[Episode Discussion] 5x11 - "Back from the Future - Part One" Jan 26th 2020
 

- Stealthy Brainy is cool.

- How did Kara win a Pulitzer in the new universe? She never wrote an exposé on Lex, or else he would have been in jail.

- Shout-out to one of the Legionnaires – Winn married Ayla Ranzz aka Lightning Lass.

- Toyman!Winn has tech that Proper!Winn has never seen before? More future tech keeps showing up. I keep thinking there's another Brainiac behind it (perhaps Brainy’s mom).

- So Brainy can’t stop a robo-tiger with his technopathy? Did the show forget that he had that? What happened to unlocking his potential?

- I’m so glad Winn mentioned Nura! At least someone remembered her. I’m really hoping Brainy realizes that he’s messing with the timeline and Nura’s existence by dating Nia.

- Poor Brainy is really struggling trying to work with Lex. I’m glad he told Winn everything.

- Back in Season 3, Brainy said his evil relative created an AI plague and that’s why he had to stay in the past, and send Winn to the future.

I had assumed it was supposed to be OG!Brainiac – Brainy’s great-great-great etc grandfather. But it turns out it was his cousin? And the Legion defeated him?

So why the heck didn’t they come back for Brainy? Wasn't that supposed to be the plan?

- Random thought: Why did William not do a double take when he saw that “The Toyman” was at Kara’s game night? Did someone explain doppelgangers to him off-screen or something?

I felt like they dumbed Brainy down a bit again and he was back to using the put-on voice a bit for awhile. I was glad that Winn forgave him though.

I don't like that Brainy was being sloppy and letting his face be seen in public on camera. He should have tech that blurs his face or use an image inducer to change his face when he wants to be inconspicuous.

Also, why the hell didn't Brainy use the cube? Why did he let Lex take it instead? What happened to the ship Brainy had from the future? Did it disappear in Crisis?

I agree that Brainy should have been able to use his technopath abilities to infiltrate the systems, find Toyman, and take control of the tigers.

I find it a bit funny that Nia nicknamed him "wildcat".

I don't like that Brainy underestimated Toyman though. Also, even if the Toyman had killed people (which would have made Brainy feel extremely guilty), Brainy could have told the time police that it was a doppelganger and not the real Winn.

I was really hoping they would have Brainy acting smarter and using his abilities more.

J'onn's new HQ setup is cool.

Maybe it was just my misinterpretation, but I couldn't help but wonder if Lena was worried about Brainy getting involved with Lex. She said it was because he worked with Supergirl, but I got a hint of concern that Lex might end up harming him.

I hope Brainy will do better in the next episode.

As for Brainy's "cousin", I didn't take it to mean the one that made the AI plague, but then, I could be wrong. It sort of seemed like the alternate Brainiac5s already had a cure for the anti-life equation thing & Brainy would have that knowledge. But it's clear that Winn wants to stay in the future with Ayla and Brainy wants to stay long enough to stop Leviathan. I'm guessing afterward he'll have to do damage control with Lex.

I was never really a fan of Winn in season one, but Jeremy did a really good job as Toyman. He was creepy.

It was nice to see that good Winn matured a lot in the future.

I was never a fan of Winn either. When I tried watching the show in season 1, he was one of the people that turned me off the show. I didn't start watching again until I heard Brainiac 5 was appearing (since he was my favorite character in Legion of SuperHeroes comics). I still didn't really like Winn that much in season 3.
I actually found myself liking Winn this time around though.

I forgot to comment on why reporter dude (can't remember his name) didn't recognize Winn- he was wearing glasses. Either that or they told him off-camera that it was a doppelganger who blew himself up. Not really sure. I need to watch it again some time.

I love DC but the glasses as the ultimate disguise is really ridiculous. I made a comment about this on Supergirl radio. You know what really works? A brand new haircut. Seriously. The first time I cut my hair in high school, my friends didn't recognize me at all.

My dad didn't even recognize me.

Great to see Winn back … yet in the other shows , Can’t be two of the same people in this universe …… The last scene confused me. “ Toyman” has gone virtual? Meaning he’s in the computer

Logan, yes. He's given up his corporeal form and is now living inside the computer. It's sort of like the show Caprica where there were people who died on a train while using some VR system (not too dissimilar to the VR world being created by Andrea's company) and their minds were transferred to the VR world- only they had less control. I believe one of the girls who died had her mind transferred to a robot.

If the writers remembered that the Brainiacs can use technopathy, they would have Brainy go in there to stop him, or at least access it to shut it down and oust him. It will probably end up being Winn who saves the day somehow before returning to the future.

I'm still annoyed at the whole cube thing and Brainy letting Lex take it instead of Brainy using it himself. It doesn't make sense that he didn't use it unless there was a chance it could contain the AI plague-- but if that were the case, they should have said so.

I am glad that Brainy told Winn the truth, though wasn't a fan of the melodrama between them. Overall, this wasn't a bad episode I thought. Yes, indeed eyeglasses as a disguise is far-fetched if not ridiculously silly.

Cool. Thanks for that link.