"You're not getting in." "Yes, I am."
Sendak: I see you spent some time with the druids. They do love to experiment. Too bad you didn't get the latest model.
As the crew begin to prepare the castle to launch, the mice reveal some secrets to Allura, including the fact that Pidge is female. Allura tries to get Pidge to confess to this, but she instead confesses that she plans on leaving Team Voltron to find her father and brother by herself. Meanwhile, Commander Sendak is still active on the planet, and devises a plan to infiltrate and capture The Castle of Lions.
Tropes:
- The Bad Guy Wins: By the time the episode ends, Sendak has succeeded in the following:
- Effectively splits up the Paladins after destroying the crystal powering the castle and putting one of the Paladins out of commission as a result of the bomb
- Locks Allura and Keith out of the castle due to a diversion—setting the Arusian village on fire
- Even though Pidge is devising a plan to get Allura and Keith back into the castle, Sendak still has Shiro and Lance as hostages, with Lance in dire need of medical attention. Oh, and if Coran and Hunk can't make it back with a replacement Balmera crystal in time, the castle is on a one-way trip to Zarkon himself.
- Big "WHAT?!": Allura's response when the mice tell her Pidge is a girl.
- Contrived Coincidence: The fact that Pidge was preparing to leave as the power to the castle was shut down leaves her ship as the only one capable of leaving the Castle to get help.
- "Die Hard" on an X: The episode is largely "Die Hard on a captured Altean castle." Pidge is alone in the castle (other than the other two Paladins who are currently hostages), infiltrating and taking on a superior force (largely through use of air ducts, no less).
- Diving Save: Lance notices that the Rover he sees is actually a bomb and he pushes Coran out of the way the second it exploded.
- Good Colors, Evil Colors: Sendak destroys the Castle's power crystal, and replaces it with a Galran power crystal, which powers it back up while also changing all blue lighting purple.
- Go Through Me: Shiro when protecting an unconscious Lance and the castle entrance from Sendak.
- Involuntary Group Split: Keith and Allura are shut out of the castle after Sendak's group takes control, leaving Lance, Pidge and Shiro still inside.
- Lured into a Trap: Keith and Allura go off to the Arusian village where the Galras appeared and were setting fire to the houses. However, when they arrive, Keith notices too late that the Galra soldiers were just propped up broken sentries and the castle was going to be taken.
- Oblivious to Hints: Allura tries to get Pidge to open up and admit her real gender, but Pidge ends up telling Allura little facts about themselves.
- Secret Message Wink: Allura finds out that Pidge is a girl disguising herself as a boy. She tries to get Pidge to open up to her about this by dropping heavy hints and winking conspiratorially.
- Spot the Thread: Lance says hi to "Rover," only to realize that Pidge is nowhere nearby and the tiny robot is actually a bomb.
- Tastes Like Feet: Lance thinks that Nunvil "tastes like hotdog water and feet".
- Taking the Bullet: A variation of this. The moment Lance realizes there's a bomb about to go off mere feet away from him and Coran, his immediate reaction is to shove Coran down so he doesn't get hurt. The result is Lance taking a massive brunt of the explosion and being out of commission for awhile. Lucky for him, he gets better after a few episodes.
- That Came Out Wrong: Allura, after finding out Pidge's secret, tries to get her to open up, namely by talking about all the things they have in common, among them having fathers lost to the Galra Empire. Pidge remarks that the difference is she's going to find her father. She then immediately apologizes knowing how insensitive that sounds.
- The "The" Title Confusion: This episode is titled "The Fall of the Castle of Lions" on the episode title card, but the Netflix listing omits the first "The".
- Trapped in Another World: Everyone begins to realize in various degrees that they are this. Lance wonders where Earth even is and Coran helpfully shows him. Even on a star map zoomed out to galactic scale, it takes him quite a while to scroll over from Arus to Earth.
- Wait, What?: Allura has this response when Pidge says she's leaving Team Voltron.
- What the Hell, Hero?: Pidge gets this from Keith for wanting to leave the team, especially given that replacing a Paladin isn't a trivial task.
