Wednesday, October 25, 2017

Supergirl Episode 303: Far From The Tree


Supergirl season three, episode three, titled 'Far from the Tree', focused on two of the supporting cast's relationships with their fathers. We certainly learned a lot about Maggie and her father in this episode, as we did with J'onn and his.

Both of these relationships are struggling right now. Maggie and her father have been estranged since she came out. J'onn has thought his father has been dead. And now both are trying to salvage a relationship. There are plenty of emotional beats in this episode. And there are very strong performances from both Floriana Lima and David Harewood as they are put through the wringer a bit. And seeing Carl Lumbly, who did the voice of J'onn on the JLA Timm-verse cartoons, playing J'onn's father was awesome.

And there are other moments that shine. I like how Alex and Maggie are heading towards a 'deal breaker' moment. There is a Britney Spears moment with Melissa Benoist which might be my favorite bit for the show as in total as well.

But the big downside of an episode like this is that Supergirl really was pushed a bit into the background. She is part of the J'onn story but she didn't really *need* to be. And I might add that it appears she uses lethal force in the end fight despite saying 'there is always a choice' besides death in combat earlier. That didn't sit well.

Lastly, there are some definite political leanings in this episode's language which stick out rather obviously.

On to the show.

The show opens with a classic 'I am Kara Zor-el' much like the first seasons did and it was a welcome addition. I like character primer's like this, telling us who she is, where she works, and giving us great montages. I don't think we have got that yet this season.

A couple of things stuck out.

We have a reshoot of 'young Kara' in the pod. It's the new actor playing the part Izabela Vidovic!

But Kara's words seem carefully chosen. She describes herself as a refugee from another planet. I suppose part of that is because of how loaded that term is in our current political climate. Perhaps the show-runners want to say that refugees should be welcomed and might be heroes.

If it isn't a political statement, it might be playing up the fact that Kara is still in the 'I am an alien' mode of thinking. Refugee sounds colder than visitor. Maybe that word is meant to distance herself from her human friends. She is an 'alien' in all senses of the word.


The show starts with Kara and Alex giggling over the silly cheesy games Eliza has planned for the 'Lesbian Wedding Shower'. I like that Eliza's overdoing holidays with schmaltz is a character quirk that has moved forward.

The fun is interrupted when J'onn arrives to say he is heading to Mars to find M'Gann who contacted him last week. Kara insists on going with him. His battles are her battles. They head to a garage to climb into his old school roadster which transforms into a Martian spaceship.

I like how J'onn has become this father figure and partner for the Danvers sisters over time. That's a far cry from the overly gruff leader from the start of season one. And the car is a fun touch, reminiscent of Colson's red convertible on SHIELD.


Back on Earth, we see Eliza share a dinner with Alex and Maggie. It is sooooo great to see Helen Slater on the show.

We get a touching origin story for Maggie as she retells being driven to her aunt's by her father when she came out. Her father said she shamed him. She hasn't spoken to him in 14 years. She has no childhood pictures. All this is said with some emotional weight by Lima who kills it this episode.

I do like that Eliza is supportive of Maggie. We need more Mama Danvers!


On Mars, M'gann brings J'onn to her rebel group of White Martians. They have made a discovery. A green Martian is still alive. At an operating concentration camp, the rebels have discovered M'yrnn J'onzz, J'onn's father and primary priest of Hronmeer. M'yrnn has been kept alive because he knows the site of the Staff of Kalor, a powerful psychic weapon the Whites could use to discover who rebels are and destroy them.

The Whites are so close to finding the Staff, they have abandoned the camp and M'yrnn. The rebels need J'onn to pierce his father's mind to find out where the artifact is. They will all die of the whites get it.

This is almost too much for J'onn to comprehend. He finds out his father is still alive after all these years. His father has been tortured by their enemies. Now J'onn's allies want him to potentially kill his father to rip this information from his father's mind. You can feel J'onn's anguish in this scene. Much like Lima, Harewood kills it this episode.


Just as J'onn is dealing with missing his father for years, Maggie is doing the same. Maggie's speech with Eliza was news to Alex. There is still so much unsaid between these two. The writing is on the wall that this is going to pause the wedding.

And Alex is very open about her desire to know everything about Maggie. She wants them to share everything. It is Maggie who seems to be holding back. Alex even thinks the time is right for Maggie to reach out to her parents. The world has changed. Maybe there is room for reconciliation.

It moves Maggie enough that she wakes up in the middle of the night and calls her father. She leaves a message telling him about the shower.

I'll say again that Chyler Leigh deserves Emmy consideration. Even in these small scenes with Maggie, she really does an incredible job.


As always, there are things I see these days that I just never thought I would ever see. So imagine my delight when I saw a face to face of two Martians. Here J'onn tries to get through to his father to learn the whereabouts of the Staff of Kalor. M'yrnn doesn't believe this is his son. He thinks it is a White Martian trick. And he knows his son J'onn would never desert Mars like a coward.

The White Martians think the time has come to perform the 'Rite of Tyagor', a brutal rip into M'yrnn's mind which might kill J'onn's father. Supergirl says there always has to be another choice than a lethal attack ... a bit ironic given the end scenes here.

I have to say there seemed to be new effects here for the facial capture. I think it looked better ... maybe?

Meanwhile, Maggie breaks down and calls her folks and invites them to the shower. We hear the one-sided phone conversation. You can intuit that when Maggie says she is getting married, her father asks 'what is his name' because there is a pause before Maggie says 'HER name is Alex.'

We then meet Maggie's Dad. The shots are done well, with lots of far shots giving a sense of distance to the proceedings.

He talks about following Maggie's career. He carries a picture of her in his wallet, a faded picture of her as a young girl. He seems to love her. But the proceedings are cold.


And then at the shower, when Maggie kisses Alex, her father storms out. Again, nice wide, far shots here.

The father says he cannot bear witness to Maggie's relationship. He worked hard when he got to America from Mexico. He suffered prejudice and earned respect. He didn't want his family to suffer that hate and so he doesn't want Maggie to be hated for her sexuality. He even invokes how the country hates Mexicans (because we are building a wall) and hate gays more.

Whew. He isn't a right-wing religious stereotype who is anti-gay. He gets to be a sympathetic refugee who is afraid for his daughter. So I suppose we're supposed to feel bad for him, feel bad for her, and feel that his experiences have fostered this anger with her. He doesn't say 'I think homosexuality is unnatural.' He says 'I don't want you to be hated like I was.'

It is a very left-leaning scene. And the wall comments obviously plunks this episode in this time. So when we watch this on syndication in 5 years, we'll know just when this was released.

It is well acted. But his motivations seemed weird as if the show runners wanted neither of these characters to be 'wrong'. All the bad thoughts are born from the prejudice they lived through.


The Mars storyline rolled on.

J'onn and M'yrnn talk more about the religion of their people. Hronmeer created two artifacts, a book of symbols for all to share and a staff to be used as a weapon by one. Hronmeer's son Phobos picked the staff, shaming Hronmeer who wanted his sons to help people. Phobos was driven underground and became the first White Martian. M'yrnn was the head priest for Hronmeer.

The White Martian rebels, under M'gann's command, rebel because they fear the use of the staff. They know the ruling Whites are close to finding it. (There is a weird Raiders of the Lost Ark vibe to this whole thing.) They decide to rush in and try to rip the knowledge from M'yrnn. It forces J'onn, Kara, and M'yrnn to flee from their friends.

And then we get a nice scene where Kara talks to M'yrnn. She tells him that the time is come for him to open his mind. He has suffered from prejudice but a new world awaits, ready to be formed by people who want to do better. Benoist sells it.


Finally, M'yrnn does open his mind to J'onn. They share a memory only they could know. They share a time when the M'yrnn, K'ym, and T'ania surprised J'onn. It breaks down the walls. The J'onzz boys finally embrace.

I loved seeing J'onn's kids again. That was fun.

M'yrnn says where the Staff is buried but the Whites have found it on their own. A battle will happen.


And so we get this great scene.

The Whites are all dancing with glee around the half-buried staff, they hear 'Baby one more time' by Britney Spears. Supergirl drives into the cave in J'onn's car, looking for directions, complaining about a wrong turn at Alberquerque (ahhh the famous Bugs Bunny line).

How freaking fantastic! I love it!!!!


The resulting battle is crazy. But in the end, the heroes are victorious and the Staff gets given to M'yrnn.

But in the battle, Kara wields this staff and basically vaporizes a bunch of White Martians. Like disintegrates them. What happened to that 'there is always another way'? I suppose we could 'no-prize' it that the Staff just teleports them away. But this looks like death. And I don't want Kara to do that.

Seriously. If I hate Superman breaking Zod's neck in MoS, I have to hate this.

There isn't much left but the wrap-up.

Maggie has a cathartic meeting with her father. She gives him back the picture of her. She tells him she is glad he came because it allowed her to realize she doesn't need to get his approval. She doesn't need him at all. She is surrounded by people who love her for who she is. And she likes who she is.

But this closure with her parents doesn't change her not wanting kids. There is a scene at the end where Alex again brings it up. This has to be a lingering plot point which will lead to Lima's leaving the show.

Remember, the title of the show is 'Far from the tree', a riff on the old saying 'the apple doesn't fall far from the tree'. Maggie has fallen far from the family tree.


Meanwhile, the White Martian rebels give the staff to J'onn saying it is too powerful to be part of the Martian civil war.  They say it should be brought to Earth. (Perhaps it is being looked at by 'top men'? Or stuck in a government warehouse?)

And there is nowhere for M'yrnn to go but to Earth. He is going to live with J'onn. There is a great scene where we see him marvel over a weed in parking lot, surprised to see such life. Will he become a recurring character?

This was an okay episode for me overall. Supergirl was a guest star in her own show. This gave important back story for both Maggie and J'onn. We get to hear about their dysfunctional relationships with their fathers and how they try to reconcile. And we get a great Britney Spears moment.

But the lethal attacks, the occasionally 'heavier than it needed to be' political messages, and the Staff being found despite all the pre-plot points made it less than optimal.

What did you think?

18 comments:

Anonymous said...

This was as okayish episode for me. I don't really care about sanvers very much but the political undertones have become overtones, which I guess they have to address since they have a lesbian couple on the show.

The best part for me was the whole Mars storyline and I loved every part of it. Yes, Kara straight up killing the white Martians didn't sit well with me at all.
'Supers don't kill' is the motto with which we began and after man of steel and this, look where we are.

I hate that Supergirl sometimes becomes a supporting character in her own show,just to further some useless relationship drama of her sister. But then again j'onn deserved an episode of his own and I am glad the Martian Manhunter got his due. He has already been ousted from JL, we need to have his presence somewhere.

Apart from the Britney Spears scene there is a small scene at the end where Kara flies off and j'onn's father says- can everyone here do that? And j'onn says- no, she's special. I loved that.

Never mind this episode, the next one is huge. We explore the 'treating supers as gods' concept and from what it looks like, the omegahedron from S1 is gonna be back!

Anonymous said...

"This was an okay episode for me overall. Supergirl was a guest star in her own show. This gave important back story for both Maggie and J'onn. We get to hear about their dysfunctional relationships with their fathers and how they try to reconcile. And we get a great Britney Spears moment.

But the lethal attacks, the occasionally 'heavier than it needed to be' political messages, and the Staff being found despite all the pre-plot points made it less than optimal."

I agree with you.

I'm tired of Kara preaching the need to find a better way and then using lethal force at the drop of a hat.

And I'm tired of Supergirl being a guest star. This is because I don't mind the Sanvers ship is sinking. I don't care for Sanvers but I DO care for Supergirl and her relationships. If a lack of Sanvers means the plot will focus on Kara and her relationship with Alex and other characters instead of devoting screentime to Alex and Maggie's romance, so be it.

KET said...

"But Kara's words seem carefully chosen. She describes herself as a refugee from another planet. I suppose part of that is because of how loaded that term is in our current political climate. Perhaps the show-runners want to say that refugees should be welcomed and might be heroes."

It's less of a political statement than merely her personal one at this point in her heroic journey. Keep in mind that her last big bad made it clear that Kara was foisting her alien beliefs on a world that didn't deserve it. Post-encounter with Rhea, Kara is still struggling with the notion that she's not hiuman, because humans don't send their loved ones away to an unknown fate...and that makes her believe that she's failure as a human.

However, female activism (in all its forms) has always been a part of the show's innate make-up from the start. That's equal parts being a hero, but also accumulating a circle of influence that regards one as a hero as well. To attempt to discount and separate some examples just because some don't wear a colorful costume is a mistake some viewers seem to be having. And some just want to ogle Benoist in her costume having fluffy, lightweight adventures isn't a feminist perspective. That also dismisses view the idea that she has a functioning brain capable of independent thought, too.

Maggie's father's rant following his disgust as watching his daughter and Alex share a kiss was pretty exemplary of the fear of an older generation's fears towards change in general. Being that he's also discriminated as an immigrant in today's current social climate also makes for a convenient dodge from accepting any other change in his life. However, Maggie confronted him with the truth that she's now grown up, and is no longer his 'little girl' anymore. The world has changed, even though he's still too stubborn to deal with it yet.

Seems to me that this episode has a good chance at an Emmy nomination. There were strong performances all around. Loved SG mimicking Bugs Bunny; reminded me of that bit during PAD's comics run in Supergirl #62 when she dresses up as a lost cheerleader to interrogate a bar room full of unsavory guys.

KET

Anonymous said...

Hey Anj, great review as always, and personally I found it an enjoyable episode overall, politics or no politics. Others
will no doubt read differently into this.

First off : HELEN SLATER ZEN!! Too bad it was so short, but was a great moment and a great performance by her. Her Cheezy
Mom Of The Bride antics, and need to have alittle fun with Alex and Maggie at the shower... :D

Secondly, was Supergirl on Mars! As background as Supergirl was, I did appreciate Supergirl feeling the need to and fully
embracing / taking the chance to repay J'onn J'onnz for all the help he's given her. The "Hit Me Baby One More Time" and
making a Looney Toons "must've made a wrong turn at Albuquerque" crack... PRICELESS!! Also consider this Round 2 of Supergirl
vs a White Martian, WHICH SUPERGIRL DECISIVELY WON THIS TIME!! YAY!!

Interesting tidbit about who played J'onn's father this ep, and I do agree I hope he's brought back for more episodes in
the future. The final lines between him and J'onn about Supergirl's specialness? GOLDEN!!

Agree though the writing leading up to the decisive bits of Supergirl were pretty sloppy -- I'd've preferred her to have
been the "we WILL stay here IN PEACE till..." Big Stick enforcer rather than immediately punching her way around to make her
point to the rebel white martians. As for her disintegrating the white martians... the less said the better.


Regards

Professor Feetlebaum said...

What year was that car? If it was a 1955 model, it could be a reference to J'onn J'onzz first appearance in Detective Comics 225.

Anonymous said...

"But the lethal attacks, the occasionally 'heavier than it needed to be' political messages, and the Staff being found despite all the pre-plot points made it less than optimal."

Anj I could not agree more. In fact if I may be so blunt, I felt like Maggie's parents belonged to the dreaded and very leftist racist Westboro Baptist Church in Kansas...whose founder the late and dead (thank God) Fred Phelps, was friends with DEMOCRAT AL GORE SENIOR. That's right the former Clinton VP turned environmentalist hack's father, a TN Senator who was against the 1964 Civil Rights Act. This should show you that the Republicans are not the bigots the fake media and Hollywood portrays them to be.

And as for the homophobia, you should hear what Islam, the left's new religious cult does to gays...they throw them off buildings and kill them. And where is the outrage from the LGBT community and the left on this? Crickets.

To me it also insulted the people of Nebraska. Do ALL people behave that way in that state? Of course not. This was played on stereotypes, all of which should be declared crimes against humanity.

Scrimmage said...

I agree completely with all the comments bemoaning the fact that once again, Supergirl was relegated to being a supporting character in her own show. This is one of those episodes where it seems as if the writers forgot the title of the show they're working on. This isn't “The Martian Manhunter Chronicles,” or the “Alex Luvs Maggie Show.” It's “SUPERGIRL!”

The premise of a “father-themed” episode could've been interesting, but the problem with its execution is that it focused on two fathers that, until now, we knew nothing about, and never even heard of! Meanwhile, the titular Star of the show, Kara's TWO fathers, Zor-El, and the long-missing Jeremiah Danvers didn't even rate a mention. I can only conclude that all the focus on Kara's mothers, Allura and Eliza, and the apparently deliberate exclusion of her father figures, are part of the show's ongoing penchant for disparaging men as a way to “empower” women. How disappointing.

As proof, look no farther than the ridiculously written, inexplicably bigoted character of Maggie's father. All I could say after watching his big blow-up scene with Maggie was “WTF??”

Let's see if I've got this straight (no pun intended). Here's a man - a SHERIFF! - who is obviously revolted at the sight of his estranged adult daughter kissing her lesbian fiance, a guy who kicked his own kid out of his house at a tender young age, just because she said she “liked” girls. This is the same guy who then tried to justify his own prejudice and cruelty by saying that he only did it because he wanted her to be accepted by some unspecified “THEY” (presumably “white people” who are in favor of controlling our borders and enforcing our immigration laws, just like every OTHER civilized country in the world, INCLUDING Mexico), who he claims “hate homosexuals almost as much as they hate Mexicans.” Who in their right mind would ever take that kind of baseless, contradictory, inflammatory rhetoric seriously?

So was dumping his gay daughter on his sister supposed to somehow “cure” her of being a lesbian, so that she could be accepted by the same rednecks who stupidly elected him sheriff, or did he REALLY do it because the thought of having a lesbian living under his roof was more than he could stand? I think all that other crap was nothing more than a rationalization to justify his OWN prejudice, and his unforgivable treatment of his daughter.

This guy is completely unhinged! He's a dangerously misinformed, paranoid racist, a bigoted homophobe, and a completely unsympathetic character, with no redeeming qualities. Why he was taking up precious air time on a show about a female super hero was the biggest mystery of the whole episode. The ongoing subplot of Alex and Maggie's relationship continues to drag the show down. It hasn't reached “Guardian” proportions yet, but it's getting there.

Scrimmage said...

I thought the CGI-heavy Martian subplot was poorly developed, essentially pointless, and many of the plot devices were real head scratchers. Are we really supposed to believe that J'onn can get a telepathic message from M'gann, a White Martian, all the way from Mars to the Earth, but he never once sensed that his own father was still alive in TWO HUNDRED YEARS? Yeah, right!

Why do Martians feel so uncomfortable in their own skins, and take human form even when they're among their own kind? Sure, I heard J'onn's dad say that it was a Martian tradition to take the form of their guests, but if that's true, why weren't they all blonde haired, blue eyed girls in mini-skirts?

Why does Miss Martian – the leader of the White Martian Rebellion - continue to take the form of a Green Martian when she goes into battle? Isn't that what the politically correct crowd calls “cultural appropriation?”

I thought the idea that a member of a telepathic race would not recognize his own son was ridiculous, and needlessly delayed the action. The idea that Supergirl would solve the problem, essentially by asking M'yrnn “pretty please” was even worse! I also found M'yrnn's use of the Earth expression “okay,” during the mental flashback a bit off the mark, but that was a minor quibble compared to what happened during the climactic battle sequence.

Supergirl used the staff to disintegrate (as in kill) five White Martians, after which J'onn said “Good work, Supergirl,” as if he was complimenting her on how efficiently she killed her enemies. Her callous disregard for sentient life was even more shocking considering the fact that she admitted that when it came to White Martians, she couldn't always distinguish between friend or foe! I'm sure it's much handier and cheaper to have CGI characters disappear when they're vanquished than to go to the expense of adding their unconscious bodies into all the post-battle shots, but I'm not willing to sacrifice Kara's moral code for the sake of expedience in post-production. It is TOTALLY unacceptable for Supergirl to willingly take a life, no matter HOW monstrous or “alien” that life may be. Not only was Supergirl reduced to being a bit player in this episode, she was written completely out of character in the climax. You'd think the Network would've learned it's lesson about having it's heroes kill people after the first season of “Arrow.” They STILL haven't lived down the body count Oliver tallied in that inaugural season. Even Robot Chicken made fun of Green Arrow's “permanent” solutions to temporary problems.

Hopefully, Supergirl will avoid a similar fate.

Anonymous said...

I wasn't all that interested in the Mars arc of the episode, but connecting the Martian Manhunter to that car gave me the 50s feeling of Martian movies and it was one of the best things ever. I now want a 50s episode of John coming to Earth, I wouldn't even care if that meant no Supergirl in the show for one episode.

But the best thing of the episode is Maggie's father. He is such a tragic wonderful sample of humanity. Hurt by a society where too many are brought up by skewed ideals of worth based on heritage, he himself holds on to the skewed ideals he grew up with. The actor does such an amazing job I can't believe it. You can see how he tries to fit into a world that has moved on, but ultimately finds no place in it and becomes toxic to those around him. There is no true malice in him, he is just unable to throw away the values he was brought up with.

I love how they left it at that. Maggie grew up in a world that was a little better and had the opportunity to be better herself and break the cycle in her family, hopefully forever.

I think change takes time. My parents took the first step in our line and walked away from the church realizing that while some ideas were good, the bad values where too firmly rooted in a cycle reluctant to change. But I still see some of those values lingering in them in a way that my brother and I was able to shake. I also realize I struggle with some toxic behavior I grew up with, that I might never fully be rid off. The wonderful thing is that I now see the next generation becoming better than me.

I truly enjoyed this episode and I forgive them for letting Supergirl take a back seat. I really really wish Kara would have reacted differently though when she first saw the devastating power of the staff. The white martian rebel came out the bigger man in this episode.

Anj said...

Well, politics are polarizing and you can see that here in these comments. I can only hope that the discussion remains civilized.

Scrimmage, I agree with you that not having Jeremiah or Zor-El even mentioned in this episode seems like a wasted opportunity.

And I have to say that Maggie's Dad is a tough character to crack. But I do find it a bit heavy handed that his homophobia is born from the racism he faced from presumably white America. So white america is the villain for everything.

Anonymous said...

I personally don't think that what Maggie's father said necessarily is the truth. I think he uses it as a tool to put more guilt on the society that hurt him, without having to answer to his own acts of discrimination. It doesn't change the fact that many of those who persecuted him for his race would also persecute his daughter for her being lesbian, but his distaste for his daughters sexual preference seems wholly his own in my opinion. That's how I read it between the lines.

Anonymous said...

Wow everyone got politically colonized this week huh? Since we are debating "current events" by way of a scifi show I'll just note that making Maggie's dad into a man ruled by fear seems a good way to undercut the much anticipated caricature of a bigotry & homophobia...its a way of veering off the politics or else obscuring them as I see it.
Normally I don't wallow in quotes as its inflammatory but:
"Fred Phelps, was friends with DEMOCRAT AL GORE SENIOR. That's right the former Clinton VP turned environmentalist hack's father, a TN Senator who was against the 1964 Civil Rights Act. This should show you that the Republicans are not the bigots the fake media and Hollywood portrays them to be."
This is guilt by association, which is really the issue that the show likes to criticize....but I digress.
Superman used to beat up Klansmen on the radio, I guess he didn't realize that there are bad people on both sides of a lynch mob huh?
Again I digress....Agree with all and sundry that Supergirl disintegrating white martians has to stop, the show's real politics seem to be "Supergirl says one thing, then does another", on this issue the use of deadly force I am agreement with all above, I do think petitioning the producers to knock it off is entirely appropriate. I wish MB would make representations on this issue.
BTW I thought this version of Supergirl was oxygen dependent, what was she breathing on Mars??
Still and all that, Benoist did shine in most of her scenes....the "driving scene" was hilarious....but most definitely she was her own "b-plot" this week, but given the fact that Sanvers is about to auto destruct there was likely no choice. I also agree with all of the above "More Helen Slater Please!!" If Alex goes off the deep end post Alex, Helen must be there to catch her, that is drama I wanna see!

JF

Anonymous said...

While I agree with that not mentioning zor-el was a wasted opportunity (I don't really care about Jeremiah, since I see him and pa kent of man of steel as the same 'don't use your powers to help others' kinda people)

But then again, Lara hardly gets a mention in Superman comics nowadays (except that one, where Superman named his daughter after his mother, but that isn't continuity I guess) so, I guess giving alura more of a spot to shine...works? I would actually love to see more of Krypton and her life before she came to earth. Thats the strength which Supergirl stories have but they have yet to tap into that fully.

Also, please no more daxam or mon-el, I really can't stand either.

Anj said...

I totally love Alura being in the spotlight and the primary parent for Kara.

But in a 'father-themed' show, even a mention of Zor or Jeremiah might have gone a long way. Even Alex could have said 'at least your dad didn't work for a nefarious evil cabal trying to rule the world'.

Lots of interesting comments on this episode. Thank you all for this discussion!

BigShadow said...

what will no one mention the awesome fact that Carl Lumby The DCAU Martian Manhunter is voicing this Martian Manhunter's dad?

Martin Gray said...

Big Shadow, it’s right there, in Anj’s review. ‘And seeing Carl Lumbly, who did the voice of J'onn on the JLA Timm-verse cartoons, playing J'onn's father was awesome.’

Late to the party again! Good episode generally, I don’t mind the very occasional ‘guest star in her own show’ bit, given that a lot of the screen time is building towards ending the Alex/Maggie relationship which hogs so much of the show. I’d be all for keeping it - I realise the superb Lima isn’t available as a regular - if it wasn’t quite so central to the programme.

I agree, stop Supergirl killing. Mind, the rebels giving up the staff made no sense... yes, killing is terrible, but they’re in a ruddy war, I’d think any advantage is worth having. Could they not use the staff as a threat, at least? (It reminded me of Stargirl’s rod.)

And I don’t get the way J’onn treats forwarding the deliverance of his planet as a vacation? Why would he not stay to help foster peace? At the very least, you’d think he’d want to be by his gal’s side

Carl Lumbly was excellent. To me, he’ll always be Petrie from Cagney and Lacey, I tend to forget he was in Alias.

I didn’t like that bit where J’onn said he didn’t know if he could’ve done it without Kara. What’s with the male/Martian pride? And then she massages his ego. Get a grip!

Anj said...

Thanks for latcomment!
I agree that the Maggie/Alex relationship did sort of hog air time for a while. I think Alex’s response will be part of her season arc, but at least she’ll be dealing with it by hanging with her sister.

And good thought about J’onn just taking off again to Earth. Maybe he feels his ‘green-ness’ doesn’t belong in a White Martian civil war?

Unknown said...

I am big fan of super girl TV show. I watched online all episodes of this TV show. But some time I felt that super girl is not enough strong as superman. I think superman can beat super girl easily. Some time a thought comes in my mind What happened if there was fight between Superman and Super girl. Who won the fight. What you guys think about this.