As Spider-Man is caught the middle of the battle between the Kingpin and Silvermane, who kidnap each other's loved ones such as the Kingpin's wife and Silvermane's daughter, as they both crime lords seek to gain the Tablet of Time, as Silvermane kidnaps Dr. Connors, who is turning back into the Lizard.
This episode provides examples of:
- Accidental Hero: Curt stressing out and transforming into the Lizard inadvertently prevents Silvermane from unmasking Spider-Man.
- Armor-Piercing Response: Vanessa announcing she's leaving prompts the Kingpin to plead with her, but this exchange causes him to just sit defeated in a chair.Kingpin: But, Vanessa, I love you.
Vanessa: I used to believe that. Now, I see clearly. All you really love is being the Kingpin... the Kingpin of Crime. - Be Careful What You Wish For: After the trouble he went through to get the Tablet of Time, Silvermane succeeds at restoring his youth, but unfortunately he begins to continue to become younger until he turned into a baby.
- Being Evil Sucks: As a result of the Kingpin's obsession with running his criminal empire and maintaining his status as the top crime boss of New York, Fisk's wife Vanessa ends up leaving him after being kidnapped in a revenge scheme by Silvermane at the end of the episode.
- Charles Atlas Superpower: After Silvemane regains his youth, he's able to become strong enough to beat up The Lizard with his bare hands.
- Continuity Nod: Spider-Man recognizes Silvermane as the man he saved from the Insidious Six. He even says if he had known who Silvermane really was, he would have handed him over with a ribbon and bow attached.
- Deadpan Snarker: Seeing Spider-Man and the Mega-Slayer going at it, Tombstone quips to his fellow mooks that he doesn't know who to root for.
- Dramatic Irony:
- After the Kingpin finally succeeds at getting the Tablet of Time, he orders Hammerhead to get rid it.
- Spider-Man thinks the Tablet was destroyed in the explosion, but viewers saw Hammerhead carry it away before then.
- Gone Horribly Right: While the Tablet of Time does make Silvermane young again, it continues to make him younger until he is an infant.
- I Have Your Wife: To get the Tablet of Time from the Kingpin, Silvermane has Tombstone kidnap the Kingpin's wife, Vanessa, then Hammerhead, working for the Kingpin, kidnaps Alisha so that he can get on the Kingpin’s good side. The Kingpin uses Alisha as a bargaining chip for Silvermane to Vanessa back.
- Ignored Expert: Upon Silvermane explaining his intentions, Curt warned that the ritual was too risky, due to the assorted variables and incomplete research. Even after a reasonable test with a flower, Curt stressed that the exact calculations are still unknown and that this shouldn't be done, telling Silvermane to his face how dangerous this was. Silvermane doesn't listen, and he ends up de-aging into a baby.
- Internal Reveal: While in captivity at Silvermane's base, Spider-Man learns Alisha is the man's daughter, and he's positively crushed.
- He also discovers the man saved from Doc Ock and the rest of Insidious Six is the crime lord Silvermane.
- Little "No": Silvermane, after being de-aged to a child and knowing it's not going to stop there.
- Never My Fault: Silvermane and Alisha kidnap Dr Connors to activate the Tablet Of Time. They ignore his warnings and don't even let him finish the process, accusing him of stalling. When the Tablet activates and ultimately turns Silvermane into a baby from this error, his daughter not only blames Connors, but Spider-Man and pretty much everyone else in the room but herself, ordering the building to be destroyed with them in it.
- The Only One Allowed to Defeat You: As Spider-Man is being held prisoner at Silvermane's hideout, when Tombstone tries to unmask him, Alisha stops him from doing so, as she wants her father to have that privilege when he regains his youth.
- Painful Transformation: The initial blast from the Tablet of Time causes Silvermane some discomfort, but he doesn't think it's too bad. He enjoys his regained youth, but then he starts convulsing in agony. He's about to de-age far beyond what he had intended.
- Properly Paranoid: Though Kingpin agreed to the exchange, Tombstone anticipated a double-cross was in the works, so he had mooks in waiting with heavy artillery.
- Pyrrhic Victory: In the end the Kingpin succeeds at gaining possession of the Tablet of Time, but it costs him his wife, as Vanessa decides that she can no longer take being the wife of a crime boss so she leaves him. Therefore the Kingpin no longer wants the Tablet of Time, and orders Hammerhead to get rid of it.
- Skewed Priorities: During the alley fight, Kingpin yells at Smythe to stop bothering with Spider-Man and to rescue Vanessa.
- Spared by the Adaptation: In the original Tablet of Time comic story, Silvermane de-aged himself back to nothing. This version of the story has him survive, but aged as a baby - which still is capable of thinking and talking like an adult.
- Ungrateful Bastard: Both Silvermane and his daughter, Alisha towards Spider-Man.
- Silvermane still tries to kill Spider-Man after the latter saved him from the Insidious Six. Spidey says to himself that had he known who Silvermane truly was he'd have handed him over to the Six wrapped up in a bow.
- After Spider-Man saves Alisha when Hammerhead kidnaps her, when Spider-Man goes to check on her to make sure she's okay, Alisha knocks him out and brings him to her father so he can kill Spider-Man after he regains his youth.
- Unwitting Instigator of Doom: Hammerhead unintentionally causes Adrian Toomes become the Vulture when he to sells the Tablet of Time to Toomes, who uses it to create his youth-draining technology.
- Villains Want Mercy: Before being reduced to a baby, Silvermane pleads for someone to stop this.
- Yank the Dog's Chain: Peter was falling pretty hard for Alisha and thought there was the chance for something long-term. Learning she's Silvermane's daughter and all in on the man's criminal empire leaves him crushed.
