While a rift among her soldiers widens, Diyoza puts Abby to the test. Octavia clashes with Clarke, who discovers a gruesome new threat.
Tropes in this episode:
- Alone with the Psycho: Played with. Kane and Abby are stuck like this with Vinson, though he isn't really aware of it when committing violence, and they have a restraining collar to shock him into submission.
- Believing Their Own Lies: Octavia has completely bought into the propaganda she created in the bunker, both in her own infallibility and a complete Us vs. Them mentality.
- Bungled Suicide: Diyoza has one as part of her backstory, hence the neck scar.
- Call-Back: A few:
- Octavia has taken on Lexa's view that Love Is a Weakness. Indra calls her out on the nonsense of the statement.
- "The head and the heart" comes up again while Clarke and Bellamy discuss the quandary of the impending war between Diyoza's crew and Octavia's...cult.
- Censor Decoy: Wonkru re-pitches their miniature camp city with all the lanterns on, then sets up a makeshift one in the dark, made of men standing with the cloaks huddled together to form a makeshift shelter for an injured Octavia. Diyoza is so impressed by the audacity of it that she destroys the decoy but lets deliberately avoids the shelter.
- Cold-Blooded Torture: Raven and Murphy are tortured by the Eligius crew with shock collars, fists, and knives before Shaw steps in and puts a stop to it.
- Cryptic Background Reference: Mccreary hints that he and Diyoza used to be lovers when they were prisoners.
- Death Glare: Echo was probably happy that looks couldn't kill when Octavia saw her kiss Bellamy.
- Expecting Someone Taller: Madi says that she was "expecting [Murphy] to be funnier" based on Clarke's stories.
- Heroic Sacrifice: Done first by Raven, who concocts a plan that frees Murphy and warns her friends about the missile but leaves her stranded with the Eligius crew, and then by Murphy, who gets out of the rover so that his friends can reach Bellamy and Clarke.
- Implied Death Threat: Octavia gives a terrifying one to Bellamy mere seconds after assuring him that she is grateful that he is alive.
- Instantly Proven Wrong: Octavia's lieutenants claim the Eligius prisoners will never see Wonkru coming. Immediately afterwards we're shown an areal from the view of the drop ship.
- Noisy Shut-Up: Diyoza shuts up the partying prisoners by firing her gun into the air a lot.
- No One Could Survive That!: Said word for word by Diyoza after seeing the missile explosion.
- Reaction Shot: Bellamy and Echo's reunion kiss takes place on the side of the screen, with Clarke and Octavia's reactions being the main focus of the scene.
- Reunion Kiss: Bellamy and Echo kiss upon reuniting. Played with in that its significance is less about the couple and more about the reactions to the couple's reunion.
- Restraining Bolt: The prisoner Vinson is forced to wear one to control his violent impulses. He actually seems to be grateful to be wearing it. Later Murphy is fitting fitted with one as well.
- The Reveal: The sickness Diyoza spoke of before remains still remains unnamed, but causes Pulmonary Tumifaction. Abby speculates that it's caused by the unsafe mining conditions in the asteroid mines, specifically exposure to Hytholodium. Diyoza however reveals it has a viral source.
- Sand Worm: The desert around the remains of Polis turn out to be infested with them. It becomes a swarm of chestbursters by the end.
- She Cleans Up Nicely: Diyoza lets her hair down and puts on a t-shirt. Not much, but it works wonders.
- Ship Tease: Bellamy and Echo's Reunion Kiss is a Split Screen scene with Clarke's Reaction Shot, which is confusion she quickly channels into enthusiasm for Madi's benefit.
- Shout-Out: Murphy refers to Madi as a Hobbit.
- Slashed Throat: Diyoza reveals to Kane that the scar on her neck was part of a Better to Die than Be Killed attempt when she was about to be captured for her crimes. She admits it would have been more effective to shoot herself in the head.
- Villain Respect: Diyoza is so impressed by the devotion of Wonkru to Octavia that she lets her live when she could have easily killed her with a missile strike.
- What the Hell, Hero?: Raven rightfully calls out Shaw when he says that he knows Raven can't unlock the missiles because he locked them by pointing out that he has been allowing them to get tortured rather than risk the consequences himself.
