Review: Supergirl 5×06-“Confidence Women“
[Editor’s note: This review may contain spoilers.]
Director: Shannon Kohli
Writers: Dana Horgan & Nicki Holcomb
Starring: Melissa Benoist, Chyler Leigh, Katie McGrath, Jesse Rath, Andrea Brooks, Julie Gonzalo, Staz Nair & David Harewood
Reviewed by: Sean Blumenshine
Summary
While a new villain is under arrest at the DEO, Supergirl uses him to try and understand who is responsible for the recent attacks. Meanwhile, Andrea and Lena think back on their tumultuous past.
Positives
I enjoyed Andrea’s backstory. Deals with the devil are a fun source for a story. There’s a mix of selflessness and selfishness to it that really fleshes this character out. I was a big iZombie fan so it was cool to see Rahul Kohli again. He doesn’t really have anything to do other than reaffirming that Lena is straight but I still enjoyed his scenes.
Negatives
Lena has become so obnoxious. She’s the definition over dramatic at this point and I’m so tired of it. Most of the episode is focused on her past with Andrea. It’s an attempt to retcon what we previously knew about her to justify her current behavior. The writers are suggesting that Lena is so unhinged because, in her eyes, people keep betraying her. Lex did it first followed by Andrea and Kara.
But Lena’s new overly simplistic worldview is just frustrating. While what Andrea did was wrong and Lena has every right to be upset, she refuses to acknowledge the impossible situation Andrea was in. It doesn’t matter to her; no one can cross the perfectly innocent Lena who’s never lied or done anything wrong. Except for keeping Reign a secret from everyone, making kryptonite in secret, stealing kryptonite from Kara’s mom, working with Lex in secret and killing that dude last season. There’s nothing compelling to this story; it’s inconsistent with who this character was and kind of boring at this point.
What exactly is Lena doing? She combined the contacts with Malefic’s powers and this episode proves that it works. She mind controls the entire D.E.O. so we know she can do it. What is the end goal? If it’s mind controlling to make everyone passive, what is she waiting for? Also, she uses her new abilities to break into the D.E.O. which of course leads to violence. She threatens to make Russel kill himself and her actions get Russel killed. So even season five Lena is inconsistent and hypocritical and her whole wanting to stop people from hurting others applies to everyone except herself. Can she really not see how she sounds exactly like Lex?
Verdict
This wasn’t the strongest episode the show has produced. Andrea’s backstory is interesting. And what few scenes Kara gets are fun. Everything without Lena is solid. But anytime Lena is on screen, this episode is a chore to sit through. And this episode is mostly Lena. I’m still hopeful the writers can turn this around but Lena is dragging the entire season down.
