The Monks find the Crystal Glasses, a Shen Gong Wu that can be used to see the future, and recruit a Russian fellow named Vlad into their order. Omi, curious about his own destiny, looks through the Glasses - and sees himself as a villain who destroys the temple!
Tropes
- Confidence Sabotage: Vlad does this to Omi by sneaking the Reversing Mirror in his view as the latter uses the Crystal Glasses, making him foresee a Bad Future.
- Dumb Muscle: Vlad is so strong that wearing the Two Ton Tunic doesn't slow him down. And he is dumb enough to ruin Jack's clever plan by explaining how he tricked Omi.
- Engineered Heroics: Vlad's "defeat" of Jack Spicer was actually planned so he could infiltrate the Xiaolin Temple. An injured Jack then contacts Vlad and tells him that he didn't have to fake the fight so well.
- Foreshadowing: While the Bad Future Omi sees isn't real, he does end up being destined to join the Heylin side for a time.
- Godzilla Threshold: Master Fung says the Crystal Glasses are too dangerous to use under most circumstances. Raimound wanting to use them to find Omi is a rare exception since nobody knows where to find him.
- Heroic BSoD: Omi hits a bad one when he thinks he is destined to join the dark side. He gets out of when Vlad starts Saying Too Much.
- Hypocrite Has a Point: Jack tells Vlad to stop gloating, saying he isn't “paid to gloat.” Jack indulges in Evil Gloating himself, but he is right that Vlad gloating is a mistake since he explains how he tricked Omi for no good reason.
- Hypocritical Humor: Jack berates Vlad's Evil Gloating for saying too much about the plan to make Omi think he would become evil. This is despite the fact that Jack has basically done this in every encounter with the Xiaolin Warriors thus far (and will continue to do so to the end of the series). Granted he did have a point about Vlad spoiling the plan, but still...
- Idiotic Partner Confession: Vlad blows the plan by blurting out his part in sabotaging Omi's confidence, leading to the former coming back and facing him in a Xiaolin Showdown.
- Know When to Fold 'Em: To emphasize that the monks are not ready to use the Crystal Glasses, Master Fung challenges them to a contest to see if they can touch his robe while he's using them. After handily outmaneuvering Omi, Kimiko, Clay and Vlad, Raimundo quickly realizes the futility of trying and just walks away.Raimundo: Aw, forget it.Master Fung: I knew you would say that.
- Manipulative Bastard: Jack pulls off a surprisingly clever plan where Vlad pretends to be a hero to infiltrate the Xiaolin Temple, gets Omi to use the Crystal Glasses, and then tricks Omi into seeing the opposite of the future by using the Reversing Mirror on the glasses. The plan sends Omi into a Heroic BSoD that he only gets out of because Vlad gloats about the plan for no good reason.
- Near-Villain Victory: Jack's plan had almost succeeds as Omi was still in Heroic BSoD and the others were losing until Vlad ruined the plan with his Evil Gloating and reveal he how tricked Omi, which causes the latter to snap out of it and save the day.
- Nice Job Fixing It, Villain: For no good reason, Vlad explains how he tricked Omi into thinking he is destined to turn evil. This causes Omi to snap out of his Heroic BSoD.
- Once an Episode: The "Cave Escape" Xiaolin Showdown pitting Omi against Vlad for the Wushu Helmet (and bag of new Wu), the winner being the first to escape before the cave fills with water, with Omi's Crystal Glasses versus Vlad's Two-Ton Tunic; Omi wins after using the "Power of Water" to rocket himself and his fellow monks out of the cave and grab the helmet.
- Saying Too Much: Vlad botches Omi's Heroic BSoD by bragging about how using the Reversing Mirror to trick Omi into seeing a fake future.Jack: This is why evil gloating should be left to the mastermind.
- Snap Back: Jack and Wuya are partners again for some reason, even though it was established in the previous episode that Jack doesn't need Wuya.
