Hello there. I knew in my heart nothing could compare to last week’s episode of Supergirl, so I kind of feel bad that James was at the center of this one, since he deserves a little spotlight now and then, but any episode would have paled in comparison to last week’s. Overall, I think the real James — the one we loved from season one — is finding his way back to us. Though I do wish they had tied his story into Kara’s a little more. I hate episodes where Kara feels like a tertiary character. The show’s named after her, people!
We learn right off the bat what James’ whole thing is this week when he saves a woman from some bad guys and she scurries away from him in fear. He’s a little shaken; he saved her! Why was she afraid of him? And I get it, what a horrible feeling, to reach out to someone to help them to have them shrink away from you. But maybe James has never seen his helmet in the mirror or maybe he forgot his voicebox is on the Serial Killer setting. But he tells Winn that even though he’s saving people, he doesn’t feel like he’s helping them, because he’s not as inspiring as, say, Supergirl.
And what inspiring thing is Supergirl doing today? She’s on a lunch date with Lena talking about *NSync like the good children of the ’90s they are. Lena explains that she’s been super busy lately but that Kara is AND I QUOTE “worth the extra effort” which is why they’re having lunch today. She promises Kara the exclusive when she’s ready to talk about her new project and partner, rambles some science words that are over Kara’s head, and then they giggle, hug, and part ways, Kara saying next time lunch is on her.
On you, under you, whatever you want, girl.
I’m trying so hard to be like, “It’s female friendship! Just two gals! Being pals! Not talking about boyfriends! How great!” But. The looks they give each other. Even I’m not THAT good at projecting. There are VIBES HERE and I don’t understand if it’s the writers intentionally teasing us, natural chemistry between Katie and Melissa, or if I’ve finally really and truly lost my mind.
In a nearby park, a woman goes all glowy-eyed and starts wreaking havoc. James saves a few citizens but Supergirl swoops in to stop the major damage from happening, earning her applause from the crowd and a pout from James.
Back at the DEO, as they discuss the fact that the type of alien that woman seemed to be is usually a peaceful people, Alex mentions she’s glad Supergirl was there, threatening to make James’s pout permanent. He wants to help, but J’onn says this is DEO business — and even says that if he needs Guardian’s skills, he’ll call him, which all seems very reasonable, but James skulks away.
Which isn’t a James issue; it’s a writing issue. It’s hard to read the news and see an entire university shutting down because young black man owns a glue gun and not feel weirded out when you see people shirking away from the black superhero on a TV show where a white man has been acting similarly (and less deservedly) entitled but is allowed to fight alongside Supergirl. The people he’s saving aren’t afraid of James because he’s black; they don’t even know he’s black. Inside his suit, he looks like someone who escaped from ComicCon. But it’s still hard to watch James being written in this weirdly entitled way, watch him being feared, and reconcile that with his character last season and what’s happening with young black men in the real world.
Alex just remembered that Larry from OITNB exists.
I get it, James; I also don’t think it makes sense that they put you in charge of CatCo instead of incorporating you into the DEO somehow. Get you properly trained. But I think we’re on the road to fixing that, hold tight!
Anywho, at dinner somewhere, Lena is lamenting to Rhea that her first test didn’t work; she’s super bummed about it. Rhea really leans in with this whole mommy-issue-manipulation thing and says all the right things with all the right tones of voices and even lifts Lena’s little chin right up the way moms do in fairytales and even *I* started to believe that maybe Rhea was trying to make up for the mistakes she made with her son.
Then again, I have mommy issues, too. (Lena, call me.)
Her son, by the way, happens to pass by the restaurant as she’s exiting, but loses her in the crowd and assumes he’s hallucinating. He has Winn double-check, but the Daxam ship is gone, so he’s sure it’s just his own issues bubbling to the surface.
Meanwhile, Guardian is on the job, trying to find the alien woman, shaking down Brian (of “Go away, Brian!” fame) for info. Guardian goes to her apartment, looking for clues but instead finding her son. He takes him to the DEO, where Alex tries to coax some information out of him with kind words and the temptation of burgers.
“Okay fine I confess this is more for me than it is for you, my girlfriend is trying to get me to go vegan.”
But the boy isn’t having it. Alex leaves the room and realizes that the boy is tracking James through the wall, so she convinces J’onn to have James take him somewhere less sterile and get the boy to talk. And when J’onn realizes that a lot of the things his best agent is saying to him are the same things James had been saying moments before, that maybe his instincts are solid, so he agrees to let James talk to the boy.
At L Corp, Lena is still having a hard time getting her portal to work. She’s feeling defeated; she’s sure her brother could have solved this by now. But Rhea tells her earnestly that Lena is smarter than Lex. She encourages Lena to stop trying to think about how Lex would solve this, and solve it like LENA.
Lex was obsessed with power, so that’s how he would approach this. But Lena is more about balance, so after saying some sexy science things, the pronunciation of which she learned from an Irish professor, she figures out a solution.
I want to make crazy science with Lena Luthor.
Across town, James takes the little alien boy, Marcus, to CatCo and bonds with him – both of their fathers were soldiers, both of their fathers have died. He finally admits that he thinks he knows where his mother is but can’t get more out than that because his eyes glow purple and chaos swarms around him, much like his mother at the beginning of the episode. Kara Supergirl’s him out of the building before he takes the whole thing down, and coincidentally as Lena powers down her machine at L Corp, Marcus’s eyes go back to normal.
“That worked out so well and nothing bad happened at all!”
Back at the DEO, Kara explains to Alex about how Marcus wasn’t in control of the chaos, and how as soon as the purple left his eyes, he was just a scared little boy being held up hundreds of feet in the air by a girl in a cape.
Anyone else get “The Danvers Sisters” to the tune of The Schuyler Sisters stuck in their head whenever they see these two in frame together? Just me? Cool, cool.
They put him in a cell for his own safety, and try to get James to talk to him again, but James is still a little shaken; when Marcus went haywire, James didn’t know what to do, so he froze while Supergirl flew him out to safety. He’s doubting himself, so he starts to leave. J’onn stops him and tells him that he’s the only one who can get through to Marcus now. James asks if it’s because he’s black but J’onn says that has nothing to do with it. He tells a story about how it took him until he had his daughter to realize what he wanted to do with his life. That it wasn’t until he had a family to protect that he discovered how good he was at it, how important to him it was. And James is obviously trying to figure out what kind of hero he wants to be, so maybe helping Marcus will help him, too.
It was a really good father-figure pep talk, lemme tell you. And, unlike the really good pep talk Lena’s mother-figure gave her, J’onn’s pep talk came from a pure place of hope and admiration, zero ulterior motive.
Alex and Winn are looking for energy spikes and say some nerdy science words that Kara recognizes as the ones Lena said at her earlier.
So Kara calls Lena, but it’s Rhea who answers.
Phone calls are scary enough without the WRONG PERSON on the other side.
Kara immediately launches into IF YOU HURT LENA but Rhea is calm and cool and delivers a speech about how everything horrible she does on this planet will come down to Supergirl because she didn’t give Rhea what she wanted when they first came here.
I was inexplicably hoping they’d break into singing Telephone during this scene.
The Prince of Daxam takes the phone from Kara and asks his mother why she’s doing this, and she admits it was mostly to get his attention.
After she hangs up, Lena looks back and is a little confused as to why Rhea has her phone at all, but she’s so far gone that she doesn’t question it further.
At the DEO, James goes into Marcus’s cell to talk. Marcus admits he liked Earth the best so far of everywhere they’ve been, and James talks to him about being bullied, about friends and trust. And Marcus gets the message and admits that he can telepathically sense his mother, but she’s in an unfamiliar place. So he leads James and Winn there, where he finds a mother glad to see her son, scared of what’s happening to her…and not alone. Turns out there are lots of aliens who are being affected by Lena’s portal. (This is not a euphemism BUT IT COULD BE.)
Lena, unaware of how her machine is ruining lives, is excited because now she can start real trials of her portal. But then she gets a little sad because she knows that getting this to work means her new friend, mentor, and mother-figure will be leaving soon.
Rhea says more things Lena has always wanted to hear, including that “any mother” should be proud of her. And Lena looks at her like Rhea is handing her a bandage for a wound she long thought incurable.
I really hope this isn’t the last smile we ever see Lena Luthor smile.
But then, Rhea ignores the wound entirely and wraps the bandage around her neck and pulls tight. Metaphorically. Literally what she does is pump up the volume on the portal, and Lena can sense something is horribly wrong. Rhea insists her affection for Lena was real, but she’s taking over, and letting hundreds of ships full of thousands of Daxamites to Earth.
Lena gets knocked unconscious, Rhea puts J’onn in a mind-trap made of his own nightmares, Mon-El threatens to shoot his mother but ends up not being able to, and Supergirl gets to the portal only to find there’s not much she can do.
At this point half my Twitter feed said simply, “Ruh roh.”
Rhea calls Earth the New Daxam, and beams up unconscious Lena and her son to her ship, while Alex and the rest of the DEO look on as helpless as Kara feels.
Basically what I’m saying is WE’RE ALL DOOMED. But don’t worry because next week CAT GRANT IS BACK!!! I have no idea in what capacity or for how long because I saw her in the promo for next week and my brain shorted out and that’s all I know about the next (and penultimate of the season!) episode of Supergirl.
I actually found James really annoying and entitled this episode (and season in general). The Guardian thing isnt doing it for me. Theres a place for regular humans who want to help already, go the effortful, qualified route and become something helpful (policeman, soldier, DEO agent, hell even a FUCKING JOURNALIST WHICH HE IS ALREADY!), but instead he just seems desperate for worship. He sees people in awe of superman and supergirl and wants it for himself. Which fair enough, im sure anyone who was friends with them both would feel equally jealous of their badasserry from time to time. But whereas others in their life find their own ways to be useful, he just seems to be taking on a really pathetic atempt to emulate them. I liked CatCo and James in season 1 ecause they were doing “the hero thing” in the everyday sense. As journalists, they expose truths and hold the powerful accountable (which is why Im so fond of Snapper this season). But this season, theres no theme of “everyday human heros” its all extranormal. It irks me. Grrrr. Although, maybe some of this hate is just Mon-el fatigue….
This. If journalism isn’t doing it for him, there are plenty of legit ways to make a change apart from pouting because Guardian actually cannot do what Supergirl can!
I thought this was an improvement in the James storyline for the same reason, though; they made it so he had to be the aggressive, crimefighting vigilante sort of hero, but this episode he learned the value of being a hero in the way that anybody can – just being a caring, compassionate person, without the costumed theatrics.
A few random thoughts:
1. I felt bad for not being more empathetic when James was having his crisis about scaring that woman. I get having an existential crisis; it’s just that the way he’s going about it seems illogical to me? Like, if you want to be a crime-fighter, then join the NCPD. If journalism is still in your blood, then why can’t you find meaning in *being CEO of Catco*?
2. I did feel uncomfortable about the racial implications, however, as you brought up (even though it was mostly about the suit), while simultaneously being angry at James for being disappointed in a woman who was terrified of violent men. Like, have some empathy of your own, James!
3. Why didn’t Kara immediately fly to L-Corp after Rhea hung up the phone? She doesn’t even know if Lena is ok! Maybe she thinks it’s too late, and the most efficient thing is to pinpoint the energy convergence because Lena is there, but it frustrated me that she didn’t take a quick jet over just to check.
4. I liked having more James around, if we’re only going to be at the DEO forever more, they need to rethink this Catco thing with him, because it’s too ridiculous that he has time to just…not be around. Like when he was telling his assistant to move the rest of his schedule for the day, in my head I heard her snarkily saying, “Like I already have for your morning meetings too, and all your other meetings when you’re suddenly just not around?”
Yeah I also don’t understand the whole wanting to be a hero storyline. Because actually he seems to just go out and assault people. The fact he needs the suit for physical protection and strength kinda shows he thinks you need to punch violence out of people.
Note, my feelings may have been influenced by a lecture I had about treating violence as a public health issue. They cut street violence in Glasgow by half in ten years with outreach programmes. The idea that James thinks that crime is a simple issue of some people are bad and we need strength to catch them and lock them up I find incredibly annoying.
CAT GRANT IS BAAAAAAAAAAAAAACK!!!!!!!!!!!
You guys, I’ve tried to get on board with Supercorp, but the truth is, since season 2 started, I’ve been full on Supercat trash and I have no regrets. I’ve missed Cat so, so, so, so much, and I have so many hopes and expectations for her return that the next two episodes will probably kill me.
In other news, I’m sure I’m not the only person who’s mind immediately went to the picture of the little black boy feeling Obama’s head when James removed his mask for Marcus? OH THE FEELS. I’m really glad they’ve finally done SOMETHING with the Guardian storyline, and this episode feels like a good way to set it aside and get back to the James we knew and loved from season one – the one who taught Kara about due process and using words and not getting angry in public and being a hero without punching. I miss THAT James.
I had the same thought–of the boy touching Obama’s hair–when Marcus reached out to touch James. I found myself annoyed by the moment, though…like the parallel was so obvious that it felt a little emotionally manipulative.
Yeah it was super obvious, but this show does NOT do subtle, so I wasn’t really upset about that because they’ve done it that way with EVERYTHING. Remember how hard they hit the Green Martian genocide = Holocaust parallel? Or the aliens = immigrants parallel? Or the coming out as Supergirl = coming out as queer parallel? This is a show that likes to hit you over the head with its political parallels, and I’m really okay with that.
Im confused with how they are playing Lena. Like, I like their friendship and I like how its developed over the series, but if this was Superman who had female friend and they specifically wrote in lines like ‘you are worth the extra effort’, ‘you’re my hero’ and ‘you’re my favourite’ then you would pretty quickly assume they were meant to be flirting. So what’s the deal? Why do they keep doing that?
Also I thought this episode was really good, not at all cringy, i was into the plot even though im not that keen on Guardian storyline and Kara didnt get to do that much. Like I really enjoyed it and I can’t wait to see the next one.
THEY’RE DOING IT SO OUR TRASH SELVES WILL KEEP WATCHING
AND THE WORST PART IS THAT IT’S WORKING
You always give me truth <3
I feel that with Mon-El, and how bad his character/story arc is, people are using rose colored glasses to look at James. I remember him differently:
– In order to make James “worthy” of being Kara’s love interest they changed him from a skinny dork to basically a linebacker. I can get behind an older more confident and experienced James, but making him this huge, muscular dude just feeds into the alpha male narrative.
– Just gets back into a relationship with Lucy Lane, but from day one he had one foot out of the door.
– But while he’s in that relationship with Lucy, he wants Kara to remain pure and available for him. That’s what that call to her at Thanksgiving was all about.
– He allowed Lucy to sacrifice her career in the military so that she could have a relationship with James, despite the fact that he wasn’t fully into the relationship.
– Lucy broke up with him, NOT because she thought he might be in love with Kara, but because after all of that time they had together, he still wasn’t emotionally available to her. That’s what him telling Kara about his dad’s camera, but not her, was about.
I did a really long post about this on another website at the end of season one, and I wish that I could find it because I had several more points. These are the ones that I can remember.
I feel you on the Lucy Lane relationship, and also what was problematic with his “romance” with Kara.
I liked what they did with his character being a little older and established and confident in a career, though. Even the athletic build was interesting to me because he was thoughtful and an “everyday hero”. It played against the type of the hero-worshipping, wimpy Jimmy Olsen (why do photojournalists have to be little, skinny guys?). And also that you can fill the “alpha male” role without having to beat people up.
It’s part of the reason this season’s James has been confusing to me. If it had been used as a way to bring him into the story more, that would have been one thing, but they’ve kept him on the fence in such a way that I don’t get what they’re trying to do or say.
Kara, it was only two episodes ago you said you would always protect Lena and now you’re leaving her alone unconscious in a room with your archenemy?
I mean, I know she had a lot on her plate but it would take about a second for her to fly Lena to relative safety.
First, I have to say that when I first saw the article on image from my phone with my bad eyesight, I thought Lena was making out with the blond girl in the background and Kara was watching, and I got real confused…
I felt that same weird feeling about how they handle the James story live vs how black men are treated in real life. One issue I have with this show is how hand-wavy they can be about race issues while doing their alien metaphors… They need to get some poc writers, or more poc writers in that writing room.
Otherwise I really enjoyed the episode and Lena is so great <3 Your recaps are awesome as always.
I really liked this episode. A little late to bring James back into the center of an ep but it tied in nicely with the Daxamite/portal-storyline. And we finally got another glimpse into James’ past and the role Clark’s friendship played in his personal development.
The speech he gave to Marcus about finally taking a risk and letting someone in was an interesting parallel to the role Kara (and in some way even Rhea) played for Lena this season.
James: “I just knew that he understood something that most people didn’t. And because of that I trusted him. And eventually I let him in. And you know what happened? That wall came down. You see Marcus, sometimes you can meet somebody and they become your friend. And by trusting them everything in your life can change.”
Lena took that risk with Kara, let her guard down and it changed her life for the better. She took the same risk with Rhea (maybe even encouraged not just by her longing for a mother figure but also her sucessful friendship with Kara) and it ended…well…with being used, knocked out (again!) and abducted by a psycho-alien… and afterwards probably being blamed for the invasion. But in the end Rhea DID understand Lena and her pain. Because to manipulate someone like that you have to understand them. Maybe not necessarily empathize but deeply understand nontheless.
So all in all a more than ok episode.
Although they could have hidden Katie’s stuntdouble better.
Also:
– Did anybody get serious Stargate SG1 flashbacks when the portal powered up? Just me?
– Teri Hatcher was superb. The manipulation tactics and their effectiveness were believable and one could even sense that twisted undercurring affection for Lena.
– Lena by the way, if I remember correctly, looked a little bit hesitant when she saw Rhea had answered her phone.
– J’onn just went way too quickly from a stern “no way you’re taking the boy out of here, it’s too risky” to “ok James, do what you need to do”… just because James decided after a hot minuted that saving this boy would be his new mission and paralleled that to J’onn’s past experiences?
– Him shouting that he wouldn’t leave the telepaths and trying to get through to Marcus was pretty powerful though, even though the resolution was a bit anticlimactic. Guess those hundreds of Daxamite ships pouring in through the portal provided enough drama and dread for those final minutes of the episode.
– Holy Rizzoli! That lunch scene??!?!
– CAT IS BACK! With unapologetic one-liners and hopefully some sense and sage advice for Kara/Supergirl.
I hope Lena asks Kara if she knows Supergirl.. since she saw her boyfriend and supergirl working together. (cant remember if she has seen them together before, but she would surely bring it up now)
I really liked Mon-El’s line to his mother if she had learnt that they arent bulletproof. I wish Kara had a much better romantic relationship than she does (which is something I felt in S1 too) but this kinda laid back/boring thing she got going on now is kinda ok I guess. Maybe the writers actually do think that karamel doesn’t work since it feels like Mon-El has a lot less screen time now.
Katie said she hadn’t realized how shipable SuperCorp is.. that from her perspective as an actor it has only felt like a friendship, and I am more and more ok with that. Though, it does also feel like they are building it up to make Lena go bad. They did that in Smallville too –
Clark and Lex being reeaaally good friends and Clark always believing in Lex.. until he didn’t.
And btw, Madeleine Mantock is an android sent from the future. Evidence: Face.
The producers do a little video sneak peek before every episode and this week as soon as they said it was James centric, I was out. Not that I won’t watch the episode but it’s not a priority and it can wait until the weekend.
James is not a hero. He needs to realize that he is in no way on the same level as Supergirl or even Alex.
In an ideal world, the next episode will start with James announcing that he is giving up Guardian-ing to be a counselor/social worker for at-risk youths. #everydayheroes
Agreed. I like James as the character he was in season 1, and I want THAT James back, so I don’t want them to ditch the character entirely. I just want them to ditch the Guardian plot line. I want James to realize all the good he can do as the black CEO of an international media empire.
I really liked this episode. It brought the aspects of season 1 James that I had liked back (I didn’t like how he treated Lucy or Kara, so). And Lena-Rhea parts were very good.
By the way, I had this thought after reading comments on forums that at least part of the science ignorance Kara shows is pretense because she was able to remember the correctly whatever Lena was talking about later. Not possible if you are not science oriented or don’t have eidetic memory, which is possible I guess (but we have not seen anything like that for Kara).
And I loved the slight glimpse of Danvers Sisters (a hanging out we have barely seen onscreen in my opinion since Changing–though there was a bit in Luthors) and as much loved how Kara reacted to the kid. Not accusatory or worried (which she could have done given how he has been acting until then) but caring and protective. In fact, weirdly enough, that was my favorite scene of the episode. (What can I say? I really like Kara :) ).
I am still holding out hope for Alex becoming friends with Lena in S3 (which means Lena remains on Kara’s and Supergirl’s side, purely good or not).
I have been really uncomfortable with how they have been treating James owing to the race issues too. I am not sure how the writers can be so ignorant or cavaliar with what messages they project. With Kara. With James. With the nefarious alien women president. With Alex’s gratuitous use of violence. With the stupid and cowardly use of Daxam-Krypton as an example of race prejudice when it is anything but (even though I have made my peace with Mon El and even am okay with him; I am still mad that they do not take risks where risks are warranted). If only they could get the POI writing team or even the Lucifer writing team.
I just realised when I looked at the home page that I have this weird long name (which is my true name), which is different from the mysterious and pretty names everyone else seems to have. It kind of feels like I am making an official comment in my capacity as an employee of my company or something. I wonder if I should change it. ;-/
This episode was made great thanks to the Rhea-Lena subplot. I was ok with James in season 1 despite him going back and forth between Lucy and Kara because he played the perfect foil to supergirl and was a second guide to her after Cat. This season has made him seem like a dude who’s just angry that his girlfriend broke up with him and resents the adulation that she gets and wants it for himself. I don’t get why he keeps comparing himself to her all the time. I just wish they’d do away with the whole guardian thing and get him back to being a really good journalist instead. I’m hoping Cat Grant talks some sense into him next episode and gives him some pointers on how to be Kara’s mentor and not a competitor.
Meanwhile I have to say I wish Rhea had been introduced earlier in the season as a villain instead of Cadmus and co. She’s is quite entertaining and far more villainous than anyone on this show.
Despite being high on guardian and low on Kara, this was a pretty good episode and here’s hoping for an even better one next week
1: Lena is so starved for affection, especially maternal affection that it literally hurts me to watch her. Lillian needs to pay for more than just her Cadmus crimes. She ruined Lena’s childhood..what little she had.
2: How much time passed between the last episode and this one because how is Alex back and working at the DEO? I mean I know she’s a badass and all but she was also trapped in a GLASS BOX THAT FILLED UP WITH WATER. How is she not traumatized to within an inch of her life?!?! Doesn’t the DEO have like mandatory leave and therapy for agents who have gone through such harrowing events?
3: Cat. Is. Back. Next. Week. Basically that’s all I care about. This show has not been the same without her in my opinion. Here’s hoping she’ll fire James’ whiny ass for shirking his CatCo duties and giving him a good talking to about how he should just drop the whole Guardian thing because ugh, it made the entire episode such a snooze fest. He’s not being Guardian because he wants to help people; he’s doing it for the glory and hero worship. If he really wanted to make a difference and put himself in the field he should have joined the DEO or the NCPD.
I *think* a few weeks have passed, because Lena and Rhea built an awful big machine. But yeah no one even saying anything like “you sure you’re okay to be back” was a little surprising. Then again, it’s Alex. She asked if Maggie was okay when she woke up haha
On a show which tends to sideline its POC, Marcus touching James’s face after he took off his Guardian mask, J’onn’s pep talk to James, and James getting through to Marcus were beautiful moments.
So, umm no one caught on to the tiny little Batman reference in the scene between Winn and James in the rain, the whole Superman and that guy being more frenemies than friends? Because that one was like one of my favorite easter eggs of all time in any of the CWDC TV shows, like damn.
We caught it at my house. We were amused.
I managed to pinpoint why I wasn’t over the moon for the last episode while watching this. I’m on board when I start watching and then Mon-El shows up and the mere presence of him on screen now throws all my goodwill out the window. I did not realize how much Mon-El fatigue I have, but every plothole, clunky line, awkward shot – everything – just glares at me after he shows up because he reminds me that I don’t trust this show like I used to.
I am not a fan of the DEO-centric direction and am really glad James is still at CatCo and wish more of the DEO people would move there, not the other way around. The DEO is boooooooooooooring the same way Daxamite culture is boring: whatever is convenient for plot is How It Works This Week. It’s secret! It’s not! James can walk right in while he’s a journalist! Everyone knows Kara is Supergirl or no one knows. Whatever.
I overall liked this attempted rehabilitation of Jame/ cancelling of the Guardian thing, but mostly it reminded me that 1) Mehcad Brook should be given more to do and 2) James is really not a very fleshed out character which is a shame.
Also, Katie McGrath is killing it – she’s heartbreaking to watch, poor Lena Luthor!
I re-iterate my belief that Melissa Benoist seems to be shipping Supercorp hardest of all, and I am on board for it 100%. It seems to be partially natural chemistry between her and Katie McGrath but also, Melissa seems to be leaning into it pretty hard. A+ choice if true, magical either way.
AND WOAH Teri Hatcher is amazing in this, it is a delight to watch her in action. I wish this invasion ends with Mon-El dead and Teri Hatcher as a nemesis for Kara going into season 3. Lena Luthor could also be on board for teaming up with Kara on that since she’s been betrayed by queen Rhea, too.
But yeah, it’s sad to realize I am just mostly waiting for Mon-El to die and the more nuanced character stuff from season 1 to return. This was a waaaaaay overdue look at James as an actual character.
Most notable: THE POWER LANDING HAIR FLIP IS NOW IN THE INTRO SEQUENCE AND I HAVE NEVER SUPPORTED A CHOICE MORE OHMYGOD I need a fainting couch every time I see it MY GOD!
That phone call to Lena (from Kara, where Rhea picked up) was foreshadowing: if Kara doesn’t Come Out to Lena, Rhea will do it for her—at the worst possible moment. Or…Rhea will out Kara to Lillian, and Lillian will out her to Lena? One way or another, Kara: COME OUT!!!
If Lena saw Mon-El there before she got knocked out, she’ll know anyway. She’s met him a couple times now as Mike and knows he’s Kara’s boyfriend.
I’ve been thinking about that, and it IS possible for Kara to handwave that away and explain to Lena that yes, Mike is actually an alien named Mon-El, but she, Kara, is human, and met Mon-El through Supergirl (who Lena knows Kara has a connection to since Kara uses Supergirl as a source for her Catco articles).
Not saying I want that to happen – I very much want Kara to tell Lena the truth before Rhea or Lillian tell her – but that IS a way the show could logically go to continue to have Kara keep her secret from Lena.
Personally, the fact that the show tries to tell us that Lena (and CAT!?) haven’t figured it out, but Maggie and that random dude from Kara’s high school did, just makes both CEOs seem really, really stupid when they are both anything but.
I think this idea about how the white public would react to a black male superhero IS a really profound thing to think about. There is that line in season 1 (when everything was better) in the episode where Cat tells Kara she can’t get angry at work, especially because she’s a woman, and James says to Kara that he can’t either because he’s black. So on some level, the Supergirl writers knew (used to know) that James is limited by the bullshit white supremacy he is living in.
So yes, people’s reactions to a black man acting aggressive, beating the shit out of bad guys by bashing their heads in with a shield – yes, let’s go there! Let’s go somewhere where midwestern whiteness ISN’T and see how the world responds to James. To J’onn! Let’s talk about how white women cower from him (not just when he has his mask and creepy voice on, but all the time) and let’s weave that into a conversation about women and safety and intersectionality! Sorry, I can dream though, right?
BUT. BUT. BUT. The writers have fucked this plotline so much, made him so entitled and whiny and useless and stripped everything that was once good from him, that I noticed that they were *trying* and I was still checked out. They ruined him, and then gave us a half-hearted plotline about race, and that’s not going to work. They replaced him in his own love story with a useless white fuckboy, made him act like a controlling entitled dick to everyone in his life, made him question Kara, turned him into an afterthought and a punchline, and then tried to do something that feels a little bit like redemption here? But, like, Guardian is pretty much ruined and I’m not sure the writers know that.
And, take note because this is the only time I will ever say anything nice about Mon-El, but I think Chris did a really good job in the scene where he can’t kill his mother. She’s very over the top, but I think the writing was solid there. And when she lied and said his father committed suicide because of what Mon-El did…yeah, heartbreak city for sure. That’s super brutal and I hate Mon-El and hope he leaves to become the shit king of Daxom or whatever (but not dies don’t make him a martyrrrrrrr) but I thought that was a very fucking low blow and well acted and well written on both sides.
Also, just, N’Sync, you’re kidding me. I love you, Lena. Let us give you all the hugs. Stop trying to get them from your girlfriend’s boyfriend’s mom and come get them from us. I promise, we won’t try to kill you.
I actually did mean to talk about how I finally felt the sympathy for Mon-El they wanted me to when they wanted me to in that scene with his mother, because even though I find him boring and wholly unnecessary most of the time, no one deserves to be told someone killed themselves because of them.
Shenanigans! I’m pretty sure way more than half @punkystarshine‘s twitter feed was screaming “Ruh Roh”
Thanks for this review. The show became unwatchable for me (Ken and Barbie, I mean Kara and Mon-El just grated on me too much), but I have been curious about the characters that I still liked. I am not surprised they are still having POC issues, this is mainstream entertainment after all. But that doesn’t make it ok. Hell, I am not sure they are still getting their girl power on in a way that works anymore.
I will check back for what you think of Cat’s return. Boy did I miss that character and her interactions with Kara more than expected. But overall, my flawed guilty pleasure that was Supergirl tanked after the move to the CW and I just couldn’t make time for the bs it had become.
I don’t think you are crazy, nor is anyone else who sees romantic potential for Kara and Lena. We are all shipping Supercorp because Berlanti and Co. have from the get-go placed Lena squarely in the “damsel-in-distress” role–in other words, she’s Supergirl’s Lois Lane. The two double L’s have many things in common. Both are intelligent, driven, and ambitious. Both need to prove themselves to the world (Lois for gender; Lena for genetics). And both can be extremely gullible–trusting the wrong people in their quest to do great things and not seeing through Kara’s “disguise.” The former, of course, gets both women into trouble that requires superhero intervention. And there’s always a “lesson learned” moment mixed with mild flirting after the the LL’s are rescued. Even Lena’s affection for Kara pales in comparison to the way she gushes over Supergirl. Classic two-person love triangle.
I don’t think there is enough time on this planet to respond to all of you lovely people so I’m just going to say here, separately, how much I appreciate you all so much and love reading all your well-thought-out comments and feelings and theories. Thank you all for sharing parts of yourself with me; I love being on this super journey with you. We’re stronger together. <3
I’m surprised that Kara didn’t know the science jargin. In S1E1, she only understood the world in terms of facts and figures. She was more like a computer than a person. She knew very little about human nature. ‘Love’ was a comparability based on an algorithm.
All I got from this episode was Lena saying something about “Entanglement” and “Poly” and how good these two looked together during uh, regular gal pal lunch.
Seriously, though, I don’t watch my friends walk away and check out their behinds while I’m at it..