Unidentified Flying Object
Episode 2 of Naomi picks up in the garage where we left off, as Naomi questions Dee over what he knows. According to him, all of this started back in March when the mysterious flying object appeared. He also believes this is directly linked to Naomi too. Dee’s wings allow him to sense vibrations in the air, and specifically that of super-beings. Dee is from the Planet Thanagar and Naomi’s powers mean she’s also from outer space too. The manifestation of her powers, or at least the beginning of it anyway, is why Dee has sprung this on her now. Naomi tries to get back to normal, drifting through her school day. A chat with Anthony at break is the highlight of the day for her, as he fumbles through an invitation to invite her out for a pizza. After school, Naomi sees Dee again who encourages her to jump off a tall bridge. Given she has never been injured, Dee deduces that she’ll be absolutely fine if she takes a leap of faith and dives off. Worst case scenario, she’ll break her foot. However, it could also help to serve as a stepping stone to gain her powers. Naomi refuses to accept any of this is real, until she sees Dee actually fly off and show his wings. This burst of inspiration allows Naomi to finally believe him and begin going full-on investigative mode. In her room are numerous pictures, diagrams and newspaper clippings. Annabelle is there to help too, while Naomi’s mum doesn’t even bat an eyelid when she heads up and hands the pair some drinks. In the middle of this is some flip-flopping dialogue, with Naomi claiming that aliens and superheroes aren’t real. Given she was earlier all completely on board and she also runs a Superman-centric website, it’s hard to tell whether she’s just deflecting or genuinely believes this. Given she rushed outside to catch a glimpse of Superman, I’m going for the former. Naomi speaks to Steve about the 2004 UFO sighting. Apparently he was skateboarding in the square when he saw a blinding light. Steve and a few of his friends head off to find the crash site but things took a turn for the worst. At the time, Steve was hearing lots of voices and believed the woods were coming alive. He and his friends never made it to the mill but heard a horrible noise, accompanied by a blinding, bright light. Somehow the next memory he has is back at his car. The mill happens to be several miles away from Falls Creek, the location Naomi was earlier searching in the episode. This means they’ve actually been looking in the wrong place. Back home, Naomi bemoans how hard her life has been, moving around a lot and just wanting to be normal. Annabelle has a heart to heart with her friend, claiming she’s anything but normal – which is okay. Meanwhile, Naomi’s dad, McDuffie, heads to base and learns that the Superman stunt wasn’t a stunt after all. He shows off a strange trinket that’s seemingly indestructible, tasking him with looking deeper into this. Speaking of investigating, Naomi suddenly snaps back into action. The gang head out on a road trip, determined to uncover the truth. At the mill, Naomi finds the same strange markings up on the wall as those seen on the disk. Only, Zumbado suddenly shows up and begins looking for Naomi. He agrees to let the others go free while having a one to one chat with Naomi. So all of these kids don’t even bat an eyelid and leave Naomi alone, deciding they need to trust her. Alone, Naomi asks Zumbado questions about the markings and the mill but instead, he blasts her back and demands she leave and never return. Naomi heads back to see Dee and decides to try and press forward with discovering what her powers are. She also wants Dee to introduce her to Superman. As Naomi embraces her powers and springs into action, quite literally jumping off a cliff, Naomi’s father learns that aliens are very much real. And could be in town.
The Episode Review
This show is really poorly written. Writing a hero with a tough backstory is fine but to do so while showing the character with absolutely everything they could possibly want and no discernable flaws is another. Naomi has a massive circle of friends, she’s helped by Dee who happens to know Superman, she’s also bright, intelligent, charismatic and has a fair amount of powers. So what is her weakness? The fact that all of her friends decide to leave her to Zumbado at the end just because Naomi told them to, without even thinking twice about it, is another bit of sloppy plot development too. And that’s before mentioning how Lourdes just suddenly shows up in the episode midway to the mill. It feels contrived and awkward, which, unfortunately, sums up this show. I know this is a CW series and there are certainly expectations that come with that but we’ve seen with both Stargirl and Superman and Lois that these shows can be written with interesting characters that have plenty of flaws. Th actual mystery about Naomi’s origins is intriguing but is it enough to sit through the numerous clichés, character archetypes, plot contrivances and poor dialogue? I have my doubts. Still, there will be an audience for this but given how many amazing shows there are on TV right now – even in the superhero space – Naomi is a long, long, long way away from hitting those heights.
