Lois and Jimmy make a deal to save Clark.
Last time on My Adventures With
Superman, Clark went to space against his will. His cousin Kara kidnapped
him at to bring him to her father to ‘fix’ the brain that she claims life on
Earth broke. Kara uses a memory scanning device to show Clark life on Krypton
before the planets destruction to get him on board with reclaiming it. Clark
then shows her a memory of him playing catch with his parents. Neither of them
convinces each other of anything. After finding some of Kara’s treasures and
ribbing her for clearly having a crush on Jimmy, Clark convinces Kara to show
him one of the worlds of the “new” Kryptonian Empire, Thanagar. The cousins
bond over a space snowball fight on their way to Thangar, only to discover the
planet is in ruins and for Kara’s father to send guards to pick them up. Clark finally
meets Kara’s father, Primus Brainiac. The robotic emperor claims that he knew
Jor-El and that he once served on the Kryptonian Council, as well as served as
the AI for the entire race. He separates the cousins to test Clark’s skills.
Once in the hologram chamber Brainiac is immediately mask off evil, telling
Clark how the warriors he’ll fight are mind scanned clones that he has used to
train warriors before. Considering one is a Green Lantern that cries as he
fights Clark, the ethics of this is awful. Clark beats the three robots, the
other two being a Parademon and Thanagarian, and unleashes his super mode to do
it. Brainiac claims he’s going to reclaim the Kryptonian Empire with Clark as
his weapon. Clark refuses, but Brainiac uses a Red Sun Omega Field Generator to
strip him of his powers. Kara comes in and Brainiac uses some kind of mind
control on her to make her forget the last few days beyond a vague
understanding she brough Clark home. She’s able to snap out of it, though, and
visits all the worlds she told Clark were part of the Empire to find them
destroyed and remembers she’s the one that did it. As she sobs and asks Clark
what to do, Jimmy, Lois, the Brain and Monsieur Mallah arrive in a spaceship.
Enough recap. Let’s get to it.
The episode opens with on Earth.
After watching Superman get his ass kicked and kidnapped, Amanda Waller has
issued a state of emergency and instituted a lockdown on Metropolis. She uses
very clearly edited footage to claim that Superman was working with another
Alien invader to conquer Earth. She claims that the alien problem has a human
solution, the Human Defense Corps. Armed soldiers are marching in the streets
along with the heavy robots from last season. Waller claims that Superman will
return to Earth and when he does, they will be ready for him.
We cut to Jimmy and Lois watching
an interview General Waller is giving on a local talk show. While the host
points out that eyewitness accounts say that Superman was fighting Kara to
protect civilians, Waller pivots to saying that civilians wouldn’t need
protecting if Superman weren’t here. Waller says that everyone has ‘seen the
footage.’ The host points out that Waller seized all the footage shortly after
it was released, tries to show unedited footage their station obtained, but
Waller claims that as classified and ends the interview. The Host is arrested.
In the apartment, Jimmy is pacing, saying that he can’t believe Clark has been
kidnapped, that Waller is trying to destroy him, and Lois quietly adds that she
broke up with him. She rallies, though and says they find Clark and bring him
home with the Amazo Tech Jump Drive Ship. She plans on them stealing the ship
and then using it to go to Space. Jimmy points out that the two of them really
don’t have the skills for that, but Lois says they just need to hire someone
who does and shows a pic of Livewire. Jimmy is shocked at the suggestion, but
as Lois rightly points out, Livewire is a professional thief after all. With lightning powers. Jimmy still isn’t happy
about this, but Lois says she doesn’t have any other ideas and she needs
to make things right. So Jimmy agrees.
Lois had already used up all of her
favors with her various contacts and got Livewire’s last known address. She’s
living in a very nice apartment building in the downtown area, so it looks like
it’s not hard to dodge Taskforce X if you’ve got the cash. Lois calls Livewire
on the building’s intercom, and she’s not happy to see them. But doesn’t hang
up right away for some reason. Interestingly, Livewire is living with Heat
Wave, who asks if those two are who she thinks they are. Livewire confirms and
then asks what they want. Jimmy explains the plan and the two women start
laughing hysterically. Jimmy offers to pay them, and when Heat Wave still says
no, Jimmy folks over his last two million dollars for the cause. They let them
up.
Jimmy and Lois are impressed by the
set up of the apartment and tactfully ignore the stolen items inside. Livewire
and Heat Wave start fighting, Heat Wave saying that this is a bad idea but
Livewire insisting that they can retire after this. Yep, these two are an item.
Heat Wave says that Livewire doesn’t know when to walk away, but she does and
storms off. Livewire calls a meeting, and gives the two of them the rules,
basically that they need to do what she says when she says it, and everything
will turn out fine. Their first major hurdle is that they need people that know
their way around a spaceship, a tall order considering that Waller is locking
down every scientist in the city… but Jimmy knows some people. Enter Monsieur
Malla and the Brain. They explain to Lois that they spent about six months
traveling through alternate realities but came back after realizing most
realities have their own Mallah and the Brain and they don’t like to share.
There’s a funny minimalist cartoon bit where it shows our Mallah and the Brain
beating up another Malla and the Brain to steal Malla’s signature hat and
bandelier. They have brunch with Jimmy on weekends and are working on another
portal that doesn’t create a blackhole, which they finally get is a
design flaw. And Livewire reacts with the shock appropriate to seeing a talking
gorilla and floating brain in a robot entering her house. They get back to the
task at hand.
Livewire explains that due to the
curfew they need to work during daylight hours, and luckily for them that means
dealing with STAR Labs state of the art security system. When Lois asks why
that’s lucky, Livewire says that systems are only as good as the people behind
it. The plan breaks down like this, they steal a fingerprint from a guard that
likes to visit his grandma at her nursing home when off duty. They then slip in
during the guard change and use the fingerprint scan to get access to the
elevator. Once inside, the Brain will loop the cameras and Mallah will download
the blueprints and manifests needed to use the ship. The Brain also suggest
they could do some modifications to the ship while there, but everyone says no
to that. Livewire says that if anything goes wrong, they can switch to plan B,
which is basically go in guns blazing. There’s a funny shot of Lois, Livewire,
and the Brain brandishing guns while Mallah cheers them on and Heatwave lies at
Livewire’s feet like a Bond Girl that Jimmy shuts down immediately. He says
they do this peacefully or not at all. Livewire says that without superman they
may have to get their hands dirty, but Jimmy is firm on no killing. Livewire
says fine and goes to outfit everyone with some tech. While Mallah and Brain
distract her by being delightful nuisances, Jimmy points out that while Mallah
and Brain say they can find Clark, they must deal with Kara too. Which Lois has
thought ahead for and brought their Kryptonite shard. Jimmy grabs Lois and
pulls her into a closet to fight about this. Lois is pretty firmly on the ‘stop
Kara’ side but Jimmy insists it’s more complicated than that. Jimmy wants to
talk to her. Livewire finds them and says they need to move out. So long as no
surprises happen this should go smoothly.
We cut to STAR Labs where Waller
and Wilson arrive for a surprise inspection of Lex’s ne facility. They want an
update on something called Project M. Lex pulls them aside to give them the
tour. We see the team waiting for the shift change and they run into the next
major hurdle, the security guard is pulling a double shift and isn’t leaving.
Damn it. He hears them muttering and goes to check it out, but Jimmy jumps out
and says that he’s a new hire from Henshaw and his shift starts today. Jimmy
chats with the guard and uses some of the info they have on the guard to
ingratiate himself with the guard. Jimmy says he’ll take over his shift so that
the guard can go visit his grandma. They get the cameras looped outside the
control room they access, but Lex has increased security in other areas of STAR
Labs so Mallah and Brain have to work harder to get the other cameras looped.
They would have been spotted already if Lex wasn’t distracted by showing Waller
and Wilson Project M. Wilson asks if ‘operational soon” means ‘not operational
at all.’ Lex defends himself, saying that he’s backwards engineering an alien
substance into a power source and that is obviously hard. The cores are at 10%
power, so that’s something. Mallah is able to loop the cameras just before Waller
can see them… but she notices the original looped camera, the guard quickly
shifts from holding a donut to coffee in two frames, and shouts they have a
security breach. Waller sends Wilson to handle it.
The team heads to hanger 3 where
they’re holding the ship. Mallah also notices that STAR Labs has Europium, the
last component they need for their new portal machine. The mad scientists want
to make a detour, but Lois insists they focus on stealing one thing at a time.
Livewire watches the halls and is ready when several guards run in. She throws
up an electromagnetic barrier protect them, but the humans get separated from
Mallah and the Brain. They run into Wilson and his team, Livewire again using a
barrier to protect her clients. Wilson orders a lockdown. Back in the control
room, Luthor uses this as an excuse to power up Project M and show Waller. The
humans run toward a closing door, and Livewire shifts to a lightning form to
get out in time. Lois tells her to keep the door open, but Livewire says Heat
Wave was wrong, she does know when to walk away as it shuts. They almost get
cornered by Wilson but escape into the vents.
As Jimmy and Lois crawl through the
ducts, Lois blames Kara for everything and that when she gets her hands on Kara
she’ll make her wish she stayed in space. Jimmy goes to bat for Kara again,
saying it’s not that simple, and when Lois says Kara is the enemy and you
destroy enemies, he points out she’s talking like Sam Lane. She says nothing
like her dad, to which Jimmy agrees because she gave Clark a chance. He goes on
to say that the only difference between the Kryptonians is that Clark had them
and Kara had no one. He says Kara isn’t a lost cause and they keep going.
They reach the hanger, only to find
the Jump Ship is still under construction and is not flight ready. Lois is
heartbroken, saying that this was her only chance to make things right and she
doesn’t know why she broke up with Clark anyway. She admits she was scared that
he’d leave too and that if that was inevitable why not just cut to the chase.
She says she loves him, but is scared that he doesn’t love her back to the same
degree. Mallah says that’s beautiful and sad. He and the Brain got their rare
element and are working on getting the ship running. They just need a few
minutes to get a work around for a missing thruster and then they’re good to
go. It’s at this moment that Project M runs in, Metallo drones powered by
Kryptonite. Mallah delays them by dropping a security door but they start
shooting through. The team get onto the ship and the Brain and Mallah make
frantic adjustments to the ship. They get the engines up and running, though,
and start lift off. But the Metallos grab them and start pulling them back
down. They seem pretty screwed… until Livewire and Heat Wave show up to keep
the robots back. Over the radio Livewire explains that she didn’t actually
leave before, and this was part of her real plan. She and Heat Wave faked a
breakup so Heat Wave could get her old crew together. Then, while Waller was
distracted with stopping them from stealing the hip, Heat Wave and her crew
robbed the armory, got her Heat Wave suit back as well as everything else that
wasn’t nailed down, and were planning on letting Jimmy and Lois take the fall
for everything. But then Livewire heard Lois talk about how she messed up with
Superman and she’s too much of a romantic to ignore that. Livewire advises that
love is not for cowards, and you have to be brave to do things for it. Like rob
the woman that kidnapped you. Lois takes that to heart as they take off and the
villains make a getaway. I’ll just say… keep the Parasite Armor you stole away
from everyone, ladies.
Back at STAR Labs, Wilson mocks Lex
for his failure in stopping the robbery. Waller counters that and says that
this was a success. At only 10% power, they were able to stand up to alien
weapons and powers, so she authorizes Lex getting whatever resources he needs
to get the Metallos running. Wilson is ordered to clean up. As Lex walks away,
he throws back Wilson’s mocking words to Sam from earlier “Mommy doesn’t need
you anymore.”
In space, Lois thanks Jimmy for his
help, and she agrees to talk to Kara before punching her in the face with
Kryptonite. Jimmy says that he knows there’s more to Kara than they think, he
saw it when they got ice cream and all the other stuff. Lois is rightly shocked
to hear that Jimmy went on a date with the evil Kryptonian warrior, but then
the Brain announces the portal is ready. They jump through space, the ship
starts falling apart due to the shoddy repairs, only for them to stop right in
front of Kara.
I saw a reddit post that says that
this episode really should played the last two episodes in opposite order, and
I have to agree. Stopping in front of Kara would be a lot more dramatic if I
didn’t know she’s already aware of the evil she’s done via mind control and has
had the crisis of faith in the new Kryptonian Empire necessary to put her on
the path to becoming Supergirl. This was a solid heist episode, the initial
plan was so perfect that there was no way that it’d go down well, and the fact
the whole thing was a cover for Livewire’s crew to do another heist is kind of
brilliant. I’ve read a lot of people complain that the villains other than
Waller and Taskforce X have been pretty flat and one dimensional so far, but I
think this episode does a lot to flush out Livewire. For starters, she’s gay. Like,
I wouldn’t have necessarily guessed she was, but at the same time I’m not like…
shocked, ya know? The episode also highlights her tactical thinking and treachery
but does point out she’s not so heartless to screw Lois and Jimmy over
completely. I’m sure this robbery will also be used to explain why all the
ex-Taskforce X villains have their gear back next season. They only
specifically showed Parasite’s armor, but I have to imagine Intergang will pay
to get their stuff back as well. Jimmy and Lois’s debate on how to handle Kara
was good too. Risking talking in order to try to turn an enemy into an ally or
at the very least give them a chance to do better is a core theme of Superman
and I’m glad to see Jimmy has absorbed that. And seeing Lex work on mass
producing Metallo robots makes me feel ill. On the one hand, maybe most of them
will be destroyed repelling whatever invasion Brainiac mounts for the season
finale. On the other, Clark might just have to forever deal with armies of
Kryptonite powered robots running around. That sounds like a not fun time for
him. So Jimmy and Lois are in space and they’ve met Kara, so they’re like two
steps into save Clark. Two steps of like 75, and one of those steps involves
beating the supercomputer acting as Emperor of New Krypton, but that’s still
two down. Have a good night everyone.
Also, happy 800Th post
for me!
Patreon: https://www.patreon.com/posts/107212521
Twitter: @BasicsSuperhero
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