Kara: "I cannot take the first step in a relationship because it is doomed with deception."
A fractured episode, with only a few good moments, but with a hint of something more at the end.
The episode opens in a bar, where most of our heroes are enjoying some time together. Noticeably absent is Brainy, a signal that he is excluding himself from current get-togethers. Then William Dey joins our heroes, and we have surprise karaoke duet with Kara and William. Toto’s “Africa” is one of my favorite songs, so I was a sucker for this and I thought they sang well together; it was good to hear Melissa Benoist using her talents! William Dey does ask her out, but then she is interrupted by an emergency at the DEO. She uses a lie given to her by Our Winn.
After that the episode follows many threads with many scenes. It’s hard to know where to start, so I hope you’ll forgive my remarks being out of order.
The threat at the DEO is from Toyman Winn, a Winn from another universe, who has entered the DEO’s computer system and who is trying to get out into the world wide web – where he would be essentially a god. Our heroes’ goal is to prevent that, but in the meantime Toyman Winn is using the power he has to attack them with whatever he can. This means they get attacked by Lexo suits with kryptonite, lasers and flying monkeys and a couple of A.I.s in the DEO system. This makes for a battle on many fronts, and the episode’s editors cut between many scenes. Some of it’s fun – especially when Brainy sets up a maneuver to draw the fire, letting Kara and Alex manage to get in lethal blows.
Alex has put spyware into the system to spy on Lex, but Brainy removes it. Alex figures out that Brainy must be behind its deletion, and in one of the best scenes of the episode, he lies to her, telling her that he removed it to keep her safe (the lie is partly true, which is why it is so convincing). Alex decides, near the end of the episode, that she can no longer work at the DEO as it means working for Lex Luthor, so she quits. This gives us two consequences for future episodes: Alex will be working more with J’onn J’onzz, so I hope we will see more of him. And Brainy has now been made the DEO director! Brainy is currently our most tortured soul, so that could be fun.
Father Toyman showed up again as well, although stuck most of the time in a backup drive. And had a nice arc, ending up helping Our Winn. However, the problem with this episode is that so much of the story has been taken up by Our Winn, who is really future Winn, and so no longer truly a part of the show. Devoting so much time to this character leaves our more core characters out in the cold. Brainy is the core hero who’s getting the most attention, and the actor does a fine job, but Nia wasn’t even in this episode.
Jon Cryer keeps stealing the scenes he’s in; I guess that’s what a Lex Luthor does! He’s good with Lena and Brainy, but I especially liked his scene with Gemma Cooper, our very attractive Leviathan played by Cara Buono. Both Leviathan and Lex Luthor seem certain, at the end, that they are well positioned to take on each other, which is OK. We also have learned, during the episode, that Lex Luthor wants to become an immortal AI, using Winn Toyman’s code to do it, and sends Brainy to fetch it.
The most interesting bit happens at the end, when Kara is speaking with Alex about how she can’t have a relationship with anyone because she begins everything with deception. She still feels the pain of what happened between her and Lena. I’m glad they’re attacking this explicitly. Supergirl tries so hard to be good, and honesty is a part of what we accept as good. The fact that she has to lie every day is a big deal. Too bad that they don’t bring back James Olsen, who knew who she was from the beginning. I thought her chemistry with him was as good as any.
Title musings: “Back from the Future” is obviously a play on the phrase Back to the Future, the movie series starring Michael J. Fox. They even quote some of Doc Brown’s words.
Bits and pieces
All the lasers shooting at the DEO employees reminds me of a DS9 episode, “Civil Defense.”
It appears as if the same make-up artist was drawing eyebrows on Lena Luthor, Andrea Rojas, Alex Danvers and Gemma Cooper – and not especially well, either.
If you can absorb nutrients in virtual reality, that probably means you absorb calories, too. I think they're missing the point! It would be great to eat a pizza without having to worry about what it was going to do to the next morning’s visit to the bathroom scales.
Darn, next week, I’m going to have to type “Mxyzptlk” a lot.
Quotes
J’onn: Alex, I’m proud of you for staying to fight the good fight, but I do worry.
Toyman Winn: I am everything I used to be but now electronic and immortal.
Lex: Is there anything I can do?
Lena: I don’t need anyone murdered, Lex!
Lex: I have other skill sets!
Kara: I refuse to start any relationship on a lie.
Lex: Why be at each other’s throats when we could be joined at the hip?
Kara: Sometimes, people can surprise us.
Overall rating
Too scattered. Two out of four old-fashioned telephones.
Victoria Grossack loves birds, math, Greek mythology, Jane Austen and great storytelling in many forms.
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