Frenemies Chapter 9: The Monsters – Director: Andi Armaganian/Writer: Geoff Johns
This one starts with Lily Mahkent (Cameron’s grandma) reflecting on her family’s legacy of cold-based powers. When she finds out Cameron is still interested in art (which his grandpa Sofus is cool with), she gets pissed off and blames Courtney for distracting Cameron from using his powers to benefit his family.
At home, Barbara is happy when Pat and Courtney get back. Courtney goes up to her room and instantly makes up with Yolanda. Pat is still freaked out by his experience in the Shadowlands, but he opens up to Barbara about his
fears of following in his father’s footsteps by making Mike feel inadequate. Barbara reminds him that he’s nothing like his father and Pat tells Barbara how Mike’s mom abandoned him because she was a junkie. Pat says Mike used to ask to see his mom but eventually stopped when Pat refused. But now he wonders if he should let Mike see his mom and Barbara says it might be a good idea, since Courtney 
got some closure from seeing her loser father. Courtney and Yolanda talk about Yolanda’s family and Courtney says she needs Yolanda’s support for something she’s considering. At the diner, Mike wants to find out who planted the cameras, but Jakeem is worried about Cindy, reminding Mike that she stood up for them at school but they didn’t have her back when she started mutating.
Mr. Deisinger (Cameron’s art teacher) shows up at the Mahkent house to discuss Cameron quitting his art class. Deisinger wants Cameron to resume his art since he has such a passion for it, but when he mentions Jordan’s
death Lily freaks out and kills him. At the garage, Pat is trying to track down info on Mike’s mom when Crusher shows up to ask how things are going tracking the spy and offers to listen to Pat’s problems. At school, Courtney apologizes to Beth and Rick for lying about seeing Cameron, but gets them worked up again when she says she wants to be honest with Cameron about everything … including her secret identity. Rick points out that Courtney telling Cameron her secret 
(and the truth about his father) will expose the rest of them too. Yolanda supports Courtney and Rick agrees to go along with it since he considers the JSA his family, but he still thinks it’s a bad idea. At the gym, Paula tries to teach Barbara some self-defense techniques, but Barbara’s really not into it. At school, Mike and Jakeem break into Cindy’s locker and find a list of her father’s labs with all of them crossed off except one … the Etter Farm.
Courtney goes to Cameron’s place to tell him the truth about everything. Meanwhile, Beth tracks the link to the cameras (which has been bouncing
around and sending Sylvester all over the place searching) to the Mahkent mansion. Before Courtney can tell Cameron the truth about his dad being a supervillain, Lily interrupts them. Before anything can come of that, Rick comes busting in as Hourman and Lily prepares to kill him. Yolanda sneaks into the house, leaving Beth outside since fighting isn’t her thing, but Beth goes in anyway. 
Sofus pulls Lily away and Cameron starts fighting with Rick, smashing up the house. Lily ends up fighting Yolanda and Sofus finds Beth and goes after her. (Lily and Sofus do pretty well in the fight for seniors.) Beth figures out her suit has a Combat Mode and ends up doing pretty well against Sofus, although she needs some help from Artemis, who shows up unexpectedly. Rick and Yolanda get the shit kicked out of them and Cameron is ready to waste Rick after Lily tells him the JSA killed his father. But Sofus comes in and tells Cameron to stop
before keeling over from a heart attack. Beth uses the defibrillator in the suit (and some advice from her parents) to save him, but Cameron knows the truth now and can’t quite look at Courtney the same way. Meanwhile, Mike and Jakeem go out to the Etter Farm to look for Cindy. They explore the barn, but instead of Cindy they find … a giant albino gorilla! Yeah, it’s Ultra-Humanite and he’s not happy to see them.
This is a really good episode that finally shows us the main villain for the season. I’m assuming Ultra-Humanite is the one who’s been watching them 
and who killed the Gambler. He seems to be trying to get them to distrust each other, which sounds like the kind of psychological manipulation he was famous for in the comics. Ultra-Humanite goes back to the Golden Age, but was an Infinity Inc villain in the comics. He was originally a Superman enemy who kept transferring his mind into various bodies, including an actress named Dolores Winters, but he’s most well-known in albino ape form. I’m curious to see what his motive is for everything he’s been doing. We also get a good fight between the JSA and the Mahkents and Cameron learns the truth about Courtney and her friends. It was cool to see Sofus telling Cameron to let go of his anger
and hate because that’s what destroyed his father, but even if Cameron doesn’t consider Courtney and the JSA as outright enemies, he’s probably going to have a hard time trusting her again. It was cool to see Beth finally getting to fight and it’s obvious that Rick is getting more aggressive because he took the limiter of the hourglass … the superhero equivalent of ’roid rage, I guess. So far, Beth seems to be the only one who suspects what’s going on with him, so it’ll be interesting to see if she shares her suspicions. (She tried in this episode, but Yolanda wasn’t listening.)
Favourite Quotes:
- “I’m gonna start with the basics … how to shatter a man’s spleen.” Paula beginning Barbara’s self-defense training.
- “Oh, a girl with a giant knife in her arm.” The Thunderbolt answering Jakeem’s question about who keeps metal polish in a school locker.
- “And a lot of manure, like Biff Tannen-level manure.” Thunderbolt describing the contents of the barn with a Back to the Future reference.