"Supergirl" Season Five Talkback (Spoilers)

[Fone Bone]

Supergirl "Back From The Future: Part Two"

How does Brainy not get that Lex having Toyman's code is a bad thing? How stupid is he? 12th level intellect my butt.

I love Winn telling Kara that just because Lena reacted the way she did doesn't mean everyone else will. Because Lena is freaking weird. Ick.

"Leeroy Jenkins!" The fight with the Lexosuits was absolutely sick. It was awesome on every level.

I love that we got a little redemption for Winn's father. That was nice.

Computer Lad IS a lame name. I like Winn taking back Toyman and owning it. And I am especially grateful to the show for coming to the decision that turning Jeremy Jordan evil would have been a mistake. A good Toyman in this continuity is absolutely fine if you ask me.

Mxy! Next week should be fun.

Good episode. ****.

 

[Otaku-sempai]

Well, better 'Toyman' than 'Toyboy' (or 'Toy Lad'?).

 

[hobbyfan]

Well, better 'Toyman' than 'Toyboy' (or 'Toy Lad'?).

Toyboy is taken (Neal Adams' company published a Toyboy book back in the 80's, and if Adams is willing to share.....), and wouldn't look good on Winn.

 

[Yojimbo]

"It's A Super Life"- Episode 13
Mxyzptlk returns with a proposition for Kara – what if she could go back in time and tell Lena her secret before Lex did, would things turn out different? Looking back over key moments throughout the series, Kara must decide if she wants to change history to become friends with Lena again.

 

[hobbyfan]

Reviewing last week's episode:

Lex is dumber than anyone imagined. He's trying to take down Leviathan, but he just brokered a deal, not knowing that Jenna is linked with Leviathan.

And who in the blue hizell is the "anointed one"?

You see, Lex, all the back-patting you do for yourself leaves you blind to missing the obvious.

Will & Kara dueting on "Africa" on karaoke night. How cute.

Thomas Lennon takes over as Mxyzptlk. Last seen in the reboot of Odd Couple. Tonight is going to be wack.

 

[Fone Bone]

Supergirl "It's A Super Life"

I like the idea that hunky Mxy was always a put-on and he always really looked Thomas Lennon the entire time.

You know what? I hated the premise of the episode at first. The whole point seemed to be to show that there was no good time to tell Lena, and that idea lets Kara too much off the hook. But this should also not be the historic chore Lena is making it. Perhaps it's the revelation that Kara has put way more effort into this friendship than it was worth is what is Mxy's true gift.

And you know what? That's the actual moral, at least for me. For Kara she says she realizes there would always be consequences to telling her and she has to live with them. I don't agree with that perspective entirely, especially with Mxy present. But if it will stop her from repeatedly apologizing to Lena for Lena being a sucky friend, I'LL live with it.

Still, I don't understand why Kara wouldn't be allowed to pop into the new timeline where Lena knows and save her from Agent Liberty. It's like the episode forgot its own hook of Kara being able to edit her past. Why is that restricted to only once per timeline?

The last timeline with Evil Lena shows me exactly how worthless Lena is. She is the same person as that fascist and only different circumstances changed her. That not a good person worth saving. That's a bad person deep down.

Do you know what I love? Winn isn't an evil Toyman in any of the worse timelines. Our boy is always on the side of angels in this Universe, no matter what. I love that.

I love that Mxy gave Alex and J'onn a game of paintball to distract them. That was fun.

Weird they didn't bring Mechad Brooks back for the 100th episode. Honestly, the fact that he DIDN'T come back, even in a season he had appeared previously in, tells me he's simply done with the show. Considering how wasted James was, if that's the case, I don't blame him a bit.

Calista Flockhart being absent was a bigger surprise and disappointment.

My favorite Mxy moment was him conceding he can't force people to like him, and he was grateful to Kara to show him how it felt to be a hero, and genuinely appreciated by people. Say what you will about this version of Mr. Mxyzptlk, he's not a villain at all. And he never was.

I looking forward to Kara stop trying to save Lena. She's isn't worth it, and the show will be better once it stops acting like a character who is willing to destroy an entire city because she has no friends isn't actually totally weird, and not worth saving. Ick. It's about time. ****.

 

[hobbyfan]

Supergirl "It's A Super Life"

Weird they didn't bring Mechad Brooks back for the 100th episode. Honestly, the fact that he DIDN'T come back, even in a season he had appeared previously in, tells me he's simply done with the show. Considering how wasted James was, if that's the case, I don't blame him a bit.

He has been busy. Made a movie for Netflix, and I think he's got something else in the hopper at the moment, and there wasn't enough time to return for this episode.

 

[Yojimbo]

Yes, the showrunners confirmed Brooks and Flockhart were not available at the time of filming.

 

[Yojimbo]

"The Bodyguard"- Episode 14
Lex tasks Supergirl with protecting Andrea from an anti-tech extremist, but his nefarious purpose goes beyond merely keeping Andrea alive. Meanwhile, Lena moves forward with Non Nocere, with Lex’s help

 

[Fone Bone]

Supergirl "The Bodyguard"

I'd be more impressed with the "What is going on?" opening with the dragon and the warrior woman if it hadn't turned out to be a cheat.

I like Brainy's hologram telling him he likes his haircut. That was funny.

That wimpy guy in prison played by Willie Garson being so torn up by his rage says that Lena isn't actually helping anything.

It amuses me that Lena's idea is how the Reavers were created. This will end badly for all involved.

Lex seems perfectly sincere and reasonable in encouraging Lena. Except I remember that he's a psychopathic, genocidal monster who murdered Brandon Routh's Superman. If he thinks Lena is doing good, she most assuredly is not.

Kara talking the villain down in a heartfelt and sympathetic way says she has the same skill of empathy Barry Allen is gifted with. It's really cool and beats slugfests in my mind. The Trekkie in me loves it when the heroes talk the bad guys out of it.

I love Lex telling Eve she's the chocolate to his peanut-butter. It's funny, charming, and creepy all at once.

Oh, Brainy, what have you gotten yourself into?

A good week. ****.

 

[Otaku-sempai]

Anything called 'Reavers' is never a good development. I learned that from Firefly.

 

[Fone Bone]

Anything called 'Reavers' is never a good development. I learned that from Firefly.

That's what I was referring to.

 

[Yojimbo]

"Reality Bytes" - Episode 15
Nia's roommate, Yvette, is attacked by a man targeting Dreamer because he doesn’t like that Dreamer is transgender and wants her to quit being a superhero. Determined to protect her community from additional harm, Dreamer refuses to give into his threats and puts herself in the line of fire to stop him. Supergirl stands by Dreamer and enlists additional help from Brainy. Meanwhile, Alex, J’onn and Kelly attempt to rescue a man stuck inside a virtual reality escape room.

 

[Fone Bone]

Supergirl "Reality Bytes"

It's extremely presumptuous of Kara to believe she can call the shots with Nia about how she handles a domestic terrorist targeting her community. She strikes me as entirely tone-deaf. If she really doesn't want Dreamer to kill him, she should find him herself. That's not too much to ask. Dreamer giving her a few hours was more than she deserved.

The guy is a classic terrorist and bully. He doesn't go after the powerful person he hates. He targets people who can't protect themselves to try to get the powerful person to do what he wants. He's a coward. He's a weakling. And he doesn't deserve Kara's protection.

And it turns out the real reason he's doing it is that he got wood from Dreamer and later became embarrassed about it. Classic incel user and abuser.

I like that Yvette describes herself as a transwoman of color. Because Nia spends the episode (rightly) being mad at Kara for not understanding the experiences of her community. Yvette just told Nia that she belongs to an even more marginalized subset of that community, and that gives Nia pause. It's also hard to argue with the idea that Yvette was targeted first because she's black. The dude wouldn't have posed as a black man online if that wasn't a reason he was going after her. That suggests a level of racist intent in that first attack besides transphobia.

Alex brings up the thing about the current Lex status quo that bothers me the most. His goodwill is unearned. He's actually a psychopathic mass-murderer and nobody knows it. Couldn't Oliver Queen have fixed this when he rebooted the Universe? He seemed to take a pretty firm hand with everything else.

Trevor replacing Al's meaningful watch with a Smartwatch says everything about what is wrong with Trevor. Thankfully, that bit of thoughtlessness is a good clue for J'onn.

This show, and all science fiction and genre have a terrible tendency to give a specific message that is unhealthy to society. It effects nearly everything. It's less common in higher end science fiction novels (and weirdly Star Trek) but it's common everywhere else.

Tell me this: Is there any part of this virtual reality technology that seems remotely like a good idea? It seems ripe for abuse, and while that is sort of a good parallel with how toxic something that was supposed to be as benign as Facebook has gotten, it's so far beyond that as an allegory that this show, and many others like it seem to sneer and warn against the progress of science and technology. Politically The Simpsons has been right about almost everything. But the one thing it has gotten consistently wrong, and the same thing this episode gets wrong is that technology is something to be feared. Facebook isn't a technological problem. It's a societal one. The technology of the site itself could be harmless if people chose to use it in the way it was intended to be used. The Simpsons and all genre go to the "Robots are coming to kill us all" well over and over again, and it's still not happening. Progress in science and technology is a good thing. A future vaccine for the Coronavirus will happen because of it. And this show has the scientifically curious characters being the Luthors who abuse the science and use it against innocent people. That's not a progressive message. It's also fear-based, untrue, and undercuts a field that already has unearned skepticism launched at it by political demagogues. I don't think television or pop-culture wants or needs the Luthors in this current climate. It's a bad message, it's an untrue message, and maybe public safety would be easier to assure if people were rational and followed sound scientific advice. We might not have the messes we have now.

You may bemoan that political rant a little, but I think there was a far bigger political elephant in the room: The off-screen death of Jeremiah. I have to say, it's possible they'll have Dean Cain appear next week in flashbacks, but I personally sincerely doubt it. Like Icheb's death on Star Trek: Picard, that death seemed to be because there was a problem with the real-life actor's online behavior. I mean, Cain and Teri Hatcher's Superman and Lois would have made perfect sense to put in Crisis On Infinite Earths. Except Cain's behavior has gotten so toxic it's clear the show no longer wants to associate with him. If he pops up next week I'll eat crow, but the thing that tells me the Arrowverse has washed its hands of Dean Cain is the fact that Jeremiah died off-screen with no fanfare. If Cain were truly still welcome on the show, they'd either give him a great death, or God forbid keep him around. But while Supergirl is using characters like Alex, Dreamer, and Kelly for inclusivity, it flies entirely against the struggles of those characters and the messages they want to send the audience to reward a has-been like Dean Cain with steady work for a misplaced sense of nostalgia. I almost blame the show for casting him and Kevin Sorbo at all (and I still think Sorbo, who has ALWAYS been that bad, was a huge mistake, and a black mark on the show) but in Cain's case, he hadn't really gotten so horrible until very recently. It's probably because it's gotten so bad which is why they bothered killing the character off at all. If he had stayed the same level of mildly annoying d-bag he had been when the show started, his fate could still be open-ended. This was a shot across the bow to Cain's toxic politics. And as long as the show is trying empower characters like Dreamer and Yvette, I don't blame them for not wanting him on the show anymore.

I actually feel better knowing he won't back. I had my problems with the episode but I cannot deny the ending itself made me happy. ***1/2.

 

[hobbyfan]

Dean Cain---toxic? Other than being a Trumpian sheep, what would the definition of toxic be in this case, Fone Bone?

I wouldn't call the bully in this story a domestic terrorist. He's just a narrow minded simpleton who can't adjust to the changes the 21st century has brought, i.e. the emergence of the trans community. Truth be told, you could see Kara talking Dreamer out of killing the goof, because that's just the way it is. Yvette, unfortunately, looked like she was throwing in the towel in the epilogue.

If Kelly doesn't know about Obsidian's ties to Leviathan, she soon will.

Deep down, Brainy still cares for Nia. That's why Kara reached out to him.

We get a Corbin Bleu ("High School Musical") sighting. Disney fans should be happy. Looked like Luke Wilson was the other familiar face, taking a break from those Colgate commercials.

 

[Yojimbo]

"Alex in Wonderland" - Episode 16
Alex uses a pair of Obsidian contact lenses to visit a virtual National City where she takes on a whole new persona. Meanwhile, Kelly helps William investigate Lex.

 

[Fone Bone]

Supergirl "Alex In Wonderland"

Yeah, Dean Cain and this show parted on bad terms. He would be in an episode with this specific premise if they hadn't.

The show is dumb and unbelievable. With all of the health risks involved in the VR, there is no way it wouldn't have been shut down already. The show doesn't do an actual simulation of reality all that convincingly if you ask me.

Alex is not handling her father's death well but I am beyond infuriated by Kara and Kelly's reaction to her. Jeremiah was murderer. She is under no obligation to mourn him and Kara has no right to tell her she HAS to go to his funeral. Also Kelly psychoanalyzing her during this particular struggle says that Kelly is a bad person. Letting Andrea steamroll over her misgivings about the VR merely cinches that.

Sad truth: David Harewood's performance as Hank Henshaw is not very good. And it probably never was.

In virtual reality trolls have far too much power. That is also true in actual reality.

Not impressed by that. **1/2.

 

[Road to Gotham]

Nice seeing Helen Slater again.
Too bad Slater didn't suit up as SUPERGIRL in the VR world.

 

[hobbyfan]

I guess someone needed to vent.

I don't think we've seen any hint of negative feelings between Alex & Jeremiah 'til now, and it's all part of the producers' burial, as we say in wrestling, of Dean Cain due to his political leanings. Like, didn't he get the message with the anti-Trump writing last season (when he was not on the show)?

I was not sure if Chyler Leigh (Alex) let down her hair, or that's a wig she's wearing that makes her look like 90's Teri Hatcher in a Supergirl suit.

Alas, William has no idea Lex is trying to take down Leviathan------only to maybe take it over?!?

Eve returns, now a secretary. Leviathan uses cloaking tech to hide the truth from William. Meh.

I firmly believe that the COVID-19 pandemic is exhibit A for having shows film most, save for maybe a month's worth of episodes at the end, of the season during the summer, which is what I thought they always did. For Supergirl going forward it's going to be doubly problematic with Melissa's pregnancy. I for one wouldn't mind if they held it to a 13 episode spring season next year.

 

[Fone Bone]

Dean Cain---toxic? Other than being a Trumpian sheep, what would the definition of toxic be in this case, Fone Bone?

Cain turned into a Twitter jackass very recently. He's always been conservative but many of the things he had posted right before the show sacked him were outright horrible. His recent behavior was the definition of toxic.