Virgil has to deal with two kinds of sibling problems, both human and superpowered. The latter comes when a new pair of Bang Babies named Boom and Mirage start a crime spree. But Static's attempts to investigate are met with resistance from Sharon, who notices the many similarities between the hero and her pesky brother and starts to piece together the truth.
Tropes for this episode include:
- Big Brother Instinct: While Boom is mostly a jerk, he does become genuinely enraged when Mirage ends up in the hospital and immediately goes there to "recover" her. Downplayed in that it's clear he's also concerned about not having her to help with his crime sprees. Furthermore, he uses the attack as justification for his hate campaign against Static.
- Bittersweet Ending: At least in Mirage's case. Her brother and best friend has been arrested (the bitter), but she's also not forced to use her powers (which she doesn't even like) to help him commit robberies anymore (the sweet). The last shot of the episode is Mirage in the backseat of a Child Services car with a small smile on her face and a hopeful look in her eyes, suggesting that she'll be OK. If anything, the last time she ever has to use her powers is to help create an Identity Impersonator, helping her new friend in the process.
- Clark Kenting: Virgil's Static identity is revealed to be this—his hair and facial features are identical, and he acts and speaks the same way. Sharon's able to pick up on that during a news interview and starts getting suspicious about her brother...
- Contrived Coincidence: Wouldn't you know that the one time Sharon manages to piece together that Virgil is Static, there's a Bang Baby who can generate illusions and thus prove her wrong. What are the odds?
- A Day in the Limelight: This is the first episode that gives Sharon a large role.
- Deducing the Secret Identity: Sharon recognizes her brother's mannerisms and hairstyle during a television interview with Static and starts to deduce that they might be the same person. It takes an illusion from Mirage to throw her off track.
- Deus Exit Machina: Mr. Hawkins, who's ordinarily the person who keeps Sharon and Virgil's lives from overlapping too much, is conveniently out of town at a conference during the episode, allowing Sharon to focus on her brother's secret life as Static.
- Drunk on the Dark Side: It's revealed that Boom, aka Byron, only started developing criminal tendencies and a desire to hurt people after gaining his metahuman powers. This is apparently a symptom that many victims suffer; Virgil remarks that the Big Bang gas has "messed with the heads" of nearly every Bang Baby.
- Even Evil Has Loved Ones: Exploited by Boom to get Mirage on his side. He tells her that the only reason they're committing crimes is to make money for their grandmother and get her a nicer place to live.
- Played straight when Mirage ends up in the hospital, and Boom blows up the walls to get her out.
- Explain, Explain... Oh, Crap!: A rare positive version. When Sharon's out with her friends, they see a news interview with Static about his latest Bang Baby battle. He remarks that his previous foes are "totally Y2K." The girls are confused about that, but Sharon immediately (and without thinking) starts defining the term for them...only to realize that she knows what it means because Virgil said the same thing earlier. This is the beginning of her campaign to out her brother as the hero.
- Heel–Face Turn: Mirage, realizing that her brother has truly gone power-mad, decides that enough is enough and helps Static defeat him by cocooning Boom in a swirling vortex of light that blinds him.
- I Just Want to Be Normal: Mirage absolutely hates that she and her brother have developed Bang Baby powers. When Boom tries to convince her that their new abilities are a gift, she snaps "You call this a gift? We're FREAKS!"
- I Need to Go Iron My Dog: When Sharon discovers Virgil's abandoned radio communicator and hears Richie calling for Static, she asks if it's him. He panics and declares that "The cellular unit you called is not responding or is out of range. Please try your call again later." On a walkie-talkie. Sharon doesn't buy it.
- I Will Show You X!: Richie tries to get Sharon to leave the basketball stadium during Static's battle with Boom by grabbing her shoulder, and...Richie: Shar, it's dangerous in here!Sharon: You want dangerous? Touch me again—I'll show you dangerous!
- Identity Impersonator: How Virgil ultimately solves the problem of Sharon deducing his secret identity: while he's standing next to her and Richie at the end of the episode, they look up and notice Static himself flying overhead. Sharon panics at how she's made a fool of herself in front of the hero and runs off, while a confused Richie wonders exactly how Virgil is in two places at once. Turns out that he asked the illusion-casting Mirage for a "small favor"—namely, using her gifts to create an image of Static to convince Sharon that she was wrong.
- Light 'em Up: Mirage's power—she can manipulate light however she desires. She largely focuses on creating illusions with it, but when under duress, she can also release massive bursts of pure light energy.
- Logical Weakness: Static eventually defeats Boom (with some assistance from Mirage) by trapping him in a sphere of sound-proof glass used for a broadcasting booth; when the villain tries to use his sonic attacks to break free, the waves immediately backfire and hurt him instead.
- Loves My Alter Ego: Sharon finds Virgil a typical pesky younger brother, but thinks Static is the coolest thing around.
- Make Some Noise: Boom's power—he has a loudspeaker in his chest that allows him to fire concussive blasts of soundwaves.
- Master of Illusion: Mirage mostly uses her light-manipulating abilities to create realistic illusions.
- Minion with an F in Evil: While Boom takes pleasure in becoming a criminal and robbing people, Mirage hates it and only goes along with his plans because he's forcing her. Lampshaded when she tells Static "I didn't want to do it, but Byron made me." Static tells her that her brother isn't a good person and she can stand up to him.
- Moral Event Horizon: In-Universe, Mirage realizes that Boom has stopped caring about civilians when he attacks the manager of a basketball stadium during their robbery of it, despite specifically promising that "there wouldn't be any trouble" on this heist. When he starts trying to outright kill Static and begins blowing up the stadium's arena to do it, Mirage concludes that Boom has truly lost his mind and starts fighting back.
- Nice Job Fixing It, Villain: After robbing a radio station, Boom does some gloating on air. This lets Virgil to track him down, which in turn allows the hero to meet Mirage (after he saves her from falling debris) and not only get information about him, but also convince the girl that her brother is sick and needs help, which later kicks off her Heel–Face Turn. Had Boom just kept his mouth shut, he and Mirage could have gotten away with the cash scot-free, AND she wouldn't have been so convinced to start working against him.
- No Name Given: We never find out Mirage's given name, as Boom only calls her by the villainous title.
Word of God says it's "Miranda." - O.O.C. Is Serious Business: Virgil becomes incredibly suspicious when Sharon, who's figured out that he's actually Static, cooks him a giant breakfast, treats him politely, and offers him tickets to a professional basketball game.
- Power Floats: When Mirage taps into her full potential to help fight Boom, she floats into the air while trapping him in a column of swirling light.
- Power Glows: Mirage is enveloped in a pink-purplish aura whenever she uses her gifts. Justified in that she's controlling light, which naturally glows.
- Pre Ass Kicking One Liner: When Mirage finally decides to fight back against Boom, she declares "This...has to STOP!" before unleashing her powers on him.
- Relative Error: Mirage corrects Static that Boom isn't her boyfriend. He's her older brother instead.
- Save the Villain: When Mirage sees Boom in danger, she unleashes a massive orb of light that blinds a news helicopter's pilot; the blades in turn knock off a portion of a building and sends giant pieces of it hurtling right toward her. Static abandons his attempts to capture Boom to swoop down and prevent Mirage from being killed.
- Screw the Rules, I Make Them!: Boom "wins" a radio contest's massive cash prize by showing up in the studio and taking it by force.
- Secret Chaser: Sharon becomes this for the episode when she notices all of the similarities between Virgil and Static.
- Secret Identity Change Trick: Part of Sharon's evidence of Virgil-as-Static: "You disappear, Static shows up. Static disappears, you show up!"
- Shut Up, Hannibal!: Mirage reminds Byron/Boom of their suburban origins when he starts ranting about his plans to destroy Static—"You're not some gangsta from the hood! We're from Southfield!"
- Something Only They Would Say: Sharon's first clue about Static's real identity comes when she hears the hero use the phrase "Y2K" during a news interview. As she defines it for her friends, she realizes that she's only ever heard one person use that expression—Virgil.
- Suspiciously Specific Denial: When Static notices Sharon and Richie standing in the basketball stadium during his fight with Boom, and Sharon specifically cheering for him, he shouts "CLEAR OUT OF HERE, YOU TWO!...uh...whoever you are!"
- That Man Is Dead: Byron refuses to be called by his birth name, insisting that from now on, he's "Boom." Mirage (who is also forced to go by that name per her brother's wishes) refuses to address him as such, hinting at her desire to keep him on the straight and narrow.
- Thicker Than Water: Exploited by Boom, who claims that as Mirage's older brother, she has to trust him, as he always has her (and their grandmother's) best interests at heart. When Static tells Mirage that Boom sounds insane, she protests—"He's still my brother." Ultimately, though, she subverts the trope by realizing that, family or otherwise, Boom has become too unstable to function; as such, she helps stop him with her powers.
- Too Dumb to Live: A radio DJ decides to announce on-air that he has a contest prize of over a hundred thousand dollars in cash sitting in the studio right next to him...in a city full of criminally insane metahumans. Guess how well that turns out.
- When Sharon figures out that Virgil is Static, she proceeds to cheer him on in his battle with Boom. In the middle of a crowded basketball stadium. And outright calls him her brother ("You go, bro!"). And uses his name.
- Tying into the above example, it's quite clear that Sharon is more infatuated with the idea of having a superhero for a sibling than realizing the big picture—if she were to openly expose Virgil's secret (and had no problems doing so when it came to Richie nearby), this would not only lead to Static's enemies going after him in public if the information was leaked, but also place her and Robert in danger as well if anyone wanted to get to him another way.
- Trauma Conga Line: It turns out that Boom and Mirage lost both their mother and father around the same time (it's implied that they both died), were forced to move from their comfortable suburban home to their grandmother's small apartment, and ended up stepping in a spill of leftover Big Bang chemicals that gave them their powers. Mirage has it worse, as she also has to watch her brother slide into a criminal mindset, start hurting innocent people, and is eventually forced to turn against him.
- Who Would Be Stupid Enough?: Virgil hears about a radio station's cash-prize contest and wonders aloud about who'd be dumb enough to try and call in to get the money. Matched with Inadvertent Entrance Cue when his walkie-talkie goes off. It's Richie: "HEY, V, I'M GONNA WIN!"
