Answers come to light as Beast Boy, Miss Martian and Superboy uncover the awful truth.
Tropes:
- Accidental Murder: What the king's death actually was. After being confronted by J'emm and the others, S'yrra confesses that she was trying to convince King S'turrn to consider giving her his blessing for her love with the prince. When he furiously rejected her plea, S'yrra lost control of her emotions and her magic instinctively reacted, lashing out and striking him down. She fled in horror at the accident she caused. Any connection to the Zeta bombing was only coincidental.
- Ambiguous Situation: The time-travelling villain adds something to the viral bomb, and later when Superman comes in he can feel kryptonite in the air. The implication is that the device he placed was a shielded canister of kryptonite to ensure the bomb killed Conner, but neither are explicitly confirmed. Furthermore, the bomb would have gone undetected had the villain not tampered with it in the first place, saving a considerable number of lives from a bombing that otherwise would have gone as planned, but it wouldn't have killed Conner because he wouldn't have found it.
- Asshole Victim: The king turns out to be this. While he felt that Greens and Whites were equal, he felt the Reds were better than both, and so refused to let his son marry S'yrra. When she begged him for understanding he coldly refused and she killed him in a fit of rage.
- Beneath Notice: The White Martian servants are so unremarkable that even the guard in charge refuses to pay attention to them out of contempt. S'yrra was able to sneak in simply because no Green Martian would believe one of their own would take a White Martian’s form, and a key witness is almost completely overlooked because of this.
- Bittersweet Ending: The mystery behind King S'turrn's murder is finally solved. R'ess tries to use the discovery as a means to further secure the Martian Caste System, but Prince J'emm rallies to end it once and for all. Conner, Gar, and Megan find a bomb that M'comm planted, but Conner sacrifices himself to disable it, right before their wedding. Meanwhile, the Legionnaires are no closer to capturing their target, who had added "something" to the bomb before it went off and escaped before they could intercept him.
- Borrowed Catchphrase: Conner uses M'gann's "Hello, Megan!" catchphrase during his "Eureka!" Moment.
- Death by Racism: The King's death would not have happened if not for his extremely negative reaction to inter-class marriage. Without his bigotry, he would still be alive.
- "Eureka!" Moment: Conner recalls feeling something "familiar" when he and Gar looked at the murder scene. In the midst of J'emm's birthday ceremony, Conner likens the spells cast on stage to Zatanna's magic and then remembers that magic users like her give off energy residue. This allows them to finally narrow down to the person behind the late king's death: S'yrra. Prince J'emm had come to the same conclusion before them, deducing S'yrra's likely involvement from their description of a Green Martian masquerading as a White Martian.
- Heroic Sacrifice: Superboy throws himself and the bomb into lava to make sure the virus is destroyed before the bomb can go off and scatter it. While ordinarily not something that would kill him, the lack of sunlight combined with an added kryptonite payload is too much, and all that seems to left of him is a blast shadow on the rock, with the residual kryptonite and extreme heat preventing Superman or the Martians from investigating further.
- Ignored Epiphany: R'ess E'dda has one for a brief moment when confronted with evidence that a Green Martian killed the king, but then doubles down on his bigotry.
- Invulnerable Knuckles: Averted as a sign of Superboy's weakened state due to the lack of sunlight. When he punches through the floor to get to the lava flow, his knuckles are noticeably bruised and bleeding.
- Kill It with Fire: Conner dumps the viral bomb into the lava, reasoning the extreme heat will neutralize the virus before the explosive charge can go off and scatter it. He's right, but it seemingly costs him his life because he has to dive in with it to shatter the containers and the bomb has a kryptonite payload.
- Magic Pants: The lava burns Conner's shirt and skin, but his pants seem to hold up well enough in the few shots that show his waist.
- Moving the Goalposts: R’ess E’dda has spent the entire time insisting that a White Martian must be responsible for the King’s death, since no Green Martian would do such a thing. When he's confronted with irrefutable evidence that a Green Martian WAS responsible, he hesitates for a moment...and then turns this into a lesson on how the caste system must be upheld and breaking it in any way will lead to disaster. J’emm doesn’t let him get away with it.
- Never Found the Body: In this episode at least, all that seems to be left of Conner is a blast shadow against the rock near the lava flow, as the kryptonite in the air and extreme heat keeps both Superman and the Martians from taking a closer look. He's assumed dead because M'gann can't sense his mind.
- Never Trust a Trailer: The scene of a blood-spattered Conner attacking at full blast was not him beating up a person, but rather his own blood as he tears his way through the floor to get rid of the bomb.
- Nice Job Breaking It, Hero: M'gann senses Saturn Girl's telepathy from the last time there was an explosion, and blocks her from them. While it's a sensible choice in context, it means that the Legion members can't locate them in time to stop Conner's sacrifice.
- Power Incontinence: S'yrra was training with the Yellow Martians to control her magic, but her relationship with J'emm had her neglecting it. This led to her losing control over her powers in pure fury at King S'turnn's utter contempt of their love, killing him.
- Red Herring: The entire subplot about King S'turnn's assassination turns out to be one of these, as it has no connection to the destruction of the satellite or the Zeta Tube.
- Scars Are Forever: K'arr M'anng, a White Martian, keeps a scar he could probably heal from to remember not to trust the M'hontrrs or the G'arrunn.
- The Stinger: The heartbreaking credits scene shows M'gann crying on the altar where she and Conner were to be married.
- The Unreveal: The arc ends with no knowledge of the identity of the Legion's target or why the Mars-Earth satellite or Zeta Tube were destroyed in the first place.
- Wham Episode: Superboy seemingly dies saving the Martians from the bomb.
- Widowed at the Wedding: M'gann and her friends solve King S'turrn's murder, but Conner sacrifices himself to prevent M'comm's bomb from going off. All before the day of their wedding. Played straight in the stinger where she is alone and crying at the recently built altar.
