Welcome back all you Supergirl fans! I spent a not inconsiderate amount of time last week ragging on the Phantoms and it seems like Supergirl took note, because “Lost Souls” answers most of my rhetorical, exacerbated questions with something that makes me throw my hands up and go “I guess.” It was a better episode than the last but that’s not a high bar to clear.
Also, and I cannot believe I am saying this, but Scooby Doo: The Movie did it better. You know I’m right.
And as always, spoilers ahead.
1. Ghostbusters, Whaddya Want?
Supergirl writers. I have a serious question for you all. How much network influence is there on the tone of the writers room and the risks you are allowed to take? I ask because I need to know who to blame for the squandered potential I have seen thus. You’re four – FOUR – episodes into your final season and it’s feeling like a mediocre set of episodes from the middle of season three rather than the blowout last go this should be. Every decision feels like it’s the most generic version of what could have been and it’s all so dull!
There was a glimmer of hope this week, during the assault on the chrysalis, where we got a few homages to some classic horror tropes but that’s it. No attempt to capture the feel of a horror show, no attempt to restructure the episode’s beats to better fit the subject material, just a couple references that are over-explained and thus rendered un-funny and not clever and your bog standard directing & writing choices. The show is aimless and unfocused and it’s hurting what should be a strong outing.
Even the lines feel like they’re phoning it in, making emotional leaps that are unsupported by the narrative, as the actors give it their all to make something, anything, out of the plots we’ve explored better in previous seasons and the important character moments that are rushed or truncated so the full weight of them goes unexplored. It’s frustrating to watch the show flounder and try to find something to follow up on Lex’s never-ending bullshit and to have them settle on…this.
Well, this and Nyx but we’ll get there.
2. There is No M’Gann. Only Prime.
I alluded to this earlier but the phantoms are basically a McGuffin for getting Supergirl out of the Phantom Zone because they needed her to have her conflict with Nyx – side note: called it – which destroyed the way out from her end but didn’t wanna think up some other way to do it like, say, by contacting Argo or Kal or having Silas’ connection to the Phantom Zone actually matter in some more meaningful way or…What I’m driving at is that this entire mini-arc with the Phantoms being a threat to the Earth & a source of strife in The Zone™ was a waste of time to set up this plot point and does not retroactively make the past two episodes any better for this knowledge.
Now, there was another reason for this plot and that’s the Supergirl writers’ attempt to process the global pandemic we’re living through. If you don’t believe me, note that the Phantom possessed the vampire alien (bat) which became the host that allowed the jump from phantom zone to Earth (animal to human) and the hardest hit character was one of the few black main characters. Oh, and if you didn’t notice that or make the connection last week, they make sure to have David Harewood point it out in another patented waste of Harewood’s dialog.
While I ultimately think the end product was a mess and a poor choice, I understand the desire to have an analog to the coronavirus that is suitably distanced from reality and is, in grand superhero tradition, punchable. We can’t just punch a virus into submission to prevent its spread but we can deck a few ghost alien parasites and free the trapped souls of the parasites host bodies by smacking a blue egg cocoon with a chonky future syringe a few times, thereby shrinking the host.
It’s an attempt to provide a narrative that gives us agency and a happy ending to a traumatic global event. It’s admirable. I just wish it worked out better.
Continued below3. Back Off Alex, I’m a Scientist
What did work well, however, was the conflict between Lena & Alex. Well, I say conflict but really it’s more of a bonding moment via disagreement. McGrath and Leigh have fantastic chemistry on screen and I bought every up and down throughout the episode. From them talking early on – even though the whole “It’s so real thing” was utter bullshit & makes it seem like years rather than a few days – and doing science together to the scene in the empty corridor where they’re discussing what Kara would want, which, again, the directing really let me down in selling the distance and difficulty of the decision, I could watch the two of them interacting all day.
What’s sad is that I feel like there’s more of a connection between Lena & Alex than Alex & Kelly; that’s all I could think during these scenes, honestly. Kelly has been a non-entity for most of her time on screen while Lena has had arc after arc to build her up, regardless of how I feel about the execution of those arcs, and position her in an interesting position next to Alex. This history lent weight to their interactions and conversations about Kara and informed their actions. I believed that Lean wouldn’t want to give up the one last piece of Kara they have and it was painful to watch because I felt for her and because had this been the last season, she would’ve seen Alex’s choice to save THE WORLD over Kara as a betrayal…assuming she cared about Kara still at that time.
Then when we get the obligatory “sorry.” “No I’m sorry.” back and forth, the maturity of the characters shine through and therefore when Alex convinces Lena to remain when Lena’s having another crisis of confidence, I was overjoyed rather than rolling my eyes. That’s delicious drama right there and the kind of character based conflict I want more of.
…Okay, I did roll my eyes at first but that’s because I thought Lena was just going to leave after one episode because almost every other emotional arc was solved in one episode and I’m getting tired of the final result feeling unearned. This, thankfully, was not.
4. Nyx, When Someone Asks if You’re Good, You Say YES!
Should I be shocked that Nyx betrayed Supergirl? No, no I shouldn’t. I don’t know if the writers want it to be read that the Phantom Zone got to her and that’s why she thought it was a good idea to fuck up Zor-El or if this was down to her impishness. I do like how they actually made the actions of her sudden but inevitable betrayal stem from her character rather than generic “I was here for a reason you FOOL.” That’s about all I really liked about this. I think the reason I feel this way is because of the pacing of the episode.
See, when Zor-El is bonked on the head, the episode does zilch to sell us on the attack and it’s brushed away easily. I felt like I was missing scenes, and I had a poor understanding of just how far the storage unit was from the mirror chamber, and I couldn’t tell if this was intentional, to keep me off balance thanks to The Zone™, or if it was poor directing and writing. This telegraphed the betrayal so the moment lost its impact and then the dialog did it’s usual over-explaining thing and I checked out again. Plus, Nyx goes out like a chump. I thought she had her magic still – cause she used magic to conjure up a fake Scar after all – but I guess not?
I’m sure she survived the explosion that DEFINITELY should have killed Kara based on how close she was so I’m sure this isn’t the last we’ve seen of her. Is it the last of Zor-El? Who knows but I’m not gonna lose sleep over him. God what a wet blanket of a character.
5. I Feel Like the Floor of a Taxi Cab
Brainy & his donuts is a perfect example of a C-plot that works in theory, and hits all the right beats, but is hampered by poor planning. For the first, I wanna say, 20 minutes of the episode, Brainy is being Brainy but then, at some point, he shows up with a box of donuts. This is the first and only time we’ve seen him with these donuts. In fact, this is the first and only time we’ve seen him eating anything in the episode. Within 2 minutes of this, barely a single scene change, Nia comes over and is concerned for him as if this were an ongoing problem. The scene then plays out assuming this is the case. That’s all well and good but the show has failed to sell us on Brainy discovering stress eating or being stressed.
Continued belowYes, it can be assumed that he’s worried, but if it’s only apparent intermittently, it’s hard to buy in. The conversation between him and Lena last week helps to lay the foundation but what sets him off onto the donuts and beyond is unclear. Is it M’Gann falling? Is it not being able to get Supergirl? It’s nebulous and not in an intentional way. Do I love those scenes regardless? Yes but they would actually carry some weight and connect with me were they properly crafted and set up.
That about does it for now! What’d you think of this episode? Are you generally more positive on it than I am? Let me know in the comments below and I’ll see you in a week when we follow up on the one plot I didn’t talk about: Nia’s visions and the only answer to them…TIME TRAVEL! Oy. Until then, stay super y’all.
Best Line of the Night:
Lena: “Don’t you want instructions?”
Brainy: “I’m a twelfth level intellect. I’ll figure it out.”
