Black and White

Black and White is the sixteenth episode of RWBY, which premiered on the Rooster Teeth website on November 7th, 2013. It is the final episode of Volume One.

Summary
The episode picks up where The Stray left off, with Sun Wukong and Blake Belladonna sitting at a table at a small café. Sun celebrates that Blake has finally decided to actually talk to him after the two days they spent together. After asking Sun if he knows about the White Fang, who he describes as holier-than-thou creeps, Blake admits that she was once one of them, much to his surprise.

She then explains her past with the White Fang and its origins, starting by noting that one could say she was born into it. After the Faunus Rights Revolution, the White Fang was created as a symbol of peace and unity between the Humans and Faunus. However, despite being promised equality, the Faunus were still treated as inferior, so the White Fang became the voice of their people.

Ever since childhood, Blake stood with them at every protest, boycott, and rally, thinking that they were making a difference. However, five years ago, the leader was replaced by someone with violent and radical ideals. The new leader replaced the peaceful protests with organized attacks and hijackings against businesses that refused to serve them or used Faunus labor. Hating what the White Fang had become, she left and decided to use her combat skills to instead become a Huntress. Sun stares, stunned, before asking if she told her friends any of this.

Meanwhile, the rest of Team RWBY have begun searching for Blake. Ruby Rose and Yang Xiao Long defend Blake and want to hear her side of the story, but Weiss Schnee still sees her as a criminal and suggests getting the police to help locate her, an idea which is instantly and firmly rejected. As they talk, Penny appears behind the group, making a compliment about Weiss' hair. She then asks what they're doing.

They mention looking for Blake and how she has been missing since Friday, leading Penny to vow to help find her. Ruby tries to brush her off, but when she turns to Weiss and Yang for help, she finds that they have left her with Penny.

Meanwhile, Sun and Blake formulate a stakeout plan to see if the White Fang really is behind the Dust robberies, while elsewhere, Yang and Weiss continue looking for Blake. Ruby, still alone with Penny, tries to explain the situation happening with Weiss and Blake, but Penny has problems figuring out if they are friends or not, as she does not have a lot of friends. When Ruby says that Blake didn't talk to them before running away, Penny says that if she did have a friend, she would want them to talk to her about things.

That night, Blake and Sun meet up on a rooftop at the port for their stakeout, watching over a huge shipment of Schnee Dust Company Dust from Atlas. After a bit of banter, with Blake criticizing Sun for stealing food, a Bullhead lands and several White Fang members come out. Blake admits to Sun that she did believe that White Fang was behind the crimes, but did not want to be right. Roman Torchwick then leaves the jet and orders the White Fang members around, referring to them as animals. Knowing that the White Fang would never work with a human, Blake is shocked and confused.

She then proceeds to confront them by sneaking up behind Roman and placing sharp part of the back of Gambol Shroud to his neck while aiming its pistol toward the White Fang members. When she asks them why they are working for him, Roman says it is part of a business venture. Soon, more Bullheads appear, distracting Blake and allowing Roman to escape her grasp by firing a shot from Melodic Cudgel near her feet. He then proceeds to fire more shots at her, and she gymnastically dodges every blast before retreating. As Roman goes after her, Sun comes out to distract him and takes out several White Fang warriors in the process.

Roman attempts to start a fight with Sun, but after Sun blocks the first attack, Blake leaps between them claiming the fight as hers. She repeatedly uses her shadows in quick succession to confuse him, leaping around him while dual wielding Gambol Shroud. However, Roman is still able to keep up with her, barely managing to block all of her attacks and laughing as he lands two hits on her before he finally manages to knock her down with a third hit.

Without missing a beat, Sun jumps in and fights Roman with the nunchucks form of Ruyi Bang and Jingu Bang, but again, Roman is able to block all incoming attacks, laughing once more. However, Blake comes in for a surprise attack, knocking him away from Sun. Roman then shoots down a hanging shipping container, which lands between Sun and Blake as they dive out of the way. He takes this chance to corner Sun, aiming his cane at him.

Before he can shoot, Ruby arrives at the fight, having been alerted by the first explosion, and Roman recognizes her. However, when Penny distracts Ruby, Roman exploits the distraction to attack Ruby and hits her, knocking Ruby to the ground, instantly disarming her in the process.

This angers Penny and she joins the fight, unleashing a multitude of swords from her back. She easily takes out a large squad of White Fang warriors, as well as firing a massive laser at two Bullheads that were providing air support, slicing them in half. She also manages to drag one out of the sky and pull it to the ground, destroying it. Amid this, Roman escapes on a fourth Bullhead, commenting that the "kids just keep getting weirder," before it flies off.

After the fight, Weiss and Yang rejoin the group and Ruby tries to resolve the differences between Weiss and Blake. However, in the twelve hours Weiss has been looking for Blake, she has had time to think and has come to the decision that she doesn't care about Blake's past, saying instead that the next time something big happens, she should talk to her teammates about it, instead of relying on someone else.

Blake agrees and slightly sheds a tear. Weiss then tells Sun that she still doesn't know how she feels about him. Ruby is happy that the team is back together, but then notices that Penny is missing. Penny is seen to be watching the scene from a car, while a man tells her that she shouldn't be running around the city by herself. He then tells her that her "time will come" as he drives away. Meanwhile, Ozpin watches Ruby from a Scroll and gets a message from Qrow, telling him that the "Queen has pawns."

After the credits, Cinder Fall, Emerald Sustrai, and Mercury Black appear in the warehouse where Roman is hiding. Roman blames the failure on the Faunus, but she says he will continue to work with the White Fang, as "we" have big plans for Roman.

Trivia

 * The episode title may either refer to Blake and her history with the White Fang or to the reconciliation at the end of the episode between Blake and Weiss.
 * It may also refer to Blake's views regarding the fact that the White Fang were working with "scum" like Torchwick, "black and white" being an age-old adage meant to imply a clear distinction, such as between right and wrong, good and evil, or, as in this case, likely the difference between Humans and Faunus.
 * It may also refer to the fact that not everything is "black and white."
 * In this episode, Cinder's official design is fully revealed, and it introduces Emerald Sustrai and Mercury Black, albeit in 2D images.
 * When the two Bullheads were destroyed by Penny's attack, the RWBYsaurus can be seen falling along with the White Fang members.
 * In the directors' commentary on the DVD/Blu-ray, Miles sees this episode for the first time and, at first, expresses anger and exasperation that Monty had Penny cut two Bullheads in half. This is because he and Kerry had been resisting the urge to have characters cut things in half, due to feeling that they weren't strong enough to do so yet. However, he calms down and says Penny is allowed to because she's powerful.