Tired of his family never spending time with him, Korvo decides to become a magician so that people will pay attention to him. With the combination of his science know-how and sleight of hand, he becomes the greatest magician there ever was. This, however, isn't enough even with his family applauding his act.
Within the Wall, Tim welcomes newcomer Cherie, a Benihana chef that was shrunken for serving shrimp to Yumyulack. They help a young man obtain insulin for his diabetic father.
Tropes for this episode include:
- Ain't Too Proud to Beg: When the Duke appears to be not willing to give Pedro the insulin for his father, Pedro desperately begs the Duke for the insulin. The Duke actually hears out Pedro's pleas and gives the insulin to Enrique... right after beheading Pedro.
- Book Ends: The episode starts with Korvo hosting Taco Tuesdays to make his family learn about ship training. It ends with the family hosting a Taco Tuesday in Korvo's honor.
- Establishing Character Moment: The Duke is established as a ruthless overlord of the Wall; he act cordial and reasonable to Pedro, while claiming that he is "not a monster," before suddenly having his enforcer to behead Pedro for causing a riot that cost the life of one of his enforcers and several others.
- Cherie is acknowledgeable of movies and an Action Girl as she uses her kitchen knives to fend off the Duke's enforcers.
- Everyone Has Standards: Yumyulack doesn't react well when learning that the magicians he killed to save Terry and Korvo were just acting out a part on Korvo's payroll.
- Faking the Dead: Korvo made a clone of himself to convince the world that he was really dead with the black hole trick.
- Fatal Method Acting: In-universe, Korvo paid several magicians to try and kill him. They were in on it being just a show for his family. His family thinks he's died for real and host a funeral for him.
- Mean Character, Nice Actor: It's revealed the magicians were threatening Korvo's life because he paid them to put on a good performance. Yumyulack is horrified in realizing they were innocent.
- Nice Job Breaking It, Hero: Pedro, Tim, and Cherie stole a Playboy magazine to barter the Duke for the insulin. But, as revealed by the Duke, their theft inadvertently started a riot that killed several people and leading to Pedro's execution as punishment.
- No Celebrities Were Harmed: Two of the magicians threatening Korvo's life are obviously meant to be Penn & Teller, but neither of them (or to be more accurate, just Penn) has any speaking lines and nobody refers to them by name.
- Off with His Head!: Pedro is executed without warning by having his head separated with a floss pick.
- Pyrrhic Victory: Pedro gets the insulin from the Duke, at the cost of his life. His father is tearful as he recovers and asks how he can go on without his son.
- Took a Level in Badass:
- Tim has become an accomplished archer since he entered the wall.
- Cherie goes from a Naïve Newcomer to a defensive knife-wielder when the fracas in the marketplace demands it.
- Villain Has a Point: The Duke is a ruthless overlord, but he is at least right to call out on Pedro and his friends for indirectly causing a riot that claimed the lives of several people, which Pedro caused by robbing a man.
- Wrong Genre Savvy: Korvo says he watches biopics of famous people and says he assumes they're fine since he stops after they shut out the people in their life.
