Notes about "The Worst Case Scenario"
This episode is a plethora of red flags and red herrings.
The red flag is being waved by Ironwood, naturally. As I said about "A Night Off", this is when Ironwood enters his villainous phase. It's interesting to note that even though he hasn't officially turned to the dark side, he's effectively the main antagonist of the volume; All of the problems our heroes have to deal with originated with Ironwood, and they're constantly worried about the general's actions more than Salem's crew.
Lie Ren apparently falling in line with Ironwood is a red herring, though. While it might look like he's joining Ironwood's side, it's more likely that he's starting to succumb to Ironwood's line of thinking, of disregarding personal feelings and relationships for 'the greater good'.
I've seen people criticizing Blake for trying to stick up for Ironwood, but remember, she's still haunted by her trauma with Adam, as evidenced by her conversation with Yang. She takes no pride and pleasure in having taken a life, and so it's natural that she's trying to prevent a fight rather than start one. Furthermore, she's following Ruby's decree that they not make waves. I hope her next character arc has her come to terms with this.
Also, the sting operation is another example of the Atlas Army taking a legitimate strategy and ruining it through exaggeration. Waiting at a potential heist target is a good plan, but the Ace-Ops have multiple trucks running around, dividing up their forces. This means the operation has become a fricken' roulette wheel, and of course Robyn lands on the space with people who are sympathetic to her and willing to break rank.
I also love Ruby and Weiss' analysis of the Penny situation. While Pietro makes the generous conclusion that Penny stopped more deaths, Ruby is fully experienced with the Salem gang's brand of deceit, and knows the truth. And Weiss determining that the votes were probably tampered with through the outdated Mantle network.
Overall, this episode is when Team RWBY starts to break free of Ironwood and begin taking action of their own.
