(no subject)

[greenygal]

--Poor Thanagar; sacrificed to demonstrate that Brainy is really freaking scary. And, um, it works. I'm not sure what's worse; the instant evaporation of the whole planet, or Brainy's absolutely chilling tone as he lays out his intentions. Adam Wylie did a terrific job this episode. (Meanwhile, the Thanagarian voice-actor mainly gets points for not cracking up as he delivers that dialogue...)

--So, Colu. Brainy actually mentioned the Coluan hivemind back in "Brain Drain," and we don't get much additional detail here, but it looks like a creepy, creepy place, and one that it's totally understandable he wanted out of. Colu is, in pretty much every incarnation, defined mainly as something for B5 to rebel against, and animated Colu fulfills that function admirably; I feel bad for Brainy just thinking about him in there. Aside from that, it was a good call to establish that Brainy's "deletion" process is preexisting Coluan technology (which apparently is a high crime to use, and that right there is the Brainiac 5/rest of Colu conflict in a nutshell); it's believable of Colu, and it helps lower the contrivance level in a story that's already kind of pushing it.

--And unnamed Coluan matriarch (do other Coluans have names? Do other Coluans have identities? Exactly how much of a freak is Brainy?) also upholds the fine historical tradition that Coluans who aren't a Brainiac are completely useless and probably utter jerks as well. (No comments from the peanut gallery about how this also applies to certain people who are Brainiacs. Jerks they may be, but as this episode demonstrates, they tend to be frighteningly far from useless.) Imperiex may have been stupid enough to turn his back on Brainy, but at least he did not let him into his hive mind. This is what you have firewalls for, idiot Coluans! Once you let the evil Brainiac program in, no amount of virus protection will save you! Frankly, you kind of deserved to become his army of marauding robot drones. (Which, chalk up another moment of ultra-level the-Legion-is-so-screwed impressive for Brainy. I wondered if he was going home to get revenge; I should have known that would not be nearly epically evil enough.)

--Anyone who didn't know that Kell was not talking about Superman has not been paying attention for...the whole season, pretty much. (Er, no slur intended on Timber Wolf, who was probably expecting Kell to be a reasonable human being and all. I'm just saying.)

--So Kell has a psychic link with Clark. How Very Convenient! Also, Clark can go into a state of suspended animation that will fool 30th century tech and a high-powered telepath, presumably without conscious effort (or he would have warned them he was doing it). I can't actually say this is wrong, or even implausible, because Kryptonian physiology has been all kinds of bizarre since forever, and there are worse ways to back out of the "Superman's dead!" cliffhanger. Still. Very Convenient. The shot of of Kell pulling Clark out of the melting capsule is awesome, though.

--Lovely show of bravado--smarts, even!--from the Legion. "Everybody's wearing them" was a note-perfect piece of snark, and the wonderful thing about the Legion is when you do a pull back to show the whole team it absolutely looks impressive.

--Except Brainy has to one-up that, too. An entire planet of Coluans merging into one battlebot? Kind of beats traditional giant combining robots all to hell. Yeah, LL, you're doomed. Sorry. It's a brave and gallant last stand, with lots of explosions, but...doomed.

--Kell's kind of sweet when he decides to be supportive of Clark. Who knew? Also, Clark is still Brainy's biggest fan, but this is not news.

--It is possible that I am slightly biased, but I'm going to maintain that Brainy disassembled and strung up is the single most disturbing thing in the show, and it's not as though it's short on those. I may have shrieked a little when that image came on screen.

--And because we were in apparent need of a sudden infusion of weird, merged Supermans! I can sort of vaguely follow the dramatic logic here; it's a literal demonstration of Kell's new commitment to teamwork and such, and if he's going to be a critical factor in this scene, then the merge allows him to not just be standing in the background while Clark gives the all-important emotional speech. (Yeah, Karen, you were totally totally right. I cannot think why I doubted.) The thing is, though, that Kell has no particular relationship to Brainy, so it still comes across as Clark's speech, except...Kell is supposed to be part of it? I think in my head I'm going to make this work by declaring that Clark was in charge of the merge, and everything said and done was coming from him; Kell was providing the strength and the support to keep him going. Because, well, I just think that Kell would be mortally embarassed to have declared Brainiac 5 his hero, don't you?

--Speaking of which. Clark passionately defends Brainy, declares that "he had the biggest heart I've ever seen," and then calls him "my hero." Whereupon Brainy immediately pulls himself together, gives Clark glowy psionic first aid, and cradles him tenderly in his arms as they exchange sappy sentiments. Their love is so true. Aww!

--"Now I'm going to tell you one last time..." Oh man. The scary directed where it belongs; classic scene. You should not have tried to kill his boyfriend, B1!

--And then we get to the ending of ultimate randomness, namely Brainy not being a robot anymore! This kind of...offlined my brain for a minute. Or five. Nice effect, but...where'd that come from exactly? After thinking it over, though, I've come up with a rationale I like. Presumably it's an effect of the Coluan matter conversion process, since it's the finish of the put-everything-back sequence (and we'd otherwise have to blame it on an extremely lost Blue Fairy). It almost certainly didn't come from B1, who's been kicked out by this point and who, while he would probably consider it an artistic vengeance, would be unlikely to go for something this complicated rather than simple deletion. And it could have been the restored Hivemind, but why? They were going for reprogramming-or-death before, and I don't see them getting more lenient after the events of this episode. Besides, they lose a lot of potential control over him this way. So it must have been Brainy. But the thing is, despite the emphasis on "humanity" in this story, Brainy has never been Pinocchio or Data--he frets about a lot of things, but the fact that he's a robot isn't one of them. It seems really very unlikely that he went "oh, I want to be a real boy!" No, I think it was a sacrifice: he saw all the chaos he'd caused, all the destruction he could have caused (I sense nearly killing Superman ranked high in this calculation), and he decided to remove his ability to ever do it again. (Yeah, yeah, I know, being organic has never stopped him before; allow him his fantasies! And it will at least keep evil robots out of his head.) So, prevention and punishment in one drastic move: elegant and admirable, and he totally deserves that reassurance Clark gives him. At least, this is how it makes sense to me. Who knows how it makes sense to the writers, since they don't give us any explanation at all. *sigh*

--Also, let me take a minute to be desperately amused that I was shocked by Brainy not being a robot. Man, the things you get used to.

--Okay, the thing is, I feel sure that Brainy's final conversation with Clark is meant to be about guilt and trauma and adjusting to an entirely new state of being. And these are fine themes to explore! It's a big thing that's just happened to Brainy--several big things--and it's understandable that he's having issues, and hey, there should totally be fic! However...my brain just refuses to interpret Brainy's lines as anything but "now that I have biological hormones I need to go away for a while, or I am just going to wind up tackling you in the middle of a briefing." I am maybe just a little bit obsessed. And the whole not-a-robot-anymore thing did not help. (Before this episode I kind of thought that, while Brainy/Clark was extremely obvious, it was probably pretty doomed, with the whole time periods and heroic destiny thing, and Brainy would probably not be happy in the twentieth century, and there was Lois, and that was before getting into the robot/organic thing. But I have pretty much ceased to care, because Brainy's not a robot anymore, and they spent this entire story telling us that destiny doesn't matter, and they clearly love each other so much. They can commute, or something, and Lois can have a scandalous affair with Nightwing.)

--The last fifteen seconds of the show...you know, I don't mind. Yeah, it's kind of a waste to tack an ominous or-is-it ending to a cancelled show, but it makes it kind of open-ended. The show ends, but the universe is still there. Plus, I will always, always have time for an evil Brainiac.

--They could have stopped it before that, though, and it would have been the perfect ending. Kell being sworn in at the last--and I love so much that you can see his awkwardness when he starts to talk--and Brainy watching at the window, and oh dear god Lu....*sniffles* Yes. Like that.

It's been a good two years. Long live the Legion!

Comments

[odditycollector.livejournal.com]

You know, it's hard to say I Told You So when you've already done it for me! ;)

[greenygal.livejournal.com]

I live to make your life harder. *g* And besides, you were so, so right. I should really not have worried!

[odditycollector.livejournal.com]

It is true. Even I was amazed at the extent of my being right.

I think I'll adopt your fanwank, though, because otherwise WTF, how did that even happen!

[greenygal.livejournal.com]

I find my fanwank very satisfying, and it might even be what was intended (LSH is crazy, but not the kind of crazy where the Powers That Be randomly grant you humanity for good deeds). But man, would one line of explanation have hurt anything? It doesn't need to be sane, sensible, or in any way respectful of the laws of physics, but it should exist.