Supergirl - Season Four

[Samhain Else]

Huh? Race and gender aren't "character ideas." Do you think the Flash is a recycled Green Arrow because they're both white men? Haley's ethnicity is totally irrelevant to the character; it's just how she happened to be cast. It's questionable whether her gender is relevant either.

You misunderstood. I wasn't merely referring to the race and gender. Like Waller, Haley is a high-ranking government official who's tough as nails. I also made comparison to General Lane, who was very stern and by the book. This is more like a character archetype we see in a lot of movies and TV shows. Why not try to make Haley's character a bit different? I liked her better when she was more supportive of Alex during her first couple of appearances. Now she's a typical dictatorial iron-fisted leader of an organization. I understand what the writers are doing by creating a conflict for Alex, but her character comes off as two dimensional.

 

[Christopher]

Haley's character is quite different from the Arrowverse's Waller. The Waller of Arrow was a cold, heartless, ruthless figure. Haley is stern but fair, flawed in her attitudes toward aliens but a far more nuanced and multilayered figure than Waller was. It never even occurred to me to compare them.

 

[dommecracy]

A week ago was exactly 80 years since Kristallnacht. That this episode isn't reflecting on something that happened 80 years ago, but something that is happening now, not just in the US but all over the world, and that people still need reminders of where that kind of hate and fear mongering lead to, is saddening.

Altogether another really strong episode, and also entertaining. The dragon taming and physics vs brawn fight were fun and this season in general has managed to pull off that mix of relevant commentary and entertaining superheroics in a very effective and consistent way, I don't know what happened behind the scenes but really all the Arrowverse shows seem to have stepped up their game this year (except Legends, they were already perfect! )

 

[TREK_GOD_1]

I am interested in Lena's research. We know she is going to start human testing. It would appear that Lena is going to create a super human. I can't imagine that is going to be good. The Agents of Liberty would probably see this super human as the perfect warrior for their cause and try to recruit it. And presumably, Supergirl is going to have to fight this super human at some point.

Whatever Lena creates, I hope the old sci-fi / horror trope of the creature coincidentally having some inherent flaw to be exploited does not exist. The series needs to allow Lena to be a real Luthor by unleashing something dreadful on the world that's not just a punch-up baddie, and not easily defeated, but it has a mind of its own (or as much as Lena will grant) and its own, self-aware purpose that she will use to as the permanent game changer in a world of super-beings.That would make this series very interesting in that there won't be easy victories--or any at all--essentially a stalemate between Lena and her true target with the red cape.

 

[No Grave Dug]

Whatever Lena creates, I hope the old sci-fi / horror trope of the creature coincidentally having some inherent flaw to be exploited does not exist. The series needs to allow Lena to be a real Luthor by unleashing something dreadful on the world that's not just a punch-up baddie, and not easily defeated, but it has a mind of its own (or as much as Lena will grant) and its own, self-aware purpose that she will use to as the permanent game changer in a world of super-beings.That would make this series very interesting in that there won't be easy victories--or any at all--essentially a stalemate between Lena and her true target with the red cape.

I think they'll have Lena create it; and then have Lex Luthor subvert and modify/re-make it into something 'eeeevil'.

 

[Jayson Poorknees]

I though General Haley brought up a good point. Why isn't the FBI leading the charge of going after Agents of Liberty? DEO was designed to fight against non-normal threats which of course would be aliens and also I assuming stuff in regards to super advanced tech. Granted you would expect the DEO to be involved but you do wonder why you don't see more government agencies working in conjunction with the DEO. Even getting local law enforcement seems to make sense.

Jason

 

[dommecracy]

Why isn't the FBI leading the charge of going after Agents of Liberty?

All of their resources are devoted to hunting Diaz.

DEO was designed to fight against non-normal threats

I'd say a terrorist group that poisons the atmosphere with Kryptonite and uses alien parasites to control aliens and give themselves superpowers falls under the extra-normal type of operations.

 

[Jayson Poorknees]

All of their resources are devoted to hunting Diaz.



I'd say a terrorist group that poisons the atmosphere with Kryptonite and uses alien parasites to control aliens and give themselves superpowers falls under the extra-normal type of operations.

That's true but weren't they a issue before they did that? I am kind of forgetting the timeline as to how they got started. I'm also not even sure anymore if the DEO is still a secret black ops type of unit or something the public knows about.

Jason

 

[Christopher]

I'm also not even sure anymore if the DEO is still a secret black ops type of unit or something the public knows about.

I believe Alex is still pretending to be an FBI agent when she interacts with the public.

 

[The Green Monster]

^That's the thing I've always wondered. How would they interact with "real" FBI agents who might be around at times. Some of them might ask questions.

Perhaps the FBI director is aware of DEO, for this to work...

 

[The Realist]

I thought of a couple more reasons to applaud this season, easily missed because they're mistakes the writers aren't making.

First, we're six episodes in, and Alex hasn't mentioned babies once. That development never seemed particularly organic to her character, but worked tolerably well as a device to write Maggie out. Instead of quietly dropping it immediately after the deed was accomplished, however, the writers doubled and tripled down on it last season, till seemingly everything out of Alex's mouth was babies this, babies that, babies . I'm hoping somebody finally realized, albeit much belatedly, that baby-obsessed Alex Danvers was never a good place to go.

The other thing is, it just occurred to me how deftly they've avoided making Nia "the transgender character," instead letting her simply be a character who happens to be transgender. Amazingly from the Supergirl writers (who, bless their well-intentioned but clumsy hearts, never met a positive progressive message they didn't want to signpost in neon and then hammer to within an inch of its life), Nia is allowed to be funny and charming and earnest and brave -- in short, to do all kinds of things as a character that don't revolve around or depend on her being transgender. She is, you know, just another character in the ensemble, which is a more positive message in the end than any amount of speechifying and narrative pamphleteering could accomplish.

 

[Guy Gardener]

1. Nia foresaw the death of Supergirl and and the destruction of National City if Alex continued trying to procreate, and somehow (telepathic brain washing maybe?) she "cured" Alex of her need for a family.

2. Eliza left thanksgiving early and didn't stay over the night as she normally does. Either Eliza is Alex's surrogate, or Eliza is for some reason raising Alex's secret child in secret. The worst possible conclusion from that is that Alex abused her authority as Director of the DEO to "steal" an alien baby from an Alien detainee.

 

[TREK_GOD_1]

Supergirl
Season 4 / episode 7 - "Rather the Fallen Angel"

SG/Kara: Rather naïve of her to think she could not be blamed (even if unwarranted) for the disappearance of any humans at a time when the public feels they are under siege.

Manchester Black: Some will call Manchester Black an anti-hero, but the fact he's still depicted as justified in his already (mass) murderous actions based on showrunners' one-sided stand on immigration--masked as MB's revenge plot--is not at all acceptable. If he was anyone else with blood on his hands (like any of the Children of Liberty), he would be arrested, but not here. Further, MB's betraying Supergirl just to feed his lust for revenge should not be swept under the carpet because of a "bigger picture"...but in predictable fashion...it was.

J'onn: That "good heart" business from J'onn (about Manchester Black)...what a great judge of character.

Lockwood / Agent Liberty & James: Although James believed he was going to turn the tables on Liberty, he was outplayed every step of the way--starting with the "escape" attempt. His reporter skills were not too sharp to see that he was being moved right where AL wanted him. He assumed his undervaluing reputation in exchange for protecting an idea wont have grave consequences. Sure.. Once James discovers Manchester Black hand delivered SG to be executed--by his hand, in any other production wanting to mirror reality it would have him go on the warpath against Black, no matter the flimsy excuse, and his "rescue" of SG, but...

Lena & Adam/Subject 0331: Lena not giving up her name--still protecting herself for however this experiment turns out. As for Subject 0331, its difficult to tell if he was playing Lena--or if she was doing the same (with her tale from childhood) just to make sure she has a sympathetic, willing lab rat...as long as he lasted.

NOTES: Christ symbolism with Supergirl on the pier....oh, please.

Next Week: Nia uses her powers...
.
GRADE: C.

 

[The Scottish Nightmare]

Lena was adopted??? I don’t recall that at all. Gave me a shock.
I don’t see Black as a bad guy. Just a practical one.

 

[The Realist]

I continue to be impressed with the quality, consistency, and narrative and thematic focus of this season. Especially after the very scattershot and half-baked latter portion of last season, the show has a renewed confidence and energy that makes for very satisfying viewing.

Lena had some great stuff this episode, out of which McGrath acted the hell (he said gramatically). The show is putting its strong ensemble to excellent use this year, with storylines spotlighting Lena and even James never feeling superfluous or digressive, but well-integrated into the larger narrative.

I had thought early on that (as TREK_GOD_1 seems to suggest) Tom was deliberately setting James up with a phony escape attempt and threat to his life in order to manipulate James into doing Agent Liberty's bidding, but that appears not to be the case since he helped James again at the end -- unless it was Olsen's "reputation" speech that turned him for real?

Pretty cool to watch the struggles of a not completely powerless Kara as she tried to escape the monument, smashing handholds in a stone wall like Gal Gadot's Wonder Woman. And really thrilling when she regained the power of flight after Black destroyed the dampeners, snatched the bomb and carried it aloft, then hovered iconically in front of the monument as explosive debris fell around her like fireworks.

Next week looks terrific, too, with focus on Nia and Brainy. And then, the crossover, including Superman and Lois Lane! Life is good.

 

[Christopher]

This show has gotten so deep and dramatic this season. It's the best it's been since season 1. Okay, it was a bit of a stretch that there's suddenly an Ellis Island for aliens and a honking big monument just off the coast of National City even though we've never seen it before, but it was still an effective story. It seems the writers have finally figured out how to write James, giving him a deeply principled core and an eloquence at expressing it.

And the subplot between Lena and her test subject Adam was intriguing. In this serialized age, it's refreshing to see a complete, satisfying dramatic story told in a single episode. At first, when they didn't reveal the subject's name, I thought he was going to turn out to be some established DC character getting an origin story, but that wasn't it at all.

 

[The Realist]

This show has gotten so deep and dramatic this season. It's the best it's been since season 1. [snip] It seems the writers have finally figured out how to write James, giving him a deeply principled core and an eloquence at expressing it.

All true.

 

[DigificWriter]

After a very disappointing episode in Call to Action, Supergirl bounced back with its strongest episode to date. Yes, the writers continued to have James act like an idiot and are for some reason keeping him and Lena apart unnecessarily, but the rest of the episode worked extremely well.

Speaking of Lena, I cannot wait to see if she's successful in her experiments with the harunel. It sucks that she lost her first test subject, Adam, but if she can accomplish everything she's hoping to, it'll be ultimately worth the tragedy. It was also neat to find out more about her background and how she ended up with the Luthors.

Manchester Black is honestly the best addition to the series since Mon-El and Lena were introduced in Season 2, and his anti-hero status has me on the edge of my seat waiting to see what he's going to do next.

I wish we'd seen Nia this week because she was one of the few highlights of last week's episode, but I'm really happy she'll be a big part of next week's episode, so it ultimately evens out.

J'onn never gets emotional, so it was incredibly powerful and moving to see him break down at the end of the episode after Manchester 'dosed' him with that empathy amplifier, and it's going to be interesting to see what the full fallout is going to be.

I do wish last week's episode hadn't sucked so much, but it's nice to see the series bounce back to the quality it's had for its first 70 epiaodes, and I can't wait to see where things go next.

 

[The Realist]

^ Not sure what your problem was with last week's episode, since its quality was of a piece with the high standard of this season as a whole.

 

[DigificWriter]

^ I disagree.

Between James acting like a complete idiot, Colonel Haley walking around with even more of a stick up her butt than usual, manufactured drama between James and Lena based on James acting like an idiot, and a completely ridiculous climax involving a dragon of all things, there was very little about last week's episode that worked.