It’s that time again! Time to take off and fly down to National City to check in on what’s happening on Supergirl this week. As you may remember, this episode was originally scheduled to air last week, but the recent attacks in Pairs caused CBS to swap this episode with the episode that aired last week. Still, let’s just dive into it, shall we?
As always, spoilers are likely to follow.
1. The Most Nothing Villain Possible
You know, I feel like this episode would have felt much stronger had it aired when it was intended to. While I maintain that the Livewire episode felt watchable regardless of the order, this episode suffered simply due to the fact that it was having to follow up a pretty okay villain in Reactron and a pretty excellent villain in Livewire with… some asshole with a bomb vest. Okay, that’s unfair as towards the end of the episode, he did actually get more pathos and the swerve where the entire episode was a setup by Max Lord (more on him in a sec) to test Supergirl was a nice twist that developed his character and his rivalry with Supergirl a little more, but for most of this episode the villain angle was pretty much non-existant.
I understand why this was held back after the Paris attacks, but I feel like that move benefitted the Livewire episode while harming this one a lot more than if it had come before that episode. Still, on it’s own it was a pretty solid episode, just not the best of the series so far like I’d rank Livewire.
2. And Introducing Sean Gordon Murphy As Maxwell Lord
So Maxwell Lord is just Supergirl’s Lex Luthor? That’s cool, I guess. I mean, it makes a sort of sense and undoubtedly people will be looking for a Lex Luthor analogue in this show anyway, I just can’t help but feel like there’s no real reason for him to want to test Supergirl and expose her other than, y’know, we need a Lex Luthor stand in. Lex Luthor’s rivalry with Superman has been built up so much over the years that you can boil it down to very simple inferiority complex shorthand that can lead to really interesting character studies of the two characters. Here, it feels like Max Lord has it out for Supergirl only because he’s the designated rich business villain that every Kryptonian needs to have a rivalry with.
I mean, at least he isn’t bald?
3. Please Tell Me This Show Didn’t Just Talk About The Friend Zone
Ugh. UGH. WHY. WHY, SUPERGIRL. WHY WOULD YOU DO THIS TO ME?
The friend zone? Really? Are we on MTV? You’re better than this, Supergirl. I expect better than this from you.
Never do that again.
4. I’m trying to make an Aaron Carter joke here, but it’s just not working.
So… this kid was pretty much pointless, right? That’s not just me? There was pretty much no reason for him to be here. I mean, I guess he served as part of the whole Spider-Man 2-style “Hero takes on too much responsibility and can’t handle it all at once so their personal life suffers” thing they’ve got going on, but while I was initially charmed by him, he got boring really fast. If they had done more with him than just him being horny for Supergirl in every scene to the point where he snuck into a bomb-filled train just to meet her then maybe I’d be able to cut him some slack, but it really felt like the writers just stuck him in here as a walking, talking MacGuffin. A walking, talking MacGuffin with a hard on for Supergirl, apparently.
5. Lucy Lane’s Boyfriend, Jimmy Olsen
So this was the part of the episode I actually enjoyed the most, even if last week’s episode had already spoiled the outcome. Mehcad Brooks continues to be this show’s secret weapon as he’s able to take the Jimmy Olsen character that we think of when we think of Jimmy Olsen – dweeby, shy photographer – and mature him naturally as an adult who’s been hanging out with Clark Kent, Lois Lane and Superman for the past few years.
This episode brought that maturity to the forefront as it delves into his history with Lucy Lane and their rocky relationship that was split apart by his friendship with Superman and her job in the military (which was a nod I really appreciated). Sure, much of this episode was James and Lucy pining for each other and being more like a CW show than either of the actual DC CW shows – I mean, their first scene in this episode is set to a cover of ‘Time After Time’ by Cyndi Lauper – but I feel like their storyline had the best resolution in this episode and it was nice seeing that with the context of where that ended in last week’s episode?
Yeah, changing these episodes up really confused some things, but I’m hoping that this show can right its course after this and continue improving the way it had been before this.
