Supergirl - Season Four

It's not about feelings, it's about contracts. Credit placement is related to how much money you make. Moving someone back in the credits means cutting their salary -- unless you stick them at the end with a "With/And Actor Name as Role," which is seen as prestige billing. (This is why Michael Shanks got such a last-place "as Daniel Jackson" credit when he returned to Stargate SG-1 after a season away. The actors after him in the credits had been bumped up in his absence, and it wouldn't have been fair to demote them when he came back.)

By the same token, this is why Brandon Routh is billed ahead of Caity Lotz on Legends of Tomorrow, and why Victor Garber was billed first until his departure, despite having an increasingly small role. Credits are strictly about contracts and salaries, regardless of what happens with an actor's relative story prominence.

The only times I've ever seen a new cast member inserted into the billing above an older cast member have been when the new cast member was installed as the lead, like Ben Browder on Stargate SG-1 or Bruce Boxleitner on Babylon 5.

First I've heard of it, and it sounds like the usual Internet nonsense.

 

Reviewing the Supergirl opening credits, it's plain that the regular cast is listed alphabetically, except that newcomer Maines is tacked on at the end, and Harewood receives a prestige "and" credit.

Leigh's Alex is the show's most prominent and important secondary (i.e., not-Supergirl) character, and has been from day one.

 

Red Daughter could end up being sent to be Earth Arrow's Supergirl? Or sent to Earth X to help rebuild? Assuming Lex didn't really kill her, which would be lame - much ado about nothing.

I've been informed that contracts are the closest thing agents have to feelings.

It does a bit, and especially since I went back to where I saw it and it has been superseded by speculation that Superman will return to Supergirl for Season 5, AND that Superman's appearance during the Elseworlds crossover might have been meant to act as a test soft-pilot for a Superman series. Bah.

 

I'm always skeptical of rumors that sound exactly like fannish wish-fulfillment. It's very easy for someone saying "I wish X would happen" to get misinterpreted as "Sources say X will happen."

 

If that want to keep Melissa, but Silkwood Scrub everything else... A Power Girl show starring Komrade Kara might fly.

 

Well, actor availability could be a problem with the first option (assuming you would want frequent appearances on the Earth-1 shows). ...unless you find a way to clone Melissa, of course .

 

Usually my BS detector is pretty good - when it sounds remotely like something I might want to see, I'm more suspicious. This one got past me, because it isn't anything I'd want to have happen at all. Which, frankly, seems more like everyday reality.

I'd actually assume *infrequent* appearances - and maybe stuff about what she's doing on background newspapers, TVs, etc. Wouldn't want her showing up too often - Flash and Arrow aren't her shows.

 

His arguing that he had the right to try was his asserting his human status--since she (Supergirl) was claiming that without superpowers, he was not equipped to fight crime, and would not get a second chance from certain threats. That was the essence of his argument--that he should be able to fight--not only because he has a personal right to, but as himself--something she would never understand--because he is human. Having James now want powers is a completely different philosophy/belief system than the one expressed earlier.

Brooks is playing the most known character (by name to the average person) after Supergirl, which explains his second billing. That appeared to be the reasoning by the showrunners, but in casting Brooks as Olsen, they had an unavoidable responsibility to write for him beyond just wanting to move away from being known as "Superman's Pal, Jimmy Olsen". As a black character, this show barely addressed what special concerns or issues he would have in that world other than one Very Special Episode where cops assumed he was the suspect (instead of a couple of white characters) and his all too shoehorned couple of minutes of a backstory involving the police. Personally, I find the use of Brooks as Olsen less about actually exploring who he is and what should have been his unique perspective as a reporter and his dealings with the fantastic, and more about the showrunners using Brooks as a tokenized, would-be statement without any intention to / understating of how a black character would feel and function in that world.

I seriously doubt that would ever come to pass, considering the socio-political nature of this series regarding its lead character. At one point, I believed if this series ever faced cancellation, the showrunners would rip "Far from Home," a Justice League Unlimited episode where Supergirl chooses to stay in the future to be with Braniac 5 (among reasons of feeling she did not fit in the 21st century)--only in this show, it would be Mon-El, but that would simply end the series, not swap out Supergirl for Superman.

 

You know, after tearing up when Arrow ended and sniffling significantly when FLash ended, the one thing I thought I could count on was getting through tonight's finale without a kleenex since no way would they kill Alex or Lena, then I watched that promo.



Getting the kleenex ready.

 

Supergirl
Season 4 / episode 22 - "The Quest for Peace" - SEASON FINALE

SG/Kara: SG - The idea that her one article would be believed by....everyone is such a Pollyanna / wish fulfillment moment, given the context of the issues Lex took advantage of. Quickie "solutions" of this kind are purely of the ever-unrealistic, 1980s 22-minute Very Special Episode variety.

Lex / Eve: Lex's switch off with the president's drinking glass smelled like he spiked it with something.

Ahh..the one interesting thing is his spilling the beans on Supergirl's true identity, and the lies everyone has sold Lena for years.

Eve having any doubts about Lex's interests/goals are coming from where? She's worked with him for years and knew what his ultimate goals were, so this should not have been a shock to her--or his use of her as a sidekick...but now it turns out she was working for Leviathan. Is that Leviathan as in Vandal Savage's weapon, or another organization...

Comrade Kara: One would think the showrunners would avoid the tired "you betrayed meee!" schtick by having Comrade Kara--raised by Luthor--to be never think she's been screwed over at any point before the last second. That is the way to fully manipulate anyone, but...plot convenience...

Predictably, Comrade Kara would be the one to save Supergirl.

James: So now he's happy to be human after wanting to flip flop (again) to keep his powers? Oh well. More misuse of the character, and four season in, I have no expectation of his ever being handled with even a particle of respect or understanding. He's there for reasons having noting to do with being an important character.

Ben Lockwood / George Lockwood: Eh. Lockwood and his agents were defeated with no effort at all, which is anticlimactic for his overall journey, including his feelings of betrayal by Lex. Having him arrested (and who is taking care of George?) still does not address any of the immigration issues that were supposed to be the heart of the season's main arc....but were tossed aside in favor of what...? A Very Special ending. See related notes on Lex.

Ben Lockwood started off as a compelling character with a timely argument, and was boiled down into a weak moustache-twirler used as a punching bag.

Brainy: I see him channeling his "relatives" at sometime in the future.

Haley: As a government official, there's no realistic way she should perform a total about-face on the issue of superpowered beings acting with any authority on earth, which is a separate matter from any of Lex's plotting. Realistically, no government would ever sit still on the issue no matter how helpful the super-being had been in the past.

NOTES: Unless Lex is saved by the Monitor--and will make some miraculous return at some point in the future, this was a complete waste of an A-list villain, who--at the end of it all--was set up to have his plans dismantled literally overnight in implausible ways.

Lena: So Lena can attack and disarm someone with a gun aimed at them--someone who is psychologically/physically experienced with shooting people? MMkay.

..and now, she's a murderer....or is she, after the Monitor paid his visit to Luthor...and on that note, there's no reason why Lena would leave his corpse in a chair to decompose, since the Monitor's visit was (apparently) in real time--after Lena appeared at the party.

Since Lena knows she's been betrayed, the showrunners--if they had a spine at all--would have her complete the transformation into a villain--not: buy Kara's eventual revelation / excuses
no attempts to reconcile with James...unless she's setting him up as part of an evil scheme, or believe anything Alex has to tell her from this point forward.

The seeds of her regaining her earlier path have been planted. As of this episode's airing, the showrunners have drained all purpose / interest from the other two season villains, so they need to give a "promotion" to the other "in-house" adversary with a familiar last name. I cannot bet that will happen.

"My Way"--overused in film.
Enough with the blinders-on cheerleading for the news media, when anyone with even a weak flirtation with history knows its has never been some glorious, pure-hearted champion of truth on behalf of the American population (for one example, see the major news organizations who willingly cooperated with the C.I.A.'s Operation Mockingbird--and it did not end there). Yes, we know the showrunners want to sell the news media as champions in this era, but again, the news media has been and will always be far from being the clean, noble defenders of truth & liberty--or anything else.

GRADE: C-

 

So now James Olsen is Nick Fury? lol

 

The most implausible part of this episode was how readily the public was convinced of the truth by a single newspaper expose. If it worked that way, then either impeachment or the 25th Amendment would've kicked in two New York Times exposes ago.

The second-most implausible part was that a weapon in Earth orbit could target Argo City parsecs away. But Lex did seem to have transmat portal technology, so maybe that was part of the satellite too.

The story did a good job of showing that, for all his brilliance, Lex Luthor will always sabotage himself with his own arrogance, betraying and alienating his allies so that they turn against him. Betraying Red Daughter -- and then not killing her -- was his biggest mistake. But it's good that she redeemed herself at the end. And got... absorbed back into Supergirl? Does she now permanently have Harun'el powers, or was that a temporary thing?

Meanwhile, as soon as they did that beat of Lena calling Kara her best friend before going off to meet Lex, I knew that Lex would spill the beans to her about Kara and Supergirl in the most hurtful way possible by the end of the hour. I didn't expect it to be a deathbed revelation, though.

Or probably not so deathbed. Looks like the Monitor has chosen Earth-38 to test to destruction next, and he's done it by resurrecting J'onn's worst enemy (presumably this guy) and probably Lex as well. Meanwhile, surprisingly, Eve is still alive, and she's revealing her third face -- not only was working for Catco and Lena a cover for working for Lex, but working for Lex was a cover for something deeper involving an entity called Leviathan. Which the DC Database lists only one prior appearance for, so it seems pretty obscure.

 

In the 90s comics Jimmy Olsen’s father was a government agent named Jake who had an eyepatch. Probably a total coincidence.

 

There was dialogue suggesting that the patch was temporary, that James's eye was just injured rather than lost, so I wonder if it was one of those cases where the actor sustained a real injury and they had to write it into the script.

 

Well there's no argument. Immigrants=Good, People who hate Immigrants=Bad, Neo-Nazis=Fuck Em.

 

I did not cry, whew.

I did like how Red Daughter went back into Supergirl and seemed to make her stronger.

I did like how J'onn and Nia 's sacrifice turned Mean Brainiac back into lovable Brainy.

I did like how recently de-powered James was still able to take down Ben Lockwood with Lillian's serum.



I am glad Red Daughter didn't try to kill Eliza, but wonder why she did not.

I am really glad that in the end, it was Kara Danvers, ace reporter's work that exposed the lie and showed the Lex Luthor's of the world that the truth behind Lex's machinations ultimately did set the Americans free, not just Supergirl's intervention.

"Democracy dies in Darkness."

“Nothing sacred but the truth”

“Give light and the people will find their own way.”

Okay all you comic aficionados... is "Leviathan" (other than a ship style in Farscape) something from the comic book world or something new to the CW SG series? I loved the twist at the end that Leviathan placed Eve with Lex and not her supposed fangirl tendencies.



Well, we all called it, that he would out Kara.



Although I understand why Kara didn't talk to Lena at the end of the show (couldn't cram it into 7 minutes with everything else going on and anyway they needed to let Lena stew in her anger enough to turn her into the new ? baddie for next season) I am still disappointed that Kara didn't even try. Lena needed to unload her guilt at murdering Lex before she lets it consume her completely, and without Kara there as an avenue to vent her guilt she just sat at her desk and drowned in it and the scotch.

Sure, Kara didn't want to spoil game night,



...but what about the next day when she was watching George give his news conference? At the minimum we should have seen Kara walk towards the L Corp building before they cut to the Monitor bringing another green Martian to Earth and then resurrecting Lex Luthor.

I'm glad Col Haley has a new job as interim Secretary of Alien Affairs, but I got to admit I still don't see any chemistry between Alex and Kelly. Maybe next year.



Is it too shallow of me to admit I like James in an eye patch?

I don't recall, did we see the Monitor in the Flash finale?

I suspect we will see him tomorrow in Legends.

 

Everything seemed to have been resolved expeditiously: the aliens were liberated from Shelley Island, Luthor and Lockwood were defeated, and Brainy was back to his old self. I'm very excited about next season's antagonist(s), Leviathan, Ma'alefa'ak, and the continuing crisis on multiple earths.

 

It was OK for a weekly episode but seemed lacking as a finale wrap-up, I don't think they brought the various arc threads to a close as well as they could have. Best part of the episode was cribbing the title from Superman IV (though you better be sure to clear that bar if you're going to do it). Weirdest moment was hearing Motley Crue's Kickstart My Heart.

 

I thought that was Granny Goodness at the end. Introducing Darkseid into the mix.
Thank Chuck that the Monitor brought back Lex. He was the only thing that made this season entertaining. Plus we need him to go up against Superman.