S03.E09: Frenemies - Chapter Nine: The Monsters

[AnimeMania]

CONFRONTING THE TRUTH — After a recent experience renews Courtney’s (Brec Bassinger) confidence, she sets out to make amends with those around her. Jakeem (Alkoya Brunson) puts his foot down after Mike (Trae Romano) shares his latest plan. Finally, Beth (Anjelika Washington) makes a major discovery that leads to a terrifying battle no one saw coming.

Original Air Date: November 2, 2022     8 p.m.   CW 

[Terrafamilia]

Courtney, it's not so much that you are going to spill the beans to Cameron, it's how you go about it.

Was that the

Spoiler

Ultra-Humanite

at the end?

[cambridgeguy]

The sun was still up when Courtney went to Cameron's house, then dusk when Rick burst in.  Learn to get to the point more quickly and you can spill the beans before your buddy rampages through the door.

Some weird stuff this episode too.  Did they actually call Artemis?  Why on earth wouldn't Chuck tell Beth about all of the handy life saving programs in her suit?  Since when is her costume a poor man's version of the MCU Spiderman suit?

[Frozendiva]

Guess the evil Norwegians will be doing a lot of home renovations plus figure out how to dispose of the art teacher’s body. 

I was impressed with the fight scenes.

Wonder if, now that she has been mentioned. Mike’s mom will appear at some point. I could see Pat leaning on Barb to be his real mom.

Poor Court. Stargirl was outta commission this ep.

Cameron does need to learn to use his powers.

Beth is only now learning that her suit has features?

[Jediknight]

3 hours ago, cambridgeguy said:

Did they actually call Artemis?

Maybe, or she was tailing them since this was a big episode for her parents and their relationship with Pat and Barb.  Pat no doubt telling Crusher about Mike's mom, Crusher was sincere that Pat could trust him.  And then you had Paula being shocked that Barb said she was a friend.  Could see both mentioning how close they've gotten to Pat and Barb, and Artemis going even harder on becoming a member of the JSA.

Still sus of Sylvester, he was the one that told Rick about removing the inhibitor.  He's being controlled by somebody.

And speaking of Rick, dude needs to learn how to fight.  He relies way too much on brute force, but doesn't know how to fight.  He got his ass beat by Artemis (who knows how to fight), and Cam (who he should have stomped).

[Trini]

A talking yeti?? Or something... What?!

Crap - I guess it was too much to hope that they wouldn't use the old trope of 'love interest finds out The Secret at the worst possible time before secret keeper can tell'. Anyway, I still hope that this is NOT Cameron's villain origin story -- even though this was a near perfect example of a villain origin story.

Glad Courtney made up with the rest of the JSA, but now the fight with the Mahkents complicates things.

Did not like them killing off Mr. Deisinger; and only because he wants Cameron to do art? We already knew that Grandma Icicle was evil - ugh.

Wow - Rick needs to get it together. I hope Beth (or someone) can talk some sense into him.

Cool, combat mode! Now there's no excuse to leave Beth out of fight scenes. See, Beth, your parents are useful! But yes, it's weird that she didn't know about the suit/goggle special features until now.

Aw, come on, show! Artemis can do more than action scenes! But at least they remembered she exists. The Crocks friendship (frenemyship?) with Pat and Barb has been a highlight this season. I think Barbara should probably let Paula teach her a few defensive moves at least.

Not sure where they're going with Mike's mother and Pat, but hopefully it gives Mike something else to do besides making bad decisions with Jakeem.

1 hour ago, Frozendiva said:

Cameron does need to learn to use his powers.

He seemed to be using them pretty well, considering we've never seen him in a fight or use his powers defensively.

[cambridgeguy]

8 hours ago, Terrafamilia said:

Was that the

  Reveal spoiler

Ultra-Humanite

at the end?

Pretty much had to be based on the look.  However, hooded surveillance guy (or gal) was clearly a human sized person, so either there's some shapeshifting going or there are two villains running around.

[tennisgurl]

So the villain is...a Yeti thing? Didn't see that one coming, I guess they got me, I certainly didn't see the bad guy being some giant talking snow monster hanging out on a creepy farm that we've all seen in a million independent horror films. 

Of course Courtney tells Cameron the truth just as Rick shows up to ruin things, making sure that Courtney didn't get a chance to tell Cameron the whole story, although hopefully she gets to tell him everything soon and that this isn't his villain origin story. I like him and Courtney together and it would suck if he turned evil due to a bunch of misunderstandings. Interesting that Grandpa Ice is trying to pull back on the evil and let Cameron live a normal life, while Grandma Ice is doubling down, even murdering poor Mr. Deisinger, which was so not cool! Also interesting, what was that book Ice Grandma was looking at? Its being increasingly implied that the Mahkents aren't just metahumans but are something else. Frost Giants? 

Hi Artemis! I continue to love the Crooks and the weird friendship they have with Pat and Barbara, its sweet in a weird kind of way. 

Why is Beth just now finding out about her suites fight mode? The poor thing has been fumbling through every fight scene since the first time she put on her outfit, that would have certainly been helpful earlier! I guess because they were worried about it being a prototype? Glad that at least she's got some support during fights at least. 

Damn it Rick! He needs to take every chill pill known to man, his roid rage is just making this already precarious situation even worse. He also really needs to work on his fighting, he's focusing too much on brute strength instead of working on his actual fighting skills. 

[Trini]

10 hours ago, cambridgeguy said:

or there are two villains running around.

I definitely think that's possible; or even most likely.

[Noneofyourbusiness]

3 hours ago, tennisgurl said:

Also interesting, what was that book Ice Grandma was looking at?

Looked like a scrapbook showing how their family in Norway were persecuted.

[rtms77]

21 hours ago, Jediknight said:

And speaking of Rick, dude needs to learn how to fight.  He relies way too much on brute force, but doesn't know how to fight.  He got his ass beat by Artemis (who knows how to fight), and Cam (who he should have stomped).

Cam suddenly having fight skills was just as ridiculous. Still they actually had good choreography. 
 

Once again Stargirl/Cort is sidelined! What gives this season, we’ve hardly gotten any Stargirl scenes.

Hi Artemis 🖐, what’s it like being tacked on to a scene out of the blue, only to get your butt kicked by Old Man  icicle? 
Speaking of missing characters, I really hope they haven’t dropped Cindy’s storyline. I really wanted Cort to tell the group they would also be  trying to mend fences with her. Hopefully that happens next Ep. 
 

I knew having that hourglass 24/7 was going to mess Rick up.Add jealousy over Camron and Cort and Rick is not well. I hope he takes this butt kicking to heart and smarten up. 

Beth how did it take your parents to tell you about your own suit. For that matter why didn’t Mcknighter tell Beth about the different modes when he gave his blessing to Beth? A lot of steps were skipped and then rushed back in.  
 

Hmm Pat I think you should have found your son and had a good talk with him and tell him how much you love him. Looking for his mother can wait. 

Edited November 4, 2022 by rtms77

[thuganomics85]

Dammit, Rick!

Sure enough, after Courtney is finally ready to tell Cameron the truth; even gets the rest of the JSA onboard (Rick reluctantly, but it still counts); he ends up finding out in possibly the worst way by not only having Grandma blame his father's death on the JSA (obviously leaving out the whole supervillian part), but Rick going all rage mode and certainly making them look like the villains here.  At least his grandpa of all people managed to stop things before any major deaths happen, but judging from his look at the end, Courtney has understandably lost a lot of trust with him.  Hopefully this isn't his villain origin story and he is made to see what really happened, but I have to imagine he and Courtney are back to square one: if not even lower.

The fight scene was pretty nice though: although those Mahkents are certainly made of some tough material!  I'm guessing Artemis (welcome back!) won't be telling her parents about how a senior citizen managed to fend her off!

Beth discovers that her suit is equipped with a bunch of useful gadgets that will hopefully help her be better on the battlefield.  Although, I'm hoping McNider didn't pull a Tony Stark and include a "kill mode" with it....

Poor Mr. Deisinger!  He must be avenged!  And hopefully Randy Havens will be showing up in the final season of Stranger Things as good old Mr. Clarke.  He knows how to play teachers!

Enjoyed both the Pat/Barbara scene and the Courtney/Yolanda one as well.

Assuming we meet her, I'm wondering if Mike's mom will have some kind of superhero connection somehow.

Crusher and Paula continue to be the best friends anyone could have!

Mike and Jakeem (oh, and Thunderbolt!)'s quest to find Cindy has led them to a barn that currently houses a.... talking Yeti?  Yeah, I'm going to wait till next week to see what is going on there! 

[Trini]

3 hours ago, rtms77 said:

Cam suddenly having fight skills was just as ridiculous. Still they actually had good choreography. 
 

Once again Stargirl/Cort is sidelined! What gives this season, we’ve hardly gotten any Stargirl scenes.

Exactly - I was impressed with the fight scenes; but since when can Cameron fight??

There's been a serious lack of Staff action - with Stargirl - this season. Booo.

[cambridgeguy]

5 hours ago, thuganomics85 said:

Assuming we meet her, I'm wondering if Mike's mom will have some kind of superhero connection somehow.

We've already met her, she was the waitress Sylvester talked to at the beginning of season 2.  Or Pat has another ex named Maggie.

And in retrospect, Courtney really should have talked to Mike before going to Cameron.  Was she planning to leave out some details about how Jordan actually died?  So were fighting on a roof, he fell off, yada yada, and then he shattered into a bunch of pieces.

[rtms77]

On 11/4/2022 at 4:13 AM, cambridgeguy said:

We've already met her, she was the waitress Sylvester talked to at the beginning of season 2.  Or Pat has another ex named Maggie.

And in retrospect, Courtney really should have talked to Mike before going to Cameron.  Was she planning to leave out some details about how Jordan actually died?  So were fighting on a roof, he fell off, yada yada, and then he shattered into a bunch of pieces.

Yup, just looked back and we did meet her. I’m wondering if Sylvester did find Pat through her. It would mean , he not only knows where she is, but she knows where Pat is. I’m wondering if Sylvester did something with her given how out of control he’s been. 
And with the Yeti showing up, it also explains the footprint and weird things happening like food going missing etc in season two. It wasn’t Grundy, it looks like it could have been the Yeti going out.

[Quark]

Fabulous episode.

Absolutely loved the fight scene.

[Trini]

So the killer is whatever that was at the end, right? And it must be a different person with the cameras -- although, they could be working together.

---

Forgot to mention before: I got a kick out of them subtitling Mike talking with a mouthful of waffles! Like, they could have just used a different take, or fixed the sound in post production, but, no. LOL

[Bill1978]

On 11/7/2022 at 5:35 PM, Trini said:

Forgot to mention before: I got a kick out of them subtitling Mike talking with a mouthful of waffles! Like, they could have just used a different take, or fixed the sound in post production, but, no. LO

So I didn't imagine that? I watch TV these days with Closed Captions on. And when the Mahkents were speaking Norwegian the shows subtitles came on and there were no Closed Captions. And when Mike spoke with the waffles, I thought I saw subtitles appear undersneath the Closed Captions. I just assumed someone in production forgot to turn off the subtitle machine haha.

[Lantern7]

I finally watched the episode yesterday. Here was my takeaway:

Courtney: Okay, Cameron, I need to lay a few hard truths on you. You know when someone says “This will hurt me more than you”? Same thing.

Cameron: And I believe that, since you are basically the sweetest person I know.

Courtney: Great! Your dad-

Evil Norwegian Grandma: Hussy! You will not take our grandson from us!!

Courtney: We’ll, at least things-

Rick: (bursting through the wall) OH, YEAH!!!

Courtney: Oh, crap.

(the next day . . . at the hospital)

Cameron: So you’re a superhero?

Rick: (wearing at least two casts) Yeah. So’s Courtney, Yolanda and Beth.

Cameron: And my dad was a villain?

Rick: Yeah. Looking back, I was a real asshole about it. In my defense-

Cameron: Yeah, my grandparents. Both have my ice powers. Also, I found my art teacher in the dumpster.

Rick: (deep breath) For the record, I don’t like Court like you do. She’s my friend. She’s practically the nicest person in Blue Valley.

(enter Beth in Doctor Mid-Nite suit)

Rick: And here’s the second nicest! How- (gets punched in the jaw, going unconscious)

Cameron: What?!? Why?!?

Beth: (kicking Cameron in the ribs) I can’t stop! The suit is making me do this!!!

Yolanda: (running in) I can’t figure out the phrase to deactivate it! I’d try something from the Spider-Man movies, but we don’t get those here!

Beth: Oh, God, I’m about to cuss for the first time! (dramatic pause) DARN IT!!!

Oh, and Mike and Jakeem continue to putz around. Invading Cindy’s locker aside, they’ve learned from their past mistakes. Too bad all it got them was an evil mutant white gorilla on their asses. Yeah, I know who that is, and I’m impressed we got a “live” version of him.

Edited November 10, 2022 by Lantern7