Stealing from the Elderly
Pictured: An ice queen coping with the Grimm Reaper's mischief.
Written by Miles Luna & Kerry Shawcross
Directed by Kerry Shawcross & Connor Pickens
Directed by Kerry Shawcross & Connor Pickens
"You thought you could undermine my authority? If you don't return my ship this INSTANT, I will make an example out of you. I will show you the true might of Atlas!"
— Special Operative Caroline Cordovin
Team RWBY and JNR enact their plan to thwart Cordovin and get to Atlas undetected. However, they encounter an unexpected obstacle.
Tropes in this episode include:
- Bluffing the Authorities: When the military base contacts the hijacked ship to ask why it's returning, Maria tells Weiss she knows how to speak military jargon. She responds flawlessly but the controllers still see through it — they know the pilots are not supposed to be elderly women, so one of those responding to their query has given the game away.
- Brick Joke: In "Dead End", Maria reveals that she was permanently added to an extended screening list because she once brought banned cashews onto a flight with her. In this episode, Cordovin realises that Maria is piloting a stolen airship and tries threatening her. Barely an instant later, Maria deliberately chews cashews over the comm-link to provoke her and stating that's the sound of her not caring.
- Cliffhanger: At the end of the episode, Blake and Adam square off to fight each other after Adam has declared he will never let go of Blake again. The rest of the heroes are last seen just before Blake and Adam's confrontation, getting ready to fight Cordovin's giant mecha, which has been activated in response to Adam preventing Blake from disabling the military radar.
- Didn't See That Coming: The plan to hijack an Atlesian airship rests on Blake being able to disable the radio tower so that the military base cannot track the hijacked ship returning to pick up the heroes. The timing of the plan needs to be precise and factors in the time it would take the base to scramble fighter pilots to intercept them should something go wrong. Unfortunately, the heroes did not expect Adam to ambush Blake when she was alone at the tower or that Cordovin's pride would be so damaged by the theft she'd skip the professional response. The result is that Blake is unable to disable the tower in time and the heroes are unprepared to fight a giant mech-unit.
- Disproportionate Retribution: Cordovin takes the heroes' efforts to steal the airship as an act of undermining her authority as an Atlesian commander. Thus, as opposed to calling her forces to attack the airship, Cordovin resorts to using a giant mecha to try and destroy it.
- Epic Fail: When Maria attempts to communicate with the base as to why they are turning the ship around, she manages to use the proper jargon. Unfortunately, she and Weiss forgot that the base's pilots don't sound like elderly women, blowing their cover.
- I Shall Taunt You: Once Cordovin discovers the woman piloting the stolen airship is Maria, she threatens her Sitcom Arch-Nemesis. Maria not only defies her but starts munching cashews over the comm-link to provoke Cordovin into using her giant mech-unit. Maria smuggling cashews onto a flight once in the past is how their feud began.
- Interesting Situation Duel: Adam and Blake have a sword duel across the multiple tiers of the Atlas radar tower that requires Blake to balance on the railings a lot. When he eventually corners her, she flips them over the railings and sends them crashing into the forest below. They both land heavily on the ground and continue their duel in a more mundane setting.
- It's All About Me: Although Cordovin tries to couch everything in terms of Atlas's greatness and might, she freaks out when she realizes the heroes have stolen the airship. As such, she decides to kill them for undermining her authority as opposed to them stealing military technology.
- It's All My Fault: As the plan starts to fall apart, Qrow starts to have a minor Freak Out, blaming himself for everything that's going wrong. Ruby has to talk him down, stating that everyone in the group shares responsibility for what's happening.
- Make an Example of Them: Cordovin explicitly states that she's going to use her retribution against the heroes as an example of what undermining her authority will result in.
- Mundanger: Blake is tasked with disabling the military radar but is unable to do so when Adam ambushes her. He has stalked her across Anima and waited until she was alone before confronting her. While Blake doesn't run away, she is shocked by his behaviour, trying to call out Adam on the stalking and telling him to let the past go. When he realises that she's been willing to let go of their memories together, he refuses to let her go ever again. The entire scene is about how abuse victims that have found the strength to escape their partners still risk having that partner stalking their lives and reappearing the moment they think the victim is vulnerable.
- Never My Fault: While fighting with Blake, Adam never acknowledges that it's his own actions that caused Blake to not want anything more to do with him. When Adam mocks Blake for ruining his life, Blake tells him that he stalked her across an entire continent. He also blames his violent behaviour on Blake as he felt she didn't behave herself.
- Shown Their Work: The radar system and Argus communications tower have the same range, meaning that an object is out of range of both or neither; it's how most ground-based radio and detection systems work in real life. Maria also assures Weiss that she has the necessary experience to fool the base with correct military jargon. Her message that they've circled back within range of the air base due to possible foreign object damage (FOD) and to relax by using the tongue-in-cheek phrase "feel free to gaff off" is correct real life jargon.
- There Is No Kill Like Overkill: Team RWBY tries stealing an airship so they can make a break to Atlas? For Caroline Cordovin, the best response is to take a Humongous Mecha and chase after them personally, rather than deploying other fighters. It's strongly implied that it's less about the airship and more about using them as a demonstration of Atlas's military might.
- Troll: The plan to steal an airship to get everyone to Atlas involves Weiss smuggling Maria on board so that she can commandeer the craft while Weiss defeats any soldiers on board. But it fails since the military radar isn't disabled in time, so the Atlesian base picks up the ship's movements and radios them. After the air base realises the ship has been commandeered by Maria, Cordovin takes over and argues with her. Maria deliberately dismisses Cordovin's authority by eating cashews over the comm-link. Cashews are the origin of their feud, as it was Maria inadvertently bringing banned cashews onto a flight that got her permanently added to the extended screening list.
- Unspoken Plan Guarantee: The need to come up with a plan for stealing an airship is how the previous episode ends. This episode opens with them starting to carry out the plan. Ruby's first introduction to the episode consists of her confirming Weiss has made it onto the airship whereupon she clarifies the entire plan to Team JNPR, Oscar and Qrow, which is how the audience first learns the plan. It's made clear that the entire plan rests on Blake being able to disable the military radar that tracks the hijacked airship. Blake goes dark, the military radar does not switch off and the Atlesian military realise what's happening and respond in force. By the end of the episode, it is revealed that her plan failed because she's dueling with Adam.
- Unstoppable Rage: Upon realising that Maria has stolen the airship, Cordovin tries threatening Maria through the base's intercom. However, Maria deliberately chews cashews to taunt her. This offends Cordovin's perception of authority that she snaps and deploys the giant robot to fight the heroes personally.
- Verbal Backspace: Blake does this when she starts to say that Yang isn't exactly the "stealthy" type and gets an unamused look in response. Instead she says that Yang is great and that she'll hurry back.
- You're Insane!: Maria munches cashews in the airship she stole from the Atlesian military, causing Cordovin to snap. As opposed to dispatching fighters to intercept the ship, she decides to pilot a Humongous Mecha to battle the heroes personally. Upon realising Cordovin's actions, Maria comments that she's clearly lost her mind.
"I let you go once already, Blake. I'm never making that mistake again..."
