Boomb Tube: The Week of Comic Book Television, 3/6/22-3/12/22

Welcome to our newly revamped Boomb Tube! Here, we will be catching you up on the week in comics TV, both through micro-reviews, as well as links to our full-length TV reviews. We also tend to review series that are dropped all at once weekly, so there are a few ‘older’ shows mixed in for good measure. Are we missing your favorite show? Let us know in the comments!

The Flash – “Impulsive Excessive Disorder” (S8E6, The CW)

Read our full review by Ramon Piña.

Naomi – “I am Not a Used Car Salesman” (S1E7, The CW)

This episode is little more than a straight up info dump, allowing Naomi (and us) to get the Earth-29 story and point the season (and the series) towards some sort of endgame. Yes, it is strange to be talking about the end of a series that is seven episodes in, but Naomi has always had two different things happening at once: there’s the story of Naomi McDuffie, kid dealing with powers, and there’s the fate of her homeworld, Earth-29. This episode, for the first time, ties those two together in a meaningful way, and point a way forward.

Unfortunately, this episode is the worst of the series thus far, because of its sloppy construction. Instead of having Zumbado simply tell Naomi his story, the show wastes time establishing something called ‘mental teleportation’ to do, essentially, the same thing. This is all happening as they’re escaping from S.T.A.R. Labs, which makes it an even sillier device, as they should be, you know, running instead of sitting around and jawing, but here we are.

This episode, more or less, redeems Zumbado in the eyes of Naomi. I am still not so sure, both because of the comic origins of the characters, and because it all seems a little too neat. And by having Naomi ‘see’ the history of Zumbado’s fleeing, it takes away the possibility of a really interesting question: is Zumbado her father? If we didn’t ‘see’ those scenes, that would be a really powerful question. Now, granted, we never see anything that directly contradicts that, but it would put some of the things we do see in question.

And, to be clear, I am not rooting for that revelation, but I don’t know why the show would toss out such a potentially powerful plotline because of some silly ESP gimmick.

Raising Dion – “Issue #207: World Without Mom” (S2E7, Netflix)

Nicole puts off injecting herself with the last serum to draw out her last day as much as possible. She lets Dion take himself to school – something he finds very bittersweet, and sadly can’t explain why to Esperanza – while she makes arrangements with Simone, and begins recording video messages for her son after she’s gone. It’s a surprisingly touching sequence; she discusses things like his favorite mac and cheese recipe, or future parental advice like hiding the sharpies, which are so banal but incredibly relatable.

It’s also the day of the school production of Dreamgirls, where Dion will perform “Steppin’ to the Bad Side.” Everybody close to him is expected to attend, but Simone has become frightened after Nicole told her about his enemies, and decides to take Janelle back to Chicago. Janelle objects after learning why, believing Dion will need her more now than ever, and becomes so upset at her mom that she accidentally teleports herself away.

Before the play begins, Suzanne calls Kat to inform her Pat has fallen into a coma after injecting himself with the serum they’d been working on for Nicole (talk about leaving something to the last minute); she’s forced to leave as they’re unable to work out a way to extract the potential cure from him. Meanwhile, the Crooked Man/Brayden begins taunting Dion psychically, and demands he meet them in the field for a rematch. Dion agrees, unaware of the horde of infected emerging from the woods to back Brayden up. – Christopher Chiu-Tabet

Resident Alien – “Escape From New York” (S2E7, Syfy)

Read our full review by Christopher Chiu-Tabet.

Snowpiercer – “Ouroboros” (S3E7, TNT)

According to the Oxford dictionary, an ouroboros is a circular symbol depicting a snake, or less commonly a dragon, swallowing its tail, as an emblem of wholeness or infinity. Snowpiercer’s “Ouroboros” features Layton completing his journey on the train. In the beginning, he was the leader of the Tail, journeyed all the way to the engine, and now he’s come full circle, attempting to return to the Tail in his subconscious.

Continued below

Layton is whole in mind as he comes out of his coma but he realizes where his visions of the Tree of Life and it’s not a good thing for him or the passengers of the train. The secret Layton’s hidden from himself, the secret he killed Pike to preserve, is even more of a lie that Layton believed. He told the passengers that New Eden awaited because of his visions. What he didn’t realize is that his visions originate from art that Layton glimpsed when he rescued Asha from the nuclear plant. Asha knows this. She’s always known this. Is she so desperate for hope that she supported Layton’s lie just to be with people?

Layton now finds himself with the same choice as Melanie: to preserve a lie to protect the whole train or to tell the truth and risk anarchy. It’s not a complete parallel. Melanie had seven years to find a way to integrate the Tailies into Snowpiercer’s population and instead she kept them in the dark and occasionally fought a war with them. Layton’s choice hasn’t endangered anyone fatally yet, save Pike.

As for the episode, Layton’s subconscious was an interesting place, remixing the cast into new roles, though Ruth is still suspicious of him. “I’ve got my eye on you,” she says, and that’s Layton’s guilt speaking to him. Meanwhile, Lilah Jr. remains as psychopathic as ever. Some things never change.

Except, perhaps, Wilford himself? The now diminished (or is he just shamming?) former leader of the train believes he’s found clues to yet another train, perhaps headed by Melanie herself. As a viewer, Melanie’s return would be interesting. But as a plot point, I’m not sure I can buy the appearance of yet a third train following all those tracks that Wilford somehow built in a short space of time. We have three episodes left to find out. – Corrina Lawson