After two months of respite, Sarah’s hard-won refuge in Iceland is shattered by a Neolution attack. Once again forced to flee, she realizes no matter how far her family runs it will never be far enough.
This episode contains examples of:
- Accidental Murder: Double Subversion, apparently. It was first implied that Beth's shooting of Maggie Chen was an accident, but it was later implied that it wasn't, because Maggie had been threatening to expose the clones. And then we see it depicted in this episode, and it turns out it was an accident after all: Beth sees someone behind her, freaks out, and shoots without thinking or even appearing to recognize who it was.
- Addled Addict: The episode implies that Beth has been a Functional Addict for a while, but she spends the episode effectively falling into a Heroic BSoD and her drug use can't possibly be helping. It's implied that her drug use contributed to her shooting of Maggie Chen.
- Animal Motifs: M.K. usually wears a sheep mask as a reference to Dolly, the first cloned animal. She asks Beth to wear a fox mask, but she refuses.
- Anti-Hero: In general this trope is nothing new for this show, but we learn that it applies to Beth much more than we previously thought it did. In a particularly dark example, she pulls a gun on Paul while he’s looking away (though she doesn’t end up using it).
- Body Horror: The murder victim at the start of the episode has been subjected to this in so many ways. Several of the other Neolutionists also provide lesser examples of this, but that’s pretty much to be expected at this point.
- Bookends: The episode opens with Beth waking up in bed to answer her cell phone and ends with Sarah waking up in bed to answer her cell phone.
- The Bus Came Back: The Toronto PD, Paul, Olivier, Astrid, and Leekie all reappear in the flashback. Word of God confirms that they actually had to create new sets for the Toronto PD and Beth’s apartment, because the old ones no longer existed. If you look closely there are small differences in Beth’s aparment (for example, the light fixtures in the bathroom) while the Toronto PD is actually significantly different (it’s likely that we’re simply looking at a different part of it).
- Call-Forward: Alison sends her pee to Beth hidden in a bouquet sent by Ramon (so Beth can pass her drug test). Later she will send Sarah a gun the same way and Cosima will ask for her pee.
- Cliffhanger: In the final scene, Art calls Sarah in the middle and hands the phone to M.K., who tells her that the Neolutionists have found her and want Kendall Malone. Then Sarah looks out her window and sees an approaching van.
- Comforting Comforter: Art covers Beth with a blanket when she falls asleep on his couch.
- A Day in the Limelight: Beth becomes the protagonist for this episode, due to the Whole Episode Flashback.
- Dead Sparks: Here we watch the disintegration of Beth and Paul's relationship. However, he was never truly in love with her.
- Expy: Word of God states that Tatiana Maslany’s portrayal of M.K. is heavily based on Björk.
- Gorn: The murder victim near the start of the episode is easily the most gruesome victim of violence the show has depicted to date.
- Heroic BSoD: If the episode isn't depicting Beth in the midst of one for most of its duration, this certainly happens after she shoots Maggie Chen.
- Make It Look Like an Accident: Art places Maggie's cellphone in her hand and instructs Beth to say she thought it was a gun.
- Missed Him by That Much: Felix was arrested and being questioned while Beth was in the precinct, but they didn't meet. Imagine how differently things would have turned out if they had...
- My God, What Have I Done?: Beth trembles and vomits after shooting Maggie Chen.
- No Name Given: M.K. is only ever referred to by her initials, which may not even be her actual initials.
- Properly Paranoid: M.K. is the only person in the episode fully aware of the huge number of conspiracies targeting the clones, and is every bit as paranoid as one would expect that knowledge would lead her to be. Beth seems to spend the course of the episode descending into paranoia as well, though her drug use can't possibly be helping on that count (in particular, paranoia is a noted side effect of cocaine use).
- Pun: Upon discovering the murder victim and seeing a huge hole in his cheek, Janis remarks, "Okay, well that's cheeky."
- Reckless Gun Usage: Beth encourages Alison to avert this trope, instructing her not to even load her gun until Beth has given her proper instruction. Beth herself, however, is way too much into a breakdown to avert it herself: she draws a gun on Paul (unbeknownst to him) during one particularly tense moment without it being particularly clear to us or, presumably, her, whether she actually intends to use it, and of course at the climax of the episode she, by all indications, shoots without even thinking at Maggie Chen.
- Source Music: The Chopin Prelude in D Flat starts as romantic-dinner piano music and then serves as a Public Domain Soundtrack for Beth's confrontation with Paul.
- Staying with Friends: Beth spends the night at Art's place after a fight with Paul. She later shows up at M.K.’s place after shooting Maggie Chen, because she can’t think of where else to go.
- Unexpected Character: Bet you didn't expect to see Paul or Dr. Leekie again! Or Beth, for that matter.
- Unholy Matrimony: The episode opens with a couple gleefully burying their murder victim and kissing over his body.
- Vomit Indiscretion Shot: After Beth shoots Maggie Chen.
- Whole Episode Flashback: Only the final scene takes place in the present. The rest of the episode depicts the events that led up to Maggie Chen's shooting, as well as the shooting itself and Beth's immediate reaction.
