Hi! Welcome to my episode-by-episode recap of, and reaction to Justice League. There will be no spoilers beyond the current episode. As is my custom with recaps, I will give you a short summary recap followed by a long and unnecessarily helpfully detailed version. My reaction will follow at the end if you just want to scroll past all of the recap.
If you want to see my prior Justice League episode reviews, click HERE:
THE QUICK AND CLEAN SUMMARY:
After the android copies the powers of most of the Justice League, we learn it also takes in their weaknesses – which Batman takes advantage of by exposing it to kryptonite. After it flees, they investigate and learn about its maker and its abilities for the eventual rematch.
Meanwhile, Lex learns that Amazo is evolving but manipulates the robot into one more attack against the Justice League. It agrees. Martian Manhunter – who has not yet encountered the robot – is on a retreat and recovering from psychic over-exposure to human selfishness. While away, he sees the selfless side of humanity in a frantic search for a missing girl. After helping her, he returns to help the JL against the android. When it mimics MM’s psychic powers, it learns the truth of its situation, turns against Lex, and then leaves earth to evolve further somewhere out there in space.
THE EXTRA DUSTY RECAP:
[previously on Justice League…]
The Android now has the powers of the entire Justice League, but it still has to fight them. They’re on equal footing. Superman holds its own against it until Batman approaches. It scans Batman and notes that he does not have any powers.
Batman: I have this. ::holds out kryptonite::
The android took on Superman’s weakness in addition to his strength and begins to suffer as a result. It jumps from a building to get away from him and lands in a river below. A moment later, Hawkgirl walks up and asks if he always carries kryptonite around with him.
Batman: Call it insurance.
::Batman leaves::
Hawkgirl: And they say I’m scary.
Lex is visited by Mercy, who tells him that two of “his friends” visited. He is angry and begins working to make something.
The Justice League scans the vicinity of their fight with the android and cannot find even a trace of it. Superman and GL leave to follow up on their Ivo lead. Wonder Woman is tasked with tracking down Martian Manhunter, who has been missing since his psychic scan of the city. When Batman asks if anyone has checked the sewers, Flash looks grossed out and offers to go give GL and the big guy some backup. He then zooms away.
Alone in the woods Martian Manhunter contemplates what just happened. He muses that the selfishness of humanity surprised him. As he asks himself for who and what he is fighting, he sees a couple of people out with flashlights, looking for a girl named Jennifer.
When Superman and Flash arrive at Ivo’s home, the door explodes and throws Flash back. Superman advises him when he returns to grab what he can while Superman blows out the fire. GL, meanwhile, uses his ring’s powers to redirect water to the fire to put it out. The android watches them from a distance. By listening, he learns more of their character and that Luthor is gone.
Lex and Mercy arrive at a secret warehouse, with lead shielding installed to keep him hidden from Superman. We see the android searching the city and then eventually finding them, bursting through the wall as he does. The android uses heat vision to disarm Mercy, as Lex yells to tell him that she’s okay. The android them demonstrates some of Flash’s personality by ogling her and saying that she is way more than okay. Lex asks him if he finished the Justice League, and the android says no. When Lex angrily tells him to get back out there then, the android asks him why.
Lex: Because I’m telling you.
Android: That’s not good enough anymore.
Lex is visibly stunned and afraid.
The search for the missing child that Martian Manhunter observed is still ongoing, with more people now joining the effort. He observes them and hears their compassionate thoughts.
At Ivo’s place, Flash finds the deceased Professor’s gravesite. GL then finds evidence that the android was designed there also. GL tells them that Ivo’s duplication program means that it will not only mimic powers but also evolve more generally.
Lex manipulates the android again. This time, he tells it to go and be happy, saying he will deal with the Justice League himself. He then fakes physical pain to gain its sympathy. As he holds his chest, the android agrees to get rid of them for him. After it flies away, Mercy asks Lex if he is crazy for messing with the android like that. He laughs and says her concern is touching. He then shows her that Ivo built a kill switch into the robot. He shows her the button to detonate a bomb in its head. She asks if the android knows about that, and Lex replies that it doesn’t need to know.
Lex: He is going to do what I want out of love, not fear. But unfortunately, love seldom lasts forever.
Martian Manhunter joins the search for the little girl. He flies over the woods, hearing the thoughts of the searchers, until he finally hears the thoughts of the missing little girl. He then flies to her in his superhero form (he’d been in his Martian form) and takes her to the searchers. He is then mobbed with hugs and gratitude.
After he escapes the group, Wonder Woman finds him. She also hugs him. He hesitates but then hugs her in return.
The android returns to the city and draws the Justice League to its presence. Batman suggests that Superman hangs back so he can use the kryptonite again. Hawkgirl fights the machine and loses, but this gives Batman time to approach again the with kryptonite. This time, it does not work. The robot has evolved. The rest of the JL fights him and they are losing. Wonder Woman warns MM to stay away so that it cannot take his powers, too.
Lex arrives in his own suit to help the android finish them. MM then stands between the android and the others.
MM: We are not your enemy.
The robot scans him, copies his powers, and realizes the truth.
Android: [to Lex] So you lied to me. It was all a lie, wasn’t it.
Lex pulls out the kill switch, tells the android that he must know what this is, and he explodes the robot’s head. To his shock, it grows back a few seconds later. He fights Lex, ripping off his armor piece by piece, but does not kill him. He then comments that all of them are so small and that they offer nothing to him. He glows a golden color and flies into space. When asked where he went, MM says he went to where gods belong. Lex scoffs and says he’s no god.
Superman: Then why do I have a feeling that if he ever comes back, you’re going to be doing a lot of praying.
MM: Perhaps we’ll all be praying.
As the episode ends, we see Mercy at her desk, taking a call from Lex. He is using his one call from jail to request that she send him the best lawyers and doctors in the world. She hangs up on him.
REACTION:
I don’t think either episode actually says it aloud, but the android’s name is Amazo.
As a sci fi story, I really like this one. It’s kind of the best case scenario for an out of control super intelligent AI. Ultimately they are (or become) benevolent and then once they become too powerful they leave to learn elsewhere. It’s not all that different than the movie Her, actually. Amazo was just a son to Lex, rather than a girlfriend to Joaquin Phoenix.
It does kind of bother me that this earth-created android feels more powerful than its Krypton-made counterpart Brainiac. Maybe we should assume that Krypton could have made something like Amazo but that they had the good sense not to do so? What would actually happen if it encountered Brainiac? Or Darkseid? (In short, I think the animated version of the character is too powerful.)
The episode title, Tabula Rasa, made me wonder what the writers were going for. “Tabula Rasa” refers to the mind before it learns anything. I think we’re supposed to see some parallels between Amazo’s journey and the same for Martian Manhunter. Both figure out through experience, eventually shared experience, that love, compassion, and justice are the most powerful virtues of not just mankind but also everyone else. MM starts from a place of overwhelm, due to taking in too much of the city’s selfishness all at once. He works his way back and finds the goodness beneath that selfishness. Amazo starts as an innocent, is manipulated, but ends up in the same place. This is a pretty hopeful story, ultimately. Given time and opportunity and the right interactions, the philosophy of good prevails over the philosophy of evil. One would logically choose good if all things were equal.
“Once I am godlike in power, I will be godlike in nature” is optimistic indeed.
But it does kind of make you wonder what would happen if Lex could see the world the way that MM does. Ultimately (and like a lot of villains), though it is brilliant, his brain is broken.
Good story. Good episode.
Everyone is the center of their own universe, but at the same time, a healthy person acknowledges the humanity of other people. To do evil to other people, villains, historical or fictional, must dehumanize their victims to derail their own potential for empathy. A telepath ought to be unable to ignore the humanity of other people, unless they have dehumanized themselves.