Divide
"Jaune has a point."
Written by Kiersi Burkhart & Kerry Shawcross
Directed by Kerry Shawcross
Directed by Kerry Shawcross
"What Salem wants is to turn us against each other. Just like this."
— Oscar Pine
With Mantle abandoned, Team RWBY and their friends must split up and find a way to help the townsfolk.
Tropes in this episode include:
- Artificial Limbs: At the conclusion of his battle with Watts back in Volume 7, Ironwood flays his arm by tearing it free from the Hard Light shield Watts had trapped it in, making it clear he's willing to sacrifice anything to achieve his goal. This episode confirms that Ironwood has indeed sacrificed that arm in favour of a mechanical replacement.
- Brutal Honesty: Joanna bluntly tells the team that either they're helping on the evacuation of Mantle, or they're baggage.
- Call-Back: Yang telling Ruby that following her lead hasn't been working calls back to two moments; In "A New Approach", Blake told Ruby that the group will follow her lead, and "Rest and Resolutions", where Yang claimed she was going to go along with Ozpin because Ruby somehow always knows the right thing to do. In this chapter, Yang is taking those words back.
- Can't Take Criticism: Camilla and Sleet come looking for Ironwood, sensibly demanding answers for what he's doing. Ironwood responds by murdering Sleet in cold blood.
- Damned by Faint Praise: After Cinder claims to have taken the Relic right from under Ironwood's nose, Tyrian snarks that that says more about Ironwood's intellect than hers.
- Double-Meaning Title: The name "Divide" takes on many meanings in this episode.
- The heroes are divided both physically and emotionally. Many are torn between their own plans and ideals.
- The villains might be all under the same roof, but their differences in goals and priorities are never more prominent.
- Flash Forward: As the heroes argue about what plan to follow, the scene begins to flash-forward between the argument each character makes and the beginning of their missions with the team they've chosen. This shows that Ruby's team includes Weiss, Blake, Nora and Penny while Yang's team includes Jaune, Ren and Oscar.
- Gory Discretion Shot: Ironwood executes Sleet with a single shot from his gun Due Process at close range. The scene is framed through the window of Winter's hospital room, with Sleet just out of view when he's killed. What exactly a Hand Cannon designed to kill Grimm in a single shot would do to an untrained civilian is left to the imagination, instead focusing on the Ace-Ops and Camilla's horrified reactions.
- It's a Long Story: Although the heroes figured out that Oscar ran off to try and reason with Ironwood, they're baffled when he turns up in the slums at the base of Mantle. When they ask him what happened, he just says it's a long story and observes that it looks like they all have a long story to tell. Ozpin questions that, but Oscar quietly informs him that they're not done talking yet.
- Let's Split Up, Gang!: Ruby and Yang's disagreement over what course of action to take polarises the group into taking sides. Jaune suggests they split into teams and do both tasks. Though Ruby argues they must Never Split the Party because that's the kind of division Salem wants, Oscar correctly points out that people who separate into groups to achieve a common mission are united, not divided. In the end, they end up with two teams: Ruby, Weiss, Blake, Nora and Penny take the Atlas mission to get Amity up and running while Yang, Jaune, Ren and Oscar take the Mantle mission, to help evacuate the locals to the crater.
- Living Ship: The giant flying whale Grimm that Salem rode to from her base to Atlas is actually a ship. Landing platforms for airships are built into the side of its body like gills, there are corridors and rooms within the whale, with the walls looking like exposed flesh and doors opening like flesh and mucous peeling apart. Salem's command room and chair is located somewhere within the whale's head.
- Match Cut: At the beginning of the episode, a young, black-haired girl scrubs a floor by hand. The scene cuts to the claws of Cinder's Grimm hand scratching the back of Neo's airship chair, in an identical rhythm to the scrubbing brush while the same music plays.
- Military Coup: With Penny loose with the Winter Maiden's powers, the Relic of Knowledge in Salem's hands, and his few loyal forces weakened, Ironwood declares martial law across Atlas. When the remaining councilmen come to him to protest, he shoots Sleet in cold blood to remove him as an obstacle.
- Never My Fault: Ironwood desperately tries to call for Penny because, he claims, Atlas needs her. Knowing how uncertain Penny is, Ruby takes the scroll and informs Ironwood that she won't let Penny go to him until he comes to his senses about Mantle; Ironwood notes that the consequences will be on Ruby should Salem breach Atlas's defenses.
- Oh, Crap!: Councilor Camilla's eyes widen in shock when Ironwood is about to kill Councilor Sleet with Due Process.
- Stealing the Credit: When presenting the Relic of Knowledge to Salem, Cinder claims that she stole it right under Ironwood's nose, an act that was actually accomplished by Neo.
- Take a Third Option: When Yang and Ruby argue over what problem has the highest priority, the gang starts dividing based on whose argument they support. Jaune suggests they do both tasks as two separate teams. Ruby initially objects, thinking that's a division that will play into Salem's hands, until Oscar explains that two teams working for a common purpose is unity, not division. Everyone then agrees to do it Jaune's way.
- Trashcan Bonfire: With Mantle's heating system having been shut down by Watts, and Ironwood having abandoned the city, several of the inhabitants of Mantle who didn't get the chance to be evacuated to Atlas are using these to warm themselves under the snow.
- What the Hell, Hero?: Councilors Sleet and Camilla barge into the hospital to confront Ironwood about his distinctly unheroic decision to declare martial law and abandon the evacuation of Mantle. His response is to gun Sleet down.
"I'm going to do everything I can to defend this kingdom. No matter the cost."
