Review: SuperMansion “Black to the Future”

Back in the black?

Spoilers Below

Black Saturn gets his turn at plot development in this week’s episode of SuperMansion, although the events of “Black to the Future” may be more inconsequential than they seem. Storm City looks grim fifteen years into the future, especially considering that a balding Groaner and overweight Black Saturn are the ones trying to save it. A mysterious, unseen “Gamora” is responsible for society’s downfall. As Saturn swaps places with his younger self in the present, we’re about to find out why.

First things first, a quick check-in with Jewbot shows he’s still pretty committed to staying just plain Robobot. He doesn’t have much to do with this episode but you know I can’t leave him out.

Old Black Saturn arrives at the mansion on what seems to be a day like any other. American Ranger is trying to date Portia while Portia senses that something is going on with Zenith up in the Realm of the Gods. Zenith has just been told that in order to save Earth she’s gotta bang American Ranger.

What follows is a series of exploits meant to show what most of the League members are like in this dystopian future as well as fill up time before reaching their goal. However, these goals do start to conflict. Zenith is trying to save the world by getting it on with Ranger, but it turns out that leader of the desolate world, Gamora, is the half-human, half-god hybrid child of that very tryst. But Ranger doesn’t want Zenith, he wants Portia. While the League tries to convince Ranger to make it happen and save the world anyway, a middle-aged Black Saturn has to convince the team that he’s really from the future and that a Zenith/Ranger child is really a bad idea.

Of course, a warlike apocalyptic society gives the audience a chance to see what everyone’s really made of. In the future, the League has once again disbanded. While Gamora is the one who started this mess, Saturn’s love of one-liners and inability to give up the final shot are what got Rex killed.

After Saturn convinces the team he is who he says he is, they band together to stop Ranger and Zenith’s union, although destruction is guaranteed either way. In the future, Gamora finally shows her face. Although the story of how Saturn eventually gets Rex killed seemed to affect him, Saturn hasn’t learned anything at all. He tries to deliver Gamora’s final blow himself and gets a staff through the middle of his chest instead.

In the present day, Saturn lodges himself between Ranger and Zenith just in time. He,unfortunately, gets stabbed as well, but nothing fatal – just embarrassingly uncomfortable. In the future, Gamora fades away as she is no longer born, and Saturn remains un-punctured.

Why didn’t the world end when Zenith couldn’t bang the perfect male human specimen? Because Zenith’s mom lied. She made it up because she wanted grandchildren. Then Saturn has to get in one more mistake. He plants the idea in Ranger’s head that he might be President someday, prompting an all-powerful dictator Ranger to show up in the future.

SuperMansion just spent an entire episode advancing a plot and then erasing it, pulling out a big “just kidding” at the end. Because of that, I’m going to assume that this new dictator version of Ranger isn’t a canon concern. Despite risking being a waste of viewers’ time, I liked this episode. That may run contrary to how I felt about last week’s, but “Black to the Future” struck a balance between plot points and jokes that “I Didn’t Even Have To Use My J.K.” didn’t. Even though this week’s episode felt like a throwaway, it also felt more integral to the series. It reestablished its characters in a new light while remaining steady in what we already know and love about them. By now, season two is in full swing and I’m not sure where it’s going anymore. Seven more episodes like this one would ensure the quality of SuperMansion stays within the range of “good” to “pretty okay”.