Halo tries to reconcile their feelings for Brion, Phantom Girl tells Superboy about who Zod is, and Zatanna and the Team continue their search for Superboy.
Tropes:
- Animal-Themed Superbeing: Lizard Johnny, natch, who has the ability to squirt blood from his eyes to blind threats or flick an extended tongue with paralytic venom.
- Art Shift: The propaganda film for the Infinitors is even more cartoony, with everyone having much sharper angles.
- Buffy Speak: Phantom Girl says that General Zod is not just "one of the bad guys" but "one of the worst guys".
- Butt-Monkey: Zatanna offers Nightwing's SUV to the Trogowogs in exchange for fixing the magic school bus ("I'm not Bruce Wayne, y'know!") and Tigress offers his bag of chips to the lone dissenter just to rub salt in the wound.
- The Cameo: In the stinger, Plastic Man briefly appears assuming the form of a giant pair of scissors for a ribbon cutting ceremony.
- Continuity Nod:
- Metahumans like Lizard Johnny and Kobold have been seen in previous episodes as victims of the Light's metahuman trafficking efforts. Brion specifically mentions that he remembers Johnny from the Outsiders' rescue mission in Cuba.
- Dr. Helga Jace is now head of Markovia's metahuman outreach efforts, which has gone public about using Tar (called T.R.) in injections to activate latent metahuman abilities for volunteers to join the Infinitors. Notably, the recruitment video emphasizes becoming a part of their "family", as Jace has shown the psychotic belief that metahumans she activates are her "children".
- Corrupt the Cutie: Lizard Johnny starts out shy and unsure, but a little pushing from Zviad has him excited to join the Infinitors.
- Easily Forgiven:
- Since his breakthrough with Black Canary a few episodes ago, Gar has apologized to M'gann and his friends for his recent jerkish behavior, and expresses sincere gratitude that they've all been very forgiving and understanding of his mental health issues. He still hasn't reached out to Perdita yet, though, feeling that he messed things up with her too badly for a simple apology.
- More sinisterly, Zviad can influence this in others. Lizard Johnny is at first uncertain how safe he feels with Brion, having seen the gruesome footage of his extrajudicial killing of his uncle, but one talk from Zviad later and he's suddenly feeling that Brion's actions were totally justified.
- Everyone Can See It: At a support group meeting, Tara sarcastically comments that it's obvious whom Violet is referring to when speaking about a potential romantic interest (Harper), saying she could see the crush every time they were together.
- Extra-Dimensional Shortcut: As Phantom Girl explains to Conner, she is capable of phasing like Miss Martian, but does it not by altering her density but by shifting in and out of a parallel dimension where her home planet of Bgztl resides.
- False Flag Operation: Lizard Johnny is confronted by a lynch mob of anti-metahuman bigots at the border of Markovia. They're taken out by Infinitors, but their leader gets away and is shown to be Everyman in disguise. Notably, Brion isn't in on the plot and is annoyed about the leader supposedly "getting past" Everyman undetected. Brion is in the process of Spotting the Thread about this at least once when Zviad intervenes and distracts him with his More than Mind Control powers.
- Fantastic Racism: The Light is using the Infinitors to covertly galvanize anti-metahuman groups in Markovia while also threatening anyone without the genetic potential for meta abilities to leave or die.
- Good Cop/Bad Cop: Everyman mistakes Fury holding him back when the Infinitors threaten the minister for an invocation of this trope and praises her for adding drama to their performance. In reality, she was genuinely afraid he was going to hurt him.
- Griping About Gremlins: According to Zatanna, Trogowogs are responsible for the myths about gremlins, being fond of disassembling any machines they can get their claws on. They can also reassemble just about anything if motivated/bribed, though they like taking them apart more.
- Lantern Jaw of Justice: In the Infinitor promo commercial, Brion has a comically exaggerated superhero figure, jawline included.
- Locked Out of the Loop:
- M'gann has been deliberately been kept out of the investigation by the rest of the team despite it repeatedly being shown that Keeping Secrets Sucks and has backfired on occasion. Justified in that none of them want to keep it a secret, but agree that if they're wrong (they're not) or fail to rescue Conner (which is a possibility), it would be the straw that broke the camel's back after everything she's been through. However, unbeknownst to them, someone with experience repairing fractured minds would really come in handy right now...
- Because Phantom Girl was in a coma this whole time, she doesn't know that Conner is suffering Zone-sickness (which has made him Brainwashed and Crazy) and thus doesn't realize that he's become fanatically loyal to Zod.
- Despite Zviad's manipulations, Brion is still enough of a hero that the Light is keeping him out of their plot. It's only when the rogue Infinitors make the mistake of trying to include Fury that Brion gains an insight into what's happening under his nose.
- More than Mind Control: Zviad's mental manipulation gets subtly demonstrated when multiple people are shown complying with his requests, even changing their opinion, after a short talk with him. Notably Violet and Brion's reunion seemed rocky but amicable, but literally the moment he walks in they're suddenly bitterly rejecting each other.
- Muggle Power: An anti-metahuman group has organized in the wake of Markovia opening its borders to meta refugees, though it's secretly being organized by the Light to make Markovia less non-meta friendly.
- Mythology Gag:
- Conner telling Phantom Girl that she will Kneel Before Zod.
- Geo-Force's appearance in the Infinitor propaganda film is taken directly from his design in Batman: The Brave and the Bold, just with a different costume.
- Named After Somebody Famous: Beast Boy's new emotional support dog is named Wingman after the sidekick of the first "mystery man" superhero, Crimson Avenger.
- Nice Job Breaking It, Hero: Phantom Girl tries to talk Conner into leaving the Phantom Zone with her, but he hasn't snapped out of his Zone-sickness and instead reveals what she can do to Dru and Ursa, forcing her to flee back to Mars alone.
- Oblivious to Love: Violet is genuinely shocked by Harper wanting a deeper relationship, even though Tara lampshades Harper's obvious crush.
- Patriotic Fervor: Phantom Girl explains to Superboy that Dru-Zod tried to take over Krypton because he didn't like how its government handled first contact with New Genesis, the implication being he was motivated by paranoid nationalism.
- Precious Puppy: During the support group meeting, Gar introduces his new emotional support dog, a corgi named Wingman. Gar himself also qualifies when he briefly takes the dog's form to play with him.
- Relationship Upgrade: After things with Brion go south again, Violet reaches out to Harper, who previously expressed interest in being more than friends.
- Shame If Something Happened: A Markovian dignitary discusses with Brion how their recruitment of metahumans from a foreign territory looks like they're poaching from the Justice League's meta outreach center. He's later visited at home by three Infinitors, with the threat that something can happen to him and the rest of his non-meta family, who'd probably be happier in nearby Vlatava.
- Smug Smiler: Zviad is in top form here, infinitely proud of himself for manipulating others left and right.
- Teleporter Accident: Phantom Girl describes her and Conner being trapped in the Phantom Zone as this. Her intent had been to phase Conner into her home dimension and then safely back to Mars, but a combination of his density and incredible pain from the lava instead stranded them within the buffer between the two dimensions, which happens to be the Phantom Zone.
- Toilet Humor: While shifted into the form of a corgi to play around with Wingman, Gar takes a moment to jokingly assure the rest of the therapy group that he hasn't... gone native in that form, so to speak.Gar: We take walks together so he can do his business. Don't worry, I still do my business in actual bathrooms.
- Token Good Teammate: Brion is kept in the dark about the Infinitors' more shady actions, while Fury finds what she does see abhorrent. She commiserates with Brion about her misgivings.
- Wound That Will Not Heal: As Phantom Girl discovers the hard way, she may not have been able to feel her burn in the Phantom Zone, but it also didn't heal. She's hit with extreme pain when she phases back into normal reality.
