Frenemies Chapter 7: Infinity Inc. Part 1 – Director: Glen Winter/Writer: James Dale Robinson
This one starts six months ago, with a familiar scene … Jenny getting kicked out of the orphanage and receiving her father’s Green Lantern ring (which we saw at the beginning of last season). At the same time, her twin brother Todd and his boyfriend Danny are in Civic City breaking into a fancy restaurant to celebrate Todd’s birthday. Danny is going to “borrow” the restaurant for a romantic dinner and gives
Todd a ticket to Milwaukee so they can look for his sister. When Jenny’s powers are activated by handling her father’s ring, Todd’s darkness powers manifest simultaneously, freaking him out and making enough of a ruckus to bring the cops. Instead of being arrested, he’s taken to the Helix Institute (who apparently paid the cops to find him), where he meets Nurse Love and Mr. Bones.
Back in Blue Valley in the present, Courtney’s family are trying to act normal since they know there’s a camera watching them. They’ve come up 
with a plan to get rid of the cameras all over town, but Mike and Pat aren’t great at acting natural. At the garage, Rick, Zeek, and Jakeem are playing Perfection and Zeek is passing the time with a story about his grandpa. Yolanda’s at work and her mom calls to let her know she’s aware Yolanda’s been lying about working nights. She’s saved when Beth cuts the power all over town, a plan Beth refers to as “Operation Blackout Bomb”, a nice nod to the original Dr. Mid-Nite. When the power goes out, the JSA start smashing all the cameras they can find. Rick and Beth get the cameras at school and Beth notices that Rick seems to even more full of rage than usual. At home, Courtney and Pat remove the
cameras in the basement and talk about Courtney’s problems with the rest of the team. Pat reminds her that she recruited them and showed them how to be heroes, and says he doesn’t think her work is done yet. They’re interrupted when Shade shows up to ask Courtney for help. She’s reluctant but he grabs her and vanishes, with Pat tagging along for the ride.
Yolanda removes the cameras in her house but her mom confronts her about her lies. Her mom accuses her of all kinds of shit and says if she wants 
to stay there, she’ll have to live by her mom’s rules. At home, Mike realizes Pat and Courtney are missing and tells Barbara. Shade, Courtney, and Pat materialize in the basement of the Helix Institute and Shade tells them his powers are fading and only one person can fix them. No, not Courtney … he’s talking about Jenny, whose Green Lantern energy could fix Shade’s powers, but who refuses to help him. She wants their help to save Todd, who’s being held upstairs. Apparently, when Jenny absorbed the dark energy at the school before their big fight with Eclipso (at the end of last season), it caused some kind of resonance between the ring’s energy and the material from the Shadow
Dimension. The two energy sources are tangled up and that’s what’s affecting Shade’s powers. Jenny needs to get rid of the dark energy and she figures Courtney can help since she broke free of Eclipso’s influence. Courtney points out that it was her love for family and friends that let her beat Eclipso, so if Jenny can save Todd, that might help her purge the dark energy. Mr. Bones is subjecting Todd to some kind of treatment to enhance his powers or something, so they don’t have much time.
At the garage, Jakeem wishes for all the cameras the Gambler’s killer 
touched, but it just produces a slew of old film cameras instead of the digital ones that have been spying on everyone. Zeek tells Jakeem it might take passion and commitment instead of just proper wording to make a wish come true. Yolanda shows up at Courtney’s house and tells Barbara she needs a place to stay. At the school, the power comes back on just as Rick is destroying the last camera, so he sends whoever’s watching a message that they’ll be coming for him. At the Helix Institute, Shade can feel Todd’s presence (probably because they both wield the dark energy) and leads them to where Todd is being held. He
warns them that if they remove him from the room, his unbridled power could destroy the world. When Jenny touches him, he explodes with their combined energies and changes into creature made of the dark substance. When Pat tries to protect Courtney from being hit, he and Shade end up in a Shadowlands version of Blue Valley.
This is a pretty good episode, that brings back Jenny and finally shows us 
her brother Todd. I always liked the Infinity Inc comic, so it’s cool to see Jade and Obsidian here. I’m wondering if we’ll see any of the others from the comic, like Fury, Northwind, or Nuklon. Sylvester was the leader of Infinity Inc in the comics, so maybe he’ll end up leading them here too (and hopefully won’t suffer the same fate as his comics counterpart). Rick seems to be getting addicted to the power from the hourglass (which makes him more aggressive), mimicking the Miraclo addiction seen in the comics. Since everyone knows it wasn’t Cindy who
planted the cameras (or any of the Injustice Society), maybe the JSA will be ready to give Courtney a break for believing in her. It’ll be interesting to see what happens to Pat and Shade in the Shadowlands now that Eclipso’s not controlling things there. We get some great comedy relief moments from Zeek as usual; I especially liked his talk about his D&D playing grandma, who ended up referring to herself as a “Master Sorceress wrapped in the Belt of Dwarvenkind”.
Favourite Quotes:
- “I think we just got a real peanut butter and chocolate type situation.” Pat’s explanation of Jenny and Shade’s powers getting entangled.
- “American icons, kid.” Zeek’s explanation to Jakeem when he asks who Professor Plum and Colonel Mustard are.