When they learn about the Gambler, the team takes him for an easy mark and figures they can capture him without much trouble. Too late do they realize that the Gambler isn't personally at the location, but Sportsmaster and Tigress are.
- Visual Pun:
- Tigress is an Asian woman who's an overbearing sports mom to her daughter.
- The battle at Empire Enterprises pits Wildcat and Tigress, two feline-themed characters, against each other. Need we say more?
- Wham Shot:
- When Cameron blows out the candle on the slice of birthday cake, he demonstrates the same icy breath as his father.
- In-Universe example: as the team enters Empire Enterprises, they come across the corpse of a poor security guard who was Killed Offscreen by the ISA. The camera then pans over to each of the teens' shocked reactions as the reality of their situation kicks in: the criminals they're dealing with mean business, and they won't hesitate to kill anyone who stands in their way.
- What the Hell, Hero?: Pat calls out Courtney for going behind his back to recruit more heroes, saying he thought she respected him enough to include him.
- You Can't Thwart Stage One: The Justice Society are unable to stop the ISA from getting the satellite codes, since they're too distracted fighting the villains to interrupt the hack.
