Spoilers Supergirl - Season 2

[Reverend]

Heck, think of India and Pakistan, or Britain and Ireland and Scotland back in the day. You can have hostilities and cultural differences and still have overlapping roots and linguistics. Krypton and Daxam have clearly had enough contact with each other to generate plenty of bad blood, which makes me figure they're probably related somehow. Family feuds are often the most deep-rooted.

Not that I'd expect a show like this to even vaguely adhere to even basic astrophysics, but lets just say for the sake of argument it did: for a planet to be that badly hit by the debris field of another exploding planet and in any kind of sensible time frame, it would pretty much have to be in the same system and almost certainly withing Rao's habitable zone.

So yeah, odds are they are related, most likely with one being the former colony of the other from *way* back.

 

[Guy Gardener]

Kryptonian names denote the patriarchal family line.

Lar Gand and Mon-El don't seem to do that.

 

[DigificWriter]

Until/unless we learn otherwise, I think it's both logical and practical to assume that Gand is the family surname, making Mon-El's full name Mon-El Gand (possibly without the hyphen), with his mother's full name being Rhea Gand.

 

[Dick Whitman]

Kryptonian names denote the patriarchal family line.

Lar Gand and Mon-El don't seem to do that.

That is the part that does not make sense.

I completely understand and like that Daxam is some type of former colony of Krypton. I am not sure when that introduced into the comics. Originally it was just a huge coincidence that the species of two alien planets had the same powers on Earth. Not even sharing the same solar system. Daxam being settled in the distant past by Kryptonians is a more recent retcon.

This show actually went even farther in the connection and made the two planets in the same solar system. Which I think is an improvement.

The issue I have is not that he has a Kryptonian name. But that it is so different from his father. Of course we are not seeing his name spelled on screen and it's actual spelling would be in an alien language not English! Maybe it was not spelled with a hyphen on Daxam after all.

 

[Christopher]

Not that I'd expect a show like this to even vaguely adhere to even basic astrophysics, but lets just say for the sake of argument it did: for a planet to be that badly hit by the debris field of another exploding planet and in any kind of sensible time frame, it would pretty much have to be in the same system and almost certainly withing Rao's habitable zone.

So yeah, odds are they are related, most likely with one being the former colony of the other from *way* back.

We already know that they are both planets in the same star system. And we've heard both Kara and Mon-El swear by Rao, so they come from a shared religious tradition, either the same faith or different offshoots from a single faith. Maybe part of their traditional hostility is like the conflict between Protestants and Catholics in European history.

The issue I have is not that he has a Kryptonian name. But that it is so different from his father. Of course we are not seeing his name spelled on screen and it's actual spelling would be in an alien language not English! Maybe it was not spelled with a hyphen on Daxam after all.

I still don't see why that's such a big deal. As I said, a syllable as simple as "el" is found in most languages. It could just be a coincidence that his name sounds Kryptonian -- like the coincidence of Korean names like Lee and Park sounding so much like Western names of totally different origins. (It disappointed me that Smallville passed off Kristin Kreuk's Lana Lang as white rather than taking advantage of the fact that Lang is a perfectly valid Chinese surname.) Or it could be that the Daxamite language has absorbed influences from Kryptonian but doesn't use them in the exact same way. Language is a mutable and evolving thing. It doesn't always adhere to strict and predictable rules. The tendency of science fiction to require alien names to always follow a single rigid pattern is unrealistic. A little messiness is truer to life.

 

[tomalak301]

It was a decent episode. It felt like they sacrificed an interesting story for more relationship drama though but it feels like they've done that all season. I did enjoy the Wynn and Lyra storyline though and it was great to see Maggie doing police work. She is kinda badass at her job.

 

[Guy Gardener]

The moment Lyra said that she liked the original Dune, I knew that she was lying about everything else too.

 

[doylem1]

Just watched this episode after downloading off Piratebay (Won't be show here in the UK for another week). Gotta say lost a lot of respect for Kara in how she handled the Mon-El reveal of being the Prince of Daxam, There's having integrity but her reaction to it in my option was more self-righteous and putting herself above him. Thats not love. Sure she was hurt at the fact he lied to her about who he was a guard instead of the Prince, but look at how Winn behaved and handled his relationship problem, he could have been doing prison time but he followed his heart, listened to her and she had valid reasons for why she set him up.

Even towards the end in her flat when she asked him was he ever going to tell her the truth she still couldn't get past her self-righteousness and placing herself above him.

I know the writers like our characters to be angst and have drama in their relationships but personally after how she behaved Mon-El is better off without her.

 

[Commander Richard]

The thing I'm tired of is goofy CGI eye-flashing. Sure, it's the cheapest CGI effect you can do to signal "not human" or "oddball hypno-power." But holy shit, enough already.

At first, it looked like his eyes were getting bigger.

 

[Kirk Prime]

There's a comic book explanation for the name. It goes back to the Silver Age.

Lar Gand IS Mon-El. On SUPERGIRL, Mon-El has a different name, but Lar Gand was a Daxamite that crash landed on Earth and met Superboy.

Mon-El was injured in the crash and got amnesia. Superboy thought Mon-El was a long lost brother. That's how he got the name El. The Mon comes because he landed on Earth on a Monday.

As Mon-El gained powers, Superboy learned that Mon-El was immune to Kryptonite. Superboy tried to trick Mon-El for some reason, and showed him kryptonite, but it was really lead. Superboy didn't know this but lead was like Kryptonite to Daxamites. But in some ways it's worse, because unlike kryptonite, lead poisoning is not reversible to Daxamites, so Mon-El was dying and Superboy felt really guilty. It was at this point Mon-El got his memory back.

So Superboy sticks Mon-El in the Phantom Zone where he won't age, until a cure can be found. Turns out in the 30th century, the Legion can temporarily cure him, which allows him to have adventures with the Legion from time to time.

His origin today is similar to pre-crisis, except Superman was testing if he was Kryptonian with kryptonite in a lead box, so no trickery involved. And Mon-El was left a cure.

 

[Gryffindorian]

They explained that in the season premiere. His space pod had been trapped in the Well of Stars, a stellar phenomenon where time didn't pass. Our first glimpse of his parents at the end of "Medusa" had them tracking him to the Well of Stars and finding that the pod was gone.

I missed that. Other posts have also indicated that Daxam and Krypton were in the same solar system. That would explain how one planet was affected by the other's destruction. However, I wonder if it took years for Kryptonian debris to reach Daxam. And was Mon-El trapped in the Well of Stars for the same duration as Kara was in the Phantom Zone? I'm just trying to make sense of the timeline from Point A to Point B to Point C.

 

[Christopher]

However, I wonder if it took years for Kryptonian debris to reach Daxam.

Clearly not, because Mon-El's bodyguard killed a Kryptonian wearing a House of El emblem in order to steal his pod. It looked like the pod was there on routine business; it's unlikely a Kryptonian would've just casually been there if it had been years after the fall of Krypton. The Arrowverse Wiki says Krypton and Daxam were destroyed on the same day.

And was Mon-El trapped in the Well of Stars for the same duration as Kara was in the Phantom Zone?

No, about 13 years less, because that's how long ago Kara arrived on Earth.

Here's the timeline, going by the Arrowverse Wiki:

1966: Kara Zor-El is born.
1979: Kal-El is born. Krypton explodes. Baby Kal-El and 13-year-old Kara sent to Earth; Kara stuck in Phantom Zone. On the day of Krypton's destruction, Daxam destroyed by debris; Mon-El escapes. Sometime thereafter, he is trapped in the Well of Stars.
2003: Kara and Fort Rozz crash on Earth after being freed from the Phantom Zone by Indigo. By this point, Kal-El has become Superman.
2015: Kara becomes Supergirl.
2016: Mon-El's pod reaches Earth.

 

[Shamrock Holmes]

Perhaps his name is M'Onel Gand (tho oddly M'Onel is a Martian name, despite him being Daxamite).

 

[DigificWriter]

I don't know where the Arrowverse wiki got their dates from, but Kal/Clark wasn't a newborn when Krypton exploded, as the infant stand-in they used in the Pilot could not have been younger than 1 based on physical appearance.

It's also been more consistently stated by producers that Kara was 12, not 13, when Krypton exploded.

I'm also pretty sure it's been confirmed that Krypton exploded in 1980, as reckoned on Earth.

 

[dahj]

This is the third episode in a row where the actual Supergirl related stuff feels more like a subplot even though she lost her job and her boyfriend, which should be a much bigger deal considering these were her only ongoing plots this entire season. The firing itself was completely glossed over, they didn't even bother to remove it from the opening narration...

Both breakups prior to the crossover felt incredibly forced. Granted, this one made slightly more sense than The Flash one, but it felt more redundant because they've been doing the yes/no/yes/no/yes/no on their relationship almost every episode since the show got back from the break.

The episode still managed to be fun, James did some nice Guardianing, Maggie/Winn stuff was great, glad she's getting to interact more with characters other than Alex.

The arrival of the Daxamites was very Man of Steel, though nobody seemed that bothered by it. I don't recall if humans have seen giant spaceships since the show started, Fort Rozz was in the middle of nowhere and the Alien Deportation ship was at night and out of sight. Granted, they may have seen some during Superman's tenure, but still that's the sort of thing that would have been interesting to get the view from the newsroom perspective had Kara not got fired...

Oh, and Starry Night was such a lazy choice, do Kandinsky once in a while people!

 

[DigificWriter]

They didn't change the opening narration because her not being a reporter any longer is only temporary, and she'll be back at her job within the next two episodes.

 

[TREK_GOD_1]

Gotta say lost a lot of respect for Kara in how she handled the Mon-El reveal of being the Prince of Daxam, There's having integrity but her reaction to it in my option was more self-righteous and putting herself above him. Thats not love.

She is above him. Do not forget, this is the same man who said he loves being a hero because he gets to be at Supergirl's side. That's not heroism--but selfish interest having nothing to do with giving of yourself to help others and seeing the greater meaning of a moral purpose (essentially James).

If not for his being hot in the pants for SG, he would be content screwing office workers and hanging out in a bar. Why should she have respect for that--and his status as a habitual liar? If that's not bad enough, he's already admitted to his negative view of Kryptonians, and the history of his people killing beings such as Mister Mxyzptlk--advocating that as a means of dealing with him.

Yes, Supergirl is above Mon-El. He's not changing for any real reason of moral reflection and growth--he's doing it for his own selfish reasons, which include trying to handcuff himself to Supergirl.

I know the writers like our characters to be angst and have drama in their relationships but personally after how she behaved Mon-El is better off without her.

As mentioned yesterday, if the showrunners had a pair, they would have SG hold to her convictions--and not bend back to TeenNick-land after Mon-El does some quickie act of heroism against his family, or anyone else.

 

[Christopher]

Oh, and Starry Night was such a lazy choice, do Kandinsky once in a while people!

Seems like the sort of thing an alien would go for, though.

 

[dahj]

Seems like the sort of thing an alien would go for, though.

I'm sure they'd dig Sky Blue just as much.
Some might even recognize themselves in it.

 

[Forbin]

Pretty sure Starry Night isn't in the National City museum at the moment.
So, listen, doesn't cutting a 128 year old painting out of its frame and rolling it up into a tube, ya know, DAMAGE it?? Especially something like Starry Night, with its use of impasto?