Octavia gets to know a whole new world.
Tropes
- Ascended Fanboy: Levitt stans Octavia.
- Berserk Button: Murphy loses his shit when he sees that the Faithful are about ready to sacrifice their children.
- Can't Kill You, Still Need You: Thanks to the tense political situation on Sanctum Indra can't kill Sheidheda like she wants without incurring the wrath of the Faithful a fact that Sheidheda mocks her with.
- Flashback B-Plot: This episode tells four linear stories, two of them flashbacks - the first flashback sequence of Octavia's first weeks on Bardo, the second of Octavia's second time on Bardo including witnessing Bellamy's supposed death - and two of the present time, the first on Sanctum and the second of Hope, Echo and Gabriel arriving on Bardo.
- How We Got Here: This episode finishes telling the story of what happened to Octavia between her entering the Anomaly and exiting it 30 seconds later in 6x09.
- In Love with Your Carnage: See Levitt's breathless anticipation and "Yes!" when he watches Octavia kill Pike.
- Madness Mantra: "I am not afraid." Subverted in that while at first it comes off as this, once removed from the M-Cap machine, Octavia stops and returns to herself, revealing that it was actually a Survival Mantra instead (as Levitt had suggested she use it earlier in the episode).
- Mind Rape: What the Bardoans do to Octavia (and probably Diyoza.)
- Out of Continues: Indra has Russel's chip removed, ensuring that when Sheidheda dies he will be Deader than Dead.
- Parents in Distress: Hope's guiding mission - to storm Bardo to rescue her mother and Aunty O.
- Reflexive Response: Suspecting that Russell is really Sheidheda, Indra says "There's a spider on your shoulder" in Trigedasleng (which Sheidheda understands but Russell does not). Sheidheda reflexively looks at his shoulder, outing himself.
- So Proud of You: Said almost word for word by Octavia to Hope.
- Spot the Imposter: Murphy's attempts to pose as a Prime are finally undone when he fails to correctly identify the proper "Pillars" which the followers notice.
- Spotting the Thread: Indra realizes that Russell is actually Sheidheda when he orders his people to "kneel or die," a phrase she heard him say during her childhood when he attacked her village.
- Take a Third Option: Indra can't kill Sheidheda since he is still posing as Russell and the Faithful would cause a riot and she is being pressured by the Children of Gabriel to kill the last of the Prime's. She therefore decides that in order to appease the Children without incurring the wrath of the Faithful she has his mind drive removed ensuring that when he does die it will be for good.
- Timey-Wimey Ball: Levitt tells Octavia that in the 11 days she has been on Bardo, years have passed on Skyring, though he doesn't specify how many.
- Would Hurt a Child: The Faithful in Sanctum are willing to light a child on fire to free Russell.
