Oh boy, I did not like this one. After a really fantastic episode that focused on the power of female relationships and trust, we get an episode were two shitty white boys fight over who has the right to bang Kara. Because that’s totally what this show should be about, right?
Strap yourselves in, I’ve got some bones to pick with ‘Mr. & Mrs. Mxyzptlk’. Spoilers below.
1. Tall, Dark And Blandsome? Y’all Are From The Same Production Line
Right from the off, this episode gave me a bad feeling. Mxyzptlk shows up, starts challenging Mon-El for Kara’s hand in marriage and they get in a fight over how deserves her or whatever while she just stands there gawking. Then Mxyzptlk calls Mon-El “blandsome.” My guy, look at this.
Just look:
Y’all look like the default models in a shitty character creation system. Both of you look like the kind of white guys that unironically say “It’s lit, fam.” If I didn’t know better, I’d expect these two to be called Chad and Tyler and to be a pair of vloggers. I hate this show sometimes and this episode just put all the things I hate in the same episode.
2. They Made Mxyzptlk A Creepy Stalker
I really wish I could have been in the room when they were conceptualising this episode. I wonder at what point between “We should do a Myxzptlk episode!” and “Myxzptlk should come from the Reddit dimension to stalk Kara and force her to marry him!” the episode formed. So here’s the thing: Mxyzptlk was effective in his earliest incarnations because his impish, trickster nature played off well against “America’s Favourite Dad” Superman. Superman was the straight guy to Myxzptlk’s clown. They were a vaudeville act with superpowers. Abbott and Costello where anything the joke demanded could be conjured out of midair.
How does that turn into making him an interdimensional stalker who wants to emotionally manipulate Kara into marrying him? Oh, right, because he’s just Mon-El from before Mon-El grew a semblance of a conscience and it’s meant to be a commentary on how every man in this show eventually falls in love with the perfect concept of Kara Danvers instead of the actual person, right? This episode is bad.
3. Is This Really A Valentine’s Episode?
I feel like just about every decision made in this episode annoyed the hell out of me. Not only did we have to deal with Mr. Mxyzptlk now being a creepy Reddit stalker, but I had to deal with Valentine’s plots where Alex and Maggie have an argument over nothing and Winn… hooking up with a cardboard cutout of his perfect woman, apparently.
I think the Alex and Maggie thing bugged me more because it was so nakedly capitalistic. Maggie doesn’t like Valentine’s Day therefore she needs to be, basically, manipulated into enjoying it by Alex. Maggie freaks out because that triggers some trauma from her past, but Alex forces her to confront it because even though she caused this, her feelings would be hurt if Maggie left. Then Maggie has to pretend of like Valentine’s for Alex’s benefit because, to this show, Valentine’s is inherently good.
This was a Bad Move and shows how the show emphasise the importance of capitalistic romance holidays over open communications of feelings in relationships. It’s unrealistic and unhealthy and that’s dangerous when you’re showing a lesbian couple, something not shown in such a domestic light in many TV shows.
4. Mon-El Has Ruined This Show
This is the closest I’ve come to giving up on an episode of Supergirl. This was insufferable on every level. I genuinely had to pause about halfway through the episode to step away for a few minutes. To create an episode where the driving plot motivator only exists to make Kara and Mon-El argue in every scene that they are in right after they almost kissed just to add even more tension to when they might actually kiss is the most CW move this show has pulled since the network switch.
I feel like the writers of this show assume that if Kara keeps pointing out that Mon-El is a stereotypical dickbag of a meat sack that pursues women as objects to deposit his seed in then they get a free pass. They don’t. They make it worse by lampshading his awful behaviour while also having Kara fall for him at the same time because he’s just trying to so hard to be a good person.
Continued belowThis romance was a foregone conclusion the moment Mon-El was found in the pod and there could have been something interesting here, but this weird hatelove thing that they have going on is maybe the worst move this show has pulled.
5. A Hamilton Reference, For The Hand Of Kara Danvers
What did I do to deserve this episode? Which god did I anger to unleash this episode on the world? The crux of this whole episode leads to a fucking Hamilton reference as Mon-El challenges Mxyzptlk to a duel. Great. Because this show totally isn’t stuck in pre-election 2016 or anything.
You know, it’s not just the fact that this is a blatant “Look how liberal and in touch with the kids we are!” move on the part of the show, but the fact that this episode boiled down to two men fighting over the romantic interests over the female main character who barely got a say. She would, apparently, rather kill herself than marry Myxzptlk and yet will fall into bed with Mon-El even though, spoiler alert, they’re the same character. The only difference is that Mon-El tried to play a longer game.
This episode made me sick.
