Supergirl Episode Guide: Season 5, Episode 13 - It's A Super Life

For a summary of the episode guide layout & categories, click here.



Plot

Sentenced to perform one good deed for every person he ever tormented, Mister Mxyzptlk shows up on Kara's doorstep ready to bend reality to her will. It sounds too good to be true but after checking the fine print of the bargain, Kara agrees to let Mxy rewrite history so that she revealed her secret identity to Lena Luthor before it ruined their friendship forever. Unfortunately, every attempt at making things right only makes things worse!


Influences

It's A Wonderful Life (title and basic theme of rewriting the past only to realize you're better off with the present.)


Goofs

The alternate timelines are largely based around events that should probably have played out differently in the post-Crisis reality. There is no reason, for instance, for Mercy Graves to attack LuthorCorp or for the Children of Liberty to be established in a world where Lex Luthor has never been a convicted criminal. (It's probably best to assume that Mxy is playing around with the pre-Crisis world given that he seems to regard Kara's past as episodes of a popular TV show.)

There's no explanation for why Winn, in his Legion uniform, is around when Lena is kidnapped by the Children of Liberty in the third alternate timeline.

There's no explanation for why Winn and Mon-El are present in their Legion uniforms in the timeline where Lena and Supergirl never met.


Performances

Thomas Lennon is an instantly engaging presence as Mister Mxyzptlk and you almost wish he hadn't turned over a new leaf so we could see him in action against Kara and Clark in the future. Still, if this is the last time we see Mixy in the Arrowverse, it's a solid final appearance.


Artistry

Props to the design team for the flawlessly designed "Mxyflyx" website we briefly see on Kara's laptop Mister Mxyzptlk starts streaming her life like a TV show.


Super Trivia

When Mister Mxyzptlk returns after being sent away, he says "Thank Zook you changed your mind!" Zook was the name of an alien being who acted as a pet/sidekick to J'onn J'onzz. Zook was a creature that resembled a cartoonish dog, who had the powers of temperature manipulation (he could freeze or super-heat objects he touched), limited shape-shifting abilities and he could track anyone whom he had met before, no matter how they had disguised themselves.

Curiously, in 315, M'yrnn J'onzz said that J'onn's imaginary friend as a child was a 5th Dimensional being named Zook, who did mischievous things and blamed J'onn for them. This may suggest that Zook is a real person in the Arrowverse, as Zook was also mentioned in 213 (along with a Zook Uprising on Mars) and J'onn made reference to fighting a 5th Dimensional being once.

The BetaMyx tapes detailing Kara and Lena's friendship are labeled with titles that parody the format of the titles of Friends episodes. (i.e. The One Where It All Began, The One With The Lesbian Wedding, The One Where Ross Finds Out.). Some of the episodes we see are titled The One Where Lena Moves To National City, The One Where Supergirl and Lena Fight The Nanobot Lady and The One Where Lillian Admits She Loves Lena.

This episode confirms a fan theory that the magical hat utilized by The Hat from The Elite belonged to Mister Mxyzptlk, who normally has a hat in the comics. The Hat claimed to have been told where to find the Fortress of Solitude by someone he called "Mixy" in 414 and Mister Mxyzptlk confirms that The Hat was an old drinking buddy and he lost the hat to him in a poker game.


Technobabble

In the second alternate timeline, Lena creates an electric device that seems to shock Sam's Reign personality into dormancy.


Dialogue Triumphs

Mister Mxyzptlk: I am offering you a do-over. Hmm? I could send you back in time. Wouldn't you like to be able to tell Lena that you're Supergirl on your own terms? Wouldn't you like to see what the world would look like if you controlled the narrative?
(Suddenly Mister Mxyzptlk is standing behind Kara and Alex. They both jump as he speaks again.)
Mister Mxyzptlk: Haven't you hurt enough? Hmm?
(Kara just glares at Mister Mxyzptlk)
Mister Mxyzptlk: I get it. You don't trust me. Okay. But how's this? Ready?
(Mister Mxyzptlk pulls out a recorder, which he hands to Kara. She inspects the recorder as he keeps talkling.) 
Mister Mxyzptlk: Now, by Fifth Dimensional law, I am required to give you this recording of me saying my name backwards, in case you ever need to banish me to my Fifth Dimension, which I know that you-
(Kara pushes the play button on the recorder.)
Mister Mxyzptlk: (on recorder) Kltpzyxm.
(Mister Mxyzptlk makes a face and poofs into a cloud of glowing blue smoke.)

Lena: When you were Reign, and I made Kryptonite to stop you You know, in response, Supergirl was so horrible. And then, Kara was the same. She was so kind and supportive. But it made me think, which was the real Kara? And if the real Kara thought I was a villain then maybe that's all I really am.
Sam: No, Lena, no. How could you ever think that? Lena, you made Kryptonite to split me from Reign and to save my life. You were never the villain. You were always the hero.

Supergirl: You once told me Kara Danvers was your hero.
Lena: I never told you that. I told
Supergirl: It's me, Lena. I've always been Kara.
Lena: Kara, how could you?
Supergirl: I'm sorry I didn't tell you sooner.
Lena: Three weeks ago, I found out that Sam, one of my closest friends, was a homicidal Kryptonian. I went through that terror alone. I risked my life day after day for weeks because I believed that I was the only one who could be trusted to protect her, to save her. I could have used your help. I would have used your help if you'd bothered to tell me the truth before now. If you'd trusted me then, I wouldn't have had to go through that danger alone!
Supergirl: I'm so sorry, but I thought I was protecting you. But now, we can... we can move past it and work as partners.
Lena: (angrily) You expect me to be your partner after this?! When all you've done is prove to me that you can't be trusted at all?

(Mister Mxyzptlk is fast fowarding through a lot of the fight with Reign and Supergirl.)
Kara: Wait. You're skipping a lot!
Mister Mxyzptlk: This is all exposition, so much exposition.

Mon-El: You know, Lena and I have a lot in common. We've both been betrayed by our own families. And when the people who are supposed to love you the most let you down, it just makes you feel so so vulnerable, you know? But my mother and the Luthors, they betrayed Lena for their own selfish reasons. They They wanted to take advantage of her. You lied to to protect her. Because she's your friend. Now, I know Lena's hurting right now, but once she understands that she'll forgive you.
Supergirl: I hope you're right. But I don't think I'll ever be able to forgive myself.
Mon-El: You know it's okay to mess up, right? No matter how many mistakes I've made, you've always forgiven me. You should, uh, know that you deserve the same compassion that you show others.

Lena: I didn't come here to make friends.
Kara: I wanna show you something.
Lena:Listen, I'm really busy, so, if we could just-
(Kara flies out the window at super-speed. She is standing there a moment later. Lena is stunned.)
Lena: It's you! Kara Danvers is Supergirl.
Kara: Yeah.
Lena: Can't believe I was fooled by a pair of glasses.
Kara: Don't worry, a lot people are.
Lena: Oh, God, (chuckling) I have to recall all those alien detection devices 'cause they clearly don't work.
Kara: You're not angry?
Lena: No, it's incredible. I mean, you're incredible! But... why are you trusting me with such a big secret? You barely know me.
Kara: Because I know that what you want more than anything is to do good. And I know it's hard for you to trust people, but I need you to know now, without a doubt, I trust you. My cousin, your brother, they got it wrong.  Imagine what we could do together. A Luthor and a Super, working together as a team.
Lena: If we were partners, we could change the world.
(Kara smiles and offers her hand. Lena shakes it. Suddenly, we see a number of spinning newspapers talking about the amazing things Supergirl and Lena Luthor have done together.)
Mister Mxyzptlk: (in an old time radio announcer voice) Only months after publicly declaring their partnership, the formidable duo of Supergirl and Lena Luthor has already cleaned up National City's criminal element. This pair is literally unstoppable! Not to mention, fashionable after Lena convinced Supergirl to cut the hair of steel, and gave her a new suit to boot. But their next adversary is Lillian Luthor herself, and this time, their battleground is a courtroom. Emotions. Drama. Will they persevere?!
(Cut to Kara's living room where she's hitting the side of the TV trying to get the picture to unstuck. Mister Mxyzptlk is standing there dressed as a 1930s Newsie, talking into an old-fashioned microphone.)
Kara: Mxy, can you please take this seriously?
Mister Mxyzptlk: (still talking in an old time radio announcer voice) Take it seriously, because every party needs a pooper, and that's why we invited Kara!

(Supergirl looks around the CatCo offices that are now Lena's base of operations.)
Supergirl: Lena? It's me. It's Supergirl. It's Kara.
Lena: (coldly) Who's Kara?


Continuity

Mister Mxyzptlk looks quite different from how he appeared in 213. He explains that this is because he adopted a form he thought Kara would find more pleasing when he was trying to romance her.

Mister Mxyzptlk says that he was put on trial for abusing his powers to torment people, including Kara. His sentence was to lose his powers except in so far as he used them to do one good deed for every person he wronged. Kara is the last person on his list.

Mister Mxyzptlk suggests that Kara can use her free wish to rewrite time so that she gets to choose when Lena found out about her secret identity.

In addition to being magically unable to use his powers except to help people he wronged, Fifth Dimensional Law also requires that Mister Mxyzptlk give a recording of himself saying his name backwards to the person he is trying to help so that they can get rid of him at any time.

Mister Mxyzptlk is also court-ordered to restore things to normal should Kara not be happy with the results of her wish and is happy to walk her through her life and find the perfect point to change everything.

Kara decides to take Mister Mxyzptlk's help, purely because Lex and Lena are planning something together, they have no idea what and restoring Kara's presence in her life may be the only way to stop her.

Alex and J'onn are sent away to play paintball while Kara and Mister Mxyzptlk work together.

The first alternate reality is viewed on a movie screen and projector which Mister Mxyzptlk conjures into Kara's living room. He also makes popcorn.

Kara and Mister Mxyzptlk rewatch the scene where Kara pretended to be helpless while secretly saving her and Lena from a jet crash in 420.

The first alternate reality Mister Mxyzptlk creates is based around 402 and Kara revealing her secret identity to Lena shortly after President Marsdin resigned after being outed as an alien, but just before Mercy Graves attacked LuthorCorp. When Kara returns after repelling the attack, Lena is gone. We discover that Lena flew to Metropolis to pour out her heart to Samantha Arias. This meant that Lena was not close-by when Mercy seeded Earth's atmosphere with Kryptonite and was not there to develop the super-suit that kept Kara alive until the atmosphere could be cleaned.

This reality makes Kara think the problem is her hypocrisy in treating Lena differently in both her identities.

The second alternate reality is viewed through Kara's laptop on a movie-streaming site called Mxyflyx. (This is clearly a parody of Netflix.)

Kara and rewatch the scene from 317 where Kara asks James Olsen to break into Lena's lab and search for Kryptonite - an action Kara now agrees was wrong.

The second alternate reality Mister Mxyzptlk makes is based around 317 and 318 and has Kara revealing herself to Lena just after she reveals that she discovered that Samantha Arias is Reign three weeks early and had begun synthesizing Kryponite as part of a treatment. Having spent most of the past month agonizing over one of her best friends being a Kryptonian doomsday weapon, Lena turns on Kara when she reveals that she is Supergirl. This means that Lena doesn't work with the DEO to fight the World-Killers at first, which means they fail to stop the eclipse triggered by the World-Killers working together. This also means that Mon-El remains in the past, due to Pestilence not dying. In the end, Lena joins Mon-El and Kara in the fight against Reign at the Arias Farm, but she, Samantha and Mon-El die in the process.

This reality makes Kara think the problem wasn't the hypocrisy - it was her lying to Lena in the first place.

The third alternate reality is watched on Kara's TV on video tapes (aka Betamyx) after the inter-dimensional WiFi begins buffering.

The third alternate reality starts off with a flashback sequence from 506 and Kara revealing her secret identity to Lena shortly after they first met, sometime during Season 2. The two agree to become partners in making National City a better place. This leads to an alternate take on Lillian Luthor's trial from 212, with Lena refusing to reveal Kara's secret identity under oath while testifying against her mother. This causes Lena to experience a level of public popularity that she never did in the original timeline, and people see her as more than a supervillain in training. It also has the side effect of turning the Cult of Rao from 304 into a more benign religion and less of a doomsday cult. This new Cult of Rao wins over all of the Lockwood family except Ben Lockwood (aka Agent Liberty), who forms the Children of Liberty after his father, son and wife all jump off a roof expecting Supergirl to save them. In a mirror of his confrontation with Lena in 403, Agent Liberty kidnaps Lena and Coville and threatens to kill them both if Supergirl doesn't reveal her secret identity to the world. Kara does so, and Agent Liberty is true to his word and releases Lena and Coville. Unfortunately, the Children of Liberty kill everyone who is close to Kara immediately after that.

This reality makes Kara think Lena would be better off if they'd never become friends at all.

The fourth and final alternate reality is a world where Kara and Lena never met in 201. In this reality, Supergirl isn't there to stop Lena's helicopter from being shot down. She survives the crash, but is spirited away to Cadmus by Lillian Luthor and becomes a rest subject for her Metallo program.  Two years later Lena escapes, kills Lillian and Lex, and destroys half of National City in the process. She rules what is left of the city with an iron fist and turns the Lexo-Suits into robots under her control running the Hope AI.  All of her technology is powered by tapping into the energy of the Fifth Dimension, which leaves Mister Mxyzptlk powerless until they recover his hat.

J'onn wields the Staff of Kolar, last seen in 415, during his fight with Reign.

Kara decides that she can't change the past and that she'll always have to face the consequences of her actions, but she says that Mister Mxyzptlk helped her to get over her guilt regarding Lena, so she frees him from his obligation.

Mister Mxyzptlk apologizes for being a creep before and thanking Kara for letting him feel like a hero in the bad reality.

Kara tells Lena that she's done feeling guilty over the past and that whatever happens between them in the future is on her.


Untelevised Adventures

Mister Mxyzptlk was put on trial for his crimes against Kara and other people he mistreated sometime after the events of 213. He has spent the last three years using his powers to make amends for his crimes, having saved Kara for last.


The Bottom Line

A fun anniversary special and look back at the show's history that may not hold up logically but it's a serviceable tribute to what came before.

Batwoman Episode Guide: Season 1, Episode 13 - Drink Me

For a summary of the episode guide layout & categories, click here.



Plot

With Alice presumed dead and Jacob Kane now out of prison, the Crows turn their attention to bringing in Nocturna: a serial killer who drains the blood from her victims. But Batwoman is still their Number Two target, making it hard for Kate to deal with Nocturna or track down the real Alice, who is on the run and plotting revenge against everyone... including Kate.


Influences

The New 52 Batwoman series and the Batnan comics of Doug Monech. (Character of Nocturna.)


Goofs

True to their sterling record to date, none of the Crows see fit to ask why the Alice corpse they find has the wrong color hair.

For that matter, nothing is said about Mouse no longer being in the hospital. (It's possible Dr. Cartwright covered his tracks and nobody noticed he is missing, but you'd think Jacob would want to confront the man who impersonated him in addition to inspecting Alice's dead body.)


Performances

Camrus Johnson delivers comedic gold throughout this episode. Hopefully this isn't really his last time coming out of the Batcave, because his interactions with Kate and Mary are priceless, as is his clear crush on Mary.


Artistry

The opening scene with Nocturna is suitably creepy and sets up her mystery well.

The set design for The Hold Up is solid and the use of lighting and music during the club scenes is fantastic, as is the atmospheric design for Gotham Cathedral.


Bat Trivia

Nocturna is an alias that has been used by three different DC Comics villains; all of whom had a connection to Gotham City.

The first Nocturna was Natalia Knight and first appeared in Batman #363 in September 1983. Natalia overcame a childhood living on the streets of Gotham City to become an astronomer at Gotham City Observatory. Unfortunately, her skin became bleached and extraordinarily sensitive to bright light following an accident with an experimental laser. Worse yet, she discovered that her adoptive father was a criminal and that his activities had financed the extravagant lifestyle to which she'd become accustomed. She joined forces with her adoptive brother, Anton Knight, and continued to run their father's enterprises, as Natalia required expensive treatments to manage her condition. She would later attempt to romance Bruce Wayne and forced him into a custody battle for Jason Todd.

The second Nocturna was a woman named Natalie Metternich, who was introduced as a Robin villain and first appeared in Robin #100 in May 2002. This Nocturna was a former astronomer turned piano player, who developed a pheromone power that caused people to lose their inhibitions around her.

The third Nocturna was a woman named Natalia Mitternacht, who was an actual vampire and black widow killer, who attempted to seduce Kate Kane. She first appeared in Detective Comics #9 in May 2012.

The Arrowverse version of Nocturne mixes elements of the first and third Nocturnes from the comics. Her real name is Natalia Knight, but she suffers from a rare form of porphyria rather than hypopigmentation. Her condition has left her unable to face direct sunlight and her kidneys do not filter her blood properly. This requires that she gets regular transfusions of fresh blood and, after the death of her father, she begins to directly acquire it by seducing club goers and draining their bodies. She has dental implants that give her a vampire's fangs, which enable her to inject her victims with a sedative before she begins draining them.

Luke makes an off-hand remark about how Nocturna's name and gimmick are very early 2000s. The second Nocturna was introduced in 2002, but ironically her gimmick had nothing to do with vampirism or blood-draining.


Technobabble

Luke has the ability to administer an adrenaline shot to Kate through the remote controls on the Bat-Suit. It takes roughly 30 seconds to kick in.

Mary determines that Kate was dosed with Ketamine. Ketamine is typically used in starting and maintaining anesthesia in surgery patients, but has been used as a party drug under the name Special K. Recently, one variation of it has been used as an antidepressant. Another version is used as an animal tranquilizer.

The Bat-Suit has a built-in UV detection system, generating 600 watts of 95% UVA and 5% UVB light. This allowes the suit to scan itself and other objects for fingerprints. Luke uses this to determine that Nocturna somehow didn't leave any physical evidence behind after close contact with Batwoman.

Luke uses a high-tech facial-recognition program to scan the club-goers at The Hold Up, looking for likely suspects to be Nocturna.

Cathedral bell ropes use different colors to denote different notes.

O-Negative is the universal donor among blood types. This means that Alice can donate blood to save Mary, who has B-Negative blood. 

B-Negative is one of the rarest blood types and people with B-Negative blood can only take transfusions from other B-Negatives or O-Negatives.


Dialogue Triumphs

Luke: We need to figure out who shot her.
Mary: I agree, but first, we need to prepare ourselves for the real Alice. The Crows think that she's dead, and she's not, which means no one's out looking for her, and if my twin picked my alien doppelganger's life over mine, I'd be on the verge of going nuclear. Uh, no offense.
Kate: You're right. I looked her in the eye and told her I chose to save someone else.
Mary: Kate you did the right thing. You have to know that.
Kate: It doesn't matter because the wrong Beth lived. Now Alice is back on the loose because of me, and we need to brace ourselves for the consequences.

(Luke is trying to talk Kate into investigating Nocturna.)
Luke: Lately, things have been a little too serious, and you could use the distraction.
Kate: Then bring me an old-fashioned bomber or an arsonist or someone that actually exists in the real world.
Luke: Apparently she does. Okay. Nocturna is-
Kate: (smirking) Nocturna? Was Night-Bite taken?
Luke: She seduces her victims, drains their blood, and leaves them for dead. It's all very early 2000s.

(Batwoman has found Nocturna's third victim.)
Batwoman: No sign of Nocturna.
(There's a metallic clan behind her. Batwoman spins around to see Nocturna approaching.)
Batwoman: Scratch that. Found her.
Nocturna: And I found you. Vampire, Bat. Screams duo to me.
Batwoman: I work alone.
Luke: (over comms) I heard that.
Batwoman: Shh.

Kate: Did we just lure a vampire to us using a bar full of walking blood bags?
Luke: Theoretically, yes. Technically, no. Think of our high-res facial recognition cameras as a sort of digital garlic. If Nocturna shows, we'll get her. Though so far the most suspicious woman here has three outstanding parking tickets.

Luke: Kind of went a long way to make clear I'm not your boyfriend.
Mary: Does your tie glow in the dark?
Luke: Yes, it does.
Mary: I actually love that.
Kate (over comms): It's not her.
Luke: (reflexively) You're positive, or you just got uncomfortable?
Mary: Who are you talking to?
Luke: Kate.
Kate (over comms): What?
Luke: No. Not you, Kate. I'm talking to Mary.
Kate (over comms): Why are you talking to Mary?
Mary: Why are you talking to Kate? I thought you were her real estate assistant.
Luke: (defensively) Associate.
Mary: With a hidden earpiece to direct line into his boss at a club on a Saturday night?
(There is a too long pause as Luke tries to think of a plausible lie.)
Luke: Kate's needy.

Alice: Where is he?
Kate: Where's who?
Alice: Mouse. Where are you keeping him?
Kate: No idea.
Alice: Then this was a waste of my time.
(Alice turns around to leave.) 
Kate:We should talk about what happened.
(Alice turns around. If looks could kill Kate would be dead.) 
Alice: Talk? Why? Do you think letting me die on a linoleum floor got lost in subtext? I get it, Kate! I mean nothing to you!
Kate: The Crows think you're dead. You've got a second chance, Alice.
Alice: You had a second chance to save me, and you didn't take it. Instead, you chose a complete stranger.
Kate: Beth wasn't a stranger. Don't you get it? She was you!  The kind, compassionate, good version of you. The version of you I thought you could be.
Alice: (evenly) The version who couldn't survive despite everything you did to keep her alive.
(There is a long pause. Kate can't deny anything Alice just said.)
Alice: (sighs) That's rich. I guess this is the new normal now. I hope she was worth it.

(Kate finds a trussed-up Alice, with empty blood bags next to her.)
Kate: Why did she start to fill these up and then stop?
Alice: (mock innocence) I don't know. She's fickle.
Kate: She's meticulous. She doesn't leave a victim until they're bone dry.
Alice: (sarcastic) I'm sorry that my being alive continues to disappoint you.
Kate: You're hiding something. Why didn't she kill you?
Alice: I told you. I have no idea.
Kate: You should be dead.
Alice: (deadpan) I know, Kate. You did everything in your power to make sure of that.

Batwoman: Your little fantasy is over.
Nocturna: I think it's just starting.
Batwoman: For the record, killing people not sexy.
Nocturna: You see victims. I see kids with perfect skin, perfect kidneys, perfect lives, who pollute their blood with every toxin they can get their hands on.
Batwoman: So they deserve to die?
Nocturna: And I do? I never even had a chance!

Kate: How did Nocturna know about the Desert Rose?
Alice: You mean, how did you know that Nocturna knew about the Desert Rose? Because Mary is alive because, uh, I saved her.
Kate: You sent her after Mary.
Alice: Of course I did. It was Mary's life or mine, and someone had to choose me for once.
Kate: If you want me to feel guilty, I don't. I never will, not after everything you've done.
Alice: Hmm. See, I don't believe you. I think somewhere deep down there's a teeny, tiny part of you that's relieved I lived, that you hadn't quite failed at saving me.
Kate: And they call Nocturna a vampire when all you do is feed off my guilt like the parasite you are.
Alice: So you're saying that you feel guilty.
Kate: What's the end game, Alice? Why'd you save Mary?
Alice: To prove to you how stupid you were for letting me die.
Kate: Stupid? Stupid was thinking that my sister was redeemable. Stupid was convincing The Crows not to kill you. Stupid was rescuing you from the Gotham River, convincing Dad that I could get Beth back. Stupid was thinking that you could ever, ever possibly be worth it.
Alice: (quietly) But maybe I don't want you to give up on me.


Continuity

The Crows and Gotham City at large think Alice is dead, thanks to the body of the Beth Kane doppleganger.

Jacob Kane is cleared of all charges in his wife's murder, presumably thanks to Dr. Cartwright's testimony.

"Alice's" body is listed as Jane Doe 7113 at the Gotham City Morgue.

Jacob Kane knows the bullet that killed "Alice" wasn't Crow's issue.

Sophie says she didn't have a lock on the shot, which was why she didn't kill Alice.

Jacob is satisfied with the fact that Alice is apparently dead and feels no need to investigate who did the deed.

Two Wonderland Gang members bring Alice Mouse's stuffed bear and tell her how he disappeared from his hospital room.

Luke was able to recover Beth's necklace before he was forced to abandon her body as the Crows closed in. He gives it to Kate.

Luke ran the partial plate numbers he got from Dr. Cartwright's vehicle, but they don't match any vehicle of that make or model, leading Luke to believe the plate was stolen.

Luke suggest Kate work on tracking down Nocturna; a serial killer who drains her victims of blood.

Kate stakes out Curse - an invitation-only EDM club on Gotham City's main nightclub strip. Luke has never heard of it.

Kate is ambushed as Batwoman after finding Nocturna's third victim.

Kate almost becomes Nocturna's fourth victim, but is found by Sophie before the rest of the Crows.

Sophie helps Kate to escape by untying her from where Nocturna let her tied up. She warns her that this is the last time she can help her, however.

Mary conducts a blood-test on Kate to determine what Nocturna injected into her.

Kate decides to open her new bar, The Hold Up, a few weeks early to use it as a trap for Nocturna.

Jacob instructs Sophie to go The Hold Up undercover and keep an eye out for Nocturna.

This episode marks the first time Luke has seen Sophie.

Sophie runs into Mary and tells her that Batwoman was drugged by Nocturna.

Sophie is hit on by a woman named Elle Scantlin. She is 28, dark hair, has an arrest record, and works in veterinary medicine.

Kate scares Elle away from Sophie by coming by to say hello. In the middle of the awkward moment, Sophie gets a text from Jacob, telling her to report back to base.

One of The Crows' technicians brings Jacob footage of Sophie freeing Batwoman. He says he can make it disappear if Jacob decides to ignore it.

Luke steps in to get Mary away from one of her annoying social media followers. While he is doing that, Kate calls him in his ear-piece, revealing to Mary that they are communicating with each other in the middle of what is meant to be a night-out for Luke.

Alice confronts Kate over Mouse's disappearance. Kate says she has no idea where he is. Alice believes her.

Alice is abducted by Nocturna.

Luke calls the police after Alice shows up outside The Hold Up.

Kate and Luke determine that Nocturna is Natalia Knight - a 27 year old. She is the adoptive daughter of Charles Knight, who was a janitor at the Gotham Cathedral Church. He died of a heart attack two weeks earlier, just before the Nocturna killings started.

Natalia was born with a unique type of Porphyria that prevents her from going out in the daytime and  her kidneys have trouble cleaning her blood. She becomes Nocturna to continue getting the fresh blood denied her now that her father is dead.

Alice sends Nocturna after Mary, telling her about the special quality of her blood thanks to the Desert Rose antidote.

Jacob asks Sophie about Batwoman. She denies having helped her.

Kate identifies the ropes used to string up Nocturna's victims as cathedral bell ropes.

Gotham Catherdal Church closed down a year earlier.

Mary's blood type is B-Negative.

Alice's blood type is O-Negative

Kate's blood type is A-Positive.

Alice saves Mary with a transfusion of her own blood, while Kate goes after Nocturna.

Sophie is suspended from active duty with The Crows.

Mary tells Kate that Nocturna told her that she was targeted because of the Blood Rose antidote in her blood.

Mary ran multiple tests on her blood, but says there's nothing special about it.

Kate confronts Alice over the fact that she sent Nocturna after Mary. Alice points out that she saved Mary's life afterward.

Alice deduces that Dr. Campbell is Dr. Cartwright, based on his being the only other visitor Mouse had in the hospital.

Dr. Campbell's record says that he is Gotham City's most elite plastic surgeon. He spent 20 years performing liposuction and rhinoplasty on the idle rich until 2014m where he suddenly took a sabbatical, divorced his wife and started specializing in the facial reconstruction of child burn victims.

Mary figures out that Kate is Batwoman on her own, as she thinks back over the events of the episode, after Vesper Fairchild reports that the sedative Nocturna used on her victims was Ketamine.

Sophie is not 30 yet.

Sophie uses the Bat-Signal to call Batwoman and tell her that Jacob knows that they've been working together.

The Bat-Signal is apparently now outlawed in Gotham City.

Sophie kisses Batwoman in the final scene of the episode.



Untelevised Adventures

We don't get to see how Jacob Kane is cleared of all charges but presumably it has something to do with Dr. Cartwright testifying on his behalf.


The Bottom Line

A solid filler episode with a fun villain-of-the-week. Despite this, it still drops some major moments with Mary figuring out Kate's secret identity on her own and Alice deducing that the man responsible for creating her is still alive and has Mouse. The only downspot continues to be Sophie, who is utterly sympathetic as a character and utterly reprehensible as a love interest for Kate. Then again, Kate making bad choices when it comes to her life life is true to the comics. I just hope this tainted love won't continue past this season.

Legends of Tomorrow: Season 5, Episode 5 - A Head Of Her Time

For a summary of the episode guide layout & categories, click here.




Plot

While Sara tends to some business in Star City, Ava is left in charge and tries to manage the team (and their newest addition Zari) as they track down the latest Encore - Marie Antoinette. Meanwhile, John Constantine confronts a literal ghost from his past, with a little help from Charlie and Gary.



Influences

Various Hellblazer stories, particularly Original Sins, Dangerous Habits and the Swamp Thing story American Gothic and the 2019 film version of Pet Semetary (creepy kids in animal masks) and the 2006 movie Marie Antoinette.


Goofs

How can Mick, who became famous for writing romance novels, not recognize the signs of a crush? (From what we've seen of Mick's love-life he's more into hot, short-term passion than honest emotion.)

Shouldn't Nate be familiar with ALOHA, having been a Time Agent for most of the last year?


Performances

It is a credit to both Courtney Ford and Tala Ashe as performers that they manage to sell a scene in which the severed head of Marie Antoinette and a social media influencer from 2044 bond over the problems of public perception and being rich and popular.


Artistry

The costumes are well-designed and period appropriate. The design for DJ S'more Money is also fun.

The final shot of the clockwork in the coin and John lying dying in the middle of a circle on a tile floor is a beautiful, artistic one.


Trivia Of Tomorrow

This episode reveals that the details of how Astra became lost to Hell were different in the Arrowverse than they were in the original Vertigo Comics universe.

Hellblazer #11 revealed that John Constantine and his friends in the Newcastle Crew went to a club in Newcastle where John and his band Mucous Membrane had played once before. The club owner was a dodgy sort named Alex Louge who was known to have wild parties involving sex magic in the club basement. What was not know, however, was that Alex had started forcing his daughter, Astra, to take part in the parties. Terrified by the molestation, Astra called out for someone to help her and her pleas were answered by a fear elemental, who killed everyone else in the club and possessed Astra.

John attempted to drive the elemental away by summoning a more powerful demon to scare it off. Unfortunately, John botched the ritual and the demon claimed Astra as its prize since John was unable to nail it down to a bargain before it manifested. The incident drove John mad and saw him committed to the Ravenscar Sanitarium for two years. It had a similar effect on most of his companions, most of whom were scared out of getting involved in the supernatural after that.

The Arrowverse version of the Newcastle incident had the same end result, but introduces a new wrinkle along with the character of Natalie Louge. Astra's mother did not figure into the original comics.

In the Arrowverse, Natalie was a friend of John Constantine as a child, his first love as a teenager and the lead singer of Mucous Membrane. She was a talented witch but she turned aside her power after John was nearly killed by something and saved only by the intervention of his friend Gary Lester. (Gary was the friend of John's who died fighting the hunger demon in C104) She begged John to give up his magic to settle down with her but he refused. She later married Alex Logue and had Astra.

When Natalie was killed by a drunk driver, John asked Alex for permission to try and bring her back from the dead. (John later lied and said that Alex had begged him to resurrect her.)  John botched the ritual and Astra was taken to Hell. Natalie committed suicide when she learned the price of her resurrection and Alex Louge drank himself to death.

The parable of the fox knowing many things but the hedgehog knowing one important thing which Behrad quotes is taken from a poem by the ancient Greek poet Archilochus. This idea was later turned into a formal essay - The Hedgehog and The Fox - by philosopher Isaiah Berlin, who speculated that intellectuals can be broken down into two groups - those who base their philosophy around one single strong idea (hedgehogs) and those who cannot limit themselves to a single theme (foxes). In pushing this metaphor, Behrad says that the Legends are foxes and Ava is a hedgehog.

The ending in which John begins dying of lung cancer is a nod to John's prophecized death in Dangerous Habits - a graphic novel which served as the basis for the Keanu Reeves Constantine movie. In it, John was diagnosed with untreatble lung cancer and started seeking out a magical solution to his problen.


Technobabble/Arcana

Gary knows a spell that can open sealed doors which involves a chant in Romanian.



Dialogue Triumphs

Ray: Mick, are you feeling all right?
Mick: My stomach hurts. I can't eat. I can't drink. I think Allie gave me an STD back at the reunion.
Gideon: Initiating scan.
Ray: Those are not symptoms. Those are feelings. Mick. I think you're developing a crush.
Mick: Is that when you whiz and it hurts?

(Zari has invited herself along on the mission, dressed as a French nobleman.)
Ava: She's not coming. We don't do ride-alongs in the field, B.
Zari: Ava, I can handle myself in the field. I once played capture the flag to raise awareness about feline OCD. Sooooo.....
Ava: This isn't a PR event, all right? We're walking into a deadly situation facing an Encore with unknown powers. I do not have time to keep my eye on a party girl!
Nate: (starring at Zari)  I do.

Zari: So this is your job? Walking around parties?
Nate: Isn't this kind of what you do?
Zari: Hmm, touche.
(Nate grabs two glasses of champagne from a passing servant. He offers one to Zari but she shakes her head.)
Zari: No.
(Nate quickly puts both drinks down.) 
Nate: But something definitely feels off. At this point in the French Revolution, most of the royals had been separated from their heads. Even wearing a nice dress could get you sent to the guillotine.
(Zari stops dead.) 
Zari: Uh, and you let me come out in this because...?
Nate: I'm sucker for a corset and an updo.

(Zari and Ava watch as a woman collapses on the floor, having apparently partied herself to death.)
Zari: This woman is next-level popular. People would rather die than leave. Talk about FOMO.
Ava: My God, that's it. Marie Antoinette was beheaded for partying while France starved, and now she is literally killing the Revolution with a nonstop party!

John: Is that really you, Nat?
Natalie: I need to hear you say it. Why did you bring me back?
John: Because I loved you, Nat. I never stopped.
Natalie: I'm not here for the John Constantine broken hero act.
(Charlie's body changes to resemble Natalie.)
Natalie: Say it to my face. I need to hear the truth.
John: I brought you back to prove to you that I was right. To show you that I was right to choose magic over us.
Natalie: (nodding sadly) Thank you. I needed you to admit to yourself what you did, because if you're going to save Astra, you need to do it for her. Not for your ego.
John: Oh, I have tried to save her, Nat, I have tried, but I don't know how.
Natalie: I think I found a way.

Marie Antoinette: When I was 14, I was forced to leave my family. People saw the dresses, the parties, the hair, and they assumed I was a spoiled brat. Really, I was just a lonely Viennese girl trying to fit into French society.
Zari: I've been famous since I was six years old. I don't know if people love me or love to hate me. What they don't understand is how hard I work to create a fantasy for them.
(Marie nods as best you can when you're a severed head.)
Marie Antoinette: The secret is to never let the party stop.

(Ray brings his phone into the library. He is oblivious to Marie Antoinette's head being gagged.)
Ray: Here, doesn't she look exactly like you?
(Ray points his phone at Marie.)
Nora:: Ray, I am looking at a gagged, decapitated woman. If that's what you think I look like, we have a lot of processing to do.

Zari: You locked Marie Antoinette up, but you let me off the hook.
Ava: I mean, she killed people, Zari. You screwed up. You know, everybody screws up.
Zari: Not you.
Ava: Me? I feel like I'm screwing up all the time.
Zari:You were so on mission. You crashed an A-list party in a pantsuit and threw yourself into a fountain.
Ava: Ugh, see, it's a perfect example.
Zari: No, it was amazing. You didn't care what anyone thought. You were just being you. I've been trying to get people to like me for so long that I've forgotten who I really am. I have millions of followers but zero friends.
Ava: You got one.


Continuity

Gary accidentally freeze the ghost of Astra's mother while trying to check on John.

Sara has a bad habit of accidentally sneaking up on people.

Sara appoints Ava as the Interim Captain while she is away.

While the personal business taking Sara to Star City is not specified, it seems likely that it is Oliver Queen's funeral in 810.

Astra is warned by another demon that her venture with the Encores is getting too costly, as she has already lost three souls because of the Legends - Rasputin, Bugsy Siegel and Kathy Meyers.

Astra's mother was named Natalie.

John lies to Gary and Charlie about how the night Astra was lost to Hell being far more complicated than a simple exorcism and how he was begged to intervene by Astra's father, Alex. In truth, John asked for permission to resurrect Natalie to prove that he was right to give up their love to become a warlock.

According to Behard, squeezable butter stops existing in 2024.

Zari asks for Gideon to make her a new dress for the unveiling of her new perfume.

According to Ava, the first rule of Time Travel is no using knowledge of the future for personal profit. The second rule is no social media while on-board the Waverider.

Nora is currently helping a girl and her mom who have been living out of their car for a year. The mom has a final-round job interview lined-up.

Mick thinks he got an STD after his encounter with his ex in 504.  According to Gideon, he's just feeling actual love.

Zari has a boyfriend - a rapper who performs under the DJ S'more Money.

The Time Bureau used to celebrate Taco Monday under Ava's leadership.

ALOHA is a program Ava developed for handling tactical situations. The acronym stands for Assess, Listen, Observe, Hydrate, Attack.

Gideon detects a disturbance in Paris in 1793 which results in the French Revolution collapsing.

While everyone else dresses like a French peasant, Zari dresses like a high-class French lady.

Zari sprays herself and Ava with her signature perfume, Dragoness, before they leave the Waverider.

Astra consults with a demon known as The Coin Maker, who forges the soul coins, as to how to kill John Constantine before his appointed time to die.

Napoleon is among the party-goers in the Bastille. According to Nate, he should be marching on Southern France at that point in history.

Marie Antoinette is the spitting image of Nora Darhk.

Zari doesn't drink alcohol and stops Behard from drinking champagne. This is the first clue that something is wrong and the first hint of Marie Antoinette's power as an Encore.

Zari and Ava figure out that Marie Antoinette has some kind of charm power that makes people want to be near her even to the point of dying.

Zari comes up with a plan to lure Marie away from her guards by telling her they're going to a better party.

Natalie's ghost takes possession of Charlie's body.

It is revealed that Marie Antoinette's head and body are separated even in death and she is barely able to keep her head balanced on top of her body. The body seems to act independently of Marie's head unless she is on it.

Nate puts Marie's head in the library to make her less dangerous. Her body is kept in the brig.

Gideon shows Zari a news report from October 7, 2045. It reveals that Zari's social media empire and brand have both crumbled after the FDA determined that her Dragoness perfume caused people to lose their sense of smell.

Zari figures out that Marie Antoinette's perfume was the source of her charm power.

Zari steals the perfume from Marie's body before going to her event.

Zari has an assistant named Les-Lay.

DJ S'more Money's team had the idea for him to propose to Zari at the MTV Movie Awards, just before they presented their co-branded line of sunglasses.

Ava figures out that Dragoness causing people to lose their sense of smell is why she and Zari were immune to the effects of Marie Antoinette's mind-control.

Zari spills the perfume on herself, causing everyone at the event to start chasing her like zombies.

Ava rescues Zari by getting her to jump in a fountain, which washes the perfume off of her.

Nate takes advantage of the confusion to punch DJ S'more Money.

DJ S'more Money apparently breaks up with Zari, having shouted something about calling his agent to schedule a divorce.

Natalie tells John that she thinks the Loom of Fate can save Astra and that Charlie is connected to it.

Charlie admits that the Loom of Fate was real until she destroyed it. She scattered the pieces of it around the multiverse to destroy the idea of Fate itself, but she recently sensed something changed.

Gideon makes a dressed-down outfit for Zari to replace her dress. With a flannel shirt and jeans, it resembles the clothes she favored before the timeline was changed.

Zari has her first donut in 1,743 days. One bite of it gives her flashes of all the other times she ate donuts on the Waverider.

Zari and Ava become friends.

The Coin Maker alters John's coin so that his death of lung cancer in ten years happens now. She does this in exchange for a favor to be named later from Astra.

The episode ends with John collapsing and coughing up blood as Charlie and Gary try to help him.


Location

Northumberland County, UK - 2020
Hell
Versailles, France - 1793
New York City - 2044


The Fridge Factor

Ava is dumbed down as a leader to make her difficulties in leading the Legends more believable, despite her being the former head of the Time Bureau and leading field teams against the Legends all through Season 3.


The Bottom Line

Not a bad episode but it doesn't quite work either. The tonal shift between the two major plots is too great to jump back and forth between them. Had the bits with Constantine and Charlie been saved for the beginning and end like last week, maybe it would be less jarring. As it is there's a lot of little things that just make the whole episode seem off.

The Flash Episode Guide: Season 6, Episode 12 - A Girl Named Sue

For a summary of the episode guide layout & categories, click here. 




Plot

After months of searching, Ralph finally catches up with the elusive Sue Dibny and finds there's much more to the missing heiress than meets the eye. Meanwhile, Iris joins forces with Eva McCulloch - a presumed dead scientist who is also a prisoner of the mirror dimension that Iris is now stuck in - to try and find a way back to the real world, as a doppelganger of Iris begins manipulating Barry and Joe towards her own ends.


Influences

A Scandal In Bohemia (Sue is set up as the Irene Adler to Ralph's Sherlock Holmes), classic Film Noir movies and pulps and The Flash comics of John Broome and Grant Morrison.


Goofs

The damage dealt to Ralph's camera would do nothing to harm the files inside a digital camera. Even an old-fashioned film camera would be fine so long as the chamber housing the film wasn't broken.

Ralph has a bit of a glass jaw in this episode, despite his powers allegedly making him nearly-invulnerable and super-strong according to The Thinker. In fact, he's able to ignore several hundred bullets at close-range! (Presumably Ralph needs to brace himself and Sue and the henchmen were able to catch him off-guard.)


Performances

Natalie Dreyfuss proves an instantly enchanting presence as Sue Dearbon and her chemistry with Harley Sawyer is amazing. Which makes the twist of the episode all the more effective, yet we're still left wondering how much of her affection for Ralph was an act.


Artistry

The soundtrack for this episode is fantastic, with a lot of jazzy tunes that feel more appropriate to a 1940s detective movie than a superhero show. The music for the Sue/Ultraviolet fight


Flash Facts

This episode confirms the existence of The Mirror World in the post-Crisis Arrowverse. First appearing in The Flash #126, the Mirror World was a fourth-dimensional space discovered by the original Mirror Master Sam Scudder, through which he could travel through time and space. Despite being a perfect copy of Earth, the Mirror World was unpopulated save for a race of telepathic amazonian women known as the Orinocas.

Apart from a lack of Orinocas, the Mirror World of the Arrowverse seems identical to the one in the comics.

This episode introduces the character of Dr. Eva McCulloch, who has been mentioned before but never seen. Eva seems to be a gender-flipped version of Evan McCulloch - the second Mirror Master in the comics.

Evan McCulloch was created by Grant Morrison and first appeared in Animal Man #8.. A life-long criminal turned hitman, McCulloch was given the gear of the original Mirror Master after his death b the FBI, who intended for McCulloch to act as their agent while posing as a supervillain. McCulloch decided he like the idea of being a real supervillain better than being a Fed and went rogue - literally joining with the rest of the Flash's enemies (aka The Rogues Gallery). McCulloch proved to be even more clever about using the Mirror Master's many weapons, even if he was unable to develop them himself.

Sue Dearbon first appeared in The Flash #119, Sue Dearbon was a wealthy socialite from Westchester County, New York, who was married to Ralph Dibny before her first appearance. A later story revealed that Sue fell head-over-heels in love with the Ductile Detective after he and The Flash joined forces to stop a robbery at a high-society party she was at. For some reason, love blossomed between the two and they were quickly married, though Ralph had no need of her money having made a fortune doing personal appearances as Elongated Man.

Sue is notable as the only superhero love interest to become a Justice League member, having acted as the bureau chief for the JLI embassy in Paris. Despite not having any powers, Sue was a woman or rare intelligence who found ways to use the variety of skills she had picked up as a member of the landed gentry to help the Justice League and her husband in their work.

While the Arrowverse version of Sue Dibny is a high-class thief who turned to crime out of boredom, she shows the same versatility and intelligence of her comic book counterpart. She even explains away various skills as things she learned while taking various lessons her parents signed her up for to keep her occupied as a child.

The newspaper articles on Ralph's case board show that Sue Dearbon was awarded a Fulbright Scholarship - a prestigious real-world scholarship offered to students with an interest in foreign affairs and international diplomacy. This may be a nod to sue's role as the embassy chief for the Justice League International office in Paris in the comics.

Sue claims that a black-market weapons dealer and ex-boyfriend named John Loring is the reason why she went on the run. This is a nod to how Sue Dibny was killed in the comics by Jean Loring, the ex-wife of Ray Palmer, in the Identity Crisis storyline. (Arrowverse fans will remember there is a Jean Loring in the Arrowverse, but she was the Queen family lawyer, an old friend of Moira Queen and had no romantic connection to the Arrowverse Ray Palmer.)


Technobabble

Eva McCulloch explains the Mirror World to Iris thus: reality is observed by three dimensions: width, depth, and length. The super-string theory posits that there are other realities, fractal dimensions humans can't see. The Mirror World is one of these dimensions which exists on the other side of our reality.

Eva says that the clone of Iris running around in the real world is a fractal variable.

Ralph set up alerts on Sue Dibny's credit cards, bank accounts and trust funds. It is through this that he learns about her putting a deposit on an apartment in Central City.

According to Eva, liquid nitrogen should slow down the mirror's molecules to the lowest enthalpy state possible.

Barry says the scorch marks at the scene of the house fire were like giant burns created by sunlight through a magnifying glass. This was consistent with the same energy blasts used by Dr. Light and the photon rifle.

The inner gate of the vault at Central City Mercantile Bank is fitted with an anti-theft electrical system. Opening or closing it without the manager's key automatically activates a 50,000 volt fail-safe.

The device Sue uses to analyze the diamond is a Laser Confocal Scanner.


Dialogue Triumphs

(Ralph enters the apartment building where he tracked Sue Dearbon. It is, to put it politely, a dump.)
Ralph: Not exactly the Ritz.
(Ralph approaches one of the apartment doors. As he is about to open it he sears the sound of breaking glass and a struggle. Suddenly, the door swings open.)
Woman: Get down!
(A dark haired woman dives into the hallway, knocking Ralph down as the room behind her explodes. A moment later, after the debris is done running down...)
Ralph: (coughing) What the hell, lady?
Woman: Hey, I just saved your life. You're welcome, by the way.
(The woman stands up and as Ralph looks up at her she is backlit by the whole blown in the opposite wall leading outside. She's gorgeous. And familiar.)
Ralph: Oh, my God. It's you!
(For a moment, Sue looks astonished and looks around nervously at the idea of being recognized.)
Ralph: You're Sue Dearbon!
(Sue relaxes instantly, apparently satisfied Ralph isn't here to hurt her.)
Sue: In the flesh. And you are?

Ralph:  Sue, I I have been looking for you - for nine months.
Sue: Ouch. I hope you don't bill by the hour.
Ralph:  Where have you been? A-and why did your apartment explode in my face?
Sue: Yeah, hate it when that happens.
Ralph: Look, I'm serious. Now who set that bomb? Why are they trying to kill you? And how long has this been going on for?
Sue: Uh, my ex. Because I know too much. About nine months. You done?
Ralph: No, I'm most certainly not done!

(Ralph starts to get out of the car outside of Loring's warehouse. Sue starts to come with him.)
Ralph: Where are you going?
Sue: I'm going with you.
Ralph: No, no, no, no, no.
Sue: Oh, look, I get it. Chivalry's your brand.
Ralph: You're an MIT grad, speak six languages, and you play polo. You belong in a country club, not in the field.
Sue: You belong in the 19th Century with your Victorian, save-the-damsel-in-distress crap.

Ralph: So you mind telling me how you know martial arts?
Sue: My parents sent me to Kyoto for a summer. Trained with a blind sensei. Taught me everything I know.
Ralph: Really?
Sue: No. (scoffs) I trained with a guy named Frank at a YMCA.

(Sue and Ralph run along the rooftop. Sue gets to the edge and realizes there's no fire escape.)
Sue: Whoa! Uh, we have a problem.
(Ralph looks behind them. Loring's men are not far behind.)
Ralph: Do you trust me?
Sue: Define trust.
Ralph: (grabbing Sue) Hang on.
Sue: Are you crazy?!
Ralph: Sometimes? Don't let go.
(Ralph reaches out with one arm and grabs the ledge of the opposite roof. He jumps as he half-swings/half rappels away from the roof. Sue screams as he controls their fall, bring them to a gentle stop just as they reach the ground. Sue is flabbergasted.)
Sue:We just... You just... You're the Elongated Man?!
Ralph: Yeah, I'm just full of surprises.

Sue: How... how did you become the Elongated Man, anyway?
Ralph: (intensely) I was brutally experimented on by a covert organization for years. They forced me to consume rubber-based polymer compounds.
Sue: Seriously?
Ralph: No. (chuckles) I rode a bus.

Sue: Listen... I want you to know how much I appreciate you trusting me with your secret. It means a lot.
(There is a long pause and a definite something there as Sue comes closer to Ralph. Clearly shaken, Ralph changes the subject and tries to get back to business.)
Ralph: Uh...I can call my friends at CCPD and get a warrant for Loring's deposit box. Shouldn't take more than a day.
Sue: We don't have a day. Loring's already spooked. He could move that box at any minute. I feel like our only chance at....Nah, it's too crazy.
Ralph: Come on. Share your thoughts with the class.
Sue:What if ...WE break into CC Mercantile Bank now? Just us. And take the ledger for ourselves.
Ralph: Believe that's called stealing.
Sue: Oh, come on, Slick. You're also a P. I. You can't tell me you've always operated by the book.
Ralph: No, but I can't commit a crime.
Sue: (sadly) I get it. And I respect that. But Ralph? I'm not a hero. So if this is the only chance I have to see my parents again? I have to take it.
Ralph: Sue... being a hero... it's about helping innocent people. I'm not gonna let you do this alone.
Sue: (smiling) You're not?
Ralph: No. But we do this my way. We get inside, get the ledger, and immediately bring it to my friends at CCPD. Deal or no deal?
Sue: Deal.

(Sue hast just locked Ralph in the bank vault.)
Ralph: We are this close to taking down Loring. Sue, why are you doing this?
Sue: Who cares about Loring? I don't even know the guy. I do, however, know where he keeps his valuables.
Ralph: There never was a ledger.
Sue: Keep going...
Ralph:That's why you rented an apartment in Central City. You knew I was keeping tabs on you, so...so you lured me in. You rigged your own apartment to explode for for what? Just to sell the story of of sympathetic socialite running for her life?
Sue: You bought it. But don't feel bad. You're a good guy. And a hero. You probably see the best in everyone. Me, I see what I want and I take it.
Ralph: You used my detective mind to track down Loring's deposit box. You played everyone. Your parents are desperate to find you. Do they even know what you really are?
Sue: No. That's our little secret. If they found out their only daughter was a thief, they'd be devastated. So you keep your mouth shut about who I am, I keep mine shut about who you are. Deal, Elongated Man?
Ralph: Sue, was anything you told me real?
Sue: Yes. And no. See you around, Slick.

(Sue and Ralph are staring down Ultraviolet.)
Ralph: Is there anyone that doesn't want to kill you?
Sue: Not really.


Dialogue Disasters

Every scene with Cecile in this episode is painful and it's clear the writers are struggling to find ways to include her in the narrative.


Continuity

Iris meets Dr. Eva McCulloch inside the Mirror World - a plane that is a copy of Earth-Prime which exists on another dimension.

Eva is a quantum engineer who was working on a way to open doors to other planes of existence. She became trapped in the Mirror World on the night of the STAR Labs' particle accelerator explosion.

It has been 274 days since Ralph took the case to find Sue Dearbon.

Sue hasn't found any leads on Sue's location since 606.

Cecile offers to work with Ralph on finding Sue, citing their team-up in 506 as proof they work well together. Ralph declines her offer.

Ralph tracks Sue to 24 4530 10th Avenue

As Barry and the fake Iris are eating breakfast, the fake Iris is reading a copy of CatCo Magazine, where the cover story shows Lex Luthor winning the Man of Tomorrow award. This occurred in S510.

Barry is still sore after the fight with Amunet Black and Goldface last week.

The Mirror Gun was last seen in 522. It is being kept in the Starchives.

The fake Iris asks Barry for the Mirror Gun in the Starchives. He refuses, saying it is too dangerous.

Sue Dearbon says that she's been on the run for the last nine months because she learned too much about the operations of John Loring - a black-market weapons dealer, whom she used to date before learning how he earned his fortune.

Sue is hunting John Loring, trying to get the evidence she needs to prove his crimes before she goes to the police.

Sue claims that John Loring is watching her parents and that he has police on the take in every city where he does business, watching for her to make sure she doesn't call her parents or contact the police anywhere charges could be pressed.

Eva attempted 1,322 different plans to escape the Mirror World over the past six years.

Iris suggests they can escape by freezing the mirror to Absolute Zero, the same way that Barry was able to escape being trapped by a mirror by Sam Scudder in 304.

Joe asks Barry to take a second look at a case involving a house fire on Batton Street and bring anything unusual he finds directly to him.

Sue knows six languages, graduated from MIT, plays polo and knows martial arts.

Sue saves Ralph from being drowned in a rain barrel by one of Loring's henchmen.

Cecile says that she can barely tell Ralph and Sue apart on an empathetic level with her powers.

Iris and Eva break the mirror when they freeze it. This does nothing to get them out of the Mirror World.

Fake Iris runs into Nash Wells while trying to search the Starchives on her own for the Mirror Gun.

Nash lies about being asked to do an inventory of the Starchives while Cisco was out of town. As he tells the fake Iris this, he sees Harry Wells again, who accuses him of being a liar. He also makes reference to Nash having unfinished business and knowing what it's like to lose a daughter.

Fake Iris claims she was looking for Nora's journal. She says it's the only thing left that she has of her daughter.

Nash promises not to tell Barry that he saw Iris in the Starchives.

Nash was actually looking for a book labeled The Diary of Harrison "Harry" Wells.

Ralph finds a key to a safe deposit box at Central City Mercantile Bank while searching John Loring's office. He guesses this is where the ledger Sue wants is kept.

Ralph reveals his secret identity to Sue when he lowers them from the roof of Jean Loring's office building with one stretchy arm.

Sue starts calling Ralph "Slick" as a nickname.

Sue persuades Ralph to help her break into the bank rather than wait a day for him to get a search warrant to check out John Loring's safe deposit box.

Barry determines that the fire on Batton Street was started by a focused UV blast, same was what Ultraviolet and Dr. Light generated.

Joe says he's found several cases where it looks like people associated with James Carver and McCulloch Technologies died mysteriously in a fire that was quickly dismissed as an accident and not arson.

Eva is somehow able to summon the broken mirror shards to her hand.

Ralph disguises himself as Joe West and Sue disguises herself as a beat cop so they can sneak into CC Mercantile Bank after hours.

Sue learned French at the US Embassy in Paris and had horseback riding lessons.

Sue is revealed to be a jewel thief who used Ralph to track down a diamond in John Loring's possession. She tells Ralph she'll keep his secret identity a secret so long as she doesn't reveal her secret life to her parents.

Ralph saves Sue from John Loring's men, who are apparently knocked out and/or killed by Ultraviolet.

Ultraviolet was last seen in 606.and has apparently escaped from prison again.

Sue speaks Spanish.. Ralph does not.

Sue has encountered Ultraviolet before and Ultraviolet recognizes her as well.

Sue escapes with the diamond.

Ultraviolet can apparently use her powers to teleport.

Barry shows up in the nick of time to save Ralph from John Loring's men.

STAR Labs satellites finds no sign of Sue Dearbon in Central City. 

Ralph becomes determined to bring Sue to justice.

Barry gives Fake Iris the Mirror Gun.

Eva is able to mentally restore the broken mirror inside the Mirror World. She then somehow summons an image of Barry in his and Iris' apartment.

Barry seems to sense Iris watching him through the mirror.

Sue analyzes the diamond she stole from John Loring in some kind of private lab and finds the Black Hole emblem inside in. She also has a newspaper article on McCulloch Technologies being compromised and a picture of John Carver.


Location

The Mirror World


The Bottom Line

If it were just Ralph and Sue, it would be perfect. Unfortunately, while the lion's share is devoted to the Nick and Nora Charles of the DC Universe snarking at each other, too much of the episode is devoted to Cecile being comically quirky and Iris browbeating a deranged woman who has gone crazy after six years of isolation.

Still, it's a solid episode despite its flaws and the new take on Sue is easily the most interesting supporting character introduced into the show since Ralph himself. Hopefully they'll get their own spin-off in a year or two rather than be forced to fight for screen-time amid all the other people hanging around STAR Labs these days.

Supergirl Episode Guide: Season 5, Episode 12 - Back from the Future - Part Two

For a summary of the episode guide layout & categories, click here.




Plot

The alternate universe Toyman returns, in the form of a sentient computer virus who takes control of the DEO. With every piece of smart electronics in the building a new toy to play with, Alex has her hands full even before Lex Luthor limits her ability to do her job. Meanwhile, Kara must help Winn confront his greatest fear when they discover the original Toyman has been resurrected as an AI as well and Brainiac-5 must decide where his loyalties lie, as he is forced to make a choice regarding Lex's latest secret order.


Influences

The Back To The Future films (the title, the Doc Brown quote at the end), 1990s hacker sci-fi in general (all the technobabble) and Ghost In The Machine.


Goofs

One major plot-point of the episode is that Alex doesn't recall what's in the DEO's arsenal post-Crisis, as they are items Lex Luthor put in there she doesn't know about (such as Lexo-Suits) and items that aren't there, such as the Kryptonite Protective vest Supergirl wore in Season 1. Ignoring that Alex is the sort of meticulous person who would keep track of this sort of thing, this contradicts what we understood regarding the memories of everyone on the Super Friends and how they are supposed to remember their lives Pre-Crisis and Post-Crisis.

How did Toyman get flying monkey drone toys into the DEO before he became an AI?

The CGI for the flying monkey drones is terrible.


Performances

A year ago, Arrowverse fans were protesting the idea that Jon Cryer, best known for his work as a comedic actor, could ever play Lex Luthor. Now he's easily the best thing about this episode, despite being forced to deliver some clunky exposition to justify the contrived story.


Super Trivia

Winn says that he was given the call-sign Computer Lad by his brother-in-law, who is also a Legion of Super-Heroes member. This is probably Garth Ranzz aka Lightning Lad or Live Wire, based on the fact that Winn's wife is named Ayla - a likely nod to Lightning Lass Ayla Ranzz.

Winn makes reference to Lightning Lass being a Legion member, along with a hero called Chemical King. In the comics, Chemical King is the call-sign of Condo Arlik; a native of the planet Phlon or Valdow. He possessed the metahuman ability to speed up or slowdown chemical reactions. Plagued with self-doubt due to the situational nature of his powers, he appeared in few stories after his first appearance and later died a hero's death averting World War VII.

When distracting the Lexo-Suits, Brainiac-5 shouts the words "Leeroy Jenkins!" This is a reference to a video featuring a now infamous World of Warcraft player, who ruined an meticulous plan by charging into battle while shouting his name. This turned Leeroy into a meme and a gaming legend, though it is now claimed the video was meant to be a satire of idiot MMORPG players rather than an honest video of one player's recklessness.

In the scene before Winn returns to the fiuture, he quotes Doc Brown from Back to the Future and dons a pair of sunglasses like those Doc Brown wore when he returned from the future at the end of Back To The Future 2.


Technobabble

Winslow Schott Sr. attempted to develop an artificial intelligence based on his own mind. His goal was to achieve hyper consciousness - a form of virtual immortality brought about by putting his mind onto the World Wide Web.

Item 906016 in the DEO vault is the Obsidian Tech Platinum lenses worn by Toyman II before his death. These are later determined to be what he used to download his mind into a laptop.

Winn says that he can reverse engineer his father's original AI code into a kill-code for the Toyman II AI.

Brainiac-5 is able to use a virtual lid to push Toyman down to the server level from the DEO Command Center.

The servers for the DEO's computers are located on top of their headquarters' power core. If something happens to the servers, it will destroy the core and all life within a three-mile radius.

The command console in the DEO headquarters has an old-fashioned rotary phone. Lex Luthor has the number to it.

In the post-Crisis reality, the internal defenses of the DEO have Kryptonite safeguards, designed by Lex Luthor himself, which cannot be deactivated. These were installed after two separate attempts by hostile Kryptonians to take over the world. This prevents Supergirl from disabling all the weapons inside the DEO at super speed and gathering up all the electronics that could be used by Toyman as potential weapons.

Lex confirms that the anti-Kryptonite technology utilized by the DEO to protect Supergirl pre-Crisis does not exist in the post-Crisis Earth-Prime.

According to Kelly Olsen, the Bio-Link on the Obsidian North Platinum lenses still isn't working perfectly. While eating virtually still provides the body with nutrients, the interface is hyper-stimulating the body's sensory reaction into a kind of toxic shock. This causes Andrea Rojas to have an allergic reaction to the virtual lobster she is eating, despite not normally being allergic to lobster.

Luthor Corp's been working with the Pentagon on a new neural interface and just developed a special processor that regulates Bio-Linking across a wide spectrum. Lena claims it has completely eliminated the feedback loop and eliminated most of the side effects.

Brainiac-5 prepares a Van Eck radiation scanner that has been delinked from the DEO network. He claims that it can distinguish between normal server radiation and abnormal radiation, which will enable them to locate the server holding Toyman's digital form.

Project Non Nocere is complete, save for field testing on the algorithm. To do that, Lena says she needs a distribution device capable of connecting with several minds at once.

Winn says the Toyman AI is based on Premack's theory of the mind.

Winn has 31st Century technology that lets him enter computers through a VR interface.

J'onn has Martian eavesdropping technology which he offers to Alex to spy on Lex Luthor.


Dialogue Triumphs

(Evil laughter comes from the big screens of the DEO Command Center. Toyman appears in the middle of the screen.)
Toyman II: Don't you guys know it's rude to talk about someone behind their back?
Supergirl: Toyman?
Alex: Okay, tell me this is a video, guys.
Toyman II:  Oh, no, I am everything I used to be, but electronic and immortal. Now, lower the DEO's firewall to the World Wide Web, or I will use all of your toys to kill you!

(Lex offers Lena a coffee cup.)
Lex: Doppio espresso. To cheer you up?
Lena: What makes you think I need cheering up?
Lex: Well, you're trying to advance your grand project. The Q-waves from the archive cube had helped, but the next step remains... elusive.
Lena: (dryly) A Lex who cares about the emotional state of others? This really is a whole new world.
Lex: I care because your goals are my goals.
Lena: Ah, it does always come back to you, doesn't it?
(Lex shrugs his head, conceding the point.) 

Lex: Perhaps there's something I can do?
Lena: I don't need anyone murdered, Lex.
Lex: (protesting) I have other skill sets!

(Winn explains his decision to take up the Toyman codename as a Legion member.)
Winn:  You know, that name has always haunted me. But now after having faced my father... He told me that I was better than him. And he was right. So I'm gonna reclaim that name. And make it stand for good. Hey, it's like the Doctor said, "The future is whatever you want" (Christopher Lloyd impression) "So make it a good one. "


Dialogue Disasters

(Alex explains her plan to have Supergirl fly all the weapons and technology out of the DEO.)
Alex: I know it's a risk, but if anyone can do the job, it's her.
Lex: But she can't. In case you've forgotten, rogue Kryptonians have attacked our planet before. The DEO has Kryptonite safeguards in place, and, no, they cannot be disabled.
Alex: Well, we have anti-Kryptonite technology to protect her.
Lex: I think you're remembering that from another time. Another Earth, perhaps?


Continuity

Winn is remaining in the past while the Legion ship recharges.

According to Brainiac-5, every Legion of Super-Heroes member is given a unique call-sign before they don their first uniform. Winn seems to have been an exception to this policy, however, as everyone began calling him Computer Lad as a joke, despite him being a uniform-wearing Legion member.

William Dey loves karaoke and claims to be famous for his rendition of "Africa" by Toto.

Despite knowing Lex Luthor snuck aboard the Legion ship, Winn could find no sign of what he was after.

Alex is spying on Lex through her computer.

Brainiac-5 gives Lex a file on Gemma Cooper.

Lex knows that Alex is spying on him, but is letting her think he doesn't know for now.

Lex seems to suspect that Toyman will resurrect himself as an AI and asks Brainiac-5 if they've had any technical problems just before the AI attacks him with the DEO's drones.

William asks Kara out on a date. However, before she can answer, Winn interrupts and tells Kara that she and Alex need to go check on her grandmother.

Winn recognizes the music that Toyman plays through the DEO comms as a song his father listened to all the time while in his workshop.

Brainiac-5 figures out that Luthor suspected Toyman had become an AI.

Lex asks Brainiac-5 to copy the Toyman AI code for him. He freely admits he might consider using it to make himself into an immortal AI, but says it is only to negate the one advantage Leviathan has over him.

Andrea Rojas is not normally allergic to lobster.

Lena offers LuthorCorp's neural interface to Obsidian North, but Andrea rejects the offer.

Brainiac-5 tells Winn he didn't know that Lex was going to allow the Toyman AI to infect the DEO computers. Winn believes him and chooses to trust him when he says he has things under control.

The idea for the Toyman AI originally came from Winn, who had thought of finding a way to play video games from the inside.

Alex divides the DEO swing-shift into three groups; one to pop the chips out of every smart gun, one to do the same with all the communication tech and one to delink everything else.

The AI based on the original Toyman is only 80% complete.

Lex approaches Gemma Cooper and offers his resources to Obsidian North.

Lex describes Gemma Cooper as a renowned computer scientist with excellent taste in wine, horses, and business opportunities.

Kara refers to J'onn and Malefics feud in the early part of Season 5.

Alex catches Brainiac-5 logged into her account. He lies and says he was trying to save her from being caught by Lex.

Alex suspects that Brainiac-5 has some kind of secret plan he's hiding from the rest of the team.

Gemma Cooper tells Andrea Rojas to accept Lena's offer, despite her misgivings over working with her.

The DEO now has Lexo-Suits. For some reason, Alex was unaware of this.

Winn frees the Toyman AI to help him fight his doppelganger. To Winn's surprise, he is true to his word, and doesn't try to escape the computer himself.

The Toyman AI says he is proud of Winn, having read about what he's done as a hero in the DEO files.

Winn deletes both Toyman AIs.

Lex is able to hack the security measures on Lena's private lab.

Lena admits that she's responsible for hacking Obsidian Tech Platinum and introducing the glitch to the Bio-Link.

Lex tells Lena about how he manipulated Andrea by making contact with Gemma Cooper.

Gemma knows Lex manipulated her but she is also manipulating the Luthors to be right where she wants them.

Gemma tells Margot (the old lady agent last seen in 508) to report to The Ancient One leading Leviathan that the Luthors are right where they want them.

Alex quits the DEO,saying that she can't fake being nice to Lex Luthor with his micromanaging her every move any more.

It is unclear how Alex is going to make ends meet, but J'onn offers to let her help him run The Tower in the meantime.

On her way out of the DEO, Alex takes as much Kryptonite as she can, including the Lexosuits. J'onn says he can dispose of it by shooting it into the sun.

Alex suggests Brainiac-5 quit the DEO, but he says that the same logic that dictates she leave before blowing their cover also says he must stay so they have eyes and ears on Les's scheming.

Winn decides to adopt the Toyman name, intending to build his own legacy around it in the 31st Century.

Winn tells Kara things will get better with Lena, while not giving her the details of how things go in the future.

Winn also suggests that Kara give a date with William Dey a chance, saying that she doesn't need to start the relationship by basing it on a lie.

William gives Kara a puzzle for her sick grandmother.

Kara turns William down for the date, saying she doesn't feel that way about him. In truth, she couldn't bear to start off with a lie involving her grandmother coloring their first date after everything that went wrong because of her lying to Lena.

Brainiac-5 gives the Toyman AI code to Lex.

Lex makes Brainiac-5 Director of the DEO.

Mr. Mxyzptlk, last seen in 213, makes an appearance at the end of the episode.


The Fridge Factor

Alex really doesn't come off well in this episode. Even if she did have her memories messed up by Crisis, it seems really out of character for her not to have made herself aware of what DEO policies changed as a result of Lex taking over.


The Bottom Line

A definite step-down from Part One, made tolerable only because of Jeremy Jordan's charm and Jon Cryer's smarm. You can tell from the CGI that the budget for this season definitely went toward Crisis and Alex's spotty memory indicates there was no discussion between the various show-runners as to what the rules regarding various aspects of the Arrowverse should be. It would be a decent filler episode, but all the major world-changing elements that get unveiled (i.e. Alex quitting the DEO, there being Kryptonite on Earth again) seem like an afterthought relative to the rest of the episode.