Spoilers Supergirl - Season 5
- Thread starter dahj
- Start date
As it happens, more than one of Manhunter's identities have had namesakes on Arrow. Kate Spencer was the Starling City DA in the first two seasons. Mark Shaw appeared once as an ARGUS agent. The DJ/assassin named Chase might've been based on Chase Lawler, who was a musician.
Though of course none of them used the Manhunter identity (not that early in Arrow's run), and their existence doesn't rule out someone else being Manhunter, any more than the evil Jim Harper who worked for Cadmus in season 1 of Supergirl precluded James Olsen becoming Guardian later on.
This is a series born from a comic book character and company, where no one is routinely considered a superhero before actually becoming one. Bruce Wayne, Barbara Gordon or Hal Jordan were not superheroes until they actually took on the role, which was the transformational part. Alex is a regular woman who was an agent for the DEO, not a superhero; the same applied to Olsen before he actually became Guardian. There's no granting unearned titles with mental gymnastics on a superhero series.
Supergirl
Season 5 Finale / Episode 19 - "Immortal Kombat"
SG/Kara: Yawn to Kara's early, seemingly hard-assed "not talking about the past", and bickering when that thin wall of ice was going to melt to restore that ever-unbelievable friendship.
"I kept my identity from you because I wanted to protect you!" Its about time this series has the lead grab the sense of keeping civilians in the dark for their own good. Not that it will last...
Lex / Lena / Eve: I guess it was supposed to tug on the heart-strings to see Lena's lip quivering over the bond between the sisters.
Dey: "I'm a journalist. I can read people." My, isn't that showrunner cheerleading the opposite of real life .
Alex: Oh, gee..Kara squealed like a fan at a 1957 Elvis concert over Alex in her Arrow knock-off suit. Funny...she was threatening to physically stop James when he took on the role of Guardian. Any warnings or threats in this case? Nope. Alex gets to mention how human she felt against the power of the Leviathans, but Kara did not even blink at the idea that Alex would be outclassed by truly superhuman beings (even with Nia and the Martians at her side). Hmm...I wonder what the double standard there is, in-universe and behind the camera....
Rojas / Gamemnae / Leviathans / Rama Khan: If Khan senses every time SG uses her power (as J'onn claimed), then he should not have been fooled by SG's doubles.
Sooo, a sappy speech* gets Rojas to agree to sacrifice her father. No matter the outcome, she made that decision. Oh, well.
Obsidian Unity Festival...ever the cult like behavior from all using tech designed to coddle weak minds.
Brainy: His teary-eyed promise to sacrifice himself was too leading; one, he was never going to be killed off, and two, he had to have his reunion with Nia, just as anyone watching this expected, only it will be resolved next season.
NOTES: Terrible green screen work as SG entered the virtual world and hovered above earth. Remember, this tech is supposed the generate perfectly realistic environments. Come on.
*"I believe in you." Like the Myriad plot, a mass-mind control program is all stopped by the aforementioned sappy speeches.
The showrunners' ethics are in the toilet, as Lena's crimes were just swept under the carpet, all for that long-predicted grin session. Really...this was the big half-finish for the season?
The only decent resolution to the Lena matter is if she sacrifices herself to get rid of Lex and Lillian, not seal them in the container with the Leviathans. Since McGrath is supposed to leave the series, Lena's demise would be a fitting end for the character to bring the corruption that is all things Luthor to its end.
...but no one should ever believe the showrunners would have the stones to take the character in that direction.
GRADE: D.
Season 5 Finale / Episode 19 - "Immortal Kombat"
SG/Kara: Yawn to Kara's early, seemingly hard-assed "not talking about the past", and bickering when that thin wall of ice was going to melt to restore that ever-unbelievable friendship.
"I kept my identity from you because I wanted to protect you!" Its about time this series has the lead grab the sense of keeping civilians in the dark for their own good. Not that it will last...
Lex / Lena / Eve: I guess it was supposed to tug on the heart-strings to see Lena's lip quivering over the bond between the sisters.
Dey: "I'm a journalist. I can read people." My, isn't that showrunner cheerleading the opposite of real life .
Alex: Oh, gee..Kara squealed like a fan at a 1957 Elvis concert over Alex in her Arrow knock-off suit. Funny...she was threatening to physically stop James when he took on the role of Guardian. Any warnings or threats in this case? Nope. Alex gets to mention how human she felt against the power of the Leviathans, but Kara did not even blink at the idea that Alex would be outclassed by truly superhuman beings (even with Nia and the Martians at her side). Hmm...I wonder what the double standard there is, in-universe and behind the camera....
Rojas / Gamemnae / Leviathans / Rama Khan: If Khan senses every time SG uses her power (as J'onn claimed), then he should not have been fooled by SG's doubles.
Sooo, a sappy speech* gets Rojas to agree to sacrifice her father. No matter the outcome, she made that decision. Oh, well.
Obsidian Unity Festival...ever the cult like behavior from all using tech designed to coddle weak minds.
Brainy: His teary-eyed promise to sacrifice himself was too leading; one, he was never going to be killed off, and two, he had to have his reunion with Nia, just as anyone watching this expected, only it will be resolved next season.
NOTES: Terrible green screen work as SG entered the virtual world and hovered above earth. Remember, this tech is supposed the generate perfectly realistic environments. Come on.
*"I believe in you." Like the Myriad plot, a mass-mind control program is all stopped by the aforementioned sappy speeches.
The showrunners' ethics are in the toilet, as Lena's crimes were just swept under the carpet, all for that long-predicted grin session. Really...this was the big half-finish for the season?
The only decent resolution to the Lena matter is if she sacrifices herself to get rid of Lex and Lillian, not seal them in the container with the Leviathans. Since McGrath is supposed to leave the series, Lena's demise would be a fitting end for the character to bring the corruption that is all things Luthor to its end.
...but no one should ever believe the showrunners would have the stones to take the character in that direction.
GRADE: D.
A pretty uninspiring finale, which means par for the season course. The best part was seeing Lena finally working hand in glove with Kara again. Benoist and McGrath have a great dynamic, and it's been missed.
I'm not sure it matters. Like Lex, she is the same person as the Earth 1 Lena. If you commit murder, and get away with it for whatever reason, you're still a murderer--just one that didn't pay for your crime.
The idea that Lena said, "my bad," and things went back to normal was predicted by quite a few people on this board, and it was a perfect example of the weak storytelling and lack of a clue by the writers.
The only equivalent I can think of that is as weak as this would be Anakin getting rewarded in heaven by the Force after killing the Emperor.
The only saving grace there is that we the audience know that the writing was revisionist history and changed years after Return of the Jedi. But we the audience also know that this is canon, and by having Anakin murder children, he really was irredeemable. A selfish need to protect his own son doesn't make up for that, not matter how bad the man was that he killed to protect his own son.
I guess that's another topic.
Back on topic, I just didn't like this episode at all. These heroes are hard to root for, and they are being overshadowed by Lex.
I also don't believe for one second Brainy is dying. I do like that they got Rath's real life sister to make a few appearances as a female version.
She's a better actor that he is. His "pain" scenes were actually more unintentionally funny than dramatic.
I don't know how much this will parallel the comics, but there, the technology to re-enlarge a shrunken city was pretty hard to figure out. I'm not sure if Brainiac himself had it, but I know that all attempts to re-enlarge Kandor failed for decades before Superman finally figured it out pre-Crisis.
It would defeat the purpose if Lex just does it, even with his genius.
Alex's costume is very first-season Arrow in approach, just a hood and eye makeup -- it's even got lacing on the front, even though it's created by nanotech and hardly needs to be laced up. Although it's a lot sleeker and more glamorous. Interesting that it has the same color scheme as her virtual Supergirl costume from a few weeks back, which I guess was meant to foreshadow this move for Alex.
I'd gotten the impression that there would be a more decisive finale, that they were combining parts of the last two episodes they shot to bring the season to a firm close. I guess they did mostly resolve things with Leviathan, as well as resolving Kara/Lena, which is good. But they did leave several cliffhangers dangling. I wish they'd decisively dealt with Gamemnae along with the rest, since I'm so sick of this feeble Leviathan arc and I want it to end for good.
I'd gotten the impression that there would be a more decisive finale, that they were combining parts of the last two episodes they shot to bring the season to a firm close. I guess they did mostly resolve things with Leviathan, as well as resolving Kara/Lena, which is good. But they did leave several cliffhangers dangling. I wish they'd decisively dealt with Gamemnae along with the rest, since I'm so sick of this feeble Leviathan arc and I want it to end for good.
The technology is centuries old.
Most of the older races started looking for a "cure" also centuries ago.
Most of the older races started looking for a "cure" also centuries ago.
I feel like a good old fashioned domino mask would really complete it. And some of the tailor looked a little loose when she was jumping around, but that's what happens when you make a new costumes at the end of the year when the money's all out. They'll probably touch it up a bit before next season.
This was an OK finale, definitely one of their weakest endings we've gotten so far. The way the stuff with Leviathan was tied up wasn't that great. The fights between them and the heroes were pretty good, but there just wasn't much more to it than that. The way the other two Leviathan members showed up out of nowhere was kind of random.
Supergirl talking the people out of the Unity festival was a nice little hero moment.
I liked Alex's costume a lot, but I was a bit surprised they just went with makeup and a hood, after her and Kelly specifically talked about wearing a mask.
I was pretty happy with how things played out between Kara and Lena, they acknowledged what she did, but still worked things out.
Brainy deciding to sacrifice himself to stop Leviathan was an unexpected way to finish off his arc this season. I'm very curious where that will pick up next season.
I'm hoping Lex taking off with the bottle holding the Leviathan members isn't going to mean we'll still be dealing with them next season, I just want to be done with that whole arc at this point.
Supergirl talking the people out of the Unity festival was a nice little hero moment.
I liked Alex's costume a lot, but I was a bit surprised they just went with makeup and a hood, after her and Kelly specifically talked about wearing a mask.
I was pretty happy with how things played out between Kara and Lena, they acknowledged what she did, but still worked things out.
Brainy deciding to sacrifice himself to stop Leviathan was an unexpected way to finish off his arc this season. I'm very curious where that will pick up next season.
I'm hoping Lex taking off with the bottle holding the Leviathan members isn't going to mean we'll still be dealing with them next season, I just want to be done with that whole arc at this point.
Exactly, so Lena's every corrupt act--on both versions of earth--still matter, but Supergirl was more than happy to grin right past that fact.
More than being clueless, it is showrunner agenda; as only certain characters are written off as beyond help at all (e.g.,Ben Lockwood), while one who believed in / practiced the unforgivable act of eugenics, violating a woman's mind and body before getting her consent, and killing another (Adam). As you see, Supergirl and Alex said nothing about it--and Lena is free to blame her brother for beliefs she embraced on her own, being conned or whatever the showrunners pulled out of their asses to say that no matter what she did, she's "a good person".
Good comparison, as the prequels only hammered home the fact Anakin was a monster who sold his soul to the dark side (murdering children, mass murdering Jedi, being an accessory in the death of Windu, etc.) to fulfill his obsession with Padme.
That's how weak the writing is: you cannot invest any emotional capital into stories and characters you know are never in any genuine psychological or physical danger.
Which is not good writing. I don't have a problem with the arc. But this shouldn't have been a redemption arc. Lena should have gone full villain and stayed there. It is a weakness in Supergirl's character that this is ok.
Another analogy, though a bit different. In Voyager's episode Timeless, Chakotay and Kim from the future selfishly altered a timeline for their own personal gain. I believe the same thing happened in Year of Hell. It's been awhile. But then in Endgame, Janeway was the hero for doing the exact same thing, and the writers didn't question it.
I think the killing of the kids was too monstrous to make him REDEEMABLE. I don't mind that he went that far, but it was much harder to accept his redemption after Episode III.
It's not just that -- these heroes aren't likeable enough for you to root for them. The villain is more fun to watch.
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