Chapter Summaries

Barry investigated whether Central City shared the problems Lois described in Los Angeles and discovered that the city kept homeless and vulnerable people in the remote Vicwood district. After seeing the conditions there and learning how difficult it was for residents to leave, he was left confronting the system’s harsh limits.

• Lois challenged Barry’s assumptions about Central City and told him to investigate who lacked insurance and where they went.
• Barry questioned a coffee shop owner, learned that insurers often refused payouts, and heard a warning about Vicwood.
• Barry searched online, found that Vicwood housed shelters and other institutions, and located it using surveillance cameras.
• Barry entered Vicwood and saw residents confined in bleak conditions, including a motionless man and a severely emaciated person.
• A nurse explained that homeless people were required to live in the shelter, that Barry could not easily take someone home, and that residents received government-funded care if they stayed.

After learning how Central City’s strict policies trapped homeless people in shelters, Barry brought evidence of their suffering to the Capitol Building and confronted the councilors. As he lost consciousness amid the chaos, Neog Sohip, head of Sky Eye, arrived to take him away.

• Barry learned from the nurse that illness, accidents, denied insurance claims, and strict municipal rules left many shelter residents unable to return to society.
• Barry returned to Lois's room, borrowed her laptop, and raced to the Capitol Building in Metropolis with images of suffering homeless people.
• Barry showed the councilors an image of a three-year-old whose ears had frozen off and demanded to know why they would not help.
• Barry dodged security guards while displaying images and accusing the councilors of ignoring people who were dying, but they argued over security and the election vote audit.
• Barry began to lose consciousness as the hall seemed to distort, and Neog Sohip, head of Sky Eye, arrived and said he would take Barry away.

Barry learned from Lois that exposing the Capitol Building conspiracy through the media could put him in danger, while Schiller approached John Jones to help move Capitol Hill. After recognizing a drug developed by the Metropolis research base, M'gann suspected it might be connected to Dr. O'Dell's death.

• Barry woke in Lois's care and wanted to publish his photos, but Lois warned him that mainstream media would bury the truth and that exposing it could make him a target.
• Barry angrily rejected Sky Eye's request to help move Capitol Hill, so Schiller contacted John Jones and tried to persuade her with documents about the research base's medical work.
• M'gann recalled how Dr. O'Dell had sheltered her after she arrived on Earth and later died of heart complications caused by Marfan Syndrome.
• M'gann recognized a medication in Sky Eye's documents as one she had seen in Dr. O'Dell's laboratory and went to inspect the abandoned lab in Colorado.
• M'gann found the drug and remembered Dr. O'Dell's sudden depression before his death, leading her to suspect that the new medication was tied to what had happened to him.

Ron discovered that trained agents had removed Dr. O'Dell’s laboratory computer and data, then traced the doctor to a Cosmic Medicine research group and identified three former medical students as possible suspects. Meanwhile, Bruce picked Barry up in Central City after Lois warned him about the consequences of his Capitol Building break-in, and they headed to Wayne Manor.

• Ron found signs that at least five professionals had carefully removed the laboratory computer and floppy disks, then uncovered Dr. O'Dell’s connection to an MIT Cosmic Medicine research group.
• Ron identified three former medical students among the researchers and went to Wayne Manor for help, where Alfred told him Bruce was away.
• Bruce helped Barry move his belongings, brushed off a police stop by identifying himself, and told Lois they were on their way to Wayne Manor.
• Lois warned Barry that his Capitol Building break-in could bring criminal charges and political attacks, and advised him to find Batman.

Bruce, Barry, and Ron investigated Dr. O'Dell's unfinished medicine and discovered it was a dangerous drug that could kill patients with Marfan Syndrome. Bruce's test results revealed that the drug was part of a broader scheme, though he suspected another factor had caused the victims to die so quickly.

• Barry arrived at Wayne Manor with Bruce, and Ron asked Bruce to find out where three medical students had worked after graduation.
• Barry showed Ron Lois's photographs of horrific crime scenes, and both men became sick while reviewing them.
• Bruce found that one of the suspected students had helped develop the new Marfan Syndrome drug at a secret Research Institute.
• Ron gave Bruce Dr. O'Dell's unfinished pills for testing, and Bruce found that the drug increased circulation and could cause fatal aortic ruptures in heart patients.
• Bruce explained how pharmaceutical and insurance companies could profit by replacing effective medicine with a dangerous, ineffective drug.
• Bruce told Ron that the drug's fatal effects usually took a long time to develop, suggesting another cause might have contributed to the earlier deaths.

Bruce helped Ron uncover how Dr. O'Dell died and connected his death to a secret government experiment involving cosmic radiation and children. Ron learned that Dr. O'Dell had likely caused his own death to protect Ron from seeking revenge, leaving Ron and Barry silent as Ron's grief and anger remained unresolved.

• Bruce explained that the harmful medication could have worsened Dr. O'Dell's condition but was unlikely to have killed him so quickly, then described the government's abandoned infant space-radiation experiment.
• Ron realized Dr. O'Dell's transport device may have been built to send children into space, and suspected Dr. O'Dell had resisted the plan after discovering its purpose.
• Ron remembered that Dr. O'Dell had made his own coffee shortly before collapsing, and Bruce searched for the autopsy record with Barry's help.
• Bruce found evidence that concentrated hormones had triggered Dr. O'Dell's fatal cardiac episode, and Ron concluded that Dr. O'Dell had added them to his own coffee.
• Bruce told Ron that Dr. O'Dell had likely chosen an accidental-looking death to prevent Ron from returning to hatred and revenge, and Ron accepted that explanation while remaining grief-stricken.

Dr. Stone was pressured by an unknown group to obtain evidence tied to a political revote, while his son Victor struggled with his half-mechanical body and helped families in need. Victor and Deli escaped a police confrontation and headed to visit the struggling residents they supported.

• Lex and Dr. Stone discussed Superman absorbing Kryptonite and Dr. Stone’s past work under military control.
• An unknown caller threatened Dr. Stone’s son and demanded that he obtain massacre photos within three days; Dr. Stone then apologized to Victor for possibly missing the anniversary of his mother’s death.
• Victor left home with a family photograph and met Deli to repay him money for helping local families.
• Police officers arrested Victor and Deli on suspicion of dealing drugs, but Victor used a red beam from his eye to frighten them away and free them from their handcuffs.
• Victor and Deli discussed buying clothes for children and checking on Madeline and Finch, then walked to a run-down neighborhood building.

Victor Stone helped Deli deliver money to struggling residents and the neighborhood’s local boss, then robbed a bank before returning home. Sky Eye contacted him to recruit him for a mission involving the Capitol Building, and Schiller’s team later used his late mother’s phone to reach him.

• Deli gave money to a struggling Black woman and the local Black Boss, explaining how the neighborhood’s residents had been abandoned.
• Victor told Deli he would help the children, then went to a bank and used his powers to collect cash from its ATMs.
• A gang member warned Victor that armed police were nearby, and Victor frightened the officers into a chaotic pileup before returning home.
• Sky Eye called Victor through several devices and asked him to help return the Capitol Building to its original location; Victor said he would consider it if they handled the police pursuing him.
• Schiller explained to a female agent that John Jones had rejected their appeal and that Victor was their next recruit.
• Schiller’s team found Victor’s mother’s old phone and planned to call him on it to awaken his longing for his family.

Victor discovered that his mother's phone secretly tracked its location, leading him to his father's abandoned lab and then to armed agents who had taken his father hostage. By analyzing a recording, Victor traced his father's location to Belliv Prison and realized someone was signaling him to look there.

• Victor grieved over his mother and found a hidden program on her phone that transmitted its location.
• Victor followed the signal to an abandoned shelter and his father's deserted laboratory, then confronted his father over the phone.
• Victor flew to Ventura and found armed agents who had captured his father and demanded he hack data from a video.
• Victor refused to cooperate until the agents showed him a recording proving his father was alive.
• Victor analyzed the recording, identified his father's distinctive fountain pen as one associated with Alexander Luthor, and traced the clue to Belliv Prison.

Dr. Stone explained how the military exploited him and Victor before Victor erased the prison and nearly used his powers to destroy critical systems in his grief. His father stopped him by reminding him of his mother and the people Victor could still save, leaving Victor to recognize how he had inherited his father’s impulse to help others.

• Dr. Stone told an agent that the military had arranged the car accident that killed Victor’s mother and injured Victor, then forced him to use the alien box.
• Victor’s power erased the prison and its agents, and he descended to reunite emotionally with Dr. Stone.
• Victor, devastated by his mother’s death, angrily blamed those responsible, while Dr. Stone urged him not to let anger control him.
• Victor disabled the helicopters and began accessing dangerous government systems before Dr. Stone warned him that destroying the world would kill other people’s mothers.
• Dr. Stone reminded Victor that he could prevent others from suffering, and Victor recalled how donating to struggling families made him feel alive.
• Victor realized he had imitated his father by helping others and making them happy through generosity.

Victor and Dr. Stone escaped to Gotham, where Bruce Wayne welcomed them, while Schiller sought a way to move the Capitol Building by winning the support of Atlantis’s heir. Sky Eye discovered the Golden Trident might help the heir claim the throne, and Schiller ordered a search for it.

• Dr. Stone told Victor that Lex had been kidnapped, but Lex contacted them and said he had escaped and needed to reclaim Luthor Corp.
• Lex advised Victor to take Dr. Stone to Bruce Wayne in Gotham, and Bruce welcomed them at his manor alongside two unusual guests.
• Schiller’s call to Victor ended with Victor rejecting the Capitol Building’s request, so Schiller began looking for another powerful ally.
• Schiller learned that Orm had annexed Caribbean nations while pursuing Atlantis’s throne and decided to help his rival, the queen’s eldest son.
• Sky Eye agents uncovered legends of the Golden Trident, a weapon said to let its wielder rule Atlantis, and Schiller ordered them to search for it.

Orm learned that humans were searching the sea for the Golden Trident and ordered his forces to find it first. In Seabrook, Arthur met Mera, who warned him that Orm planned to wage war, while Tom recognized that Arthur’s mother’s past could help them stop him.

• Orm interrogated a captured American officer and learned that humans were searching for an underwater weapon identified as the Golden Trident.
• After receiving word of Schiller’s conversation through Sky Eye, Orm concluded that Mera had gone to find Arthur and ordered his forces to search for the trident before the humans.
• Arthur returned to Seabrook, where Tom and the townspeople celebrated his rescue of a hijacked submarine.
• Mera found Arthur and warned him that Orm planned to conquer the sea kingdoms and attack the land world, but Arthur initially dismissed her claims.
• Tom revealed that he knew something about the strange people who had come ashore and told Arthur to come with him so they could find a way to stop Orm.

Arthur learned why his mother returned to the sea and discovered that Orm was preparing an attack that would send ocean trash and wreckage onto both American coasts. As Arthur and Mera headed out to investigate, Sky Eye called to recruit him for a team moving the Capitol Building.

• Tom took Arthur and Mera to meet Little Lient, a fisherman who had been horribly injured by the sea folk pursuing Arthur's mother.
• Tom explained that Arthur's mother had returned to the sea to stop the pursuers from harming more humans, and Mera said Orm planned to conquer the sea folk tribes and wage war on the continent.
• Mera revealed that Orm had seized territory in the Caribbean and was preparing a Tsunami Plan to drive ocean trash and sunken ships onto both coasts, potentially drowning people.
• Arthur rejected the idea of letting Orm proceed, but Mera warned that Orm would not negotiate and that Arthur was weaker than a pureblood sea folk warrior.
• Arthur and Mera went to the beach to search for signs of the coming attack, and Arthur said he wanted to find his mother's grave.
• Sky Eye called Arthur and asked him to join a team of Superpower Users moving the Capitol Building back into place.

Arthur and Mera learned that the Golden Trident might be connected to Mount Olympus and set out for Europe, while Orm pursued the same leads in hopes of gaining divine allies. The Amazon queen confronted Orm over his forbidden entry into Amazon territory.

• Schiller, posing as a government agent, told Arthur that clues to the Golden Trident pointed toward Poseidon's iron near Amazon in Europe, and Arthur agreed to travel there with Mera.
• Mera explained that Amazon's people drew their powers from Mount Olympus and suggested seeking their help against Orm.
• Orm learned of Arthur's plans and decided to go to Amazon to seek the queen's support and obtain Poseidon's iron for a weapon of his own.
• Themysciran warriors caught Orm and his followers near Amazon and brought them before the queen.
• Orm claimed he had only come to tour the waters, but the queen told him sea folk were forbidden from entering Amazon territory, making him suspect the Golden Trident was nearby.

Orm was driven out of Amazon after demanding the Golden Trident, then set out to gain strength elsewhere. Arthur and Mera arrived through proper channels, secured lavish funding from Sky Eye, and used their extravagant shopping and a supposed royal banquet to gain an audience with the Amazon queen.

• The Amazon queen rejected Orm's demand for the Golden Trident and warned her warriors to stay vigilant after forcing him from the palace.
• Orm returned to the sea, vowed revenge, and headed toward another stretch of ocean to subdue one of the seven tribes.
• Arthur and Mera flew to Amazon, and Arthur explained how his childhood taught him the importance of appearance and etiquette.
• Arthur called Sky Eye for operating funds, then took Mera shopping for jewelry, clothes, and a luxury car.
• Arthur and Mera spent several days publicizing their planned royal banquet, prompting the queen to hold one for the boost to Amazon's sales.
• Arthur and Mera arrived at the palace in extravagant attire, and the queen approached them despite recognizing them as Atlanteans.

Arthur and Mera secured the Queen’s help in locating the Golden Trident, then learned that Orm had attacked Themyscira and that sea monsters had surrounded Amazon. Arthur and Mera set out to find the trident while the Queen mobilized Amazon’s warriors for battle.

• Arthur persuaded the Queen that he needed the Golden Trident to challenge Orm and gained her support by agreeing to retrieve it.
• The Queen explained that the trident belonged to Atlantis’s exiled old King and gave Arthur and Mera a chart marking where he slept.
• A warrior reported that Orm and King Nereus had flooded Themyscira, and the wounded Diana arrived to warn that the sea people were going to war with Amazon.
• Arthur urged the Queen to avoid fighting the sea people underwater and convinced her that he and Mera should seek the Golden Trident to stop Orm.
• Warriors reported that sea monsters had appeared along Amazon’s eastern coast and surrounded the coastline, so the Queen ordered Amazon’s forces to defend their homeland.

Arthur and Mera pursued the Golden Trident while Diana and Bruce pieced together why Orm had attacked Amazon and uncovered his likely motive. Diana’s painkillers knocked her out, and Schiller failed to recruit her to help move the Capitol Building back from Metropolis.

• Arthur and Mera learned that Orm had unleashed the Trench Tribe and attacked a cargo ship, so they set out to find the Golden Trident.
• Diana learned from Bruce that Orm’s attack on Amazon was likely aimed at obtaining Poseidon Cold Iron, which the queen confirmed she possessed.
• Diana and Bruce reasoned that Orm had learned a rival was pursuing the Golden Trident and feared losing his legitimacy if that rival claimed it first.
• Diana took several potent painkiller shots and fell asleep after Bruce urged her to rest.
• Schiller called Diana to recruit her for the effort to return the Capitol Building from Metropolis, but she declined because she was injured.
• Schiller told the gathered officials that he had also contacted Arthur, while an officer warned that the president was retrieving the security case and the parties might start a hot war.

Diana fought to protect Amazon’s shipping lanes and rescue Amazon warriors from sea monsters while Arthur claimed the Golden Trident and defeated Orm. Arthur learned that Orm had attacked Amazon after being fed information through bribed US Coast Guard personnel, and he set out to find the true culprit behind the war.

• Diana recovered from her wound, spoke with her mother about Orm’s sudden change in strategy, and went to defend the shipping lanes.
• Diana rescued sailors and Amazon warriors from sea monsters, but casualties enraged her, so she unleashed her divine power to drive the monsters away and carry the wounded and dead to shore.
• Arthur and Mera reached The Void, where Arthur took the Golden Trident and became the new power Orm sensed across the seven seas.
• Arthur confronted and defeated Orm, arguing that Orm’s attack on humanity would worsen the conflict between humans and sea peoples.
• Orm revealed that he had learned about Arthur’s plan through bribed US Coast Guard personnel who had intercepted his call with Sky Eye.
• Arthur concluded that the information had been leaked deliberately and ordered Mera to imprison Orm while they pursued the real culprit.

After learning that U.S. officials had deliberately fueled the conflict between Atlantis and the Amazons to protect their political interests, Diana and Arthur confronted lawmakers at the Capitol. The legislators defended their interference as a pursuit of democracy, and Arthur’s anger coincided with the waters around Metropolis rising against the Tides.

• Diana learned from Bruce that a U.S. intelligence agency had leaked Arthur’s actions to Orm, apparently to divert Atlantis’s attack and protect the election.
• Diana flew to Metropolis, where she met Arthur carrying the Golden Trident, and both rejected Sky Eye’s call before heading to the Capitol.
• Diana and Arthur demanded to know why the lawmakers had provoked war between Atlantis and the Amazons.
• The legislators argued among themselves over their past actions and justified foreign intervention as support for democracy.
• Arthur gripped the Golden Trident as the seawater around Metropolis began rising against the Tides.

Arthur and Diana left the politicians without escalating the conflict and joined Bruce and the others at Wayne Manor, where the group considered how deeply dysfunctional American society was. They concluded that killing its leaders or trying to save it completely would not work, and wondered whether they could make it somewhat better.

• Diana stopped Arthur from flooding Metropolis, warning that it could trigger a hot war and harm ordinary people.
• Arthur calmed himself, and Diana took him away from the politicians and called Bruce to pick them up.
• Arthur and Diana arrived at Wayne Manor, where they introduced themselves and recounted what had happened.
• The group reflected on how the country's systems harmed people across every social class and repeatedly replaced those who were eliminated.
• Everyone concluded that neither mass slaughter nor total salvation was within their reach, and considered whether they could improve society by even a little.