#ThinkBrink – The episode opens three years ago at Sage Grove Center. Golden Boy (Patrick Schwarzenegger) and Cate Dunlap (Maddie Phillips) attempt to calm Sam (Asa Germann) who has just learned he and Luke took Compound V as children. Sam is calm but things quickly spiral out of control when a guard hits him with a Taser. After killing a guard and attacking Luke, it is Cate who orders him to sleep off the rage. In the present, Cate is comforted by a concerned Andre Anderson (Chance Perdomo). He chides her for being wreckless with her ability and she sarcastically welcomes him for the rescue. They argue further on how to proceed when he shares Professor Rich Brinkerhoff’s (Clancy Brown) footage of Sam. She points out that she could manipulate his mind if she wanted, but won’t as long as he promises to not do something stupid. They end up in each other’s arms kissing as the scene wraps.
Marie Moreau (Jaz Sinclair) returns to her room to find that Emma Meyer (Lizzie Broadway) has purged so much she is the size of an ant. Back to normal size, Emma and Marie discuss the irony of their abilities. Marie claims that purging to get small and eating to get normal constitutes an eating disorder while Emma claims Marie’s ability makes her a cutter. Marie pushes too far when she suggests Emma speak to someone about her “eating disorder.” Emma says they should be roommates rather than confidants.
The next morning, Social Media Jeff (Dan Beirne) and Janet (Saida Ali) butt heads over the right ribbon colors for the silent auction and memorial gala. Elsewhere, Indira Shetty (Shelley Conn) bonds with Marie over breakfast. Indira shares that she used to have a daughter before telling Marie how proud she is of her for not letting Hailey Miller (Leigh Bush) get under her skin during the interview. Detecting confusion, Indira explains how Hailey purposely mentioned Marie’s sister on air in hopes of getting a reaction for ratings. Marie agrees to accompany Indira to the benefit gala.
Professor Renata Ibarra (Christine Sahely) gives Marie’s interview techniques high praise as she replays the video for her students. At the back of the room, a sullen Polarity (Sean Patrick Thomas) says unsanitary blood powers are a lawsuit waiting to happen especially if Marie has Hepatitis C. Polarity tells Andre that it should be him the class is discussing. Andre apologizes for missing the interview and assures him that he is focused on his future. Before Ibarra calls Polarity up to speak to the class, he reminds Andrea of tonight’s gala and all the trustees that will be in attendance.
Outside the campus, Justine (Maia Jae Bastidas) apologizes to Emma and claims she was trying to bring awareness to eating disorders. Emma nearly believes her until she realizes Justine has someone filming their conversation. Storming off, Emma unexpectedly encounters her mother, Tiffany (Rayisa Kondracki). While discussing the gala, Tiffany nags Emma about her eating habits before admitting she saw Justine’s YouTube video. When asked how she’s doing, Emma says she wants to curl up and die because people won’t stop staring at her. Tiffany points out that her father ran off and she was fired from the Vought Shopping Network, she didn’t curl up and die, she reinvented herself. She promises Emma she can do the same at tonight’s gala.
Elsewhere, Marie tries to apologize to Cate who mocks her with Marie’s quotes about Luke from the interview. Once alone, Cate flashes back to the day she and Luke learned of Sam’s death. Luke begs her to use her powers to make him feel better but she won’t.
In the present, Jordan LI (London Thor/ Derek Luh) is in the middle of a romantic encounter with Tyler (Siddharth Sharma) when Kayla Li (Laura Kai Chen) and Paul Li (Peter Kim) unexpectedly knock on the door.
At the gala, Indira parades Marie around while introducing her to the event’s most prominent guests. Marie lies about her parents being proud of her heroism and claims they are out of town. Later, Marie says she feels bad about lying about her parents. Indira assures her no one is interested in the truth before offering her champagne. When Jordan walks by, Indira encourages her to be careful and warns that she has a huge target on her back with Luke gone. Elsewhere at the event, Emma is introduced to Courtenay Fortney (Jackie Tohn) and learns that she’s being targeted for Courtenay’s new reality TV show. Emma gets upset and excuses herself when she learns that the show is set to focus on body image and eating disorders. In the restroom, she has an awkward encounter with Marie after commenting on her dress. Marie thanks her and then asks how you are supposed to pee in the dresses. In the stall, while Emma holds the bottom half of Marie’s dress up, the two reconcile.
Jordan and his parents try to win over Vought board member Kyle (Jameson Kraemer). Paul ends up embarrassing Jordan when he tells Kyle about him chasing after Ruby. Paul admits to thinking they would marry before asking Jordan whatever happened to her. In his female form, Jordan claims they used to try on prom dresses together. Kyle excuses himself. Returning to Courtenay and Tiffany, Emma shares her concerns about the reality show exploiting her and suggests a more inspirational approach. Courtenay agrees to listen but Tiffany interrupts by claiming Emma lacks inspirational qualities. An upset Emma tells Courtenay that it was Tiffany who taught her how to purge before rushing off. Andre notices Emma and attempts to go after her, but is cut off by Cate. An argument ensues after he accuses her of using her ability to get into the event to get free drinks. She says she might as well get something out of everyone demeaning Luke. He promises to talk about their romantic entanglement later before turning his attention back to Emma. Still in the female gender, Jordan stresses to Paul that they isn’t a boy. Paul claims Jordan is and accuses him of transforming just to spite him. Jordan says they are who they have always been before rushing off in tears. Andre introduces himself to Emma and shares the footage he found on Brink’s computer. She agrees to help him investigate.
Andrea takes the transformed Emma to the stairwell where he encounters the guards the nig. He informs her that she’s tagged with GPS and urges her to be careful. It doesn’t take her long to gain access to Sam’s room where he traps her in a plastic cup. When Andre returns to the gala, Indira addresses the crowd from the podium and uses the opportunity to shine a light on Marie’s heroism before asking for donations. Cate uses her ability at the bar to score free drinks for her and Jordan. Andre grows concerned that Emma is still in the facility and attempts to rush off. Polarity stops and questions him about his erratic behavior. Andre shares the truth and is shocked when Polarity orders him to leave it alone.
It takes Emma several minutes to convince Sam that she’s real. It takes her even longer and the mentioning of Luke’s name to get him interested in a future escape. Once she does get him on board, he claims to all the security codes. At the gala, Marie becomes upset when she learns that Indira only invited her to the gala to get donations for the school. Jordan sees her storming off and taunts her by calling her a brownnoser. When Jordan refers to her as “mommy and daddy’s perfect little hero,” she breaks down and reveals the truth about the day she discovered her powers. Cate asks her to join them and shares how she learned of her powers. It was during a family camping trip that she ordered her brother to go away and never come back. That’s what he did.
Sam and Emma attempt to bond further and he refers to her as pretty and heroic at one point, but a blaring alarm interrupts. At the gala, a frantic Andre finds Marie, Jordan, and Cate and confesses what he and Emma have been up to. With the alarm blaring in the background, Sam tells Emma they know she’s there and urges her to run when they shut off the electricity. When she asks what electricity, the floor becomes energized and Sam gets shocked. A guard enters shortly after and begins a search for Emma. She quickly disables him when he jumps on his shoulder and tunnels through one ear and out the other. As she emerges covered in blood, more guards arrive with weapons drawn and the episode wraps.
GEN V Review
Not a horrible way to continue the stories while building suspense. I did enjoy learning more about the super’s childhoods and past traumas. It is also incredibly interesting how all these abilities tie in with negative ironies, such as the eating disorder. Other than that, seemed like a whole bunch of nothingness. At least there didn’t seem to be as many subliminal ads in this episode. Still, not the worst episode ever, so I’d give it a 5.4 out of 10.
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