At the DEO, Lady Brainy and Our Brainy have a little heart to heart; she notices that he’s a bit different than the rest of them, and he admits that he wears personality inhibitors. He says it helps keep his anger and rage at bay, but she tells him he’s missing out on connecting to the Big Brain, a vital part of being Brainiac 5. Lady Brainy says she was married back on her earth. She says she was stronger, smarter, and better just by being around her. THAT’S RIGHT. SHE SAID HER. A delightful turn of events, to be sure. Anyway, her wife is gone now, but because Lady Brainy is tapped into the Big Brain, it’s like she’s still with her all the time.
Lady Brainy assures Our Brainy that the people who love him wouldn’t want him to be less of who he really is. They would want him to reach his full potential.
Elsewhere in DEO HQ, Nia is walking around looking for some Brainys because she brought lunch, when she catches Emo Brainy with the bottle that Dead Brainy warned them about. She fires up a lil dream energy just in case and he drops the Emo act and goes from skittish to calm, cool, and calculating instantly. Bad Brainy tells her that he had bottled up the seven billion souls from his Earth before the anti-matter wave hit, and saved them, but right now they’re in stasis, so he has to release them. Nia tries to talk him down but he fights her and Supergirl ends up having to save her from his chaos, though in the bustle, he gets away.
The other Brainys explain that if Bad Brainy succeeds in opening the bottle on this Earth, both Earths (aka Bottle Earth and the ONLY EARTH LEFT IN EXISTENCE) will be destroyed. They have a little time because the thing Bad Brainy needs to open the bottle most easily was destroyed, but they still need to find and stop him.
Over at CatCo, old “friends” Andrea and Gemma talk business, and Gemma suggests a truly virtual world where people could live our their fantasies indefinitely which surely is a very innocent suggestion and not part of an evil plot at all.
Kara goes to find Our Brainy, because she can tell something is bugging him. He tells her a story about a vacation his family went on to a snowy planet when he was eight years old, and how his mother had bottled the planet for him when she saw how much he loved the snow. His father was appalled at this, and saved that planet from becoming the plaything of a wee child, and little Brainiac 5 got so angry that his father got scared that he’s grow up to bottle planets of his own, so he put the three orbs in Brainy’s head, the personality inhibitors. Brainy thinks this why he’s been one step behind all the other Brainys, this inability to connect to the Big Brain, and why Bad Brainy got away with his misdeeds.
Then Supergirl looks right into the camera and says, “Valerie Anne, listen to this part, okay?” and then looks back at Brainy and assures him that he will never be his mother, because he is so loved, and that the people who love him will fight for him. They won’t let him go down a dark path. They know who he is deep inside, and they will ring the alarms if he starts to stray too far from that.
Brainy appreciates those words more than she’ll ever know, and calls Kara’s ability to instill hope practically magic. At the same time they realize who Bad Brainy might turn to for help: the witches.
So Supergirl, Dreamer, and Brainy head to Als’ Bar, where the witches are, in fact, trying to open the bottle with magic, and then have a bar fight… to the song It’s Gonna Be Me. At first I thought my TV was glitching but then when I realized they were really leaning in, I was here for it.
Supergirl tries to talk Bad Brainy down, saying you can’t undo the past, and that ruining the future won’t help.
Our Brainy gets thrown to the floor and one of his inhibitors cracks again and he’s feeling overwhelmed and scared, but Nia tells him that it’s okay to take off his inhibitors if they’re starting to feel like they’re hurting more than helping.
So he does, and as he connects to the Big Brain, his skin turns green and his hair turns blonde and he… looks… AMAZING??? I don’t even have any feelings whatsoever about the fact that he now matches the classic comic character more closely, I just thought he looked very suave and badass… maybe I have a secret Elphaba kink, I dunno.
Our Brainy talks to Bad Brainy, telling him that his choices don’t have to defy him. Supergirl adds that it’s not too late to make a different choice. They all agree that they can still find a way to open the bottle, but safely and in a more thought-out way that won’t put anyone in danger. So he gives in and hands them the bottle. Then he and the witches go inside to await their fate with the rest of their Earth.
Supergirl and Dreamer take the bottle to the Fortress, while Hip Brainy and Lady Brainy give Our Brainy their life projectors and leave their earthly bodies behind to go into the Big Brain.
Before she goes, Lady Brainy warns Our Brainy about Lex Luthor, and how fighting him did her no favors on her Earth, and that working with him is the only way forward.
She tells him to push away everyone he loves, and focus on Lex and Leviathan, reminding him that he’ll never truly be alone now that he’s connected to the Big Brain.
In the Luthor Lair, Lex tries to butter his sister up, but she’s over it and him.
Lex promises that he’s changed, that he’s using the new lease on life the Monitor gave him to change his ways; he doesn’t want revenge on her, he wants to work with her. He even brought a Truth Seeker to prove it. Lena asks her questions, confirming her assumption that he’d betray her if he had to, and her last question is why he wants to work with her at all.
And he admits he just doesn’t want to be alone. They shake on it, but I still think Lena has a few tricks up her sleeve.
Later, Brainy shows up at Nia’s apartment, and she’s so happy that he’s here and he’s safe and he’s the only Brainy left and that he’s free to be who he is.
Brainy solemnly says that things will have to change, and she says they can handle whatever change they have to if they face it together, but he insists there can be no “together.” He leaves her crying and wondering if this is even her Brainy and I loved Lady Brainy but this was BAD ADVICE. El mayarah or bust baybee!
At some other ceremony or speech or whatever, Lena is introducing Lex when Kara finds William lurking close to the door. He’s wary of Lex, and on this Earth, he didn’t come to CatCo to investigate Andrea, he came to keep an eye on Lex. He thinks Luthors are no good, but Kara comes to Lena’s defense, again, still, always.
She says Lena is in just as much danger as anyone else, and Lillian and Lex’s chit chat in the wings seems to prove her right.
After the ceremony, Brainy goes to see Lex and says that he’s willing to work together to defeat Leviathan. Lex is thrilled to have a twelfth-level intellect on his side, and says their next step is to get future knowledge from another Crisis paradox: a criminal that looks an awful lot like Winn Schott.
I really enjoyed this episode and I think it will be really fun to spend the rest of the season trying to parse out the Crisis aftermath. What’s new, what’s missing, and what that means for our National City friends. And all the cities for that matter… did you see that Lena Luthor was mentioned on the cover of the issue of CatCo magazine where Batwoman gave Kara Danvers an exclusive interview? What’s up with that??
