Frenemies Chapter 2: The Suspects – Director: Andi Armaganian/Writer: Robbie Hyne
This one starts twelve hours before the end of last episode, which I guess means that everything we saw there took place within those twelve hours. Gambler arrives at his rented trailer and settles in, beginning his search for his daughter, Becky. We see Crusher outside thinking about pounding Gambler, but changing his mind and taking off. We also find out that the mysterious figure watching Gambler last episode was Shade.
At the garage, the JSA are having a meeting with Pat and Sylvester (but without Cindy). We get a quick flashback to the discovery of Gambler’s body, with Cindy claiming she went there to ask him about his old gang and
found the trailer wrecked and Gambler dead. Cindy said she picked up the gun and it accidentally went off, but swore she didn’t kill Gambler. (We also see that Courtney took the letter Gambler wrote to Becky.) Beth points out that Gambler wasn’t shot, which seems to indicate Cindy was telling the truth (although Courtney’s the only one who really believes her). Sylvester suggests that it would take someone with the strength of Solomon Grundy to smash up Gambler’s trailer, but Rick reminds him that Grundy is still dead, in spite of Rick’s attempts to revive him. Yolanda and Rick are certain Cindy killed 
Gambler, but Courtney isn’t sure and figures they need to find Gambler’s missing laptop, reasoning that whoever has it must’ve killed him. Sylvester thinks one of the former Injustice Society members probably killed Gambler. Later, Courtney reads Gambler’s letter to his daughter and it makes her think he was sincere about reforming. In the old Injustice Society headquarters, Cindy seems to be having some kind of pain in her arm, until she distills and drinks a chemical cure for it.
The next morning, Courtney tells Pat about the Gambler’s letter and says she wants to find Becky and give her the letter, something Pat thinks is a
good idea. Mike and Jakeem figure they can earn a place with a JSA if they can catch the Gambler’s killer. At American Dream, Barbara has to deal with an asshole co-worker (Tim) and gets a surprise when she finds Paula waiting in her office. Paula assures her that she and Crusher didn’t kill Gambler. Paula says they’ve been trying to fit in and mentions that she joined the Rotary Club and needs to bake a German Chocolate Cake for the next meeting. Barbara explains why baking the cake is better than just buying one, but can’t help much 
more than that since she’s no baker herself. At school, Beth tells the others that Gambler was stabbed in the heart, which makes Yolanda even more sure that Cindy killed him. Cindy shows up and is pissed off about being excluded from the JSA meetings, since she’s supposed to be a member. As usual, Courtney has to make peace and convinces Cindy to stay and help look for the killer.
At the diner, Shade finally gets a proper cup of tea, but his reverie is
interrupted when Pat and Sylvester show up to ask him about Gambler. Shade tells them he went to Gambler’s trailer to tell him he wanted to forget the past and move on. Sylvester doesn’t believe him and gets rough, so Pat has to defuse the situation. Outside, Pat tells Sylvester he’s not his sidekick anymore, pointing out that he knows Blue Valley much better than Sylvester and that his “bull in a 
china shop” routine won’t work here. Sylvester says he needs to cool off and heads to school to ask Courtney to come train with him. In the art room, Cameron is having trouble just holding his paintbrush now that his cold powers have started to manifest. In their first training session, Sylvester shows Courtney how to channel the power of the Staff through her own body. At home, Barbara and Paula try (unsuccessfully) to bake a German Chocolate Cake.
At school, Mike and Jakeem make a wish to figure out who killed Gambler,
but despite Mike’s careful wording, the answer is ambiguous. (“The Killer Has Many Names.”) Courtney and Sylvester go to Shade’s house so Sylvester can apologize for his behaviour at the diner. Sylvester gets aggressive again, giving Shade shit for his part in killing the JSA. Shade taunts him by saying that 
nobody except Pat showed up for Sylvester’s funeral, which makes Sylvester go nuts and attack Shade taking the Staff from Courtney to help him. Courtney stops him by summoning the Staff back to herself and Shade tells them he was at the diner last night showing Maria how to brew a proper cup of tea. Shade decides he’s had enough of the JSA’s bullshit and says he has his own problems to attend to before vanishing.
Pat and Barbara give Courtney and Sylvester shit for her skipping school and him attacking Shade. Sylvester says he blames Shade for suggesting the
JSA kill Bruce Gordon, which led to the JSA breaking up. But he really blames himself for talking the JSA into committing murder and now he feels guilty because he’s alive and they’re all dead. At the garage, Rick tells Beth his hourglass doesn’t work for a solid hour, but for various random increments of time. Shade shows up to tell them he’s leaving Blue Valley temporarily, and to urge Rick to keep trying to revive Grundy. At home, Courtney tells Sylvester he should concentrate on 
being himself, not just Starman and he says he’ll try. Cameron’s grandparents tell him it’s time he embraced his ice-powered legacy. At Injustice Society headquarters, we see that Cindy does have Gambler’s laptop and is trying to crack his password. At the gym, Crusher reminds Paula that “it’s only a matter of time before they find out”, which seems to upset her.
This is a pretty god episode that shows us the main suspects in Gambler’s murder, giving just enough evidence against each one to make it plausible. But Courtney and Sylvester already believe Shade is innocent and despite
Cindy having the laptop and Crusher’s enigmatic statement to Paula, I don’t think any of them are guilty either. I’m curious to see what’s up with Cindy and the potion she was drinking; it almost seems like her enhanced physiology is breaking down and she’s trying to treat it. Sylvester’s survivor guilt makes sense and was well-expressed and it was cool to see the Staff jump out of his hand and back to Courtney’s when she wanted to stop his attack on Shade; if it ever comes 
down to the Staff choosing between them, I think it might just choose Courtney because of her more positive outlook on the world. There were some good touches of humour in this episode too: Paula and Barbara’s baking troubles, Shade’s sarcasm, Pat and Sylvester doing a Three Stooges thing in the diner booth, and the Thunderbolt referencing a 1973 Columbo episode (“Double Shock”) with Martin Landau and Julie Newmar.
Favourite Quotes:
- “Don’t tell me about that.” Barbara not wanting to hear Paula’s tips on corpse disposal.
- “Comfy?” Shade’s query after Pat and Sylvester try to squeeze into the diner booth together.
- “Says the guy who wears a top hat.” Sylvester’s comeback when Shade brags about how subtle he usually is.