Courtney begins to feel helpless after Yolanda truly breaks up with the JSA. Rick starts to get frustrated with his uncle when the folks at Blue Valley end up finding Grundy and begin hunting him, necessitating bringing in Pat and Courtney. Meanwhile, Eclipso begins hunting his next target: Beth.
Tropes:
- Armor-Piercing Question: Beth actually seems to get to Eclipso when she asks what he's afraid of, given he refuses to face her in person. He appears before her and snaps back "Nothing!" before trying to convince her to give in directly, allowing Beth to figure out how to beat him.
- Asshole Victim: Rick beats his uncle nearly to death under Eclipso's influence, but no one can say the man didn't have it coming.
- Bad People Abuse Animals: Rick's uncle, Matt, already has no redeeming qualities, but then Rick relays a story of him abusing a pit bill in order to participate in dog fighting.
- Bait-and-Switch Credits: Possibly unintentional, but right after Joel McHale's name pops up in the opening credits, somebody knocks on Courtney's house, possibly indicating that Starman had finally caught up with Pat. However, it turns out to be Yolanda dropping off her Wildcat outfit off-screen and Starman is only seen in one of Eclipso's illusions for Beth.
- Beastly Bloodsports: Rick's uncle bought an abused pit bull specifically to train it to be a fighting dog. Feeling sorry for the dog, Rick spirited it away, telling his uncle the dog ran away, and found it a new home. Happily, the pit bull recovered and became a friendly, loving dog.
- The Cameo: Starman, the original Wildcat, and Hourman appear in one of Eclipso's darkness illusions for Beth.
- Conspicuous CG: Grundy appears on-screen, so of course.
- Continuity Nod: The ten year-old girl Grundy supposedly killed looks like Rebecca McNider, down to the yellow dress and ribbon.
- Dwindling Party: Though no one has died, the JSA is now down two members thanks to Eclipso.
- Ethnic Scrappy: Eclipso accuses Beth of being one In-Universe, claiming she has the wrong skin color to be a member of the JSA, which was previously all-Caucasian.
- Evil Is Deathly Cold: At the end of the episode, the windows of the Dugan house freeze over as it begins snowing, indicating that Eclipso's evil is growing strong enough to chill the entire town.
- Evil Is Petty: Eclipso has no qualms using any dirty trick to get under people's skin, which includes using Beth's race and gender as avenues to break her. Given Eclipso isn't even human there's no reason for it to hold racist views, so this is evidently just them grasping at any straw they can to make her upset.
- Foreshadowing:
- A shotgun is a terrible weapon to use when hunting a bear with natural armor and a violent temperament. Also, when Courtney and Pat arrive at the road leading into the woods, the hunters' vehicles are nowhere in sight. It turns out the hunt for Grundy never existed in the first place; it was a hallucination planted in Rick's mind by Eclipso.
- Matt tells Rick that he'll end up in jail before college. He's right, but probably wishes he weren't.
- A very short one, but when Rick sees the dead girl that Grundy apparently killed, you can clearly see that the girl is Rebecca McNider, the deceased daughter of Dr. Mid-Nite who Eclipso killed, even before Pat pulls her out of the water. Moments later, it turns out she's not real and this is the first confirmation that Eclipso is attacking Rick.
- The Friend No One Likes: Another way Eclipso tries to shame Beth is to convince her she's this.
- Heroic Willpower: Beth manages to be the first one to fight off Eclipso's corruptive influence. It helps that, contrary to Yolanda and Rick, Eclipso is actively tormenting her as opposed to using more subtle manipulations to break her spirit.
- I Call It "Vera": Courtney nicknames the Cosmic Staff "Cosmo."
- Insignia Ripoff Ritual: Not the official JSA insignia, but Rick dramatically dashes his hourglass to the ground after seeing the damage he's done under Eclipso's spell before handing himself over to the cops.
- Internal Reveal: Rick tells Courtney and Pat about Grundy, although since the Grundy Rick is chasing turns out to be an illusion, neither Courtney nor Pat actually see Solomon by episode's end.
- It Can Think: Though Rick is initially skeptical that Grundy can even understand him, Grundy shows compassion by patting him on the back and offering him an apple. As Rick is being taken away by the cops at the end of the episode, Grundy calls him "friend."
- It's Always Spring: Rick's teacher wishes him a happy 4th of July, and near the end of the episode there is a fireworks display. However, if you look at the landscape, all of the hardwood trees are bare of their leaves, and everyone is dressed as though it's late autumn and time for Thanksgiving. This is of course Eclipso's doing; the teacher actually comments on it not feeling like the season.
- It's Personal: When Rick is tricked by Eclipso into believing Grundy killed a little girl, he becomes this, determined to kill Grundy once and for all.
- Jerkass: Rick's uncle steps firmly into this once again. He is rude to Rick's teacher, Ms. Woods, yells at Rick again, and tosses away the college information packets Ms. Woods gave to Rick, telling him he'll be in jail before he goes to college. Rick then talks to Grundy about how his uncle bought an abused pit bull in the hopes of training it to be a fighting dog.
- My God, What Have I Done?: Rick is horrified when he realizes that he nearly killed his uncle, to the point that he smashes his hourglass and surrenders to the cops without a fight.
- Nice Job Fixing It, Villain: Eclipso thought that he could break Beth with a "Reason You Suck" Speech (sprinkled with some racism). However, Beth is able to stand up to him and as a result she gains more confidence in herself.
- The Nicknamer: Courtney calls the Staff "Cosmo."
- No-Holds-Barred Beatdown: When Rick catches up with Grundy, he starts beating him down with his super strength, except it's not Grundy but his uncle he's beating.
- Not Afraid of You Anymore: Beth stands up to Eclipso, refusing to submit to her fear. Doing so repels him (or the illusion, at any rate), allowing Beth to put on the goggles and see through his tricks.
- Not What It Looks Like: A tragic inversion occurs with Rick thinking he's beating Solomon Grundy to a pulp when, thanks to Eclipso's illusion, it's really his uncle who's on the receiving end. It takes a blast from "Cosmo" to get him to see what's really going on.
- Out of Focus: Mike and Barbara only appear in the beginning and end of the episode.
- Politically Incorrect Villain: Eclipso makes several racist jabs at Beth to play on her fears. Since it seems odd that a demon from the Shadowlands would care about ethnicity, this may come from his host Bruce Gordon or him simply extrapolating from her own insecurities.
- Shout-Out: The scene where Grundy supposedly kills a young girl in the river is reminiscent of the infamous scene from Frankenstein (1931), in which the Monster unknowingly drowns little Maria in a lake.
- Shut Up, Hannibal!: Beth eventually swallows her fear and stands up to Eclipso, refusing to give in, and telling him that she is proud to be a member of the JSA, that the goggles are hers now, and that she is proud to be black.
- Spring-Loaded Corpse: Pat picks up the dead little girl and places her on the ground, only for her to suddenly open her eyes and smile before vanishing. In case the viewer hadn't caught on already, this is the point where it's clear Rick is being manipulated.
- Stepford Smiler: Eclipso lampshades this about Beth, pointing out how she always puts up a happy front to avoid showing sadness.
- The Stinger: The episode ends with Barbara and Mike hugging each other, promising to be there for the JSA... right as the window behind them starts to freeze up...
- The Unchosen One: Eclipso tries to mess with Beth's mind by claiming she's this, as the Staff chose Courtney, Courtney chose Yolanda, and Rick's dad chose him, but nobody chose Beth.
- Underestimating Badassery: Eclipso has a low opinion of Beth and thus targets her directly instead of trying to trick her as with Yolanda and Rick. This allows Beth to realize that she has to give into her fear to be vulnerable to Eclipso, and provides an important advantage when she is told by Dr. McNider that the goggles can filter out Eclipso's illusions.
- Villain Has a Point: As evil as he is, Eclipso wasn't wrong to call out Beth for taking the goggles that belonged to Dr. Mid-Nite and that she ingratiated herself into the JSA without Courtney's acknowledgment.
- Wham Line:
- "Rick, you don't know what you're doing. That's not Grundy!" This is followed by a Wham Shot of the person Rick had really been attacking: his own uncle.
- The real Solomon Grundy as he's (while hidden, obviously) watching Rick be carted away by the police: "Friend."
- Would Hurt a Child:
- Eclipso tricks Rick into believing that Grundy had killed a little girl, driving him to take Grundy down. Like everything else, it turned out to be an illusion.
- Eclipso directly targets Beth, trying to bait her into embracing her fear so he can feed on her. He only succeeds in hardening her resolve.
- Wrecked Weapon: Rick smashes the hourglass after realizing what he's done, meaning the JSA is now down another member for the foreseeable future.
