The Cape is Vince Faraday, a cop in the highly corrupt Palm City whose police force has been privatized under the ARK corporation. Vince uncovers evidence against ARK's CEO, Peter Fleming, who is really a masked crimelord known as Chess. Fleming responds by having Vince framed for Chess' crimes. Vince then "dies" in an explosion, only to be rescued by the "Carnival of Crime", a shady underground circus troupe.
With the world believing Vince dead, he takes on the persona of his son's favorite superhero, a Batman-esque figure known as The Cape. The circus troupe trains him in a combination of martial-arts, stage magic, and using a specially designed cape as a weapon. Teaming up with the Carnival and an investigative blogger called Orwell who has an interest in bringing Fleming down, Vince sets out to expose ARK, save the city and clear his name.
Though the series debuted fairly well, ratings tanked soon after, and NBC decided to cut the episode number down from 13 to 10 in response. The final episode was an online-only airing, with NBC cancelling the series for good in March of 2011.
Not to be confused with the trope by the same name, regarding morally upright and inspirational costumed heroes. The Cape is much more of a Cowl anyways. Neither should it be confused with another series of the same name
about astronauts.
Tropes:
- Acquired Poison Immunity: The Cape, after a bad run in with a serial killer specializing in exotic poisons. Subverted as well, due to not actually being used, since Cain winds up trying to stab him instead of poisoning him.
- Action Girl: Orwell. Especially when she uses her taser.
- Affably Evil: The Carnival of Crime, especially its leader Max Malini, to the point where both the hero and the audience may forget the evil part. At least until they rob a train. Believe it or not, Peter Fleming.
- Anti-Villain:
- Marty Voyt.
- Also Dice, who is just trying to kill Fleming and stop a project which could have let Fleming mathematically predict the future, which isn't exactly a bad thing, and despite her ruthlessness, probably wouldn't have posed a threat to anyone else if Vince had just let her go after Fleming.
- Arch-Enemy: Chess, the supervillain who's The Cape and Orwell's greatest foe.
- Archnemesis Dad: Fleming's daughter turns out to be Orwell, who's worked tirelessly to bring him down.
- Armor Is Useless: Despite wearing some sort of breastplate, Vince gets stabbed right through it not once, but twice, in the first two hours alone. By more or less regular people. At least one of these stabbings was near his shoulder where the armor cuts away to give room for free movement of the arms. This has a little bit of Truth in Television, as most bullet-resistant vests are not much help against stabbing attacks. At least it helps against the taser. See however Bulletproof Vest below.
- Ascended Fanboy:
- Vince reads his son "The Cape" comic books every night and then when he is framed he becomes the Cape.
- In Episode 4, Portman dresses up as the Cape for a costume party. He later runs into the Cape and they share an awkward moment. When Vince finds the unconscious guard, he asks Portman to act as a lookout.
- Attack Drone: Goggles and Hicks use one (nicknamed "the bumblebee") to try and kill Vince.
- Attending Your Own Funeral: Apparently dead, Vince's family holds a memorial service as he secretly watches from a distance.
- Awesome by Analysis: Tracy's savant skills make her this. She's so good at predicting the odds of everything that she can walk right past security guards.
- Awful Truth: Orwell finally knows what daddy did to mommy. We, unfortunately, do not.
- Badass Boast:Max: You know I think it's worth reminding you, Scales; by profession I make people disappear. Sometimes they don't come back.
- Badass Bureaucrat: Secretary of Prisons Patrick Portman has a gun in his desk to use against enemies in the second episode and provides some assistance during one fight scene in a later episode.
- Badass Cape: Vince is able to grab, throw, and strike things with it. True to the source material as well, the cape seems to gain and lose length (among other things) as needed for the scene (partially because of the switch between CGI and the prop). Notably where The Cape is chasing Orwell who has several yards ahead of him and yet manages to use his ankle length cape to grab something that's ahead of Orwell. The cape seems to be able to hide most or all of its length in the leather mantle, because of its material. The length of the cape seen during most scenes is only a small part of its capable length. Its weighted edge allows it to wrap around objects at range, like a whip or lasso. It was custom built for stage magician in the past, and it takes a skilled sleight-of-hand artist to extend the cape to its full length usefully. Max reveals that almost all previous owners of the cape used it for their own gain (one in particular having used it to go on a killing spree).
- Badass in Distress: Orwell in "The Lich Part 2". She's drugged by The Lich and held captive, with him intending to marry her.
- Batman Gambit: Chess kills the new chief of police in a city with a history of organized criminal activity in order to have the city's police force privatized and turned over to his company. He then frames Vince Faraday and makes it look like he was Chess, and makes it look like Chess was killed on live television in broad daylight. End result: Chess controls the city's police and is believed to be dead while his alter ego operates with impunity and is believed to be an upstanding, well meaning corporate executive.
- Being Evil Sucks: Voyt decides this by the finale, after he's been sold out the moment Fleming no longer needs him.
- Berserk Button: Nobody puts Scales in a cage. He also doesn't like midgets.
- Big Bad: Chess, the main villain of the series.
- Big Blackout: Done intentionally by Goggles.
- Big Damn Heroes:
- In "The Lich, Part 2," Vince, Max and Rollo show up just in time to rescue Orwell.
- In "Razer," Max puts on the cape and rescues Vince in a way that shows everybody how it's done.
- Body Horror: The Lich seems to suffer from a condition where his body is constantly rotting.
- Brains and Brawn:
- Orwell is the brains to Vince's brawn.
- Goggles (brains) and Hicks (brawn). Also an Evil Duo.
- Brainy Brunette: Orwell, a brown-haired young woman who's also a genius hacker.
- Bulletproof Vest: The cape apparently acts as one. Slightly justified as spider-silk is incredibly strong and actually is bullet proof (though being exceptionally flexible, while the material won't get punctured by a bullet, it won't actually stop the bullet from making a wound). Also slightly subverted as while the cape does protect Vince, he's still hurt by the sheer kinetic force of being shot (the bullets draw blood and leave visible welts).
- Busman's Holiday: Naturally, almost the instant that Vince tries to take a day off to rest up from his injuries, a pair of assassins come gunning for him.
- Camp: Even though it takes itself entirely seriously, the Camp is almost intentional in quantity and quality.
- Captain Ersatz: The Cape wants to be Batman so bad it hurts. Some may see him as a modern day interpretation of The Shadow, however (Batman may have popularized a lot of those tropes, but he sure didn't invent them). He also takes aspects of The Phantom. In detail: costume and use of superstition from Batman, legacy back story from the Phantom, tactics (information control and hypnotism) from The Shadow. Orwell also seems to take a fair number of cues from Oracle, particularly when she's acting as the Cape's operator.
- Car Cushion: The Cape survives a fall from a multistory building this way.
- Carnival of Killers: The Big Bad Chess occasionally hires members of an assassin order called Tarot, each of whom specializes in a different skill. Cain is a poison expert, while the Goggles and Hicks duo (brothers) specialize in surveillance. After one too many failures, Chess refuses to have any more dealings with the Tarot. Ironically, he does this moments before Hicks would have revealed the true identity of the Cape. However, since he no longer works for Chess, Hicks feels no obligation to hand over the information and, instead, uses it to bargain with the Cape for the location of his captured brother.
- Cassandra Truth:
- No one believes Scales when he says Fleming is Chess.
- No one believes Vince was framed except his son.
- Catchphrase:
- Lampshaded. The Cape (in-universe comic version) has one. When Trip asks Vince (in The Cape costume) if he actually does say it to people, Vince gets flustered and can only get out a weak "Sometimes."
- The hypnotist tends to go with "Don't get cocky." Usually when he does something pretty cocky to counter someone else's cockiness.
- Character Blog: Given that Orwell is a blogger, it only makes sense that she'd be given one of these.
- Chess Motifs: Peter Fleming. He even takes on the supervillain alias "Chess". Also, he has contacts that look like chess pieces, and a holographic terminal (with the projector hidden under a chess board!) that projects his files in a chessboard layout. When he is having a bad day he hallucinates a chessboard with red and black pieces and on one occasion himself as Chess telling him to kill people.
- Chekhov's Skill: In the pilot Vince goes through a training montage to learn the circus trade. Later he is chained and thrown into deep water, as per a famous escape artist trick.
- Chronic Villainy: Even though Peter Fleming's plan in the pilot involved killing his "Chess" persona with Vince as his patsy, in the very same episode he seems compelled to continue carrying out his crimes as Chess.
- Chuck Cunningham Syndrome: In the pilot, the carnival of crime has a stilt walker, trapeze artist, fire eater and two or three more acrobats but afterwards Max, Rollo, Raia and Ruvi are the only ones to appear.
- Clark Kenting:
- Averted with Chess/Fleming. The only pictures of him as Chess are blurry and when he goes to make a deal with his Scales as Fleming, he sends a rep so that Scales can't get close enough to notice.
- Played straight with the Cape/Vince. Neither Fleming nor Vince's best friend recognize Vince while he's wearing a tiny mask and not changing his voice. Slightly justified in that they believe Vince to be dead. He also turns his head away from them.
- Clear My Name: This is Vince's quest, after he gets framed for being supervillain Chess. In particular, proving it to his wife and son.
- Cliffhanger: The series ends on one due to its cancellation.
- Cloud Cuckoo Lander: Trip's friend Jerry, who establishes his credentials within two minutes of introduction.
- Combat Pragmatist: Just shoot him? Shooting is almost always the first thing the mooks do upon seeing The Cape. They always miss, of course, but it is the thought that counts. More rarely, even Chess, the Big Bad, is quick to grab a gun and shoot. Still misses though unless it's with a knife.
- Comic-Book Time: The show runs on this heavily at times. How much time passed between Vince's fake death and completing his training with Max? How much time did he spend building up his immunity to poison? How much time passed between his "death" and his family getting a new job/starting fights at school?
- Cool Car: Orwell has a couple of these.
- Cop Killer: In the pilot Chess murders Palm City's police chief and frames Vince (a police detective) for it. All this is part of his plan to control the city.
- Corrupt Corporate Executive: Peter Fleming.
- The Cowl: The hero, interestingly enough.
- Crazy People Play Chess: Chess, of course.
- Creepy Doll: There is one hanging in the Lich's lair.
- Daddy Had a Good Reason for Abandoning You: Vince did, as he was framed and forced to fake his death. Unusually, this trope is portrayed from the perspective of the father. He tries to keep a relationship with his son as The Cape.
- Death Dealer: Playing poker with Gregor is hazardous to your health.
- Defrosting Ice Queen: As Orwell spends more time with Vince, we get to see her... girlier side. In one conversation with Vince, she admits that she would normally be getting her nails done on a Saturday if she wasn't Orwell.
- Designated Girl Fight: Averted in "Dice," despite the promos making it look that way. The closest we get is Dice pistol-whipping Orwell in one scene and then Orwell handcuffing her at the end.
- Determinator: Comes with the territory.
- Dirty Cop: Chess has many corrupt cops on his payroll, including Marty (though it's hinted he might be coerced into this).
- Disappeared Dad:
- Vince. A particularly sad example as he was a clear example of a doting father, but having to fake his own death makes it that much more painful.
- Inverted with Flemming who has been shown looking for his long lost daughter. She's revealed to be Orwell, who's fighting everything he stands for and declares him no longer her father.
- Disposable Vagrant: Several lived in the train yard where Vince "died." They're being arrested on trumped up charges rather than killed though.
- The Dragon: Scales, albeit one who is at open war with the Big Bad.
- Dropped a Bridge on Her: In the first scene of the pilot, one of Vince’s police colleagues follows Orwell’s blog and has some brief camaraderie with him, as if setting her up to be a Sympathetic Inspector Antagonist later on, but she's murdered by Chess in the first two minutes of the episode.
- Dynamic Entry: The Cape specializes in these, but becomes especially notable in "From Russia With Love" when Gregor reveals himself and taunts "Where is a hero when you need one?" Well, when you give Vince a straight line like that....
- EMP: Used by Goggles and Hicks to prevent Orwell from tracking them.
- Enemy Mine:
- In "Scales" the Cape and Fleming have to work together to stop a runaway train.
- Also in "Lich", where the Cape has to work with Marty to stop the titular villain. All Vince has to say to convince Marty is that Lich is real, as every cop in the city knows about the mysterious crimes.
- Et Tu, Brute?: Vince's best friend Marty helps to frame him as the supervillain Chess (under orders by the real guy). It's hinted he only did this under coercion, but of course it's a huge betrayal nonetheless to Vince.
- Evil Brit: Chess, who's English and also the main villain. Scales, a lesser villain, is another example.
- Evil Counterpart: Gregor, who lampshades it by saying: "You're just me with a badge."
- Evil Versus Evil: Scales vs. Chess.
- Expy:
- Orwell to Eyes Only. A cyber-journalist/hacker with a Secret Identity trying to stem the tide of corruption. There are also parallels to be drawn to Oracle. She is a super-tech oriented person who is unable to fight the corruption she hates directly; so she acts as Mission Control for a Badass Normal ultra detective who specializes in theatrics and deception and dresses in a long black cape, she also is a uber-hacker who uses her improbable, phenomenal skills to assist him.
- Scales is very similar to Killer Croc, in terms of being a thug with a skin condition who wants to get respect. There is also the fact that Dominic Raoul and Waylon Jones were both sideshow freaks before turning to crime.
- Fleming/Chess has a few similarities to Norman Osborn/Green Goblin.
- The Carnival of Crime to Marvel's Circus of Crime.
- Eye Scream: Poker Face's eye drops being replaced with turpentine.
- Faceless Goons: Many of Ark's police/soldiers run around in heavy SWAT-style gear and gas masks.
- Faking the Dead: Vince makes it look like he died in an explosion. It sets everything in motion and allows Vince to take on his new identity.
- Falling Chandelier of Doom: Dice tries to kill Fleming with one.
- Faux Death: The Lich uses a toxin to do this to people in order to brainwash them.
- Feel No Pain: The Lich feels nothing due to his condition. This is also how Orwell realizes she's in a Lotus-Eater Machine.
- Flash Back: Several involving Vince with his family, before he was framed.
- Final Speech: Subverted to hell and back in the pilot; Max Malini gives a standard-issue one, then decides that he isn't dying after all."Damnit, I thought that was it! Wasted that great speech."
- Foreshadowing: In the second episode, Max tells Vince about how he has to be cold and precise on the high wire. Guess what Vince had to do a mere three episodes later?
- Gargle Blaster: The Vietnamese Snake Wine from the finale likely applies.
- Gender-Blender Name: Orwell's real name turns out to be "Jamie".
- Genre Savvy: In "Goggles and Hicks," Scales recognizes the setup for what it is and gets the hell out of there.
- Genre Blind: So you've caught the Crazy-Prepared Mad Bomber, Razor, and locked him in a cage...he asks you for some gum...and you give him some?
- The Good, the Bad, the Evil and the Complete Monster: The Cape, the Carnival of Crime, Scales, and Fleming.
- Good Is Dumb: Mostly averted, but Raia the acrobat, the nicest of the Carnival of Crime, is also its ditziest member.
- Gratuitous Russian: The prison in the first scenes of episode three (though the spoken phrases don't match the subtitles).
- Hidden Agenda Villain: Hinted at with Fleming’s therapist who once want to talk to Chess instead of Fleming, and is remarkably non-judgmental about his criminal actions as both Chess and Fleming.
- High-Altitude Interrogation: In episode 3, Vince dangles a corrupt cop by dangling him over a bridge with his cape. It doesn't work.
- Highly-Conspicuous Uniform: Genre Savvy tropers probably didn't take too long to figure out where/who Max was on "Scales on a Train" - the grim reaper, the only person completely covered up from head to toe in a train of people mostly dressed in a small mask.
- Hoist by His Own Petard: Fleming demands Scales payment and give up some low-level cronies in exchange for letting him be the Godfather of Crime in the "bad" part of the City. In the season finale, after ARK's corruption is exposed, Marty is forced to take the fall and the Cape rescues him, Scales turns their deal around and demands Fleming to pay him to kill Marty and the Cape
- Hypno Fool: Ruvi the hypnotist is capable of making people do silly things when hypnotized.
- Hypocritical Humor: Says the guy who runs around in a mask with crazy contacts and what have you: "No offense, but your daughter is pretty creepy."
- Hyper-Competent Sidekick: Rollo, Max and Orwell all have their moments.
- Idiosyncratic Episode Naming: Every episode is named for its villain.
- Idiot Ball: Fleming picks it up at the end of "Goggles and Hicks", firing Hicks just as he is about to hand him The Cape's Identity.
- I Have Many Names: In the pilot episode Max told Vince that the cape was made for Kozmo the Russian escapist Kozmo is one of Max's known aliases. In the third episode, it is revealed that there were multiple Kozmos. Each one used the cape.
- I Have You Now, My Pretty:
- The Lich and Orwell. Even ends with a "My Dear"...
- Gregor has a brief moment like this with Orwell as well. He wraps the cape around her waist and drags her close, and his voice gets lower and huskier while he taunts her.
- Immune to Fate: Dice is able to use savant-level mathematics to predict everything... except The Cape. Somehow, he exists in a blind spot in her calculations.
- Instant Sedation: In the pilot, when Vince is jumped after finding the bombs being smuggled into the city. In an interesting case, this one actually makes sense; the sedative is injected directly into Vince's neck, ensuring it hits his brain very quickly.
- In the Hood: Played with. The Cape spends a lot of time with his hood up, but in several fight scenes shown thus far it has fallen down, or he wears a mask to conceal his face.
- Intrepid Reporter: In a nod to the modern mediascape, she's a blogger, rather than an Old Media type.
- I Have No Son!: Orwell turns out to be Fleming's daughter. She's disowned him as her father for his evil deeds. He retorts (in her hallucination at least) that they'll always share genes, no matter what.
- Ironic Name: Orwell, the alias of a hacker who uses surveillance cameras to track bad guys (quite the opposite from in Nineteen Eighty-Four).
- Jerkass: Ruvi, a self-centered Sour Supporter who is the only member of the Carnival of Crime who Vince doesn't seem to like.
- Know When to Fold 'Em:
- Hicks backs down from hunting the Cape in order to focus on breaking Goggles out of jail.
- Sour Supporter Ruvi nearly does this in the finale, as Vince and Fleming's feud gets more intense, but he's talked into staying by Max.
- Kubrick Stare: Cain's signature look.
- Large Ham: Max Malini, and pretty much the entire Carnival of Crime to boot. They're a circus that robs banks in costume, after all.
- Law Enforcement, Inc.: ARK Corporation's MO in Palm City. They take over all police functions at the start of the series.
- Legacy Immortality: Kozmo the Unkillable.
- Lens Flare: Used rather excessively during the church meeting in "Goggles and Hicks".
- London Gangster: Vinnie Jones plays Scales as one of these.
- Lotus-Eater Machine: The Lich's drugs trap Orwell in a fantasy in which she's marrying Vince.
- Luke, I Am Your Father: "The Lich Part 2" confirmed the suspicions of many Genre Savvy fans by revealing that Fleming is Orwell's father.note
- Manly Tears: When "the Cape" gives Trip a message "from his father."
- Made of Iron:
- Rollo, the pugilistic little person of the circus folk.
- Vince manages to fall from the top of Fleming's apartment onto a car and not be seriously injured. He was shown arresting his fall with the cape, however, and he's pretty battered afterwards.
- Scales escapes from a metal cage by headbutting the door until it falls off its hinges.
- Maybe Magic, Maybe Mundane:
- There are some hints in the third episode that the cape may be something more than just a very elaborate stage prop. It's suggested it could be Merlin's robe or have belonged to Jack the Ripper as well. Some of the things Kozmo does with it (such as throwing a man across the room just from the draft of flapping the cape) should not be physically possible either. Then again, maybe it's just a cover mythology and some more advanced tricks. Max suggests that the cape can wear the user and bring out their dark side if not careful; this could be taken literally, or it could be seen as symbolic of the training and skill required to use the cape (that is, power corrupts) means that it's tempting to use said talents for selfish reasons since few would be able to stop them.
- In "Dice", we also see that Max had a chart that apparently predicted Vince's arrival and that he would become the cape. The flashback in question followed a conversation concerning the existence of Destiny or Fate, suggesting higher powers at work. However, the same episode also involves a savant who can predict the future using math. It also indicates that either he's very good using them quickly, or Chess doesn't wear contacts.
- Meaningful Name: Orwell a hacker who sees all and knows all, sorta like big brother.
- Mentor Occupational Hazard: Max gets captured by Ark, beaten, shot, and gives his last words to Vince while lying in his arms. Then he realizes he isn't dying, and gets annoyed he wasted that good speech.
- Mind Rape: The Lich's neurotoxin causes this on some of his victims. After her ordeal with the Lich, Jamie/Orwell is clearly affected.
- Missing Mom: Orwell doesn't know where her mother went at the start. Eventually, she learns her father did something to her (though the audience never learns the details).
- Mission Control: Orwell acts as the Cape's eyes, ears, and money.
- Mob-Boss Suit Fitting: It had a scene with Peter Fleming and Scales meeting at a tailor to discuss business. Although Scales is just there to talk, Fleming insists on buying him a suit as well.
- Ms. Fanservice: Raia. Orwell too, with some her disguises and outfits.
- Murder, Inc.: The Tarot society are a group of assassins for hire.
- Name of Cain: The Code Name of assassin Raimonde LeFleur is Cain.
- No Escape but Down: Vince gets away from Cain this way in the second episode.
- Non-Indicative Name: The Cape is actually an example of The Cowl. Also it's really more of a cloak...
- No One Could Survive That!: Various explosions.
- Oddly Small Organization: The Carnival of Crime only has four onscreen members.
- Parental Abandonment: This appears to be at the center of The Lich's motives.
- The Password Is Always "Swordfish": Marty Voyt's password for the ARK mainframe is "Flowers." Vince as his old friend can remember it and gains access with it.
- Picture-Perfect Presentation: The panels of little Trip's comic turn to live action in the credits.
- Pintsized Powerhouse: Rollo, a circus performer with dwarfism, is even so a very tough fighter.
- Pistol Whip: Dice does this to Orwell in one scene.
- Pop-Cultural Osmosis: Probably best known now by Community fans for being the inspiration for Abed's Catchphrase "Six seasons and a movie!"
- Police Are Useless: Especially when they're in the Big Bad's wallet.
- Pre Ass Kicking One Liner:
- "No bars."
- "When you wake up, let me know if you felt this."
- Private Military Contractors: Ark is mostly this, but they want to expand into the police and prison business.
- Privately Owned Society: Pretty much everything is privatized in Palm City, with it being owned by Ark Corporation.
- Private Profit Prison: Chess, in his civilian identity, is trying to privatize the prisons under his control so that he can exploit the prisoners. The first few episodes are about the Cape trying to delay this, usually by keeping Chess from assassinating the judges and politicians standing in his way.
- A Pupil of Mine Until He Turned to Evil: Gregor Molotov.
- Reasonable Authority Figure: Patrick Portman, commissioner of prisons, and Travis Hall the head of the public defenders office are both well-meaning public servants not under Fleming's thumb, like so many others. Even Voyt shows a little bit of this during an Enemy Mine situation with The Cape in the two-part episode The Lich.
- Reconstruction: The series seems to be an attempt at a throwback to more traditional superhero stories (secret identities! costumes! clear-cut standards of good and evil!) after the deconstruction seen in Heroes. It also bears similarity to old serials like The Shadow and Dick Tracy.
- Redemption Equals Death: Marty in "Endgame".
- Red Right Hand: An interesting variation; Peter Fleming doesn't actually have silver eyes (they're just colored contacts), but he puts them in whenever he's feeling crazy, so the effect is the same.
- Rogues Gallery: The Cape is acquiring quite an impressive one. So far, there's Chess, Scales, the Tarot society, Gregor, Dice and the Lich.
- Room Full of Crazy: Dice's apartment
- Rube Goldberg Hates Your Guts: Attempted by Dice in a clever split-screen montage.
- Running Gag: Vince can never seem to win against Scales in a fist fight.
- Secret Identity:
- Obviously, it's a superhero series. Though played with as well since, as far as most people are concerned, Vince is dead. Thus for the most part, Vince runs around as generic drifter or The Cape not to prevent people from knowing who he is but from knowing he's alive.
- Orwell, too. Even the audience doesn't learn her real name until the eighth episode, and no one else in the show has learned it yet. It's Jamie Fleming.
- Self-Defenseless: In the pilot, Orwell tasers Vince before realizing they're on the same side, but his chest armor absorbs it.
- Secret Test of Character: In the second episode, Max withholds the Cape from our hero, and offers him train tickets to run away with his family. Faraday says no, and goes off to fight crime on his own. Max's smile when he leaves indicates he was at least partly testing Faraday's resolve.
- Shout-Out:
- Three last names from Lost, LeFleur, Linus, and Faraday have appeared.
- Orwell is named after George Orwell, who is most famous for his novel Nineteen Eighty-Four. Her slogan, "Orwell is Watching," is a reference to the Arc Words "Big Brother is Watching You." Ironically, her secretly fighting against the evil authority is actually more reminiscent of the protagonist's love interest from that novel.
- The Cape's first fight with Scales is takes place at a shipyard, where his Mooks are grabbed out of the shadows.
- And towards the end of the second episode, the Cape looks down on the city from a tall building.
- Gregor Molotov spent twenty years in prison obsessing over the cape, which Max denied him because of the darkness in his heart. While this sort of situation is common with his character type, the exact circumstances are eerily similar to Tai Lung's motivations in Kung Fu Panda.
- In "Tarot", Orwell uses a fake name: Diane Simone.
- "Scales on a Train" is a not-so-subtle nod to Snakes on a Plane.
- During the robbery montage in the pilot, one of the costume sets the gang wears strongly resembles a cross between the nun costumes worn in The Town, mixed with clown attire.
- Vince tells Max to give the wisdom of Solomon thing a rest.
- Ship Tease: Between Vince and Orwell, particularly the scene where Orwell hallucinates marrying Vince while drugged during her wedding to the Lich, despite Vince being married.
- Shirtless Scene: Vince gets one in "Goggles and Hicks".
- Shotgun Wedding: Minus the shotgun; the Lich tries to marry a paralyzed Orwell.
- Shown Their Work:
- "British Bartitsu ... Kodokan Judo ... the warrior dancers of the Tang Dynasty used their robes as weapons, and so will you!" A pleasant surprise to hear this wasn't an example of getting it wrong. The writers did their homework.
- The toxin that The Lich uses is also a real thing, commonly used in Voodoo.
- Shut Up, Hannibal!: In "Kozmo", Gregor is in the middle of a long winded victory speech when Vince comes up behind him, punches him, and says "Don't you ever shut up?!"
- Sibling Team: Goggles and Hicks are brothers who work as assassins.
- Smoke Out: The Series! If there's not one Smoke Out within 10 minutes, you're not watching the same show.
- Split Personality: Fleming's dual identity as Chess is apparently the result of this.
- String Theory: The walls in Dice's Room Full of Crazy.
- Swiss-Army Superpower: The cape seems capable of a number of highly improbable abilities, but it's implied by Max that they all just take training in knowing how to use the cape in the right way.
- Tarot Motifs: There's a secret society of tarot-themed assassins, with tattoos of their major arcana. So far we've met:
- The Tower, LeFleur, who specializes in poison and knives.
- The Chariot, actually a duo consisting of Goggles (Mission Control, hacking, surveillance) and Hicks (who performs the actual wetwork).
- This Is for Emphasis, Bitch!:
- "Say hello to Dorothy, bitch."
- Also happens in "Dice," when Orwell handcuffs Dice in the stairwell.Orwell: Have fun at Owl Island, bitch.
- Title In: Rather than location and time, they're chapter titles for each section of the story.
- Token Black Friend: Averted with Marty, in that Marty is a fully-developed character in his own right. While he is Vince's best friend, he is also a traitor. It's implied that this is under duress. Played semi-straight with Vince's mentor Max, except for Vince having to tolerate his side job as an armed robber.
- Token Good Cop: The opening scene shows Vince working in a precinct with plenty of corrupt colleagues whom he has to watch out for, and his only reliable coworker being murdered in short order. The police force has become so corrupt that private security companies are being hired to replace them, with Vince happily jumping ship to work for them and get away from his corrupt fellow detectives. Unfortunately, his new employer is the mastermind behind all the local crime and Vince ends up surrounded by corrupt coworkers yet again before being framed for their crimes and faking his death.
- Train Job: "Scales on a Train."
- Training from Hell:
- Max promises this, but it's fairly light-hearted and some of it is even played for laughs, like a knock down, drag out bare knuckle brawl with a Made of Iron circus little person.
- It doesn't stop with his origin story though. He's still pretty unpolished in episode too and subjects himself to more of this to make it up.
- Traintop Battle: Vince vs Scales, in episode 4.
- Transparent Tech: Orwell has a transparent screen in her command center, showing how high-tech she is. It helps she's played by Summer Glau.
- Truth in Television: The cellphone headsets are the obvious one, sure, but Orwell's keyboard is as well.
- Training Montage: Vince uses one in the first episode to learn the carnival tricks he needs to be a superhero.
- "Uh-Oh" Eyes: Fleming's damn creepy chess piece contact lenses. One of the villains is even nicknamed Eyes, as he cannot blink.
- Unresolved Sexual Tension:
- The promotional material alone has copious amounts of this between Vince and Orwell. Which makes things awkward since Vince is a married man and part of his whole origin story is getting back to said wife and kid. Exaggerated when Orwell is dreaming about marrying Vince.
- There appears to be something between Vince's "widow" and her new boss. When they accidentally touch hands in a bar, she runs home and cries in bed, trying to convince herself it's not flirting.
- Victoria's Secret Compartment: Averted with Dice, notable because it is lampshaded by Orwell:Orwell: There is no way she could sneak a weapon in, in that outfit.
- Viewer-Friendly Interface: Chess and Orwell both have fancy holographic displays.
- Villain Ball: Oh Peter, if only you hadn't lost your temper and gone all You Have Failed Me on Hicks, you would know who the Cape is. Nice work.
- Villain of the Week: Setting up to be this, with Chess being an overarching Big Bad. The first villain was Scales, the second Cain and so on.
- Villain with Good Publicity: Peter Fleming (as himself, not as Chess.)
- What You Are in the Dark: In the finale, Voyt admits he'd planed on pulling a Heel–Face Turn, and rescuing Vince from Fleming back in the pilot, but when the moment came, he froze and couldn't do it.
- Wig, Dress, Accent: Orwell's preferred M.O. for disguises.
- Wild Card: Scales, who goes from supporting Fleming to opposing him several times.
- Worthy Opponent: In the second episode, Chess is disappointed when the Cape doesn't turn out to be this and pleased at the end after the Cape has taken another level in badass.
- You Killed My Father: Dice to Peter Fleming. She predicted it at the beginning of the episode, thanks to her being able to calculate almost any odds. Her father doesn't listen.
