TV REVIEWS: FTN Reviews Naomi Episode 2: Unidentified Flying Object

After a strong debut episode, it was very important for Naomi to continue strong, and “Unidentified Flying Object” did do that…even if it came at the cost of retreading ground that we literally were on during the pilot.

So, after the reveal of Dee that he’s an alien and hinting that Naomi is the same (then outright telling her such), the episode was very much about Naomi’s coping with said revelation, and how she would move forward with that. If she could move forward at all.

And that was arguably the strongest point of the episode. Because they very much took the “I don’t want to be special” approach to Naomi here. Which if we’re being honest, doesn’t always work for these characters because we KNOW they are special and are going to be legendary.

But here, we did get to see WHY Naomi wanted to be normal. Citing how because of her military family she wants to just be normal so that she can fit in and not have to worry about being anything but herself. Which is very respectable, and relatable. Especially since how we saw in the first episode that Naomi is incredible nice, popular, has good friends, and a good relationship with her town. Suddenly being “powerful” would disrupt that, and it’s easy to see why she wouldn’t want to lose that. Not to mention, hearing, and seeing, that there are possibly aliens out there and that Superman is real (more on that later) is a mind-job for even the most staunch believer in the impossible.

And like anyone trying to prove the impossible (or in this case, the impossible wrong), we got to see Naomi go from being driven, to being driven to the brink, even snapping at her friends at times because they wanted to put their “regular stuff” ahead of her mystery.

While I had my doubts about the character initially, Annabelle came off really strong here. Not only going with Naomi into every situation no matter how absurd, but not saying things like, “you’re crazy for believing that” when she revealed the truth about Dee and herself. Even helping her calm down and see the truth that no one is normal (something I’ve always believed) because we’re all exceptional in our own ways. The “serenity prayer” could’ve come off as hokey, but the way it was delivered was rather strong.

Stepping away from the core cast, it was interesting to see how Naomi’s father is going to get a bigger part in this storyline than he (and his wife) had in the comics. Because in the comics, they not only knew the truth about Naomi (to an extent) they had a connection with Dee. But that’s clearly not the case here, and that opens the door for some interesting new levels of their relationships.

So, what held the episode back? Sadly, some of it is the same as last episode. The first is Naomi’s relationships with her friends. From Anthony and the “it’s not a date!” chat (multiple of them…) to forgetting about Nathan and then almost not telling him about her situation despite the fact that they were friends, and once dated (which mean she trusted him enough to do that) and so on. Heck, Lordis seems to only be around to be Naomi’s potential female love interest with some not-so-subtle dialogue. Can we do a little bit better, here?

Also, the “climax” of both episodes was pretty much the same. They go into a location to find something, and then they don’t find it because of Zumbado (who is also very much underdeveloped) who “fights” Naomi and wins.

This brings us to the slow burn with Naomi’s history and her powers. While I noted her desire to prove Dee wrong was fine to a certain degree, it was very odd seeing her deny aliens when she saw not only Dee’s wings, but him flying. Not believing she was an alien? Totally fine. Not being able to believe in aliens after seeing proof with her own eyes? That was a bit hard to swallow.

It’s all still hard to determine visually what Naomi’s powers are, and the fact that Dee somehow knows about them (despite not knowing exactly what she is) is also curious. But we’ll see where it goes.

Finally, the reveal that Superman is real in this world (but to be clear, is not Earth-Prime or Earth-2 as noted by dialogue and the showrunners) and yet no one really knows about it outside of the government (who immediately and frustratingly thinks they’re all hostile…yay…) is very suspect. Especially since he clearly has his super suit and yet…no one believes he’s real? Ok…

Still, in the end, “Unidentified Flying Object” was nearly as strong as the pilot. But some questionable friendship moments plus some retreads did hold it back a bit. Hopefully next episode will be a bit stronger.

3.5/5