Supergirl 414: Stand And Deliver

Supergirl episode 414, titled 'Stand and Deliver', aired this week and was a good episode, pushing all plotlines forward, focusing on the political atmosphere of the day with the usual bend, but also trying as best as this show can be to veer to the center.

One thing the show has always had going for it are the strong actors and the character work on the show. This episode, we get a ton of wonderful performances. And we get to see great character growth and moments. In this episode we see Dreamer and her excitement over being a hero. We get to see Supergirl inspire people. We get Brainiac 5 growing as a hero. We see J'onn's personal torment. But most of all, this might be the strongest James Olsen episode in two seasons. I

And the villains get to shine here as well. Menagerie is glorious in her high class desires. The Hat is surprisingly revolutionary. Manchester Black is dogged in his pursuit of revenge. And after a some time, we see just why Ben Lockwood would be able to rally people.

But there has to be a plot to build these on. The main plot is the growing anti-alien sentiment on Earth. After four invasions in three years, I'm not surprised. One thing the show has done is to paint the extremists on both sides in a bad light. The Elite balance out the Children of Liberty. Slaughtering your enemy is never the answer.

Add to this a great cliffhanger and I was pretty happy. On to the review.

Nothing says old school cool like seeing the Elite march out to Stealer's Wheel 'Stuck in the Middle with You', a song and a slow motion walk which brings Reservoir Dogs to mind. I suppose we don't want to villains to be too cool. But as counterculture bad guys, this is pretty slick.

The four have a mission, a plan that the Hat isn't 100% behind. He wants the Elite to have a more revolutionary mindset. But Manchester Black believes this mission will help their overall goals.

But this isn't a well-oiled machine. Menagerie gets lured away by her own desires, the jewelry worn by a passerby. Menagerie might believe in the fighting anti-alien hatred but it isn't her passion.

Menagerie follows the woman into a parking garage. Whether by design or by luck, Dreamer, Supergirl, and J'onn are waiting there to apprehend her. And three against one are good numbers. Menagerie is quickly overpowered and placed in dampening cuffs.

I love how over the top Dreamer is. At first, hands glowing with power, she threatens Menagerie. Supergirl tells her that a hero shows strength more by defiantly putting hands on hips rather than force feed energy bolts to bad guys. Just like that, Dreamer backs off and puts her hands on her hips. Love this mentorship.

But J'onn isn't playing this one by the books either. He is filled with anger and basically threatens Menagerie with a forced mind read unless she reveals the Elite's plan.

The Elite are heading to a late night outdoor press conference by Ben Lockwood. Seems like an odd time.

Bringing up his great humility and bashing the random acts of alien violence, he seems ready to make a big announcement when the Elite strike.

In a classic move, Supergirl speeds in and saves Lockwood, draping him in her indestructible cape. With them element of surprise lost, the remaining Elite teleport away.

What I like here is that either as Supergirl or Kara, we know our hero hates Lockwood. And yet, she still flies in and endangers herself to save him. That is the message we need to hear.

The subplots that have been percolating this season continue along.

James asks Miss Tessmacher if Lena is hiding anything behind the 'black budget' that CatCo has discovered at LexCorp. Eve does some mild obsfucation by saying it is there to hide IP from competitors. But she tells James that Lena is one of the good guys, hoping to help end the protests and revolts.

Meanwhile, at the DEO, Lena stands her ground. She won't rush giving her formula to DEO agents unless it is safe. Despite Colonel Haley pushing the project, Lena is steadfast. Of course, we know that Lena is probably still feeling guilty over killing her human test subject earlier.

Supergirl says outright that the Elite are as bad as the Children of Liberty and that our heroes need to end this confrontation.

First step is dropping off Menagerie at the DEO with an classic pinned note to her. The super-hero delivering the villain to the authorities with a note is a wonderful trope I love. Once more, like last week, we see Alex warming to the idea of Supergirl helping the DEO. I wonder if her own love of her sister will somehow erode the mindwipe! I'd love that!

With Menagerie caught and Supergirl helping off the books, Haley gives Alex an assignment handed down from the President himself. Alex is put on Ben Lockwood's securiry force. At the DEO, Lockwood ironically says that he comes in peace, a line usually reserved to aliens in old movies. Lockwood is that perfect mix of slick public persona and dangerous, murderous secret life.

The following day, Lockwood holds a more classic press conference. He reminds Alex that there were people who disagreed with Winston Churchill but eventually history showed the British Prime Minister was right. Hey Lockwood, you can't tout your humility AND compare yourself with Churchill.

Publically accepting the role of the Director of Alien Affairs, he says his drive is to repeal the Alien Amnesty Act. Now obviously, he doesn't have the power to do that. Only Congress can. But he can be loud and persuasive and grab headlines hoping to force Congress to deal with it. His first step in showing that humanity has to fight for itself.

Almost immediately after his announcement, someone on-line calling themselves AmericanAlien organizes a pro-alien march at the same time.

I have talked about how Colonel Haley is a tough character to get a read on. In some ways, I feel she is the politically central figure who might represent the shifting feelings of many people. She recognizes the threat some aliens are but also simply wants to protect all life. She asks Brainy to try to figure out who AmericanAlien is so they can shut down the parade. Not that she is against pro-alien sentiments and more because she thinks it is gas on a fire. She is trying to protect those marchers in a way. Not the best way but not totally evil either.

Back at Kara's apartment, we see Supergirl streak in just as Alex walks in. You get a subtle little airblast, moving Alex's hair, showing how close a call this was. I loved that small touch. Still, I wonder if Alex has figured out the secret identity on her own.

Alex called this emegency sister dinner because she wants to kill Ben Lockwood and only take-out Chinese and talking to Kara will help. And she gets some good advice from Kara. Alex has to protect Lockwood even though she disagrees with him. But she is also a hero who will make tough decisions. She, like Haley, is there to protect people.

I love Chyler Leigh's exasperation in the scene, so different from her polished military presence in the DEO.

As for the Elite, they have done the impossible, broken into the Fortress of Solitude to look for either weapons or information to defeat Supergirl.

Sure enough, Manchester Black finds what looks to be a Brainiac 5 force field belt. But once again, the Hat tries to refocus Manchester. Hat wants to bring about a revolt against the anti-alien agenda. He thinks Black is out on a suicidal revenge trail. Again, the Elite shows they aren't necessarily of one mind. I suppose that Reservoir Dogs riff was more on the money than I initially thought.

Black now has a Legion ring, a force field belt, and other tech from the Fortress. He's almost an evil Booster Gold.

But our heroes have, using a mix of J'onn's telepathy and Dreamers powers, have sussed out the Fortress heist. They bring down the Morae. Once more Dreamer goes over the top saying 'yield or die' before being told to dial it down to a more heroic 'yield or else'. I love it. She is so hyped up on being a superhero that she hasn't gotten out of her costume all show.

The Hat had left earlier. But Manchester Black refuses to be taken, instead running into a room housing Superman's pet baby sun eater (nice comic reference, to go along with the Cosmic Anvil hammer we saw in the Elseworlds crossover). Looks like he has committed suicide.

The Morae is dropped off at the DEO and again we hear Haley trying to shut down the AmericanAlien Rally. For every successful protest there is a Tianamen Square. She is looking at the bottom line number of saved lives. In some ways, it is noble.

Meanwhile, the dueling rallies is big news. Franklin, the Dryad alien working CatCo is going to cover it. And James is going to join him. Maybe Franklin is a chip off the old Blok?

Okay, bad pun aside, James does give a great little speech. Good journalism can impact millions. They have to shoulder the risk to show all sides of a story. It is why they became reporters.

Perhaps inspired by his own words or realizing the magnitude of the story, James goes decides to cover the rallies as a photographer.

This was a great moment for James. We haven't seen too many moments of his hard-hitting investigations. Glad to see him mentor Franklin as much as Kara is mentoring Nia.

As for the AmericanAlien parade, Brainy reveals to Kara that he is the American Alien. He might not have a Legion ring but he needs to stand and be heard. He wants people to fight together, stand together, and espouse El Mayarah ... to be stronger together. And that would work best if Supergirl marched with them.

Supergirl is a symbol. By marching, she could be a symbol of aliens being citizens of Earth.

But like Haley, Supergirl is thinking of the bottom line. She needs to patrol. She needs to keep people safe. And so she needs to not march and instead defend.

This speech by Brainiac 5 was also great. He hits all the right marks. He drops an El Mayarah in there. And he is heroic, more eloquent and less awkward than we have seen him this season.

As I said, the villains give performances that are just as strong as the heroes. At his rally, Lockwood whips his followers into a frenzy, saying amnesty isn't a kindness but self-sabotage. He gets them to chant 'them or us', much to Alex's disgust. This is a united crowd, unlike the conflicted Elite.

One thing I did like was seeing that Lockwood's crowd was pretty diverse. This wasn't only white men in the anti-alien crowd, as it should be.

The AmericanAlien parade heads down the street towards Lockwood's rally in what seems to be an explosive combination.  While I get the overall sentiment, some of the signs (like 'no nations') seem a bit extreme. But it's a rally. They suffer hecklers, including Lockwood's handler Quentin. Quentin doesn't care if the aliens are fleeing war or devastation on their worlds. He only likes alien heroes like Supergirl.

Hearing Quentin's words makes Supergirl realize Brainy was right. She is a symbol. And the way she can help the most is to join the parade as a citizen, Kara Zor-El. Love that she is dressed in Kryptonian robes, toning down the superhero part of her and instead showing she is just a person like everyone else. Nice touch. And Nia finally takes off the Dreamer gear and joins as well.

The two groups meet in the same lobby and things get tense. Lockwood seems to want to incite a riot, forcing Alex to remove him from the stage. She says he is the problem.

Manchester Black also shows up, saved at the last minute by his friend the Hat.

He activates one of the devices he swiped from the Fortress. Suddenly a swarm of Blacks descend onto the crowd and demands that everyone find an alien hater and kill them. The whole place devolves into a riot. The Hat hands out truncheons to aggravated people.The copies of Manchester turn out to be holograms. Nia saves Franklin. James snaps photos.

The J'onn/Manchester dynamic is so interesting. They seem to really loathe each other. And J'onn seems outright irate at Black.

J'onn screams that Black is almost happy that Fiona died because it gave Manchester an excuse to kill. Hammering away and going almost feral, J'onn seems ready to kill Manchester when the hologram drops revealing that 'Manchester' was a Children Of Liberty member. J'onn almost killed a human.

I doubt these two are going to hug it out.

The riot police show up. Everyone is fighting everyone.

But in the middle of it all, we see Quentin shocked and scared by the carnage around him. Perhaps he finally sees what revolution and hate leads to. This isn't insults hurled at a parade; this is anarchy.

He seems a changed man, helping an alien to his feet and thanking Supergirl. She is a symbol.

This was a great moment.

But this was the greatest shot in the show. With Gary Jules ;Mad World' playing, we pull back to see the devastation of the melee. And we see Supergirl suddenly small amid the damage. That giant United States flag in the background is also effective. This chaos is not America.

It is an interesting juxtaposition. From the powerful 'thank you Supergirl' moment to this downbeat moment is something to chew over. I suppose it shows this is a complex problem. A battle victory doesn't mean we still aren't at war.

Nothing left but the wrap-up.

James photo of a human leading an alien to safety with a 'Stand together' sign in the background has become a touchstone for the problem.

Faced with the backlash of the attack, Lockwood seems to back down from his demands for a repeal. I doubt publicity hound President Baker can't be happy that he unleashed a rabid dog to the cameras.

As I said, Colonel Haley fascinates me. She again shows that she is more gray than black and white on these political matters. She calls Lockwood a bureaucrat drunk on power. She commends Alex for standing up for her beliefs rather than rigidly following the law.

Alex says it. Haley is confounding. In a show where people sometimes are almost political caricatures, having someone straddling common sense with occasional missteps is interesting.

J'onn sheds his human form so he can manhunt. Boy, Manchester Black really has irritated J'onn.

On the Danvers couchm Alex admits she was inspired by Supergirl to do what's right. She followed her beliefs not the rules. While superficially commendable, that can be a troublesome credo. What if her beliefs told her to bomb a building or shoot Lockwood?

And then, the cliffhanger. James is shot in CatCo.

My guess? Haley, who this whole episode I thought has been coming around to the side of good, has shot James to spur Lena into giving him the serum to save him. Earlier we heard Haley mention Lena and James relationship so she knows they were a couple.

Okay, so overall I thought this was an uplifting episode. Zealots on the extremes of the political landscape are painted as awful. People listening to each other's concerns and getting to know each other and striving forward and shown well. And Supergirl got to be Supergirl -  leader, mentor and inspirational figure.
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Sorry for long review! So much to cover!