[Editor’s note: This review may contain spoilers.]
Director: Stefan Pleszczynski
Writers: Jessica Queller & Derek Simon
Stars: Melissa Benoist, Mechad Brooks & Chyler Leigh
Summary
Supergirl has to ask Lena Luthor for help when CADMUS unleashes an alien virus of Kryptonian origin.
Positives
I like the main theme of disillusionment with one’s parents. When we’re young, we idolize our parents. But as we get older, we’re forced to face the reality that our parents are not perfect. They made mistakes just like anyone. This is a continued problem for Kara who is forced to face her parents’ mistakes again. I love that the show points out that Kara’s parents are not really different from Lillian Luthor. Lena has to face the same idea with Lillian; she does not want to admit her mother could be that evil. This gives Kara and Lena another strong connection and I hope to see that friendship more in the future.
I am still really enjoying Katie McGrath as Lena. While her character arc is not a surprise, McGrath creates serious doubts in her character’s motivations and goals. Lena is a very conflicted character who is able to do the right thing at the end but is not completely on Supergirl’s side. She is very much in the middle being torn by both sides. It’s interesting and McGrath plays it very well.
The pacing of this season is incredible. This episode could easily have been a season finale and it’s only episode eight. There are still threads left and an amazing cliffhanger involving Mon-El but what I thought was going to be the season-long story has already been dealt with and solved. That is amazing. I cannot wait to see what these writers have up their sleeves if this is only the beginning.
Negatives
If Kara and Mon-El are going to be a couple, they need to be a couple. This is the one thing that is being too dragged out. The two of them obviously want to be together so them skirting around each other is awkward and weird. I know people can act that way in life sometimes but it’s tedious to watch on a show.
The white martian blood is solved way too easily and quickly. This is the one thing that needed to be a little longer. Eliza uses the alien virus to somehow cure J’onn off screen and it’s not even remotely satisfying. It’s simply too easy of a solution. I don’t know why this story was started if nothing was going to be done with it. This potentially cool idea just seems pointless now.
James and Winn have decided to tell Kara that James is the Guardian. I like that they’re finally going to be honest but it comes out of nowhere. They somehow decided this off screen and cannot tell her because Alex coming out to her mom is more important for obvious reasons. I wouldn’t mind except James isn’t in the episode outside of this one scene so there’s no real point to this. They could’ve just saved it.
Kara lives on a street called Hope. That is ridiculous and way too on the nose. Did she move there on purpose simply because of the street name?
My final complaint has nothing to do with the episode but with the advertisements. This episode was billed as being part one of a giant four part crossover. It is absolutely not that. This is an episode of Supergirl that has a cliffhanger teasing a crossover with The Flash. The ads for this episode did not show a single clip of the episode. They all showed clips from the other three shows. That’s false advertising and I imagine a lot of people are irritated and confused.
Verdict
This is a very good episode. The pacing really impresses me; the episode, like this whole season, is straight to the point and efficient. The writers are getting a lot done in a short amount of time. While a little bit of the story suffers from that, it mostly works for the better. There’s great character building for Kara and Lena and I am beyond excited to see what happens next on this show.
