Artemis enlists Jade's help in figuring out if Cassandra and Onyx can be trusted.
Tropes:
- Abusive Parents: A running theme:
- In the flashbacks, we see Artemis with a black eye and her arm in a sling from Crusher/Sportsmaster's "training". He refuses to give Jade food when she hits a rough patch, but when Artemis sneaks it to her he forces her to train on an empty stomach and with one good arm.
- Lady Shiva is more than happy to use her own daughter as a hostage, but it doesn't end there. Jade reveals that she gave her own daughter abusive training that left her covered in scars, and cut her vocal cords as a baby to ensure she would have no language except violence.
- Cassandra relates that Vandal stole her from her mother and lied to her that she was dead, cut off her arm and killed his other daughter Olympia when she became a liability. Artemis, Cassandra, and Jade all discuss it when deciding whether Lady Shiva will really kill her daughter, and while Jade believes she won't, Artemis decides not to risk it.
- Also, while waiting for Jade in the flashback, Artemis notices a father and son arguing in an apartment across the street from her home. The father throws a beer can on the wall, upsetting their dog.
- Adaptational Villainy: Lady Shiva is revealed to be Orphan's mother, and has also taken on the abusive traits of Cassandra's father David from the comics taken up a notch. David Cain in the main comics deliberately raised Cassandra without speaking to her or teaching her how to speak, making her learn how to read body language as her way of communication. Here, Lady Shiva did the same thing but first ensured Cassandra would stay mute by severing her vocal cords.
- Adaptation Name Change: Orphan's name in the comics is Cassandra Cain, but here, it's Cassandra Wu-San, because her mother raised her instead of her father.
- Ambiguous Syntax: Lady Shiva is heard giving orders that "Cassandra" be retrieved. While it initially gives the audience the idea that Black Spider and Rictus are after Cassandra Savage, Orphan's full name is later revealed to be "Cassandra Wu-San," raising the question of which Cassandra was the target all along.
- Bad Samaritan: Brion is shown giving a speech making metahumans welcome in Markovia. Given that the Light is using him as a pawn, Dr. Jace is in his employ, and Perdita mentioning "horrible" rumors from people who have fled Markovia for her own country, it's likely that these metahumans are being trafficked by the Light without Brion knowing.
- Compensating for Something: Jade accuses Black Spider of overcompensating after several suggestive jokes about his sticky web balls.
- Dramatic Unmask: Orphan is finally unmasked, revealing a heavily-scarred face and neck. Jade deduces from the scars that Orphan is actually Cassandra Wu-San, Shiva's daughter.
- Foregone Conclusion: With the flashbacks featuring young Jade and Artemis meeting in secret, it was only a matter of time before Crusher catches wind of it, and Artemis is punished for it.
- I Have Your Wife: Lady Shiva kidnaps Orphan when her men fail to secure Cassandra, offering to trade her for Cassandra on Santa Prisca with the warning that no metahumans, Team/Outsider members or anyone from Batman Inc. get involved.
- Literary Allusion Title: After Through the Looking Glass, which Artemis quotes over the coda. A quote from the Mad Hatter is also revealed to be a code phrase between the Crock sisters.
- Mythology Gag: Jade states she was only supposed to be contacted if Lian was in danger, like if she needed a blood transfusion or organ transplant since Will doesn't share her blood type. This was a plot point in the Arsenal miniseries where it was confirmed Lian and her mom have the same blood type.
- No Good Deed Goes Unpunished: In "Triptych", Jade freed Shade from Simon Stagg's control after they finished their mission. He's now a member of the League of Shadows, and helps Shiva and the other assassins leave with Orphan.
- Offing the Offspring: Lady Shiva threatens to kill her own daughter if Cassandra isn't brought to her. Jade thinks it's a bluff, but Cassandra knows from experience that people like her can justify anything if they need to.
- One-Steve Limit: Averted with three total characters named Cassandra in this episode (Cassandra Savage, Cassandra Wu-San/Orphan and Cassandra Sandsmark/Wonder Girl), bringing some ambiguity to the Shadow agents' mission to "retrieve Cassandra". It turns out that they came for Cassandra Savage but had to settle for taking Cassandra Wu-San hostage instead to force an exchange.
- The Quiet One: Except for the beginning scene, Beast Boy remains silent through the entire episode.
- The Reveal: Orphan is Lady Shiva's daughter.
- Stating the Simple Solution: Onyx states she found Artemis by simply web searching her publicly known identity, which she hasn't changed in her new life.
- The Stinger: Artemis reads a passage from Through the Looking Glass over a genomorph looking at Superboy's shrine.
- The Unreveal: Jade comes up empty-handed in her interrogation of Cassandra and Onyx. She finds Onyx suspicious for being an unknown quantity and demonstrating textbook Shadows training in manipulation, but other than that can't say for sure that either is lying.
