Slick’s Nit-Picks: Young Justice Invasion, Episode 205 – “Beneath”

Yes, I talk to myself.

While it still has not been officially revealed, anyone can see that the “Partner” is connected to Blue Beetle in some way. I went into depth on this in the review for Salvage. The Reach will come into play, the question is simply when and how. We still have no idea what The Light is even up to or why they controlled the Justice League last season. All we do know is that for the moment, the team is basically the Justice League. The fact that several of the most powerful heroes on Earth are not around needs to be kept secret. This, of course, probably means there are those outside of the team who already know. Business is about to pick up.

Soylent Green is people! It’s made from…oh wait, wrong show.

^{SAVE THE CHILDREN} Jaime gets a late night call from his friend Ty Longshadow. Tired of having to deal with his mother’s boyfriend, Ty is running away and tells Jaime goodbye. Jaime tries to talk him out of it but the decision is made for Ty when a shadowed figure abducts him. Jaime does his best Batman impression trying to find out where Ty is. Meanwhile, the team struggles to find out who was behind the death of the Kroloteans on Earth. Nightwing sends an all-female Alpha Squad to Bialya to avoid the possibility of Queen Bee manipulating any team members. Their mission is to search for alien tech and possibly discover who the Light’s partner is. Things go south quickly as the trusty psychic link is rendered useless by the appearance of Psimon and Batgirl is captured. Wonder Girl, through all of this, feels an overwhelming need to prove herself to the team and it looks as though she will get her chance.

I can do it too!

^{SOMETIMES I “WONDER” ABOUT THIS GIRL} When you have a stealth mission, Wonder Girl is not really a great choice for your team. She receives extensive training from Wonder Woman and her combat skills are quite amazing for her age. The issue is that Wonder Woman herself, is not a master of subtlety. While they make it look good, the pair tend to have a bit of a “Hulk smash” style approach. She understands why she is left behind to keep watch, but at the same time she does not like it. She comes to understand that she might need some more training in keeping out of sight when Devastation spots her and the mission is jeopardized. She was fortunate this time that her abilities did more good than harm, but I am sure she will either ask for more training or avoid missions like this one in the future.

Inuckchuck!

^{KEEP YOUR FRIENDS “SUPER”} One of the things that really made this episode cool was the unspoken homage to the old Super Friends cartoon. Apache Chief was not originally a real DC comics character; he was made up for the cartoon along with several others to show more racial diversity on television in the eighties. There have been several different incarnations of the character, both in comics and on screen. Gregg Rainwater voiced a character named Long Shadow that appeared in Justice League Unlimited. Long Shadow was based on and had the same powers as Apache Chief to grow in size and strength. Since Rainwater voices Tye in this show and his family name is Longshadow, it is almost guaranteed that the boy either has these powers or will gain them soon. I am just wondering if he will say “Inuckchuck” to activate his powers.

No! I don’t wanna dress up as Megatron ’til Halloween!

^{BLUE RAGE} While Jaime is looking for Tye, he has to restrain the Scarab on several occasions. While dealing with Maurice, the Scarab feels threatened because he threatens Jaime and even becomes physical with him. This shows us the more violent nature of the device and how Jaime struggles to control it. What was odd was how it responded to Tye’s grandfather. Somehow, Holling seemed to know about the Scarab and the possibility of being discovered sent it into alarm mode as well. Once again, we see evidence of the Reach and  their infiltration tactics. Jaime is trying to be a hero, but the Scarab clearly has a different agenda. When the time comes, it will be interesting to see who has control.

Which one of you stepped on my bunion!?!???

This episode was a testament to the great storytelling that this show has. We see recurring characters go after specific targets based upon encounters in previous episodes. Icicle Jr. wants to get revenge on Miss Martian for playing with his feelings back in the season one episode, “Terrors.” Psimon has had a couple of encounters with her as well and they never seem to go too well for him so he was more than willing to try and engage her mind so that others could destroy her body. It is weird that Psimon was aware of Batman not being on Earth, which makes me think there might once again be a mole on the team, considering the Justice League left from an unnamed beach in the middle of the ocean. I could be barking up the wrong tree though because Aqualad’s crew could have easily seen them launch from the submarine they were in. Regardless, we once again have more questions than answers because now we wonder what the partner wants with abducted children. We also have to wonder if they are all metahumans like Tye and how the partner would even be able to know that.

You were right, that Snickers made me feel much better.