Welcome back all you Supergirl fans. Another day, another episode that should be better than it was. Plus, we get introduced to another plot thread. Whoopie. Ah well, let’s see what’s in store for us this week and, as always, some spoilers are ahead.
1. Ruby in the Mansion with Paintings
Ruby has been absent these last few weeks and I was starting to think the Supergirl writers were setting up something interesting and slightly morbid. Can you blame me? Every time Ruby was brought up, Lena looked afraid and acted elusive, no matter who was asking. We never got confirmation of her being spirited away to Lex’s secret mansion and we hadn’t seen hide nor hair of her. The logical conclusion was that Ruby was dead and that this was going to be 1) a big reveal and 2) that this was going to push Sam into full world killer mode while also destroying the trust and morale of Team Supergirl.
Alas, such is not the case. I say alas but I shouldn’t wish for the death of fictional kids for motivating characters. It’s easy to kill a kid for pathos in fiction and 90% of the time it is unwarranted (see “Cry for Justice” for some truly unnecessary deaths).
What we do get isn’t much better though. Ruby is locked away in Lex’s villain ranch and spends a majority of the episode acting exactly like a child would in this situation: moping around the house, with a creeeeepppy caretaker who acts like a real estate agent turned serial killer, and then stealing Alex’s phone and causing everyone to almost get killed. I’m being facetious as always but Ruby isn’t so much a child in this series as she is a plot device.
Her actions are totally valid too, considering how Alex treats her (a point I don’t have time to get into) and the crushing loneliness she’s feeling without her mom who, as far as she knows, is sick. It’s a shame the actress isn’t better at portraying this. As is, much of her performance isn’t natural and the smaller emotions are lost, replaced by the generic whining of a child instead of the genuine terror of what this kid would be going through.
2. Legion Logistics
After weeks of wondering just where the HELL the rest of the Legion was, we finally get a bit of throwaway dialogue about it. Where were they? Oh, they were kept in stasis tubes because the budget demanded it, erm, I mean, they had the blight and couldn’t be removed.
Sure.
A few weeks late, unless I missed another piece of throwaway dialogue back in January about why they weren’t coming out, but better late than never I guess. It’s a shame that they chose to do this as Brainy (no!) and Imra are heading back to the future. And yes, they did make that joke. It wasn’t very funny. Not even Brainy could save it.
I wish this were a more important facet of the Legion plot. Like, based on Alex’s line about wondering why they hadn’t woken the Legion up HERSELF would have been important. She never voiced that concern, no one voiced that concern, and the Legionaries never thought to bring it up themselves.
Oh well.
3. If I Go Crazy, Then Will You Still Call Me Supergirl
Kryptonite. A contentious word for many a Super. While the show has not given us any more Tyler Hoechlin Superman this season, he would probably share Supergirl’s reticence to use the material. Yet I don’t think he’d share Supergirl’s moral superiority complex, based on what we’ve gotten of him so far. Lena says it best this week: “You’ve got a serious God complex, Supergirl.”
It’s true and I wish the show would explore this more instead of framing Lena as the one in the wrong. This is a Jim Gordon of Gotham situation. This is a “Civil War,” Tony was right, situation. There is still time for the show to shift gears and reframe the exchanges at the end of this episode but I don’t think they will as it seems they’re setting up a conflict between Lena and Supergirl, with the audience’s sympathies aimed at Supergirl.
Continued belowI, for one, won’t be there. Lena is right. Supergirl has every right to be angry and hurt by the revelation that Lena knows how to make kryptonite but, again, Lena has done nothing to show she would betray Supergirl or that she should lose her trust to the level she has. This need to control everything has been true of all of the CW heroes these last few seasons and it’s a bit disconcerting. However, for Supergirl especially, this is antithetical to who she is and why she does what she does.
Until the show fully interrogates this, I will see this as a bug and not a feature of Supergirl’s character.
4. Kara Returns ft. Brandon Routh
There is no Brandon Routh. Sorry to disappoint you all but we do have the return, albeit briefly, of Kara Danvers. It was a nice touch to have Lena comment on her being missing for this many weeks though. The switch was immediate too. Despite all my winging, Mellissa Benoist does a fantastic job of drawing a line between Supergirl and Kara. The writers, not so much.
Here, though, as soon as I saw those glasses, a wave of relief spread over me. She’s back and able to do Kara Danvers things…and then we get a continuation of the “betrayal of trust” plotline, with Lena acting very Lex-like in her attitude. Not full evil but certainly angry and spiteful. As I said above, I’m with Lena here, even if her own decision to cut out Supergirl whole hog is the wrong one. She, at least, has ample reasons to feel betrayed.
5. You’re Crying Too!
Carl Lumbly, stop making me cry. This plot thread has been heartbreaking and while the early scenes in this episode are not as well handled as the ones at the end, that ending scene was done magnificently. Not overdone, not under acted, Lumbly and Harewood are a dynamic duo and I wish we had gotten more of them together. This is a plot line with a built-in expiration date and it’s only going to get more heartbreaking from here on out. Let’s hope they send it off on a high note.
That’s all I’ve got for this week. I had some thoughts on Alex’s patronizing of Ruby but, well, I’ve winged enough about stupid character decisions that resolve in one episode in this column for a lifetime. Instead, I’ll leave you with the best line of the night. “Is this…future dirt?!” Winn comma Excited.
See you all next week!
Edit note: Thought one originally said Sam instead of Lena. My Bad.
