Supergirl - Season Four

[The Realist]

First look at Nia suited up as Dreamer:

Spoiler

Love it! Love Nia! Love Supergirl! I'm just basically Mr. Love here!

Also, EW has a new interview with the showrunners talking about the back half of the season:

https://ew.com/tv/2019/01/18/supergirl-lex-luthor-jeremy-jordan-spoilers/

Sounds very intriguing and encouraging. They talk about having a plan for the whole season, which has so far played out wonderfully. If they can stick the landing, this promises to be the show's best year since the first, and maybe ever.

 

[Nerys Myk]

First look at Nia suited up as Dreamer:

Spoiler

Love it! Love Nia! Love Supergirl! I'm just basically Mr. Love here!

Also, EW has a new interview with the showrunners talking about the back half of the season:

https://ew.com/tv/2019/01/18/supergirl-lex-luthor-jeremy-jordan-spoilers/

Sounds very intriguing and encouraging. They talk about having a plan for the whole season, which has so far played out wonderfully. If they can stick the landing, this promises to be the show's best year since the first, and maybe ever.

I see they didn't go with the silver swimsuit.

 

[Christopher]

A domino mask is an unusual look for Earth-38. Well, Reign had a mask, but it was more of a full-face thing.

 

[dahj]

I see they didn't go with the silver swimsuit.

It looks neoprene-ish, so I'm sure she could go for a swim in it if she wanted to.

 

[Awesome Possum]

First look at Nia suited up as Dreamer:

Spoiler

Love it! Love Nia! Love Supergirl! I'm just basically Mr. Love here!

I can't wait to see her actually in action. I wish there was a character like her when I was younger.


More hero costumes should have fingerless gloves.

 

[TREK_GOD_1]

Supergirl
Season 4 / episode 10 - "Suspicious Minds"

SG/Kara: SG being independent and sort of working with J'onn is a good look for the character (and gives the series a reason to pay attention to J'onn adopting his comic book profession), and matures the character as truly independent of her sister.

Comrade Kara: "Our friend is working on it" (controlling her). ..I can imagine who that friend is...

Colonel Haley: Loving her asserting her everything, including her staying on President Baker's demand to learn SG's secret identity. If played right, this is a character that should stick around for some time, but I'm hoping her past with any alien weaponizing business does not turn out to be a easy smoking gun to A) expose her as one of the season's real threats or B) find herself in a situation that requires SG's help (whoops--that happened). Thankfully, she did not back away from her job, or do an about face to see Supergirl as a benign presence.

Alex: Ehhh. The entire Alex mind-wipe is such a go-nowhere plot device, as everyone knows she will have a convenient moment of regaining her memory at some right moment down the road (implied in the teaser for next week).

James / Lena: "Sometimes the ends justify the means" / "Hard choices." Was that ever a loaded bit of forecasting for Lena's experiments, and yep, now she has James' support (which suggests he's only saying "yes" to keep an eye on her work) that should place him--no matter his true position--right in the middle of what could be a runaway enhanced being nightmare...even a kind of super-being arms race--perhaps against the Russians and their Kara.

Nia / Brainy: Brainy is quite funny in how stiff he is in asking Nia out, and only calling the date a "meeting" (when he clearly sees it as a date). Still, from Nia's POV, she has to know his behavior is more about being awkward in pursuing her (i.e. being a nerd with no experience), rather than Brainy playing any games with her feelings / pitching the costumed life. There should have been a better--read subtle way of Nia deciding to put on the spandex, as in more time to consider what that would do to her life (like suddenly gaining enemies you never had before).

J'onn: Wiping Haley's memories? This series knows no end in the "heroes" being on the opposite end of ethics and morality (like his trying to find some "light" in Manchester Black), and Alex agreeing to have her own memories erased does not tip the scales due to her "sacrifice".

NOTES:
As in the case of Lockwood's confrontation with SG, from a human point of view, Haley & the president are correct in rejecting her refusal to reveal her secret identity. Again, I see this racing toward the Captain America: Civil War/Accords direction, and I would love to see Lena's experiments actually produce a "super soldier," perhaps one Haley enlists as the first true defense against.....

GRADE: B.

 

[thribs]

This whole secret identity story is so stupid. She could just get a new identity. Bruce would give her another one. I like that they didn’t do this with Superman. You don’t want to mess with him.

Also Brainy should be dating Supergirl. That is the order of things.

 

[Christopher]

Well, they're not pulling their punches with the consequences of the midseason cliffhanger. That was a startling twist with Kara and Alex at the end there. It's a terrible situation for them to be in, and I hope it doesn't last long.

Still, it's pretty laughable that only a half-dozen people at the DEO know Supergirl's identity when last season she was routinely walking around the DEO dressed as Kara but talking about Supergirl business. Not to mention all the times in season 1 that "Hank Henshaw"/J'onn called her "Miss Danvers" in front of a roomful of DEO agents. And it's a shame they couldn't get Brianna Venskus back as Agent Vasquez, who was there from the start.

Honestly, I'm a little disappointed that they've suddenly made Col. Hailey such a hardline antagonist, after giving her a lot more nuance before now.

 

[The Realist]

I hate to say it, but I wasn't really feeling this episode. After the season to this point being so narratively and thematically focused and consistent, to its great benefit, this felt like a somewhat pointless digression. Not so much as a mention of Lockwood, the Children of Liberty, or the anti-alien movement; for the first time this season (excepting the "Elseworlds" installment), the episode did not feel of a piece with a greater whole. Even the thing with Alex, while emotionally potent, felt contrived in its setup and justification -- and as TREK_GOD_1 points out, appears likely to be negated quickly.

In short, the writers need to reverse course from the secret identity shenanigans ASAP, and get back to the powerful story they've been telling so well and consistently up to now.

 

[Greg Cox]

Honestly, once Haley learned Supergirl's secret, I expected her to get killed by one of the Morae. In fact, I was convinced that we were going to get a morally ambiguous moment where Alex stands by and lets Haley get killed for Supergirl's sake, especially after all Haley's talk about having to do terrible things for the greater good.

But I guess they didn't want to go that dark. Shows what I know.

 

[thribs]

Honestly, once Haley learned Supergirl's secret, I expected her to get killed by one of the Morae. In fact, I was convinced that we were going to get a morally ambiguous moment where Alex stands by and lets Haley get killed for Supergirl's sake, especially after all Haley's talk about having to do terrible things for the greater good.

But I guess they didn't want to go that dark. Shows what I know.

I wish they would do that. Or have Supergirl "Zod" her.

 

[CorporalClegg]

I don't expect it to last.

*Remember Clark once did the same thing to Chloe. Everything was fine within like four episodes.


*Also because of Brainy.

 

[Christopher]

Incidentally, while it's cool to see J'onn adopting his private detective role from the comics, I wonder what a P.I. needs with such a huge, ornate office. (Or how he can afford it. The DEO's retirement benefits must be awesome.) I mean, in TV terms, it implies that it will be a major standing set from now on, perhaps replacing the DEO as the set where Supergirl and her team discuss the crisis of the week, so they want it to be impressive and roomy enough that they can shoot it from a lot of interesting angles, and maybe have room for the occasional action scene. But it is kind of extravagant for a detective's office. Ralph Dibny would be insanely jealous.

 

[Romulan_spy]

Incidentally, while it's cool to see J'onn adopting his private detective role from the comics, I wonder what a P.I. needs with such a huge, ornate office. (Or how he can afford it. The DEO's retirement benefits must be awesome.) I mean, in TV terms, it implies that it will be a major standing set from now on, perhaps replacing the DEO as the set where Supergirl and her team discuss the crisis of the week, so they want it to be impressive and roomy enough that they can shoot it from a lot of interesting angles, and maybe have room for the occasional action scene. But it is kind of extravagant for a detective's office. Ralph Dibny would be insanely jealous.

Since Barry Allen is independently wealthy, maybe Ralph can ask for a new P.I. office?

 

[David cgc]

Incidentally, while it's cool to see J'onn adopting his private detective role from the comics, I wonder what a P.I. needs with such a huge, ornate office. (Or how he can afford it. The DEO's retirement benefits must be awesome.) I mean, in TV terms, it implies that it will be a major standing set from now on, perhaps replacing the DEO as the set where Supergirl and her team discuss the crisis of the week, so they want it to be impressive and roomy enough that they can shoot it from a lot of interesting angles, and maybe have room for the occasional action scene. But it is kind of extravagant for a detective's office. Ralph Dibny would be insanely jealous.

Frequent alien attacks have caused a real-estate crash in downtown National City. The landlord might be letting him take over for free as long as he covers repairs, renovations, and utilities.

Now, that's an optimistic science-fictional future!

 

[TREK_GOD_1]

Even the thing with Alex, while emotionally potent, felt contrived in its setup and justification -- and as TREK_GOD_1 points out, appears likely to be negated quickly.

There were a couple of rather big, nonsensical things about Alex's request:

• She wanted her memory of Supergirl's true identity removed, but when that happens, there will be no legitimate reason for Alex to resist Haley's quest to learn SG's secret, after all, Alex will have no personal, emotional stake in protecting SG, which also extends to her now nonexistent personal feelings not softening her view of SG's vigilantism. One cannot assume she will have some "value" system in place that would prevent her from seeing all superpowered aliens as a potential threat.
• How is it possible to remove Alex's knowledge of SGs identity when she's known Kara as a superpowered alien since childhood--long before Kara took on the role of Supergirl? There's no believable way (even in comic book fantasy) J'onn could pick apart all of Alex's life memories to make her believe Kara was just her adopted sister with no trace of those formative experiences? Doing that should also erase other moment-to-moment, day-by-day shared experiences and/or choices Alex made because Kara was in her life.

The mind wipe trying to pull on heart-strings is not a plot nor well-thought out at all. The only payoff would be Alex actually becoming a threat to Supergirl for some time, or in the wake of Comrade Kara's eventual wave of destruction, it convinces Alex that in the final analysis, there's no way of trusting any alien with otherworldly powers to the point where there's somewhat of a rift between the sisters Danvers.

..or perhaps another alien-driven catastrophe leads mind-wiped Alex to feel so overwhelmed or powerless, that she's approached by Lena for some experimental enhancement help....

 

[Christopher]

Frequent alien attacks have caused a real-estate crash in downtown National City. The landlord might be letting him take over for free as long as he covers repairs, renovations, and utilities.

That kind of makes sense. And it's pretty close to the original behind-the-scenes/deleted-pilot-scene explanation for how Kara could afford her roomy loft on an executive assistant's salary -- that she'd been helping out the landlord by doing repairs and maintenance around the building (thanks to some judicious application of superpowers) and got a deal on the rent in return.

 

[Romulan_spy]

• How is it possible to remove Alex's knowledge of SGs identity when she's known Kara as a superpowered alien since childhood--long before Kara took on the role of Supergirl? There's no believable way (even in comic book fantasy) J'onn could pick apart all of Alex's life memories to make her believe Kara was just her adopted sister with no trace of those formative experiences? Doing that should also erase other moment-to-moment, day-by-day shared experiences and/or choices Alex made because Kara was in her life.

It looks like next week's episode will address this:

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[DigificWriter]

I had forgotten that Supergirl was coming back last night because I was focused on watching football, but even without having seen the most recent episode (or the midseason finale), I'm having a hard time figuring out the ultimate narrative point of this whole mindwipe thing as it concerns Alex, and the promo for next week's episode isn't helping me "get there".

 

[Romulan_spy]

I had forgotten that Supergirl was coming back last night because I was focused on watching football, but even without having seen the most recent episode (or the midseason finale), I'm having a hard time figuring out the ultimate narrative point of this whole mindwipe thing as it concerns Alex, and the promo for next week's episode isn't helping me "get there".

Honestly, I doubt there is any narrative point since the wipe will be reversed quickly no matter what. The real purpose, as I see it, is to create melodrama. It's a twist on the amnesia trope.