With the ISA on their trail, Courtney, Pat & the team regroup to figure out their next step. Meanwhile, Rick makes a breakthrough, as the team prepares for a showdown with the ISA.
Tropes:
- Adaptation Deviation: Project: New America only affects fully-developed minds, and thus Pat is brainwashed and forced to fight Courtney. In the comics, this was the other way around; Courtney was brainwashed as Dragon King's machine only affected minds that hadn't fully developed (i.e., kids/teenagers).
- Ambiguous Situation: One in the past few episodes is seemingly clarified; it wasn't clear if Cameron knew about his father's plans and nature, as he at least saw him use his ice powers as a child, demonstrated a hint of them, and they two have been consistently close, with some discussions between them possibly indicating Cameron was aware of their plans, but on the other hand Cindy had said she was the only child of the ISA who knew the truth. This episode confirms he doesn't know, as his grandparents urge Jordan to tell him.
- Brainwashing for the Greater Good: The ISA plan to brainwash a third of the country to force them to adopt more socially conscious ideas like clean energy, universal healthcare and an end to prejudice. That the process will kill a fourth of their target audience is considered acceptable losses.
- Bullying a Dragon: Anaya calls Tigress a "wild animal" and tells both her and Sportsmaster that they're unfit parents. This gets her an arrow in the chest.
- The Bus Came Back: Isaac Bowin reappears after sitting out for ten episodes. On top of that, we finally get to see a bit of character development for him, as his mother encourages him to stand up to his bullies using violence.
- Chekhov's Gun: Tired of being out of the loop, a frustrated Mike fiddles with a power drill while his father attempts to explain the situation to him. Later, when Crusher nearly kills Pat during their fight, Mike intervenes by drilling the tool right into his side.
- Cliffhanger: The episode ends with Pat, Barbara, Justin, and the entire mid-western United States having their minds controlled and rewritten by Brainwave. The last shot before the credits roll is of a Brainwashed and Crazy S.T.R.I.P.E. unleashing a huge punch on Courtney.
- Combat Pragmatist: Anaya intends to use her violin to paralyze the heroes, allowing Sportsmaster and Tigress to effortlessly kill them. They deride this as unsporting, and she gets herself killed by badmouthing their parenting skills about a minute later.
- Coincidental Dodge: Barbara bends over to grab something while packing, narrowing avoiding an arrow to the head from Tigress. Tigress greets her once she realizes what's happened.
- Curb-Stomp Battle: Pat is no slouch but he has no chance against Sportsmaster in hand-to-hand combat. He only lasts as long as he does because the villain likes him and goes "easy" on him.
- Debate and Switch: Any possible moral dilemma of the heroes wondering if they're actually on the morally "right" side after hearing the ISA's manifesto is quashed a few seconds later when Chuck informs them that the plan will kill 25% of the people under mind control, amounting to about 25 million people (something the ISA is fully aware of, judging by The Gambler's remarks).
- Dropped a Bridge on Him: Anaya is killed off very suddenly by Tigress, with little foreshadowing to this beforehand.
- "Eureka!" Moment: With some help from Pat, Rick realizes that his father's Mustang is the key to unlocking his journal (1966, to be precise, the year it was made), revealing that Rex mapped out the tunnels beneath the town before his death.
- False Flag Operation: The Gambler engineers a communications blackout in the United States and makes it appear to be a Russian hack, so that by the time the authorities figure out the truth, Project New America will have already succeeded.
- Fighting from the Inside: In a twist, this is actually the drawback to the synaptic amplifier. Though the machine will allow Brainwave to reprogram the minds of anyone in its area of effect, it's estimated that about 25% of people will resist the reprogramming to such an extent that their brains will simply shut down under the strain, killing them.
- Gratuitous Russian: One of the screens in ISA headquarters is showing a message in Russian. The screen briefly flashes the same message but in English, and the basic meaning is the same.
- Hollywood Hacking: It really shouldn't be possible to override all public communications in the United States, let alone route the cyber attack through Moscow.
- Hypocrite: Anaya criticises Tigress for her violent nature, but in her last scene told Isaac about how his father stabbed a bully in the ear with his violin bow.
- Internal Reveal:
- Pat finds out that Crusher is Sportsmaster.
- Mike learns about the JSA, and that his own father and stepsister are part of it.
- It's Quiet… Too Quiet: A variation occurs when Beth notes that the tunnels aren't blocking comms, as they did the last two times the JSA went down there. It turns out that the Gambler anticipated their interference and was waiting to hack their comms once Beth tried hacking in.
- Just Toying with Them: Sportsmaster prefers to have fun when he fights, so when sent after Pat and Mike he throws away his weapon, gives Pat a couple of free shots, and doesn't bother to finish him off until he's fully beaten him senseless. This comes back to bite him by allowing Pat to last long enough until Mike can catch Sportsmaster off guard with a drill, which then distracts him long enough for Pat to grab a wrench and knock him out. Later, we find his wife Tigress feels mostly the same way, as neither of them accept Fiddler's practical suggestion of first disabling the heroes in order to easily kill them.
- Let's Fight Like Gentlemen: Crusher tosses aside his bat so he can beat Pat to death barehanded, and even gives Pat a few free shots to have some fun.
- Let's Split Up, Gang!: The team splits into three groups for the final battle: Barbara and Beth go to The American Dream to stop the Gambler, Courtney and Pat enter the tunnels through a river access point spacious enough to fit S.T.R.I.P.E., and Yolanda, Rick and Justin enter from the entrance through Cindy's house as a flanking maneuver.
- Mind-Control Eyes: Brainwave's control over adults is shown by their eyes occasionally flashing blue, with an electrical sound effect accompanying it.
- Mythology Gag:
- Both this episode and Part Two are named after the comic that the series is primarily adapted from.
- The look of the room that houses Dragon King's machine looks almost identical to how it looked in the comics. The climax of this also included having the heroes divided thanks to brainwashing forcing them to fight.
- Anaya says that Artemis is "a wild animal, like her mother". In the comics, Artemis eventually takes on the codename Tigress, like Paula.
- Pay Evil unto Evil: After Brainwave blames Cindy for his son's death, she quickly calls him out for being hospitalized while the rest of the Society picked up his slack. In retaliation, he tells her that Ito only sees her as a "failed experiment", and shuts down her wish by claiming that the ISA doesn't want her around. For good measure, he shuts the peephole on her prison door, sealing her up completely.
- People Puppets: With his powers amplified, Brainwave controls Pat to fight Courtney.
- Shout-Out: The inner section of Dragon King's machine, where Brainwave will send his signal out, looks suspiciously similar to the movie version of Cerebro.
- Surprisingly Realistic Outcome: The ISA is made up of various kinds of evil, including Lawful Evil Fiddler and Chaotic Evil Sportsmaster and Tigress, and though they are all loyal and supportive of Jordan, they can't stand each other. This naturally does not end well as Crusher and Paula end up killing Anaya when she insults their chaotic nature for being unfit for parenthood.
- Tap on the Head: Sportsmaster is knocked out when Pat hits him on the back of the head with a huge wrench. When he wakes up he does not seem any worse for it. A hit like that could crack the skull and kill a person.
- This Is a Drill: Mike takes a power drill to Crusher's back, allowing Pat to grab a large socket wrench and knock Crusher out.
- Too Powerful to Live: Anaya boasting that she could simply paralyze the heroes on the spot means there's no way she can be allowed to do that if the heroes are to stand a chance. To that end, she talks herself into getting murdered by Tigress before that plan can come to fruition.
- Villain Ball:
- Sportsmaster gives Pat too much of a sporting chance, which ultimately causes his attack on him and Mike to fail. In a broader sense, the ISA only sent out a couple of Badass Normals to take out the Dugan family instead of including someone more powerful like Icicle or at least Fiddler in the attack to make sure the job got done. To his credit, Icicle is at least smart enough to realize his mistake and has Fiddler join them for the next attempt, which leads to...
- Sportsmaster and Tigress deride Fiddler's pragmatic suggestion of immobilizing the heroes to make them easy prey as boring, then Tigress kills her when she badmouths her parenting skills, costing them a key advantage.
- Villain Respect: Larry gives Pat credit for building a pretty impressive mech suit. This doesn't spare him an ass kicking, of course.
- Well-Intentioned Extremist: The ISA's manifesto lists their plans for the 'New America'. They are going to stop Global Warming, embrace solar and wind energy, and eliminate all forms of discrimination based on race, sex, gender identity, etc. When Beth reads these aloud, Courtney's puzzled because that sounds good, and Rick pauses to question Pat if the JSA were 'on the right side'. Fortunately/unfortunately, they then read that the plan will likely wipe out 25 million people to do so, not to mention taking away the victims' free will and using them as Cannon Fodder when what's left of the U.S. military inevitably tries to retaliate, so there's still reason to stop them, but the White-and-Grey Morality situation gives them pause.
- We Hardly Knew Ye: Anaya Bowin, the second Fiddler, was the least focused on and developed member of the ISA, so naturally she's the one killed off.
- Wham Line: When Beth informs everyone that they only have 30 minutes before the satellite broadcasts, the Gambler tells her otherwise.Gambler: You think you have thirty minutes to stop us from broadcasting? Hahahahaha! The broadcast begins at the thirty minute mark. It's thirty minutes until Brainwave is finished.
- White-and-Grey Morality: The JSA realize this is the case between them and the ISA. The ISA are using mass brainwashing, which will likely kill millions and take away the free will of the survivors, but they're doing it for goals that every member of the JSA completely supports (stopping climate change, embracing renewable energy, ending bigotry in all forms). If not for their methods, they'd be on the same side. Rick lampshades this.
- You Are Too Late: Sharpe hacks into the JSA channel to inform them that the synaptic amplifier isn't going to start in 30 minutes, it'll be finished once that 30 minutes is up. Cue Pat, Justin and Barbara freezing up because they're now under its thrall.
