Wednesday, March 1, 2017

Supergirl Episode 214: Homecoming


Supergirl episode 214, titled Homecoming, aired this week and was, in my mind, the weakest episode of the season. That kind of surprised me. This was the episode that marked the return of Dean Cain as Jeremiah Danvers. It looked to put the major Cadmus plot line back in the spotlight. And it came on the heels of the Mr. Mxyzptlk episode which I thought was one of the strongest so for. As a result, I had high hopes for this area.

Unfortunately, I had some issues with most of what happened within the episode. There are some plot holes within the episode which are just too big to simply ignore. There are some interactions between some characters which seem two-dimensional or clunky.

But most of all, my issue with this episode was the Mon-El and Kara relationship. I understand all too well that this has been a hot button issue for this season. I get that some people look at Mon-El as a toxic personality who is slowly bullying Kara into a romance. For me, I have been able to slide by with it because, despite their differences, the two characters (I guess in reality Melissa Benoist and Chris Wood) have had tremendous chemistry on the small screen. I guess ... until last night.

This episode, more than any, showed how two very different personalities like Kara and Mon-El simply wouldn't work together. In this episode, Mon-El goes against Kara's personal wishes for privacy. And then, while prudent to be suspicious of Jeremiah's return, goes about discussing it in a bristly and boorish manner that I cringed. This was the first episode that I honestly didn't like the guy. And if you are pushing this romance at us, you need both sides to be likeable.

Now that isn't to say there weren't good moments. Chyler Leigh continues to burn up the screen with her range of emotions. The actions sequences are very well done. And Helen Slater returned and gave an honest portrayal of what Eliza must be going through.

Still, this was hardly the romp of last week. I'm not pulling any punches so this is a long review.


The episode starts the morning after the last episode ended. Mon-El wakes up in Kara's bed to find her gone. The message is clear. He wonders if her not being there meant he was that bad ... or that good. (I hope this was a call back to when Kara wondered the same thing when she kissed James at the end of last season when he was mind-controlled.)

She clearly has been in a happy and energetic mood since the romantic tryst. We hear the news talk about how the city's 'feminist hero' has been stopping robberies and delivering puppies! She then returns with coffee, flowers, and a bright smile. There is a cute moment when she says she likes being able to kiss a guy without accidentally breaking his nose.

But duty calls, it is off to the DEO. Kara wants to keep their romance quiet so she asks Mon-El not to discuss it at work. Alas, as soon as they walk into the DEO, he announces it loudly that they are dating. I don't understand why he would need to do that. It felt like he was bragging ... or claiming his territory. The bottom line it wasn't respecting what she wanted.

I do like that J'onn makes them both go to HR to fill out forms and watch a mandatory Sexual Harassment seminar.


The DEO gets an alarm that a secret convoy is leaving a known Cadmus facility prompting Supergirl and the Martian Manhunter to intercept.

I like when the two heroes  fight side by side. And we get nice visuals of J'onn's powers, phasing through cars before flinging them in the air.


The 'weapon' they were transporting? A battered and chained Jeremiah Danvers.

Taken back to the DEO, he is examined by Alex. His right arm has suffered significant damage to the point he can't use his hand.

Jeremiah gives us some exposition of his backstory. Cadmus discovered him and the real Hank Henshaw in the Amazon (as seen last season). They made Jeremiah enhance Henshaw and then kept Danvers around to enhance others. He repeatedly tried to escape over the years but never could.

He also knows Cadmus made a nuclear fusion bomb by harnessing Supergirl's head vision (when they depowered her to take her blood earlier in the season). He can help them stop that plot.

Mon-El is somewhat suspicious from the start. Cadmus has never been so lazy as to allow themselves to be caught like this. It seems all too convenient. But Kara is a bit blinded by her happiness to hear it, even if he is rather blunt in his delivery.


The whole Danvers family has a welcome home celebration for Jeremiah.

Jeremiah meets Maggie and welcomes her into the family.'No man would be good enough for Alex' is a decent line. He hugs J'onn and thanks him for caring for his daughters.

In a touching side moment, he calls Eliza 'Lizzy' and hopes they can pick right up where they left off. She rightfully says that 14 years have gone by. They aren't who they were. They will need to learn each other again. Helen Slater can do no wrong in my book. She played this minor scene perfectly.

But then Mon-El decides to show off that uncouth and brutish Daxamite side again. He decides to confront Jeremiah at the dinner, wondering why it was so easy for him to be found. He wonders why J'onn would give Jeremiah full access to the DEO. He wonders if he can trust Jeremiah.

No listen, in a world where we have seen shape-changers and sentient robots and mind control, a healthy does of skepticism is probably a life-saving trait. But you don't wield it like a sledge hammer, especially not at the welcome dinner! It angers everyone, especially Alex.

It made no sense to me for him to do that there. Be a bit more subtle, or controlled. But, as we have seen all season, it isn't necessarily in Mon-El's nature to be those things.


Thankfully Kara calls him on it.
She pulls him aside and really lays into him for his behavior. He doesn't listen to her. He didn't respect her wish for privacy. He didn't respect her father or her family.

He apologizes ... but I don't know if understands why he is apologizing other than he angered her. When he says it is 2 strikes, she says she isn't baseball.  She tells him to leave. There was no chemistry here.

And this, more than anything, showed me why these two could never be together. She is caring. He is learning. But he never quite learns does he. The scene is well acted, no doubt. And if this was a 'we're on a break moment', I might have rolled. But it isn't.

Jeremiah shows him the door. He tells Mon-El that he knows who the Daxamite really is. And Kara wouldn't like it. And that was another reason why I felt this relationship wouldn't necessarily work. He has been hiding something this long. I have suspected he has been the Prince all along. But know I realize at some point he is going to have to tell her that. And then you have months of hiding that he'll have to explain.



Mon-El meets Winn in the alien bar and lays out why he doesn't trust Jeremiah. He hadn't been found for 14 years and then suddenly he drops in their laps just as a fusion bomb threat surfaces. He asks Winn to help him keep an eye on Jeremiah in the DEO.

His concerns makes sense. And he isn't blinded by happiness or family loyalties. Getting someone to listen like this is the right way to do things. He could have done this with J'onn on the side. There was no need for the dinner scene.

In return for helping, Winn asks Mon-El to simply treat Kara right. I like that. Winn is her oldest friend. He knows what she has been through. He should be looking out for her.

One thing I didn't like was that Lyra was at the bar and assumed the role of sex kitten. I was hoping for something more three-dimensional from her. I wanted more than just sitting in his lap, playing with his hair, being sexually aggressive. It didn't help that Mon-El toasted Winn for being with her. Yeesh.


Even J'onn seems too eager to accept Jeremiah back into the fold. Danvers is given full access to the DEO and quickly breaks into the organization's data mainframe. Luckily Winn sees it.

He and Mon-El decide to tell Kara. But the scene is also a bit too rough for me. Kara sees Mon-El and Winn waiting to ambush her with the information. When she tries to leave, Mon-El physically stops her. He grabs her and literally turns her around. It just felt a bit too creepy after everything else I had seen from him this episode.

When Kara hears about the data breach, she confronts her father in front of everyone. He admits he did it only to read case files of his daughters, to see what they had done.

It felt like Kara 'saw the light' about her father a little too quickly. And she confronted Alex a little too bluntly as well.


Finally the specific radiation of the fusion bomb is detected. Supergirl and Alex head to a warehouse only to see it is abandoned. It's a feint to draw the big guns out.

With the strike team away, Jeremiah heads to the mainframe and downloads some files. J'onn tries to read his mind but he can't He pummels Winn and J'onn while doing it, revealing he has a cybernetic right arm.

We see J'onn using his intangibility once but then he's overpowered. It seems outlandish that Jeremiah could defeat J'onn so easily in such a street style brawl.

So more problems now. You would think they would have scanned Jeremiah when he came into the DEO. No one discovered his robot arm? Not even Alex when she examined him?

And J'onn never tried to peek into Jeremiah's brain before this? Wouldn't he notice some sort of telepathic void? Or wouldn't he just do a simple scan given the recent spate of shape-shifters and imposters?

The fact Jeremiah got this far seems a little far-fetched, even on a show with a Martian leading a black ops group with a Kryptonian.


Winn had the right idea and planted a tracker on Jeremiah so the Danvers sisters follow their dad into a wooded area where he has met up with the Cyborg Superman.

Before a brawl can break out, Cadmus detonates a bomb on a nearby railway bridge. Kara has to speed off to save the train. She uses her heat vision to solder one track back in place and then holds the other while the train speeds over her. This is a great scene and a classic superhero trope so this made me happy.

But left to her own devices, Alex can't bring in her father. He says some things which make him seem less evil. He recognizes Alex as the best part of him. He promises her there is more to the story. But the only way she will bring him in is to shoot him dead. She can't do it and he runs off.

Again, Chyler Leigh kills it, showing such emotional pain as she calls her father out for betraying everyone. 



The only thing left to see is the fallout.

At the DEO, Kara worries that this will change  everything. J'onn hopes it will make everyone stronger.

Maggie walks in on Alex downing alcohol. She has to stop Alex from pouring more. Instead, Alex collapses into Maggie's arm and cries. It is another powerful scene from Leigh. But it again raised the specter of a drinking problem for Alex.

Later, at Kara's apartment, Mon-El shows up and she falls into his arm, asking him to spend the night to support her. He heeds Winn's advice, asking her what she wants.

But given everything about the early part of the episode, I just want Kara to recognize that in the big picture, this is just wrong.


It's peculiar. I have been a soft defender for the Kara/Mon-El relationship all season. I could understand the complaints but I thought it was just a 'opposites attract' thing, with Mon-El growing because of her. After this episode, I think it outright wrong. And I don't know if the series will be able to get me back on board.


In the end, we learn that Jeremiah stole the National Alien Registry, a list of all aliens living in the country. Now I'm really confused. Didn't the President sign the Amnesty Act? Does this list exist? How complete is it? Are there undocumented aliens?

I suppose it will play in nicely with the whole prejudice/bias theme which has been working its way through the season.

And finally we see Jeremiah talking to Lilian Luthor. Cadmus has been building something and it looks like a space ark of some kind. My guess, it is a new Fort Rozz. They are going to round up aliens and send them into the Phantom Zone.

So what can I say.

Mon-El's behavior seemed horrible. His vacillation between his crude upbringing and his new outlook is getting a bit tiresome. I just don't believe he can change and I can't believe Kara would see something in him after all this. I feel like I have been pulled all the way out for supporting that plotline.

While it is clear his fears about Jeremiah were justified, Mon could have gone about his investigation in a different way. And how the DEO let their guard down this much is lunacy. Just weeks ago two white Martians infiltrated the place. Why no standard screens?

I won't forget the good things, especially Chyler Leigh's performance from elation to anger to shock to despair all in 60 minutes. And Melissa Benoist is brilliant. But there was too much that seemed wrong here for me.

19 comments:

Martin Gray said...

I assumed J'onn and Alex were kidding about HR... it's even funnier if they weren't. I see no sexual harassment as neither Kara nor Mon seems to have an official role or rank.

Certainly, Mon-El was boneheaded in his lack of sensitivity - I agree this shows he and Kara shouldn't be together,whie agreeing it's in his established character. Maybe he's actually Bart Allen, no impulse control.

I still see chemistry, I don't think a row precludes passion.

Just think, if Mon's attitudes are out of touch with 21st century Earth, how much of a boor will he seem in the 31st?

I wish we hadn't had that drinking scene, I just can't be bothered watching a long plotline of Alex recognising a problem, Maggie supporting her, Alex trying, Alex failing, Alex winning... they're already carrying the hopes and dreams of young lesbian viewers, don't give them a heavy personal drama on top of that.

Anonymous said...

I agree, the episode was a mess.

How ironical that once again, Helen Slater rises above a mediocre script.

I still think Mon-El is heading to the 31st before the third season, though. I don't think his relationship with Kara lasts long.

KET said...
This comment has been removed by the author.
KET said...

"So more problems now. You would think they would have scanned Jeremiah when he came into the DEO. No one discovered his robot arm? Not even Alex when she examined him?"

That's because everyone was letting their emotions get in the way of the reunion, except Mon-El, who saw things clearly. J'onn was being just as slipshod about security as the rest, since it was Jeremiah's actions that had saved him from death in the past.

"It made no sense to me for him to do that there. Be a bit more subtle, or controlled. But, as we have seen all season, it isn't necessarily in Mon-El's nature to be those things."

To be fair, that's because English might not be Mon-El's first language; he is still an alien to Earth culture, even if he looks quite human in appearance. He's been demonstrating a beginner's ineptitude with casual lingo and etiquette all season, so having him say things awkwardly and inappropriately seems perfectly in character for him. Old habits die hard.

Mon-El was merely striving to be open and honest around Kara and her friends; but of course, Jeremiah had to remind him in secret that he's still hiding something big from Kara.

"It felt like Kara 'saw the light' about her father a little too quickly. And she confronted Alex a little too bluntly as well."

Well, she was the judge who was weighing all the circumstantial evidence in the matter. Kara started to become skeptical of Jeremiah's claims, because they simply didn't add up among family and friends.

"While it is clear his fears about Jeremiah were justified, Mon could have gone about his investigation in a different way. And how the DEO let their guard down this much is lunacy. Just weeks ago two white Martians infiltrated the place. Why no standard screens?"

Because apparently, it's different among 'family'. And Mon-El doesn't have any established credibility yet, because he still isn't 'family'.


KET

KET said...

Oops...forgot another thing:

"The fact Jeremiah got this far seems a little far-fetched, even on a show with a Martian leading a black ops group with a Kryptonian."

Not really. The DEO seems a lot less secure in its new above ground setting than it ever was in the Season One cave. They've experienced a couple of escapes, and now, at least two security intel breaches. It's almost as if Russian hackers have been managing the place lately.

KET

Anonymous said...

Mon El has always been romantic cannon fodder as far as I'm concerned although he has more charisma and chemistry with MB than any of his predecessors. The vibe I get with respect to his creeptastic boorishness is that we aren't supposed to see him as good long term match part of his appeal is that Kara doesn't need to hold back with him, but admittedly he is a deeply flawed individual and will likely be clouted out of Supergirl's Life & into the 31st Century when push comes to super shove. What I liked about this ep was that weirdly Mon and Eliza were on the exact same page, what she said to her nominal husband was pretty chilling if evaluated from a marital perspective I was half hoping she's admit to having other dalliances during the period when she thought herself a widow. THAT would have been kewl and Helen Slater would have sold it like water in a drought. While we are on the topic, I think Supergirl NEEDS to upgrade Slater to "weekly cast member" status, maybe she could move in with Alex and help manage her rehab or something...she'd deftly fill the gravitas void created by Cat Grant's departure she just nails every scene she gets....and Slater is getting too little IMHO. Boy I looked at this ep and just saw another string of blunders by Alex, she somehow manages to overlook her Dad's bionic arm (huge laughably huge plot hole at this point I've gotten numb to them they are part of the show's zeitgeist we can't escape them), immediately defaults to pretty nasty emotional blackmail when Kara questions the situation and then finishes off by getting drunk as usual. If she was not played by the intensely likeable Chyler Leigh Alex would be a thoroughly unpleasant character by now. I actually liked a lot of the acting this time around it's a skilled charismatic ensemble (the proof of that is that you can easily recast almost all of them in another show and come up a winner) hobbled at times by some real plotline howlers....That having been said I'm kinda hoping Dean Cain's commitment to the show is a finite one, the guy is notably mediocre performer when up against the show's regular cast....he has this slightly blank affect and it's been his go-to for a lot of years now.

JF

Aaron said...

"There is a cute moment when she says she likes being able to kiss a guy without accidentally breaking his nose."

Then surely that elbow in the face she gave to that thug in last week's episode should've decapitated him.

And what happened to Supergirl's X-Ray vision? She should've seen Jeremiah's metal arm straight away. Or doesn't she have that superpower this week for the convenience of a story written by amateurish writers?

Anonymous said...

"Mon El has always been romantic cannon fodder as far as I'm concerned although he has more charisma and chemistry with MB than any of his predecessors. The vibe I get with respect to his creeptastic boorishness is that we aren't supposed to see him as good long term match part of his appeal is that Kara doesn't need to hold back with him, but admittedly he is a deeply flawed individual and will likely be clouted out of Supergirl's Life & into the 31st Century when push comes to super shove."

Probably.

Supergirl has gotten zero luck at the romance department historically, so I have trouble believing Mon-El will be a regular. He'll be forced to travel to the 31st century when the Supergirl writers are tired of him.

Which would be terribly ironical given how Smallville ended.

Anonymous said...

Thanks for the review and insights as always, Anj. I'd agree the return of Jeremiah D and putting Cadmus back into the spotlight
was probably the highlight of the episode, after the superheroics displayed by Supergirl and the train -- TOTAL callback to
Superman 1's earthquake scene IMO -- and the shot of a floating Supergirl and and a guntoting Alex loaded for bear -- as Alex said
once, the Danvers Sisters should come with their own warning label, and that scene was it! :)

At the same time, the plot holes / inconsistencies did irk me; I'd held out hope that with Cain's return the episode would end with
a happy ending, but I think the Cain / Slater dinner scene where she admits "they're no longer the same people they were" pretty
much told me TPTB had decided Jeremiah was going to be a Cadmus plant; the Mon-El stuff was just fertilizer on top, and inline with
his "jerk Daxamite" sensibilities, which everyone on the pro-Jeremiah camp pretty much wrote him off as.

I'd also agree the cast did an AMAZING job with the script inspite of the flaws, especially Helen Slater Zen! Ommmmm!

Besides the plot hole / inconsistency of the lax security and procedures at the DEO of Jeremiah's return, the other one that gets me
is the ease that Cadmus got away (again!) -- Kryptonian X-ray vision and superspeed anyone? And there's no cloud of gaseous kryptonite
for Cadmus to use as cover -- never mind a personal betrayal of THAT level, you'd think Supergirl and Alex would follow Jeremiah and
Cadmus to the ends of the earth, end of episode or no end of episode. I'm also somewhat disappointed that the grieving scenes with
Alex and Kara weren't in each others company or with Eliza, but seperately -- it's frickin' FAMILY! and Eliza needs to know this new
development, you'd think?! But again, the cast did an excellent job of selling me on the level of pain they're both feeling at a
major betrayal of personal trust.

Regards

Anonymous said...

> I think Supergirl NEEDS to upgrade Slater to "weekly cast member" status, maybe she could move in with
> Alex and help manage her rehab or something...she'd deftly fill the gravitas void created by Cat Grant's
> departure she just nails every scene she gets...

+1,000,000,000 on that! Say it with me everyone! Helen Slater Zen! Ommmmm!


Regards

Anj said...

Thanks everyone for great comments. Interesting to see other viewpoints, especially those thinking the overlooking of Jeremiah made sense given emotional connections.

We'll have to see how it plays out. And I think I'll,need to rewatch.

Aaron said...

Just want to apologise if my comments are harsh. I only get passionate because, believe it or not, I really like Supergirl; she's a great comic book character and I really wanted the CW to do her justice (which as you're aware I don't think it has, at all). But I still love her in the comics. Kara Zor-El is simply inspiring.

KET said...

"And what happened to Supergirl's X-Ray vision? She should've seen Jeremiah's metal arm straight away. Or doesn't she have that superpower this week for the convenience of a story written by amateurish writers?"

You mean Derek Simon and Caitlin Parrish, often cited by the producers as the show's most reliable writers? Perhaps one should look at the credits when they air. If those two are leaving 'plot holes', then it's more likely that it's intentional, for something to be addressed later. In this case, it was the emotional through-line of 'family'; after all, Jeremiah hadn't seen his family and friends for a long, long time. One doesn't become suspicious of family members unless they've previously wronged you...and in Kara's case, her dad helped rescue her recently.

"I think Supergirl NEEDS to upgrade Slater to "weekly cast member" status, maybe she could move in with Alex and help manage her rehab or something."

I certainly wouldn't mind seeing Helen Slater on a more regular basis on this show; however, I also know that she has her music career on the side, which may make for some scheduling issues as well.


"...she'd deftly fill the gravitas void created by Cat Grant's departure she just nails every scene she gets."

Well, I expect that Calista will return at some point; however, part of the confusion I think some are having with this season is that Cat Grant isn't around playing 'den mother' to everything going on this time. It's part of what makes this a growth season for Kara, as opposed to last season's nurturing out of her former 'office wallflower' status. She can't hide behind her boss' advice anymore.

KET

Martin Gray said...

'You mean Derek Simon and Caitlin Parrish, often cited by the producers as the show's most reliable writers? Perhaps one should look at the credits when they air'.

And perhaps one could try sounding a wee bit less condescending? Of course the show top brass has faith in the writers, that doesn't mean the odd episode won't have problems.

KET said...
This comment has been removed by the author.
Anj said...

Well KET,
I think this episode stretched what I thought was credible for the DEO. I understand that part of this was all about the emotions of Alex, Kara, and J'onn. But it just seemed a wee bit too much for many of us.

So the premise was fine for me, the execution seemed off. And judging from what I am seeing, many others thought so.

I understand that the story needed to be moved forward. And certainly the acting in all scenes with Benoist and Leigh was fantastic.

But this just didn't click with me the way other episodes have.

Aaron said...

"If those two are leaving 'plot holes', then it's more likely that it's intentional, for something to be addressed later."

Hi, KET. This is my problem, they don't get addressed later. I'm sure some of them will get resolved, but this just hasn't been my observations about this season. To be honest I wouldn’t have a problem with the show’s plot holes at all if the writers had simply adhered to Supergirl’s character, but they didn’t. Supergirl was way out of character back when she killed Rudy Jones/Parasite (if you recall one of the themes of that episode was how to be a great superhero!). This was the turning point for me. And then, in a recent episode written by Sterling Gates, Supergirl says she doesn’t kill, really? She says she doesn’t kill and then comes face to face with Parasite, a villain she DID kill. And all she could say was “aren’t you supposed to be dead?” Seriously? That’s it?
But I know your opinions on this differ from mine, and that’s fine.

I just don't understand how such hypocrisy like Supergirl saying she doesn't kill, to then showing a villain she did willingly kill, can go unaddressed. How can such an in-your-face contradiction go unnoticed? A very shaky moral parameter indeed. The CW is all over the place with her character. Supergirl doesn't kill unless your name is Rudy Jones, Hank Henshaw (burning his face off with heat vision BEFORE learning he's a cyborg), Metallo (Supergirl holding him vulnerable and telling Alex to kill him… though this was clearly retconned a couple of episodes ago), or if you're a pilot in a ship (Supergirl Lives, no information was given to us at all that the ship was unmanned), or if you're Dominators in the final crossover episode... and who knows how many more yet to come. But apart from that, Supergirl is non-lethal. You know, just like James Bond is a non-lethal character, except for all the people he kills. For me, this show is now like the cinematic murder-verse. In the upcoming Justice League movie they say they're going to address Batman's killing in BvS. Well, they can address it all they like, but they can't negate it. Batman (and Superman) will always be characters who have willingly taken life in those films. Supergirl, likewise, will always be a character who has killed on the TV show. You can't undo that. And for her to still preach the moral high ground is hypocritical and, frankly, insulting.

So yes, I think the writing is amateurish at times. I think I've said this before, but a low budget shouldn't mean low standards. In this season, Supergirl is reckless because the writers are reckless.

Of course, I understand it’s just fiction, but the inspiration, hope and optimism from these characters are real. There are plenty of articles and pictures online showing Melissa Benoist posing with children wearing Supergirl costumes for photographs. She is clearly a role model to many people. And yet reading in the scripts that Supergirl will kill villains (or totally destroy something without establishing whether it's empty) should’ve raised a red flag in her mind. I wonder how Melissa Benoist would react if a child were to ask her why Supergirl has killed. I wonder also how much protesting she did (if any) against these lurid violations of Supergirl’s character.

I won’t mention this again because I know I’m just repeating myself. To keep going over the same point is like mental self-harm. It’s just my opinion that CBS got it right, and the CW has effed it up. As I said, I could overlook the show's various plot holes had they not had Supergirl cross a line that can never be uncrossed, but they did. This, to me, makes Kara hard to like. I still like Supergirl, but the REAL Supergirl can only be seen and read in the comics. Again, this is just my opinion.

Once again, thank you, Anj for a great site and reviews. I apologise for the long post, and for what I'm sure are plenty of grammatical errors.

Have a great and safe day, people. :)

ceolstan said...

In broad strokes, I liked the episode, but I'd suspected that the reunion with Jeremiah would not go well. Before the season started, I'd suspected that he might be the true Big Bad of the season, or at least aligned with the Big Bad, but then have to redeem himself by sacrificing himself. It never made sense that someone held captive by Cadmus for so many years would still be alive unless he'd been somehow compromised.

Drilling down deeper, there were a lot of details that made the episode less enjoyable. Part of this was the Mon-El plot. I don't dislike Mon-El the way that some do, but we're playing the same tune with him every episode. I get that the whole purpose of his relationship with Kara is to show his journey to being a better man so that he'll make a better Daxamite ruler, but his only value-add to Kara is that he's the first guy she can crush on whom she won't damage. After breaking several noses and feet, she's probably not had the opportunity for any kind of serious relationship.

This was obviously a 2-parter episode. I'm holding back final judgement until next week.

The best part was when Mon-El said that if his own father showed up, Mon-El would run because his father is not a good man. That had foreshadow writ large across the screen.

Scrimmage said...

I enjoyed the opening action sequence showing Supergirl using her X-ray Vision, or at least trying to, which, compared to her heat vision, is a power we don't see her use very often. It sure would've come in handy if she used it to take a peek at Step-Daddy's six million dollar arm, but Nooooooo!! That would've been to easy, and made too much sense. And how did Jeremiah get past his physical, and his psyche evaluation, anyway?

Yes, this show was filled with WAAAAY more plot holes than usual, the bionic arm being the most glaring, but the choice to make Jeremiah – a character created specifically for this show who was NOT a part of the comics - a bad guy is the most puzzling of them all.

It seems that this week, it was Mon-El and Kara turn follow the pattern established by Alex and Maggie. First, they start off doing something adorable (and they WERE cuter than a litter of kittens early on), followed by a misunderstanding that could've easily been avoided, and then finally, the reconciliation, and hugs and kisses all around. I think the problem with Mon-El is that he suffers from a version of Jessica Rabbit Syndrome. He's not REALLY an insensitive, boorish idiot; the writers just write him that way.

Head scratching and eye-rolling aside, I enjoyed this episode, especially the scene where Supergirl proved that she was, indeed “More powerful than a locomotive!” Last week, she was “Faster than a speeding bullet,” and we heard the crowd say a version of the classic... “LOOK! Up in the SKY!...” line. I admit it! I'm a sucker for that sort of thing. I also enjoyed the return of the lovely Helen Slater, whose character should be explored much further. I think she has tremendous potential as a supporting player on the show.

Speaking of supporting characters... Of course, any week without a James/Guardian subplot is a good week in my book.