"This body's barely living, but Shiro's spirit is alive. It's inside the Black Lion. I've heard him talking to me."
"Well, we saved all realities everywhere. What do you guys wanna do now?"
— Lance
It's the final fight between Sincline and Voltron, with the paladins just barely getting the edge until Lotor starts to warp in and out of reality. Voltron manages to take the fight there, and are nearly driven mad by the surrounding quintessence. After seemingly defeating Lotor, the group leaves and find out that because of all the dimension hopping Lotor had done, he had opened rifts that if allowed to grow would destroy and engulf the entire universe.
They end up sacrificing the Castle of Lions to achieve this goal and after finding a safe location, Keith tells the others of Shiro's fate. Lance cries when he realizes Shiro had been trying to warn him, but he didn't listen. Allura finds out there's a way she can save Shiro and transfers his soul from the Black Lion to his clone's body. Shiro comes back, and the others wonder where they go from here. Pidge suggests a new place they could go to that would help them recreate the castle, which was something she gave to her dad. Keith smiles with the others as he says that they were all going home.
Tropes featured in this episode:
- Bathos: While everyone gathers their things so they can evacuate the Castle of Lions before they have to destroy it, there's a brief moment where Lance struggles to get Kaltenecker the cow aboard the Blue Lion.
- Bittersweet Ending: Lotor has been defeated (for now, at least), Allura was able to bring back the real Shiro by transferring his spirit into his clone's body, and the team will finally have a chance to go back home to Earth so they can build a new Castle of Lions with the help of Sam Holt. However, the original Castle of Lions (which has essentially been the main characters' home and main method of transport) had to be destroyed in order to seal the rifts in space-time, and it's going to be a long journey to Earth since they no longer have the Castle's ability to create wormholes.
- Body Backup Drive: Allura is able to bring Shiro back to life by transferring his spirit from the Black Lion to the body of his clone, which turns his hair white in the process.
- The Corruption: Prolonged exposure to the raw Quintessence causes the Paladins to start to shift into being Blood Knights — much like what had happened to Zarkon and Honerva — and also does a number on Lotor. Allura realizes what's happening to them and causes the other Paladins to snap back to their normal selves, but Lotor is left stranded.
- Cross-Referenced Titles: With the third part of the pilot titled "Defenders of the Universe".
- Dimensional Traveler: The Sincline ship can do this, thanks to Allura.
- Drunk with Power: The paladins slowly succumb to this in the rift, and it's only thanks to Allura pointing out how they're turning into Zarkon do they realize what they're doing and then decide to leave.
- Healing Hands: Allura transfers Shiro's spirit from the Black Lion into the clone's body, turning his hair permanently white or silver.
- Heroic Sacrifice: An interesting example, where it is not a character that is sacrificed, but the Castle, in order to close the rifts.
- Laughing Mad: Lotor as he basks in the quintessence rift.Lotor: Poor Allura! All the power in the universe at your fingertips, and yet you still fear using it!
- Mystical White Hair: After Allura brings Shiro back to his new body, his hair is now permanently white.
- Mythology Gag: Voltron uses new attacks that were actually moves done regularly in the original show:
- A Chest Blaster, the attack the Paladins use to finally defeat Lotor. Since it pooled all the stored up energy into one massive blast that engulfs Sincline, it also counts as a Wave-Motion Gun.
- Eye Beams
- A Rocket Punch, which Pidge pulls off during the final battle.
- Nothing Is the Same Anymore: The Castle, which has been the cast's base and transport for almost the entire series, is destroyed.
- Old Friend: Coran says this to the Castle of Lions as his final good-bye.
- O.O.C. Is Serious Business: Allura noticing her teammates getting absolutely blood-thirsty to take out Lotor and she tells them that they should immediately retreat because of how the quintessence is corrupting them.
- Save the Villain: Subverted. After Lotor is defeated Keith and Allura want to retrieve him so they can all escape the Quintessence field together. It turns out that they don't have enough time to do that and save themselves before Voltron is destroyed, so they're forced to leave him behind.
- Seal the Breach: The team needs to seal the rifts in spacetime caused by Lotor's Quintessence usage.
- Series Continuity Error: Allura states that prolonged exposure to the overwhelming power of the Quintessence Field was what corrupted Zarkon, with no mention of the dark creatures that attacked him and Honerva. While there are dark clouds and purple-black blots within the Quintessence Field, they do not attack Voltron or Sincline.
- Sword Beam: Lance does this during the final battle.
- Trash the Set: The team is forced to destroy the Castle of Lions in order to seal the rifts.
- Wham Line: Keith looking at the screen and telling the others that they were going home.
- With Great Power Comes Great Insanity: Prolonged exposure to Quintessence gives Lotor nigh-unlimited power, but drives him to insanity... just like his mother and father. The Paladins themselves come close to succumbing to the same insanity before Allura realizes what's happening.
