Supergirl (TV Series)

Prom Night! (2021)

Jesse Rath: Brainiac-5

Photos 

Quotes 

• Brainiac-5 : There's nothing women like more than physics well applied. That and a modicum of emotional vulnerability.

• Kenny Li : Why are you dressed like that?

  Brainiac-5 : Uh, well...

  Nia Nal : Well... um...

  Brainiac-5 : When visiting another planet, we like to dress formally to...

  Nia Nal : To show respect.

  Brainiac-5 : To show respect.

  Nia Nal : But we will be changing...

  Brainiac-5 : We'll be changing.

  Nia Nal : ...right after we fix our ship.

  Young Alex : Your ship's broken?

  Brainiac-5 : [simultaneously]  No.

  Nia Nal : Yes.

  Brainiac-5 : [sharing an awkward laugh]  Can I just have a minute with, uh, my...

  Nia Nal : Just one.

  Brainiac-5 : ...my fellow Psyconian? Just...

  Nia Nal : [moving a few feet away]  Stay frosty.

• Nia Nal : Alex was right. It's freezing. That means that climate change wasn't real then.

  Brainiac-5 : Our time relay box is broken!

  Nia Nal : What?

  Brainiac-5 : It'll take days to fix!

  Nia Nal : Well, then we're in luck. We're a day early.

  Brainiac-5 : [seeing a promotional banner]  Masquerade-themed prom? Our disguises are useless.

  Nia Nal : Brainy, it's okay.

  Brainiac-5 : No! We have to fix a component, replace its missing dysprosium, and on top of that, locate new costumes.

  Nia Nal : Brainy, you can do everything you're talking about. We have 24 hours. All we have to worry about is not being seen.

  Young Kara : [approaching with Alex and Kenny]  Oh, my gosh. Did you guys just come out of that spaceship?

  Brainiac-5 : Kara?

  Nia Nal : [swatting him to be quiet]  Wassup?

• Kenny Li : I've never met another alien that wasn't Kara. Do you always dress this formally?

  Brainiac-5 : Customarily, it's what we...

  Mrs. Li : [knocking on the door and coming in]  Kenny?

  Kenny Li : Mom. Look, I can explain.

  Mrs. Li : [behind him, Brainy has vanished]  Explain? Explain why you ran in so fast, I have to bring your dinner to you?

  Kenny Li : Right, um... I-I was at a study session with Kara, but you didn't have to bring me dinner.

  Mrs. Li : It's no trouble. Plus, I need to take a break from doing the store books.

  Kenny Li : Don't worry about the books. I'll, uh... I'll get 'em done later tonight, as soon as I finish my homework. Thanks, mom.

  [as she leaves, he closes the door, behind which Brainy hides] 

  Kenny Li : Oh!

  Brainiac-5 : No.

  Kenny Li : My...

  Brainiac-5 : Now, time is of the essence.

  [patting his shoulder] 

  Brainiac-5 : Totes. I'll be out of your hair as soon as I locate your computer.

  Kenny Li : Bro, it's right here.

  Brainiac-5 : [seeing his desktop]  This is your best computer? You... it's... Sprock. I'll make it work.

• Brainiac-5 : Alex and Nia were right. Behold, the May 25, 2009 Midvale Weekly.

  Alex Danvers : Huh.

  Brainiac-5 : The week of Midvale High's prom.

  Nia Nal : The same night as the Aquarid meteor shower.

  J'onn J'onnz : This is where we need to go to save Supergirl?

  Alex Danvers : Yeah, I was back from Stanford on vacation. I just dropped Kara off at the school assembly hall for prom, and, uh, with a jacket. It was oddly cold that night, and that's when the shower hit, and then this giant meteor just came bearing down and Kara flew up and punched it out of the sky.

  Nia Nal : But the meteor had kryptonite.

  Alex Danvers : The impact was enough to destroy the meteor, but Kara got pretty hurt. She fell through the roof of the gym.

  J'onn J'onnz : No one saw her?

  Alex Danvers : It was under construction, and when I found her, her hand was all cut up. It was the first time I ever saw her bleed.

• Brainiac-5 : Alex called about a runaway truck?

  Young Kara : It was gonna hit a bus.

  Brainiac-5 : Ah, I see.

  Nia Nal : There was also a blast that came from overhead. I think someone's using a cloaking device. I'll see what I can dream while you both scan the sky.

  [in her dream, she sees a pink cougar jump out of its cage, and she wakes with a start] 

  Brainiac-5 : Brenda, I found something. There. There, I've got a lock.

  Mitch : The Coluan scanner has us! Sir, we need to retreat!

  Naxim Tork : [snarling, he closes the hatch]  Damn it, Mitch!

  Brainiac-5 : They're gone.

  Young Alex : [pulling up]  Guys, time to go. That reporter's right behind me.

  CJ Grant : [pulling up just as they leave and seeing the bus depart, too]  Luckiest town, my ass.

• Young Kara : Y-You spoke English? He said my name. Are people from your planet psychic?

  Nia Nal : Yes.

  Brainiac-5 : Y-Yeah, exactly.

  Nia Nal : Yes, we are.

  Brainiac-5 : We're...

  Nia Nal , Brainiac-5 : Psychic aliens.

  Brainiac-5 : Mm-hmm.

  Nia Nal : From planet Psychon.

• Nia Nal : You're not looking too chillaxed, Brainy.

  Brainiac-5 : [distracted]  Hmm?

  Nia Nal : You're stress eating again.

  Brainiac-5 : [putting his bag of chips down]  I'm not... I'm not... I'm not stress-eating. I just... I never had breakfast.

  Nia Nal : So you're not worried at all that the last time you time traveled, you missed the mark by 15,000 years?

  Brainiac-5 : It was 12,000 years.

  [Nia raises her eyebrows] 

  Brainiac-5 : All right, fine. Okay, yes, the... maybe the memory of my misstep has compounded my stress, leading to caloric consumption. But I don't know what else to do.

  Nia Nal : Well, you're with me, and... we're only going back a few years. Nothing bad's gonna happen.

  Brainiac-5 : For Supergirl's sake, it can't. Come on.

  [heading to the conn] 

  Brainiac-5 : Oh, Sprock, I almost forgot. The most important element of our disguise.

  [taking out two pairs of glasses like Clark's] 

  Brainiac-5 : The ultimate optical illusion.

• Nia Nal : In 2009, I was 12. Is this really what people wore to prom?

  Brainiac-5 : Yes. Ergo, it is the perfect disguise to allow us to chillax on our mission. "Chillax" being a key 2009 phrase, along with "flossy", "totes", and of course, the immortal "Wassup!".

  Nia Nal : Oh, I forgot about "Wassup." My sister and I said it so much that our mom made us write essays on the etymology of the phrase to prove how ridiculous it was.

• Brainiac-5 : All right, next, I need to find access to a 3-D printer.

  Kenny Li : A 3-D printer?

  Brainiac-5 : Yeah, it's just basic. Nothing fancy.

  Kenny Li : Brandon, I don't know what you have on Psychon, but 3-D printers aren't basic here. Some aerospace companies might have them under...

  Brainiac-5 : [remembering where he is]  This is 2009.

  Kenny Li : Well, yeah. Still, can't you use your ring to, you know, Dumbledore something up?

  Brainiac-5 : No. What? No! It's physically impossible to create something out of nothing, Kenny.

  [he takes a bag of chips out and starts to stress-eat] 

  Kenny Li : Uh... what if I can get you a something? The building blocks of 3-D printing are an inkjet engine and ABS plastic. Right?

  Brainiac-5 : That's correct.

  Kenny Li : We have all that stuff at our school STEM lab. Plus, on Friday, no one's really there. Oh, we could sneak onto campus early, and then we'd have the run of the whole place.

  Brainiac-5 : That could work. Well planned.

  Kenny Li : Uh, glad I could help.

  Brainiac-5 : [indicating the dinner Kenny's mother made]  So, will you be eating all of this?

  Kenny Li : Uh...

  Brainiac-5 : [taking it]  Thank you.

• Young Kara : [to Nia, after hiding the Legion cruiser]  You... you can stay with us.

  Kenny Li : If-if she stays with you guys, he stays with me.

  Young Kara : Okay! Okay, let's go.

  Nia Nal : Uh...

  Young Kara : [gesturing for her and Brainy to follow them]  Come on.

  Kenny Li : [returning Brainy's backpack]  Here you go, bro.

  Brainiac-5 : Thank you.

  Nia Nal : [stopping at Brainy's side]  Okay. Um, it's gonna be okay. It's gonna be okay. Just, um... chillax.

• Young Kara : My name is Kara Zor-El. This is Kenny and this is Alex.

  Nia Nal : Uh, this is... Brandon... and I'm Brenda. We are Brandon and Brenda.

  Brainiac-5 : Yep.

  Young Kara : I am an alien, like you, from the planet Krypton, and I came to Earth after my planet was destroyed. I... I want to help you.

  Brainiac-5 : Thank you.

  Nia Nal : That's great.

  Brainiac-5 : But...

  Nia Nal : Um... you see, we were also fleeing a dying planet like you...

  Brainiac-5 : Mm-hmm.

  Nia Nal : ...and we were knocked off-course. We only have one day to catch up with our fellow travelers. So that leaves us with much to do and very little time to do it.

  Young Kara : Just tell us what you need.

• J'onn J'onnz : How specifically do we get to this place in time?

  Brainiac-5 : Well, based on my survey of satellite imagery from 2009 and the trajectory of the meteor, I was able to predict Kara's point of contact. After running those figures through 3-D modeling, I produced a rendering of the debris field, and by overlaying that with geologic radiation emissions of that same night, plus Kara's own biological markers, I was able to pinpoint the exact location of Kara's DNA.

  [Alex stares blankly] 

  Brainiac-5 : The high school's baseball diamond center field. Nia and I depart after I gather my things.

  Nia Nal : Alex, what's this business about "the luckiest town in America"?

  Alex Danvers : When I left for college, Kara and her boyfriend Kenny appointed themselves the town's Scooby-Duo. They were saving cats from trees and kids from wells, that sort of thing, and the, uh, town got quite the reputation.

  J'onn J'onnz : I thought Kenny Li was killed when you were in high school. The sheriff was running a drug ring, and he got caught up.

  Alex Danvers : No, that's one of those old world/new world differences. In this world, Kenny never got killed.

  J'onn J'onnz : That suggests there could be other differences. Maybe I should come with you.

  Brainiac-5 : Absolutely not! As anyone who's ever seen "Back to the Future" knows, in 2009, you or you

  [pointing to J'onn and Alex] 

  Brainiac-5 : could both run into your past selves and thereby disrupt the continuum of space-time. The only people who can go on this mission are Nia and myself.

  Alex Danvers : Okay, fine. But you're going to my past. Don't. Mess. It up.

• Brainiac-5 : [a vending machine snack gets stuck]  Every time I try to use one of these things...

  [shaking the machine] 

  Brainiac-5 : Come on. Come on! COME ON!

  Glee Club Teacher : That is perfect! You are the tenor our Glee Club needs. Ooh! Come with me, now. Unless there is another class that I can escort you to?

  Brainiac-5 : [unable to think of an out]  Sprock.

• Brainiac-5 : If we don't find this Naxim Tork, we will have torn the fabric of space and time, which could rewrite the victors of wars, create anomalies where none existed, erase entire existences!

  Nia Nal : Alex hasn't been able to get ahold of Kara. This is all my fault. If I had just been able to interpret my dream, we would have been able to catch this guy. I should have just kept trying my mom.

  Brainiac-5 : Kept trying who?

  Nia Nal : [realizing what she said]  My mom. I called her.

  Brainiac-5 : Nia... how could you? Why...

  Nia Nal : Because I can't interpret my dreams and I need help. I didn't talk to her. I just... I just needed to hear her voice and feel close to her. So I listened to her voicemail and that's it.

  Brainiac-5 : [beginning to pace]  Around the rugged rock, the ragged rascal ran. Around the rugged rock, the ragged rascal ran.

  Nia Nal : Brainy?

  Brainiac-5 : Around the rugged...

  [falling to the ground and doing push-ups] 

  Brainiac-5 : Around the rugged rock, the ragged rascal ran.

  Nia Nal : Brainy, what are you doing?

  Brainiac-5 : I'm coping. High school, Nia, with its many species and subcultures, each with its own tactics of stress mitigation. Now, I thought that given the extreme circumstances, that employing all the coping mechanisms I learned today would help. But disappointingly, they remain... ineffective! I'm sorry, you, uh... you... you partook in-in-in some, uh, high-school experience, yes? Yeah? Hmm? What-what-what subculture did you adhere to?

  Nia Nal : I don't know. I mostly tried to keep to myself.

  Brainiac-5 : Please, just... ju... how did... how did you cope?

  Nia Nal : I would sing my favorite song. It's corny, but it made me feel like I could do anything.

  Brainiac-5 : Please show me.

  Nia Nal : [singing]  Tumble out of bed/And I stumble to the kitchen/Pour myself a cup of ambition/And yawn and stretch/And try to come to life/Jump in the shower and the blood stars pumping/Out on the street, the traffic starts jumping/With folks like me on the job/From nine to five/Working nine to five/What a way to make a living/Barely getting by/It's all taking and no giving/They just use your mind/And they never give you credit/It's enough...

  [getting an alert that Tork has been located] 

  Nia Nal : Naxim's ship. You okay?

  Brainiac-5 : [nodding]  Let's go.

• Brainiac-5 : I think I have a lead on our attacker.

  Nia Nal : Is that the DEO database?

  Brainiac-5 : Future database, technically. My Legion scanner detected a rare Bismolian energy signature directly above that fuel truck. And given the hostile nature of the gambit, I deduced that these alien species likely had a run-in with the DEO at some point.

  Nia Nal : Accessing past information about our present situation using future technology. Fun.

  Brainiac-5 : Two aliens manned Bismolian ships during this time. One, an herbalist named Saphrex Col from Lasma. Peaceful race, vegetarians. The other, a Naxim Tork. Home planet unknown, runs a cosmic menagerie.

  Nia Nal : Like a zoo? Full of alien creatures, possibly even oddly colored. That's what the cougar in my dreams is about. Naxim Tork. That's our guy. And look, it says the DEO captured him in Uruguay three days from now. That's why we lose track of him. He takes off to South America.

  Brainiac-5 : [the file's "captured" tag suddenly changes to "wanted"]  What?

  Nia Nal : Brainy, what just happened?

  Brainiac-5 : No, no, no, no, no.

  Nia Nal : Brainy, what just happened?

  Brainiac-5 : Our actions in this past, they... they just changed the space/time continuum.

• Kenny Li : [finding Brainy at baseball practice]  Where have you been? I have been searching for you. I thought we were keeping a low profile.

  Brainiac-5 : Key events sidelined that goal. I left our STEM lab in search of sustenance and immediately got conscripted by a Glee Club Spartan chief. Needing to preserve my student cover, I agreed. But that led me to getting recruited by your math league, drama guild, and... Coach Kripkey, who is desperately in need of someone who can switch-hit.

  Kenny Li : Wow, that is a lot of exposure.

  Brainiac-5 : Yes, and given my status, a risky venture, but necessary in order to avoid unwanted attention, or worse, A.M. detention with Mrs. Gormley. But still, I have to say, it has been a revelation. Are you familiar with the emotion of stress?

  Kenny Li : I'm... I'm kind of feeling it right now.

  Brainiac-5 : Well, I have been struggling with the emotion, and yet I have been under the impression that my only options were to stress eat or not to stress eat. But now, thanks to your school, I see a cornucopia of approaches. Math leaguers factor, drama clubbers soliloquize, and baseballers hit.

  Kenny Li : Dude, that is fantastic. But now that you've seen all that, do you, uh... do you maybe want to get out of here? Because if Alex finds out, she's going to flip.

  Brainiac-5 : True. Okay. But how do I exfiltrate? I am a vassal of Coach Kripkey.

  Kenny Li : You just say you're not feeling well and you got to go to the nurse.

  Brainiac-5 : Oh. Okay, yes. Another method of coping chicanery. Yes, I love it. Okay. Okay, I will do it...

  Kenny Li : Good.

  Brainiac-5 : ...after one more line drive.

• Kenny Li : When I'm with Kara, I feel like... like I could do anything.

  Brainiac-5 : Well... it appears your positivity is catchy.

  Kenny Li : [he starts the printer]  Nice!

  [checking his watch] 

  Kenny Li : Oh, uh... well, I gotta get to my, um...

  Brainiac-5 : Ah, not to fear. I shall stay here for the remaining minutes to complete fabrication.

  Kenny Li : I don't know, man. With that print rate, your fab looks like it's gonna take remaining hours. But, um... don't worry. I'll be back before lunch. Just don't open the door. Or anything like that.

• Kenny Li : No one should bother you so long as you keep the lights off.

  Brainiac-5 : Not to worry. I once assembled something similar on the planet Neuron, which orbits a black hole, so talk about, uh... talk about dark. This shouldn't be a problem.

  Kenny Li : That must be so cool, having adventures like that.

  Brainiac-5 : It's so cool, man.

  Kenny Li : That's... that's what I want to do, actually. I mean, not, like, be in space all the time, but to go around with Kara, helping people. She and I are staying local for college to... to get better at it. In fact, I, uh... I just made us a base.

  Brainiac-5 : Base?

  Kenny Li : Here on Earth, we have this alien hero named Superman. He lives in this secret bunker.

  Brainiac-5 : [feigning ignorance]  Oh. Sounds ingenious.

  Kenny Li : Yeah, Kara kinda looks up to him.

  Brainiac-5 : I see. So, uh, you built yourself a bunker-in-training.

  Kenny Li : I'm gonna show it to her after graduation. I really, really hope she likes it.

• Brainiac-5 : [talking privately after inadvertently bumping into the teenage Kara and Alex]  So, these are the exact people we are not supposed to be dealing with.

  Nia Nal : Yeah, um, but now we are dealing with them, so we have to figure out how to manage the situation.

  Brainiac-5 : Okay. So, the only management we need is to

  [raising his voice a little] 

  Brainiac-5 : get them out of here.

  Young Alex : We need to get out of here.

  Young Kara : What... what are you talking about? We have to help them.

  Young Alex : You just promised you'd stop drawing attention to yourself.

  Young Kara : If their ship is broken, the least we can do is help fix it.

  Young Alex : Even if it means endangering everyone around you?

  Kenny Li : To be fair, they don't seem hostile. I mean, look at how they're dressed.

• Brainiac-5 : We need to conceal the evidence of our arrival, fix numerous parts, and lastly, locate a rare Earth element called dysprosium.

  Kenny Li : Dysprosium? That's one of those rare Earth elements that your mom is studying at work.

  Young Alex : There may be a dysprosium geode in the college's Rare Earth exhibit.

  Young Kara : She's saying she can get it, so...

  [hearing sirens approach with her superhuman hearing] 

  Young Kara : Wait.

  Kenny Li : Police?

  Young Kara : Heading this way, fast. You... you can't be found here.

  Brainiac-5 : We need to hide the ship.

  Kenny Li : Oh, uh... we could do "Groundhog Day".

  Young Alex : You have go-to plays?