Spoilers Supergirl - Season 2

[Mr. Adventure]

I don't know, sounds weak to me. I remember when it was said that it was OK that Supergirl wasn't on the same Earth as the other shows because, y'know, portals, they could crossover anytime. As part of a 4-night crossover event it wasn't very satisfying to devote 15 seconds of time to it.

 

[Guy Gardener]

Some of the Flash tomorrow could be set on the Supergirl Sound Stage?

 

[Turtletrekker]

I don't know, sounds weak to me. I remember when it was said that it was OK that Supergirl wasn't on the same Earth as the other shows because, y'know, portals, they could crossover anytime. As part of a 4-night crossover event it wasn't very satisfying to devote 15 seconds of time to it.

What's more, I've read that the scene that was in Supergirl will also be in The Flash, so as far as the crossover is concerned, watching Supergirl was completely non-essential.

 

[Christopher]

• Supergirl's landing was pretty cool. A new bit of fx they can add to the mix.

I didn't notice. Actually, what I've noticed before about this season is that she seems to be doing more of a "superhero landing" where she comes down in a dramatic crouch and then straightens (this is featured in one of the crossover promos, and I noticed it in the show the same week), as opposed to last season where she did this graceful, balletic slow touchdown that I really liked.

And probably Batman.

Or at least Bruce Wayne. Maybe Earth-1 is a universe where Krypton never exploded and Thomas and Martha Wayne were never killed. That's why it was left to Oliver Queen and Barry Allen to fill the "Batman" and "Superman" roles in that universe.

They had a real crossover before, and it was actually quite charming, there's no reason they couldn't have worked the story in with this, either. Have Barry arrive early and help her with a problem that's thematically relevant to the story as a whole, at the very least.

With a different story, maybe. But the story they went with is one where Earth-1 is being invaded. Which means, one, that it's hard to make an Earth-SG story relevant to that, and two, that Barry and Cisco would be in too much of a hurry to get home to devote any time to problems in National City. And they've already done a story where Barry was stuck there with no way back, so it would've been redundant to do it again.

Or they could have used this opportunity to win over new fans that were checking this out because of the crossover. As it is, they did neither of those very well.

Don't blame the producers -- blame The CW's advertising department. The producers chose to make a 3-part Earth-1 crossover with a guest appearance by Supergirl, and to precede it with a Supergirl episode that was mostly its own thing but ended with a prelude for the crossover. And the producers and cast members explained that structure clearly in the interviews they gave. It was The CW that chose to promote it as a fully integrated 4-part event.

And I think maybe you're getting it backward in terms of which shows need the crossover to draw in new fans. Generally in crossovers like this, the star of the more popular show is the one who guest-stars to boost ratings on the other show. This event is clearly designed to be more about getting Supergirl as a guest star on the other three shows than about getting Earth-1 heroes to appear on Supergirl. So far, The Flash is still the network's highest-rated show, but Supergirl is a fairly close second, and they're both well ahead of Arrow and Legends.


Anyway, fandom has gotten too impatient. Okay, so this wasn't total instant gratification right off the bat. So? It's only the first night of four. This was just our teaser for the main event that begins in earnest tonight -- our appetizer before the main course.

 

[Romulan_spy]

I remember when it was said that it was OK that Supergirl wasn't on the same Earth as the other shows because, y'know, portals, they could crossover anytime. As part of a 4-night crossover event it wasn't very satisfying to devote 15 seconds of time to it.

But that is exactly what they did. Barry used a portal to go to Supergirl's universe and bring her back to his universe to be part of the crossover. Plus, the Dominator invasion is not taking place in Supergirl's universe so I am not sure how they could have devoted the entire episode to it. While the episode was not devoted to the crossover, the character of Supergirl is definitely part of the crossover.

But I do get the impression that the shows are meant to build on each other and the Legends episode, being the last on the schedule, will be the climax of the crossover. So Supergirl was the teaser where we only see Barry ask her for help. My guess is that the Flash episode will reveal the Dominators. The Arrow episode will be where Flash and Arrow struggle and the Legends episode will be the big finale where all 4 teams work together and save the day.

 

[Guy Gardener]

The portal should have opened in the final seconds of last week.

This week Barry and Cisco should have helped out.

Of course, I have no idea how criss-crossy or uncriss-crossy the rest of the week is going to be.

(Fingers crossed.)

 

[Mr. Adventure]

Anyway, fandom has gotten too impatient.

Hey, I'm not the one reading all the behind-the-scenes production info and talk.

 

[M'rk son of Mogh]

Hey, I'm not the one reading all the behind-the-scenes production info and talk.

Exactly. Why read interviews from a cast when one doesn't watch the show? The commercials all really pointed to one thing, and people can't be blamed for believing them. The shows are all on the same network now, there's no reason not to have second guessed anything.

I think the problem here is perspective. Fans of the show are fine with it because it continues the stories with the characters they enjoy, and naturally so.

But for the people who aren't fans of the show tuning in because they think the crossover will play a legitimate part in the story, well... sitting through the reminder of why I didn't continue with the show for a 30 second tease when I could have been doing anything else was a really big letdown.

 

[Christopher]

Hey, I'm not the one reading all the behind-the-scenes production info and talk.

It's not impatient to seek advance knowledge, it's inquisitive. What's impatient is judging something a quarter of the way through. I gather information about things in advance, but I try not to make judgments about their worth until I finally see them, because I don't have full information until then. Learning is an ongoing process, an accumulation of information. That's why it's good to start learning stuff early but to avoid haste in forming conclusions.

Exactly. Why read interviews from a cast when one doesn't watch the show?

I don't understand the question. The publicity I'm referring to was not exclusively about Supergirl, it was about the entire event.

The commercials all really pointed to one thing, and people can't be blamed for believing them. The shows are all on the same network now, there's no reason not to have second guessed anything.

Advertising should always be mistrusted. That's a basic survival skill in everyday life. It is not the job of advertisers to give you strictly accurate information. Their motives are not altruistic or objective; they're getting paid to make you want things, to make them seem more enticing, and so they'll use any means they can legally get away with to do so. They may not be allowed to lie outright, but they'll stretch and exaggerate the truth as far as they can. Advertising always has a bias and therefore should always be viewed skeptically, whether it's for a TV show, a beverage, a car, a prescription drug, a political candidate, or anything else.

And as I said, as long as you know that Supergirl is set in a different parallel reality than the other three shows, it's pretty easy to deduce on your own that it would be peripheral. That aside, as I said, the makers of the shows are not responsible for how the network's ad agency chooses to promote the shows. If you want to blame anyone for misrepresenting the crossover, blame the advertisers, not the producers.

 

[Stephen Lee]

Well bad advertising also hurts. If the CW is trying to reel in new viewers with this major event!! Let say you saw the ads for the 4 show crossover expecting stuff to happen in Supergirl ONLY to get a completely different story with only Barry NOT The Flash showing up at the end. Would you say there is a 50/50 chance you won't come back?

 

[Christopher]

Well, I'm not interested in sour grapes. It's still just so cool that this event is happening at all. I don't understand fans who go out of their way to find reasons to get angry and upset, instead of just enjoying how fun this all is. We're just nine hours away from the start of the real crossover, and we've got three nights of cool stuff to look forward to. So why dwell on what happened (or didn't) last night?

 

[Phoenix219]

^^^
Yep - this was the largest unanswered 'idiot ball' aspect of the episode. Kara's father said Medusa was designed to kill ANY non-Kryptonian physiology; so, yeah, why wouldn't Earthings (aka Humans) be outright killed by the virus as well. <--- Never even brought up by anyone in any way. (I mean hell, they could have said Mama Luthor managed to modify it to not affect Humans or something.)

Also, you'd think with a Kryptonian weapon that could kill EVERY alien on the planet, Kara MIGHT call in her cousin for help?

And again, although I've stated before I don't mind the occasional 'handwave', the pat resolution of Eliza Danvers coming up with a cure at the end that also cures Martian Manhunter's 'White Martian blood transfusion 'poisoning' was really pushing it.

Both of the things you have a problem with were explained at the end, when they basically said the virus was easy to program and change its target (who to attack)... Cadmus would never try to wipe out humans, so that obviously was built in right from the beginning, and Eliza modified it to attack only the White Martian subspecies of alien. It seems much like a virus used on Fringe a few years back, by an immortal Nazi who was programming it to attack certain specific types of people.

The problem was National City wide, of course, but not really planetwide yet - if she failed in NC, I'm sure she would have been calling out to her cousin soon after.

 

[tomalak301]

I can understand the frustration that this episode wasn't really part of the crossover despite being billed as this big four night event, but as someone who doesn't watch Arrow or Legends and was fearful that this crossover would ignore various storylines happening so far, that aspect didn't bother me at all. I enjoyed the episode, even though some of the stuff at the end (Curing J'onn and I guess ending Cadmus) felt rushed and a bit anti-climatic. I know it was a midseason finale, but it felt like a season finale. I guess the back half of the season has to deal with the hooded guys and what they want with Mon-El. Also, did the real Hank escape because I thought he was killed by J'onn. Must if missed that one little part.

This season really has done a good job with the character moments even if the plot has been a little thin. Loved the scene with Alex coming out to Eliza, which I was fearful would be more negative and it wasn't. Also loved the scene with J'onn and Kara on the Balcony, even though it reminded me a little of how much I'm missing Cat Grant (Is she going to return this season?) and the cameos of Barry and Cisco felt just right to get the crossover part of the week going.

 

[Photoman15]

Kreisberg issued an excuse, but the torrential flood of hate the James character / Brooks received (all season long) for being involved with white Supergirl had everything to do with why James was dumped in favor of Mon-El. It had nothing to do with a lack of chemistry, or any other BS excuse. Everyone knew the Mon-El sales job was coming the second James was dropped from SG's life.

So much for the show that loves to pat itself on the back for being so progressive.There are some good points about the show, but the more than sudden dropping of the James/Kara issue--built over an entire 1st season--is a stain it cannot remove.

of course they had to have Supergirl with one of her kind - no, not white, alien.
And I never thought Jimmy/Kara worked anyway. It looks like it was father/daughter.

^^^
Yep - this was the largest unanswered 'idiot ball' aspect of the episode. Kara's father said Medusa was designed to kill ANY non-Kryptonian physiology; so, yeah, why wouldn't Earthings (aka Humans) be outright killed by the virus as well. <--- Never even brought up by anyone in any way. (I mean hell, they could have said Mama Luthor managed to modify it to not affect Humans or something.)

Also, you'd think with a Kryptonian weapon that could kill EVERY alien on the planet, Kara MIGHT call in her cousin for help?

And again, although I've stated before I don't mind the occasional 'handwave', the pat resolution of Eliza Danvers coming up with a cure at the end that also cures Martian Manhunter's 'White Martian blood transfusion 'poisoning' was really pushing it.

\

It's her specialty. And it was explained. CADMUS engineered it to not affect humans before releasing it. There must be a targeting component that makes the virus attach to certain DNA (or not attach to certain DNA). This is easily altered.

 

[Mr. Adventure]

Well, I'm not interested in sour grapes. It's still just so cool that this event is happening at all. I don't understand fans who go out of their way to find reasons to get angry and upset, instead of just enjoying how fun this all is. We're just nine hours away from the start of the real crossover, and we've got three nights of cool stuff to look forward to. So why dwell on what happened (or didn't) last night?

Pot, kettle, black, friend.

I'm not upset, just making a statement about this episode, one you obviously don't agree with and that's OK.

 

[dahj]

Andrew Kreisberg explains why Supergirl didn't go full on Crossover this year:

“All of the other episodes — Flash, Arrow, and Legends — all have a subsequent episode to the crossovers, but with Supergirl it was the midseason finale, so we wanted to make sure that episode eight of Supergirl spoke to what had been happening in the first seven episodes of the season,” Kreisberg said. “And then just, logistically speaking, last year we did two shows with a sprinkling of Legends. This year we went to three shows. The idea of going to four full shows, I’m not sure if we could have pulled off logistically speaking.”

 

[dahj]

The Medusa virus: Good to see Cadmus is acting fast, and this plot not drag on forever--all too convenient it elements could be engineered to work on a Martian.

I'm wondering if the episode is slightly more crossovery than people think, because it is very convenient that we now have a virus that can target specific aliens, just as we're about to have a massive alien invasion in another universe...

 

[Romulan_spy]

I'm wondering if the episode is slightly more crossovery than people think, because it is very convenient that we now have a virus that can target specific aliens, just as we're about to have a massive alien invasion in another universe...

Yeah, I thought that too. The Medusa virus would seem to be the perfect weapon against the Dominators. But I get the feeling that Supergirl would not approve considering how distraught she seemed to be that her father was the one who created the virus.

 

[Phoenix219]

I'm wondering if the episode is slightly more crossovery than people think, because it is very convenient that we now have a virus that can target specific aliens, just as we're about to have a massive alien invasion in another universe...

On the flip side, I really hope they don't just *ignore* that piece of plot, either.

 

[Dick Whitman]

He also said this is not at all the end of Cadmus or Lillian Luthor. We will see her on trial. Also that Cadmus is much bigger than one person. Like a real life terrorist group when the leader is captured or killed they are quickly replaced.

I figured we would see more of Cadmus before seeing it confirmed in an interview. Lena asked her mother were its base is and never got an answer. That factory last week was obviously a temporary front. I would be happy if it's not located in or near National City. It would be a huge coincidence if it was headquartered there long before Supergirl first appeared.