Welcome back all you Supergirl fans! I think I may be reaching the end of my tether with this season. “Confidence Women” wasn’t great but this week was downright painful to watch and no amount of great acting could save it from the boring mess it ended up being. I know it’s a cliche to say that TV episodes are about filling time rather than watching “““art””” but y’all, I really felt that I wasted 42 minutes of my life this week. Why? Gimme five good thoughts and I’ll tell ya.
And as always, spoilers ahead.
1. Graboids Falling Off a Cliff
I wish I were being hyperbolic when I say this may be my least favorite episode of Supergirl thus far. Everything about it rubbed me the wrong way; from the script to the plot to the character interactions to the effects to the awful, AWFUL villains, it all had the feel of a mediocre first draft of an episode. The dialog this week, y’all. The DIALOG. It was vapid and empty and as much as the characters usually love to speak their feelings in the most direct and yet somehow circuitous way, somehow the points were even more belabored and thrown in our faces.
I reject the construction that TV is built to be put in the background, that it is noise and ~~content~~ and cannot make you think nor is it designed to and that this somehow makes it a “lesser art form” to “Cinema.” That said, there are a lot of shows that fit this category, and Supergirl certainly feels like it in “Tremors.”
There is a lack of depth to the events and characters and the people who come the closest, namely Lena and J’onn and Kara, they all fall prey to a script that is intent on talking us through every complicated emotion, placating us with platitudes and easy back and forths. There is no great discussion or debate between Kara and Lena at the end, no meaningful breakdown of their struggles or conflict of outlooks. They are flattened, and in the flattening drained of all that made them unique and engaging.
2. Aftershocks
It only took us seven episodes but it seems like Kara finally knows the pain that Lena felt when she was told by her brother that Kara and Supergirl were one and the same and GIVE. ME. A. BREAK. I still don’t buy that this is what motivated Lena’s final heel turn. I’ve ranted and raved about it nigh on every week but it genuinely feels like character assassination rather than character complications. The betrayal thread was only introduced, what, halfway into season 4 when they decided to bring in dear old Lex and redefine Lena’s relationship to him now that they could actually bring him on board and her beefs with Supergirl were poorly formed even then.
Prior to that, the impetus for her actions were to show she was not like her mother, not like her brother. That she was a Luthor actually intent on helping the world. Now, she has this whole speech about how Kara treated her like a villain which, maybe at the start she did but that ended pretty quickly, and the extremity of her actions, her coldness, and her deep anger at Supergirl just doesn’t gel with the character that was established.
She is a villain! She’s not doing what she did in season four, which bordered on unethical and, hmm, broke the trust of her then friend and of Jimmy! so she kept it from miss high and mighty but that decision was ultimately in the service of others and a hard choice. No, now she’s being motivated by selfishness to cure the world of violent impulses not because she believes it will save it but instead because she was hurt by the world and wants to make sure it can’t hurt her again.
There is a way this plot could have been done with far better results. For starters, her being more conflicted, her showing more humanity and being less of a Luthor. Because ultimately that’s what it feels like she’s been boiled down to: a replacement for her mother and brother in the pantheon of villains for the show. They needed a Luthor with big evil plans and a cold heart who will stop at nothing to achieve their ends. Yes, Lena won’t kill but that’s about it. Hell, she DID kill someone: Lex. Perhaps that death and its aftermath strengthened that conviction but we’re never shown that, instead it being heavily implied that this moral pillar is what makes her not a villain.
Continued belowBut that’s hooey and bunk and every other work for bullshit under the sun. It was bad writing then, it’s bad writing now and every step taken to justify it seems to make it feel less and less like Lena Luthor going “bad” and more like them doubling down on her not actually being as smart or aware of herself that the show insisted she was.
3. Back to Perfection
I don’t think we’ve gotten a good villain of the week since last season. Each one has been more forgettable than the last. I don’t even remember the name of the guy from this week. Hell, I barely remember his deal! He had earth powers and looks like a discount Mar-Novu and this guy is seriously head of Leviathan? Seriously? That reveal took the wind right out of their mysterious sails and firmly placed Leviathan in the category of horribly, deeply uninteresting organizations. Don’t remove the mystique so early! And certainly don’t have the implied leader pull a Thanos and “Guess I gotta do it myself” himself off his throne of mysterious bullshit.
What really got me was him being challenged by the new, tech oriented person. We get it! It’s old vs new and the new is going to be more “dangerous” and “without the old code” and I’ve seen this before a hundred millions times. It’s old hat. It’s not written in any new or different ways and even the motivations for these people are thin, thin, thin. Why does he hate humans? Because we’re destroying the Earth. Great. Why is that the base villain motivation at the moment? Is it because they’re trying to say, “look at this villain who’s actually right!” or is it a “look how bad those decrying the destruction of the planet’s actions are?” It’s frustrating to see it handled with such little care but anything to fill the fight quota, eh?
4. The Legend Begins
Brainy gets hurt and one of his glowy head orbs is broken. That, as they say in space, is a negative outcome — not good. In practicality, this means that Brainy talks faster, has far more connections made per second and is significantly more manic. It’s like he took a bunch of uppers and went to work. Are they building to a return of Brainiac? Are they trying to give Brainy another short-term arc that will most likely still reset him back to zero? Or was it just so we could have Alex and Brainy alone at Leviathan headquarters because he was acting impulsively?
Either way, it’s not his finest moment and continues to highlight the very conspicuous absence of Nia from the season.
5. Bloodlines
Carl Lumbly is back and somehow J’onn is the only one with a decent scene this week. Two, in fact.
The big theme this week is bonds: bonds broken (Lena & Kara), bonds frayed (Kelly & Alex) and bonds reforged (Ma’alefa’ak & J’onn.) I’ve already griped about the former’s handling while the middle was. . .well forced and boring and ARE YOU KIDDING ME WITH THESE LINES? “You should have texted.” Like fuck she should have! She was unconscious! And don’t chalk that up to the trauma. That was just a shitty line.
I hate saying that the only plot that featured three men in a show about women was the best of the episode but somehow it was. I think it’s because Carl Lumbly and Phil Lamar are both amazing in their respective roles and David Harewood acting across from them works far more than any of the others. Kelly and Alex still feel like strangers thrown together with little chemistry while Lena and Kara act fantastically against each other but the script doesn’t support them. It’s really a shame because I also think J’onn’s story has been circling for some time since the show doesn’t know how to do decent unconnected storylines. Make him a detective for H’ronmeer’s sake! Give these characters something, anything(!) to do outside of the DEO or Supergirl.
Bah. If there’s any consolation, we got more Carl Lumbly and so I am sufficiently placated until the next episode, the last before “Crisis,” does something monumentally stupid.
Continued belowThat about does it for now! What did you all think? Am I being too harsh? Am I still missing something about Lena that would alleviate my frustrations? Let me know in the comments and I’ll see you all again in two weeks for kryptonite missiles and probably some more speeches. Until then, stay super y’all.
Best Line of the Night:
Supergirl: “Welcome to Krypton, Old Man.”
