Supergirl
Episode 2: "The Stranger Beside Me"
Nia Nal: "I need breakfast. And coffee."
Brainy: "Yes, this is your pattern, which is why I've prepared accordingly."
Nia: "Breakfast burritos!"
Brainy: "With chorizo and crema, as you like. Plus your nitro-coffee with an extra shot of cold brew."
Nia: "This is the best morning ever."
Brainy: "Best morning ever? But that would include eons, both before and after this moment. I really think you are misusing the ter--"
[she kisses him on the cheek.]
Brainy: "Message received."
Kelly helps J'onn with his altered memories and he finds out that his brother, Malefic, aided the White Martians during the Martian civil war. Obsidian tech is proving to be more and more popular both for Malefic who wants to use it for outwardly nefarious purposes and Lena who believes her intentions are good, but may be just as nefarious as Malefic's. Kara continues to butt heads with Andrea and William Dey is following her, which is not great when she's being Supergirl.
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| Bad bitches. |
This episode seems to be all about continuing to ingratiate the new characters into the "Supergirl" ensemble. It's a nice showcase for David Harewood, as well, and I'm never going to be upset about that.
The main action of the episode revolves around J'onn's newly discovered brother, Malefic. The discovery that Malefic betrayed the Green Martians and his family is dutifully sinister and does a great job of setting him up as a worthy adversary for the "Super" team. Having a Martian as antagonist sets up some pretty awesome action sequences. Because Kara is so powerful, the show has to continuously find bad guys that can go toe to toe with her and Malefic is that. His ability to shape shift complicates things and the show uses it to great effect with a pseudo fight between the Danvers sisters. Supergirl heat visioning Malefic disguised as Alex right in the face is maybe my favorite visual of the series so far.
While James may be running for Senator?!, things at CatCo continue to be pretty terrible for Kara. I'm all for tension for Kara's civilian identity but right now it's all coming across as pretty generic. Andrea is almost too icy but I do enjoy that she is turning into a foil for both Kara and Lena, while they are turning into foils for each other, even if Kara doesn't realize it yet. William Dey is clearly being groomed to be Kara's new love interest and I hate it. I hate this douchey guy with a heart of gold that eventually wins over the girl trope. It's tired. It was tired with Sam and Diane and it's extra tired here. I expect more from "Supergirl" and I'm really hoping it proves me wrong. Sam volunteering at a soup kitchen doesn't make up for everything else.
"Supergirl" excels when it focuses on the interpersonal relationships with its characters and this episode doesn't drop the ball there. Alex and Kelly and Brainy and Nia are both in the beginning stages of their relationship but they are handling it completely differently. Alex is being way too hard on herself when she learns of Kelly's allergies, but that knowledge helps her when Malefic is masquerading as Kelly and it strengthens them in the end. Nia is at first enamored with Brainy's romantic gestures regarding food. Brainy's hyper intellect continues to be a love deterrent and just when things look good a new poetry wrinkle rears its ugly head.
We get some more insight into what Lena is up to when we find out that it was Lena who kidnapped Eve at the end of the last episode. Lena wants to use the Obsidian tech to re-write humans to be better people and she starts by uploading Hope into Eve. I'm getting increasingly worried that "Supergirl" is going to go the Black Siren route. "Arrow" spent so much time flip flopping on whether or not Laurel was going to be good or evil and they are doing the same with Lena. Its time to make a decision.
Grade: B
Episode 3: "Blurred Lines"
Nia: "You said I had to be honest, even if it hurt your feelings, so here's the truth. It's just too much. Okay, from now on, no more food, no more poems, no more anything. I know that you mean well, I know where you are coming from and it's sweet, it's all so sweet. I just, it's too much."
Brainy: "You asked me to be myself, to be completely myself with you. But, now you tell me you don't want that. I can only operate at one hundred percent. It's just how I'm built. Which is entirely my problem and not yours."
Using the Obsidian tech wasn't enough for J'onn, so he enlists Nia to use her Dreamer abilities to help him go deeper and regain his true memories about Malefic. Meanwhile, Malefic is trying to use poor Kelly and poor Sean Astin to get back his lost powers. Kara is busy trying to track down an alien spider who is killing people and she is being used by Lena.
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| Friendship? |
This episode feels like a lot of set up. We get a clearer picture of who Malefic is and it is decidedly tragic. It turns out that Malefic has the ability to mind control and influence people and that was what caused their father, M'yrnn, to give up on Malefic, but M'yrnn didn't wipe everyone's memories, it turns out that was J'onn. He did it to stop M'yrnn from killing himself. This is all fine, but sometimes this Martian stuff can border on histrionic. I love Carl Lumbly and always happy to have him back on the show, but man, this feels like overacting city and the Martian backdrops always kind of feel like a high school production of "Star Wars." That being said, the J'onzz family drama is always good and its good here. This runs deeper than sibling rivalry and I'm curious as to why the Monitor felt the need to get him involved in all this. And now that Malefic has his powers back things are going to get worse before they get better.
The show continues to delve into William Dey. The scientist, Niles Jarrod, from the previous episode is killed and Dey lies to Kara about it and undermines her in the editorial meeting in front of Andrea. It's clear he's hiding something and it becomes explicit when he has the clandestine meeting at the end. I don't really care about this or William and the show really needs to make me soon.
The Aurafacian symbiote is cool visually with the tattoos and all, but the final battle is a bit anti-climactic and some strange person/entity killing the woman possessed is just another mystery in a season that is already chocked full of maybe one too many?
The relationships that were struggling last episode continue to experience growing pains with Nia and Brainy close to breaking up and Alex and Kelly are going to take a protective custody break due to Malefic's attack on Obsidian.
This brings me to what could be a major issue in "Supergirl's" fifth season: Lena Luthor. I mentioned earlier that the show was in danger of falling into Black Siren "Arrow" territory and this episode makes me even more worried. I get that Kara feels guilty and flying around the world to get Lena's favorite things in preparation for their first hangout since she revealed her identity is very Kara. What isn't very Kara is her being almost willfully obtuse when it comes to Lena's pretty obvious manipulation when it comes to Lex's journals. Even Alex warns Kara and she completely blows her off. I find it really difficult to believe that Kara would behave this way even if she was trying to get back into Lena's good graces.
So, Kara steals the journals and Lena ends up with them and Lex's super secret encoded research about Q waves. Because of course Lex knew all about Q waves. The show needs to stop waffling and make a decision. Either Lena is going to rebel against her Luthor upbringing or she's going to become Supergirl's own Luthor archenemy.
Episode 3 continues to ask more questions than it answers and "Supergirl" continues to struggle with what exactly they are going to do with Lena Luthor
Grade: B-
So what do you all think of "Supergirl's" fifth season so far? What do you hope happens with Lena? Do you think they need to make a decision? Let me know in the comments.
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