TWO Reviews: Young Justice Episodes 5 and 6
Two reviews today!
We start in El Paso, Texas, where Jaime lives!
He has a call from a friend, Tai, who says that he’s through letting “Maurice push him around” and that he’s leaving for Houston. The only reason he called was to say goodbye...
...but when Jaime says wait, let’s talk, I’ll meet you by the statue of Cochist, Tai says no and hangs up…but he’s on his way there anyway when he’s grabbed! D:
Jaime misses him and when he’s told the bus to Houston has left already, he sighs and walks away.
XD at Dick’s rather sudden unease when he tells a team of Karen, Babs, Cassie, and M’gann why they’re all together on a mission.
Dick: “Bialya’s ruler, Queen Bee, is another story. Her ability to mess with the minds of men is legendary, which is why you’re an all-female team for this mission.”
Babs: “Oh really? And would you feel the need to justify an all-male squad sent on a mission?”
Dick: “…There’s…no right answer to that, is there. NIghtwing out.”
Babs (with a grin): “Queen Bee’s not the only one who knows how to mess with a man’s mind.” XD
*high-fives Cassie*
Jaime goes to meet Tai’s mother - and her boyfriend Maurice - during a free period.
Cassie doesn’t like being a lookout - she prefers being in on the action, even if it’s sneaking in. She’s pretty certain she could do what Babs did - use a grappling hook to get to a roof and then enter the building from the ventilator.
…but when she sees that Simon the Psychic is back, she slips in - quietly! - to warn the others. M’gann is the first one she sees - and M’gann tells her to warn Batgirl. “You did good, Cassie,” she says. ♥
…but then one of the guards there - a meta? - sees her shadow as she flies off to warn Babs.
Icicle Junior! Whoa.
Jaime goes to talk to Tai’s grandfather, Holling Longshadow, who says that Tai is on a vision quest…and that Jaime is too, but that the answers will come to him.
Meanwhile, Karen finds her way into another ventilator system when the one she was using as an exit closes as part of the lockdown…and she nearly runs into Babs’ eye in the process!
♥ Bats and their gadgets and their scanning! Babs says all the ventilators are closed…
…except one leading down to a lower level.
She and Karen investigate…and find a secret temple in ruins below the base!
Karen: “Wow…can you say temple of Doom (♥)? This place must be thousands of years old!”
Babs slips off…and finds a group of kids in stasis containers! She starts to make her way out but is caught and put in one herself.
Icicle says runaways like the kids they’ve picked up are one thing, but a Bat is a bad idea.
Simon says Batman’s out of the picture…and if anyone else comes after Babs, then “Simon says…”
The meta that caught Cassie is called Devastation. She likes the way Simon’s mind works.
…I’m surprised Simon didn’t sense Karen buzzing above his shoulder, though.
…Maurice isn’t involved in trying to take over leadership of Tai’s tribe, like Holling had suggested. He was running a counterfeit CD/game racket instead! Jaime plans to take him in for that…but both he and Khaji-Da realize that Maurice is telling the truth about not knowing where Tai is.
M’gann: “Every mission has some unexpected twists. So we adapt and recover - that’s rule one.” ♥
Karen says she has a plan to rescue Babs!
Babs is qualified to fly a plane? Huh. And actually, Karen, I think it makes sense that the one without the flight power has that qualification - self-powered flight is the easier of the two, isn’t it, so when you can do the former why would you want to learn the latter unless you wanted to be *really* prepared?
Devastation: “Do you really think you stand a chance? I’ve been up against the real Wonder Woman.”
Cassie: “Yeah…but you’ve never trained with her.” ♥
Alpha Squad is almost home free…but then the plane’s wings are destroyed!
…and it’s too heavy for Cassie to support on her own, or even for M’gann…so she calls the Bioship in to help! “Good girl,” she says when Ship catches the cargo plane with its hook. (…okay so it’s not technically a hook but I can’t remember another word for it! It’s not a grapple, is it?)
Apparently Simon had planted a suggestion in the minds of his doctors and nurses to cover for him when he’d really been out for some months now.
The Bialyans were abducting runaways for some “partner”…and the incidents happened after the destruction of Malina Island. So who is the partner, Dick wonders.
Cassie: “More unanswered questions.”
Dick: “Questions keep the investigation moving forward. You helped each other and came home - that’s a successful mission in my book.” ♥
Queen Bee says there was another shipment ready for delivery to their “partner”…otherwise the whole thing would have been a disaster.
…and as the new shipment is brought out, we see that Tai is one of them! D:
General Thoughts:
Not a bad episode.
I loved the all-girl teamup and I loved seeing more of Babs, Cassie, and Karen in action. I loved seeing more of Cassie especially because she's sort of an unknown quantity at the moment; Babs and Karen we've seen a bit of already. This was sort of a "filler" episode in that it set a lot of things up...but it wasn't lacking in action either.
We also see more of Jaime Reyes, the Blue Beetle, out doing some solo work! He doesn't know that it'll connect back to his team's work, of course, but I liked seeing him operate and trying to deal with Khaji-Da, the scarab, particularly when it wanted to be violent in situations where that would not be appropriate.
Ooh. Interesting, since it could feature any of: Kaldur, Roy, the Crocks, the Allens/Wests, the Martians…
So we begin with a kid telling an old man that something he’s working on “only seats one”.
…wait. That hair…is that Bart Allen and Max Mercury?
At the Cave, Dick says the translations of Krolotean files that M’gann and J’onn pulled from Malina Island are done…and that the aliens were kidnapping humans looking for something that best translates as “metagene”. Dick says he doesn’t know what that means…but I’d say take a hint and divide the word (something he ought to be good at...)
… then all of a sudden there’s an unknown energy surge…and some sort of pod appears in the room!
YES! That *was* Bart earlier…and he adopts the name “Impulse” as given to him by Gar (“that explains our unexpected power impulse”), whose hero ID he knows. He also knows Dick’s and Tim’s hero IDs.
…and the episode is written by Peter David, too! :D
Bart manages to give Gar the slip, literally (Gar as a leopard makes the cutest faces XD) and gets the better of Tim, but doesn’t quite manage to pull that with Dick, who deftly stops and cuffs him. ♥
Dick: “Now *that* was crash.”
Bart: “For you maybe…I’m totally feeling the mode.” XD.
Meanwhile, Cheshire has taken Roy (and Lian!) to Tibet, where she says Speedy is at a monastery.
Roy: “I just don’t buy it, Chesh. It’s too easy. The good guys have been looking for the real Roy Harper for years, and you just…”
Jade: “*I* go to places the ‘good guys’ don’t…And stop calling him the ‘real’ Roy Harper. You may be his clone but I need you to be real. Our *daughter* needs you to be real.” ♥
I love that little smile on Roy’s face when he looks at Lian tucked in a pack that Jade’s carrying. ♥
Jade: “You can’t be the father Lian deserves until you get your ‘original Roy’ guilt out of your system…so let’s get it done.” ♥
At the Cave, “Impulse” says he’s Bart Allen, Barry Allen’s grandson (Gar’s response is “Noted. Not believed, but noted.”) and tourist from the future…
...and when Dick brings him a glass of water, recognizes it as a ‘get DNA to test’ thing…
...and reveals Tim and Dick’s secret IDs, much to their surprise.
Gar's also surprised, though…particularly to find that Nightwing is called Dick. (Ha ha…?)
Bart: “Oops, spoilers. This secret identity thing is so retro.” XD.
Gar wants his own reality series? Oh Gar. D: . I mean I know comics-Gar had a TV show, but it wasn’t a reality one…
And as a doorway opens for Mal to enter, Bart vibrates out of his cuffs and takes off. Gar follows in peregrine falcon form. Tim says he won’t catch up. Dick agrees, saying Bart’s too fast...which is why he put a tracer on him - through the water! “Nice” says Tim. I agree! :D
He’s making a beeline for Central City, apparently. So Dick calls someone - but who? Wally?
And in Central City, Barry and Iris are celebrating Jay and Joan’s 70th anniversary. ♥
...and Barry’s just taking a call from Dick, warning him about Bart, when all of a sudden he bursts in.
Barry’s stunned to hear that he has a grandson. “Heck, I don’t even have a…” he begins…
…and that’s when a rather sheepish Iris says she’s pregnant - something she found out that morning and was going to tell Barry *in private* later.
Then Bart says something that rather startles Barry and Iris.
Barry (startled): “There are two in there?”
Iris: “We’re having twins?”
Bart: “Oops, spoilers.” XD
And then Wally arrives! He’s Bart’s first cousin once removed. “The key word being ‘removed’” Wally says, getting himself out of Bart’s enthusiastic hug. XD.
…and then Iris’ boss from GWB calls and says downtown is being evacuated…because there’s a new villain down there out for Barry’s - the Flash’s - blood.
LOL. I love how Barry starts explaining the villain’s physics before realizing Bart shouldn’t be there. XD.
Whoa. The villain, Neutron, is being controlled by other villains! Kroloteans? I wonder.
How did that sentry not see the zip-line-setting-up arrow?
Roy and Jade manage to get in and subdue two guards…
…but then Lian cries out - and the noise in the empty monastery is better than any alarm. Roy and Jade are quickly surrounded by what look like ninjas, carrying spears. XD.
Roy (sighing): “I told you we should have left her with your sister.” XD. (or her mother! At any rate.)
Barry and Bart can communicate faster than an ordinary human - and even Wally - can hear! Whoa.
Whoa again! Bart’s “mode” and (I’m assuming?) “crash” aren’t just Carrie-Kelley-style slang…it’s something really real and apparently “mode” is dangerous (…and now that I think about it, didn’t Bart look away when Gar asked about it? Like he didn’t want to talk about it?)
Wally (looking at Barry): “Go ahead, lap me, I’m used to it.” *Bart whizzes by* “Oh come on!” XD.
When Neutron’s stopped, Bart’s eyes set and he’s about to go forward…but Barry stops him.
…I think Bart knows Neutron! He didn’t call out his villain name, did he? AFAIK we didn’t hear him…
The aliens - not Kroloteans, I think, unless they’re in robotic human form - see that they’ve lost control of Neutron with the first explosion. They say “crash the mode”, blow up their machinery, and leave.
Barry says he’ll take Neutron into the desert before he explodes again, this time more explosively than the rather damage-causing first time. D: oh Barry don’t end up dying! D: … … …
…and he doesn’t! :D Bart comes to join him, but…knocks him out of the way or something(?) as Neutron *does* explode again.
And guess who pulls them to safety? Wally…and Jay, in his original Flash costume! :D
Bart uses their talk as cover to get to Neutron, who’s rebuilding his body again…and place something on him that neutralizes the walking radioactive bomb effect. Wally reads his body heat as back as “normal human”. The poor man, meanwhile, doesn’t even know (or is that remember?) who Neutron is.
XD ♥ ♥ ♥ ♥ Jade and Roy fight off the hallway full of ninjas! Lian laughs.
Roy: “Should I be concerned about the obvious delight our daughter takes in the ultra violence?”
Jade: “It’s genetic.”
Roy: “Great.” XD.
And when they find their way into the closely-guarded room, they find a cryogenic chamber…
...and when Jade opens it, “original Roy” - sans part of one arm - falls out of it into our Roy’s arms!
Has Original Roy aged since we last saw him? Hmm. I wonder.
Back at the Cave, Dick says Bart is who he says he is and that his pod gave off the kind of energy needed - theoretically, as Wally points out - for time travel.
Bart gets ready to leave and gets into the time machine…but then can’t work it! He’s stuck in the YJ-verse’s time! Okaaaay…
…except that was *exactly* what was meant to happen!
Forty years in the future to the date, in what looks like nuclear winter conditions, Bart tells the old man - who turns out to be Neutron, or “Nathaniel”! - that he understood the trip to the past was one-way.
They both hoped that by curing him in the past, and saving Barry’s life, they could change the future.
…except the only thing that changes is Nathaniel’s condition! He’s horrified - the plan was that the timestream would change enough that the “mode” would all be “crashed” and that everything’d be fine again. D: oh-oh…
General Thoughts:
Very good! A great mix of family moments, individual character moments, and setting up the Greater Plotline.
I liked the focus on two different hero families, the long-established Flashes and a particular just-starting-out branch of the Arrows.
This episode showed a sense of legacy in the superhero 'business' that was really great to see. It showed how in this world, you don't have to wear a super-suit full-time any more to be able to operate as one when required to.
It also provides a look at what the 'Invasion' promised this season could mean for planet Earth...
We start in El Paso, Texas, where Jaime lives!
He has a call from a friend, Tai, who says that he’s through letting “Maurice push him around” and that he’s leaving for Houston. The only reason he called was to say goodbye...
...but when Jaime says wait, let’s talk, I’ll meet you by the statue of Cochist, Tai says no and hangs up…but he’s on his way there anyway when he’s grabbed! D:
Jaime misses him and when he’s told the bus to Houston has left already, he sighs and walks away.
XD at Dick’s rather sudden unease when he tells a team of Karen, Babs, Cassie, and M’gann why they’re all together on a mission.
Dick: “Bialya’s ruler, Queen Bee, is another story. Her ability to mess with the minds of men is legendary, which is why you’re an all-female team for this mission.”
Babs: “Oh really? And would you feel the need to justify an all-male squad sent on a mission?”
Dick: “…There’s…no right answer to that, is there. NIghtwing out.”
Babs (with a grin): “Queen Bee’s not the only one who knows how to mess with a man’s mind.” XD
*high-fives Cassie*
Jaime goes to meet Tai’s mother - and her boyfriend Maurice - during a free period.
Cassie doesn’t like being a lookout - she prefers being in on the action, even if it’s sneaking in. She’s pretty certain she could do what Babs did - use a grappling hook to get to a roof and then enter the building from the ventilator.
…but when she sees that Simon the Psychic is back, she slips in - quietly! - to warn the others. M’gann is the first one she sees - and M’gann tells her to warn Batgirl. “You did good, Cassie,” she says. ♥
…but then one of the guards there - a meta? - sees her shadow as she flies off to warn Babs.
Icicle Junior! Whoa.
Jaime goes to talk to Tai’s grandfather, Holling Longshadow, who says that Tai is on a vision quest…and that Jaime is too, but that the answers will come to him.
Meanwhile, Karen finds her way into another ventilator system when the one she was using as an exit closes as part of the lockdown…and she nearly runs into Babs’ eye in the process!
♥ Bats and their gadgets and their scanning! Babs says all the ventilators are closed…
…except one leading down to a lower level.
She and Karen investigate…and find a secret temple in ruins below the base!
Karen: “Wow…can you say temple of Doom (♥)? This place must be thousands of years old!”
Babs slips off…and finds a group of kids in stasis containers! She starts to make her way out but is caught and put in one herself.
Icicle says runaways like the kids they’ve picked up are one thing, but a Bat is a bad idea.
Simon says Batman’s out of the picture…and if anyone else comes after Babs, then “Simon says…”
The meta that caught Cassie is called Devastation. She likes the way Simon’s mind works.
…I’m surprised Simon didn’t sense Karen buzzing above his shoulder, though.
…Maurice isn’t involved in trying to take over leadership of Tai’s tribe, like Holling had suggested. He was running a counterfeit CD/game racket instead! Jaime plans to take him in for that…but both he and Khaji-Da realize that Maurice is telling the truth about not knowing where Tai is.
M’gann: “Every mission has some unexpected twists. So we adapt and recover - that’s rule one.” ♥
Karen says she has a plan to rescue Babs!
Babs is qualified to fly a plane? Huh. And actually, Karen, I think it makes sense that the one without the flight power has that qualification - self-powered flight is the easier of the two, isn’t it, so when you can do the former why would you want to learn the latter unless you wanted to be *really* prepared?
Devastation: “Do you really think you stand a chance? I’ve been up against the real Wonder Woman.”
Cassie: “Yeah…but you’ve never trained with her.” ♥
Alpha Squad is almost home free…but then the plane’s wings are destroyed!
…and it’s too heavy for Cassie to support on her own, or even for M’gann…so she calls the Bioship in to help! “Good girl,” she says when Ship catches the cargo plane with its hook. (…okay so it’s not technically a hook but I can’t remember another word for it! It’s not a grapple, is it?)
Apparently Simon had planted a suggestion in the minds of his doctors and nurses to cover for him when he’d really been out for some months now.
The Bialyans were abducting runaways for some “partner”…and the incidents happened after the destruction of Malina Island. So who is the partner, Dick wonders.
Cassie: “More unanswered questions.”
Dick: “Questions keep the investigation moving forward. You helped each other and came home - that’s a successful mission in my book.” ♥
Queen Bee says there was another shipment ready for delivery to their “partner”…otherwise the whole thing would have been a disaster.
…and as the new shipment is brought out, we see that Tai is one of them! D:
General Thoughts:
Not a bad episode.
I loved the all-girl teamup and I loved seeing more of Babs, Cassie, and Karen in action. I loved seeing more of Cassie especially because she's sort of an unknown quantity at the moment; Babs and Karen we've seen a bit of already. This was sort of a "filler" episode in that it set a lot of things up...but it wasn't lacking in action either.
We also see more of Jaime Reyes, the Blue Beetle, out doing some solo work! He doesn't know that it'll connect back to his team's work, of course, but I liked seeing him operate and trying to deal with Khaji-Da, the scarab, particularly when it wanted to be violent in situations where that would not be appropriate.
Ooh. Interesting, since it could feature any of: Kaldur, Roy, the Crocks, the Allens/Wests, the Martians…
So we begin with a kid telling an old man that something he’s working on “only seats one”.
…wait. That hair…is that Bart Allen and Max Mercury?
At the Cave, Dick says the translations of Krolotean files that M’gann and J’onn pulled from Malina Island are done…and that the aliens were kidnapping humans looking for something that best translates as “metagene”. Dick says he doesn’t know what that means…but I’d say take a hint and divide the word (something he ought to be good at...)
… then all of a sudden there’s an unknown energy surge…and some sort of pod appears in the room!
YES! That *was* Bart earlier…and he adopts the name “Impulse” as given to him by Gar (“that explains our unexpected power impulse”), whose hero ID he knows. He also knows Dick’s and Tim’s hero IDs.
…and the episode is written by Peter David, too! :D
Bart manages to give Gar the slip, literally (Gar as a leopard makes the cutest faces XD) and gets the better of Tim, but doesn’t quite manage to pull that with Dick, who deftly stops and cuffs him. ♥
Dick: “Now *that* was crash.”
Bart: “For you maybe…I’m totally feeling the mode.” XD.
Meanwhile, Cheshire has taken Roy (and Lian!) to Tibet, where she says Speedy is at a monastery.
Roy: “I just don’t buy it, Chesh. It’s too easy. The good guys have been looking for the real Roy Harper for years, and you just…”
Jade: “*I* go to places the ‘good guys’ don’t…And stop calling him the ‘real’ Roy Harper. You may be his clone but I need you to be real. Our *daughter* needs you to be real.” ♥
I love that little smile on Roy’s face when he looks at Lian tucked in a pack that Jade’s carrying. ♥
Jade: “You can’t be the father Lian deserves until you get your ‘original Roy’ guilt out of your system…so let’s get it done.” ♥
At the Cave, “Impulse” says he’s Bart Allen, Barry Allen’s grandson (Gar’s response is “Noted. Not believed, but noted.”) and tourist from the future…
...and when Dick brings him a glass of water, recognizes it as a ‘get DNA to test’ thing…
...and reveals Tim and Dick’s secret IDs, much to their surprise.
Gar's also surprised, though…particularly to find that Nightwing is called Dick. (Ha ha…?)
Bart: “Oops, spoilers. This secret identity thing is so retro.” XD.
Gar wants his own reality series? Oh Gar. D: . I mean I know comics-Gar had a TV show, but it wasn’t a reality one…
And as a doorway opens for Mal to enter, Bart vibrates out of his cuffs and takes off. Gar follows in peregrine falcon form. Tim says he won’t catch up. Dick agrees, saying Bart’s too fast...which is why he put a tracer on him - through the water! “Nice” says Tim. I agree! :D
He’s making a beeline for Central City, apparently. So Dick calls someone - but who? Wally?
And in Central City, Barry and Iris are celebrating Jay and Joan’s 70th anniversary. ♥
...and Barry’s just taking a call from Dick, warning him about Bart, when all of a sudden he bursts in.
Barry’s stunned to hear that he has a grandson. “Heck, I don’t even have a…” he begins…
…and that’s when a rather sheepish Iris says she’s pregnant - something she found out that morning and was going to tell Barry *in private* later.
Then Bart says something that rather startles Barry and Iris.
Barry (startled): “There are two in there?”
Iris: “We’re having twins?”
Bart: “Oops, spoilers.” XD
And then Wally arrives! He’s Bart’s first cousin once removed. “The key word being ‘removed’” Wally says, getting himself out of Bart’s enthusiastic hug. XD.
…and then Iris’ boss from GWB calls and says downtown is being evacuated…because there’s a new villain down there out for Barry’s - the Flash’s - blood.
LOL. I love how Barry starts explaining the villain’s physics before realizing Bart shouldn’t be there. XD.
Whoa. The villain, Neutron, is being controlled by other villains! Kroloteans? I wonder.
How did that sentry not see the zip-line-setting-up arrow?
Roy and Jade manage to get in and subdue two guards…
…but then Lian cries out - and the noise in the empty monastery is better than any alarm. Roy and Jade are quickly surrounded by what look like ninjas, carrying spears. XD.
Roy (sighing): “I told you we should have left her with your sister.” XD. (or her mother! At any rate.)
Barry and Bart can communicate faster than an ordinary human - and even Wally - can hear! Whoa.
Whoa again! Bart’s “mode” and (I’m assuming?) “crash” aren’t just Carrie-Kelley-style slang…it’s something really real and apparently “mode” is dangerous (…and now that I think about it, didn’t Bart look away when Gar asked about it? Like he didn’t want to talk about it?)
Wally (looking at Barry): “Go ahead, lap me, I’m used to it.” *Bart whizzes by* “Oh come on!” XD.
When Neutron’s stopped, Bart’s eyes set and he’s about to go forward…but Barry stops him.
…I think Bart knows Neutron! He didn’t call out his villain name, did he? AFAIK we didn’t hear him…
The aliens - not Kroloteans, I think, unless they’re in robotic human form - see that they’ve lost control of Neutron with the first explosion. They say “crash the mode”, blow up their machinery, and leave.
Barry says he’ll take Neutron into the desert before he explodes again, this time more explosively than the rather damage-causing first time. D: oh Barry don’t end up dying! D: … … …
…and he doesn’t! :D Bart comes to join him, but…knocks him out of the way or something(?) as Neutron *does* explode again.
And guess who pulls them to safety? Wally…and Jay, in his original Flash costume! :D
Bart uses their talk as cover to get to Neutron, who’s rebuilding his body again…and place something on him that neutralizes the walking radioactive bomb effect. Wally reads his body heat as back as “normal human”. The poor man, meanwhile, doesn’t even know (or is that remember?) who Neutron is.
XD ♥ ♥ ♥ ♥ Jade and Roy fight off the hallway full of ninjas! Lian laughs.
Roy: “Should I be concerned about the obvious delight our daughter takes in the ultra violence?”
Jade: “It’s genetic.”
Roy: “Great.” XD.
And when they find their way into the closely-guarded room, they find a cryogenic chamber…
...and when Jade opens it, “original Roy” - sans part of one arm - falls out of it into our Roy’s arms!
Has Original Roy aged since we last saw him? Hmm. I wonder.
Back at the Cave, Dick says Bart is who he says he is and that his pod gave off the kind of energy needed - theoretically, as Wally points out - for time travel.
Bart gets ready to leave and gets into the time machine…but then can’t work it! He’s stuck in the YJ-verse’s time! Okaaaay…
…except that was *exactly* what was meant to happen!
Forty years in the future to the date, in what looks like nuclear winter conditions, Bart tells the old man - who turns out to be Neutron, or “Nathaniel”! - that he understood the trip to the past was one-way.
They both hoped that by curing him in the past, and saving Barry’s life, they could change the future.
…except the only thing that changes is Nathaniel’s condition! He’s horrified - the plan was that the timestream would change enough that the “mode” would all be “crashed” and that everything’d be fine again. D: oh-oh…
General Thoughts:
Very good! A great mix of family moments, individual character moments, and setting up the Greater Plotline.
I liked the focus on two different hero families, the long-established Flashes and a particular just-starting-out branch of the Arrows.
This episode showed a sense of legacy in the superhero 'business' that was really great to see. It showed how in this world, you don't have to wear a super-suit full-time any more to be able to operate as one when required to.
It also provides a look at what the 'Invasion' promised this season could mean for planet Earth...