Ivy, Harley, and Nora Fries go to New Orleans to get some help with finding Frank.
Tropes:
- Actor Allusion: While at Wayne Manor, Bruce, voiced by Diedrich Bader, offers to Selina that he could have Alfred make them nachos.
- An Aesop: Communication is vital for a successful relationship.
- Armor-Piercing Response: Poison Ivy thought she and Swamp Thing stopped being friends because she wanted to eradicate humanity. Swamp Thing responds that while he didn’t agree with her about humanity, that wasn’t why they stopped being friends. They stopped being friends because Poison Ivy was a selfish and horrible friend. Swamp Thing listened to her whenever she complained about humanity but when Swamp Thing needed her support when he was going through a stressful divorce, she made excuses and left. Poison Ivy likewise also makes an armor-piercing response that defuses Swamp Thing’s anger by revealing her inner feelings to him of how scared she is of losing her best friend Frank and knowing she could have saved him if she was able to enter the Green.
- Asmodeus: Asmodeus in this case is a six-breasted, magenta-colored succubus, John Constantine has been in a sexual relationship with her and keeps a pin-up photo of her in his coat.
- Bait-and-Switch: Swamp Thing appears in the shadows behind Harley and Ivy, looking like he's about to attack them... only to greet them warmly and offer them chai lattes.
- The Big Easy: Harley, Ivy, and Nora's New Orleans itinerary involves getting passed-out drunk, visiting the nearby swamp, and getting beignets.
- Blatant Lies: Bruce tells Alfred that he's perfectly fine after his breakup with Selina and he wanted to focus more on his career anyway.
- Borrowed Biometric Bypass: Constantine's map to Swamp Thing is blank unless he's holding it. Since he's passed out after a night of heavy drinking, Harley just holds his hand to the map and snaps a pic with her phone.
- Commitment Issues: Selina. Nora Fries, too.
- Continuity Nod: James Gunn's Thomas Wayne movie is still in production, and Clayface is still impersonating Billy Bob Thornton.
- Downer Ending: The Selina/Bruce subplot ends with the couple breaking up after failing to reconcile their different wants for a relationship. Bruce decides to throw himself in to his work as Batman, firstly by finding out what Harley and Ivy are up to, so he can avoid dealing with his feelings.
- First-Name Basis: Nora Fries with Swamp Thing.
- Freudian Slip: Bruce accidentally calls Martha the Cat "mother" at one point, and later refers to them as his parents.
- Functional Addict: Nora is a freak in this episode. She's willing to do any narcotic, drinks the famously hedonistic Constantine into telling her where Swamp Thing is, seduces Swamp Thing and has sex with him despite being described as "disgusting", but is surprisingly the most helpful party member in Ivy's quest to find Frank.
- He's Not My Boyfriend: Said verbatim by Nora Fries about Swamp Thing, since she's not in the mood for commitment. Swamp Thing doesn't take it well.
- In Vino Veritas: Nora acts manic and hypersexual all episode, except after about 10 shots when she admits that she's scared her friends only loved the old her and that she's lost so many years of her life (25 years, according to Harley).
- It's All About Me: Nora Fries thinks that the New Orleans trip was organized for her benefit and nothing else.
- It Was with You All Along: After Ivy admits how much she cares about Frank, Swamp Thing explains that she could always access the Green and was just being limited by her fears. Ivy immediately lampshades the trope.
- "I Want" Song: From Bruce and Selina courtesy of Music Meister.
- Love Cannot Overcome: Bruce wants a Relationship Upgrade. Selina has Commitment Issues and wants something more casual. They ultimately realize that they're unable to reconcile these desires and break-up.
- Magic Map: Constantine has one that shows where Swamp Thing is, but only when he's holding it. Fortunately for Ivy and Harley, he doesn't need to be conscious for that to work.
- Mandatory Line: King Shark and Clayface only appear at the very beginning of the episode.
- Mundane Utility: Music Meister moonlights as a couples' therapist, using his power to force couples to sing out their problems.
- The Music Meister: The Trope Namer himself, using his keyboard to force others to sing. But instead of doing his evil bidding, he wants Bruce and Selina to talk, er, sing their feelings out.
- Mythology Gag:
- Constantine's Fun T-Shirt after a night of drinking says "I tanked the shark". Justice League Dark: Apokolips War had him reveal that he and King Shark were exes.
- The way Swamp Thing rises up from the swamp as a gigantic head, resembles the Legion of Doom's base doing the same in the old Super Friends.
- Ivy tries to describe Swamp Thing as being a person's consciousness inside a plant before stating that the exact nature of Swamp Thing is complicated, a nod to how Swamp Thing was initially established as Alec Holland mutated into a plant creature before Alan Moore's run made the retcon that Alec Holland died and Swamp Thing was a plant elemental who believed himself to be Holland due to obtaining his memories, with Brightest Day subsequently having the real Alec Holland resurrected to become the new Swamp Thing after the original was corrupted as a Black Lantern and New 52 subsequently going with Alec Holland actually being Swamp Thing all along.
- Parental Issues: Judging by Bruce's treatment of his two cats, he's not quite recovered from his parents' murder.
- Pun-Based Title: The name of James Gunn's movie is "Hard Wayne is Gonna Fall".
- Race Lift: Here, the Music Meister is black and sings R&B style.
- "The Reason You Suck" Speech: Swamp Thing tears into Ivy for how much of a shitty friend she was to him: oh, sure, she wanted to destroy humanity, but Swamp Thing listened to all of her complaints all the time, but when he tried to do the same concerning his impending divorce, she'd turn and leave.
- Replacement Goldfish: The cats Thomas and Martha end up becoming one for Bruce's parents, a fact Selina mercilessly lampshades despite Bruce's attempts to deny it.
- Running Gag: Harley really, really wants those Louisiana beignets.
- Speed Sex: Harley and Ivy convince Nora to talk to Swamp Thing. Nora goes in, comes out thirty seconds later, and reveals that she got distracted, had a quickie, and smoked a joint in the intervening time. Harley promptly lampshades it.
- Strapped to an Operating Table: Frank is still in this state, as Bruce tries to figure out what Ivy did to him.
- Swamps Are Evil: Both played straight and averted depending on Swamp Thing's mood. It's lovely and serene when he's in a good mood, but when Nora's Commitment Issues come up it turns actively violent.
- Sure, Let's Go with That: At the end of the episode, Nora believes the entire trip was to help her own problems. Ivy decides to run with it.
- Tampering with Food and Drink: Alfred drugs Bruce's soup in order to get him and Selina into a therapy session.
- We Named the Monkey "Jack": The cats that Bruce tries to give to Selina and ends up keeping are named Thomas and Martha. Later on, he even dresses them like his parents, namely a suit and a pearl necklace (one hopes not the same necklace).
- Wham Shot: Frank's captor is revealed to be none other than Bruce, who wants to "cure" Frank from whatever Poison Ivy did to him.
- What Did I Do Last Night?: Constantine challenges Ivy to a drinking contest if she wants to get to Swamp Thing. Cut to Harley, Ivy, and Constantine passed out from heavy drinking the next day. Constantine and Ivy are wearing T-shirts reading "I tanked the shark" and "Team Brangelina", respectively, while Harley has a powdered wig and a half-eaten burger in her mouth. There's also a bobcat passed out on a table for some reason. Harley is understandably confused, and Nora (who has already reached the swamp) doesn't bother explaining beyond the basics.
- Workplace-Acquired Abilities: Harley isn't just helping Ivy as her girlfriend, but also as her psychiatrist as she's methodically deconstructing her hangups.
- You Are Better Than You Think You Are: Swamp Thing explains that Ivy always has the ability to connect to the Green, she just needs to open up a lot more. Ivy groans that she hates Aesops like that.
