Supergirl Review: Back from the Future: Part One (Season 5 Episode 11)

Supergirl Season 5 Episode 11, “Back from the Future: Part One,” marks the return of Winn Schott, lovable member of the super friends and only human Legionnaire, to National City. Of course, his return is due to some superhero-sized problems because nothing can be happy and nice for too long.

Even though it has been two years since Winn was last on the show, it feels like no time has passed when he flies the Legion ship into National City Toy Con. The superhero life looks good on him.

It’s also nice to see him take off his mask and spend quality time with his friends. The small moments in this episode really highlight the heart and hope Winn brings with him to any and every situation.

From the small moment where Alex tells Winn not to push her to Winn reminding J’onn that he gives the best hugs, Winn brings a ray of sunshine that the Super Friends need during something as scary as a superhero identity crisis.

However, Winn and Brainy’s heart to heart stands out the most because it is the perfect reminder that Brainy isn’t too far gone in his undercover plan. Brainy’s self-awareness is still intact and that is crucial.

Brainy is still concerned with whether he is becoming the bad guy, and the same can’t be said for Lena. Whether it be on the Earth-38 or Earth-Prime, Lena still has her blinders on it when it comes to fulfilling her mission of ridding humanity of the instinct to hurt each other.

Brainy is concerned with the emotional pain he may cause his friends in the process of trying to save them from something much bigger. The same can’t be said for Lena.

Lena feigns a rekindled friendships with Andrea to get her old friend on her side, so that when the time comes, Lena can use Andrea as a pawn in a much larger game with Leviathan.

For someone who wants to stop as much pain amongst humanity as possible, emotionally manipulating someone is a major step in the wrong direction.

Lena gets a fresh start on Earth-Prime, since much of her previous work is gone along with the rest of the original multiverse, and yet she repeats damaging behaviors that could lead her to another point of no return.

If Lena continues to lie and use people like she did with Eve and Malefic in the past and Andrea in the present, then Lena is on track to finding Earth-Prime’s version of Lena stealing Myriad and using it in a life-threatening way.

It is frustrating to know that Lena has the chance to do things differently and won’t. Lena has the chance to have a moment like Brainy, where she confides in a friend about her fears of going too far, but it doesn’t look like that will be happening any time soon.

It’s difficult to believe Kara and the Super Friends can help Lena when she has shown no signs of self-awareness or wanting to help herself so far, like Brainy does with Winn.

Kara and William take some romantic steps forward, apparently. William is not around enough to believe he is someone Kara has a romantic connection with in any way. These two stand next to each other for two seconds, make eye contact, and suddenly they’re the new Supergirl ship. 

It doesn’t make much sense, especially because the only version of William Kara really knows is the pre-“Crisis” one. That’s the same William who treated her very badly for the sake of his undercover dive into the Rojas family.

Supergirl gives us no reasons to trust or like the Earth-Prime version of William other than the fact that he looks to be nicer than Earth-38 William. That isn’t enough to want to see him with Kara in the future.

Kara Danvers deserves more than a guy who is nice to her only after the multiverse resets and gives him another chance.

It is a missed opportunity to not involve Nia in the plan to dig up dirt on Lex Luthor, not only for her superhero powers but her journalistic talents. Nia keeps getting iced out of the bigger conversation, but that is changing.

Winn has a really special moment with Nia on the balcony of the Tower, which J’onn establishes as a place for the Justice League to meet up. It is hard not to geek out over something like that.

It comes at the perfect time because once Superman & Lois premieres, Clark and Lois will surely need a safe haven from Lex when visiting Kara.

Anyway, Winn tells Nia to never let anyone steal her worth from her, and that’s the exact thing Nia needs to hear. At first, this moment felt disjointed since Winn doesn’t know Nia all that well, but it becomes all the more meaningful knowing that Winn has seen Nia’s incredible legacy.

This conversation spearheads Nia’s proactive stance during the big showdown of the episode where she notices new things about her powers.

This has to lead to something more for Nia in the future. Supergirl can’t emphasize the importance of Nia’s legacy and not expand on it. Hopefully, this is the start of a new pattern that works in Nia’s favor.

Also, the song “Eye of the Tiger” actually works during this fight, unlike the song choice during the fight scene on Supergirl Season 5 Episode 10, “The Bottle Episode.” It melds with tone perfectly.

This episode makes me optimistic for the future of the Super Friends, and a lot of that has to do with Winn’s return and the bits of future-knowledge he brings with him. It also helps if I don’t think about what could happen between William and Kara for too long.

Stray Observations

• Where is Kelly? One scene isn’t enough.
• What did Kara win her Pulitzer for on Earth-Prime?
• If babies are named Kara in the future, does that mean that Kara’s secret identity is no longer a secret?
• David Harewood did such a great job directing this episode. 

What did you think of this episode of Supergirl? Share your thoughts in the comments below!

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Supergirl airs Sundays at 9/8c on The CW.

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