You gotta start somewhere to work your charm.
Miss Chalice reflects on how she got to where she is now, how she died, and her chance to be able to live again. Unbeknownst to her, the Devil is intending to use her greatest desire to get what he wants.
Tropes
- Cliffhanger: The episode ends with the Devil ordering Chalice to betray Cuphead and Mugman.
- A Day in the Limelight: The whole episode is dedicated to Miss Chalice, with Cuphead and Mugman making only brief appearances.
- Deal with the Devil: Not wanting to stay dead, Miss Chalice agrees to this so she can have a second chance at life, albeit being a "half-ghost" so she can switch from living to spirit anytime she wants. In exchange, she has to return a favor to him at a later date of his choosing. Fast-forward to the present with the Devil cashing in on said favor: Chalice has to bring in Cuphead and Mugman.
- Denied Food as Punishment: One of the ways that the penguin ladies punish Miss Chalice is by denying her lunchtime and forcing the poor girl to do more chores.
- Fun-Hating Villain: The penguin caretakers make “No fun of any kind” the number one rule in their orphanage.
- Give Me Back My Wallet: Before Chalice can leave the Underworld, the Devil notices his wallet was stolen and forces Chalice to give it back to him. She still manages to get away with stealing Henchman's wallet.
- Great Escape: After having enough of the penguins mistreating her, Chalice plans her escape and succeeds.
- Laser-Guided Karma: Chalice's method of charming/scamming people ends with her paying a visit to the Devil.
- Look Both Ways: Chalice gets run over by a trolley. She probably should've watched where she was dancing...
- Once More, with Clarity: Not too long after she was revived, Chalice was caught stealing an apple by a bee cop, hence why she was seen being chased by him in "In Charm's Way", and led to her indirectly meeting up with the Cup Brothers in the process.
- Origins Episode: The episode explains how Chalice became a charmer and how she got her ghostly powers by making a deal with the Devil.
- Orphanage of Fear: Inkwell's city orphanage is ruled with an iron fist as the penguin caretakers force the orphans to do exhausting labor and don't allow the kids to have any fun unless they want to get punished by getting denied food and doing more chores.
- Shout-Out:
- Everything's coming up Chalice!
- The Devil tells Chalice that she’ll owe him a favor later down the road before he lets her go on with her revived life, mirroring Charlie Collins's run in with the Joker in Joker's Favor.
- When Chalice dies and appears in front of the Devil, she says she's become "a g-g-g-ghost", and the Devil repeats it back. Casper the Friendly Ghost usually had bystanders screaming "A g-g-ghost!" when they realized what Casper actually was.
- The caretakers at the orphanage being penguins may be a reference to The Blues Brothers' scary nun "The Penguin" who ruled over the orphanage the Brothers were trying to save. They even are armed with wooden rulers just like her!
- Stealth Pun: The orphanage caretakers are penguins so they can invoke the Stern Nun stereotype. They don't wear habits, but have stern demeanors and use rulers to discipline the orphans.
- Too Dumb to Live: You would think, for a street-smart kid like Ms. Chalice, she would be smart enough to not dance in the middle of the street and risk getting run over.
- Toothbrush Floor Scrubbing: The penguin ladies force Ms. Chalice to clean the dirty bathroom this way after denying her lunch, but it doesn't work as the girl eventually gets distracted by making sounds with the toothbrush.
- Whole Episode Flashback: The episode takes place before Chalice meets Cuphead and Mugman for the first time.
