After his secret meet-up with Lex in Episode 10, Brainiac breaks alt-universe Toyman out of prison and brings him to Lex, who tries to lure him to the darker but “good” side. The ladies try and cheer Nia up from her untimely breakup with Brainy as they all question what could have prompted his sudden change of heart. Lex lets Lena in on Brainiac’s involvement in their new save the world plan and at the ToyCon, Toyman takes a shot at his dad’s nemesis when Winn returns in a spacecraft and diverts the bullet and save his future.

WHAT WORKED: In a show based on fantasy, the motivation behind the character’s actions were written, acted and directed in such a way that it was believable. Brainy is coming to realize that he made a deal with the devil and while logic might be a good thing to use, it doesn’t always account for human error. Winn getting all supersuited up and trying to catch the alta-verse Toyman version of him to save his future and keep his family in the future safe. Lex is still a scorpion and kind of self-centered, he breaks the Toyman out to coax future Winn back in time so that he can steal info from his ship, which would have worked but he forgot no one trusts Lex and they moved the ship leaving Brainiac to find a way to catch Toyman and get the info without letting his “team” know what he’s been up to. What worked in this episode was the human nature and realistic take on the trust and fallibility of humans.

BEST QUOTE:

“You promise me no one will get hurt.” – Lena to Brainiac & Lex

“I promise you no one will be harmed” – Brainiac to Lena

Which is ominous as f*** and with Brainy now running only on logic, that could mean a number of things and I’m not sure all of them are good.

BEST MOMENT: It was more a collection of moments where our boy Winn, who has been super missed, gets to reconnect with his old friends and get a rundown of the multiverse. Seeing the adorbs joy on his face when he gets that “Papa Bear” hug from J’onn J’onzz filled me with the warm and fuzzies.

EPISODE MVP: Nia. She has a lot to deal with following the out of the blue Brainiac breakup. She is dealing with some next-level emotional stuff and questioning her powers and place because of her trying to deal with the breakup. She gets next level gaslight by herself and to some extent Brainiac, who knew that her dream was about him betraying them but, was left to believe that it was about the breakup and when the tiger was with Brainy, she still didn’t put it together especially when Brainy said that Tigers were the Winslow College mascots and where they could find Toyman. What makes Nia the MVP in this episode isn’t her being on her game 100% of the time, what makes her the MVP is that she wasn’t and she dealt with it and when it was time to get her head in the game and fight, she did and she found a space to process her feelings so that she could continue on. Being strong enough to have feelings, be hurt, keep going, grow and be still kick ass against bad guys makes her the MVP because she showed that it’s okay to not be okay all the time.

Overall: 8.4