Welcome back all you Supergirl fans! 100 episodes of Supergirl. If you had asked me when I took over this column from Alice back at the start of season 3, I would have told you this show wouldn’t last past season three. The writing never knew what it wanted to be, the villains always half-baked, and the pacing all over the place. Granted, I would have also said the same of most of the CW superhero shows but like stinky cheese, they’ve gone past rotten and into “this is someone’s bag, but it ain’t mine” territory. That’s how cheese works right?
This metaphor got away from me. Suffice it to say, congrats, Supergirl, on reaching this milestone. I may have my problems with you but you are far more deserving of this run than some other shows I’ve watched. How are we celebrating the 100th episode? A grant exploration of the show’s themes in a one-off? A culmination of a large scale plot?
. . .It’s that Lena bullshit, ain’t it?
As always, spoilers ahead and thanks to Chris for filling in last week.
1. One for the Mxy
Mr. Mxyzptlk is back! What? Don’t recognize him? Don’t worry, they lampshade the original appearance of the character and how awful he was. Honestly, just read our recap of that episode and feel why his last appearance was an affront not only to the character but to the show’s character. Well, they’re trying to right things and while Mxy is still a 5th dimensional imp who doesn’t understand how these lowly one-dimensional I MEAN three, three-dimensional characters make apologies that don’t sound like a non-apology, he’s trying and the show does everything it can to not undercut this piece of character growth. That would’ve been the easy route and I’m glad that wasn’t the case.
Mxy is the right balance of chaotic and genuine this time around and, besides looking like his comics counterpart now, he offers an interesting way of resolving one of my biggest gripes of this season: Kara’s overwhelming guilt for Lena’s actions and her seeming inability to do anything but apologize. It takes her a few tries, and I nearly threw my notebook at the screen when she did it again midway through the episode. Come on Kara! Every word out of your mouth cannot either be an apology or an egoistic, sanctimonious statement; we’ll get to that, don’t worry.
In the meantime, we can appreciate all the Mxy related puns for the various media playing devices and the way this added a touch of flavor to what could have been an otherwise tired method of character lesson learning. I particularly love Beta-Mxy and I will challenge anyone to find a more fun one.
2. Two for the Retcon
I’ll be frank, I was unsure of how this episode was going to go. I was afraid the end lesson was going to be that Lena was always this bitter person and that no matter what Kara did, she would turn. They went a lot more nuanced than this and, while it still felt like they were trying to retcon Lena’s personality, even using the “I didn’t come here to make friends” clip, for what they set out to accomplish, they did a fantastic job. I still fundamentally disagree with the premise but I’m less annoyed about the current dynamic.
I was also afraid they would have Kara take away that her saying something at any point before she did wouldn’t have mattered, justifying holding off last season to let Lex be the one to break the news. They did do this, but in a way that emphasized the fallout of the decision rather than the inevitability of Lena’s anger. It also gave Kara a look back on her choices and gave us a chance to really see how she’s grown. Supergirl used to be real damn sanctimonious, we got a taste here with the kryptonite time, and having Kara physically recoil at her actions is a nice character moment. I harped for a long time that we didn’t get enough Kara and that Supergirl was kind of an ass for no good reason, which I put at the writer’s feet the whole way. This episode has allowed us to air that particular dirty laundry and transform it from a shitty piece of writing to a character growth moment. Kudos.
Continued belowIt is convenient that telling Lena is the reason so many terrible things happen to her or to those around her, though. It felt a little ridiculous watching everything go horribly wrong but this is a It’s a Wonderful Life homage. If things aren’t completely borked by changing history, then what’s the point?
3. Three to Get Lena
Lena, Lena, Lena. I’ve been hard on her this whole season, and, while she has earned it, what with her hypocritical approach to Do No Harm and convenient amnesia over her own secrets, we’ve gotten to the point that I just have to accept this is who the writers wanted Lena to be: bitter, bruised by the world, and always on the brink of falling back on her Luthor name and into the muck her family created. However! This episode complicates the reading that they’ve been pushing by finally shifting the blame from Kara’s lack of telling her to Lena’s own choices.
Now, this may be because we’ve been in Supergirl’s narrative position and so until she changed her perceptions, the show had to present things one way but I think they were just trying to do damage control of Lena’s heel turn and didn’t know what to do until this point. So, when we get shown Lena without Supergirl’s friendship, and it’s basically Earth-X Lena without the, well, Nazism, we’re given the opportunity to see that while yes, Lena has the capacity for great evil, it isn’t who she is.
It is who her family has made her, who the trauma has made her, and that Kara’s friendship was a light and it was only Lex’s twisting of that light that made her lose her way. I still think the way things played out was too manufactured but damn if this wasn’t an effective means of getting me on board for the rest of the season and hoping for that redemption arc. Plus, it gave Supergirl a real defining moment and a statement of why she’s a hero.
4. And Four to Go. . .See Mon-El
He’s back and I didn’t hate it! I never thought I’d see my least favorite character of season three again and to have him deliver the best line in the damn episode, or at least the one I’ve been waiting to hear for a while? Amazing. I’m floored and that’s all I have to say about him because there’s really not much to say about Mon-El. Sorry Chris Wood. At least you’re married to Supergirl in real life.
5. Five Seasons of Celebration
100 episodes. Holy shit y’all. I know I opened on this but Supergirl has crossed that magical milestone that means syndication as well as triple digits. It’s something worth stating again. . .I’m just a little disappointed in how small this episode felt. Sure, it’s big in scope but there was something missing from it. Like how the musical crossover with The Flash featured very little music and was just kinda overblown. Only, this time around the episode itself was good and accomplished a lot, with fun visuals and clever usage of old footage.
It was a trip down memory lane, bringing in all sorts of former cast members to celebrate without them feeling out of place. But. . .there was still something missing. President Lynda Carter? No, not her. Livewire? No. Superman & Lois? Maybe, it’d have been nice to see them but we got “Crisis” for that. It was someone important. Someone in all of season one. But who. . .
Calista Flockhart aka Cat Grant aka The Only Good Part of Season One.
Look, that first season was a mess, it’s writing real poor, it’s CGI integration real bad, and there’s a reason CBS dropped it, mostly because they had no clue what to do with the show. But throughout it all, the saving grace was one Calista Flockhart. She fucking nailed every scene she was in and the show losing her was like losing a load bearing wall. I get that production movement to Vancouver meant she couldn’t stay but they couldn’t even get her for the 100th episode?! Seriously!? Only a photo that was on the screen for a bit? That’s some bullshit right there.
Continued belowShe better be in an episode by the end of the season or I will be severely disappointed.
That about does it for now! What did you think of the 100th episode? Did it live up to the number? Are you sick of me griping about Lena? Let me know in the comments and maybe next time I’ll remember to snark about knowing Evil Brainy was Evil because his dots were red. Join me again in two weeks, because The CW has these weird breaks, and we’ll see what nonsense Supergirl gets up to then. Until then, stay super y’all.
Best Line of the Night:
Mr. Mxyzptlk: “Don’t mess up.”
