After an argument with his best friend Paco, Jaime Reyes decides to investigate the legacy of the Blue Beetle and find out why he really gained the Scarab, but in doing so discovers the dark truth about Ted Kord.
Tropes:
- Badass Normal: Unlike Jaime, Ted Kord couldn't get the Scarab to work for him, so he just relied on homemade gadgets.
- Bait-and-Switch: Jaime travels to a remote island and finds a man who looks like an older Ted Kord, who introduces himself as Ted Kord, and it looks like Batman's just being unnecessarily uncooperative with Jaime. Then it turns out, no, this isn't Ted. It's Jarvis Kord, Ted's Evil Uncle.
- Beard of Evil: Jarvis Kord, the villain of the piece, who looks nigh-identical to his nephew save for the beard.
- Blood Knight: Batman can relate to Ted's annoyance over people preferring simple fights to clever gadgets that get the job done quickly, but he says the fighting is definitely fun.
- Call-Back: In the first episode, Batman was hesitant to talk about the Blue Beetle before Jaime. Now we see why.
- Collapsing Lair: When Jarvis is defeated, his entire island lair (which has a volcano on it) goes up.
- Covered in Gunge: Jaime winds up covered in filth after instructing the Scarab to get him into Ted's hidden base, and it does so by taking him through the Hub City sewers.
- Dead All Along: The end of the flashback reveals that Ted died helping Batman stop his uncle from unleashing a robot army on Hub City.
- Dead Person Impersonation: In order to get access to the scarab, Jarvis lets Jamie think he is Ted.
- Dies Differently in Adaptation:
- Comic Ted died from getting shot in the head. Since this would be far too graphic for a family friendly show, he gets to go out in a Heroic Sacrifice destroying a rocket of his evil uncle's.
- Dan Garrett, the Beetle before Ted, if only by inference (since sacrificing his life to stop Jarvis Kord was how Dan went out, not Ted).
- Dude, Where's My Respect?: Ted bemoans how the casual observer would rather see a simple fight than appreciate the time and money that goes into crafting sophisticated gadgets.
- Evil Uncle: Jarvis to Ted, though the latter didn't realize it until after letting him examine the Scarab.
- Flashback: When Batman explains to Jaime how Ted Kord became the Beetle and sacrificed his life to save Hub City.
- Harmless Villain: Blue Beetle's view of Doctor Polaris. He says Batman could wipe the floor with him like that and that the fight is only taking as long as it is because Bats wants a little exercise.
- Heroic Sacrifice: Jarvis had intended to invade Hub City by loading his advanced androids into a rocket. Ted ensures the rocket never reaches Hub City by disabling the guidance system mid-flight. Jaime is surprised to hear it, but Batman says it sadly comes with the job.Jaime: Ted didn't make it?
Batman: I wasn't sure you were ready to know about this. Our work is dangerous and not all hero stories have happy endings. - Horrible Judge of Character: Ted thought Jarvis was a good person to trust the Scarab to, figuring he'd get it to work. Jarvis used it to create an army of killer robots.
- Innocently Insensitive: Paco, not knowing Jaime is Blue Beetle, and thinking they're just talking smack about superhero origins, accidentally mashes Jaime's insecurities and kickstarts the main plot.
- Legacy Character: Jaime knew there were other Blue Beetles, but he's surprised to learn that Batman knew his direct predecessor.
- Motive Rant: Jarvis when talking about how he will indeed build a better world his way. Batman interrupts him, in order to cut to the chase.
- Not-So-Well-Intentioned Extremist: After being found out as a villain, Jarvis insists he was sincere when telling Jaime that he wanted to make the world a better place. It sounds like he wants to rid the world of war and other evils by putting himself in charge but Batman interrupts him, seeing right through this goal for what it really means.Jarvis: And humanity under the absolute control of one single leader, Mankind will flourish as I eliminate any—!
Batman: Freedom.
Jarvis: It's a small price to pay. - Oh, Crap!:
- Doctor Polaris when he sees Batman's utility belt (which he is pulling in close) is about to go off.
- Batman when Jaime says he's about to arrive at Ted's last known location.
- Poor Communication Kills: Batman coldly not answering Jaime's questions about his predecessor leads to a lot of problems. By the time Batman opted to be more diplomatic about it, Jaime was already on his way to the island.
- Secret Identity: Judging by the fact Jaime is able to find Ted's secret lair underneath his company building, Ted's identity went out after his death.
- Skewed Priorities: Jaime pesters Batman for information about his predecessor in the middle of a fight, not even bothering to help.
- Take That!: Paco dismisses Hal Jordan's origin story as lame, and declares that the concept of a "man without fear" is less inspiring and more worrying (in the interests of pedantry, it should maybe be noted the modern version of the Green Lanterns is not that they are without fear, it's that they are able to "overcome great fear". Big dif.)
- You Fool!: Doctor Polaris in response to bank guards trying to shoot him with standard bullets.
