Crane enlists the help of lethal assassin Lady Vic, who has a troubled history with Dick and Barbara. Meanwhile, Kory and Gar bring Blackfire back to Wayne Manor.
Tropes featured in this episode:
- Adaptation Relationship Overhaul: In the comics, Lady Vic is primarily a Nightwing villain, operating as a mercenary hired by Blockbuster. Here, her connection with Dick is glossed over and she is portrayed as having a personal vendetta against Barbara.
- Air Vent Infiltration: With the usual large vents, though Dick at least has a torch and Gar at Mission Control navigating for him.
- All of the Other Reindeer: Unlike her sister and pretty much all other Tamaraneans, Blackfire is unable to generate fire, making her an outcast on her planet.
- Audible Sharpness: So audible that Dick can identify the particular blade from audio alone!
- Awesomeness by Analysis: Dick uses an audio recording with no video to identify exactly how a killing went down and who the killer was.
- Ax-Crazy: It may just be general terrorism as part of Crane's desire to spread fear, but Lady Vic murders two police officers apparently out of general resentment over them getting Happily Married, and kills the operating theatre staff in a deliberately sadistic manner when she could have just frightened them into handing over the device she was going to steal.
- Bait-and-Switch
- Robin catches a Classy Cat-Burglar in the act...who turns out to be Barbara.
- Crane takes Jason to see a medical procedure, but instead of witnessing a Mad Science operation, Lady Vic enters the operating theatre and slaughters everyone as an Implied Death Threat against Jason.
- Bathe Her and Bring Her to Me: On seeing Connor, Blackfire orders him bathed and brought to her bedchamber. Starfire has to inform her that a) he's a friend and b) they don't do that kind of thing on this planet. Plus she's going to have to draw her own bath.
- Best Served Cold: The flashbacks reveal that Lady Vic lost her partner during their fight against Dick and Barbara, when Barbara tackled her down while she was throwing a knife at Dick, causing her to misdirect it and hit her partner instead. She laid low for six years, but eventually attempts to kill Barbara once she returns to Gotham, though she fails.
- Call-Back:
- Dick wakes up bleeding from the sniper wound he received in "Blackfire", and Barbara is facing heat from the press for Crane's escape from Arkham.
- Connor and Starfire find a Kidnapped Scientist with the same bomb used to kill Hawk embedded in her chest. Thanks to the events of that episode and his Super-Speed, Connor is able to disarm it this time. Just in Time, of course.
- The Dog Bites Back: Scarecrow gives Jason a not-so-subtle reminder that he has other subjects he tested his fear cure on, and that Red Hood is easily disposable should he step out of line. Jason gets back at him by blatantly disregarding his orders not to distribute the unrefined fear cure on the streets.
- Easily Forgiven: Downplayed, as Barbara doesn't arrest Dick for breaking Scarecrow out of Arkham and letting him and Red Hood escape, but it's clear that the two are still on shaky ground with each other. Starfire flat out tells Dick to fix things with her when she denies them access to the Lady Vic investigation.
- Flashback: Part of the episode is about Dick and Barbara's history with both each other and Lady Vic.
- Forged Message: Presumably using the information provided by Jason, Lady Vic is able to lure Barbara into a private meeting in Crime Alley by sending a fake message from Bruce on her Bat Phone.
- Handicapped Badass: Just because Barbara is in a wheelchair doesn't mean she's incapable of defending herself. Lady Vic underestimates her old foe when Babs holds her own against the assassin using a pair of police batons, escrima-style, that she'd stashed in her wheelchair. It's also shown inside her apartment that she has various pieces of training equipment to keep her upper body in shape.
- Hypocrite: Barbara complains about vigilantes thinking they're above the law. Not only was she a vigilante herself, this episode reveals she was also a thief.
- Juggle Fu: Robin catches a cat burglar stealing a Priceless Ming Vase, which they throw to each other or up in the air while they spar.
- Mythology Gag:
- Barbara mentions she is the sole keeper of the Oracle program, and refuses to use it over how dangerous it can be. Oracle was her codename in the comics following her crippling at Joker's hands, which she used until DC restored her mobility in the New 52, though she's gone back to it a few times since.
- The episode gives Barbara a middle name for the first time in any medium, with her full name revealed as Barbara Gail Gordon. This was meant to be a tribute to legendary Batgirl writer Gail Simone .
- During the flashback, Dick is surprised to see Babs robbing museums like Selina Kyle, as her outfit is almost like that of the famous cat-burglar. It doesn't take long for him to start Dating Catwoman.
- What's inside Barbara's desk? A Red Bat Phone! For an added bonus, the beeping sound is nearly identical to the original.
- When Lady Vic attacks Barbara, she mentions Joker's attack against the Commissioner.
- Jason putting a chemical concoction made by Scarecrow out on the streets as a drug to be sold calls to mind Batwoman (2019) and Black Mask's infamous "Snakebite" drug, which used Scarecrow's fear gas.
- Moment Killer: Dick has Barbara wear some of the jewelry they've stolen, then cuts himself on them while they're smooching. He then wakes up in the present day to find himself bleeding from his still-healing gunshot wound.
- Odd Friendship: Conner and Komand'r bond over their bad memories of labs, and the loneliness associated with not fitting in.
- Princess in Rags: Blackfire still acts like an entitled princess on Earth, even though Kory points out that she barely escaped from being imprisoned in a hole (literally). When she meets Conner, she automatically assumes that he is her allocated manservant.
- Rebellious Spirit: Barbara is tired of being the perfect Commissioner's daughter and is committing burglaries for fun. She even gets Dick to participate; fortunately the accidental death of Vic's partner appears to have shocked them out of this. Presumably Dick also persuaded Bruce to accept her as Robingirl (sorry, Batgirl), giving Barbara a path other than crime.
- Scenery Censor: Because the flashback scenes take place before Barbara lost her leg to the Joker, disabled actress Savannah Welch is shown either in closeup, played by a masked stunt double, or lying in bed.
- Sherlock Scan:
- Blackfire can tell that Conner is half-Kryptonian and "half-something else" by observing him catching a knife.
- Dick was trained by Bruce to profile an attacker by sound alone.
- Ship Tease: Komand'r is shown checking out Connor on a couple of occasions, and he's the only one of the Titans who doesn't seem bothered by her, thanks to his Nigh-Invulnerability and general personality.
- Sound-Only Death: A thug high on Scarecrow's fear cure shoots up the Drakes' restaurant. All that's seen is the sound of screams and gunfire as Jason watches on. When the episode ends, Tim is desperately trying to help his dad while begging for an ambulance. Jason looks bothered until he takes a puff of the toxin himself.
- The Starscream: Undaunted by his threat of replacing him by Lady Vic, Jason rebels against Scarecrow and takes out the fear cure early, despite the latter's warning that it has yet to be completed.
- Two-Keyed Lock: Dick and Barbara have to enter the code simultaneously into two pads on opposite sides of the diamond they're stealing. They encounter Vic and her boyfriend, who were apparently planning the same thing.
- Wait Here: Starfire doesn't trust her sister out of her sight so has to bring her on a mission, but doesn't trust her not to cause trouble so has Komand'r wait in the car with Connor watching her. Unsurprisingly, Komand'r does a runner while she and Connor are busy defusing a bomb. But rather than causing mischief as feared, she's just gone to interrogate lowlifes until she's dug up a useful clue.
- You Have GOT to Be Kidding Me!
- Dick's exact response when Batman beeps him just when he's about to pull a robbery with the Commissioner's daughter.
- Gar gives a nervous laugh over Blackfire's assumption that he's the 'manservant' of Starfire.
