Frenemies Chapter 6: the Betrayal – Director: Lea Thompson/Writers: Alfredo Septien, Turi Meyer
This one starts with Cindy removing incriminating stuff from the old Injustice Society headquarters. (She knows someone’s been there because Sylvester destroyed the portrait of the Society when he had his freak-out last episode.) We see that Cindy is getting more like her father, with not only her arm growing scales but her eyes flicking back and forth between normal and reptilian.
Rick breaks into Crusher’s gym to test his super-strength and it seems even greater than before. It also lasts longer than an hour, so getting rid of the
hourglass’s limiter obviously worked. We see the mysterious figure who’s planted cameras all over Blue Valley is watching Rick on a monitor. He’s also doing a jigsaw puzzle, but doesn’t have much done yet (and apparently he likes to start in the centre instead of with the edges … obviously a villain). At church, Yolanda confesses to breaking into Cindy’s house and taking the laptop (although she leaves out the details), but she tells the priest she doesn’t want forgiveness for what 
she’s done, but for what she’s about to do. At home, Mike is making vegetable juice with an industrial-strength juicer the Crocks dropped off (after they threw away all the non-healthy food). Sylvester tells them he couldn’t find any sign of Dragon King and mentions that Courtney’s been hanging around with Cameron lately. Speaking of which, she’s at his place helping him learn to control his powers, although she’s not thrilled to see him fashion an ice statue of his father.
Mike and Jakeem try to convince Cindy to work with them again, but she’s still not interested. At the garage, Yolanda shows the others (except
Courtney) Gambler’s laptop and tells them she found it in Cindy’s bedroom. Sylvester tells her to return it after Beth copies the info, so Cindy won’t know they’re onto her. Pat and Barbara go to the Mahkent house to drop of some fruit and talk about Courtney and Cameron’s new relationship. Cameron’s grandpa serves them some lutefisk and we see that his wife is way more homicidal than him (she asks in Norwegian if he poisoned the fish) and she’s also way more worried 
about Cameron dating Courtney. At the diner, Zeek gives Mike and Jakeem advice on women (and we learn he has quite the romantic history). At the Mahkent house, Courtney isn’t happy to see her parents there and as they’re leaving she mentions that Cameron’s grandma probably has cold powers like Icicle did. We see the mysterious figure watching them on a monitor and still working on his puzzle.
At home, Beth works on decrypting Gambler’s files and warns her parents again (more forcefully this time) about getting too involved in her superhero life. Yolanda drops by to get the laptop and asks Beth if she’s all
right. Beth asks if she’s doing the right thing freezing her parents out, but Yolanda points out that her own parents are terrible, so she’s not the best person to ask. At home, Cameron leaves flowers for Courtney, which worries Barbara even more. Yolanda gets caught by Cindy while returning the laptop and refuses to believe Cindy when she says she didn’t kill Gambler. Yolanda attacks her and they start 
beating the shit out of each other, the fight eventually moving outside. Meanwhile, Beth finds the secret video surveillance with Gambler’s software and sees the fight on one of the video feeds, calling Courtney to tell her. Rick shows up to help and they double-team Cindy, freaking out when they see the scales on her arm. Courtney arrives to stop the fight and realizes the weird DNA at the crime scene belonged to Cindy, not her father.
Cindy tells them she started mutating after they returned from the Shadowlands and she took Gambler’s laptop to find more of her father’s labs. She insists she didn’t kill Gambler, but even Courtney is starting to
wonder. Cindy hits back by telling Yolanda and Rick that Courtney’s been teaching Cameron how to use his ice powers. They’re not happy about that and head back to the garage to argue things out, where Courtney says she’s just trying to help him and that they should be helping Cindy too. But the rest of the JSA feel betrayed, even Beth, and Courtney says maybe Sylvester should lead the team instead of her until they work things out. Later, Sylvester gives Courtney some advice about 
finding balance and not expecting too much from herself (and talks about his sister and Brainwave being a couple). Pat overhears and afterwards tells Courtney the advice was great. When Beth realizes the extent of the surveillance on the JSA, she goes to let Pat and Courtney know (using their new juicer to cover their conversation) and they’re freaked out to find there’s even a camera inside their house. We see the mysterious guy still working on his puzzle, which looks like a skull.
This is a pretty good episode, with everyone turning on Cindy and (to a lesser extent) on Courtney. I think the others feel more betrayed by
Courtney lying to them than Cindy, since they always assumed Cindy was lying but trusted Courtney completely. Last episode, I mentioned how I thought Sylvester seemed to be driving wedges between various JSAers and this episode has Courtney resigning and suggesting he lead the team. That almost sounds like he might’ve planned it, except he tells Courtney he doesn’t want to lead the team and that he’ll convince the others to take her back. It’s almost like 
Sylvester is two different people sometimes. I’m not sure what’ll happen with Cindy, but if they realize they have a common enemy (the guy who’s spying on everyone), maybe they’ll all work together to find out who he is. My money’s still on Mr. Bones, especially now that we’ve seen the skull in the jigsaw puzzle. Mike and Jakeem’s attempts to get Cindy to work with them are interesting, but I can’t help wondering if they might both be crushing on her a little bit.
Favourite Quotes:
- “Yeah, but nobody wins if we do that. I wanna win!” Mike explaining why cooperation isn’t his thing.
- “I love old people, but they scare the hell out of me.” Pat after leaving the Mahkent house.