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Five Thoughts on Supergirl‘s “Parasite Lost”

By | November 12th, 2018
Posted in Television | % Comments

Welcome back all you Supergirl fans! The theme this week seems to be that of complications and compromises and the hidden prejudices that lie undetected and unspoken until a platform is created for them to be expressed behind the veneer of respectability. It may not be as well crafted as B5’s slow burn reveals but it is effective. We also get the return(?) of Parasite which was more underwhelming than anticipated. Ah, well. As always, spoilers ahead.

1. Parasyte the Maxim

Parasite is one of the scariest members of Superman’s rogues gallery, right behind Darkseid and Lex, due to his very special ability to royally screw up Supes’ day by stealing his powers. Here, Parasite is powerful, but he feels more like nuisance than anything else. Perhaps that’s because the host, Jensen, is hopelessly underdeveloped and is nothing more than a shell of a character that can be filled with whatever character traits are necessary for the plot each week. His turn back to good, or at least his choice to do one good act, isn’t disingenuous because of this — what little of his personality we do know hinges on his reticence to follow Liberty to begin with and his ease of being persuaded — but it is a bit of a bore and is fairly predictable.

2. Guardian of the Spirit

Jimmy’s plot worries me. He’s attempting to be like Supergirl, and to promote unity and peace and hope, by using his unwanted status as a symbol for humans to try to connect with those who have been lost to hate. As he learns just how far up the chain these ideas permeate, we see his desire to denounce the symbolism shrivel. It’s a smart move on the writer’s end, bringing the real world complications into the mix once again; it’s a plot thread that’s very similar to one going on over on The Gifted. However, unlike evil Cory Booker, Jimmy’s interactions with Lockwood are not coming from a place of agreement, at least we hope not, but instead are coming from a desire to see peace and connection ring true.

It’s a noble desire but one that I ultimately think will be tricky to get right. The writers need to play this one carefully lest they begin to write the same narrative AS the one in The Gifted. We don’t know if Jimmy will begin to slide into the pit of hate, slowly compromising his morals and letting pieces of himself whither away or if he will see the error of his ways very quickly or if his decision will actually achieve his goal. It’s a question that plagues us today and one that does not have an easy answer.

3. The Garden of Words

What was up with that opening scene on the rooftop? I can’t be the only one that felt it was super out of place. I can’t put my finger on why but the whole things was excruciating to watch. The characters were all congratulating each other as if it were the end of the season and it ended up having no bearing on the episode at large or on any of the individual character arcs.

The only redeeming factor was Brainy’s drunken antics and his failed recognition of Nia’s flirting with him. He is filling the Winn shaped hole in the show very well while also improving greatly on the position. He’s given more material to work with for one and he isn’t as chained to his past with CatCo and Supergirl as Winn was. I miss him but they were squandering his character whereas with Brainy, his interactions with the other characters are allowing him and them to grow and develop.

4. Detective Conan

I know I said this at the end of last season but I think we’re gonna be getting Detective John Jones soon and I couldn’t be happier. It’s a piece of the Martian Manhunter’s legacy that has been pushed off to the side for a long time, only resurfacing in places like “DC: The New Frontier” or Ostrander’s solo series from the late 90s, early 2000s. It’ll be good for the show to have another avenue to explore the world of Supergirl that may not need to tie back into the main plots and can operate on their own. That probably won’t be the case considering I don’t think these shows know how to have concurrent plot threads running without it being teases for later developments (i.e. “Red Son” Kara).

Continued below

Regardless, the idea is enough to get me excited and it’s maybe the only positive to come out of the A-plot this week. It’s not that it was anything bad, season 4 is still leagues better than last season, but the plot with Amaday meandered and wasn’t all that interesting. It wasn’t set up well so all the emotional beats fell flat and the big twist that the mother was part of the “Children of Liberty” was just another development instead of this great betrayal. It’s purpose was to continue to whittle away at Kara’s hopefulness but she knows already that regular people are the ones contributing to these online hate groups. It’s also not played up as much as the “reveal” that Amaday might not be as upstanding as Kara thought him to be.

We didn’t know Amaday before this, though, and then it turns out that he made a mistake but that it was the mother’s hatred of him that exacerbated things and caused her daughter to suffer unduly and to lose out on a connection that she might have otherwise had. The parts were there to have an arresting story but the execution wasn’t quite up to snuff.

5. Paranoia Agent

The scariest part of Agent Liberty is how well spoken he is. He’s not your traditional evil villain, something I hope I commented on back in episode 2, and his ability to manipulate and twist ideas and words to fit his narrative is his most dangerous quality. He’s not a raving lunatic with a mask. He’s not a cigar chomping, mustache twirling villain. He’s an educated man who can hide his hate behind a veneer of civility and logic. It’s the truer picture of those whose hatred causes the most damage, because it can trick some into believing he’s right while providing other a nice sounding cover.

The show also goes out of its way to remind us that he’s still a person; not in a “oh, but he’s actually got good” way but in the, “he has flaws and isn’t simply an archetype,” way. We see him angry when he’s alone. We see him gather himself when he talks to Jimmy. We hear it in his voice when he has the mask on; he changes his demeanor slightly but the delivery is still with a natural cadence, a nervous one, and the orations he gives aren’t the standard bad guy, deep voice, gruff BS we get in Arrow or The Flash. It’s a good touch and goes a long way to making him an effective villain.

That about does it for now! Let me know what you thought about this week’s episode in the comments! I didn’t get to talk about it, because I think it’ll be more relevant next week, but what’re your thoughts on the Haley situation? I’ll see you next week and until then, stay super y’all.

Best Line of the Night:

Brainy: “The ginger root kicks the booty of the immune system. . .and it also makes the room spin.”


//TAGS | Supergirl

Elias Rosner

Elias is a lover of stories who, when he isn't writing reviews for Mulitversity, is hiding in the stacks of his library. Co-host of Make Mine Multiversity, a Marvel podcast, after winning the no-prize from the former hosts, co-editor of The Webcomics Weekly, and writer of the Worthy column, he can be found on Twitter (for mostly comics stuff) here and has finally updated his profile photo again.

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