Justice League(-TV Series) - Secret S Society • An Part 002

"**Secret Society**" is the forty-third and forty-fourth episodes of Template:Jl. As the Justice League undergoes training exercises to trust each other, ***Gorilla Grodd*** organizes a Secret Society to bring them down.

## Plot

While keeping surveillance on the League, Grodd reveals that the accident the Flash caused in "***The Brave and the Bold***" has given him psychic abilities. Grodd has been using these powers to manipulate the League's moods, causing them to lash out at each other with feelings they would have otherwise kept repressed. Flash tries to track down Shade on his own by threatening a henchman who has been bailed out. Flash learns Shade has a base at the North Hill Subway Station, but walks into a trap and is captured by the Society.
Batman is contacted and tries to rescue Flash. When Batman arrives at the scene, Clayface impersonates Flash, but Batman sees through the ruse as Clayface overplays his part. Batman takes out Sinestro with a brutal batarang throw, but then is captured by the rest of the Society. The rest of the League is tricked into assembling at their practice range (with the exception of Green Lantern), where they are attacked by the Society and captured. Lantern discovers one of Grodd's spycams and tracks the Society to their hideout, only to be literally sniffed out by Grodd and captured.
The League is taken to a football stadium in ***Gotham City***, where Grodd intends to execute them live on national television, but the heroes are saved by J'onn, who managed to infiltrate the Society by impersonating Clayface during the previous battle (having duped Killer Frost into freezing the real Clayface - who was impersonating J'onn at the time). J'onn releases his captured friends and the League, now aware of Grodd's manipulations, battles the Secret Society. The League is victorious in the end, Superman finally overcoming Grodd despite his telepathy, but the League realizes that they still have some issues that need to be worked on. Agreeing to let bygones be bygones, the League leaves the field together as thousands of fans cheer them on.

## Continuity

* Grodd makes his first appearance since "***The Brave and the Bold***", and refers to the accident with his mind-control helmet caused by Flash.
* Batman says to Clayface that he's always trying to find a cure which alludes to Batman's previous encounters with him since Matt Hagen's transformation to Clayface in "Feat of Clay".

## Background information

### Home video releases

* Template:Jldvd2
* ***Justice League - Season Two (Blu-ray)***
* ***Justice League - The Complete Series (DVD)***
* ***DC Comics Super-Villains: Justice League Masterminds of Crime (DVD)***

### Production inconsistencies

* While ***John Stewart*** spied on the Secret Society discussing what they'll do with him, Shade's lip sync switches to Sinestro's voice saying "Right. What are we going to do about the Lantern?".

### Trivia

* With the exception of Killer Frost, each member of the Secret Society belongs to the ***rogues gallery*** of one of the members of the Justice League in the ***DC Comics*** except for J'onn J'onzz and Hawkgirl:

* This is the last appearance of Clayface in the ***DCAU***.
* In the comics, Giganta is often portrayed as a brutish woman, whereas in the DCAU she is almost excessively feminine, even girlish (by contrast, Jennifer Hale voices Killer Frost as excessively rough and masculine).
* Grodd's explanation of Giganta's origin is a call back to the Golden Age Giganta, who had been artificially evolved into a strongwoman by a renegade scientist.
* ***Darkseid***, Lex Luthor, Brainiac, and ***Mr. Mxyzptlk*** appear as cardboard cutouts used in a training exercise in the episode.
* The exchange between Shade's thug and Flash is a spoof on Lloyd Bentsen's famous cutting remark to Dan Quayle during the 1988 U.S. Vice Presidential debates: "Senator, you're no Jack Kennedy".
* ***Sinestro*** claims that his beams move as fast as ***Flash*** does, the speed of light; in fact, Flash's top speed, exhibited in "***Eclipsed***" and Template:Jlu, "Divided We Fall" is still slower than the speed of light.
* Clayface's overplayed "yo" likely came from the ***Lightspeed Energy Bars*** commercial Flash did in "***Eclipsed***" where he says "Thanks, yo" to the kid in the commercial.
* The robots that Hawkgirl fights in the training exercise are very similar to ***Zeta*** in his form from ***Batman Beyond***.
* The scene of the League and the Society rushing at one another in the football stadium is a clear homage to the opening title of the old *Challenge of the Super Friends* animated series from the 1978. That show's version of the Justice League also featured Superman, Wonder Woman, Batman, a Flash (Barry Allen), and a Green Lantern (***Hal Jordan***) among its lineup. Their main antagonists were the original Legion of Doom, which included Grodd, Giganta, and Sinestro among the villains.

## Cast

### Uncredited appearances

* ***Ron Troupe***
* ***Shanna Squires***

## Quotes

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