Naomi – I Am Not a Used Car Salesman

By starrymag | March 14, 2022

By: Atiya Irvin-Mitchell

 

 

Zumbado (Cranston Johnson) is trying to carry a weak Naomi (Kaci Walfall) to safety. They’re surrounded by guards, but Zumbado fights them off and carries Naomi to safety. However, they’ve still got problems.  S.T.A.R. Labs was built with a material that dampers Zumbado and Naomi’s abilities. And Dr. Bell (Jennifer Christa Palmer) put the building on lockdown which is preventing them from leaving. So, they take refuge in a supply closet and Zumbado barricades the door. It’ll give them time to talk and Naomi some much needed time to return to her full strength after the run in with the machine.

 

Zumbado and Naomi finally have a real conversation and not just a menacing encounter. Zumdado says he told her to stay away from S.T.A.R. Labs. But Naomi says she needed answers and ever since the Superman sighting those have been in short supply. Plus, she points out that he’s never really been honest with her; he just glares and growls things with little context. Now, it seems he’s willing to provide some. Zumbado has a special power: he can project his memories into another person’s mind and he’s going to do that with Naomi.

 

It turns out that once upon a time Zumbado was laid back. He had friends, he wore jeans, he went to parties and had fun. But then everything changed the day there was a purple meteor shower happened the next day. Some people were given powers from it and Zumbado was one of them. Naomi wonders if that’s where her’s came from but Zumbado says the meteor shower happened before she was born.

 

At the McDuffie residence Annabelle (Mary-Charles Jones) swings by and finds Jennifer (Mouzam Makkar) and Greg (Barry Watson) making pizza. She’s looking for Naomi at first and then realizes that they don’t know where she is either and covers for her. Before Annabelle leaves she notices the sign Naomi made for Nathan and realizes she never made it to the game.

 

Zumbado and Naomi crawl through a ventilation shaft and talk about courage. Before everything changed Zumbado recalls he was afraid a lot. However, he says without courage you don’t know who you can be. Also, he tells Naomi that Akira (Stephanie March) was wrong when she told her that Zumbado ruined Earth-29.

 

More on that, Akira sought out Zumbado when his powers showed themselves in a very public way. She reaches out to him at a bar and shows him that she can control fire. She says she got her powers after the meteor shower, too, and she believes there might be others like them out there (at the time Zumbado had assumed it was only him).

 

Annabelle goes to Dee’s (Alexander Wraith) tattoo shop and Dee is a little confused about why she’s there. She rambles a little about the possibility of a henna tattoo and then Dee asks her point blank what’s wrong and she explains she hasn’t seen Naomi since the afternoon. Annabelle wonders if Dee can use his powers to find her. Dee didn’t know that Naomi told her and Annabelle asks him not to be mad and explains that she had a run in with Zumbado.

 

Naomi and Zumbado creep around the building avoiding the guards and we learn that on Earth-29 there were twenty-nine people given powers and they used them to save people. Naomi thinks they were like superheroes, but Zumbado says while superheroes wear a mask the two of them are very visible. Unfortunately, they had a problem. The meteor show was an environmental disaster caused by global warming. The twenty-nine tried their best, but it was just a bandaid. And we learn Naomi has another different power: she can bring things from Zumbado’s memories into the real world. For some additional context, for some people the twenty-nine represented hope but for others they were a threat. So much so that a man named Brutus paid people to hunt them down.

 

Dr. Bell interrupts the story by making an announcement. She tells them their escape attempt was futile. She says mistakes were made, but scientific discovery requires sacrifice. She only really needs one of them to make the experiment work. Naomi uses her x-ray vision to see through the walls and they’re surrounded. But Naomi says she knows how to get them out of here and they head to the basement.

 

Naomi makes an observation when they have a moment to rest. She points out that Zumbado knew S.T.A.R. Labs suppressed their powers but he came to save her anyway. Zumbado simply says she needed his help. Naomi admits she thought he wanted nothing to do with her. In her defense he did say a lot of cryptic stuff that could easily be interpreted as threatening. Although, he tells her not to believe everything she thinks.

 

In another memory Akira and Zumbado share a tense meeting. She’s clearly upset and says she never should’ve believed he ever cared about their planet. Akira asks him why he did it. Zumbado explains he has no idea what she’s talking about. Akira says Brutus found them because of what he’s done. She notes she talked to Brutus and he showed him the disk that he gave her and there’s no one else who could’ve been responsible. She doesn’t believe him. So, she leaves and a group of angry men come into the bar. Zumbado says after that he had to flee Earth-29 and to this day Akira believes he sold them out.

 

Annabelle and Dee search the dealership. They look around a little and Annabelle mentions that Naomi had a meeting at S.T.A.R. Labs. Dee is alarmed at that. Annabelle doesn’t understand why because Naomi liked Dr. Bell a lot. It seems though Dee said he’s been keeping an eye on S.T.A.R. Labs because they’ve been doing some dangerous research. He tells them that if Naomi is there that she could be in a lot of danger.

 

Speaking of the danger, Zumbado tells her she may have to fight. Naomi isn’t too happy that he’s excluded himself, but Zumbado’s decided to give himself up so that she can get away. She tries to talk him out of it, but he doesn’t really want to debate. He apologizes for not telling her the truth sooner and goes to turn himself in.

 

Zumbado is strapped to a chair and asks Dr. Bell why she cares about Earth-29. She says she doesn’t, but that she’s just invested in the science. Zumbado points out that she could potentially bring dangerous things onto this Earth. She doesn’t react. He asks what happens if the machine doesn’t work. She just states they should be optimistic and then Naomi bursts in. Dr. Bell thanks her for saving her the trouble of tracking her down and uses the machine on her. But Naomi uses the energy the machine tries to steal from her to break all the technology in the lab.

 

She frees Zumbado and they leave with the lab presumably falling apart.  As they’re trying to escape they’re relieved to see that Dee arrived and is fighting off the bodyguards. This allows them to finally get out of the building.

 

In the car later Annabelle talks about the prospect of giving the team a superhero name. Dee isn’t into the idea of giving the team a name and says they won’t be making this a habit, but he tells Annabelle if they’re ever in trouble she can call him. And when Naomi gets home she doesn’t tell Greg and Jennifer about the close call with Dr. Bell and opts to have pizza with her parents.

 

The next morning Naomi brings Zumbado coffee. And we get the final piece of the puzzle. Naomi’s powers are so different because her birth parents were members of the twenty-nine. Two powerful people created an even more powerful person and that scared a lot of people. Brutus in particular thought she’d mean the end for him. Once Zumbado arrived to this earth he tracked her down to keep his promise to them to look after her. He was happy she was was happy with Greg and Jennifer but made it a point to check in every few years to make sure she was okay. Naomi tears up when she learns this. She thought Zumbado was the bad guy, but he’s been there for her the whole time.

 

And he tells her she’ll need to be ready. Her power is going to attract some not so friendly people.