Season 1 Episode 07:
Empire of Light
An ominous new dream and a tense outing with Nancy and Abel take a toll on OA. Steve finds his life in turmoil once again.Tropes present in this episode include:
- Be Careful What You Wish For: Part of Nancy's panic over the selfie is that the girl assumes what OA has been through when she herself knows absolutely nothing, she doesn't even know who horribly scarred her. OA decides to oblige her and explain that she scarred herself with notations for a dance that can open a portal to an alternate universe and Nancy clearly isn't happy to hear that.
- Catapult Nightmare: The OA has one at the beginning of the episode.
- Cooldown Hug: The OA does this to Steve after he loses his temper at her because his parents almost dragged him off to reform school.
- Happily Adopted: Subverted. It's revealed that the OA no longer consider Nancy and Abel her parents because they medicated her and refused to believe her. French reminds her that they still are her parents and she needs them in her life.
- I Need to Go Iron My Dog: After accidentally admitting to the principal that she's been meeting Steve at the vacant house, Betty hangs up with the poor excuse that she's eating a sandwich.
- Innocently Insensitive: A passerby takes a selfie with the OA and compliments her for being so brave in the face of abuse and rape. Nancy is uncomfortable with her presuming to know what the OA went through, but the passerby herself seems sincere.
- Irony: In the beginning of the season, Betty was trying to get Steve sent away to reform school. In this episode, she pays $50,000 to save him from getting sent to reform school.
- Mama Bear:
- The Johnson family goes out for dinner and a random passerby gets a selfie with the OA. The OA doesn't know what to think of this, and Abel just wants to let it go, but Nancy gets more and more upset about it over time until it seems like she's ready to explode.
- Betty goes to great lengths to get Steve back from the men taking him to reform school. She even gives the guards every penny she inherited from her late brother in order to bribe them into letting Steve go.
- Shout-Out: Steve's classmate references Carrie after he kisses her.
- Spit Take: Abel spits in his glass after the OA insults her former boyfriend, saying he was interested in her because she couldn't see him.
- The Reveal: "OA" stands for "Original Angel".
