Percy's sister Cassandra still lives! As the lost son of the de Rolo family finds himself conflicted between his desire to find his sister and the need to rally the rebels of Whitestone, Scanlan finds himself becoming an unlikely hero as he is tasked with giving his allies the diversion they need to turn fortune towards their favor.
Tropes
- Adaptational Wimp: Scanlan has a much harder time creating a distraction in the episode than he did in the livestream, mostly from lacking an equivalent of Dimension Door and or having a reliable Polymorph. Notably, Scanlan in the livestream had an easy time sneaking and breaking in by Polymorphing, is able to inflict some discord and damage without taking any lasting damage himself, and when he got deep into the mansion he simply used Dimension Door to get to the roof where he used a potion to breath fire relatively simply. In the episode, Scanlan is almost immediately discovered once he gets inside, had to make a very mad scramble about the place, discover what his potions do on the fly (while Sam Riegel didn't know what potions Scanlan had until he was told, he at least knew what they did before using them; Scanlan didn't even have that), and gets assaulted multiple times. Even his fight with the Duke on the roof is much more harrowing.
- Annoying Arrows: When Grog gets shot by several arrows when entering Anders' residence, it only makes him mad, returning the favour by throwing his axe at one of the archers. Since Grog proceeds to go apeshit on the Paleguard and as a barbarian, is literally empowered by it, is seems they were literally just annoying to him.
- Battle Amongst the Flames: A natural consequence of Scanlan's attempts to burn down the Duke's mansion whilst being attacked by guards from every angle due to getting discovered the second he set foot inside before he was ready to light a match. Once his wayward magic tricks and assorted potions manage to successfully do the job, the more dramatic one-on-one variant occurs between Scanlan and the Duke atop the roof.
- Brick Joke: While digging through the Bag of Holding, Scanlan produces a peculiar set of beads that he alluded to in Episode 3.
- Chekhov's Gun: Scanlan suggested doping himself up on magic potions and going on a badass One-Man Army rampage through Stonefell's goons last episode and gets to put that into practice here. Having no idea what said potions actually do however, makes his attempts not as successful as he planned.
- Confusion Fu: Due to Scanlan getting discovered almost immediately after entering the mansion and having little to no idea what all the scrolls and potions he brought along do, this ends up being the only way he avoids getting gutted immediately, chugging a random potion that allows him a brief bout of Teleport Spam, breathing fire in his opponents' faces when he's briefly captured, and Polymorphing into a dinosaur when cornered.
- David vs. Goliath: The gnome Scanlan ends up going against the literal goliath Vedmire. Understandably there's not even a remote chance of a fair fight and Scanlan spends most of the fight dodging Vedmire and his goons and using his various magic tricks to attack from a distance. Once Vedmire pins him down on the roof Scanlan is swiftly pummelled into submission, but thankfully Vedmire lacks any kind of magical defenses and thus gets incapacitated by Scanlan paralyzing him with a point-blank Lightning Bolt...fired from his crotch.
- Dude, Not Funny!: Scanlan's joke about Percy and Cassandra being "close-knit" is met with a firm "Shut it!" from Vex and Vax, aka the siblings.
- Fire-Breathing Diner: A variation, as the third potion Scanlan drinks causes him to start belching flames—exactly what he needed to ignite the Duke's mansion.
- Foreshadowing: When Percy describes how he made the pepperbox, he explains that he inscribed the names of his targets along the barrels, listing Stonefell, Professor Anders, Anna Ripley and the Briarwoods. Scanlan notes that his pepperbox has six barrels, and questions him over who the 6th one is for, but they're interrupted before Percy can elaborate. Looking at Percy's shadow on the wall right after Scanlan asks the question, Percy's shadow can be seen pointing the Pepperbox at his own head despite the actual Percy pointing the gun as the ceiling.
- Orthax's laughter can be heard during young Percy's nightmare, further hinting that the Demon has been influencing Percy since he first escaped Whitestone.
- Percy's vengeance pact with Orthax is again alluded to when he says that he 'swore to make a list of those who wronged me' and Vax questions him as to who he swore to. In this case however, Percy isn’t aware of what he's done, as his recounting of how he first created the Pepperbox implies that Orthax subconsciously guided him through the whole process, rather than directly contacting him.
- Flipping the Bird: Scanlan flips three of them to the Duke over the course of their rooftop brawl, with the last two being made with Scanlan's Hand: one to parry the Duke's sword, and a bigger one to make his exit after besting the Duke.
- Grievous Harm with a Body: When Grog gets pissed against the Paleguard shooting him, he starts attacking them with his bare hands after chucking his axe into one of them as his first move, finishing off the last two by grabbing them each by the head and smashing them together until their contents start leaking out.
- Groin Attack: The Duke does not take kindly to Scanlan's attempts at jocularity, and he makes his grievances known with an extremely painful punch to Scanlan's balls. This then gets amusingly Inverted when Scanlan attacks with his groin, casting Lighting Bolt from it right into Vedmire's face when he's got him pinned down.
- I'll Kill You!: Vax swears that if Percy ever points the pepperbox at any member of Vox Machina that he won't hesitate to kill him.
- Lampshade Hanging: Even Scanlan thought that the third potion giving him fire-breath was convenient, given that he'd set out to burn down the house without any clear idea of how he'd do so. Enforced by the fact that this exact same point was lampshaded in the original stream.
- Oh, Crap!: A more literal example, as Scanlan sneaks into the Duke's house through the bathroom window. While the Duke is on the toilet. A deuce can even be seen being dropped as the Duke stands.
- The Reveal: Percy reveals that he didn't knowingly enter into the vengeance pact with Orthax, instead obsessing over his murdered family and the targets of his vengeance whilst he lived in squalor, until the idea for the pepperbox just popped into his head one day, implying the demon has been indirectly influencing him into giving into his more negative traits ever since it was attracted to his powerful hatred and lust for vengeance.
- Skewed Priorities: Grog has to hold himself back from killing Vax for using what was probably the last barrel of ale in Whitestone to put out a fire accidentally caused by Keyleth.
- Slashed Throat: The episode ends on this cliffhanger, with Professor Anders sadistically inflicting this on Cassandra right in front of Percy just as the siblings were reunited, leaving her gurgling in her own blood.
- Trap Is the Only Option: Double Subverted. When Vax tries to be cautious by entering Anders' residence, Grog throws all caution to the wind by just entering saying not everything is a trap. He's immediately proven wrong when he enters, but it winds up being moot as Grog just powers through the trap anyway.
- We Need a Distraction: An episode-long example. In order to safely infiltrate Professor Anders's mansion to rescue Cassandra, the bulk of the guards protecting it need to be drawn away. Enter Scanlan, who volunteers to set the Duke's mansion to flame, which would certainly grab the guards' attention.
- What the Hell, Hero?: Vax is mad at Percy for almost jeopardizing their mission to save Achibald by going after Stonefell and for pointing the pepperbox at him.
