Naomi – Homecoming

By starrymag | March 7, 2022

By: Atiya Irvin-Mitchell

 

 

The episode opens with some family bonding. It’s Skateboarding Sunday, a McDuffie tradition. Naomi (Kaci Walfall) is doing some skateboarding and Jennifer (Mouzam Makkar) and Greg (Barry Watson) are taking pictures and reminiscing. They remember when Naomi started skating and they both really wish she hadn’t ditched the helmet and knee pads. The laughter is interrupted when they spot Zumbado. Greg tells Naomi she needs to stay away from Zumbado because he’s dangerous.

 

The next day there’s a Homecoming committee meeting for which Naomi is in charge. There’s some tension over who’ll win the fundraising contest. The soccer team, which Nathan (Daniel Puig) plays on, is currently in the lead. Esme (Allie Urquhart), the Student Council President, thinks the soccer team is only winning because Nathan’s going out with Naomi. Anthony (Will Meyers) just wants the architecture club to win and thinks the float they’re building will help them catch up.

 

Later Naomi and Annabelle (Mary-Charles Jones) are talking about homes. Some of their teachers have lived in Port Oswego their whole lives. Naomi says she wishes she knew where she was from. Every time she starts getting closer to an answer she hits a dead end. Zumbado (Cranston Johnson) might be the only person with an answer, but he’s kind of sketchy and he won’t give her a straight answer. They decide, reluctantly, to go back to the mill.

 

After a brief training session Dee (Alexander Wraith) tells Naomi that he’ll be gone for a few days to follow up a lead on Qyeala. Naomi doesn’t understand why they’re focusing so much on hand to hand combat as she has powers. Dee explains that powers can become a crutch so it’s better to not rely solely on them. Then, he unexpectedly meets Nathan. As far as Nathan knows Dee’s just giving Naomi boxing lessons. They part ways for the day.

 

When Annabelle and Naomi go to the mill they’re surprised that the markings are gone. But then Naomi takes a closer look and she doesn’t see the markings but she realizes she can see through it. She presses an outlet and finds the room hidden behind the wall. Inside the room there’s what looks like a spaceship.

 

Naomi and Annabelle think the spaceship is the one Naomi arrived in, but they are not clear on how baby Naomi got from the ship to the rock where her parents found her.  Still, Naomi’s got a plan. There’s a scientist named Dr. Bell and her specialty is string theory. Naomi thinks she can help. Her plan is to pose as an intern to get some face-time with Dr. Bell. Then, she will say she found the spaceship in the woods. Annabelle thinks this could be risky, but Naomi thinks it’s her only shot at the truth.

 

At school there’s a lot of drama happening. The float the architecture club made has been vandalized and covered in military memorabilia. Anthony is pretty angry when he sees it and blames Nathan. His reasoning was that Nathan was making fun of the float earlier, him being the only person standing directly in front of the float when Anthony walked in didn’t really help. But Nathan says it wasn’t him but the float was still lame. Anthony asserts this is typical of army kids, blowing through town and not caring about their traditions. However, Nathan says the army brings a lot of money to the town. The argument escalates and Anthony pushes Nathan and the boys get into a fight which is broken up by a teacher who gives them both detention.

 

Dee meets up with Adam Blake (Chase Anderson), the friend who took the bounty hunter to the phantom zone, at an alien bar. He’s still a little confused about the bounty hunter, but seems pretty willing to help Dee. We get backstory on Dee. Thanagar, the planet Dee is from, is a pretty intense warrior culture and therefore not touchy-feely. This is why Adam notes that Dee is the only love sick Thangarian he’s ever met. But moving on, vulnerability being shunned is why Qyeala and Dee decided to leave. Eventually, all the casual death and destruction started to wear on them. But since leaving together was risky they agreed to meet up in Port Oswego, but she never showed up. Adam tells him that a mercenary named Lux (Ahmed Lucan) might have some answers.

 

Dr. Bell (Jennifer Christa Palmer) works for Star Labs – as in where Barry Allen and Clark Kent go for metahuman and alien difficulties Star Labs! But when Naomi visits it’s just Dr. Bell there. She drops the intern façade relatively fast and admits she just wanted to meet Dr. Bell to show her the spaceship. And Dr. Bell surprises Naomi by saying she knows she’s an alien. The machine Naomi walked by told her so.

 

Back at school Anthony and Nathan are in detention together. Nathan says he knows Anthony won’t believe it but he didn’t vandalize his float. Nathan assumes that Anthony doesn’t like him because of Naomi. But Anthony says he’s not that petty. His entire life he says military kids have been blowing through town, mocking their traditions and then leaving after a year or two. Anthony says the towns traditions are being erased. Nathan points out that he’s not exactly a stranger to having his history erased. There’s still no love lost but Nathan suggests that they find out who messed with the float.

 

Dee and Adam try to talk to Lux and Lux tries to blow them off. However, Dee sees that Lux has Qyeala’s ring around his neck, so he has to have met her. He throws Lux onto the table and demands to know how he got it. Lux says he didn’t steal it, but that Qyeala gave it to him and she’s dead.

 

Zumbado surprises Jennifer and Greg by being inside their house when they arrive. Things get tense fast as Jennifer and Greg threaten to call the police. Zumbado threatens to tell the world about Naomi. Zumbado says she’s drawing too much unwanted attention to the town and demands that the McDuffies take her and leave town. Greg says he’s not the boss of them. Zumbado says to manage the situation or he will.

 

Dr. Bell’s tests on the spaceship aren’t entirely conclusive, but she tells Naomi that she’s from another universe which surprises her. They talk a little about Earth-29 and the multiverse and Dr. Bell reveals that there is a device that can help her locate Earth-29, but Zumbado stole it. Elsewhere, Dee is briefly drowning his sorrows before a disgruntled Lux comes back with a group of friends. There’s a bar fight which ends in Dee finally getting Qyeala’s ring back.

 

At school Nathan breaks into Mrs. Varady’s (Joanna Walchuk) office to steal a surveillance tape. Anthony distracts her and they narrowly get away. When they watch the footage they learn that it was Esme all along. She wrecked the float and framed the military kids for it. Later at the football game Anthony and Nathan are going to confront her but then they see a tense conversation between Esme and her dad, the principal (Jonathan Williams). He doesn’t think she can win, so he’s withdrawing his support. Anthony and Nathan take pity on her and decide to buy two of her fundraising pies instead of reading her the riot act.

 

Naomi’s skateboarding and Zumbado knocks her off of it. For obvious reasons Naomi is annoyed. She doesn’t understand why he keeps giving her the run around. Zumbado claims that she hasn’t behaved in a way that suggests she can handle the truth. Naomi notes that her parents were right about him: he is a terrible person. And she tells him she knows Earth-29 being destroyed was his fault.  Naomi tries to use her powers to get him to tell her where the device he took from Star Labs is, but he knocks her to the ground and tells her she’s a major disappointment.

 

When he arrives home Dee finally breaks down over the realization that Qyeala’s dead.

 

Naomi goes home and gets a sweet surprise from her parents. They give her the scrapbook of all their travels since she was a baby. She’s touched and they enjoy reminiscing about the memories that go with the pictures. The feels are interrupted though when she gets a phone call from Dr. Bell saying she’s had a breakthrough and she wants Naomi to come and meet her.

 

Once at Star Labs Dr. Bell tells Naomi that she doesn’t need the device Zumbado stole anymore. She says it’s risky and a little controversial, but sacrifices have to be made. She then locks the doors and Naomi starts to feel afraid. Dr. Bell tells her that she’s far more powerful than the device and if she’s right she’ll be able to travel through the different earths. She turns on the machine which appears to drain Naomi of her powers, but unexpectedly Zumbado breaks in and rescues her. He glares at Dr. Bell and apologizes to Naomi. He says he should’ve told her the truth sooner and carries her out of the lab.