Frenemies Chapter 8: Infinity Inc. Part 2 – Director: Glen Winter/Writers: Paula Sevenbergen, Robbie Hyne
This one continues from last episode, with Pat and Shade stuck in the Shadowlands version of Blue Valley. Shade figures it’ll be easy to go back, but his powers are useless as long as Jenny’s ring is still corrupted by the dark energy, so Shade and Pat are trapped.
Back at Helix, the whole place goes on lockdown after Todd’s explosion. He seems to regain control after Courtney urges him to think of his family, but he’s soon confronted with a vision of one of his former foster parents, a
homophobic asshole. When Jenny moves to protect her brother, their hands touch and there’s another explosion that knocks Courtney out. She wakes up in an office where she finds herself locked in. After an aborted attempt to call for help (frustrated by her inability to work a rotary phone), Nurse Love comes in and gives her shit for endangering them all by interrupting the procedure they were doing on Todd. Love says if Todd’s power goes out of control, the whole world could be pulled into the Shadow Dimension, but Courtney refuses to leave since Pat is stuck in that dimension and she knows what kind of crap he 
must be going through (since she was there herself not too long ago). Nurse Love locks her in the office again and Courtney realizes someone’s watching her on a camera. In the Shadowlands, Shade warns Pat that the place will prey on his fears and regrets and he can’t get fooled by the visions he’ll see. Shade claims he’s above any such feelings, but when they go into the diner, a vision of the Gambler seems to indicate that Shade harbours some guilt for not forgiving Gambler.
Shade retreats when Gambler starts talking about his sister and they end up in the garage, where Pat gets a surprise … his father is there. Back at Helix, Jenny wakes up in a chamber she can’t escape and Mr. Bones tells her
(through a speaker) that she and Todd can never be reunited, for the sake of the world. Todd is in another room, where Bones is using machinery to try to control (or remove) Todd’s powers. In the Shadowlands, we learn that Pat’s dad was a real prick, treating Pat like shit and telling him he’d never amount to anything (and blaming him for the trouble in his parents’ marriage). Shade warns Pat not to take it seriously, but Pat says that’s how his father actually was, although 
strangely he doesn’t seem to hate him for it. They leave the garage and end up in Shade’s past, when his sister was dying. Shade tries to leave but Pat points out that Courtney survived the Shadowlands by facing her own darkness. Pat figures the key to getting out of the Shadowlands is to face things instead of running from them, but Shade says he can no longer feel anything and forces his way out of his sister’s room into another part of the Shadow Dimension.
At Helix, Courtney meets Mr. Bones who tells her he and the others at Helix were born with their powers, so they can’t turn them off. He says that’s more of a curse than a blessing, but Courtney still thinks it’s wrong for
them to isolate themselves from the world. In the Shadowlands, Pat and Shade end up in Pat’s house and Shade is in bad shape from travelling through Jenny’s green fire. Shade admits he wasn’t really there when his sister died, having separated himself from her so he wouldn’t have to deal with losing her. Obviously, that didn’t keep him from caring about her. Their conversation is interrupted when Pat’s dad shows up with Barbara and Mike. At Helix, Bones tells Courtney she has to get Jenny away from Todd, but Courtney says her light is what Todd needs to save him … and bring Pat back. Courtney says living life alone is a pointless existence and that seems to get through to Bones. Courtney goes 
to see Jenny and tells her the best way she can help Todd is to have faith in their connection and the love she feels for him. In the Shadowlands, Pat’s father points out that Mike feels worthless because Pat doesn’t pay any attention to him and his mother abandoned him when he was a kid. The Shadow version of Mike says he’ll hate Pat someday as much as Pat hates his father, but Pat says he doesn’t hate his dad and never did. That banishes the visions, but more green flames appear all around them.
At Helix, Todd’s powers go out of control but Jenny connects with him, telling him their bond can never be broken and they need to embrace it.
Todd absorbs the darkness tainting Jenny’s ring and they flash back to when they were torn apart as kids. But now they’re together again and their love for each other helps Todd get control of his powers. Pat convinces Shade to run through the fire and they end up back in the real world now that Jenny’s ring has been purged of its darkness. Courtney is surprised to learn the patients at Helix are there voluntarily and can leave whenever they want, but she’s even more surprised to find out it wasn’t Helix that planted all the cameras in Blue Valley. Todd and Jenny decide to leave Helix and Courtney’s words about isolation being wrong seem to have inspired Bones to form his own team. 
Pat suggests to Shade that he should help Todd learn to control his powers and he reluctantly agrees, starting with taking them to New York to find Sandy Hawkins. Pat and Courtney are forced to take the bus home and Pat refuses to discuss his experiences in the Shadowlands. Courtney realizes she can help people without her Staff and wonders who’s been watching them if it wasn’t Helix. We get a look at a hooded figure in the tunnels under Blue Valley, pissed off now that all his cameras have been destroyed.
This is a pretty good episode that settles the trouble Todd’s been having and reunites him with his sister, while also restoring Shade’s powers (and maybe giving him a positive outlet for them by helping train Todd). It’s interesting that Pat says he never hated his father for how he treated him;
does that mean Pat forgave him, or did he always realize his father was just lashing out to cover his own inadequacies? Pat’s acceptance is contrasted with Shade’s refusal to face his own feelings, especially the guilt he feels for not being there when his sister died. She’s played here by Amy Smart, which is a nice touch since Shade told Barbara she reminded him of Emily. I had assumed Bones was behind the cameras in Blue Valley, but now I have no idea who it is. It was 
cool to get glimpses of some other Helix residents: Tao Jones and Kritter, Penny Dreadful, and Carcharo, all of whom were Helix members in the comics. As usual, there wee some humorous touches thrown in like Courtney’s trouble with the rotary phone and Pat recognizing Nurse Love as his old math teacher. The Sandy Hawkins reference was cool too (Sandy is the nephew of Wes Dodds, the original Sandman, and apparently has his dreaming powers too), and I’m hoping we’ll see him in a future episode.
Favourite Quotes:
- “That isn’t normal.” Shade upon seeing green lightning hit the clock tower in the Shadowlands version of Blue Valley.
- “Hey, you either die in here or you die trying … pick one!” Pat exhorting Shade to take a chance and run through the fire with him.