Pat is reminded of painful memories from his past; Mike is forced to confront the guilt he feels for his role in Icicle's death; Courtney struggles to hold on to hope after Eclipso targets those around her and Pat reveals a devastating secret about the original JSA to her.
Tropes:
- Accomplice by Inaction: Pat feels this way about Bruce Gordon's death. He may not have agreed to it, but he still drove Starman there and didn't intervene when he could have.
- Adaptational Nice Guy: Comic-book Spectre would have had no qualms killing Bruce Gordon to take out Eclipso, even before the JSA considered it as a viable option. Apparently, Earth-2's Spectre either has more of a conscience or is more tightly bound by the Powers that Be than his counterpart.
- Adaptational Wimp: When he isn't being worfed in the comics, Spectre is one of the few characters capable of keeping Eclipso in check as long as Eclipso isn't at full power and actually replaced him as the embodiment of God's wrath at one point. Here, it's mentioned that he, along with the Hawks and Doctor Fate, was unable to neutralize Eclipso while the demon was still bound to the Heart of Darkness diamond, necessitating the JSA to take drastic action.
- Awful Truth: It turns out that in order to stop Eclipso's initial rampage, the JSA was forced to kill his host, Bruce Gordon.
- Back from the Dead: Jordan Mahkent seemingly returns to take his revenge on Barbara, but thanks to the Shade's intervention it's revealed to be yet another Eclipso illusion.
- Bad People Abuse Animals: When the illusion of Cameron is attacking Mike, Max the dog comes in to save him. However, he is frozen to death by Cameron. Luckily, that too is an illusion and Max is just fine once Courtney frees Mike from Eclipso's control.
- Bittersweet Ending: Eclipso has failed to kill any of the Dugans, but he's still driven a wedge between Courtney and her parents by getting Pat to reveal the truth about Eclipso's past with the JSA.
- Both Sides Have a Point:
- The main ethical debate this episode is whether they need to kill Eclipso's host to save the day or exorcise the malevolent spirit and save the host. While Pat is firmly on the side of not killing, the other side does have a good point. Eclipso is a purely evil being, and being allowed to run around unchecked will result in the deaths of many, many more people, such as Dr. Mid-Nite's daughter. As Spock famously said, "The Needs of the Many outweigh the needs of the few." It's also mentioned that Doctor Fate and Green Lantern, the magic users, were unable to stop him, so presumably exorcism wasn't a feasible option anyway.
- The disagreement Courtney has with Pat over his withholding how the original JSA broke Thou Shall Not Kill to stop Eclipso. Pat was clearly trying to protect Courtney and the team, who are a bunch of inexperienced teenagers, from the trauma that goes along with making life-or-death decisions when no other options are seemingly available, pointing out that in the aftermath, the original JSA suffered a Heroic BSoD that ultimately led to their defeat by the Injustice Society. On Courtney's side, however, this information still would have been nice to know and perhaps more importantly, the trust between her and Pat (and probably Barbara since she also knew) has been damaged.
- Broken Bird: In killing Bruce to stop Eclipso, the JSA ended up destroying themselves.
- Broken Pedestal: There are two.
- Pat has one in the past when Starman sides with Hourman (Rex Tyler) and Wildcat (Ted Grant) against him and the Flash to kill Eclipso's host since it's the only known way to defeat him but goes against the JSA's Thou Shall Not Kill credo.
- Courtney has hers in the present when Pat reveals this to her and that he ultimately helped them. For Courtney, it's not so much that he helped kill someone as that he kept this information from her and the team at a time when they really needed any possible solution or advantage that they could get. The fact that Barbara also knew and withheld this information makes it even worse.
- The Bus Came Back: Jordan Mahkent and the Shade return in this episode, with the latter revealing the former to be another of Eclipso's mind games.
- Call-Back: Yolanda was the first one to theorize that killing Eclipso might be the only way to defeat him back in Chapter 7 and here it's confirmed that killing Eclipso's host body is one, if not the sole, method of defeating him. Unfortunately, as Eclipso seemingly no longer needs a human conduit, it might be too late to try this method, let alone that the same previous episode demonstrated that none of the JSA members are thrilled about the possibility of having to take a life.
- Calling the Old Man Out: Courtney calls out both Pat and Barbara for keeping the fact that the only proven way to defeat Eclipso is to kill his human host from her and the team when they had a chance to try this method and for continuing to withhold it while Eclipso was picking them off one by one.
- Continuity Nod: Rebecca McNider's death at Eclipso's hands from "Summer School: Chapter One" is remembered, with Pat and the original JSA attending her funeral in a flashback.
- Deal with the Devil:
- It's implied that Eclipso gave Bruce Gordon all the fame and fortune he ever wanted, but in return, he ended up destroying the lives of everyone Bruce cared about.
- When Bruce realizes the consequences of his success, he tries to take his own life, only for Eclipso to talk him out of it in exchange for reclaiming the woman he loves. Unfortunately, she's married to Dr. Mid-Nite and Eclipso chooses to target their daughter.
- Dramatic Irony: The flashbacks hit doubly hard considering the Cosmic Staff, in the present, is demonstrated to be capable of purging Eclipso's influence from a host, though it's not clear if that would have worked on someone Eclipso was directly possessing.
- Evil Laugh: At the end of the episode, as the Dugans have a falling out due to Pat and Barbara not telling Courtney about the JSA's dark secret, Eclipso, in his child form, looks on from the window, while giggling wickedly.
- Flashback: Most of Pat's scenes are flashbacks to his time with the JSA as they were dealing with Eclipso.
- For Your Own Good: This is how Pat justifies keeping the secret of how the original JSA defeated Eclipso. Being willing to kill a man to end the threat fundamentally broke them as a unit, and the fallout from that is what allowed the ISA to reform and ultimately triumph over them.
- Godzilla Threshold: Breaking the JSA's no-kill policy and murdering Eclipso's human host was how the original JSA defeated him. They tried to find another way, but the Spectre, the Hawks, and Doctor Fate all failed to stop him. When he crossed the line and threatened their families directly, Starman, Wildcat, and Hourman got desperate.
- Goggles Do Something Unusual: In his civvies, Dr. McNider wears sunglasses that seem to work like a stripped-down version of his goggles.
- The Heart: Jay Garrick appeared to be this to the original JSA, being the kindest one towards Pat at Rebecca's funeral as well as being firmly on Pat's side about not breaking the Thou Shalt Not Kill rule.
- Heroic BSoD:
- Pat explains that, after crossing the Thou Shall Not Kill line, the original JSA's morale took a heavy hit, allowing the reformed Injustice Society to strike and ultimately take them all out.
- Dr. Mid-Nite suffered one after Rebecca's murder, not helped by the fact that his wife blamed him for not being there to save her.
- It's Personal: Eclipso murdering Dr. Mid-Nite's daughter and threatening the other JSA members' families is what pushed them to break their Thou Shall Not Kill policy to defeat him.
- Kill the Host Body: This is how the original JSA defeated Eclipso, having gotten desperate after he threatened their families and killed McNider's daughter. Since he needs a host to act while trapped in the Black Diamond, killing Bruce Gordon effectively punted him back inside the diamond and left him powerless. Obviously, this isn't an option in the present.
- Mythology Gag:
- Just like in the comics, Eclipso's original discoverer and host is Bruce Gordon.
- The Spectre, Eclipso's arch-enemy in the comics, is mentioned as having tried and failed to neutralize the demon.
- A magazine is shown in Gordon's study with the title My Greatest Adventure. This is also the title of a DC comic book.
- Nice Job Breaking It, Hero:
- Played with in Pat's case. Pat's decision to not tell the current JSA that Eclipso could be defeated by killing his human host deprived them of at least one solution to the demon directly threatening them until it was too late, resulting in Yolanda leaving the team and Rick being incarcerated. That being said, it's unlikely that any of them would have been willing to murder Cindy in cold blood even if they had known it was an option, and Courtney's fury is more from the fact that Pat kept the knowledge itself from her than the idea she could have applied it.
- Played straight in that the original JSA's last-resort decision to kill Eclipso's host, Bruce Gordon, left them mentally and cohesively fractured as a team, which in turn led to them ultimately falling to the Injustice Society.
- Out of Focus: The Shade returns, but from a distance in a flashback and as a disembodied voice in the present.
- Papa Wolf:
- After Eclipso killed his daughter, Dr. Mid-Nite was willing to do anything to stop him.
- Ted Grant, previously seen as a Nice Guy and Gentle Giant, mentions that he has a son, and similarly will do anything to stop Eclipso.
- Parental Abandonment: Eclipso-as-Cameron needles into Mike by bringing up how his birth mother left him.
- Psychic Strangle: A variation happens to Mike when Cameron starts freezing his esophagus from within, causing him to choke, though it's not actually happening for real.
- Pyrrhic Victory: The original JSA was able to end Eclipso's reign of terror, but they could only stop him by killing his human host. Even worse, the fact that they resorted to murder and that not all of them were morally onboard with this option struck a serious blow to their morale, causing the team to fracture. The Injustice Society took full advantage of their split to regroup, leading to the JSA's defeat.
- The Reveal: The Dark Secret Pat and Barb have been keeping from the kids is that the JSA killed Eclipso's host as a desperate measure to stop the demon's rampage after all other avenues failed, and that this incident more than anything else is why the JSA lost to the ISA.
- Sacrificial Lamb: Bruce Gordon becomes this the minute the JSA realize that killing Eclipso's human host body is the only way to stop him.
- Same Character, But Different: John Wesley Shipp appears as Earth-2 Jay Garrick; there's an implication that as pre-Crisis Earth-2 had Hunter Zolomon pretending to be Jay, the Cosmic Retcon saw fit to provide the real thing. While he has the same helmet and the same costume, this is not the same Jay we see on The Flash.
- Shoot the Dog: Cameron murders Buddy when the dog barks at him, but fortunately it's just an illusion.
- Stating the Simple Solution: Eclipso tells Gordon that if he truly wants to be rid of him, then all he needs to do is put down the Black Diamond. Unfortunately, Eclipso knows he won't do it because he doesn't want to let go of the power.
- Thou Shall Not Kill: The original JSA fell out over this since they ultimately did kill Eclipso's human host to defeat him as a measure of last resort, and the Flash and Pat had been adamant that there had to be another way. Pat explains to Courtney that the team was never the same afterward, allowing the Injustice Society to reform itself and take advantage of their lapse in morale to overwhelm and defeat them.
- Wham Line:
- With the vote to kill Gordon tied, Pat assumes Starman will decide no...and Sylvester says "I vote yes."
- Courtney is irate at Pat keeping secret how the JSA killed Gordon.Courtney: What's my mom going to say?
Pat: She knows.
- What the Hell, Hero?: Courtney delivers one to Pat when she learns that he kept the information about defeating Eclipso by killing his human host a secret from her and the team, pointing out that he continued to do this even after Eclipso was freed from the diamond and began targeting them. She then moves to Barbara when Pat reveals he already told her the truth.
- You Killed My Father: Cameron wants revenge on Mike for running Jordan over and seems to be in the process of choking him to death, but Courtney reveals this to be an illusion.
- You Owe Me: Eclipso outright says this to Bruce Gordon when convincing him to let him possess him. Of course, we already know how he treats people who say the same to him.
