The heroes search for Violet as Dick and Jefferson deal with the events of last episode.
Tropes in this episode:
- Aesop Amnesia: Conner believes Dick and M'gann are going through this, since faking Artemis' death resulted in Kaldur being brainfried. M'gann protests that she hasn't mentally manipulated anyone, but Conner says that the mundane lying and secrets are still manipulation.M'gann: I thought you'd forgiven me for that.
Conner: Yeah, but that doesn't mean forgetting. - All for Nothing:
- M'gann using her Mind Rape powers, which she considers the equivalent of sacrificing her soul, doesn't stop Overlord from triggering the device, resulting in her and the rest of the team being controlled by Anti-Life Equation.
- The whole rescue mission itself wound up being for nothing as they don't rescue Violet, and actually makes the situation much worse, with the members of the rescue team being taken control of by the Anti-Life Equation.
- Art Shift: When Dick starts to hallucinate, the Team all shift back to their Season One appearances.
- The Bad Guy Wins: Despite the Team racing to the Orphanage, they're unable to stop Granny Goodness from unleashing the Anti-Life Equation throughout the cosmos, and fall victim to it themselves.
- Batman Gambit: Brion, knowing Granny can't resist cruelty, pretends to be losing control under her Breaking Speech to provide a distraction so they can get the cerebral leash off Violet. Unfortunately, Superman intervenes.
- The Bus Came Back: After not showing up since his initial appearance, Mantis returns, now serving Apokolips just as he does in the comics. A number of the other Justice League members such as John Stewart, Captain Atom, Martian Manhunter and Icon also make their season 3 debuts here.
- Character Development: Brion has matured to the point where the team puts him in charge of Beta Squad, and when Granny tries to exploit his Hair-Trigger Temper he only pretends to give in to provide a distraction.
- Darkest Hour: The entire episode sets up the worst possible situation for the remaining heroes. The Justice League members (which includes Superman, Wonder Woman, Martian Manhunter, and all three of Earth's Green Lanterns, among others) that were on the space goodwill mission are taken control of by Granny with the Anti-Life Equation. The rescue team sent to retrieve Violet (which includes most of the Covert Ops team and the Justice League chairman) follow suit. This leaves only the Outsiders (sans Brion), Batman Incorporated, what remains of the Justice League on Earth (sans Kaldur), Black Lightning, the one remaining member of the Covert Ops team (Traci Thirteen), and the various other heroes scattered across the universe (which isn't as many as it may sound) to fix this mess, somehow. Oh, and The Light, provided the desperate situation doesn't lead most of them to turn on each other.
- Didn't See That Coming:
- Presumably, whatever plans Deathstroke had for Terra, they didn't involve her and nearly all her teammates being taken control of by Granny with the Anti-Life Equation, meaning whatever machinations he had have been, at the very least, put on hold until the heroes are broken free of Granny's control.
- It's likely that when Savage informed the heroes of the location of the Orphanage, he wasn't aware Granny had already used the Anti-Life Equation to seize control of a sizable part of the Justice League. Their presence greatly impedes the rescue mission and made any success far less likely.
- Downer Beginning: The Leaguers in space stage a raid on the Orphanage, only for Granny to use the Anti-Life Equation on all of them before they can even get inside.
- Enemy Mine: Savage and the Light are the heroes' biggest enemy on an average day. Darkseid having the Anti-Life Equation means it's most certainly not the average day and they all have a much bigger problem. Thus, Savage provides the heroes with the location of The Orphanage with no real strings attached. Given how this episode ends, this likely won't be the last time Savage and the Light attempt to assist the heroes before the season ends. Hopefully, future attempts will end better.
- Failure Is the Only Option: Even if the mission didn't turn out to be the unmitigated disaster that it did, there was never any chance the heroes were going to rescue Violet before the season finale when she is the key to Darkseid using the Anti-Life Equation.
- Godzilla Threshold:
- Darkseid acquiring the Anti-Life Equation is so bad that Vandal Savage doesn't bother with the manipulative tactics he usually employs to get the heroes to do what he wants. He walks up to the Outsiders' tower and offers the location of Granny's Orphanage to the heroes, with his only condition being that they tell Granny who sent them. Unfortunately for everyone involved, this doesn't result in the heroes succeeding.
- The situation near the end of the episode is bad enough that M'gann is willing to employ her Mind Rape powers she swore off after Season 2 on all the heroes being controlled by Granny, after Kaldur's suggestion. Like with Vandal, it's All for Nothing, because it doesn't affect Overlord, who triggers the release of the Anti-Life Equation.
- Helpful Hallucination: Nightwing's hallucination of Kid Flash gives him the idea to hack the Javelin for use against the Parademons.
- Heroic BSoD: Jefferson spends the entire episode down in the dumps over the lies he's been given and Jace's betrayal. It isn't until he sees his kids dressed up as Bumblebee and his own heroic identity that he finally recovers.
- History Repeats: This episode has many members of the Justice League placed under the control of a major villain. A team made up of their younger proteges plans to rescue them, in addition to stopping the villain's ultimate plans. Does this sound familiar? Hell, the team includes five out of eight of that original team. Only difference is, they fail this time and they themselves get put under the same mind control as the League members.
- Hope Spot: M'gaan attempts to use her mind powers to stop Granny Goodness. However, Granny gains enough control to shove Violet out into the X-Pit and recite the Anti-Life Equation.
- "I Know You're in There Somewhere" Fight: Brion tries to get Violet to snap out of Granny's control, but the cerebral leash has suspended all her higher brain functions. All she can do is reflexively use the Anti-Life Equation when exposed to the X-Pit.
- Indy Ploy: Savage's apparent plan in this episode may be the closest he's ever gotten to this in his lengthy existence. Giving the heroes Granny and Violet's location so they can launch a rescue mission was likely a Hail Mary pass by Vandal to try and stop Darkseid's takeover before Granny initiates the large-scale spread of the Anti-Life Equation.
- I Shall Taunt You: Granny taunts Brion about how his parents died, his brother and country abandoned him, his girlfriend is now a mindless puppet, and a confidante (which Brion assumes to be Jace but is likely referring to Tara, his own sister) betrayed him. Brion feigns being affected by her taunts in a bid to free Violet, but the brainwashed Leaguers torpedo that plan.
- Lured into a Trap: Granny allows the Lanterns and Leaguers to find the Orphanage so she can test her finished Anti-Life Equation generator on them.
- Mood Whiplash: The hallucination sequence and the scene immediately following it. It features numerous tongue-in-cheek references to Season 1 and the heroes defeating their enemies is shown via arcade fighter-style visuals, with the heroes looking like they are essentially using cheat codes to win. Afterward, the team has a small moment that seems intended to honor the one fallen member of the original team that can't be with them. Considering what swiftly follows, one has to wonder if maybe they should've saved that for a more triumphant episode. Provided it wasn't meant to serve some other purpose.
- Mythology Gag:
- The doorman at the Hub is named Kirby Jacobs.
- Anissa and Jennifer Pierce are dressed up as Black Lightning and Bumblebee respectively. The colour schemes reference their Thunder and Lightning costumes in the comics.
- Psychic Block Defense: Victims of the Anti-Life Equation are completely undetectable to psychics, outside of when they directly use psychic abilities on them. This renders the mind-controlled Justice Leaguers undetectable to the rescue party until they ambush them.
- Putting the Band Back Together: This episode reunites the five surviving members of the original Season 1 team (not counting Zatanna and Raquel, who joined near the end of the season). This doesn't go as well as fans had hoped.
- The Reveal: Granny's device generates a Ghost Dimension field, which when combined with Halo's powers allows it to spread the Anti-Life Equation throughout the cosmos.
- Toxic Phlebotinum: Granny explains that the X-Pit has deleterious effects on non-metas, hence why Dick took so long to recover while Jefferson bounced right back. This means that Granny's Anti-Life generator would kill every non-meta on Earth if she gets the chance to use it there.
- Unluckily Lucky: If Jefferson hadn't said Screw This, I'm Outta Here in the previous episode, there's a good chance he would've gone on the rescue mission to save Violet and also been placed under the control of the Anti-Life Equation. The same applies to Traci Thirteen, who was off training in Fate's Tower and couldn't be contacted, and avoids the same fate.
- Wham Episode: While not as heavy on big reveals as the previous episode, the twists are arguably bigger. Many significant members of the Justice League are taken control of by Granny with the Anti-Life Equation. A rescue team comprised of many (if not most) of the major characters of this season fail in their mission to rescue Violet and fall under the control of Granny via Anti-Life, leaving relatively few heroes left to somehow stop Darkseid.
- The Worf Effect: Green Lanterns Hal Jordan, Guy Gardner and John Stewart, along with Superman, Wonder Woman, Martian Manhunter, Icon, Captain Atom and Elongated Man all get struck down by the Anti-Life Equation. The Team follows suit at the end.
- Worf Had the Flu: Dick is still feeling the effects of the brainwashing, thus he's not at 100% and is caught off-guard by a Parademon. It's later revealed that the Ghost Dimension is harmful to normal humans, while metas can tolerate it.
- You Can't Thwart Stage One: With three episodes to go, stopping Granny from activating her device and spreading the Anti-Life Equation wasn't going to happen.
