(Pre-written holiday cover)
If it weren't for the annoying and stereotypical jumping towards each other to fight in the finale, this would be a near perfect episode of 'Supergirl'. It was close to excellent, with Peter Facinelli returning as Maxwell Lord to prop up the cast, and even Alex being interesting while a blondened fugitive, before returning to plot monkey mode halfway through. There were morality questions aplenty, some good surprises, the return of the blue cyber-being Indigo (do all women look better while blue or green?), and even the Non was almost interesting, but not really. The Kryptonian plots have been the most boring part of the season, even as their Myriad mind control scheme unrolled this time.
Apparently, Non and and Kara's aunt Astra had conceived a miraculous mind control program while on Krypton, which led to their banishment to the Phantom Zone. They have now unleashed in on National City, enslaving the entire human population, and oddly Superman who almost makes it to the screen only to succumb and fall into the enthralled army. Why did Superman succumb and not Supergirl? Insert a flailing silly made-up reason here. The best moment of the whole thing is when Cat turns up to work and has to have her automaton staff pointed out to her, by a woman in a cape, before she even notices. This is really Cat's show, as she motivates Kara, defies Max Lord's practical but rather lethal plan to save the human race, and then pushes to get things as close to organised as possible before we hit the unbearably stupid cliffhanger. More on that to follow.
This is a very good hour, as previously mentioned. J'Onn and Alex visit her mother, while on the run, find out about the disasters back home, and then... J'Onn lets Alex go back with him to the city, ready to be mind-controlled at the first lapse in his mental shield? Really? He gets badly wounded, and she ends up in a kryptonite battle suit ready to lock horns with her sister, who doesn't actually need to fight her at all, because she's got superpowers. It's all just silly. It reeks of stupid writing, because J'Onn would have just dumped her there, no questions asked. However, as with the previous episode, we have a solid story, with intrusive aspects from the serialised aspects of the rest of the season. It's really very good. Calista Flockhart, Melissa Benoist and Peter Facinelli form a great triangle. David Harewood and Helen Slater work well together. Mehcad Brooks and Jeremy Jordan are relegated to automata but do fulfil a vital plot function. Chyler Leigh looks remarkably different in a blonde wig, but mostly does what she consistently does all the time.
It's really all about the Cat, Max and Kara triangle, though. You don't even doubt the credibility of Cat just wandering in despite the Myriad scheme, before it's revealed that Max proofed his gift of earrings to her in the same way he proofed his odd techno-gizmo-thingamabob. Yes, if anyone could resist alien mind control, it would be the unbearably stubborn Cat Grant! When those three are around, it works, and Laura Vandervoort is pretty good as the occasionally clawed blue Indigo too. If the finale can have maximum Cat/Max/Kara time, and minimal dumb fights, which latter thing Cat declaimed in the text of the episode itself, it might be a classic. We will have to see...
O.
No comments:
Post a Comment