The first episode volume really started this volume off on a high note. So let's see where the second episode takes us.

This episode starts off again right where the previous episode ended. Our heroes are on an airship heading to Atlas. They all seem various stages of stressed or upset, all except for Nora who is trying to chew through her restraints. Oh Nora I love you.

Finally the silence is broken when Ruby asks her friends where they think the ship is taking them. To which Qrow replies, "jail." Jaune then laments how they were taken down so easily by Clover. Weiss however doesn't seem fazed because she knows how strong the Ace Ops are.

This conversation peaks the interest of the other prisoner in the transport vehicle. While he never says his name it's revealed in the credits that his name is Forest. Anyway he comments that if the groups was taken by the Ace Ops then Ironwood must have it out for them. He also refers to them as "Ironwood's personal attack dogs" which I find amusing because one of them is actually a dog Faunus. Did anyone else find that funny? Just me. Ok moving on. Nora sarcastically asks if Forest was captured by the Ace Ops as well to which he replies that no, he was brought in for making a stand against the oppression in Mantle and Ironwood is trying to silence him. But the pilots of the plane shut him down immediately by revealing that the General is not being unreasonable because Forest's "stand against oppression" was him chucking a brick at an airship.

This scene also gives us some more insight into Robyn Hill who I mentioned in the previous review. It turns out that Robyn is the leader of her own group known as the Happy Huntresses (an obvious play on Robin Hood's Merry Men) and they were all Atlas Academy graduates. However, unlike most students they decided to not enter the military upon graduation. Instead they decide to help the people down in Mantle. So that's interesting.

As predicted it's revealed that Robyn is indeed running for a spot on Atlas's council. But whether or not this is one of Ironwood's two seats that she's running for remains to be seen. Also this is just something I noticed but when the heroes were talking about their differing opinions about Ironwood with Forest he said that Weiss was biased because she's the Schnee heiress. But didn't Whitely gain the title of heir in volume 4? So why isn't that common knowledge that Weiss will no longer inherit the company? It seem like it would be. But maybe that's just me.

So the group minus Forest is brought to Atlas Academy to speak with Ironwood and the first person there that they see is Winter Schnee herself. Man it is good to see her again. And I loved that even though it's been four volumes since we've seen her she's still just as great a character as ever. I mean Winter may not be my favorite character in the show but that's mostly due to the fact that she's hardly been on screen. That being said I love how she may be cold on the outside but it hides her love for her sister underneath. I mean this scene alone has her yelling at Weiss after she finds out that they stole an Atlas ship only to hug her a second later. Oh and she still hates Qrow so that hasn't changed either.

This is when we get into the real meat of this episode. First off we find out that Ironwood has told Winter, Penny, and the Ace Ops about Salem, the relics, and the maidens. Which I'm not really sure was a good idea. Ok telling Winter was probably fine because she doesn't seem like someone who will betray the heroes. But with the Ace Ops I don't know something about them seems fishy. And as much as I love Penny she doesn't really have a filter. I'm just afraid she'll spill the secret to the wrong person.

Ironwood explains though that the reason he spilled the secrets is because he wanted his own group of people to trust since Ozpin was gone. He is very happy to see the students though because now he has an even greater number of people that he can use for his ultimate plan: destroying Salem. He also assures them that the staff of creation and the winter maiden are both safe, so that's good.

So what is the general's plan to destroy Salem I hear you asking? Well remember the Amity Coliseum from volume 3? Ironwood is going to turn it into a communication hub via a large tower built on top. This will hopefully fix the fact that as of right now it's impossible to communicate between kingdoms. With this tower he will also spread a message across Remnant, and that message is the secret of Salem. That also turns out to be the reason that he recalled all his soldiers and ships. He knows that once this secret is out the people will probably panic which will bring lots and lots of Grimm, so the military will serve as a counterforce for those Grimm swarms. I don't know how I feel about this plan, it seems like it's going to backfire somehow.

So now the time has come to tell Ironwood about Oscar being the one to house Ozpin's soul. But of course the headmaster still hasn't reappeared yet. What's weird though is that when Ironwood asks why Oz has vanished into Oscar's mind, Ruby lies to him and tells him that it was due to the train crash. She also doesn't tell him about Jinn, the lamp still possessing one question, and the history between Salem and Ozpin/Ozma. And worst of all she doesn't tell him that Salem can't be killed. In fact she tells him exactly what Ozpin told them, which was that they knew the lamp could answer three questions but the questions had already been used up for this century. Ok call me whatever you want for this but Ruby what the heck?! Your whole team got on Oz's butt for keeping secrets and now you're doing the same thing to Ironwood?! I mean I get that you don't know if you can trust him yet but why would you do this?! He put his trust in you and you're lying to his face. I just don't get it.

After this the team is told that since they will be working with the military they will be provided whatever upgrades they want to their weapons. So this is when the new outfits come into play! I mean they don't right now but next episode they'll have them.

The group is then sent outside and they get to talk with the Ace Ops. We also get to find out the others' names, which are Elm Ederne, Vine Zeki, Marrow Amin, and Harriet Bree. And I looked at all the voice actors and honestly I don't really recognize any of them. But StarPlatinumJotaro I know you will recognize Marrow's voice actor, Mick Lauer, as the voice of Leone Abbacchio from JoJo's Bizarre Adventure and Manimatsu he's also the voice of Husk in Hazbin Hotel. Oh and a little thing but I thought Marrow was a wolf faunus, but he's not, he's a dog faunus. So....not that I'm upset or was practically bouncing in my seat when I thought we finally had a wolf faunus only to be disappointed. Pssh please you guys... but yeah the students will get to be working alongside the Ace Ops on their next couple of missions so it seems that they will be getting some more training from professional huntsmen and huntresses, which is always good.

So as the team settles into their dorms for the night the episode closes with a scene from our two not so favorite people. Watts and Tyrian. And the first thing we find out is that Watts was the one who designed the security system in Mantle, which also means that he can hack it with ease, which he does via the use of those multiple rings that he wears on each finger. Oh and Tyrian is going around killing people, so nothings really changed. I don't really have much to say for this scene because we knew the two of them were coming. The only thing I did find worth noting was, again, the reveal that Watts made the security system. I'm sure that's not gonna be a problem at all. Ha ha ha ha....ha...I'm scared.