Desperate to avert a major crisis on their hands, Courtney attempts to help a friend navigate their powers. Elsewhere, Pat and The Shade are forced to face their worst fears.
Tropes:
- Abusive Parents:
- Todd's foster father James was a coldblooded homophobe who tried to beat the gay out of him. Small wonder he preferred living on the streets.
- The Shadowlands manifests Pat's verbally abusive father. When the Shade assures him this is just the dimension's mind games, Pat says his real dad said all these horrible things when he was alive.
- Dare to Be Badass: With the Shadowlands burning down around them, Shade refuses to try another door for fear it could kill him. Pat then says he can either die doing nothing or die trying to escape.
- Drama-Preserving Handicap: The Shade could ordinarily portal himself and Pat right out of the Shadowlands, so Jennie's Green Lantern fire blocks that avenue of escape until she conquers her own fears.
- Foreshadowing: When Courtney threatens him for spying on everyone, Mr. Bones stays silent. Later on, Love states that Helix isn't spying on anyone.
- Good All Along: Helix isn't the Boarding School of Horrors it's been framed as. Courtney is surprised to learn attendance is completely voluntary, and they are not responsible for the secret cameras.
- Instantly Proven Wrong: The Shade insists the Shadowlands can't get to him because he has no shame or regrets. Cue them running into a manifestation of Sharpe, who needles into Swift about not forgiving him and about his late sister Emily.
- My Greatest Failure: The Shadowlands taunts the Shade with how he condemned Emily to die alone because he wanted to wash his hands of connections to his mortal life.
- Mythology Gag: Tao Jones, Penny Dreadful, Kritter and Carcharo, members of the Helix supervillain team in the comics, are shown (or in Carcharo the Man-Shark's case, heard) in their containment cells. Possibly counts as a Sequel Hook, as Courtney's influence convinces Mr. Bones to form their own team.
- Non-Answer: Pat asks Love if she was his old math teacher. She reprimands him for such allegations, which just convinces Pat he's right.
- Red Herring: Helix is not behind the camera surveillance in town. Who really is remains a mystery.
- Related in the Adaptation: Jennie mentions Sandy Hawkins as the nephew of Wesley Dodds. In the comics, he was the nephew of Dodds's girlfriend, Dian Belmont.
- Sequel Hook:
- Jennie and Todd are going to New York City with the Shade, who has agreed to stick around to show them (especially Todd, who has his same powers) the ropes. The three of them are also meeting up with Sandy Hawkins, nephew of late JSA member Wesley Dodds, the Sandman, who has inherited his uncle's Dreaming of Things to Come ability.
- Mr Bones tells Nurse Love that perhaps Courtney was right and Helix shouldn't be hiding its patients away from the world, and suggests they form a team of their own.
- Shoot the Television: At the end of the episode, the person who has been spying on the JSA, upon seeing that their cameras have been destroyed, punches their fist through the monitor displaying Rick's image.
- Silly Rabbit, Cynicism Is for Losers!: Mr. Bones and Nurse Love believed the only way to protect Helix's kids was to forcefully contain their abilities. When Courtney tries reuniting Todd with Jennie to calm his powers, Love wants to pull the plug as soon as things look dicey. She's flabbergasted when Courtney's leap of faith pays off, and it makes Bones consider they can do more than teach teens to hide.
- Special Edition Title: After the cold open in the Shadowlands, the title screen appears in black and white before shifting to full color.
- Splash of Color: The Shadowlands are mostly in black and white, with some green from Jennie's ring.
- What Are Records?: Courtney struggles - and ultimately fails - to figure out how a rotary phone works.
- You Are Better Than You Think You Are:
- Jennie fears hurting her brother again, but Courtney assures her if that she doesn't intend to hurt him, she won't, giving her the confidence to dispel the shadows from her ring and stabilize his powers in turn.
- Later, Pat encourages the Shade to continue to help people, starting with Jennie and Todd.
- Your Worst Memory: Jennie and Todd's inner darkness stems from the day their orphanage tore them apart and sent them to live in separate foster homes.
