Supergirl season 5, episode 11 review: Back From the Future – Part One

David Harewood directs the return of Jeremy Jordan’s Winn Shott as Supergirl investigates a Toyman copycat. With Winn’s life on the line, the clock is ticking to stop this new criminal.

Brainiac-5 (Jesse Rath) is in cahoots with Lex Luthor (Jon Cryer) to find someone from the future with knowledge of Leviathan. How convenient that they find a Winn Shott (Jeremy Jordan) from another Earth and rescue him from his prison sentence!

Now the real Winn returns to save his future from being destroyed by this doppelganger.

Along with Supergirl (Melissa Benoist) and the Super-friends, will Winn save the day and his family? Or will Brainy’s double-crossing cost Winn everything?

The Return of Toyman

Ever since Oliver Queen merged several Earths into one, there have been anomalies showing up. For Batwoman viewers, Beth Kane is one of them. In this episode of Supergirl, the anomaly is Winn Shott. Following ‘Crisis on Infinite Earths’, on Earth-Prime, there was no Toyman. So this particular Winn comes from an Earth where his father was ridiculed for his toy creations and he killed himself. Winn became evil and took on the mantle Toyman. He’s obviously not very good at it, because he got caught a few hours after landing on Earth-Prime. If it wasn’t for Lex’s ulterior needs, this Winn would be languishing in jail.

Egged on by his saviour, Lex, Toyman uses Earth’s greatest weapon against it – social media. While this season of the show has unfortunately put politics on the backburner, the writers continue to insert nods to today’s problems. The apathy of people on the internet comes to the fore in how easily Toyman reaches his social media goals. Toyman is literally taunting National City to vote for violence and they lap it up. What’s worse is, Andrea Rojas (Julie Gonzalez) orders Kara to profile Toyman, demonstrating how often modern media needlessly elevates any and every opinion posted on social media, even when it shouldn’t be. Some people do not need media exposure, Toyman is definitely one of them.

Glimpses into the Future

Winn’s return has been teased for a while – he’s not a character that a lot of us missed, but his arrival brings with it plenty of hope. Winn has matured a great deal since he left for the future because he now has a wife and daughter, both of whom he loves dearly. Winn is also a Legionnaire and takes his role very seriously. Winn successfully defeated Brainy’s evil cousin!

The best part of this episode was how inspirational Winn turned out to be for the Super-friends. He tells them about the Hall of Justice that is the home for heroes in the future, and gives Nia Nal (Nicole Maines) the greatest pep talk. It’s evident how close Winn is to Nia’s descendent Nura Nal, which he uses to support Nia after her breakup with Brainy. Winn also assures Kara that she becomes a legend in the future, so much so that several people name their children after her. Winn is surrounded by these fantastic, powerful women, and his entire arc is so subversive – he’s constantly talking about how much he loves his family and how afraid he is of losing them. Meanwhile, to keep his (female) friends out of a funk, he reminds them of what amazing heroes they are.

Turns out, the much-feared World War III takes place in this universe, but one positive comes out of it – anti-trolling laws that make the internet a safer place. Can we get those laws in place in real life without any world wars breaking out?

Who Let the Luthors Out?

Ever since Lex found out about Leviathan, he’s been desperate to find out more about them. For what purpose is anyone’s guess. It’s the reason why Lex has found a way to bring future-Winn to Earth-Prime. He’s incredibly devious and continues to be evil. He arm-twists Lena (Katie McGrath) into coaxing Andrea to talk about Leviathan, and constantly pretends like he’s doing to all to be close to his sister.

When Brainy asks him to call off Toyman, Lex orders him to set the Super-friends on the criminal, as if Lex had no hand in enabling Toyman’s power. Not enough people will credit the Supergirl writers for creating a disgustingly evil character like Lex without using a bunch of stereotypical writing shortcuts. Lex is compelling because he turns the pettiest moments into powerplays, while keeping an eye on the big picture. The Lena-Lex combo is also terrifying, because Lena has good intentions which she is executing poorly, and Lex is the opposite. But together they are a powerhouse of evil genius.

It’s unlikely that Lex will play much of a role on the show following the season finale, but since Cryer has been such a charismatic figure, perhaps he will transfer to the Superman & Lois spin-off. Lena, on the other hand, is deserving of some redemption. Will the showrunners give her that?

Super Sentiments

• Why are the showrunners pushing the William Dey (Staz Nair) romance on Kara? Her character has blossomed away from romance, she doesn’t need to be saddled with one. Dey isn’t an interesting enough character to hold anyone’s interest, let alone Kara’s romantic one.
• Did we all squee as loudly as Nia when we saw the Super-friends’ new base of operations? J’onn J’onzz (David Harewood) creating a hidden base for fear of Lex and Lena finding them, is exactly why he’s such a beloved ‘papa bear’.
• Brainy is a terrible double-agent. He’s not even trying to act normal, and he completely loses perspective when Nia is around. Now that he’s confronted his duplicitous actions, how will Brainy deal with Lex?
• While we appreciate the fact that Ayla Ranzz is played by a black actor in this episode, in the comic books she is depicted as queer and often seen as being in a long-term relationship with another female hero. It’s disappointing that from all the characters to choose from for Winn’s wife, they chose her.

Despite wrapping up the story, ‘Back from the Future’ ends with a cliffhanger that suggests the villains are still at play. But how that’s possible and why remain to be seen. This gives Winn another episode to spend with his old friends and they’re probably going to need him.