Cindy brings her plan against the JSA to fruition.
Tropes:
- Ain't Too Proud to Beg: Cindy is apparently not above pleading with Courtney to save her. Not that Courtney needed to be told.
- The Bait: It's revealed that the reason Cindy had a picture of Mike was not to recruit him to the ISA Unlimited, but to use him to lure Courtney and her friends into her trap.
- Batman Gambit: Eclipso possesses Shiv and goads Stargirl into a full frontal assault. When she attacks the Black Diamond with her staff, its power to dispel darkness causes the diamond to shatter and he escapes.
- Big Damn Heroes:
- Mike saves Courtney from Cindy by thwacking her with a toaster.
- The Shade attempts this when he arrives to take the diamond before the battle can start round two. Unfortunately, Eclipso makes his move and quickly overpowers the man.
- Blood from the Mouth: Pat coughs up blood after the beating he takes from Artemis and Isaac.
- Break the Haughty: Cindy is reduced to fearfully sniveling and begging Courtney to save her as she's sucked into a puddle of ooze conjured by Eclipso, whereas not one minute earlier, she was demanding his obedience even after he'd shown her who was really in charge between the two of them.
- Bullying a Dragon: Even after it's become clear just how powerful and dangerous Eclipso really is, even after he devours Isaac's soul in front of her, Cindy still tries to boss him around, insisting he owes her for helping him escape from the Black Diamond. Eclipso calmly replies that he owes her nothing, and creates a pool of black ooze which swallows her.
- Call-Back: When confronting Yolanda at the diner, Isaac mentions the nude pictures of herself she had sent.
- Combat Pragmatist:
- Cindy has Artemis and Isaac take out Pat and disable S.T.R.I.P.E. so the JSA will be down one of their two heavy hitters.
- By the same token, they physically attack or at least threaten Pat, Beth, and Mike, the physically weakest members of the JSA, while leaving Courtney and Rick alone. Subverted with Yolanda, whom Isaac briefly taunts at the diner.
- Continuity Nod:
- Isaac brings up the naked pictures of Yolanda that Cindy spread around in Season 1.
- Courtney and Pat tour Mr. Deisinger's classroom, which, along with the hallway outside, is still messed up from the battle last episode.
- Cameron asks why bad things happen to good people, referencing the deaths of his parents (though he is still unaware of who his father truly was).
- When Mike browses in the junkyard he finds the toaster that Yolanda damaged with her suit's claws in the first season.
- He and Zeke also walk past all the stop signs from a few episodes ago, which Zeke has discounted to $3 since nobody's buying them.
- At the end of the episode, Eclipso assumes the form of Bruce, the child disguise he used in the season premiere when he killed Dr. Mid-Nite's daughter.
- Enemy Mine: The Shade immediately agrees to help the JSA after learning that Cindy has the black diamond because he knows how badly outmatched they will be if Eclipso is released.
- Even Evil Has Standards:
- Despite implying she killed Mike out of boredom, Cindy just left him tied up in another room, even though she could have made good on that threat.
- Shade calls Eclipso pathetic for feeding on the souls of children.
- Evil Is Not a Toy: Having disregarded multiple warnings about this, Cindy finally learns the hard way.Shade: If you knew what you were dealing with, you wouldn't be wielding it in some trivial teenaged gang fight.
- Evil Laugh: Eclipso ends the episode doing this, while in the form of a child to really ramp up the creep factor.
- From Bad to Worse: Eclipso has already proven to be a dangerous entity this season despite remaining an incorporeal entity trapped in a crystal. When he's finally freed from the crystal and given physical form, he's even more powerful and dangerous than ever before.
- Godzilla Threshold:
- In order to help the JSA, Courtney's mom uses the number the Shade gave her to call him and let him know where the black diamond was.
- When Cindy finds herself and her team on the back foot against the JSA, she decides to turn Eclipso on them as a last resort. The Shade interrupts before she has the chance, and Eclipso uses the opportunity to set his own plan in motion. It backfires horribly for her.
- Heroic Second Wind: When Hourman and Wildcat are in danger of being defeated, Stargirl interrupts her battle with Shiv to assist her teammates, allowing them to regroup and gain the upper hand.
- Hoist by His Own Petard: Cindy's overuse of the black diamond becomes her apparent undoing.
- I Have Your Wife: Cindy kidnaps Mike as bait to draw in Courtney and the JSA on her terms.
- Internal Reveal: The JSA finally learns that Cindy has returned to Blue Valley and has the black diamond.
- Irony:
- Artemis verbally tears into Beth for supposedly being fine with tearing the Crock family apart, and rhetorically asks her if she knows what that's like. When Beth actually tries to empathize with her and explain that her parents are getting divorced, Artemis refuses to listen and resentfully insists that the Chapels are a "perfect little family".
- The previous episode established (and this one seems to re-iterate) that the Cosmic Staff is one of the few things that can hurt Eclipso, seemingly due to light being able to overcome darkness. Despite this, Eclipso is actually able to manipulate Courtney into using the staff to free him from his crystal, making him more dangerous than ever before.
- It's All My Fault: When Pat ends up in the hospital after Artemis and Isaac's attack, Courtney blames herself for not being at the Pit Stop to help him.
- Major Injury Underreaction: After teleporting to safety, a stabbed and humiliated Shade hisses, "Oh, damnation!"
- Make Way for the New Villains: Eclipso cements himself as the new Big Bad by killing Isaac Bowen and seemingly killing Cindy.
- Mighty Glacier: Hourman is a lot slower than Artemis, but he's also nearly invulnerable and his attacks hurt a lot more when they do connect. He eventually beats her simply by powering through her attacks and closing in so she can't dodge him.
- Never My Fault: Cindy blames Courtney for her problems, and doesn't want to hear it when Courtney points out that Cindy brought it on herself.
- Nice Job Breaking It, Hero: Literally. Stargirl attacks Cindy while she's possessed by Eclipso. This results in the Cosmic Staff breaking the Black Diamond, unleashing Eclipso upon the world in physical form.
- No-Sell: The Shade's powers can't so much as hinder Eclipso because, as the demon notes, they come from his home dimension.
- Ominous Obsidian Ooze: Eclipso throws a shard of his broken diamond at Cindy's feet, which then melts into a black puddle that grabs her and sucks her in before disappearing.
- Parenthetical Swearing: Rick says "Oh, puck," when Artemis slaps an exploding puck on his chest.
- Pet the Dog: Isaac and Artemis give Pat a severe beating, but the latter keeps Isaac from killing him because Pat is friends with her parents.
- Plot Hole: In light of Mike's status as a Red Herring, the fact that Eclipso included him in his illusion of the Injustice Unlimited team shot two episodes ago doesn't make any sense, as Eclipso would be just as aware of Cindy's intent for him.
- Red Herring: Cindy's odd fixation on Mike is revealed as her simply seeking him as bait.
- Rousing Speech: After Cindy initiates her challenge, Courtney feels uncertain she can stop her without Pat, but her mother encourages her, telling her she can do it.
- Save the Villain: Courtney tries to save Cindy from being pulled into Eclipso's ooze, but the ooze is too strong and Courtney loses her grip.
- Screw This, I'm Outta Here: Artemis runs away after Eclipso kills Isaac.
- Ship Tease: Again teasing Beth/Rick, twice this time. When Artemis assaults Beth at the start of the episode, her first thought is to turn to Rick. And when she attacks her during the fight at the end, Rick throws his invulnerable body in front of Beth.
- Shut Up, Kirk!:
- When Artemis sarcastically asks Beth if she knows what it's like to have a torn family, Beth tries to sympathize by mentioning her parents are contemplating divorce, but Artemis doesn't let her talk, accusing her of having a "perfect little family".
- When Cindy blames Courtney for all her problems, Courtney points out that Cindy was responsible for them herself, but Cindy doesn't want to hear it.
- Swirlie: While fighting in a bathroom, Artemis shoves Hourman's head in a toilet.
- Sympathy for the Devil: As horrible as she's been, it's hard not to feel bad for Cindy as she's being dragged away, struggling and screaming, to an Uncertain Doom while desperately clinging to Courtney's outstretched hand and begging her erstwhile nemesis not to let her go.
- Issac also gets a mention as he's brutally killed off by Eclipso. He only joined Injustice Unlimited because he was a bullying victim and thought the JSA were responsible for his mother's death. Worse is that he dies without ever learning who really murdered her.
- Total Eclipse of the Plot: Eclipso's escape is heralded by a lunar eclipse over Blue Valley.
- Uncertain Doom: While it's not made clear whether Cindy was Killed Off for Real or simply transported to the shadow realm that Dr. Mid-Nite was seen wandering around in several episodes ago, Courtney is under the impression she's dead.
- Unwitting Pawn:
- Too late, Cindy realizes she has never been in control of Eclipso, it's been the other way around to manipulate her into freeing him.
- Courtney herself is manipulated by Eclipso into using the Cosmic Staff to destroy the Black Diamond, releasing him and giving him physical form.
- Villain: Exit, Stage Left:
- Artemis flees without anybody noticing once it becomes clear that Eclipso is out of her league, leaving her as the sole surviving member of the ISA.
- Eclipso himself flees after he seemingly depowers the Cosmic Staff, apparently due to it injuring him just prior to this.
- Weakened by the Light: The energy of the Cosmic Staff causes Eclipso visible pain, but he still overwhelms and disables it.
- Wham Episode: A doozy. Eclipso is freed from the Black Diamond, Issac is murdered, Cindy is consumed by black ooze, and the Cosmic Staff has been disabled.
- The Worf Effect: Eclipso in short order manhandles Cindy before ripping out one of her blades, swats Hourman aside while his powers are active, walks right through the Shade's shadows before injuring him, and finally disables the Cosmic Staff, though the latter clearly hurts him a little.
- Wouldn't Hurt a Child: Pat initially refuses to fight Artemis, and she already has him on the ropes by the time he decides to fight back.
- Wrecked Weapon:
- Isaac and Artemis tear apart S.T.R.I.P.E at the Pit Stop to put it out of action.
- Wildcat claws apart the Fiddler's violin, rendering Isaac harmless.
- Hourman bends Sportsmaster's steel bat into a U-shape to pin Artemis against the wall.
- The Cosmic Staff is disabled when Eclipso's darkness overwhelms its light.
- You Have Outlived Your Usefulness: Eclipso kills Isaac and (seemingly) Cindy once he's free and he doesn't need them anymore.
- You Owe Me: Cindy tries to claim Eclipso owes her for his freedom. He rejects the idea and sucks her into a puddle of ooze to show his complete lack of empathy for her.
