The Xiaolin Apprentices meet a mermaid named Dyris, who is being hunted by a man named Klofange. The Apprentices take Dyris back to the Temple, but all is not as it appears...
Tropes
- An Aesop: A person's physical appearance has no correlation with being a good person or a bad person.
- Bitch in Sheep's Clothing: Dyris may look beautiful and she may act demure, innocent, and vulnerable. ...But don't let that fool you. She's manipulative and cruel monster, and her ultimate goal is to drown the world so she may rule it as her new underwater realm.
- Bittersweet Ending: Klofange and Dyris are sealed away in ice at the end of the episode—while the monks are saddened by the loss of their new ally, it also means that Dyris won't be able to hurt anyone. And even if she does escape from the ice, Klofange will be waiting for her.
- Broken Pedestal: Played for laughs. Jack looked up to Klofange as a stalwart-looking villain. But after the former learns the latter was Good All Along, Jack is broken on the inside and insists on some Alone Time to process the truth.
- Evil All Along: Dyris.
- Face of a Thug: Klofange doesn't quite look the part of a noble hero any more than Dyris looks like a monster. But he is out to save the world by making sure Dyris doesn't succeed in her evil plans.
- Foreshadowing: For someone who's sweet and innocent, Dyris sure knows a lot about manipulating men, as demonstrated when she teaches Kimiko how to sweet talk Omi into doing her chores for her. That's because her sweet personality is just a facade.
- Good All Along: Klofange.
- Good Is Not Soft: You wouldn't know it by his no-nonsense demeanor nor his intimidating appearance and dangerous weapons, but Klofange is the hero to Dyris's villain.
- Gosh Dang It to Heck!: As Jack Spicer loses the showdown, he curses Omi with the line "DANG YOU, OMI! DANNNNNG YOUUUUU!"
- I'm Melting!: Played for laughs. One of the Jackbots hit by Kimiko's fire starts turning to slag and says in a monotone voice "Help me. I'm melting."
- Last of her Kind: During their conversation concerning how Klofange hunts her down, the Xiaolin monks wonder why he's obsessed with hunting Dyrus down when there must be other mermaids. To this, Dyrus soberly reveals that to the contrary, she's the last mermaid on earth. Later, Klofang confirms that for all the lies she told the Xiaolin Monks, her being the last mermaid is true, but implies that it's better this way.
- Oh, Crap!: When Omi makes it a condition that the Xiaolin Showdown between him and Dyris must be on land, Klofang warns that doing so will bring out her true monstrous form. At realizing what he's gotten himself into, Omi can only wince worriedly as Dyris transforms behind him.
- Our Mermaids Are Different: Outside of needing to stay in the water at all times, Dyris seems like your standard mermaid. Except that the reason her kind need to remain in the water is because going on land exposes her true, monstrous form.
- Status Quo Is God: Towards the end, the idea of Klofange becoming an honorary Xiaolin Monk is entertained for a moment. At least, before Dyris attacked again and triggered an icy cave-in. Klofange stays behind to stall Dyris, gracefully accepting it's his fate to always be there to stop the monstrous mermaid, even if it means the Xiaolin Monks will be denied a new member.
- Strange Minds Think Alike: For being on different sides, Jack and Omi give the same puppy-love, infatuated expression whenever they gush over how Dyris is "so pretty".
- "Take That!" Kiss: After Omi wins his showdown against Dyris he gives her a quick kiss on the nose.
- Tempting Fate: When Omi challenges Dyris to a showdown and says one of the conditions is playing on dry-land, Klofange immediately screams he can't bring Dyris out of the water or she'll reveal her true form. Omi just asks how bad it can be, until he looks behind him and sees her true form, remarking "oh, that bad".
- Unreliable Expositor: Dyris recollects her final moments before she and Klofange were encased in ice as being an intense scene where the poor helpless mermaid was about to be hunted by the demonic-looking hunter. Given what we learn about Dyris's true nature, this could not be further from the truth.
- Villain Ball: Dyris has the chance to win the showdown shortly after it begins by stealing Omi's Wu, but lets him go. Klofange explains that she likes to play with her meals before finishing them.
- Wham Shot: Everyone is shocked to learn Dyris has disappeared from her pool, despite that she can't leave the water. It's Klofange who points to evidence that she was lying about who and what she is, in the form of monstrous claw prints leading away from the pool.
