The episode starts with yet another reference in superhero fiction to "THE FANTASTIC VOYAGE" with Atom and Bumblebee attempting to remove the scarab from Jaime Reyes at the cellular level. While I've seen scenes like this with shrinking heroes many times, this one still manages to work, and I sense a loose comparison to Hank Pym and Janet Van Dyne between these two - the older scientist who's mastered shrinking, and the pretty young lady he's empowered and made his partner. The difference naturally is that Bumblebee is a scientist herself, and Ray Palmer isn't insane. The Atom is apparently a character closer to Greg Weisman's heart (alongside Black Canary and Captain Atom, whose comic he edited in the 80's post-CRISIS), yet he's actually resisted overusing him to a degree. This has always been curious to me because as a fan who is weary of some of the same old faces, I probably prefer seeing some more obscure DC heroes get vital roles rather than Batman or Superman. The Atom's design here is pretty cool, and this is a solid depiction for him. Regardless, as the fanatical spin doctor G. Gordon Godfrey reveals, the Reach have teamed up with LexCorp to not only begin developing genetically modified food, but they're doing so in Smallville, a.k.a. Superman's old home town. I'm honestly not sure if this incarnation of Luthor knows Superman's secret (it does seem a bit daft for villains as smart as "The Light" not to know who he is, considering his only disguise is a pair of glasses and Clark Kent is a notable reporter), but even if not, I still considered that cold.
Naturally, Nightwing assembles an alpha squad to infiltrate the facility and gain any Reach samples. This gives Tim Drake/Robin III a chance to shine, as well as adds more focus to those two characters who are totally not leads this season, Impulse and Blue Beetle. Tossed along for the ride is Arsenal, a.k.a. the "real" Roy Harper or Angry Arrow II or whatever you choose to call him. He's still sporting the cybernetic arm Lex Luthor gave him and he still has an attitude problem - if anything, he proves more unstable than even Red Arrow was. They are led on a tour by Sharon Vance, a minor Smallville based characters for cameo fans, which leads to a scene where some background ADR had to be recorded by the voice actors. Either Crispin Freeman or Phil LaMarr get in an exclamation of, "Now THAT'S a rutabaga!" and it made me laugh in the teaser and still did in the episode. It has to become a ringtone or a meme, I swear. Regardless, alpha squad soon manages to procure a sample of the Reach's "additive", but not before Arsenal botches the mission and they have another rematch with Black Beetle, who continues to be virtually unstoppable.
The B-plot of the episode, as the teaser revealed, was Sportsmaster confronting "The Light" over the death of his daughter. I was a bit disappointed that the meat of the scene was essentially revealed in the teaser. While Cheshire had declared revenge upon Kaldur and Black Manta back in "SATISFACTION" - because while she was a criminal she still loved her sister to a degree - for Sportsmaster it's all about his honor and professional reputation. Deathstroke (and thank god CN and Weisman aren't afraid of soccer moms this time and can call him Deathstroke) has been hired to replace Sportsmaster as "The Light"'s key "enforcer". Naturally we get more of Miguel Ferrer's Vandal Savage, which is always nice. It does appear as if Savage does at least make attempts to appease the issues of underlings; they did offer Sportsmaster a payoff. And back in "COLDHEARTED", Savage was essentially doing a favor for Count Vertigo, presumably as payment for his actions within the Injustice League gambit (as well as to hopefully gain Lativa as another country within "The Light"'s thrall). Now that formalities are over, Sportsmaster and Cheshire are fully intending to go against "The Light". Frankly, I imagine they'll accomplish more than the heroes ever will. It is wholly ironic that Nightwing's entire crazy infiltration plan was derived to topple "The Light", and it may succeed not for anything they did or do, but because it turned some of "The Light"'s key operatives against them by sheer circumstance and not design.
Much like "BEFORE THE DAWN", the battle against Black Beetle here is a good one. Kevin Grevioux gets some juicy one-liners to throw at the kid heroes in between mopping the floor with them. Naturally considering Black Beetle was able to cream the "heavy hitters" of the team like Superboy and Wonder Girl without much hassle, these four have little chance until a Green Beetle from Mars arrives to spout a reference to Edgar Rice Burroughs and save their bacon. I was curious if the old farmer at the tour was Pa Kent and it is revealed that it is, aiding the team with the use of a barn even with the man of steel absent. Pa had no issue accepting Conner into their home, which was always at the heart of why I find it stupid that Superman wasn't able to accept him in the comics and in the 'toon; the Kents raised him better than that. The Green Beetle reveals the Reach's long term conquest of the cosmos and offers to help Jaime. Naturally, this triggers my sense that he's a mole for the Reach to try to reclaim the scarab, since they failed when they'd captured Blue Beetle. Usually the only beneficial creatures the team meets wind up becoming Superboy's pets (Wolf & Sphere). While Green Beetle is hanging out at the Kent farm, I don't think that counts.
The episode ends with Vandal and Luthor musing over the usual thing they tend to do; how useless and ineffective whatever mission against them was. They totally expected the team to eventually claim a sample of the additive, and they didn't even discover Luthor's most valuable produce - a power drink made by the Reach. They set out to create their own team of young stealth operatives, perhaps due to tiring of even these mundane intrusions, or seeking their own team of public Reach-made heroes for Godfrey to fawn over. Naturally, they are targeting the vagabond teenagers the Reach had abducted and activated the metagenes of. The Reach are interested in cultivating and harvesting the metagenes of humans, which likely fits into Vandal Savage's plan to ensure Earth is stronger by evolving people faster. Naturally, the Reach ultimately plan to take over the planet, which is a future that Bart at least knows is successful. Vandal mentions a child and his best known one is Scandal from SECRET SIX, although he has another daughter post-New 52. Honestly it doesn't matter; a guy who's 50,000 years old like Vandal is would surely have sired quite a few children; and probably slew the ones he didn't like. Not only this, but he brings in Psimon to Black Manta's comatose son (the undercover Kaldur) and vows to reassemble his mind once again. "THE FIX" naturally suggests that they go after Megan, but that seemed to be odd to me without Psimon being given a try. Naturally this opens up a few possibilities. Does Psimon discover that Kaldur (and Tigress/Artemis) are moles? And if so, to "The Light" simply seek to eliminate them, or exploit it to position the team where they want them? Or, does Psimon simply assume that such "memories" were part of Miss Martian's psychic tampering and "fix" them? He's a powerful psychic, but he's no match for the white martian, after all. Regardless, it raises the stakes for "THE FIX" next week accordingly. If whatever actions Psimon undertakes to Kaldur in that episode do in fact twist him towards "the Light" and away from the team, it isn't exactly something which was Nightwing's fault, since he didn't known Miss Martian had become a psychic monster (because Superboy had hidden it from him). Of course, it could (and likely will) be argued that had Artemis' death not been faked, or had more people been aware of it, it wouldn't have happened. Regardless, there is the chance for "the team" to fracture a bit more as the villains are shoring up their own ranks a bit.
I have to admit being amused by Bumblebee screaming at the start of the episode, "We've accomplished NOTHING!" It's so good to see the newer members of the team catching the drift of the theme of the series. Much like Drake not telling Nightwing about Arsenal's instability; he got the memo about keeping secrets for the sake of drama over function. Regardless, this episode was better able to mingle subplot, dialogue, and action than last week's effort and thus was a better showing. Blue Beetle as always is a great new "dragon" for the villains and more of Vandal Savage is always nice. Robin got some time in the field and while the B-plot was a bit more suspenseful for the future, the A-plot was able to keep my attention due to the witty villain and the hopelessly unstable Arsenal. Man, that Roy Harper DNA is just flawed. He's predisposed for mania. I was hoping that one of the cybernetic attachments would be a dead-cat canon, but alas, I was denied. I am curious whether Luthor's bionic arm has a drawback which Luthor can exploit, much as his S-shields had. Regardless, a fight with a large brick of an enemy which can engage in witty banter is always better than one who merely roars like a tiger, so this was a success. The angle with the Reach and LexCorp handling food naturally dips into the very real life debate over genetically modified food, which is a smart thing to dip into for a superhero cartoon show. It had been a few episodes since the team went out on an attempted black ops mission which wasn't involving rescuing their own, much like Season 1 had a lot of. As the season winds through its second half, things are ramping up accordingly. Considering how huge the Blue Beetle of the future was, I am not altogether convinced it is Jaime Reyes, and thus his desire to be rid of the scarab may be exactly what Impulse is trying to avoid. The Reach likely have a more hostile host planned.
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