A new bounty hunter shows up and nearly snipes Krel, but that's the least of the royals heirs worries when a school district official demands proper identification from them. Back on Akiridion-5 Zadra gets some unsettling information about the traitor.
Tropes for this episode include:
- Because You Were Nice to Me: When the father blank becomes self-aware, Aja embraces this and gives him the name "Ricky Blank". Later he helps save Aja's life citing that she gave him a name.Ricky: Attacking may not be in my programming but... she named me!
- Beef Bandage: The mom blank slaps a T-bone steak onto the father blank's damaged face, evoking the trope.
- Bird People: Halcon is a bird-like alien bounty hunter. Her human alias goes by "Birdie" and she is often accompanied by a bird's shriek.
- Chekhov's Skill: Varvatos has learned the human martial art move "the toe kick", something that both use with great success later in the episode.
- Crush Filter: Varvatos has one towards Nancy Domzalski, leading to a brief Fantasy Sequence.
- Evil-Detecting Dog: Alien-disguised-as-Corgi rather. Luug growls at Birdie when he sniffs her, realizing she's no good.
- Foreshadowing: The first time the idea of "a pawn must be sacrificed to protect the King" is introduced to Varvatos...
- Friendly Address Privileges: "Bertha Flanagan, but my friends call me 'Birdie'."
- Grew Beyond Their Programming: After the father blank (later named Ricky Blank) is shot in the head by Halcon in a strike meant for Krel, the malfunctioning blank becomes self-aware, including all of the angsty emotional hang-ups that come with it.
- Improbable Aiming Skills: When he regains consciousness, Varvatos sees Halcon flying away with Luug biting her and hanging for dear life, he shoots so that he doesn't hurt the kids' pet. Luug lands safely, with not even a scratch.
- Metaphorgotten: Varvatos intends to kill Birdie and put her out of their misery. Before that, he tries to give a Pre Asskicking Oneliner.Varvatos: It's time for Varvatos to turn this bird into... [Beat] Dead. A dead bird. It's going to be dead when Varvatos is done with it.
- Minor with Fake I.D.: If Birdie was an actual member of the school board and was not just looking for their home address, then she would have recognized that Krel and Aja's I.D.s were very poorly made forgeries.
- Mood-Swinger: After the father blank's cortex chip is damaged, he switches from his usual over-the-top commercial personality and into a more somber, self-aware mode stuck in an existential crisis.
- Mood Whiplash: After Varvatos engages in a Group Hug after admitting to Krei and Aja that he is scared all the time, it cuts back to Akiridion. The Resistance have found the traitor, and Zadra goes Oh, Crap! when she learns Varvatos agreed to lower the shields.
- Never the Obvious Suspect: Originally it was thought the sniper was one of the Zeron Brotherhood members, but in fact, it was a new bounty hunter entirely.
- New Job as the Plot Demands: When Krel and Aja are forced to sign a ridiculously high amount of identification papers, Stuart offers to forge them, having worked for the Mexican government in a job that went to the top. Krel asks if there has ever been a job he hasn't had, he bluntly admits that he has never been a plumber but would like to be someday.
- Nice Job Breaking It, Hero: Ricky accidentally reveals the entrance to the ship to Halcon.
- "No. Just… No" Reaction: Senor Uhl has this reaction when "Birdie" refers to Krei and Aja as "Your kind". He shuts her down and tells her this language is not tolerated on his campus.
- Obstructive Bureaucrat: Birdie hands Krel and Aja two absurdly high stacks of forms, demanding that they fill it out with information ranging from home address and student records to phone bills and text messages, all to be signed by a parent or guardian. She does not actually work for the school board, she simply uses it to pin-point their address so that she can hunt them down for the bounty.
- Offscreen Moment of Awesome: The Resistance managed to find footage of the real traitor, by intercepting signals from Earth.
- Papa Wolf:
- Uhl gets furious when he thinks that Birdie is racially profiling Krei for acing all of his exams. He tells her off and tries to say the paperwork is Moving the Goalposts. It's only when she threatens his position that the kids say of course they have the paperwork and he apologizes for wasting their time. The next day, he gives them school IDs and tells them if they have any trouble with people saying they don't belong, they should come straight to him.
- Despite the fact that he's having an existential crisis and worried that he's about to be replaced, Ricky tosses items at Halcon when she nearly overcomes Aja in battle. It did help, though, that Aja gave him a name and showed empathy for him.
- Properly Paranoid: Varvatos tells the kids to stay at home until they can track down the bounty hunter, since they nearly got Krei. Aja protests and uses logic to convince him otherwise. If they had called in sick that day, it would have taken more time for Halcon to find them.
- Racist Grandma: Halcon (as Birdie) claims that it highly unusually for "someone of his kind" (Krel) to have aced every one of his math exams, leading to Señor Uhl antagonizing her over the implication. Justified, as she knew that he was secretly an alien and that he was one of her targets, but it is equally likely that she is prejudiced towards Akiridians.Birdie: Mr. Tarron has scored a hundred percent on every single math test. Highly unusual for his kind.
Señor Uhl: No. Stop right there. If you're just here to make unfounded accusations, then you can leave my school right now. [Turns to Aja and Krel.] I'm very sorry I brought you in for this. - Running Gag: Anytime Bertha shows up or is talked about you can hear an eagle scream.
- Running into the Window: When Halcon tries to escape the house, she keep running into the window, thinking there is an invisible barrier obstructing her exit.
- Ship Tease: Between Vex and Toby's Nana.
- Shout-Out: The two blanks end up taking the names "Ricky and Lucy Blank."
- Slipping a Mickey: Halcon managed to drug Varvatos with tranquilized cookies, leaving Krel and Aja defenseless against her. Whatever she laced it with, it knocked him out so cold that is takes a number of highly absurd and escalatingly lethal means devised by Luug before he wakes up.
- Training from Hell: Varvatos congratulates Aja in surviving her first day of warrior training.
- Wham Episode: Varvatos Vex was the traitor all along!
- Wham Shot: Zadra sees a video of Morando convincing the traitor to lower the shields for his attack, and it's Varvatos Vex.
- What Measure Is a Non-Human?: After Ricky (before he gets his name) gets shot, he began to question his self-worth, pointing out that as a blank, he is easily replaceable. Krei and Aja reassure him that's not the case.
- You Can Barely Stand: Krei tells Ricky to lie still as he's being repaired as Ricky thrashes from his existential crisis, reassuring him that he won't get replaced.
