Justice League Unlimited: Wrapping Up Season 4 / by Mark

Events come to a head in the final episodes of the season--

  • There's a "Panic in the Sky" (another reference to a DC storyline). We learn that the Ultimen clones are under Galatea's control (they're basically zombies). Clark calls a meeting of the founding members, then tells the rest of the heroes--as a symbol of cooperation, they are turning themselves into the authorities. Bruce, unsurprisingly, doesn't buy it. Steel (Phil LeMarr) and Kara continue to argue, and then the Cadmus attack begins. Missiles drill into the Watchtower, carrying the Ultimen and Galatea. Meanwhile, Batman has a chat with Waller, warning her about Luthor. A battle royale goes on with the League vs. Ultimen (cameos from HourmanB'wana BeastCrimson Fox   S.T.R.I.P.E.StargirlIceRayAtom SmasherVigilanteBlack CanaryFire,  MetamorphoStarmanCommander SteelDr. LightRed TornadoWildcat  HawkSandThe CreeperThe Atom--just assume everybody). However, the real battle is between Kara and Galatea (Kara's amped up clone). It doesn't go well. Waller figures out what's going on with Lex, and tries to scrub the mission--Galatea refuses. The Watchtower's reactors comes back online just in time for Kara to fry Galatea. Luthor, however, has had time to complete his big plan--an Amazo clone for his mind to inhabit. Bruce tries to stop him, but remember, Lex is already "super". It takes Waller and the founding League members to take him down and destroy the android. We even get a "Ta Da!" from Flash when they are revealed. Luthor turns out to be inhabited, both mentally, and physically, by Brainiac! Whew! That takes us to...
  • ..."Divided We Fall". Brainiac goes into exposition mode, explaining how he took over Luthor without him even knowing about it. The League and BrainiLex duke it out, and the bad guy takes it out on Metropolis. BrainiLex gets in his ship (which looks like his own head--ego much), and the League attacks again, blowing up the ship. Bruce's prognosis--"that was too easy". BrainiLex is gone. Lex starts scamming Brainiac--being a god is only the beginning. They pick up the Dark Heart tech from Cadmus, turning them into a single entity. The rest of the League is stuck on the Watchtower, so it's just the "magnificent seven". Clark tries to talk to Lex, but it's just "business" to him--even destroying the Earth. He reforms the Justice Lords from the nanotech, and the battle is on. There's taunting a plenty, but the League takes them out. Diana throws a Javelin (the ship, not a weapon) at BrainiLex, but does no good. Flash is under Lex's gun, then runs away!!  Not really, he's just building up speed by running around the Earth. He slams into BrainiLex over and over, faster and faster, destroying the nanotech. Flash then fades into nothingness--he's gone. Clark has Lex's throat, and is about to vaporize him, but thinks better of it. J'onn realizes that Flash is still there--he's in the "speed force" (a concept from the comics). The team pulls him out of a vortex and saves his life. In the end, in front of every character ever seen on the show, Superman announces they are shutting down the Watchtower, and then tries to disbands the League, but GA vetoes him. There's a tender moment between Lois and Clark to carry us out.
  • Clearly the producers thought this was it for the series--the final episode of the season is called "Epilogue". We're going back to the future--an elderly Amanda Waller (with a cane) meets Terry McGuinness (Will Friedle of Batman Beyond). He's broken into Waller's mansion (we get a flashback of Terry confronting a very elderly Bruce, as well as his girlfriend Dana--he's quitting both of them, as well as the JLU). Terry has figured it out--Bruce is his father! Terry has come to Amanda to get the real answers. Yet more flashbacks--a fight with another Royal Flash Gang. Ace (Hynden Walch) can now warp reality, not just create hallucinations. Waller gives Bruce the tech to kill Ace--the only way to stop her. Instead, he stays with her while she dies of an aneurysm. Back to Amanda--she tells him that Bruce is NOT his father--she rewrote his DNA so there would always be a Batman. How did she get Bruce's DNA? He left it all over Gotham (not what she meant--he's injured a lot). She even planned to replicate the "kill the parents in front of the kid" to copy Bruce's childhood trauma, but it didn't work out. She tells him he has free will--he can be whatever he wants to be. Terry and Bruce have a tender moment, then Terry is back on the beat.

If you would like to play along, the DVD box set is available on Amazon.