Robin: Whatever you're planning, Slade, it's over!
Slade: On the contrary, Robin... it's just begun.
Robin grows more and more obsessed with hunting Slade and withdraws from his friends. Meanwhile the team faces a new villain, a thief called Red X who is strangely knowledgeable about their weaknesses.
Tropes:
- Actually a Doombot: Variant: The Titans assume Slade's minions to be human until Robin pulls off one of their masks and Slade starts speaking to him through a TV screen built into its head.
- Played straight when Slade sends a robotic double of himself with another TV screen built into its head to his meeting with Red X. This one also has a bomb inside it.
- Ambiguous Situation: What exactly Slade wanted the chips for is never revealed. However, come Apprentice Part 1, it's entirely possible that he never actually wanted them for anything and his only goal here was to psychologically break Robin and make him more open to the idea of becoming his apprentice.
- An Aesop: As Slade warned Robin: Trust is easy to destroy, but it takes time to build.
- The Bad Guy Wins: Slade may not have gotten the microchips, but he's definitely succeeded in alienating Robin from his friends.
- Batman Gambit: Robin using Red X to gain Slade's trust. Hey, he learned from the best. It does fail, though. Slade doesn't actually place any trust in Red X. This almost gets Robin killed, and the rest of the Titans are not happy with his actions, which Starfire gives him a minor calling out for it.
- Beauty Is Never Tarnished: The X taped to Raven's mouth only leaves a large mark. She then heals it with her powers while talking about how Robin couldn't have helped them.
- Betrayal Insurance: Implied. Much like Batman historically has contingencies for the Justice League, Robin designs his Red X suit with gadgets specifically designed to take out each of the other members of the Teen Titans.
- Bilingual Bonus: The climax has Robin and Slade fighting on rooftop, before a neon sign with words in Chinese Mandarin that says, 看漫画 - "Read Comics" (the show is based on a comic, get it?)
- Bound and Gagged: Red X incapacitates Starfire with an X that wraps around her limbs, and slaps another across Raven's mouth, which nullifies her powers.
- Broken Record: The hologram of Robin keeps repeating, "I'm fine! Get X! Go!" over and over again, making Starfire come to the uncomfortable truth who Red X really is.
- Disappointed in You: While the other Titans were stated to have given Robin an earful for his stunt as Red X, Starfire is ultimately more upset than outright angry.
- Downer Ending: Robin's ploy to get to Slade failed, and his bond with the Titans has become strained.
- Dumbass Has a Point: Raven can't believe that she's agreeing with Beast Boy about how Robin hasn't been a help at all. He's been shutting the team out of his case while leaving them to face X alone.
- Emerging from the Shadows: Slade's robotic double does this at the meeting with Red X, which serves as the first shot of the character's full outfit.
- Enforced Method Acting: In-universe, Robin didn't tell the Titans he was going undercover because he wanted their reactions to be genuine enough, to fool Slade.
- "Eureka!" Moment: Starfire entering Robin's room and accidentally triggering a hologram ("I'm fine! Get X!") which leads to her realizing X is actually a disguised Robin.
- Foreshadowing:
- When Cyborg guesses that Red X had a gadget with Robin's name on it, the camera immediately cuts to Robin, who has no reaction.
- Why else do you think Red X saved Beast Boy from an incoming subway train?
- Slade mentions monitoring Red X's performance against the Titans the second time around. Seeing him save Beast Boy from being hit by the train would give him an immediate awareness of his true identity. Robin completely glosses over this small detail, foolishly thinking that his cover is still secure and that Slade's capture is on a golden plate.
- Not only that, but Slade didn't warn Robin about trust for nothing.
- Slade also comments on how alike he and Red X are and how it's only natural they should work together. While seemingly an off-hand comment in the moment, the end of the season makes it apparent what Slade's true intentions for Robin are.
- During his battle with Slade, Robin nearly falls to his death from a rooftop only for Slade to catch him and haul him to safety. While Slade makes a dismissive remark at the time, the season finale shows that he has a less than altruistic interest in Robin's survival.
- Hope Spot: Robin came very close to what he thinks is a breakthrough on Slade. Turns out, Slade knew Robin was Red X the entire time and his plan ends with Robin no closer to discovering anything about Slade's intentions, and his relationship with the team now strained.
- I Did What I Had to Do: Robin tries to justify his stunt as Red X this way, since if he teammates knew about his plan, they would've held back. Starfire has none of it.
- MacGuffin: The three chips that Slade was stealing. For the moment they don't seem to serve any purpose.
- Major Injury Underreaction: After getting a sticky X ripped off her mouth, which leaves a huge red mark, Raven screams on the inside but only says, "Ow."
- Mirror Character: This episode really highlights the similarities between Robin and Slade. As Starfire points out, Slade didn't trust Robin, and Robin didn't trust his friends.
- "Not So Different" Remark: Starfire believes that Robin and Slade are alike for one reason: trust, or lack thereof.Starfire: Whoever Slade is, you and he are similar. Slade did not trust you... and you did not trust us.
- Offscreen Moment of Awesome: The climax focuses entirely on Robin fighting Slade while the rest of the Titans are surrounded by numerous Blockers and Sladebots. They probably defeat the entire army of Mecha-Mooks, as always, but the audience didn't get to see it.
- Oh, Crap!:
- Robin when Starfire gets blasted unconscious and falls from a great height. He manages to save her.
- Robin when Slade reveals that he knows Red X's true identity.
- Starfire gets this expression when she puts two and two together of who Red X is. Specifically, it happens when she is in Robin's room looking for him, and she accidentally knocks a metal ball to the ground... which proceeds to activate a hologram of Robin in Red X's net...
- The Reveal: The discovery that Robin is Red X.
- Rewatch Bonus: Try rewatching Red X's initial fight against the Titans, sans Robin, again with the knowledge that Red X is a disguised Robin. Notice how X seems to know each and every other Titan's weaknesses, like interrupting Raven's incantation, using a sticky resin that prevents Beast Boy from transforming, and knowing exactly how to shut down Cyborg? And then leaving the Titans unharmed afterwards despite having no reasons to do so?
- Robotic Reveal: Slade's commandoes made their debut in this episode, where for most of their first scene they appear to be humans clad in ninja gear, but at the end of the prologue, the Titans (and the audience learns they're this trope) when one deactivates itself.
- Roofhopping: Robin and Slade's chase sequence at the climax of the episode involves a lot of this, including an eight-lane street at one point.
- Sarcasm-Blind: Raven sarcastically says that Beast Boy's movie night picks sound so good. Cyborg then agrees and asks, "Wanna watch them both?"
- The Scream: Starfire and Beast Boy let out shrill screams after Cyborg rips off the adhesive X covering Raven's mouth. Raven screams on the inside but restrains herself to just "Ow."
- Soft Water: After getting knocked unconscious, Starfire falls towards a nearby body of water. Robin catches her with his grappling hook, which keeps her from drowning, but she gets dragged along when he fires another grappling hook at a Slade bot.
- Spotting the Thread: After Red X steals the second chip, Slade mentions offhandedly that he tapped into the security cameras to watch the whole thing. Including the moment when Red X saves Beast Boy from an incoming train, which was likely the last piece Slade needed to know that X was Robin all along.
- Stunned Silence: The team undergoes this when Red X takes off his mask after Cyborg grabs him.
- Tongue Trauma: In the prologue, Beast Boy (as an anteater) managed to catch the microchip with his tongue, only for a random Sladebot to step on it.Beast Boy: Thath tathed so nasthy...
- Ambiguous Syntax: Is he referring to the microchip or the boot of the Sladebot?
- Traumatic Haircut: Starfire has to cut the sticky X material out of Beast Boy's hair. He's not happy about it.
- This Page Will Self-Destruct: Slade's double at the end of the episode.Slade (via TV screen): Oh, and speaking of time- (five-second countdown appears on screen)
- The Unreveal: We never find out what Slade wanted the chips for, if he even wanted them at all...
- Villain Has a Point: Slade perfectly sums up Robin's idea of trying to act noble when going as an undercover criminal and betraying his friends.Slade: How very noble of you. But stealing in order to trap me? That wasn't so noble.
- Villainous Rescue: Happens twice. Red X saves Beast Boy and later Slade saves Robin. Both are equally surprised.
- Wham Line:Slade: Patience. You can't expect me to trust with such sensitive information right away, can you... Robin?
- Wham Shot:
- Red X taking off his mask, to reveal it's Robin underneath.
- Starfire finding Robin's hologram and realizing that he is Red X.
- What the Hell, Hero?: The rest of the Titans and Slade throw this at Robin when he is exposed as Red X. Starfire gives a very calm one to Robin after the team found out he's Red X. While the rest of the team were outright angry with him, possibly due to him leaving them to face an army of Slade bots without his help, Starfire seemed to be most upset, perhaps even outright heartbroken.
- Why Don't You Just Shoot Him?: Robin somehow manages to contact and video chat with Slade as Red X. Rather than try using the calls to triangulate and pinpoint Slade's location, Robin opts to continue stealing the chips as Red X, unnecessarily attacking and betraying his friends' trust in the process.
- It's possible Robin assumed Slade would be behind several proxies or something, didn't want to risk tipping off Slade, or was just so married to the Red X plan that he didn't even think of tracing Slade.
