Chicago Redshirt

I suppose I might be in the minority here, but I hope this Steel turns at best an antihero who grudgingly teams up with Clark to fight Morgan Edge and Co. I think a heel-face turn would be unrealistic given that he has every reason to believe that Supes can and will turn evil at some point. At least hypothetically, a good John Henry Irons from another planet could have also survived Crisis and gotten to Earth Prime. Lois knows pretty much nothing about JHI beyond: he knows a lot about XK, he had enough high-tech tools to help them escape a powered person, he lied to her about his true identity, and he claims to be on a mission to save the world. We don't know one way if JHI's Natalie has made it from their pre-Crisis world to this one, and technically an Earth Prime version of Natalie that looks like the Natalie we saw in this episode should not exist in the same way because Lois and JHI did not have a child two decades ago.

It would have been way better to make it so they were super Kryptonian ear protectors that were whipped up to look like normal noise-cancelling headphones. And if they explicitly said something about the internal sounds. It would have been better if the RV was lead-lined. As to the warehouse, Clark was trusting that the enemy of his enemy is his friend. It's easy to say knowing that Steel is a villain (for now) that Clark should have been more paranoid. But with the information that Clark had, he had every reason to think that Steel was on the level or even if not, Clark could easily deal with or escape from him. It really is not that huge a leap that Lois Lane, investigative reporter and woman he presumably thinks he knows really well because he was with her doppelganger for what looks to be around two decades based on Natasha's age, would need a major development to tear her away from investigating the mysterious story he presented. Yes, technically, she could have gone for any number of lesser things even, but it is a reasonable assumption based on what Steel knows that one of the few things that would cause her to suddenly bolt was a development with the mines. Other posters have said that Lois seemed to have recognized the name John Henry Irons. So she may know more about this world's John Henry Irons than the audience does to help her reach the conclusion that he is the Stranger. But even assuming that this is the first time she had heard the name, she knows: 1. the Stranger is from another world. 2. John Henry Irons is believed dead. 3. The multiverse had been a thing where people who are dead in this world could have doppelgangers who are alive in other worlds. It is a reasonable hypothesis that Steel is one such doppelganger. There are of course other possibilities -- the military was simply wrong about the prime universe's John Henry Irons dying, or that John Henry Irons was somehow brought back to life through any of the many ways to resurrect people in the Arrowverse, or that we are dealing with a shapeshifter/clone. But Irons being a guy from another universe is as good a hypothesis as any. Add in a few more facts known to Lois: 4. The Stranger has access to levels of technology allowing him to face off with and escape Superman. 5. The person who seems to be John Henry Irons has used technology to enable him and Lois to escape superpowered Leslie 6. The Stranger and the person she met both know things that are not common knowledge (Clark's Kryptonian name for the Stranger, the existence and relevance of XK for JHI). I was under the assumption that time was of the essence to confront Evil Supes, and there's something of the notion that cutting the head of the snake would potentially limit the threat. I think we saw Edge seeing Lana and friend together. Edge has enough reason to hang out in Smallville: he wants to oversee the mining and shipping of XK and to create more quasi-Kryptonians and he wants to win a charm offensive with Smallville residents to ensure he can continue to mine XK unbothered. I assume most people in the town are on a watered-down version of Kyle's love for Morgan Edge and his potential revitalization of the town that they are flattered that Edge is personally staying in town and doing whatever, rather than leaving it to whatever subordinates. I am operating under the assumption that Larr got elevated because she got powers that ended up being stable Clark puts too much faith in the DOD in general, and in particular after he just got hit with kryptonite darts. I would have packed up the RV and everything in the warehouse to the Fortress and analyze it privately. It's possible through whatever post-Crisis excuse led to Steel ending up on Earth Prime that his Natasha has also ended up on Earth Prime.

I have to say that of all the Arrowverse shows, BL was the one where I skipped the most episodes. (About half of S3 and at least a couple episodes this season.) It's also the one I'm probably least likely to rewatch down the road. I could see at some point going back to the first season or two of Arrow, Flash, Supergirl, or about S2-3 of Legends (S1 was pretty weak), although I don't feel a rush to do any of them in an era where we are spoiled for choice just on superhero/genre shows alone. I think that the premise just would have been better for a two-hour movie than a four season series. There really wasn't a good Watsonian reason why Jefferson didn't avenge his father's death decades ago, let alone when he came back as Black Lightning. Jefferson was an eyewitness to his father's murder, and as far as I recall, there was nothing stopping him from testifying to what he saw. There was nothing, once he came into his powers, using them directly to capture Tobias. There was nothing stopping him from revealing Tobias's evil deeds during his current incarnation, especially when they had so much direct evidence of all the messed up stuff he did, and they could always get more (when you consider they have Gambi and now TC on their side). But the writers were just too in love with their creation and let him continue to exist and not freaking lose, pretty much ever. Or at least, almost never really let Jefferson win. Until now. So when it came to the finale itself, I guess it mostly lived up to its name. Each character got a measure of closure and for the good guys, they were left in a good place. Jeff finally avenges his father's death. But I think the show downplayed this enormous moment both for him and for the city of Freeland. There was a hint that Looker was going to out Tobias as the slimeball he is and bring back Jeff and Lynn's good names. But in the meantime, Tobias is the mayor, and he's dead after BL was possibly seen flying to his office. Fair enough Jeff may not have to answer to that from the law. But what about from himself? Or his family, given all the lectures about how there's no killing? Jeff and Lynn finally are getting remarried. And Jeff is re-retiring. Isn't there more work to be done to save the soul of Freeland? It seems like forever ago when Jeff was a teacher/principal. What is it about Arrowverse shows squandering the potential of their heroes' day jobs for the most part? Khalil is free of the kill order. It felt like he got about as much screen time as BL. Which is messed up. I wish I liked the twist that the real Jen was captured in an energy field till now. I don't begrudge them bringing the actress back for the finale, though I am curious as to the behind the scenes reasons for her departure. I want to be a good ally to LGBTQ+ folk, but I feel like Anissa/Grace has been largely chemistry free. Part of me hopes that Thunder or Lightning get to do a run on Legends. I didn't particularly need to see Lala again, but if we had to, why didn't they put him before the scene with the Pierces so we could have ended on a sweet note? I mean, they knew it was the final episode, right? Lala showing up again would have been more fitting if there were a possible S5 where he was the big bad. Gambi got a decent sendoff. They must have had the scene talking to young Jeff about a code as a nod to the actor's role as Dexter's dad who set him up to be a serial killer for justice, only BL is sort of the opposite. Where'd his girlfriend go? Anyways, despite all the ups and downs (mostly downs), I appreciate a lot of what the show was trying to do. Rest in power, Black Lightning.

First of all, Kyle is not exactly a reliable narrator on this point. It is surprising that he can still talk while kissing Morgan's ass 24-7.. But accepting for discussion's sake that Kyle is telling the truth that Smallville as a whole is hurting nd will die without the great and powerful Morgan Edge, this does not mean that a) there are not people who are well to do within the town who might get together to allow their football team to have this indulgence or b) that even the people of the town can't really afford it and it would be more sensible to spend their money elsewhere, they have made the choice to do something nice for the kids and/or to try to put a brave face on when confronted with their financial problems. In the big scheme of things, I wouldn't even say it's that much money. Let's say for discussion's sake, there are 50 players on Smallville High's team. You would probably then want somewhere on the order of 15-20 rooms, including coaches and chaperones. Let's say the hotel rate is $150/night/room. So we would be looking at about $3000 for the hotel stay, Maybe an extra couple of hundred to pay for the bus driver working two days (as opposed to overtime on one) and to reimburse for some expenses. Indeed, Morgan Edge himself could find that kind of money in the seats of his limo if it were needed and he wanted to continue on his campaign to win the hearts and minds of Smallville. So for me, the notion that the trip was an unaffordable indulgence for struggling Smallville is not much of a concern. As to "stick," one football slang for the word is "a hit" or "to make a good tackle." It's possible that the writers meant it that way, but that of course would raise other questions.. I think it would be unlikely that a grade school would be playing football,, although there's Pee Wee football. I also think it would be unlikely that any football would be tackle, or if it was touch/flag that Cutter would talk about it being a "stick." And of course, it that loner Jordan would be playing football even if it was. All this is probably WAY overthinking the notion that he was probably threatening to hit him in the game like he did off-the-field in grade school.

I generally agree with you, but... I know Chicago has had Chicago Vocational Career Academy and many of the suburbs here have high schools just named after them, so it's not as off-putting that there might be a "Metropolis High School" as the main public school there. Many years and pounds ago, I ran high school cross country at my private school here in Chicago. We annually did a road trip for a meet in Michigan for some reason that included an overnight stay. So the dynamics were of course different -- the meet was in the morning versus the evening, different sport, private vs. public, but it at least seems possible to me that Smallville High has boosters that make a big deal about showing the big city slickers what for and subsidizing the trip. Which I guess brings up a point the show glossed over: I wonder how the Crows attempted to square what happened with the supposed chaperones for the trip. "So we were heading to the liquor store, like we do, when suddenly these Metropolis kids started sassing Jordan, and Jordan decided to throw a punch at one of them, but somehow Jonathan got in the way and Jordan broke his arm." Doesn't seem like the that would go over well. Obviously underaged drinking is a thing, but Clark and Lois should have a talk with the kids about it. I'm guessing at least one of them have been drinking or trying to get drinks in at least half the episodes by now. The bonfire in the pilot, a house party they went to, Jonathan got trashed during the town festival thingamajig, and now this episode.

Not to get too political, but pretty much any American town or city is going to run the risk of having people be unduly suspicious or dismissive that a black professional is who he says he is. It's not uncommon for lack lawyers get presumed to be criminal defendants, executives to be thought of as secretaries, and the like. So it's not an unreasonable thing for "Marcus" to claim even assuming Smallville is as enlightened as the next town. I'm curious as to the in-universe reason why Luthor is trying to enlist Lois in being aware of what is going on in the mines. Is it just because he's missing his version of her? Because he knows that she and Kal-El are together and wants to put a wedge between them somehow? Because he thinks involving her is the best way to get to the truth? Does he have his own agenda with the XK? I think that his AI had said that he had run out of regular K to power his suit. Is XK a viable substitute? Or is he worried about the possibility of multiple quasi-Kryptonians popping up? Random speculation: Given Morgan Edge's talk about enough XK to resurrect an army of Kryptonians, is it possible that he is not the original recipe Morgan Edge but is somehow a Kryptonian himself or influenced by one? Possibly Zod?

The mines itself could have always been there, but the X-Kryptonite could have been a relatively new development. In other words, the mines were trying to excavate coal/copper/fill-in-the-blank, but either no one knew about the existence of X-K there (perhaps because they were focused on the known items they were digging for) or somehow the X-K only formed relatively recently (Crisis did it!).

My fanwanking - Tag's superspeed allows him to perceive while viewing the video that there was something emanating from Jordan just before the explosion. If it were obvious, other people would have picked up on it. Kyle's man-crush doesn't have to answer to your silly logic about qualifications! He deserves to be in the warmth of the sun that is Morgan Edge no matter how little he actually might have to contribute to the company. Surely, Mr. Edge could use a random guy who gets a big clock necklace and says stuff like, "Yo, you just got Edged, son!" and "Stop! Morgan time!" Three hours away, heck, even a subway ride away, could be too much to make some relationships worth it. We haven't really seen much about who Eliza is as a person, but I'm going with at best a fickle 14-year-old girl and more likely kind of a bitch. It seems super obnoxious to dump someone within a short period after their grandmother died and without giving the notion of a long-distance relationship much if any time. And if Cutter was not just trying to get in Jon's head, the notion that she started dating Cutter such a short period after the breakup doesn't speak well of her. I'm assuming this was just a regular game, and that there were a few ways that Sarah could have gotten to Metropolis. It makes sense that there would be boosters who would carpool to the big city for the game and she could have gotten a ride with some of them. It would not surprise me if the high school or at least some of the parents at the high school have messed up priorities and would indeed pour money that they didn't need to to let the kids stay in Metropolis for the weekend. IIRC, he has only been referred to as "Captain Luthor." It could be that he is that world's version of Lex Luthor, or it could be that he is a relative of that world's Luthor. The reason why Tag spoke to Sarah in the first place and took her to Metropolis are all Doylist in nature: because the writers wanted to put Sarah on the time-honored Lana Lang/Lois Lane path of suspecting that there's something unusual about Jordan. From a Watsonian perspective, it would make far more sense to take a second run at Jordan or a first at Jonathan or to snoop around the Kent farm at superspeed. The best in-universe explanation of why Tag took Sarah was a combination of wanting to make sure she was OK/guilt over what he did and wanting to continue to press her for answers about Jordan. If it was just a question of making sure she was safe, he could have just run her to Smallville General Hospital or whatever.

I also don't think that Luthor knows that Clark is Superman. He has referred to Superman as Kal-El, but has given no overt sign of noticing that Lois's husband is the guy he's trying to kill. It will be interesting once he makes the connection that the love of his life in this universe has fallen for an alien tyrant, if he hasn't already.

I think S&L employs the same geography as the show Smallville, namely that Metropolis is a big town in Kansas about three hours away from Smallville, rather than a New York proxy on the East Coast. In which case, it would make sense that they would be on the same football schedule. One thing that occurs to me: the twins are canonically freshmen and the move to Smallville seemingly happened early during their freshman year. So there probably wasn't much time for all the taunting and other problems to have taken place while they were at Metropolis. Sure, some of the kids may have gone to the same junior high as the twins and been douches then. But the notion of a longstanding torment doesn't make sense if they were in Metropolis High for like a month. The two reasons that come to mind: 1. They anticipated Superman was going to potentially interfere and they wanted to be prepared to deal with him. if that possibility arose. 2. The DOD knows some about X-K, and regular kryptonite affects people who have gotten powers through X-K similar to how it affects actual Kryptonians.

I would say Topher fits a different Whedon archetype of writer surrogate/funny guy, ala Xander, Wash, and Lorne.

It is pretty frustrating that the writers just don't seem to get football or remember continuity around it. The show clearly established that Jonathan was going to be the starting QB at Metropolis HS, and that it was a pretty good football program. Then moving to Smallville meant that he took a back seat to the reigning QB there and was even called QB2, or backup. That the coach apparently forgot that he had Jonathan as QB2 is pathetic, let alone the notion that a high school football program would not have a backup QB (not to mention most likely a third-string QB and an emergency backup to that person). It's only the most important position on the field. It's almost as pathetic as the coach not having tried to use Jonathan's knowledge of the Metropolis players and playbook to the Crows' advantage. It also bugs me more than it should that Jordan had been established as a defensive standout. Although the show called him a defensive back, the coach used him only as a pass rusher. But in this episode, he apparently was switched to offense for some reason, because coach told him that the Metropolis linebacker had been killing them and wanted Jordan to put a stop to it. The show gets so many things right. Like Clark's characterization as himself and Supes is pretty close to perfect. And I think in the few episodes so far, there has been far more success in creating the right amount of balance between showing him as a badass while presenting him with actual challenges in a way that neither Supergirl nor Flash have ever really demonstrated. In other areas: I am officially at the point where I am tired of Jonathan being the good son and getting crapped on. Give him his own powers, let him sulk for more than a scene about how he has gotten royally screwed. Have Jordan be the supportive brother for a change. I know that kids will be kids, but in this particular case, Jordan and Jonathan really should have listened to their dad and stayed out of sight since there was a superhuman who was potentially stalking them. Although in fairness, Supes should have stashed them in any of the million places that Tag would likely never have thought to look for them even with super-speed, instead of just leaving them at the hotel with the Smallville football team, the same team Tag was a part of and could easily learn what hotel they were at. I am tired of Kyle's raging man-crush on Morgan Edge, so I enjoyed that he got blown out thinking that Morgan was going to hire him to be his right hand guy and getting passed over for Lana. I put the over/under on how many episodes before Edge makes a pass on Lana at 3. I consider it a major super-parenting fail that everyone was like "it was a mistake" that Jordan crippled Jonathan. It's not like Jordan slipped on a banana peel and his fist ended up in Jonathan's palm while his chocolate ended up in Jordan's peanut butter. Jordan fully intended to punch Metropolis bully. He could have killed him or at least imposed serious damage if Jonathan didn't intervene. Despite the nice message about the importance of trust, Jordan broke his on multiple times and levels in this episode. He broke his promise about being able to control himself on the football field. He lied by omission about what he was experiencing so he could play the football game against his old classmates. He didn't listen to Clark's command to stay in the hotel room so he could pick up alcohol. And he lost control of his powers and emotions a second time by some basic trash-talk. Please, show, let Jordan suffer the consequences of his actions just once. Or let him stop his incessant whining at least once to realize that he doesn't have to live up to the abilities or the sheer goodness of being Superman, but that he can be a decent guy in his own right.

There have been at least a couple of conversations that Penance and Amalia have where even without the power of hindsight it seemed clear that Penance knew more than we did about Amalia's true origins. One off the top of my head, there was the situation where Penance talked about not wanting to guess the number of funerals that Amalia had been to, and Amalia said, none, because we don't do that when I'm from. Penance took that in stride, with the implication that she had already known that Amalia was from somewhen else and that she had experienced a boatload of death. There was also an exchange or two where Penance congratulated Amalia looking good in her skin, which signaled that Amalia was somehow in a different body. The scene in this episode confirms that she spilled the beans to Penance at sometime in the past. I am curious if she told Lavinia, and why she came to trust Penance enough to tell her.

Speaking of Farscape, I thought of Pilot when I saw the Galanthi. Maybe I just need my eyes checked, though, because I thought the future Indian woman was potentially Harriet, and I didn't immediately recognize Claudia. It's probably not a Joss Whedon original production if there's not at least one adorkable, twee person. Buffy had Willow, Angel had Fred, Firefly and Kaylee....I'm spacing out on Dollhouse, and it might be the exception, or it may be that since pretty much every one had multiple personalities imprinted on them, multiple people got shots at being the adorkable twee darling. I'm guessing it was Amy Acker's character (she was Fred in Angel) or November were the most likely to be twee.

I plan to go and rewatch the entire season thus far because there are so many details and some things may make sense now that we know what we know, and some may make less. But my memory is that we saw Lavinia with Augie when he was touched. The writers could do anything from having real!Amalia still be alive but submerged to Zephyr/Stripe. to the Galanthi being considerate enough to use a body without a consciousness but whoever else went to the past either not having that level of control or not having any qualms about subduing someone.

The Batsuit is bulletproof and she has been under automatic weapons fire before. (I think). She knows that it can withstand that. She can protect her head with her cape long enough to act. So yes, she could have fought the Crows. Or, she could have yelled that there was no need to gun the Snakebite Zombies down because she had an antidote sedative. But let's say for discussion's sake that she was right to do a tactical withdrawal because there were too many heavily armed Crows and the Crows wouldn't have listened to her if she told/asked them to stand down. Let's say for discussion's sake, there was nothing Ryan could do right in that moment. After the incident, she could seek justice. She could go after each of the Crows who was there one by one. And as far as we know she didn't and had no plans to until Luke got shot by one of them. To me, that's incredibly messed up. Again, I literally cannot imagine Bruce, Dick, Kate, pretty much any member of the Bat-family this side of Bat-Mite from the 60s doing absolutely nothing after witnessing cops gun down people in this fashion. To coin a phrase, when danger reared its ugly head, Batwoman bravely turned her tail and fled. It is an even more marked contrast to when Batwoman was willing to talk smack to the Crows about being white supremacists, but does absolutely nothing so far when she witnesses multiple mansslaughter.

I brain-froze and said Ryan when I should have said Sophie picked out the Crows. I've since changed it.

I think she presumably is going to be Ryan's love interest. The breadcrumbs are all there: Ryan cuddling up to her when she thought she was dying, Sophie's sister Jordan suggesting Ryan and Sophie would be good together. Sophie earning Ryan's trust, Ryan coming to the realization that she can't share all of who she is with Imani this episode. Ryan having the friction with Angelique because of Batwoman in previous episodes. It seemed like Ryan was kicking Imani to the curb this episode. I hope she still sticks around for a bit.

It's understandable that no one wants to be the bearer of bad news to Black Mask but it should have been obvious even without knowing the side effect that messing up the drug could lead to customers not caring, customers dying or getting sick, the authorities taking a harder line on the drug, etc. I watched all 8 seasons of Arrow and can't think of an example of any character recovering in the same episode from a serious wound without magic, macguffins, powers or super tech. But assuming there are examples that aren't coming to mind, just because Arrow did something in a sucky way doesn't mean Batwoman should get a pass for doing the same sucky thing. Fair enough that Sophie picked out the Crows. Not sure if that says Sophie sucks at judging characters or if the Crows she picked were just the best of a bad bunch. It is more the significance of the difference than the number of them. I don't think it is the same day, but regardless, in the real world officers are going to be put on leave immediately, not sent back out on patrol. Yes, it's not the real world, but still. Like Ryan said, it's Gotham City. No matter how many community centers go up, there are plenty of people to arrest for fulfilling any quotas.

Her actions last episode suggest that's not exactly true. She was happy to kill anyone who was close enough to watch her supposed execution to be touching the railing, whether they were "angelic" or not. It was also implied she killed real Effie Boyle so to assume her identity. (Although I suppose it could have been one of her minions instead.)

True, Ocean told them that. But one would think that when the drug is a different color than it's supposed to be, someone might say "Huh, we probably fucked this up." It is probably the first time when someone without superpowers or tech literally was said to have been a few chest compressions away from dead minutes or hours earlier to serving as a nurse himself. I don't know that the officers who ran over Wolfspider were "handpicked." But there's a few differences between hitting a criminal and leaving him to die on the one hand and shooting to kill drug users who can't help themselves., I think Plus Sophie (or someone) got the former people fired. No one took any action against the Crows who gunned down the Snakebite Zombies, even though at least in the real world, the practice would be for officers involved in any shooting to be on administrative leave for weeks. In the previous episode, the people who were against the community center were part of the prison-industrial complex. Their motivation was that if the community centers succeed in lowering crime, there would be fewer prisoners and less of a need for prisons. The same logic doesn't really apply for individual police officers or the police department as a whole. Police officers get paid regardless of what they do. They haven't really shown or even told much about Sophie trying to make change from within the Crows other than getting the aforementioned Crows fired. I think the writers could have made the point stronger by better writing the transition from "I can reform the system from within" to "the system is beyond reform so I'm quitting." For example, they could have seeded previous episodes with Sophie actually trying to clean up the Crows, only to get frustrated by Jake being high on Snakebite or whatever else. In this particular episode alone, they could even just had a scene or a line where she said, "I tried to have those officers fired for shooting those victims, but Jake Kane wasn't having it." Or even a face-to-face confrontation with Takarov about how they both know that he wasn't going to pay a price for what he did.

Pretty sure the word "Galanthi" was only first used in the last ep, but also pretty sure it was used way more than just once. Far as I am concerned, the episode answered a fair amount of questions but then raised a lot of new ones. Questions answered: We now have confirmation that the Galanthi are an alien race that came to Earth in the future and that Amalia is indeed a time traveller. The Galanthi distributed spores among the future population and the Victorian population. In the future, there was one or more catastrophes/wars that killed five billion of the Earth's population. There are at least two future factions: Free Life and the Planetary Defense Council. It seems the Free Lifers are anti-Galanthi and have managed to kill most of them somehow. The Planetary Defense Council is pro-Galanthi, and has at least some people who have bonded with the Galanthi but don't have superpowers. They are just, it seems, mentally enhanced. The person we have come to know as Amalia True was a soldier fighting no the side of the PDC. In her time, apparently polygamous marriage is a thing and telling people your actual name is not. She goes by "Stripe," which may or may not be a rank or specialty as a soldier. Her squad found a place where there was still a living Galanthi, but it had been taken over by Free Lifers. The PDC squad managed to take the place back, to find there was some kind of a spatial anamoly there and the Galanthi was trying to do something. The Free Lifers tortured it by killing the PDC people it had bonded to and leaving it in a pool of their blood. The speculation about what the Galanthi was they were trying to do ranges from trying to bring in more Galanthi to fleeing the planet as a lost cause. There is a single Free Life prisoner who somehow convinces a PDC member to backstab his team. All of the PDC members are killed except for Amalia, who suddenly finds herself in the past. The real Amalia "Molly" True worked for a bakery and had a choice between two possible husbands. Instead of marrying for the cool, smart and loving guy, she married someone who seemed more financially secure. It turns out that he wasn't, and she had a miserable life with him being an insensitive jackhole, having multiple miscarriages, and having to attend to his ailing mother. Her husband dies of a disease and it turns out he was deeply in debt. She also learns that the man she was interested in has gotten married and was expecting a baby. It is all too much for her, so she attempts to drown herself. Somehow Stripe's mind gets implanted in Molly's body while she's in the Thames (presumably after the death of the true Molly).. Stripe doesn't expect this and isn't clued in at first. She initially thinks that she is in a sort of sim that is trying to get her to talk. Eventually she comes to realize that she has found herself in the actual past in an unfamiliar body with "world class tits" (Sorry Laura Donnelly, but not so much). She is taken to an asylum, where she meets Horatio and begins having her future flashes, including one of them doin' it., so she trusts him. She also meets Sarah, aka Maladie,, and befriends her and other Touched. She learns that there was an event similar to what must have happened in the future, with spores being distributed in London. But it's dissimilar because people have developed abilities. She is speaking with a North American accent because Stripe was apparently Canadian. She gradually learns how to feign Britishness thanks to lessons from another inmate. The doctor we have seen comes to the asylum looking to research the Touched, and he talks to Amalia first. Realizing he was up to no good, she plays dumb about knowing about the Galanthi and throws Sarah under the bus as the one who really knows about all the lights-in-the-sky stuff. So the doctor takes her to do stuff off-screen that will result in Sarah becoming Maladie. Lavinia comes on the scene and strikes a deal to have her run the Orphanage. She also meets Penance. We then see the Amalia half of the mission from last episode. Her crew does enough fighting so she is able to get to the Galanthi. She has a bunch of future visions including one that somebody (the Galanthi in Myrtle's form? Myrtle herself? Someone else?) tells her that she's going to need to forget. She and her crew manage to escape, and back at the Orphanage, Penance and Amalia talk and Amalia says she's going to tell everyone everything, and she admits her real name is Zephyr something. Questions raised: When exactly it is the future? Where exactly the Galanthi are from? What is their true agenda for the future or the past? Why specifically do the FL or PDC oppose or support them? Why are 5 billion dead (war between the FL and PDC? Global warming and other man-made problems? Disease? A combo platter?) Why was there a proto-Touched who looked like Harriet from Victorian England (at least to me) in Zephyr's time? Why the one PDC turned traitor (other than because the plot required it)? What exactly is the spatial anomaly, and how it works, how/why at least some other future people were able to leap to the past. Why did the Galanthi go to Victorian England? It seems that someone was thinking about Victorian England because there were artifacts from there. What is the agenda? Why are they giving superpowers now when they didn't before? Are they engineering specific powers for specific people? Why do the spores work only on some people? Is there a political reason they have mostly touched women and people out-of-favor with society? Who else is from the future besides Amalia and who are they inhabiting? Does time travel in the Nevers work like Back to the Future (the future is completely changeable through actions undertaken in the past and people from the future will have no memories of the original future), Terminator (some things are predestined to happen), Avengers: Endgame (the past is essentially frozen but you can make new futures for yourself) or what?

So it turns out that the series has a lot in common with the 4400 if people remember that show: to try to save Future Earth, a group seeds people from the past with various and sundry powers but no further guidance. Meanwhile a faction opposing their work is also apparently at work in the past. The main differences being that the 4400 were physically taken from various parts of the 20th century to the future, experimented on, and returned to the 2000s Seattle as opposed to Zephyr's traveling psychically from the future to Victorian England.. So, who do people think is the other future person? I'm guessing the bad guy from the future has somehow managed to travel to the past as well. I could see him as pretty much any non-Touched person: Massen, Swann, the doctor, even Lavinia.

Where to begin? I hope that Luke hasn't been killed. I am just shaking my head at pretty much everything in this episode. Hamfisted, anvil-dropping, bullshit. Remember when the show made a big deal about Ocean and Angelique being forced to do a tutorial on how to make Snakebite? Because the show expects you didn't. Remember when Jake was seemingly on death's door from taking Snakebite? Because this episode had him not just make a full recovery, but get to the point where he was helping around the clinic. Remember when the Crows were supposed to be a quasi-military organization with Sophie second in command? Because now the writers want us to believe that an agent can dis his commanding officer in public and disobey direct orders and not face any real blowback for it. I know the show wanted to make the points it made about police brutality and all that, but couldn't they do that without stretching things? From the start of the cops breaking up a fundraiser for a community center (which the cops are against why?) to the arrests of Luke, Ryan and Sophie, to them talking openly about Ryan being Batwoman in the cells, to the notion that Luke -- having just dealt with the police -- would have forgotten the Talk...This episode just failed on pretty much every level. I would be remiss if I didn't point out how messed up it was that Batwoman let the Crows gun down the people she was saving and DID NOTHING! She hid underneath a pew looking scared. Can you imagine any other member of the Bat-family in any context just allowing innocent people to be gunned down and doing absolutely nothing? And Sophie, after her talk about how she can make change from the inside, just walking away? Not even attempting to make the Crows pay for gunning down however many people? They didn't go out in the field equipped with tasers or other less than lethal weapons, or they just didn't choose to use them?

True, but that's a different sort of thing from Maladie going along quietly once after the Good Guys who rescued her. She would have a potential incentive to kill her rescuers because they could provide a lead as to her whereabouts. Whereas she has no particular incentive to have Harriet die. The rescue attempt brings to mind the old saw about the frog and the scorpion/the woman and the snake. They would have known damn well what Maladie was when they took her in.