Supergirl - season 2 (The CW) (1 Viewer)

[NeilO]

I get it that air attacks might be useless, but ground forces should have been giving the invaders "the gift of lead"...

When she died, she crumbled to dust. That made no sense; it was as if the writers were trying to imitate what happened to the Wicked Witch after she got soaked with water.

They did have police forces in the previous episode giving "the gift of lead", but not much here. Getting an army to the city may have proved problematic as any incoming forces could have been blasted from the air.

As far as getting help from other Earths - easier said than done and while Supergirl is getting the help what would happen in her absence?

Rhea crumbling to dust was very weird and unexplained. For that matter, the instant reaction by the Daxamites to the air contamination was quite different that the simple slight depowering in the previous episode when Guardian sprayed some lead around.

While overall I enjoyed the resolution to the season, there were several places where the writers were not consistent.

 

[Gary Seven]

Two big problems with the episode... Supergirl lays out Superman. WHAT??? Let's forget that fact that Superman has more muscle mass and strength than Supergirl, he also has ten years more experience as well as exposure to many alien fighting styles. This show is such a fantasy for women, it really needs to move to Lifetime.

And of course the other problem is Cat Grant knows Clark Kent is Superman, unless she is as incredibly dumb as the writing on this show.

 

[Adam Lenhardt]

Very disappointing finale, capping off a very disappointing season. Hopefully they bounce back next year. Loved the first season, loved the opening two-parter of this season, but the rest has been rough sledding.

This episode revealed that she is a Durlan and was born on Durla. Durlan shape-shifting ability explains how she can pass herself off as human, and probably also her ability to survive the Air Force One crash. But now her secrets are known to Cat, Kara, and at least the upper levels of the DEO.

Conveniently, none of the pilots of Air Force One or its escorts are around to have learned these secrets.

Yes, she is ineligible to be president, and if her secret ever comes out it would cause a constitutional crisis. Any other DEO leader probably would have had a serious moral quandry once he learned the truth. But since J'onn is essentially guilty of perpetrating the same kind of deception, he's probably unusually sympathetic to her position.

One would question the integrity of any person who would the nation's executive branch vulnerable to blackmail and disarray by running for office with such a huge secret. Then charging into a battle you can't possibly win, knowing you'll likely survive even if everybody else on the plane doesn't, seems incredibly selfish. It's too bad the writers have made the decisions they've made because Lynda Carter deserved to play a GREAT president.

I was joking when I wrote this and it turns out I pretty much guessed how they defeated the Daxamites. All they needed to do was poison the environment.

Yeah, the execution was poor though. The Earth-38 Daxamites have been shown to be far less vulnerable to lead than the Daxamites of the comics. When Mon-El got shot, the bullet affected him as much as it would any human, but not all that significantly worse. It doesn't make sense to me that a level of lead in the atmosphere sufficient to kill the Daxamites wouldn't have deeply harmful effects on humans as well. At the very least, you'd expect the next generation of humans to have decreased bone and muscle growth, speech and language problems and developmental delays.

Now the big question is whether they will lead into doing Legion of Super-Heroes. That would be tremendous fun. We already have the introduction of a Durlan.

Part of me wondered if the wormhole that sucked up Mon-El brought him to the Earth-1/Arrowverse universe. Perhaps he'll jump to "Legends of Tomorrow" next season.

If this show was any more left wing Socialist it would need to be renamed SocialistGirl instead.

This season has had a lot of blunt knee-jerk liberalism in it, but there hasn't been anything really socialist about it.

Like I said before, they've totally ruined a very good comic book character that is now nothing like the comics or for that matter season one. I really don't care what side you are on in real life, I watch a show for fun and fantasy, to escape. But when shows get political on either side that's when I stop watching. If I wanted politics and lectures I would watch the freaking news channel.

I don't mind political subtext if it feels organic to the story being told. The problem here is that it's hardly ever organic. They have a point they want to make, and then stretch the story to make it. And the one political thread that did feel organic to the story -- immigration policy -- wasn't handled with any nuance. Kara felt very strongly that of course America should let all of the extraterrestrial refugees in, and then the show sort of accepted that as a given. It never explored the problems that come with such a policy, or the challenges that would arise integrating such people into human society.

I get the feeling that there aren't a lot of contrary opinions in the writer's room in these areas, and that hurts the show.

Finally, where was Earth's military? I get it that air attacks might be useless, but ground forces should have been giving the invaders "the gift of lead".

This is the big one, especially after the aliens took out Air Force One. In the first season, Myriad ensured that any military forces that entered the city would immediately fall under the mind control of the Kryptonian enemy. This threat had no such explanation.

I get the sense that CBS placed a lot more constraints on the show than The CW does, and most of those constraints were probably good for the show.

When she died, she crumbled to dust. That made no sense; it was as if the writers were trying to imitate what happened to the Wicked Witch after she got soaked with water.

Yeah, it's like someone came up with the idea, thought it would look cool, and nobody worried about the fact that it made no sense whatsoever.

Getting an army to the city may have proved problematic as any incoming forces could have been blasted from the air.

If they had at least taken 30 seconds of screen time to show military forces attempting to approach and getting shot down, it would have been better than just ignoring that element all together.

For that matter, the instant reaction by the Daxamites to the air contamination was quite different that the simple slight depowering in the previous episode when Guardian sprayed some lead around.

Good point. That would seem to be a major contradiction.

Two big problems with the episode... Supergirl lays out Superman. WHAT??? Let's forget that fact that Superman has more muscle mass and strength than Supergirl, he also has ten years more experience as well as exposure to many alien fighting styles.

Of course Supergirl was going to win the fight, since it's her show. But that should have been though ingenuity and taking advantage of the confusion and disorientation caused by the silver Kryptonite. The show wanted payoff for this season's journey that it hadn't earned, so it tried to increase Supergirl's standing by comparing her favorably to Superman. But if you go too far with that, which I think this episode did, you're not so much making Supergirl seem more awesome as you are making Superman less awesome. It's never a great idea to build up one character by diminishing another.

So they could say that Kryptonian females are more efficient at metabolizing solar energy than Kyptonian males, and that's why she's stronger even though she's smaller, but it wouldn't provide any insight into character or do anything but make Kara even less relatible to us mere mortals than she already is.

The best Superman/Supergirl stories are about the triumph of optimism, integrity and decency over cynicism, dishonesty and cruelty. The first season spent a lot of time showcasing Supergirl succeeding because she was a good person. This season has often devolved into her being the best because she can punch the hardest, and that's neither inspiring nor engaging.

 

[Matt Hough]

Very nice summary of problems from this season, Adam. You beat me to the explanation of Supergirl's triumphing over Superman: it's her show. I think that is the only reason that makes sense, but I certainly agree that to build up Supergirl to the diminishment of Superman is foolhardy and insulting.

I'll continue with the show next year since I've dropped all of the other CW superhero shows now. I hope they will book Tyler for another two or three appearances again as he hits just the right notes as the Man of Steel. I suspect Calista will appear a few times next season as well. Actually enjoyed having her back for this visit. She sometimes got on my nerves last season with her unvarying put-downs and complaining, but a little bit of her can be fun.

 

[Thomas Newton]

It doesn't make sense to me that a level of lead in the atmosphere sufficient to kill the Daxamites wouldn't have deeply harmful effects on humans as well. At the very least, you'd expect the next generation of humans to have decreased bone and muscle growth, speech and language problems and developmental delays.

Now we know where they got the writers for this episode: from Earth-38, about 25-30 years in the future.

 

[Joseph Bolus]

Some points referencing the various discussions here:

* Supergirl was able to defeat Superman due to his exposure to Silver Kryptonite. Due to the hulicinary properties of that version of Kryptonite he was unable to properly utilize his 10 years of additional experience in the fight.

* Rhea's disentegration from the lead poisoning was meant to depict her punishment for not honoring the ancient Daxam challenge ritual. It was implied, though, that Mon-El would have faced the same fate had he not had all those additional months of exposure to Earth's yellow sun. As Superman stated earlier in the ep, that gave him a few extra hours of immunity to the air borne poisoning. The rest of the Daxamites immediately beamed up to their ships upon initial contact with the lead contamination.

* So how long has Cat known that Kara was Supergirl? When she suspected the truth last season, J'onn J'onzz shape shifted into Supergirl for a few minutes so she could see Kara and Supergirl together.

 

[Sam Favate]

I enjoyed the finale. There may have been one or two moments where credibility was strained, but overall, it was very satisfying. The ending, with Kara all alone while her friends are all enjoying the comfort of their loved ones, was poignant. Melissa Benoist proved to be more than up to the task of being the lead on this show many times, but never more so than in those final moments of the finale.

So, who's the baby from Krypton shown at the end? Any ideas?

 

[Gary Seven]

Some points referencing the various discussions here:
* Supergirl was able to defeat Superman due to his exposure to Silver Kryptonite. Due to the hulicinary properties of that version of Kryptonite he was unable to properly utilize his 10 years of additional experience in the fight.
.

No. "Superman" made it a point to say the kryptonite did not affect him that way and he was at full strength. The point was made twice, as I recall. Basically they pussified Superman to make Supergirl look good. Even my wife was laughing at the foolishness of it all.

Since Cat knows Kara is Supergirl, then she knows Clark is Superman. Unless she is dumb as a rock.

 

[TJPC]

You guys DO know this is just a fun show based on a comic book, right?

 

[Nelson Au]

Yeah, I literally had to do a search for "Supergirl politics". I see what some of you are objecting to. As we cannot discuss politics, I'll just say that I'm either really dense and didn't see it, or it was simply stuff they chose to say is happening in that Supergirl world. Like the episode where all the aliens are collected and sent off earth, I get it now. To me the show seems more like really empowering young girls who are watching. I does seem like a very feminist show as every lead is a woman. I just never thought about it that hard. I'm still trying to figure out what Earth 38 is. If there's allegory going on, maybe I'm used to it from Star Trek.

Regarding the finale, I'm as I've said before, not fully knowledgeable of all the Superman and Supergirl comics and history. I just took what I saw and went with it. I have no idea who the baby is at the end of the episode. So that will be interesting. After reading the comments above, I can see that they might have done something more tricky then to spew lead into the air. But I was glad it forces Mon El off earth too. Not a fan of his, he seemed like a character they can't do a lot with. I don't know the Supergirl story, so I don't know if she's meant to have a boyfriend. I recall she decided last season as a hero, you have to focus on that and can't really have a life like normal people do. With Mon El's mother gone, he can now go lead his people. Maybe that wormhole that sucked his ship up was taking him back.

I do hope Cat is back next year too. Jimmy wasn't really doing his job. Overall, a slam bang fun action packed finale.

 

[sidburyjr]

No. "Superman" made it a point to say the kryptonite did not affect him that way and he was at full strength. The point was made twice, as I recall. Basically they pussified Superman to make Supergirl look good. Even my wife was laughing at the foolishness of it all.

Since Cat knows Kara is Supergirl, then she knows Clark is Superman. Unless she is dumb as a rock.

But... Superman was building Kara's confidence by telling her that the silver kryptonite did not effect him. What should he have said -- "Yeah, it was the kryptonite. Without it, I could have kicked your ass cause you hit like a girl. Now go out and see if you can land a lucky punch against Rhea."

I thought Cat had figured out the secret identity thing and was glad to see it confirmed.

 

[Thomas Newton]

I'm still trying to figure out what Earth 38 is.

It doesn't seem to be one of the Earth-38s of the comics:
http://dc.wikia.com/wiki/Earth_38

Those seem to be either an Earth based on a John Byrne storyline, or the 'main' Earth for the "New 52" reboot.

Another site suggests that the TV Supergirl's Earth is Earth-38 because Superman first appeared in comics in 1938.

 

[Michael Henry]

My take on Cat "knowing" Kara's identity is that she doesn't know...

To me it seemed like she said "You're a real super girl" - not "You're Supergirl"...

I don't know the exact dialog but that's what I got out of that scene...

 

[mattCR]

Yeah, I literally had to do a search for "Supergirl politics". I see what some of you are objecting to. As we cannot discuss politics, I'll just say that I'm either really dense and didn't see it, or it was simply stuff they chose to say is happening in that Supergirl world. Like the episode where all the aliens are collected and sent off earth, I get it now.

The title of the final episode "Nevertheless, she persisted" was just dead on a reference to the shutdown of a senator that became a meme.

Now, since the politics match my bent, I tended to appreciate their inclusion to make the show seem more relatable, and found it a way to make the show somewhat of a parable at points.. and I tend to appreciate programming either way, even with different topic basis, that make a point to make them relatable .. a show that spends a lot of time with similar conservative parallels, Blue Bloods, often takes on very conservative bent current issues and frames them in the programming, but does decent work with it.

That said, putting aside the political insertion, the season was very up and down, but the highs were pretty good making the show at least interesting.

 

[Adam Lenhardt]

Floriana Lima downgraded to recurring status for Season 3

I can't blame her for seeking other opportunities. She signed on to play this bad ass cop who works the unusual cases for the National City police (and happens to be a lesbian) and ended up stuck just being the love interest for the majority of the season. I think we only got three or four episodes with Maggie doing actual police work.

 

[Adam Lenhardt]

Odette Annable joins "Supergirl" as series regular for Season 3

The "Breaking In," "House" and "Banshee" actress will be playing:

Spoiler: 'Supergirl' Season 3

"the scary, powerful and heartbreaking role of Reign", an alien genetically manipulated in the womb by Kryptonian scientists into a powerful World Killer living weapon.

Her character's introduction was teased in the second season finale.

 

[NeilO]

Here is a link to a page about the spoiler above character in the comics

Spoiler

http://dc.wikia.com/wiki/Reign_(Prime_Earth)

 

[Adam Lenhardt]

‘Supergirl’ Co-Creator Ali Adler Inks CBS TV Studios Overall Deal, Joins ‘Dynasty’
‘Supergirl’: Jessica Queller & Robert Rovner Named Co-Showrunners On the CW Series

Not sure whether this is good news or bad news. All three were involved with both the great first season and the frustrating/disappointing second season. And the nature of the DC/CW production machine is that the individual showrunners have less autonomy than they would on a normal series anyway, since Greg Berlanti, Andrew Kreisberg and Marc Guggenheim are steering the overall ship.

They need to:

1. Scale back the emphasis on the romantic storylines.
2. Refocus the show around the title character. Kara/Supergirl should not feel like a supporting character on her own show, as she often did in the second season.
3. Eliminate the political commentary or at least weave it in in a more graceful way.

 

[Sam Favate]

I would definitely agree with your first two points, but I thought the commentary was done in a natural and sometimes humorous way. I wouldn't want to see that change.

 

[Jeffery_H]

I would definitely agree with your first two points, but I thought the commentary was done in a natural and sometimes humorous way. I wouldn't want to see that change.

That would entirely depend upon what side of the political spectrum you fall into. For me, I stopped watching the show early on into the second season because it ruined the show and was nothing like season one that I enjoyed so much. I have no plans to ever return unless they change things a lot, which is highly unlikely. In the comics, as I have pointed out numerous times, none of this was ever part of the story lines. I just want to enjoy a superhero show like The Flash continues to do so well and remains true to the fans and comic book past.