Painting the Town...

"Painting the Town..." is the twentieth episode of RWBY, which premiered on the Rooster Teeth website on August 14th, 2014.

Summary
Penny Polendina finally reveals to Ruby Rose that she is an artificial lifeform, more specifically "the first synthetic person capable of generating an Aura". To Penny's surprise, Ruby takes it calmly and acceptingly, causing Penny to be overjoyed. Their moment of celebration, however, is cut short just as the two Atlas Soldiers pursuing them earlier manage to catch up with them. Penny's quick thinking saves Ruby, allowing the latter to leave peacefully as Penny decides to be accompanied on the way back by the soldiers.

Yang Xiao Long and Neptune Vasilias arrive at the Club by motorcycle and make a loud entrance before Junior Xiong and his henchmen. After a "warm welcome" by Hei, Yang proceeds to interrogate him about Torchwick. In the end, Hei is unable to provide any helpful information since Torchwick never came back after being seemingly disappointed by the henchmen he hired from Junior.

Blake Belladonna and Sun Wukong infiltrate a warehouse somewhere in Vale, disguising themselves as new recruits of the White Fang. Here, they discover that and Roman Torchwick is present to unveil one of many Atlesian Paladin-290s he had acquired prior to their official entry onto the market. Sun quickly feels the urge to make a getaway, and to make matters worse, Roman easily spots them among the aspiring recruits. Blake makes a commotion by shutting down the lights before escaping with Sun through a window. To their shock, Torchwick swiftly pursues them by climbing aboard the Atlesian Paladin.

Weiss, who is just leaving the Cross Continental Transmit System, as well as Ruby and Yang, receive a frantic call from Blake requesting assistance. Yang and Neptune quickly meet them on the nearby highway and engage Torchwick, marking the beginning of a large battle. Sun and Neptune are hurled aside by the Paladin and participate no further in the combat, while Weiss suddenly appears in the battlefield, using the ice Dust in Myrtenaster to cause the Paladin to slip and fall to the ground beneath the bridges, where Ruby awaits it.

With a rapid series of paired attacks, Team RWBY is able to pressure Torchwick, even with the advanced technology of the Atlesian Paladin. However, even with an arm sliced off of the Paladin, Torchwick manages to deal some damage to Yang. When Blake and Weiss exhibit concern, Ruby points out that Yang's ability is linked with absorbing energy from attacks received and converting it into additional power; an enraged Yang shatters the other arm of the Paladin, pushing Torchwick into desperation. He kicks Yang, but Blake uses Gambol Shroud to catch her and assist in an attempted counterattack.

Ruby, coming to the conclusion that their opponent must be slowed, directs her team to launch a final, crushing attack: Ruby fires a barrage through Weiss' glyphs, augmenting her rounds with a freezing effect to immobilize the Paladin, as Blake swings Yang around to land a titanic punch, which shatters the Atlesian Paladin, leaving Torchwick intact but disappointed by the outcome. Nevertheless, he manages to escape with the help of a girl named Neopolitan, who distracts the team as she and Torchwick make an aerial escape.

Weiss tries to make a horrible pun after the tense fight, but Yang disapproves, while Ruby wonders what happened to Sun and Neptune. The aforementioned guys are shown to be hanging out at A Simple Wok, with Sun seemingly confident that the girls are alright.

Trivia

 * This episode reveals that Ruby has an aversion for rats or rodents in general, seen as how she reacted when she found one in the dumpster. In a later scene, she's outside the dumpster, which is now obstructed by some wood planks.
 * The name "Painting the Town..." is a shortened version of the phrase "painting the town red", which means to go out on a wild spree.
 * The song that plays over the ending credits is called "Die".
 * This is the first episode where Roman fights Team RWBY as a whole, as well as his first encounter with Weiss and Yang.
 * Yang's motorcycle, Bumblebee, makes an appearance for the first time since the "Yellow" Trailer.




 * Junior mentions Roman hiring his men prior to "Ruby Rose". In the "Yellow" Trailer, Roman does indeed make a brief cameo, speaking to Junior in the background as Yang enters the club.
 * Yang's entrance into the club mirrors her entrance in the "Yellow" Trailer, except she is fully lit and not a silhouette. Even the same music track plays, though it is distorted this time due to the terrified DJ.
 * Roman trying to crush Blake with the robot is a reminiscent of the "Black" Trailer, where the Spider Droid tries to do the same. She is rescued both times.
 * The White Fang masks that Blake and Sun wore are known as Grimm Masks. A similar style of mask is worn by Adam Taurus, except with red markings.
 * The tactical attacks Team RWBY performs are the names of fan shippings of the members involved (e.g. Bumblebee - Blake x Yang; Freezer Burn - Weiss x Yang; Checkmate - Weiss x Blake; Ladybug - Ruby x Blake; Ice Flower - Weiss x Ruby).
 * However, White Rose is the most common ship name for Weiss x Ruby; Monochrome is the most common one for Weiss x Blake.
 * From all the possible combinations seen in the episode, only Ruby and Yang do not pair up to perform a combo attack.




 * On the side of the dumpster Penny shoves Ruby into, there is a graffiti rendition of the Gauntlet from the Rooster Teeth series The Gauntlet; as well as Gus Sorola's head in the art style of Rooster Teeth Animated Adventures (RTAA), a stylized graffiti of the initials S.M.G. (a reference to the Rooster Teeth show The Slo-Mo Guys), graffiti of the initials W.S.I. (a reference to the Rooster Teeth series The Strangerhood), and the Captain Dynamic symbol from Captain Dynamic.
 * The "A Simple Wok" Noodle House where Sun and Neptune eat at the end of the episode is a possible reference to the Rooster Teeth series, A Simple Walk Into Mordor.
 * The series starred Kerry Shawcross, who also voices Neptune.
 * The chase scene on the highway greatly resembles the Red vs. Blue Season 9 episode "Spiral", which also features a chase scene on a highway.
 * The yellow clockwork circle glyph under Blake's feet during the Checkmate combo attack is extremely similar to the one used in Dead Fantasy, a series that Monty Oum worked on before RWBY.
 * Penny hiding Ruby in a dumpster could be a reference to the game Resident Evil 4, in which Leon S. Kennedy can tell Ashley Graham to hide in a dumpster.
 * The ability to do this is mentioned in an Animated Adventure by the voice actor for Sun, Michael Jones.
 * Originally, Ruby was going to explain Yang's Semblance to Neptune. However, the rig for Sun's weapon, Ruyi Bang and Jingu Bang, was too complicated to make new animations with, due to having been made years beforehand when Monty Oum was less experienced. The nunchuck animation used in "Black and White" was equally old and could not reasonably be used in this episode. Because of this, the crew decided to throw Neptune and Sun out of the fight and have Ruby explain Yang's Semblance to Blake instead.