Ultra Violet & Black Scorpion S1 E6

## Plot

Cruz and Violet are in his van, staking out a jewelry store to try and catch a particularly elusive thief. They've already robbed five other places and haven't been spotted. Suddenly, the alarm goes off, even though no one passed by. Then again, Cruz also left the van without Violet seeing him, and he didn't use his shadow travel. She's not very good at stakeouts. She checks inside but doesn't see anyone. They took everything. The back door's been smashed in. The only way to it is from the street, and they didn't see anyone. Violet is telling Maya about it at school when everyone gets a text that says chisme, which means gossip. There's a link to a blog about the latest gossip at their school. Maya points out that it could be a phishing scam, but if it's not, then they'd be the only ones in school missing out. The blog is run by someone calling themselves El Pajarito, which means little bird, presumably after the phrase, "A little birdie told me", which is also how the first post begins. Marcus and Elena kissed in the parking lot last Thursday. They're embarrassed when they walk through the halls. The blogger plans on sharing more gossip everyday at 8:00 AM. Two guys who have been friends since second grade, Emilio and Michael, have a falling out, since Emilio didn't invite Michael to his birthday party because he doesn't think his friend fits his "vibe" anymore. One is dressed as a stereotypical goth and the other as a stereotypical preppy kid. A girl named Ari claimed that she wrote a song she performed at a talent show, but El Pajarito exposed that as a lie. Izzy, her little sister, is the one who actually wrote it. The two are glaring at each other. At breakfast, Nina tells Violet that all the gossip is no good. She claims that it's harmless and part of their culture, like magazines. Nina has gotten a lot of calls from upset parents who think otherwise. Gossip only seems fun until it's about you. I can confirm, one time in elementary school, a bully spread a false rumor that I made out with a boy named Andrew who had a crush on me. I was not interested in him like that and had never kissed anyone before, let alone made out with them. This was in fourth or fifth grade; before everyone had their own laptops, tablets, and smartphones. Social media was around, but only for a few years at that point. Also, the reason it's called gossip and not facts is because there's no way to prove that it's true, so everyone believing it seems weird. This is basically a form of cyberbullying where the victims change everyday. Nina says they cancelled Teacher Tuesdays a few weeks ago. Today's gossip is about Evita, Hannah, Maya, and Violet all having a crush on Dalan Coleman. He passes by them in the hall without even acknowledging them, and Hannah is so upset that she cries. Violet has realized that her mom is right, and decides to find out who the blogger is. She explains the situation to Cruz, but he refuses to let her borrow the password cracker to get into the school's surveillance system. The blogger may not be a criminal in the eyes of the law, but they've hurt a lot of people and at least deserve to get detention. Violet asks Cruz if they can at least get some tacos. She's able to use her super speed to take the password cracker just before he comes back to get his wallet. At school, Maya and Violet look at the security footage. They think that whoever the blogger is must have overheard personal conversations between the people their gossip is about. They have eight suspects, and they can narrow it down based on who was around for every conversation. That's a lot of security footage to go through. Luckily, Violet has super speed. She also finds embarrassing footage of Luis dancing in the hall. Only Leah and Chloe could've been around for everything. After tomorrow's post, they'll review the footage, see which one could have known about it, and that's the blogger. This time, the gossip is about the faculty, specifically, Nina. It turns out that the teachers are still hanging out every Tuesday, and lied about cancelling them because they didn't want her around. Even the faculty tunes in to the blog. After checking the footage, it turns out that neither Leah nor Chloe were on camera. In fact, it looked like no one else was around when the teachers were talking about Nina. She goes out to eat with Juan and Tiago at a Mexican restaurant… which is also where the teachers meet. Nina says they didn't have to go behind her back. She thought they were friends. They are, but she's their boss now, which means they can't gossip with her like they used to. If two teachers were dating each other, then she'd have to report them. Violet returns the password cracker to the van when Cruz enters. He knew that she took it. He tells her that she crossed a line by stealing from him and invading people's privacy. How would she like it if someone went through her phone and mocked her private moments? Being a superhero is about doing right, not wrong. Violet says she wasn't trying to do wrong, but Cruz tells her that she did. Just because she didn't mean to doesn't change that. She apologizes, and he "grounds" her by telling her that after they catch this thief, she'll be cleaning mats for a week without her mask. They look at the footage again. The dog has been barking, and Violet says they're not very chill. Cruz realizes that they might be barking at something, or rather, someone, that they couldn't see. The thief is wearing a suit that makes them invisible. If they had cameras that also read body temperature though (they don't), then couldn't this thief's plan have quickly fallen apart, unless whatever the suit is made out of also accounts for that? They check the live feed and see the thief step in a puddle, which leaves wet footprints. They cover both exits. Cruz is tossed around the store when he tries to fight them. They hear the doorknob of the side door rattling. Violet bumps into them and hits them with jewelry, which partially disables their suit, allowing Cruz to toss them into a glass table. Violet ties their legs up with a belt. The store is basically destroyed, but they've probably got insurance. The effect for the suit malfunctioning actually looked really high-quality, at least to me. I definitely got *Invisible Man* vibes. A close-up of the middle school sign confirms that I was right about the Dolores Huerta quote from episode 2. I am far sighted after all. Luis suddenly shows up behind Maya and Violet and tells them that it's time for class. When Maya asks him where he even came from, he says that whether they see him or not, he's always around, which makes Violet realize that *he's* the gossip blogger. He was lurking where the cameras couldn't see him, so he was practically invisible. I love it when Violet's hero work for the week and her normal problem for the week intersect, like Duplico and Black Scorpion fighting and tearing each other down in the previous episode being similar to the problems she had with her brother. She confronts Luis as Ultra Violet. He's hurting people and invading their privacy. It's only fun until it's about him. She makes him take down the blog in exchange for her not releasing the embarrassing dance footage. However, he decides to join the school newspaper and find out who Ultra Violet is.