Zatanna and her students investigate a magical disturbance.
Tropes:
- Above Good and Evil: The narrator of the episode explains the purpose of the Lords of Order and Chaos and how their duty of maintaining the cosmic balance between their forces is beyond morality. However, he does add that evil, implied here as Vandal Savage, may be considered any force that works to disrupt this balance, as such a shift heralds the end of the universe.
- Always a Bigger Fish: The other Lords of Chaos to Klarion, and specifically Child. He freaks out when he senses her, and when she summons him he has no choice but to obey.
- As You Know: Lampshaded. Savage is annoyed by the Phantom Stranger visiting him only to tell him a story he already knows, that being how he and Klarion met. The Phantom Stranger cryptically says that Savage will need to remember the story, then disappears rather than elaborate.
- Atop a Mountain of Corpses: Savage finds Klarion atop a pile of his kin, laughing at the bloodshed he has caused.
- Attention Deficit... Ooh, Shiny!: Klarion, upon sensing Child's arrival on Earth, panics and abruptly leaves a discussion with the rest of the Light, saying he has no time to explain. However, on his way there, he apparently gets distracted by some hummingbirds and stops to torture them.
- Becoming the Boast: The former con artist Madame Xanadu has become a genuine psychic after her encounter with Kent Nelson and Abra Kadabra.
- Blatant Lies: Beast Boy's attempts to assure Blue Devil that he's fine are transparently false, but Blue Devil is too polite to press him on it.
- The Bus Came Back: Madame Xanadu returns after three entire seasons, now a Not-So-Phony Psychic and a powerful ally to Zatanna.
- Bus Full of Innocents: One shows up as Zatanna and her students are landing their borrowed merry-go-round animals. It's immediately lampshaded that a school bus shouldn't be driving children around at night.Zatanna: [Shrugs] Buses happen.
- Call-Back: Child visits the site where Klarion and the other sorcerers split the world between adults and children back in season 1.
- There's also a reference to the incident where Xanadu encountered Abra Kadabra and Kent Nelson, inspiring her to learn actual magic.
- Klarion also brings up his imprisonment in the Tower of Fate in season 3. It took him 16 days to escape.
- Character Development: Madame Xanadu has learned to use real magic since her first appearance back in Season 1.
- Cold-Blooded Torture: When they first met, Klarion killed almost everyone in Vandal Savage's village then spent 300 days killing him repeatedly when he wouldn't die. Eventually, he gave up.
- Curb-Stomp Battle: When Klarion and Savage first met, Klarion slaughtered his village for fun and then spent 300 days repeatedly trying to kill Savage, who only survived because of his limitless regenerative abilities. By the end, Klarion only stopped because he found an unkillable foe intriguing.
- Curb Stomp Cushion: Klarion isn't seriously threatened by Zatanna or her students and nearly kills them all, but they at least hold him off for a bit.
- Determinator: Savage tried to kill Klarion for almost a whole year straight. No matter how many times Klarion wound up killing him, he just got right back up and kept fighting. Their battle only ended when Klarion decided to stop it, intrigued by Savage.
- Dramatic Irony: The Stinger shows Saturn Girl and Chameleon watching Beast Boy's Star Trek Expy on a cell phone, where his character tells his crew they mustn't give up the fight no matter how many friends they'll lose. Complete opposite of what Beast Boy is currently feeling.
- Empty Fridge, Empty Life: Mist was clearing out the Outsiders' fridge of content that was Way Past the Expiration Date, and it applies to Beast Boy as he currently feels incredibly empty inside.
- Energy Absorption: Mary Bromfield, instead of transforming with Shazam, now channels magic from ley lines to power her spells. At one point she absorbs magical energy from Klarion himself to fire it right back at him. This pisses him off and leads to him trying to overload her.
- Exhausted Eye Bags: Beast Boy is suffering a serious case of this, and his last scene has him buying some sleep medication.
- Faux Affably Evil: In contrast to Klarion's Spoiled Brat behavior, Child acts very politely when she kills and dissects a man, even framing it as a "reward" for giving her a name.
- Foil: The ominously proclaimed "Child" is creepy in the exact opposite way Klarion is. While the latter only plays at being a child, being remarkable in appearance and sadistically petulant, the former goes the other direction of appearing very innocuous, being unceasingly polite and having no emotion towards the atrocities she commits other than the curiosity that inspires them.
- For the Evulz: Typical of Klarion, he showed up in Vandal Savage's village one day and slaughtered them all just to amuse himself.
- Forced Sleep: Khalid uses his powers to put Teekl to sleep, to weaken Klarion's connection to the Earthly plane. It works for a few seconds, until Klarion knocks him out.
- Freeze-Frame Bonus: For a couple of seconds, you can read that Flaw was made from the Star of Atlantis, a famous gem with a noticeable flaw.
- Gender Flip: The Child was a boy in Amethyst, Princess of Gemworld.
- The Genie Knows Jack Nicholson: Klarion is dressed exactly the same as he is in the present when he first meets Savage, even though that kind of fashion is a few thousand years away.
- Glamour: Zatanna uses a glamour spell to hide herself, her students, and the annoying demons they're trying to apprehend in the middle of Manhattan.
- Golem: Child creates a diamond golem as her familiar, which she dubs Flaw based on a scar near its "heart".
- Gorn: What Zatanna and her students come across when they find what's left of the dead security guard.
- Green Thumb: Khalid manages to manipulate a tree during the training exercise. Zatanna reminds him to reverse this magic when he's done to keep the balance between nature and magic, and for "the tree's sake".
- Harmless Liquefaction: Mary manages to send Klarion flying into a wall, turning him into a pile of goo. He is a Lord of Chaos, so he just reforms and strikes back.
- Horrifying the Horror: Klarion, who is immortal and immensely powerful, and who murders and tortures for fun, is visibly terrified when he senses the arrival of another Lord of Chaos.
- Inertia Is a Cruel Mistress: Mary transfers her Speed of Mercury into a demon causing it to lose control and knock around like a pinball, so that she can capture it.
- Infodump: Quite literally dumped into Mary's mind; Madame Xanadu sends some magic smoke Mary's way that makes her recite Xanadu's backstory of being a former charlatan who became a real psychic after an encounter with Kent Nelson and Abra Kadabra.
- It Only Works Once: Klarion dispels Zatanna's teleportation ankh before it can send him to the Tower of Fate, since it took him 16 days to escape last time and he isn't keen on a repeat.
- It Seemed Like a Good Idea at the Time: Klarion shows up late to Child manifesting herself because he stopped to torture some hummingbirds. He defensively says it seemed like a fun idea.
- Kick the Dog:
- Apparently Klarion stopped to torture some hummingbirds on his way to the museum where Child made her anchor. His familiar warned him it was a waste of time.
- From Klarion's point of view, It's "Kick the Cat", as he is sick of the heroes going after Teekl every time they fight.
- Kryptonite-Proof Suit: Anchors are the weak points on a Lord of Chaos or Order, and can be hurt or destroyed to weaken or banish them. Child reduces this weakness by forging her anchor out of solid diamond.
- Let's Get Dangerous!: After foiling a second attempt by Zatanna to send him to the Tower of Fate, Klarion loses his temper and says he's done playing around, intending to kill all four immediately.
- Me's a Crowd: Klarion splits himself in four so he can choke all four heroes at once.
- My Significance Sense Is Tingling: Before the Child incarnates, she sends out a global pulse that's shown to be felt by every mystical character, most of whom begin to investigate. Klarion in particular freaks out during a meeting of the Light and quickly excuses himself.
- Near-Villain Victory: Klarion nearly kills Zatanna and all her students, until Child summons him, forcing him to stop choking them all.
- Noodle Incident: Mary Bromfield shows up and explains that she used to be a superheroine, before she had to give it up because she was too young for it. Now she's a student of Zatanna to become a general mage, largely channeling magic from ambient magic to call upon one of the powers of Shazam at a time, either to empower herself or others. She seems to still be empowered as a champion, as she pointedly avoids saying "Shazam" herself.
- Oh, Crap!: Klarion panics when he realizes another chaos entity has come to Earth, and doubly so when he finds out it's Child.
- Only in It for the Money: Downplayed. Madame Xanadu is friendly with Zatanna and willingly helps her out, but does still insist on receiving payment for services rendered. As she says, "Favors don't keep the lights on."
- Overly Narrow Superlative: Zatanna's students are the best she has. As is immediately pointed out, they're also the only students she has.
- Pronouncing My Name for You: Khalid corrects Traci's pronunciation of his name.Traci: You too, Khaleed!
Khalid: I prefer it Khalid? Like in the back of the throat? - Race Lift: The Phantom Stranger is reimagined as a black man here.
- Running Gag: The bus full of innocents mentioned above, which has appeared repeatedly through the series. Especially notable since said bus is driven by the exact same guy every time it appears in danger.
- Shout-Out:
- When Zatanna has the merry-go-round animals fly off, Mary calls out that Mary Poppins also did it.
- Also, her spell for doing so is, "Ylf, ym seitterp!"
- Stealth Hi/Bye: The Phantom Stranger pulls this on Savage after Savage complains about his vague warnings.
- The Stinger: Saturn Girl and Chameleon Boy are sitting on a bench on Earth, snacking on chips and watching an episode of Beast Boy's Star Trek Expy on a cell phone.
- Super-Empowering: Mary Bromfield can now call upon one of the powers of Shazam at a time to empower herself or others. She grants the Speed of Mercury to accelerate a demon faster than it could control and the Power of Zeus to give Zatanna a boost.
- Wham Line: Savage requests that Klarion return to the site of his village of meta-human offspring in one thousand years, which he's named Atlantis.
- Wham Shot: The reveal at the end of the episode that the mysterious narrator, who has been talking to Vandal this whole time, is the Phantom Stranger.
- Why Don't You Just Shoot Him?: This episode is an apt demonstration of why Klarion doesn't usually go for the kill: because he'd handily succeed and then there'd be no show. The Sentinels aren't pushovers, but they're hardly a match for a Lord of Chaos, and the only reason they don't die there and then is because of Child's poorly-timed arrival.
- Wowing Cthulhu: Savage attacked Klarion for destroying his village, only for the Witch Boy to kill him over and over for almost a whole year. Klarion stopped because Savage's continued persistence interested him, enough that he agreed to a deal with Savage.
