Another week, another new episode of Supergirl to explore! This episode delves deeper into the revelation that there is another surviving Martian, exploring the non-human community of National City and the giant crush Alex Danvers has on Maggie Sawyer all while Mon-El finally does something other that sit around and mope… he’s sit around a punches stuff!
It’s a jam packed episode so let’s dive into our Five Thoughts on Supergirl‘s ‘Survivors’!
1. The Day Daxam Died
So… Mon-El. I haven’t really dug into Mon-El so far because, honestly, there’s not much there. So far, I feel he’s been fairly inconsistent in terms of characterising him as an outside to Earth. This show tried to show his isolation from the outside world at the DEO and has him picking up phrases from Winn, but that doesn’t explain how, in previous episodes, he already knew what a handshake represented on Earth.
I feel like for Mon-El to really work, they had to really focus on him out of the gate and commit to his not being from Earth and having to adjust to it. Instead, he’s been a sideplot every since the beginning of the season and his arc seems to be his journey to becoming a superhero instead. I’m not against that, it just feels like his adjustment to Earth has been so fast-tracked as to feel negligible?
This whole fish out of water story mixed with his animosity with Kara slowly turning into what I can only imagine is a classic CW doomed romance hasn’t exactly endeared me to our party prince from the skies.
2. Great CatCo Bake-Off
This show really needs to figure out what it wants to do with Snapper Carr. This was a great episode for him and I can only hope it sticks with this over the Snapper Carr who yells at his bosses when he doesn’t get his way. This episode showed Snapper as the rough but fair editor who actually explained to Kara what she would need to get before presenting him with a story (because, let’s face it, she gave him a concept and not a story itself) and showed him actually refining that with her as the episode went on until she had a story to work with and redraft.
I feel like some of the weirdness of Snapper’s fluctuations stems a little bit from how condensed his scenes are and whether or not the writers are showing Kara as inexperienced or just plain taking the piss. I mean, she chose to focus on being a journalist for a major news company and she’s not writing in AP style? Christ, Kara.
3. The Last Children Of Mars
As expected after the stinger of the last episode, this episode was very much about introducing M’gann to the world of Supergirl and exploring the burgeoning connection between her and J’onn, which basically amounted to “You’re not my real dad!” It was interesting because this episode allowed David Harewood to go places with J’onn that he hadn’t been able to before, focusing on the emotionality of the character over him being the grumpy dad of the group all the time.
Here, J’onn was impulsive and protective and… well, still acted like a dad, but more one who was worried about the safety of his charge than one who sternly disapproved of everything going around him. That’s an interesting foil to the survivor guilt that M’gann is clearly fancy (and the secret she is harbouring) which lead to them slowly connecting, even if it was because of a steel cage death match.
4. Extra-Terrestrial Fight Club
This was the most CW plot this series has had, and not just because it was (probably) inspired by the superhero fight club ads on the CW. From the sets to the focus on Alex and Sawyer to just everything about Roulette to the night time confrontation between Kara and Roulette separted by fire, this felt like a plot that Arrow hadn’t gotten around to using. I don’t think that’s necessarily the worst thing in the world as it does give Alex something to do beyond saving the day every episode and brings forth a darker side of last episode’s exploration of the non-human community.
Continued belowThat being said, I’m kind of iffy on how far this episode went with the whole anti-alien prejudice thing. Last episode did a pretty good job of subtly retconning that National City has a much larger alien community than previously thought (which makes sense because why else would the DEO exist there?) and the difficulties they face without amnesty. However, this episode was flirting the line that often crops up in science fiction where the prejudices used as a metaphor threaten to overtake the actual prejudices of the world.
Example: last episode did a fantastic job of reminding that J’onn faces prejudice being a Martian on Earth and also appearing as a black man. This episode brought up Michael Vick when talking about the underground fight club which was apt, but it was something that didn’t sit right with me and I don’t know if I have the space here to explore why.
5. This Show Is So Gay
This show is not even being subtle about how much Alex is in love with Maggie Sawyer and it’s actually pretty endearing. Alex has been a character who has been pretty romance-less for most of the show, not counting that weird thing where she almost fell for Max Lord, so it’s great to see them actually explore the fact that maybe she’s just not straight. I mean, maybe this is me talking through the lenses of my own lesbian goggles, but she’s totally into Maggie, right? That whole scene at the end where Maggie introduces her current partner was the moment that Alex realises she’s jealous and now has to come to terms with the fact that she loves another woman. Now, the only thing left to do is pray that they both survive the rest of the season because I know you, American TV, and you’re not doing that to me again.
Speaking of characters who are totally not straight: Winnslow Schott Jr. My dude spent this whole episode looked in a room with a superpowered Hollister model and then went out drinking with him. This show was seconds away from dropping the biggest “No homo” possible but I know, I know that Winn was fawning over Mon-El as much as he did over Superman. This is kid is the least straight man I have ever seen, just let him admit it.
And that’s not even counting some of the looks Lena Luthor has been giving Kara. Something is going on there too.
