Supergirl - season 3 (The CW) (1 Viewer)

[Adam Lenhardt]

The hope that Andrew Kreisberg's forced departure from the show would turn things around certainly hasn't borne fruit.

The idea of Argo City surviving -- and the idea that it's preserved within a glass dome in a floating shard of Krypton rather than in a bottle somewhere -- are both good ones. The problem is that Argo City looks like the more abstractly designed parts of rainy Vancouver, and the Kryptons are costumed like aliens were costumed on "Star Trek: The Next Generation": Sure, there are no brand names, but they still don't seem very alien. The first and second seasons did a better job of presenting Krypton as a truly alien place.

Mon-El has really overstayed his welcome at this point. I think the show wants us to root for him leaving his wife and getting back together with Kara, but that makes me feel icky.

This week's bit with the guns was a bit heavy handed. Have we seen the DEO actually use those particular guns in the past?

It feels like yet another superficial political lecture to me. Yes, they made a modicum of effort to present both sides, but they weren't really willing to dig into the issue.

"Arrow" did a gun control episode this season that felt a bit heavy-handed too, but at least that show takes place in Star City, the failed state that has turned into a gun-soaked hellscape. I think I can count on one hand the number of times villains on "Supergirl" have utilized guns. The villains are roughly 70 percent superpowered aliens, 20 percent superpowered metahumans, and 10 percent normal humans. And even the normal humans, like Maxwell Lord and Morgan Edge, tend to be more calculating and mastermind-y than gun-wielding thugs.

My biggest problem with both gun control "very special" episodes, though, were the pat resolutions. On "Arrow", they pass a balanced gun control measure that gets the guns out of the hands of the bad guys while respecting the rights of honest gun owners -- but they provide absolutely no details about how that works, how the two groups are differentiated, how it's implemented, or how it's to be enforced. On "Supergirl", they have Winn invent magic non-lethal weapons that won't kill anybody but will still be strong enough to take down aliens with many times the endurance and stamina of humans.

I was thinking this might be the season finale, but we actually have 2 more episodes left.

Why did they leave the keys in the spaceship?

Hehe. If this were a Marvel/Netflix series, Kara getting stranded on Argo City would be the development about three-quarters of the way through the season to pad a nine or 10 episode story out to 13 episodes.

 

[Sam Favate]

The stuff with Argo City (I'm vaguely familiar with the comic book Argo -- I know it survived) seemed like a bit of a cheat. After all this time, we find Kara's mother and friends alive? It seems they're going to have some kind of conflict that makes her realize her true home is on Earth. And I said months ago that Alex was going to end up adopting Ruby. Somehow, that's going to happen.

 

[TJPC]

In Supergirl comics in the ‘60s, Argo city was found to have survived by accident for a time because it had a dome. (The ground was all kryptonite, and had to be covered with sheets of led). A religious fanatic was responsible for destroying it when it drifted close to earth and the population got super powers, which he believed was against the will of the gods. Kara’s parents escaped to the phantom zone, (or possibly another similar zone her father was working on — I forget), where they were later discovered by Supergirl.

They arrived on Earth, but missed Krypton, and asked to move to the bottled city of Kandor which was kept in Superman’s fortress of solitude. Kara would visit them there from time to time. This started some torn-between-two- worlds-and-sets-of-parents plots for Kara.

(Boy did I read my comics over and over, or what?)

 

[Gary Seven]

Out of all the super hero shows, this one provides my eyes with lots of exercise (from the constant rolling). It is by far my least favorite but being a fan of the Supeman mythos, I have to watch (at least for now). Like watching a train wreck I cannot deviate my eyes from. I assume the path will not stray and I will eventually turn away.

 

[Thomas Newton]

Like watching a train wreck I cannot deviate my eyes from.

You mean like when Kara and J'onn didn't ask Clark to help them with the World Killers? How did the conversation leading up to that decision go? Anything like this?

J'onn: "You know, Kara, maybe we ought to call in Clark on this one. The World Killers have been beating us like a drum, and we can't afford to lose the war. We need strength in numbers."
Mon-El: "Sounds good to me."
Kara: "We can't, guys. It's pizza night at the Planet. Clark would never forgive me if we made him miss that. We'll have to fight the World Killers alone."
J'onn: "OK."
Mon-El: "Why did all of history from 2019 on just disappear from my communicator?"

 

[Adam Lenhardt]

This definitely felt like the first half of a two-part season finale. It was good to have all of the players in the same place again.

It made me laugh that just last week the DEO is going to all non-lethal weaponry, and then this week Alex is guns blazing with Kryptonite bullets.

For all of my problems with this season, Carl Lumbly has been terrific as M'yrnn. That whole storyline has been very well done. I loved his goodbye to Alex. And the visuals for the memory transfer ritual were well conceived.

With the planet being terraformed, part of me wonders if Selena's cult will succeed on Earth-38 but National City will somehow be transported to Earth-1, to make crossovers easier.

 

[Garysb]

In Supergirl comics in the ‘60s, Argo city was found to have survived by accident for a time because it had a dome. (The ground was all kryptonite, and had to be covered with sheets of led). A religious fanatic was responsible for destroying it when it drifted close to earth and the population got super powers, which he believed was against the will of the gods. Kara’s parents escaped to the phantom zone, (or possibly another similar zone her father was working on — I forget), where they were later discovered by Supergirl.

They arrived on Earth, but missed Krypton, and asked to move to the bottled city of Kandor which was kept in Superman’s fortress of solitude. Kara would visit them there from time to time. This started some torn-between-two- worlds-and-sets-of-parents plots for Kara.

(Boy did I read my comics over and over, or what?)

The story of Argo city changed quite a bit over the years in the comics. In the first Kara ( calling her Kara Zor-El didn't happen until decades later) Supergirl story, when Krypton exploded Argo survived intact surrounded by a large bubble of air. When it was pointed out that the air wouldn't stay around a small land mass , story was changed to the dome. Kara was born in Argo City after Krypton exploded. Meteors destroyed the dome when Kara was about 15 and she was sent to Earth by her parents. They knew of Superman. Her mother made Kara a female version of Superman's costume, "so he would know she was a Krypton girl." Later it was found that Supergirl's parents did survive by going to the "Survival Zone" At first this was described as similar to the Phantom Zone and then as just another name for the Phantom Zone. When Supergirl released her parents they decided to live in the bottled city of Kandor.

 

[NeilO]

This definitely felt like the first half of a two-part season finale. It was good to have all of the players in the same place again.

It made me wonder why they just didn't show both hours this past Monday.

 

[Garysb]

There will be less Winn next season , Jeremy Jordan will only be recurring next season. This is disappointing but he never has much to do so I guess not surprising. Brainiac-5 (Jesse Rath) will be a regular next season.

https://tvline.com/2018/06/15/supergirl-season-4-jeremy-jordan-recurring-winn-finale-spoilers/

https://tvline.com/2018/06/15/supergirl-season-4-jesse-rath-series-regular-brainy/

 

[Matt Hough]

I was very surprised by the Jeremy Jordan announcement though I'll admit while I was still watching the show, I realized his role had greatly shrunk from what it was during the first two seasons.

I may watch an episode or two next season just to see if the vibe for the show has changed with these changes.

 

[Richard V]

I'm just glad Chad Lowe has exited from the show. His appearances were like Fingernails on a Chalkboard, at least for me.

 

[Adam Lenhardt]

Really bummed about Jeremy Jordan. In a lackluster season, Winn was one of the few characters still firing on all cylinders. I don't blame him for wanting to pursue other opportunities, though.

They're adding a transgender main character next season. Hope it's handled better than pretty much all of the other topical issues have been.

 

[Garysb]

A quote from the articlr I linked to says

"Though the details surrounding Winn’s future are being under wraps for now — they’ll be revealed over the course of Monday’s season finale (The CW, 8/7c) — Rovner and Queller assure us that his next steps will be true to his character, adding that he’s ultimately “fulfilling his full potential.”"

So if you want to know why Winn isn't around much going forward watch the season finale.

Remember they announced that Paul Blackthorne (Detective Lance) wouldn't be a regular on "Arrow" in advanced of their season finale and look what happened to him. Of course at the time it was already known that Paul was going to be a regular on a new show next season.

I am interested to see if maybe Kara will be sidelined for an episode or two next season. Melissa Benoist is on Broadway until August 4 which is about a month after the usually start of filming the new season. So I guess they will ether film around her and/or her role will be reduced for a few episodes. Unless they filmed some of next season in advance, there wouldn't be any new footage for San Diego Comic Con which usually includes new footage in a trailer shown at the event.

 

[DaveHof3]

They're adding a transgender main character next season. Hope it's handled better than pretty much all of the other topical issues have been.

I'm sure, as with their past efforts, it will have all the subtlety of a lead vocal by Meat Loaf.

 

[NeilO]

I'm just glad Chad Lowe has exited from the show. His appearances were like Fingernails on a Chalkboard, at least for me.

I think that was the point. His character got what he deserved.

 

[Adam Lenhardt]

That was actually a fairly decent finale, certainly a great deal better than the episodes that came before it.

Definitely a board-clearing episode of television, too, with three main characters leaving and two other main characters shifting into new roles.

I'm glad Mon-El is headed back to the future, and I'm glad him and Kara parted ways with full acceptance of the situation. The high school-level drama between the two of them has really been an albatross around the show's neck for the last two seasons. Apparently Chris Wood signed up for two years from the beginning, so this was always intended to be the end of his journey.

In fact, after a season where Supergirl didn't act much like Supergirl, it was nice to see her really find herself again -- with a nice homage to Superman: The Movie to boot.

I've been figuring all season that they were going to kill off Sam and have Alex adopt Ruby, and was pleasantly surprised when the two of them got their happy ending. I wonder if that's one of the things that changed with the regime change midway through the season. I wouldn't be surprised if we see them again at some point down the road.

I hate that Winn's leaving the show, at least for a while, but it was a pretty good send off for him. He sort of faded into the background this season, but he really is kind of amazing.

If Alex becoming the director means she has something to do besides mope about her lackluster personal life, I'm all for it.

James having his "I am Iron Man" moment was... meh. But I've long felt that he's the character they've never quite figured out what to do with.

As long as J'onn continues to be a mentor for Kara and Alex, I don't mind that he's not leading the DEO any more. I kind of hope they go full Silver Age and have him adopt the identity of Detective John Jones, with the National City Police Department.

I'm glad Lena's staying morally ambiguous.

That stinger at the end would seem to hint that they're going full Superman III with the fourth season. Wouldn't it be more interesting, though, if she wasn't Kara's evil doppelganger, but rather the Kara from the original timeline?

 

[Bob Cashill]

"Timelines!" my wife muttered. "Please don't turn into THE FLASH!" (She's not a fan.)

 

[NeilO]

[QUOTE="Adam Lenhardt, post: 4623054, member: 283087"
I hate that Winn's leaving the show, at least for a while, but it was a pretty good send off for him. He sort of faded into the background this season, but he really is kind of amazing.[/QUOTE]

I wish we hadn't heard the casting news so the trade between Brainiac-5 and Winn would have been a full surprise. Winn has quite grown from the IT friend back in the first season.

All in all, I thought it was a good finale even with the second try at defeating Reign.

 

[Sam Favate]

I found the very end to be confusing as hell.

 

[Garysb]

Per an interview with the producers , the Kara in Siberia is going to be the basis of a story based on the Superman story Red Son where it was imagined what superman's life would be if his ship had landed in Russia.

https://tvline.com/2018/06/18/supergirl-recap-season-3-finale-ending-explained-red-son/

"Then came the episode’s final scene, which introduced a second Kara — one born from the aura that left Supergirl’s body during the battle with Reign — in Siberia.

“For fans of the comics, I think they might recognize that the story we want to tell is inspired by the iconic DC Comics’ Red Son, which told an alternate origin story for Superman,” Rovner tells TVLine, to which Queller adds, “What happened if — as a baby — Superman landed in Russia and became a hero there instead of in America. It’s an homage to that.”