Date: December 31, to January 1.
Locations: Bwunda, Taos, Hollywood, Dublin, New York City, Gotham City.
Lex Luthor hatches a plan to discredit the Outsiders.
Tropes in this episode:
- Ambadassador: Not surprisingly, Gar and Troia both fight off the "assassins" quite ably. Gar despite being deliberately drugged and Troia being knocked out.
- Ambiguous Situation: Tara's text to Slade. Did she simply screw up after witnessing the Outsiders fighting with their parents because the news about her parents threw her off-balance? Or did she know that the Outsiders turned things around and chose not to inform him?
- Brutal Honesty: Dr. Jace is blunt with Brion that first loves don't tend to last and that he should expect his relationship with Violet to be rocky. It's not only his first serious relationship, but her first relationship ever.
- False Flag Operation:
- Lex stages an attack on the peace conference by the BIF to discredit the Outsiders by having the League show them up. It also gives him the chance to eliminate Garth and Troia, but he isn't really concerned about that part of the plan failing.
- Batman and the Team use Ivo's monkey-bots and an android of Ivo himself to fake an attack by Ivo in one of Lex's warehouses, which he is using to house weaponized spider-bots. The Outsiders get the credit for stopping Ivo while Lex loses his spider-bots, and though Lex is well-aware he's been played, he can't prove it.
- Internal Reveal: Violet tells Brion and Tara about Gabrielle's involvement in the death of their parents. Prior to this, she also reveals to Brion that she had allowed Harper Row to kiss her.
- Ironic Echo: "Knowing and proving are two different things." Lex says this in response to being told that his plan to discredit the Outsiders will be made clear to them, then Batman says the same thing when telling Diana that Lex will know he's been played but can't prove it.
- Jumping Off the Slippery Slope: Wonder Woman seems worried that this is happening with the Benevolent Conspiracy. She wasn't fully on board with the morally-dodgy things they were willing to do to start with, but sees that they are going from opportunistic to engineering situations for their benefit and calls them on it.
- My Beloved Smother: In her phone chat with Diana, Troia mentions that in addition to all their other problems, Hippolyta is not happy about the current situation, in a way suggesting Troia's heard a lot of their mom's complaining lately.
- Mythology Gag:
- Batman's disguise as Matthew Malone, owner of Match Electronics, is a reference to his Go-to Alias of Matches Malone in the comics.
- There was a Super Registration Act in the fifties, which Jay denounces. In the comics, the JSA disbanded in 1951, rather than submit to the House Un-American Activities Commission.
- Bwunda's first appearance in the comics was also as the location of a False Flag Operation by an associate of General Mbarra — in the original Birds of Prey one-shot an industrialist got a contract to improve Bwunda's infrastructure, then had the projects destroyed by fake eco-terrorists before anyone noticed how shoddy they were.
- Nice Job Fixing It, Villain: Tara texts Slade about the Outsiders being grounded by their parents, which makes its way to Lex. He tries to use that to discredit them on Gordon's show, but the Outsiders have managed to talk their parents around before he gets the chance, and they turn it back on him during the show. Gordon plays into it because he knows Lex is fighting a losing battle.
- Pragmatic Villainy: Godfrey undercuts Lex on his show, supporting the heroes while getting egg on Lex's face. Godfrey is happy to run a smear campaign against the heroes but unlike Lex realizes that doing so is a losing battle and convinces him that a lighter approach will work out better. It may also reinforce that Godfrey's ultimate loyalty isn't to Luthor or The Light, but rather Darkseid, and he'll leave them out to hang if they screw up.
- Running Gag: Someone saying that Kid Flash was nearly killed, only for him to protest from offscreen that he's fine.
- Saying Sound Effects Out Loud: When Kid Flash realizes they are being attacked by B.I.F., he says "Bif" every time he hits a minion, declaring that they are their own sound effects.
- Slashed Throat: Halo gets this courtesy of one of the assassins. M'gann calls her out for being reckless, because a difference of a few inches could have meant her entire head, and M'gann doubts she could heal that away.
- Super Registration Act: Lex proposes this on Gordon's show, and references a previously-existing one that the U.S. had adopted in the 1950s. Unfortunately for him, the Outsiders are a step ahead of him and the attempt only serves to make him look bad (Jay Garrick, who was an active hero in the 50s, even specifically denouncing that registry attempt as ineffective and fascistic).
- Take That!:
- A subtle one. Lex Luthor holds a UN conference in Bwundasa that just so happens to be hosted at one of his hotels and then half-heartedly denies using his position for personal gain. When he proposes a registry for superhumans he punctuates his diatribe against the Outsiders and the League with "sad". These are all allusions to Donald Trump and the various criticisms, policies and quirks associated with him.
- In the same vein, Wonder Woman uses the term "fake news" while summing up how manipulative Batman's group is becoming.
- Villainous BSoD: Tara is in a daze after learning of Gabrielle’s role in her parents' deaths, with the environment around her going blurry and a high whine playing.
- What the Hell, Hero?: Diana is livid with Batman and the Team staging attacks for good publicity, seeing it as crossing a line.
