So Lord is Shea Luthor?
Spoilers Supergirl - Season 1
- Thread starter Commander Richard
- Start date
Without the garishly familiar idioms, but yes, that was strikingly familiar to 20 years ago.
Didn't Henshaw or Alex tell her to fly up, instead of her original fight path for fear that if the bomb detonated while in the city, the devastation would have been greater?
Good episode but I could do without the soapy romance plot with Jimmy and Lucy. And yes, the final meeting between Supergirl and Lord was very similar to the scene in Lois & Clark between Luthor and Superman.
If space was 50 miles up, were the citylimits or far enough out to sea significantly less than 50 miles away?
That's the math that should have been in her superhead when she saw that there was a minute 30 till ka-pow.
Unless National City is fucking massive, Kara should have gone up as her first course of action rather then hugging the streets for the first 30 seconds to a minute wondering why she hadn't entered a causualtiless area to detonate within yet, even though she was completely aware of her geography, her own potential speed and looking right at the timer ticking down to boom. If the ocean was her target, ballistic flight is much faster anyway. What Kara was doing before Henshaw armchair quarterbacked her to victory was just dumb.
Out of story, she was doing something stupid because the writers had to make Henshaw seem like a hero sometimes with genius ideas, while elsewhen in the script he was somewhere between dodgy and evil.
So if 20 miles out to sea from where she was standing was only 25 miles away and space was still 50 miles away, it would take her twice as long to get to space as to get out to sea. Although hugging the Earth, staying so close to people and buildings, Supergirl couldn't possibly accelerate as fast at ground level as she could going straight up, without several unexpected sonic booms randomly murdering people minding their own business.
The bomb isn't that big, but if the metal casing could still become a thousand tiny razor sharp shurikens after exploding, they'd head back down to Earth into people's faces if gravity still had a handhold on it, but the bad science of the show allows for Supergirl to take the bomb up high enough that no one below gets hurt, even after wasting a minute while flying at 200 mph in the wrong direction, it still allows her time to re-devise her game plan at the 11th hour. If she'd just gone up straight away, Supergirl could have gotten the bomb to space without 0 seconds to spare or getting caught in the explosion.
Space should have been too far away if good science controlled the Supergirl universe but it doesn't, and she should have known that.
"Sigh"
1. Arctic breath could have frozen the bomb. Max was in the process of doing just that as Supergirl showed up. She could have blown it the whole time she was flying until the insides were just ice, but she didn't.
2. Heat ray vision. Could the bomb explode if half its moving parts and electrics had been vaporized or melted?
3. What about straight down? Kryptonians can bore into the Earth to a great depth very quickly. 1 mile down vs 50 miles up vs 100 miles east towards water. Hell, a hundred feet down would have been good if the walls to her tunnel caved in behind her.
4. No seriously, how big was the explosion supposed to be? Despite being on opposite sides of the city, was the blast radius of the air port bomb large enough to take out the train and vice versus the train bomb would yield enough force to take out the air port? Meh. Stopping one bomb was pointless, and the DEO wasn't capable of stopping the airport bomb, so Kara was foolishly naive and terminally optimistic to think that they had the chops to take care of this situation. Kara just got lucky that Hank is a duplicitous devious Alien cyborg sneakily infiltrating humanity, leading it down a path to a specific doom and not merely a random doom of the week from some asshole like Maxwell Lord.
Yeah, "lucky".
Once she was over open water, Kara should have taken the bomb down instead of up. Get it under the ocean's surface, and the ocean will absorb the blast.
According to this episode, the water was too far away even though we saw her busting a boat open at the docks 2 weeks ago.
Actually, I doubt they considered it, but if the oil slick Supergirl started was a massive environmental catastrophy (that she hadn't cleaned up yet) and millions of gallows had turned into a massive semi-permanent slick, maybe heading out to water with a huge bomb would have been a bad idea.
Actually, I doubt they considered it, but if the oil slick Supergirl started was a massive environmental catastrophy (that she hadn't cleaned up yet) and millions of gallows had turned into a massive semi-permanent slick, maybe heading out to water with a huge bomb would have been a bad idea.
The whales!
Okay, I've watched the last two episodes in their proper order now.
"How Does She Do It?": People are comparing this to the Lois & Clark pilot, but it's actually closer to that show's second episode (third aired), "Neverending Battle," in which Lex Luthor created a number of deadly situations to test Superman's powers. His tests weren't so explosive, but it's basically the same situation. I guess that, despite what someone (Peter Facinelli, I think) said in a recent interview, Max Lord is the show's Luthor, in the same vein as L&C's handsome, admired, secretly evil billionaire Luthor.
As usual, I was really impressed with the action and effects here. After so many decades of TV superhero shows that kept the action to two or three brief, limited moments, it's so refreshing to see a show that goes all out with the superheroics.
How nice of Henshaw and the DEO to build that concentrated yellow-sun machine for Supergirl. She and Superman are the only people on the planet that a tanning bed is actually beneficial to.
Jenna Dewan Tatum (Lucy Lane) is absolutely stunning. Totally gorgeous. And I like it how they've set her and Kara up as liking each other rather than being catty and mean and trying to tear each other down. Thank goodness it's not the '50s anymore. And of course Kara would be selfless and help do what was right for James and Lucy -- she's Supergirl.
"Livewire": The Livewire origin here is basically the same as in the character's 1997 debut in Superman: The Animated Series, also called "Livewire" and written by Evan Dorkin and Sarah Dyer: A mean-spirited shock jock gets struck by lightning that's channeled through Superman/girl's body while s/he is trying to rescue her, then awakens from her coma to discover she has electrical powers, and blacks out the city and attacks Superman/girl under the name Livewire. I'm a bit disappointed that they kept her ability to actually turn into electricity and travel through wiring, because I've always found that kind of superpower quite silly. But I can't fault them for authenticity to the source.
(The gag of lightning transferring powers from a Super-person to a civilian was also used in a second-season Lois & Clark episode, so that's two episodes in a row that have been reminiscent of that show, especially with Dean Cain showing up here.)
But the best part is how the situation is used to develop Cat Grant into a more complex and interesting character. I appreciated how angry Cat was at Leslie for bodyshaming Supergirl and insulting her sexuality -- which is indeed a fundamentally different thing from challenging her abilities and attitude as Cat did. And we really got to learn a lot about the decent and caring person that lies beneath Cat's tough, cold exterior. She's a self-made woman because she never stopped pushing herself and being pushed, and so she likes to take other women under her wing and push them to improve in the same way -- first Leslie, now Kara "and" Supergirl. But she pushed Leslie in the wrong direction, rewarding her for being mean instead of strong.
But Cat is still amusingly egomaniacal. I love it that there's a Catcopter. She's as big on branding as Batman!
And it's wild to see Brit Morgan, The Middleman's sweet and adorable Lacey, as the bitter and malevolent Livewire. I'm not sure she fit the role as well as Lori Petty, who originated the character in S:TAS, but it was nice to see her again.
This is the first time we've ever seen Henshaw in a scene with Kara in civilian clothes. It was weird. I'm still loving it that she spends so much time in costume. She even hangs around in it at home and ignores people when they say she should change before answering the door. That's so cool.
Not only do we see Helen Slater and Dean Cain, but I wonder if the mention of Ojai, California was a nod to the bionic shows. "There are no supervillains in Ojai" -- of course not, Steve Austin and Jaime Sommers fought them off decades ago! Or maybe it's just because it's wine country, as they said. At least it implicitly confirms that National City is in California and probably corresponds to Los Angeles.
That would've killed a lot of marine life. Didn't she do enough damage with the oil spill?
I think being in water would make an explosion worse, because the denser medium transmits more of the shock. I think the Mythbusters have shown often enough that the overpressure shock from an underwater explosion is deadly at a greater distance than an aerial explosion. It's the same reason that sound travels better underwater, and that dolphins can use sonic blasts to stun fish in a way that can't work in air, because the thinner medium of air just doesn't transmit as much of the energy.
Not to mention the secondary effects that could be caused if the explosion were large enough to create a wave. We've seen that undersea earthquakes can do more extensive damage than ones under land because of the massive tsunamis they can generate, and simulations of asteroid impacts suggest the same would be the case. This explosion wouldn't be on that scale, but it was reportedly big enough to destroy several city blocks. It could've kicked up enough of a wave to do some damage to the waterfront.
"How Does She Do It?": People are comparing this to the Lois & Clark pilot, but it's actually closer to that show's second episode (third aired), "Neverending Battle," in which Lex Luthor created a number of deadly situations to test Superman's powers. His tests weren't so explosive, but it's basically the same situation. I guess that, despite what someone (Peter Facinelli, I think) said in a recent interview, Max Lord is the show's Luthor, in the same vein as L&C's handsome, admired, secretly evil billionaire Luthor.
As usual, I was really impressed with the action and effects here. After so many decades of TV superhero shows that kept the action to two or three brief, limited moments, it's so refreshing to see a show that goes all out with the superheroics.
How nice of Henshaw and the DEO to build that concentrated yellow-sun machine for Supergirl. She and Superman are the only people on the planet that a tanning bed is actually beneficial to.
Jenna Dewan Tatum (Lucy Lane) is absolutely stunning. Totally gorgeous. And I like it how they've set her and Kara up as liking each other rather than being catty and mean and trying to tear each other down. Thank goodness it's not the '50s anymore. And of course Kara would be selfless and help do what was right for James and Lucy -- she's Supergirl.
"Livewire": The Livewire origin here is basically the same as in the character's 1997 debut in Superman: The Animated Series, also called "Livewire" and written by Evan Dorkin and Sarah Dyer: A mean-spirited shock jock gets struck by lightning that's channeled through Superman/girl's body while s/he is trying to rescue her, then awakens from her coma to discover she has electrical powers, and blacks out the city and attacks Superman/girl under the name Livewire. I'm a bit disappointed that they kept her ability to actually turn into electricity and travel through wiring, because I've always found that kind of superpower quite silly. But I can't fault them for authenticity to the source.
(The gag of lightning transferring powers from a Super-person to a civilian was also used in a second-season Lois & Clark episode, so that's two episodes in a row that have been reminiscent of that show, especially with Dean Cain showing up here.)
But the best part is how the situation is used to develop Cat Grant into a more complex and interesting character. I appreciated how angry Cat was at Leslie for bodyshaming Supergirl and insulting her sexuality -- which is indeed a fundamentally different thing from challenging her abilities and attitude as Cat did. And we really got to learn a lot about the decent and caring person that lies beneath Cat's tough, cold exterior. She's a self-made woman because she never stopped pushing herself and being pushed, and so she likes to take other women under her wing and push them to improve in the same way -- first Leslie, now Kara "and" Supergirl. But she pushed Leslie in the wrong direction, rewarding her for being mean instead of strong.
But Cat is still amusingly egomaniacal. I love it that there's a Catcopter. She's as big on branding as Batman!
And it's wild to see Brit Morgan, The Middleman's sweet and adorable Lacey, as the bitter and malevolent Livewire. I'm not sure she fit the role as well as Lori Petty, who originated the character in S:TAS, but it was nice to see her again.
This is the first time we've ever seen Henshaw in a scene with Kara in civilian clothes. It was weird. I'm still loving it that she spends so much time in costume. She even hangs around in it at home and ignores people when they say she should change before answering the door. That's so cool.
Not only do we see Helen Slater and Dean Cain, but I wonder if the mention of Ojai, California was a nod to the bionic shows. "There are no supervillains in Ojai" -- of course not, Steve Austin and Jaime Sommers fought them off decades ago! Or maybe it's just because it's wine country, as they said. At least it implicitly confirms that National City is in California and probably corresponds to Los Angeles.
That would've killed a lot of marine life. Didn't she do enough damage with the oil spill?
I think being in water would make an explosion worse, because the denser medium transmits more of the shock. I think the Mythbusters have shown often enough that the overpressure shock from an underwater explosion is deadly at a greater distance than an aerial explosion. It's the same reason that sound travels better underwater, and that dolphins can use sonic blasts to stun fish in a way that can't work in air, because the thinner medium of air just doesn't transmit as much of the energy.
Not to mention the secondary effects that could be caused if the explosion were large enough to create a wave. We've seen that undersea earthquakes can do more extensive damage than ones under land because of the massive tsunamis they can generate, and simulations of asteroid impacts suggest the same would be the case. This explosion wouldn't be on that scale, but it was reportedly big enough to destroy several city blocks. It could've kicked up enough of a wave to do some damage to the waterfront.
I haven't seen How Does She Do It? yet, but I'm pretty sure that the DEO's "yellow-sun machine" was introduced in Stronger Together.
Some of the FX are still dodgy, such as the train explosion, and some of the compositing of Supergirl flying in relation to medium shots in the city.
Thinking about this "will they/won't they" gimmick, I now feel the writers are introducing this distraction so early on to lead the characters (Kara and James) on two, seemingly divergent paths (telegraphed in the shot of his car racing in one direction, while she flew in the opposite), even ending up involved with other people, only to have it all come around to what was established in the pilot.
No, it can't have been, because Hank has to explain it to Supergirl here. As I recall, "Stronger Together" introduced the opposite -- a kryptonite-radiation room to weaken Kara.
I forgot to mention before -- I'm enjoying how much lesbian subtext, occasionally bordering on text, there is in this show. Kara says Lucy is so perfect that Kara herself would be willing to date her, and it may or may not be a figure of speech. Kara and Alex talk repeatedly about "coming out" to their mother. Leslie Willis overtly referred to Supergirl as "Sapphic" and "butch." (The former seems a bit more literate than I'd expect from a shock jock. Maybe an in-joke to Wonder Woman's classic interjection, "Suffering Sappho"?) I can't help wondering just how far they're going to take it.
^ There's a brief shot in Stronger Together of Kara lying on her back under a yellow lamp recuperating after her Kryptonite-room training session with Alex. I was assuming that the mechanism she's seen using there is the same as what she apparently uses in HDSDI?, but it sounds as if I'm wrong in that assumption.
Dropping a bucket of sand from 30 miles up will do nothing. Grains of sand are too light that when you factor in air resistance and terminal velocity they wouldn't hurt anyone. Same with the classic myth of throwing a penny off the Empire State Building.
Also, space is not some magical nothing falls from there place. Being in orbit has to do with the speed you're traveling not just your height. If you brought something straight vertically up with no circular motion it would fall back down.
In this case the question was blast radius and shockwave. But in general bombs detonated above the ground have a wider damage radius than ground level detonations.
Either way it was sloppy writing for the sake of making it exciting with no real physics coming into play.
Speaking of similarities, the dilemma that Supergirl faced between whether to deal with the airport bomb or the train bomb resembled the scenario that Superman faced in the movie Superman. He had to decide whether he should first stop the missile heading to the west coast or the one heading east.
Berlanti has expressed how much he's influenced by Donner's Superman - The Movie (a good thing) and like the mirrored scene you mention, there are others, such as the pilot episode's nighttime airplane rescue--
--saving a child's pet from a tree, etc.
Hopefully the development of Supergirl also mirrors the Donner film's sense of great morality unencumbered by the whims of the culture he (and now she) happens to live in. Too many superhero adaptations are too eager to take the super (or exceptional) out of superheroes by having them be too much like the endless, often conflicting personalities on the street in an attempt to make them relatable, but standing for a higher purpose /value is something people can relate to.
Does she have a key to the Fortress of Solitude?
Can you imagine Kara and maybe the Teen Titans getting shit faced and trashing the place as the party of the year spirals out of control?
Now, that's what I call a Legend.
Can you imagine Kara and maybe the Teen Titans getting shit faced and trashing the place as the party of the year spirals out of control?
Now, that's what I call a Legend.
You wouldn't think it would take Lord too long to piece together why Supergirl chose to save the train, given the way she interacted with the kid who snuck onboard, and the fact Lord actually has a history with the kid's mother.
Incidentally, that shot of Supergirl descending into the train might just be one of my favorite shots of her yet. Benoist somehow manages to make that look both sexy and badass, and I'm also glad to see them sneaking in some of the more graceful Reeve-style landings instead of relying only on the digital superspeed ones.
And I also though it was pretty cool and ballsy how the writers actually had the bomber activate the bomb and kill himself at the end. In such a normally sweet and wholesome show, it was nice to see a harder edge all of a sudden, and Supergirl having to decide to abandon someone to die so she can save everyone else.
I'm not one of those who wants to see the show become darker and more serious as a whole, but I do hope we see more of those kinds of moments sprinkled in now and then.
Incidentally, that shot of Supergirl descending into the train might just be one of my favorite shots of her yet. Benoist somehow manages to make that look both sexy and badass, and I'm also glad to see them sneaking in some of the more graceful Reeve-style landings instead of relying only on the digital superspeed ones.
And I also though it was pretty cool and ballsy how the writers actually had the bomber activate the bomb and kill himself at the end. In such a normally sweet and wholesome show, it was nice to see a harder edge all of a sudden, and Supergirl having to decide to abandon someone to die so she can save everyone else.
I'm not one of those who wants to see the show become darker and more serious as a whole, but I do hope we see more of those kinds of moments sprinkled in now and then.
I've found it interesting for weeks that they go to the trouble to do the graceful wirework landing rather than just having her jump down. They're not afraid to spend money on the flight effects. I've been rewatching Lois & Clark lately, and it's so damn cheap by contrast -- there are so many shots where Superman "flies off" just by waving his cape into the camera and ducking out of frame, with a whoosh sound effect added. Heck, at least George Reeves used a springboard.
And I love how Benoist does that balletic pose with one knee bent when she takes off or lands, something Helen Slater also did as Supergirl (though she did it while flying, and had her arms out to the sides rather than fists-forward like Benoist does). We saw the young Kara doing the same thing with her knee in the flashback in "Livewire."
I didn't like that part. She should've been able to figure out a way to save him too. That's sort of Superman's trademark in the comics, the ability to find a way to save everyone even when it seems impossible, and I'd like to see Kara achieve the same standard.
Yeah, I thought it was a nice touch that she had to accept some limitations and let the guy off himself. He put her on the clock and saving everybody else was more important. Agreed about the tone of the show, and how it makes it more interesting to push it some towards the serious side but that it doesn't need to go too dark.
It's easy to see why CBS might not have wanted this to air last week. Regardless of the outcome, the "disgruntled scientist"/fall guy for Lord had a suicide vest on.