- Shiro: Why are you helping me?
Ulaz: As a fighter and a leader, you give hope. Hurry! Earth needs you. We all do.
As Shiro heals from his wounds, he recalls how he escaped from the Galra. Pidge finds coordinates in his arm that lead to a strange part of space. They make contact with a Galra named Ulaz, who claims to be a member of a Galra resistance called the Blade of Marmora. Meanwhile, Zarkon and Haggar release a new Robeast against Voltron.
Tropes for this episode include the following:
- Big Brother Instinct: Keith catches Pidge who was thrown by Ulaz, and he takes the impact as they both slide across the floor.
- Both Sides Have a Point:
- On following or not following the coordinates: Shiro is positive that they were put in there by the same Galra that helped him escape, and it would be good to have allies. The rest of the team mentions that the Galra could have implanted fake memories into Shiro using his arm as a nerve interface.
- On trusting Ulaz: from Allura and the Paladins' point of view, he just broke into their ship, attacked them, and only claims to be an ally because he didn't kill them. They only have Shiro's word that he is on their side, namely that he rescued Shiro and programmed coordinates into his arm.
- Combat Commentator: Coran yells out orders to the Paladins, commentates on their moves and how they're all failing miserably to stop the intruder who nimbly outmaneuvers all of them. Lance and Hunk grumpily point out how Coran wasn't helping the situation.
- Explain, Explain... Oh, Crap!: Pidge brings up the possibility that the Galra could have planted the fake memories of Shiro's rescue into his brain. Hunk starts to debate that, only to remember that Shiro is wearing Galra tech that has neural connections to his brain, so it's entirely possible.
- Fantastic Racism: Allura is hostile towards Ulaz and claims that no Galra can be trusted. Even after his sacrifice, her opinion hasn't changed.
- Good Is Not Soft: The Blade of Marmora members are not the nicest; Ulaz is shown to be a Badass Normal who will kick the Paladins' butts to make a point. They are also willing to let other Galra soldiers take the fall for their betrayals, even if they aren't comfortable about it.
- Heroic Sacrifice: Ulaz flies his ship into the Robeast's tractor bean, and opens a time-space pocket from within to crush it from the inside out. It's unlikely he survived, and he tells Shiro that Voltron is more important than he is.
- Hope Spot: It seems that Team Voltron has found allies within the Galra Empire, who are working actively to dismantle it. Then the Robeast attacks, which makes them realize Zarkon is tracking them. Shiro declares that they can't make contact with the Blade of Marmora until they figure out how Zarkon is tracking them, so that Ulaz's sacrifice isn't in vain and the resistance isn't compromised.
- I Can't Believe I'm Saying This: Lance admits that he was with Keith on being wary trusting Ulaz.
- Not Helping Your Case: Ulaz is a Galra defector and a member of the resistance, wants to ally with Team Voltron. So he invades their ship when they arrive, attacks everyone, and only bears down on encountering Shiro. Even though he could have killed them, it's not the best first impression on a group of war-weary Paladins.
- Lying to Protect Your Feelings: Allura claims that she didn't want to reveal who the original Black Paladin was because she wanted Shiro to bond with the Black Lion on its own merits without having his opinion of the Lion colored by its relation to Zarkon, and she was doing it to protect the paladins.
- O.O.C. Is Serious Business: Lance admits that it's pretty bad when he and Keith agree with each other, and they agree that Ulaz isn't trustworthy.
- Pocket Dimension: Ulaz shows the paladins the place where he hides out and uses it as a weapon to defeat Prorok's Robeast.
- Robeast: This episode is the first for anyone to refer to the monsters as Robeasts. Hunk coins the term.
- Space Mines: The Xanthorium cluster is this, and Voltron manages to use it to its advantage when going against Prorok.
- Unwilling Robotization: Haggar forces Prorok into this, claiming that this would be his way of being more useful to the empire.
- Wham Shot: Keith has a knife that has the same symbol as the Blade of Marmora.
- What the Hell, Hero?:
- Shiro asks Allura why she didn't tell the team that Zarkon was the Black Paladin. She gives a feeble excuse of wanting to protect them, but Shiro mentions that Zarkon literally tore Voltron apart with his connection to the Black Lion.
- Later on, after Ulaz's Heroic Sacrifice, Shiro and Keith call out Allura for still thinking he was working for Zarkon.
