Director: Christopher Berkeley
Writer: Charlotte Fullerton
Our story begins right where we last left our heroes — on New Genesis on August 29, 0:24 UTC. Lor-Zod and Ma’alefa’ak have forced their way onto the Bio-Ship, as seen last episode. But what we didn’t see then was that Kid Flash and Chameleon Boy actually did try to put up some resistance. Bart retrieved a couple of inhibitor collars, but before he could place them on the intruders, Lor-Zod destroyed the devices with his heat vision. As Bart is burned by the explosion, Lor knocked him out with a quick body check, while still holding Saturn Girl in a chokehold.
Chameleon Boy transformed into a large monster, but Ma’alefa’ak instantly overpowered him with a transformation of his own. The Bio-Ship then pointed a blaster cannon at the villains, but Ma’alefa’ak convinces it to stand down to save its three friends. Under Lor-Zod’s control, the Bio-Ship then flies off to who knows where.
In the Phantom Zone on September 5, 23:13 UTC, Superboy’s brain is still addled and he unfortunately becomes an open book for General Zod and Ursa (seen above), telling them basically everything they ask.
In Blüdhaven on September 5, 19:15 EDT, Zatanna has finally convinced Nightwing that Superboy is alive. Dick agrees to spend the next 24 hours trying to save his old friend. But when he boots up his computer, both he and Zatanna are shocked to see that Bart has been reported missing. Dick has returned to life as an acrobat, and Zatanna is busy being Doctor Fate, so both of them have been out of the loop of sorts. Dick doesn’t see any immediate connections between the disappearance of Bart and Conner, but he feels he owes it to them to look for both.
Dick’s eventually able to check Bart’s credit card statements (admitting that his hacking skills have gone rusty since he’s passed most of those duties to Oracle) and he finds security footage of the last store Bart shopped at. Dick and Zatanna don’t recognize the two people with Bart in the store, but we know they’re Saturn Girl and Chameleon Boy disguised as regular humans. Dick’s computer doesn’t recognize the Legionnaires, either, but it is able to find footage of them visiting Clark Kent in Bibbo’s Diner.
Zatanna and Dick arrive in Metropolis at 19:48 EDT, and immediately confront Superman about his mysterious visitors. Clark refuses to tell them anything about the Legionnaires, even when they say Bart’s missing. Clark asks if there’s any indication of foul play, and Dick is forced to admit that all evidence suggests Bart is cooperating with the mysterious individuals, but he still worries Bart may have been coerced by them. Clark puts an end to the conversation, saying he trusts the visitors, but can’t explain why.
Angered, Zatanna and Dick head back to Blüdhaven, where Dick begins assembling a red-string board. He notes that Bart and Clark’s “friends” were buying supplies, so he and Zatanna visit the Watchtower at 20:56 EDT to see if any equipment has gone missing. Tigress reports that five inhibitor collars, a space belt and a zeta-tube power core are all unaccounted for. She pulls up the security footage, which initially shows the items suddenly vanishing into thin air. But when they slow the video down to one frame at a time, they are just able to see Kid Flash’s foot in the corner of the screen.
Artemis officially joins the investigation and returns to Blüdhaven, where Dick’s computer finds another match of their suspects. This one is of Saturn Girl serving Superboy coffee at Bibbo’s on February 28 of last year (as seen in the season finale of Young Justice: Outsiders). The computer quickly brings up another match, this one of Chameleon Boy attending Superboy’s speech at the United Nations on February 17.
Dick realizes the equipment Bart stole suggests his mission was off-world. Artemis reports that Rocket just returned from an off-world mission that involved a time-traveling Kryptonian. Dick notes that Bart is also a time-traveler, so he leads everyone to Dakota City at 20:24 CDT to speak with Rocket. Zatanna helps Raquel revisit her memory, confirming the Phantom Zone projector was destroyed by the camouflaged Bio-Ship.
Dick speculates that Bart may be on a path parallel to theirs, correctly assuming that Superman’s “friends” were on the Bio-Ship with Bart. Dick also wisely supposes that Superman didn’t tell them anything because he feared doing so could threaten the timestream. Which would mean that Bart is likely with two other time-travelers, who have inside intel about the Phantom Zone and Conner being trapped inside it. Raquel thinks Dick is reaching a bit too far with this theory, but Dick concludes that Bart made a choice and they should respect that. But in the meantime, he believes they should do everything they can to rescue Conner themselves.
Nightwing and Rocket visit Poseidonis on September 6 at 1:36 UTC-2 to recruit Aquaman to join their investigation. Kaldur heads back to Blüdhaven with them and reviews all their data on the disappearance of Bart and Conner. He agrees to help Zatanna summon Klarion to ask for access to the Phantom Zone, but … it doesn’t go too well.
We then check in on the Bio-Ship, which is camouflaged above Supertown on New Genesis on September 6 at 4:22 UTC. It’s unclear whether Lor-Zod has held his captives prisoner for a whole week, or if he used the ship’s Cosmic Treadmill to jump forward in time. Regardless, he has placed the three remaining inhibitor collars on Kid Flash, Saturn Girl and Chameleon Boy, as well as removed their Legion rings. Without his super speed, Bart is still recovering from his burns and has large bandages on his hands and chest. Saturn Girl coldly points out that because Lor greedily tried to bring his parents back now, instead of in the future, he has forever trapped them in the Phantom Zone.
Ma’alefa’ak returns from a reconnaissance mission, reporting that an evil sentient computer Lor was using called the Kaizer-Thrall was taken to the Green Lantern planet Oa. Lor orders Kid Flash to assume his position on the Cosmic Treadmill, threatening to kill the others if he doesn’t cooperate. He also mocks the heroes, saying that maybe they’ll get a chance to turn the tables. With his friends’ permission, Bart steps on the treadmill, only to be electrocuted by Lor to remind him who’s in charge. He then gives Bart his speed back and sets course for Oa.
This season has been a very slow build of a lot of separate plot lines that are finally coming together. And that’s great to see. Unfortunately, as with last episode, Bart had another nonspeaking role. His character truly has been reduced to merely serving as a vehicle to help push the plot along. I’m glad that his disappearance became a crucial element of the show, but I wish he would do more than silently scowl at his kidnapper.
I’m also confused by the timing in this episode. I’ve often said the precise time stamps on this show do more harm than good, and this is a great example of that. Why on Earth would it take Lor-Zod a whole week to figure out where the Kaizer-Thrall is? And if he did jump forward in time, then why did he jump just a week? Or why not go back in time? Is it because the Cosmic Treadmill doesn’t actually grant time-traveling abilities to the Bio-Ship — just super speed? If that’s the case, then the show didn’t explain that.
I guess we’ll just have to wait and see what happens. I don’t know what my next review will be, but I hope it’s the next episode of this show. Despite all its flaws, I am quite invested in it.
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