Both Perlie and Maggie are forced to consider the prospect that things aren't as black and white as they appear.
All Your Base Are Belong to Us: Maggie realizes that the Croat is planning to take the Bricks by force based on his promise to Tomasso.
Became Their Own Antithesis: Maggie has hated Negan for years for killing Glenn and taking Hershel's father from him, but she is revealed to be plotting to do the same to Annie and Joshua, handing over Negan to the Croat in exchange for Hershel.
Brawn Hilda: While going to meet the Dama, the Croat runs into a female bodyguard who is large enough to even intimidate him.
Broken Pedestal: Perlie adored his big brother Joel until he got addicted to drugs and even attacked their parents, and became resentful when they wouldn’t do anything out of fear.
Call-Back: When Armstrong and Negan come across the body of a man who seemingly died via an elaborate method of suicide (an axe on a rope), Armstrong notes the similarities with his brother Joel's own apparent suicide (as seen in the second episode). It's unclear if Armstrong is just reminded of his brother's death, or if he's seeing some sort of connection between the two deaths.
Character Death: Both Amaia and Tomasso die after being attacked by walkers in the sewer.
Cheated Death, Died Anyway: Tomasso escaped being eaten by the horde in the previous episode, but ends up dying for real when his throat is ripped open by a walker.
Chekhov's Skill: Negan remembers from his time in public education the first aid kits in school buses and uses it to help treat Perlie.
Conscience Makes You Go Back: Even when Perlie refuses to give up his hunt for him even when Negan tries to offer him a deal, Negan groans and admits he just can’t bring himself to leave him to die.
Maggie once again finds herself in a decrepit subway tunnel filled with unique, surviving walkers like in the Season 11 opener "Acheron".
Negan tells Perlie of his past as a gym teacher, previously shown in the Season 10 finale "Here's Negan".
Despair Event Horizon: Tomasso reveals he’s passed this, believing there’s no hope to defeat the Croat and has been secretly working for him.
Hallucinations: The methane gas of the sewers gives the franchise another opportunity to have these. Maggie begins suffering from extremely vivid flashbacks to Glenn’s death and Hershel’s capture, but doesn't suffer the same kind of classical hallucinations that plagued characters before.
Heel–Face Door-Slam: Tomasso still tries to help the group escape the sewer and relates to Maggie, suggesting the potential for him to reform himself into a loyal good guy again, but he ends up dying shortly afterwards.
Inspector Javert: Perlie insists he still needs to arrest Negan despite him having saved his life. It’s not until Negan mentions that the men he killed brutalized Annie that he begins to have serious second thoughts. The Trope Namer is actually alluded to (see Shout-Out).
Internal Reveal: At the end of the episode, Negan sees the flare Ginny fires off and realizes she's on the island.
Lampshade Hanging: Negan finds the graffiti "Do Not Open: Dead Inside" with the first three words underlined and separated from the last two. This is a cheeky nod to the famous "DON’T OPEN DEAD INSIDE" graffiti from the main show’s pilot which became a meme because of how easily it could be misread as "Don’t Dead Open Inside".
The Load: Ginny contributes little to the group and refuses to listen to Maggie. That being said, she has her reasons for not trusting Maggie.
The Man Behind the Man: The Dama is revealed to be someone who the Croat looks up to for approval and who takes him to task over failing to capture Negan so far.
The Mole: Tomasso is revealed to be the one who leaked the attack plan to the Croat in exchange for him and Amaia being allowed to leave the island.
Motive Rant: Perlie tells the story of his brother Joel’s death and how it led to his black and white devotion to New Babylon’s laws. He then admits he's beginning to rethink this outlook.
Multi-Armed and Dangerous: Maggie is nearly killed by a quartet of walkers (AKA "Walker King") who have melded together into one entangled mess. She has to put down four heads before it finally goes down, and has to avoid numerous limbs.
My Greatest Failure: Perlie says Joel being left to die alone is this for him.
Maggie's reaction when she sees that Ginny has fired off a flare, thus alerting Negan to her presence on the island.
Also earlier, Maggie's reaction when she sees the Walker King.
Once More, with Clarity: The Reveal confirms why Maggie sought out Negan of all people to help her get Hershel back; he’s the price for getting Hershel back from the Croat.
The Croat didn't steal any grain from the Bricks. He came there specifically to abduct Hershel in order to force Maggie to bring him Negan. Maggie, in turn, allied with Negan purely so she could deliver him to the Croat in exchange for Hershel.
The Croat is not the true leader of the Burazi. He answers to the Dama.
The Croat doesn't want to kill Negan. He and the Dama want to recruit Negan to defend their island against a potential invasion by mainlanders.
Screw This, I'm Outta Here: Maggie worries that Negan will abandon her if he finds out Ginny is in the city.
Shout-Out: Maggie asks Ginny if she thinks Negan is being hunted just for stealing bread, alluding to Les Misérables. Fitting given Perlie is an Inspector Javert towards Negan.
Spotting the Thread: Maggie figures out that Tomasso is The Mole based on how he knew how to get out of the Croat’s fortress and how he conveniently found oxygen tanks.
Teeth-Clenched Teamwork: Despite being determined to bring him in, Perlie still accepts Negan’s help here and there due to having no other choice. Maggie also isn’t happy about having Ginny along.
Wham Episode: Amaia and Tomasso die, the Croat is revealed to be working for the Dama, and Maggie is revealed to have had a plan all along to give Negan to the Croat in exchange for Hershel.
Maggie takes a moment to jab Ginny for being unwilling to follow orders and later rips into her for being so bullheaded about finding Negan.
Ginny, in turn, gives Maggie one, via painting the word LIAR on a wall, for concealing the real reason she brought Negan to the island (to trade him to the Croat for her son).
