Now, that’s more like it! After a pretty middling episode last week, Supergirl returns with a bang. Trapped inside the DEO and hunted by White Martians, it’s time for M’gann M’orzz to step up finally become Miss Martian. Sadly, though, this episode still bookends an amazing plot with the most boring not-romance in the history of the universe.
To find out just what I’m talking about, read on below for our Five Thoughts on Supergirl‘s ‘The Martian Chronicles.’ Spoilers, obviously.
1. The Eye-Rolling Commences
Ohhhhhhh boy, Kara and Mon-El’s go-nowhere romance almost ruined an otherwise really great episode. From the pointless opening scene at the bar where Kara reiterates that, no, she doesn’t have feelings for Mon-El to the scene later with Alex where she equates coming out as a lesbian to Kara dating a white cishet underwear model who has shown to be fickle and shallow and afraid to commit to anything in his Earth life to Kara now feeling bad that after she told him she didn’t have feelings for him he… believes her? This was the worst kind of pointless.
It’s pure padding for a plotline that doesn’t matter not make sense. There is no chemistry between Kara and Mon-El, same as there was no chemistry between her and Winn or her and James, because none of them actually seem to be interested in her, they are just interested in the idea of her. I can only imagine this comes from the fact that Kara’s personal life outside of being Supergirl and her job at CatCo is rarely fleshed out other that much, but I have no concept of why Mon-El likes Kara other than she’s pretty and blonde.
Not just that, but what the hell does Kara even see in Mon-El? This continues to be the most insufferable thing Supergirl has done since Winn was complaining about being friendzoned.
2. Becoming Miss Martian
Thankfully, outside of whatever the hell was going on between Kara and Mon-El, this episode was actually really good and that was because it focuses on J’onn and M’gann. They have, consistently, had the best plot threads throughout this season and that’s because there’s been a clear emotional core. Both J’onn’s initial need to connect to another Martian, his rage at finding out M’gann is a White Martian and how his almost paternal feelings towards her as well as M’gann’s guilt and eventual acceptance of what her people did have been clearly and concisely conveyed through scenes that showcase David Harewood and Sharon Leal’s range.
This episode had M’gann finally come to terms with being Miss Martian, with feeling more connected to the identity of a Green Martian by abandoning her heritage as a White Martian. It allowed for some beautiful scenes between her and J’onn and even a great fight scene at the end of the episode. This is where the show is at its best.
Am I sad that M’gann is leaving for Mars? Of course, I think it’s something of a waste to have her get to a point where she could be training with Kara to become a superhero instead on Mon-El and then send her off to Mars. However, I do expect her to be back sooner rather than later and at the very least, this arc has allowed J’onn to come into his own as a character instead of hiding behind the identity of Hank Henshaw.
3. Shapeshifters Gone Wild
Along with M’gann’s plotline, this episode did some really inventive and clever stuff with the Martians’ shapeshifting abilities. This episode was basically a bottle episode and so constructing the meat of the episode from a hunt within the DEO where their prey could literally be any one of them was a really clever way of building tension. Using the DEO agents as a red herring for the reveal of Winn being a Martian to subverting Kara’s confession to Alex by having her revealed as another Martian were clever ways of building tension throughout the episode without drawing attention to the fact that it was an episode stuck in one location.
4. Lockdown, Or “Hey, Remember Aliens?”
As I said, this was basically a bottle episode utilising little more than the sets for the DEO, the bar and CatCo. Thankfully, the episode uses that to its advantage by showing us a side of the DEO we don’t really get to see. This episode reminded me a lot of ‘Human For A Day’ in the first season (which was, coincidentally, the reveal that Hank Henshaw was really J’onn J’onnz) in how it was built around the DEO agents being trapped in their own base and using their wits to survive.
Continued belowIt takes up deep into the bowels of the DEO, past the shinning lobby and into the darker corners and, as the subtitle implies, felt very Aliens. I’m sure that one DEO agent being named Vasquez wasn’t a coincidence. This was great because I’m a sucker for riffs on Aliens and allowed the show to construct a really interesting episode without a lot of resources.
5. Communication Breakdown
Circling back to that scene with Alex, I loved the way they gave Kara a platform to just be open and share her feelings (something I think has been taken away from her as she’s been overshadowed by other plotlines) only to have it taken away from her. It was pure subversion and took away Kara’s sense of safety and reassurance in a tense environment while also exploring her feelings about Alex’s relationship with Maggie. I mean, sure, Kara’s Earth birthday thing felt more than a little tacked on, as did Alex’s Barenaked Ladies concert, but it gave them a moment to connect in the end of the episode in a way that the show hasn’t done in a while.
In the pursuit of furthering James and Winn’s roles as Guardian and Mon-El’s role as being a cardboard cutout of a human being and Alex’s relationship with Maggie, I feel like Kara has been pretty overlooked and hasn’t been able to do much but react to what’s going on around her. She is being abandoned, but by the show itself. And I’m glad that, at the very least, the show seems to be aware of that. Hopefully they’ll do more to correct it than just having her jump into bed with Mon-El.
