POWERLESS Floats to the Top in “Sinking Day”
Season 1, Episode 3: “Sinking Day”
Written by Paul Mather
Directed by Jay Chandrasekhar
[All photos courtesy NBC Universal]
Van causes Wayne Security to lose on of its biggest clients, Ace Chemicals, after he didn’t read what they really wanted. This leads to a visit from Van’s father, Van Sr. (Corbin Bernsen), who tells him that he’s lost the last shred of respect he has for his son.
Emily suggests to Van that the way to win that respect back is to get a bigger client. Emily gets in touch with the lost city of Atlantis, which just had a massive attack by Black Manta. They agree to a meeting.
Wendy, Ron, Teddy and Jackie wonder if the new accountant, Alex, is the new superhero, The Olympian.
At the meeting, Van tells the Atlanteans that he’s throwing a big Sinking Day party. Sinking Day is the commemoration of the sinking of Atlantis.
Ron decides to test Alex to see if he is The Olympian. The results are inconclusive.
The Atlanteans come to the party and are very impressed by the party and the gifts Van gives them. Van Sr., also attends and takes the Atlanteans to the conference room to close the deal.
Van goes to his office to sulk, playing his guitar half-naked. Emily tells him that he needs to stand up to his father and go in there and close the deal himself. They march in and Van takes his father outside to tell him off, but his dad cuts him off and tells him that the Atlanteans only want to deal with Van.
He has regained his father’s respect.
Wendy hits Alex with a chair, “Not a Superhero.”
They celebrate the deal.
Analysis:
This episode was MUCH better then last week’s episode. We got superhero action and a plot that was more interesting than last week’s.
Ron is from Atlantis. I wonder if that means he can breathe underwater. They must use this in a future episode. I love Ron’s theory that Bruce Wayne is The Flash. This sounds exactly like something you would speculate about if you lived in a superhero-filled universe like the DCU.
We meet a new superhero in this episode, The Olympian. There are actually two superheroes with that name in DC Universe history. The first one was Astrides Demetrios, who debuted in DC Comics Presents #46 in June of 1982. He wore the Golden Fleece which granted him the strength of Hercules and other powers.
The second one was Achilles Warkiller, he debuted in Wonder Woman (volume 3) #30 in May of 2009. He was created by Zeus when he thought the Amazons had failed and that a race of male heroes was needed.
We had plenty of good DC Universe references this episode: Aquaman, Gail Simone and Marv Wolfman, Ace Chemicals, Superman, The Flash and King Orin.
Van has daddy issues. Vanderveer Wayne, Sr. has a huge shadow that Van Jr. has to walk in. I liked Corbin Bersen’s Van Sr. Bernsen has a perfectly overbearing presence. We’ll get to see him again in one more episode this season.
The subplot about Alex and if he’s the Olympian or not was enjoyable. If it’s not Alex, he must be in an office building near by, he zooms past the Wayne Building several times during the episode. This subplot was also in the original pilot for Powerless, so it’s nice to see the subplot recycled into the show. I hope that they actually revisit Alex and The Olympian later in the season.
I wonder if Emily got an apartment, since she was looking last week. If Van goes ahead and gives her that promotion to Senior Vice President of R&D, she’ll have money for something nice. I think she has him by the short hairs on this, especially after he stood up without his pants on.
So Atlanteans love the works of Brenden Fraser. Is this why Black Manta hates them?
Speaking of Black Manta, it would have been nice to see some shaky footage of Black Manta’s attack on Atlantis, but oh well. We can’t have everything.
Next week’s title says it all, join us for, “Emily Dates a Henchman”.
Powerless airs Thursday at 8:30/7:30 Central on NBC. It can also be found on Hulu, Amazon, and NBC.com. For more information, visit the official website.
