We could all be heroes, but it feels like we probably shouldn’t. After an incredibly fun and solid episode last week, this week’s episode was a significant step backwards, giving us the weakest episode of the season.
“You know what I love? Little boys who think they can do a better job than the woman who’s an actual superhero.” Preach, Livewire. Preach. I’ll say it again for the people in the back. I don’t care about Guardian’s story. What could have been an opportunity to give James Olsen some actual interesting character development has been completely wasted on an ego trip to make the poor office boy feel powerful. No matter how many times they try to convince me that James has noble intentions for wanting to go out on the street and fight crime, I’m never going to believe it, because they have not proven that to be the case in any way shape or form. First he was begging for praise and accolades and now he’s using the hero angle to compete with Mon El for Kara’s affections. She said no, dude. Get over it already. “I thought James was a professionally handsome desk person.” Also, the fact that James is apparently so unfulfilled by his position as the head of Catco just proves what I said all along about it being bizarre that Cat gave him her job in the first place. I don’t actually believe that Mon El’s reasons for wanting to be a hero are any nobler than James’. He too is using it as an excuse to spend more time with Kara. However, he’s not using his position as a power play, or to make himself feel better. He’s also not being a jerk to everyone around him. Unfortunately, Kara still can’t trust Mon El as a partner because he proves he’d rather save her than civilians when the faux Livewires attack the NCPD.
Kara finds out who Guardian is. While most of this story has not been appealing to me, I do have to say that I thought it was a nice twist that she finds out by unmasking him, rather than having there be some big revelation. Kara reacted almost exactly as I’d expect her to. She’s mad, but she does her best to not do or say something she’ll regret. I did think she’d be a bit more upset with Alex for knowing and not saying anything, as Kara does not usually take well to her sister lying to her, but, that said, it really wasn’t Alex’s secret to tell. How upset could Kara really be with her. James is the one who deserves the brunt of her reaction, as he’s the one who thought that secret keeping would be a smart idea in the first place. I’m already tired of the drama they’re setting up with this little spat between Kara, James and Winn. Kara doesn’t have the right to tell James that he can’t be Guardian, but she does have the right to be unwilling to support his doing something that she knows could eventually get him hurt or killed. That’s called being a friend. Everything she said about the danger of the situation was completely true and completely justified. I like that she tells James and Winn that they’ve always been heroes to her, even without taking to the streets to fight. It’s further proof that, as of now, Supergirl does still believe that strength and powers don’t make a hero. Unfortunately, in the coming episodes, we’ll see her play the “sorry” card, ignoring her own convictions, and accepting Guardian as her equal. Just watch. For all of their talk about being meant to be heroes, James, Winn and Mon El all prove that to be an utter falsehood when they sneak off and end up getting captured. Supergirl has to save them, proving Kara’s point.
“You know what I love? Little boys who think they can do a better job than the woman who’s an actual superhero.” Preach, Livewire. Preach. I’ll say it again for the people in the back. I don’t care about Guardian’s story. What could have been an opportunity to give James Olsen some actual interesting character development has been completely wasted on an ego trip to make the poor office boy feel powerful. No matter how many times they try to convince me that James has noble intentions for wanting to go out on the street and fight crime, I’m never going to believe it, because they have not proven that to be the case in any way shape or form. First he was begging for praise and accolades and now he’s using the hero angle to compete with Mon El for Kara’s affections. She said no, dude. Get over it already. “I thought James was a professionally handsome desk person.” Also, the fact that James is apparently so unfulfilled by his position as the head of Catco just proves what I said all along about it being bizarre that Cat gave him her job in the first place. I don’t actually believe that Mon El’s reasons for wanting to be a hero are any nobler than James’. He too is using it as an excuse to spend more time with Kara. However, he’s not using his position as a power play, or to make himself feel better. He’s also not being a jerk to everyone around him. Unfortunately, Kara still can’t trust Mon El as a partner because he proves he’d rather save her than civilians when the faux Livewires attack the NCPD.
Kara finds out who Guardian is. While most of this story has not been appealing to me, I do have to say that I thought it was a nice twist that she finds out by unmasking him, rather than having there be some big revelation. Kara reacted almost exactly as I’d expect her to. She’s mad, but she does her best to not do or say something she’ll regret. I did think she’d be a bit more upset with Alex for knowing and not saying anything, as Kara does not usually take well to her sister lying to her, but, that said, it really wasn’t Alex’s secret to tell. How upset could Kara really be with her. James is the one who deserves the brunt of her reaction, as he’s the one who thought that secret keeping would be a smart idea in the first place. I’m already tired of the drama they’re setting up with this little spat between Kara, James and Winn. Kara doesn’t have the right to tell James that he can’t be Guardian, but she does have the right to be unwilling to support his doing something that she knows could eventually get him hurt or killed. That’s called being a friend. Everything she said about the danger of the situation was completely true and completely justified. I like that she tells James and Winn that they’ve always been heroes to her, even without taking to the streets to fight. It’s further proof that, as of now, Supergirl does still believe that strength and powers don’t make a hero. Unfortunately, in the coming episodes, we’ll see her play the “sorry” card, ignoring her own convictions, and accepting Guardian as her equal. Just watch. For all of their talk about being meant to be heroes, James, Winn and Mon El all prove that to be an utter falsehood when they sneak off and end up getting captured. Supergirl has to save them, proving Kara’s point.
The biggest problem with the James and Mon El hero stories is that, now, everybody has to have a cool suit and powers, which completely defeats the message of “you don’t need powers to be a hero.” Look at Winn. He is working his dream job at the DEO. A few episodes ago, he gave James a big speech about how he’s heroic because he fights using knowledge. Suddenly that’s not good enough. He has to be out in the field with James. For arguments sake, say it’s a good idea to have everyone in the heat of the action. Why does everyone need a suit and gadgets? Alex and Maggie kick butt all the time as ordinary people, having taken jobs that allow them to use human skills to fight the good fight. Kara does make a point about humans not being physically as capable of action heroics as aliens, which begs the question of why she’s never put up much protest about her sister fighting aliens for a living, but there is a huge difference between what Alex does and what James and Winn have been doing. First of all, Alex has professional training. She spent months learning how to fight before she was deemed field ready by the DEO. Even the aliens, Kara and Mon El, have both had DEO training. James can mock “superhero Kindergarten” all he wants, but that simple fact gives all three of them a leg up on him in terms of ability and credibility. Secondly, Alex fights with DEO back up, rather than going on incognito solo missions like the ones Guardian attempts every night. Lastly, I’m also far more able to believe that Alex is genuinely is trying to protect the people that she loves. James is just trying and failing to prove his manhood.
The only part of Guardian’s story that was working for me up to this point was Winn’s role in it. He was getting great character development. This episode took all of that and wiped it away. It started out okay with him begging James to tell Kara about their new crime-fighting gig. That was a sentiment that was completely in character for him. However, risking his job at the DEO so that he and James could prove to Kara that they were real heroes, not only was that type of defiance completely out of character for Winn, but it goes against his whole “if we’re going to do this, we’re going to do this right” mantra that he’s been preaching since they started this gig. Am I honestly supposed to believe that one trip to space has turned Winn into someone whose ego is so easily bruised by Kara’s very logical warning that what they were doing was dangerous? James I easily believe is that fragile, but I thought Winn was smarter than that. Now he’s lying to his superiors and putting people in danger unnecessarily. Due to this incredibly stupid decision-making, I find it hard to support or appreciate when J’onn compliments the Guardian team dynamic at the end of the episode. He should have suspended Winn. It would have been well deserved, but this is a fantasy show where rules are made to be broken for dramatic value. No consequence necessary.
“You are my friend, M’gann M’orzz.” M’gann has a psychic attack, putting J’onn in the position of having to decide whether or not to save her. This story is one that I genuinely wish I cared about, but after they ruined it by quick fixing J’onn’s transformation into a White Martian, I find myself struggling to stay interested in it. They already played out the “our kinds hate one another” story with Kara and Mon El, and are essentially repeating it with J’onn and M’gann. That’s why I had hoped they’d give it a twist that the other story did not have. It was obvious to me from the start that J’onn would save M’gann. Despite all of his talk of hatred, he isn’t a cruel man. He wouldn’t allow someone with good in them to suffer. As such, eventually he does take the bond. Whatever issues I have with the story, I did love that it gave us that beautiful moment where J’onn asks Kara and Alex to stay with him while he’s in M’gann’s mind. It was a great reminder of the familial bond that those three share, and of the fact that they are always willing to stand by one another without question. The bond scene itself, with J’onn and M’gann, was nice enough, but they’ve recapped the story of M’gann’s sacrifice so many times now that it struck me as being incredibly predictable and it didn’t tell me anything I didn’t already know about the characters or the story. Again this is frustrating knowing that they had the opportunity to play out that twist of J’onn turning into a White Martian, and walking a mile in her shoes. I don’t think this version of the story allows for as much character depth. Obviously the end result of all of this was providing setup for next week’s episode, where White Martians will use their psychic connection to M’gann’s mind to find and attack her. I’m hoping that they’ll be able to amp up the intrigue. These characters are great, but they need a more compelling story to take part in.
The rest of the scenes in the Martian story were mostly those between J’onn and Alex. Unfortunately, they felt off somehow tonally. Normally I love scenes with J’onn and Alex, but in this episode, I found myself disappointed with what we got. I can’t quite tell if it was direction, or something else, but I was not connecting to what was happening. The setup felt forced, particularly in the scene were Alex gives J’onn the forgiveness speech. Conceptually it was fine, and totally within Alex’s character to say what she says, give or take some cheesy dialogue, but something about the scene itself is oddly uncomfortable to watch. It feels very staged and unnatural. It was nice to have the moment where Alex reminds J’onn that M’gann willingly gave blood to save him, knowing that she would be revealed. She emphasizes the idea that M’gann did something for her too, saving a member of her family. We know that Alex could never bear the thought of losing J’onn, and while she has gone along with his decision to imprison M’gann, she is still grateful to her for saving J’onn’s life. I’m not saying there weren’t some noteworthy character moments tucked into J’onn and Alex’s scenes, but in general, they weren’t the strongest interactions we’ve seen from these characters.
“Having a nemesis is stressful.” Livewire was back! This is a character that I have loved since her very first appearance way back in episode five of last season. I will never tire of her snappy remarks and the cool special effects that always accompany her electrifying presence. “This is copyright infringement, asshat.” As much as I enjoy Livewire, I do feel like they were pushing the nemesis angle a bit hard. It’s only her third episode. That said, it’s not like she hasn’t proven herself to be a dangerous villain. As a result, Kara is in full on freak out mode after finding out Livewire escaped. I found it a bit weird when Alex tells her to “get a grip” about the situation, especially considering that the first time Livewire showed up she made sure to emphasize the fact that Livewire could kill Kara. It seems out of character for Alex to be so nonchalant about a villain capable of killing her little sister, even if it is possible that Kara needed to take her freak out down a notch or two. You’ve defeated her twice Kara. You’ve got this. In actuality, Livewire wasn’t even really being all that villainous in this episode. It turns out she was kidnapped by a scientist trying to use her powers to create his own Livewire knockoffs. Another dude trying to be all-powerful. Go figure. I don’t know that it was the most satisfying way to bring Livewire back into Kara’s world, but the story was still more interesting than most of the rest of the episode. In the end, Supergirl ends up having to save Livewire from her captor, and subsequently must prevent her from killing him as punishment. They make a trade. She gets temporary freedom in exchange for not being a murderer, and Supergirl lets Livewire go. “Just us girls next time.” Please, Livewire. You took the words right out of my mouth. Due to the fact that Livewire agrees to the trade, Kara takes that as a sign that there must be some good in her. That doesn’t surprise me in the least. It’s reminiscent of the internal struggle she fought over Astra last season. Kara always wants to see the good in people. On the plus side, this also means that the likelihood of Livewire making another appearance is pretty high. I cannot wait.
“Comets.” Kara and Mon El’s personal relationship gets a bit more complicated when he reveals that he actually likes her, and that he remembers the kiss from Medusa. Unfortunately she tells him they’re better off as partners. Poor guy. I feel a little bit bad for him. Kara’s glasses do come off in their last scene together, proving that Kara wants to be emotionally open and vulnerable with Mon El, but something is obviously holding her back. She sort of implies that her feelings have changed since the kiss, but I’m not totally sure that’s the case. Maybe she’s still struggling with the whole Krypton vs Daxam dynamic of their relationship, maybe it’s weird for her because she’s supposed to be his mentor, or maybe he just had really bad timing given all of the other big reveals Kara has been dealing with lately. At the very least, Mon El is being honest with her of his own accord, and not because someone trapped him into doing so. That has to be somewhat refreshing for Kara, although he has been lying to her about remembering the kiss for the length of two episodes, so it’s still not a perfect scenario. I don’t know quite what to make of this. I’m not opposed to them being in a relationship, but I definitely don’t want them to keep dragging it out with the “will they, won’t they” game. We saw how that destroyed James’ character last season (along with him emotionally cheating on Lucy), and I’d really rather not relive yet another overdone romance arc. Either get them together, or be done with it already.
This was a pretty Sanvers-lite episode, but we did get a couple of small scenes with Alex and Maggie. Not surprisingly, the NCPD is called when Livewire escapes from prison, so Maggie is at the crime scene with Alex and the DEO. Basically their interactions in this episode consist of them betting on Kara’s response to the Livewire situation, which was hilarious. Alex knows how her sister feels about Livewire, so initially she has the upper hand, sparing herself from having to try Vegan Ice Cream at Maggie’s. However, Kara sort of lets her down at the end, allowing Livewire to go free, so Vegan Ice Cream is now a thing that Alex must try. The final shot of them where they bump shoulders and simultaneously cross legs as the camera pans down to connect into the next scene was a cool moment. Technically speaking it was well shot and a clever transition, but it also was just a really cute Sanvers moment. Happy Sanvers is the best kind of Sanvers.
Unfortunately, for me, this was one of the weakest episodes of Supergirl that we have seen in a long time. Coming off of a pretty long streak of exceptionally strong episodes, this dipped way down into Manhunter territory for me. There was too much going on, and there was too much focus placed on stories that I have almost entirely lost interest in. The end result was back steps in character development and the creation of unnecessary drama for future episodes to deal with. It takes a lot for me to dislike this show. It’s kind of an obsession of mine. However, this episode seemed to take everything that I currently have problems with and thrust them into the forefront of the story. Livewire and the brief Sanvers scenes were honestly all that kept this from being a total wash for me. Here’s to hoping next week’s White Martian episode takes big steps to make up for it.
The only part of Guardian’s story that was working for me up to this point was Winn’s role in it. He was getting great character development. This episode took all of that and wiped it away. It started out okay with him begging James to tell Kara about their new crime-fighting gig. That was a sentiment that was completely in character for him. However, risking his job at the DEO so that he and James could prove to Kara that they were real heroes, not only was that type of defiance completely out of character for Winn, but it goes against his whole “if we’re going to do this, we’re going to do this right” mantra that he’s been preaching since they started this gig. Am I honestly supposed to believe that one trip to space has turned Winn into someone whose ego is so easily bruised by Kara’s very logical warning that what they were doing was dangerous? James I easily believe is that fragile, but I thought Winn was smarter than that. Now he’s lying to his superiors and putting people in danger unnecessarily. Due to this incredibly stupid decision-making, I find it hard to support or appreciate when J’onn compliments the Guardian team dynamic at the end of the episode. He should have suspended Winn. It would have been well deserved, but this is a fantasy show where rules are made to be broken for dramatic value. No consequence necessary.
“You are my friend, M’gann M’orzz.” M’gann has a psychic attack, putting J’onn in the position of having to decide whether or not to save her. This story is one that I genuinely wish I cared about, but after they ruined it by quick fixing J’onn’s transformation into a White Martian, I find myself struggling to stay interested in it. They already played out the “our kinds hate one another” story with Kara and Mon El, and are essentially repeating it with J’onn and M’gann. That’s why I had hoped they’d give it a twist that the other story did not have. It was obvious to me from the start that J’onn would save M’gann. Despite all of his talk of hatred, he isn’t a cruel man. He wouldn’t allow someone with good in them to suffer. As such, eventually he does take the bond. Whatever issues I have with the story, I did love that it gave us that beautiful moment where J’onn asks Kara and Alex to stay with him while he’s in M’gann’s mind. It was a great reminder of the familial bond that those three share, and of the fact that they are always willing to stand by one another without question. The bond scene itself, with J’onn and M’gann, was nice enough, but they’ve recapped the story of M’gann’s sacrifice so many times now that it struck me as being incredibly predictable and it didn’t tell me anything I didn’t already know about the characters or the story. Again this is frustrating knowing that they had the opportunity to play out that twist of J’onn turning into a White Martian, and walking a mile in her shoes. I don’t think this version of the story allows for as much character depth. Obviously the end result of all of this was providing setup for next week’s episode, where White Martians will use their psychic connection to M’gann’s mind to find and attack her. I’m hoping that they’ll be able to amp up the intrigue. These characters are great, but they need a more compelling story to take part in.
The rest of the scenes in the Martian story were mostly those between J’onn and Alex. Unfortunately, they felt off somehow tonally. Normally I love scenes with J’onn and Alex, but in this episode, I found myself disappointed with what we got. I can’t quite tell if it was direction, or something else, but I was not connecting to what was happening. The setup felt forced, particularly in the scene were Alex gives J’onn the forgiveness speech. Conceptually it was fine, and totally within Alex’s character to say what she says, give or take some cheesy dialogue, but something about the scene itself is oddly uncomfortable to watch. It feels very staged and unnatural. It was nice to have the moment where Alex reminds J’onn that M’gann willingly gave blood to save him, knowing that she would be revealed. She emphasizes the idea that M’gann did something for her too, saving a member of her family. We know that Alex could never bear the thought of losing J’onn, and while she has gone along with his decision to imprison M’gann, she is still grateful to her for saving J’onn’s life. I’m not saying there weren’t some noteworthy character moments tucked into J’onn and Alex’s scenes, but in general, they weren’t the strongest interactions we’ve seen from these characters.
“Having a nemesis is stressful.” Livewire was back! This is a character that I have loved since her very first appearance way back in episode five of last season. I will never tire of her snappy remarks and the cool special effects that always accompany her electrifying presence. “This is copyright infringement, asshat.” As much as I enjoy Livewire, I do feel like they were pushing the nemesis angle a bit hard. It’s only her third episode. That said, it’s not like she hasn’t proven herself to be a dangerous villain. As a result, Kara is in full on freak out mode after finding out Livewire escaped. I found it a bit weird when Alex tells her to “get a grip” about the situation, especially considering that the first time Livewire showed up she made sure to emphasize the fact that Livewire could kill Kara. It seems out of character for Alex to be so nonchalant about a villain capable of killing her little sister, even if it is possible that Kara needed to take her freak out down a notch or two. You’ve defeated her twice Kara. You’ve got this. In actuality, Livewire wasn’t even really being all that villainous in this episode. It turns out she was kidnapped by a scientist trying to use her powers to create his own Livewire knockoffs. Another dude trying to be all-powerful. Go figure. I don’t know that it was the most satisfying way to bring Livewire back into Kara’s world, but the story was still more interesting than most of the rest of the episode. In the end, Supergirl ends up having to save Livewire from her captor, and subsequently must prevent her from killing him as punishment. They make a trade. She gets temporary freedom in exchange for not being a murderer, and Supergirl lets Livewire go. “Just us girls next time.” Please, Livewire. You took the words right out of my mouth. Due to the fact that Livewire agrees to the trade, Kara takes that as a sign that there must be some good in her. That doesn’t surprise me in the least. It’s reminiscent of the internal struggle she fought over Astra last season. Kara always wants to see the good in people. On the plus side, this also means that the likelihood of Livewire making another appearance is pretty high. I cannot wait.
“Comets.” Kara and Mon El’s personal relationship gets a bit more complicated when he reveals that he actually likes her, and that he remembers the kiss from Medusa. Unfortunately she tells him they’re better off as partners. Poor guy. I feel a little bit bad for him. Kara’s glasses do come off in their last scene together, proving that Kara wants to be emotionally open and vulnerable with Mon El, but something is obviously holding her back. She sort of implies that her feelings have changed since the kiss, but I’m not totally sure that’s the case. Maybe she’s still struggling with the whole Krypton vs Daxam dynamic of their relationship, maybe it’s weird for her because she’s supposed to be his mentor, or maybe he just had really bad timing given all of the other big reveals Kara has been dealing with lately. At the very least, Mon El is being honest with her of his own accord, and not because someone trapped him into doing so. That has to be somewhat refreshing for Kara, although he has been lying to her about remembering the kiss for the length of two episodes, so it’s still not a perfect scenario. I don’t know quite what to make of this. I’m not opposed to them being in a relationship, but I definitely don’t want them to keep dragging it out with the “will they, won’t they” game. We saw how that destroyed James’ character last season (along with him emotionally cheating on Lucy), and I’d really rather not relive yet another overdone romance arc. Either get them together, or be done with it already.
This was a pretty Sanvers-lite episode, but we did get a couple of small scenes with Alex and Maggie. Not surprisingly, the NCPD is called when Livewire escapes from prison, so Maggie is at the crime scene with Alex and the DEO. Basically their interactions in this episode consist of them betting on Kara’s response to the Livewire situation, which was hilarious. Alex knows how her sister feels about Livewire, so initially she has the upper hand, sparing herself from having to try Vegan Ice Cream at Maggie’s. However, Kara sort of lets her down at the end, allowing Livewire to go free, so Vegan Ice Cream is now a thing that Alex must try. The final shot of them where they bump shoulders and simultaneously cross legs as the camera pans down to connect into the next scene was a cool moment. Technically speaking it was well shot and a clever transition, but it also was just a really cute Sanvers moment. Happy Sanvers is the best kind of Sanvers.
Unfortunately, for me, this was one of the weakest episodes of Supergirl that we have seen in a long time. Coming off of a pretty long streak of exceptionally strong episodes, this dipped way down into Manhunter territory for me. There was too much going on, and there was too much focus placed on stories that I have almost entirely lost interest in. The end result was back steps in character development and the creation of unnecessary drama for future episodes to deal with. It takes a lot for me to dislike this show. It’s kind of an obsession of mine. However, this episode seemed to take everything that I currently have problems with and thrust them into the forefront of the story. Livewire and the brief Sanvers scenes were honestly all that kept this from being a total wash for me. Here’s to hoping next week’s White Martian episode takes big steps to make up for it.