Supergirl: We Can Be Heroes
January 31, 2017 4:30 AM - Season 2, Episode 10 - Subscribe
Super girl sets out to recapture Livewire, who has seemingly escaped from prison, but her efforts hit a road block when Mon-El puts Supergirl's safety before the citizens of National City. Meanwhile, James decides to be truthful with Kara; and M'Gann falls into a coma following a psychic attack.
Hmm.
Random thoughts:
* Alex and Maggie are not center stage, but their stuff was still good.
The constant low stakes betting was adorable. Also, it looks like Kara knows Maggie knows?
* James and Kara were both partly right but going about it like jerks, here.
James' speech to *Kara* was right on the money: her acting like powers are the most important thing in making a hero is dead wrong. It's pretty clear that intentions and training are very important, and it's really patronizing that a superpowered alien would tell a normal human that he shouldn't try because he'd only get hurt. (I guess maybe now Kryptoniansplaining is a thing?)
That said, when James was in the van with Winn in the opening, he still comes across like an asshole - he's piling more work on Winn, and acting pretty entitled. He's also clearly doing this for kicks as much as to help people.
I'm glad the secret is finally out in the open, but I still don't really like how this shook out.
* M'gann/J'onn was touching.
It's tough for a lighthearted superhero show to address themes of war crime, genocide and forgiveness, but I feel like they did okay here. I'm also interested to see what happens when a ton more White Martians show up, since even one of them is roughly on Supergirl's level.
* Mon-El was decent here.
I liked his speech at the end. I hope they keep those two as just friends - the whole thing worked for me, and he sounded a lot more mature.
* Livewire and Supergirl reaching a temporary understanding was good.
I appreciate that Kara talks first and punches second, and I like when she can sort of halfway get through to people like this. That whole thing was fine, apart from the scientist's line about how 'most scientists experiment on themselves first.' (IANAS, but I'm pretty sure that's not true.)
So... good episode, I think.
posted by mordax at 1:58 PM on February 1, 2017 [1 favorite]
Random thoughts:
* Alex and Maggie are not center stage, but their stuff was still good.
The constant low stakes betting was adorable. Also, it looks like Kara knows Maggie knows?
* James and Kara were both partly right but going about it like jerks, here.
James' speech to *Kara* was right on the money: her acting like powers are the most important thing in making a hero is dead wrong. It's pretty clear that intentions and training are very important, and it's really patronizing that a superpowered alien would tell a normal human that he shouldn't try because he'd only get hurt. (I guess maybe now Kryptoniansplaining is a thing?)
That said, when James was in the van with Winn in the opening, he still comes across like an asshole - he's piling more work on Winn, and acting pretty entitled. He's also clearly doing this for kicks as much as to help people.
I'm glad the secret is finally out in the open, but I still don't really like how this shook out.
* M'gann/J'onn was touching.
It's tough for a lighthearted superhero show to address themes of war crime, genocide and forgiveness, but I feel like they did okay here. I'm also interested to see what happens when a ton more White Martians show up, since even one of them is roughly on Supergirl's level.
* Mon-El was decent here.
I liked his speech at the end. I hope they keep those two as just friends - the whole thing worked for me, and he sounded a lot more mature.
* Livewire and Supergirl reaching a temporary understanding was good.
I appreciate that Kara talks first and punches second, and I like when she can sort of halfway get through to people like this. That whole thing was fine, apart from the scientist's line about how 'most scientists experiment on themselves first.' (IANAS, but I'm pretty sure that's not true.)
So... good episode, I think.
posted by mordax at 1:58 PM on February 1, 2017 [1 favorite]
I wish Kara had spoken to James, friend to friend, to express her worry over him being without superpowers and choosing to put himself in very dangerous situations without a support team (other than "the man in the van" which clearly isn't always enough to keep James safe). Kara talking to James is very different than Supergirl talking to Guardian about the same issues.
I just don't understand why James doesn't apply to the DEO if he wants to fight bad guys? The fact that he doesn't apply to join the DEO or the police force just proves he's in it for the glory, which is antithetical to being a hero. I really hate this story line because I really like James and I agree with Kara that he's being reckless.... grrrrrrrrrr
Best line of the show was Livewire to Mon-El: Your cosplay sucks.
I loved that she called out Guardian and LessThanSuperman as 2 inferior boys who think they are better than a real female Superhero.
The J'onn and M'gann scenes were nice. Both those actors are excellent. And it was fun to see lowkey Maggie/Alex scenes that showed their relationship continuing to grow. So glad Kara didn't kiss Mon-El at the end. I'm glad that he confessed his true feelings and even more glad that Kara didn't "reward" him for mustering up the courage to act like a mature adult for once.
posted by pjsky at 4:04 PM on February 1, 2017 [2 favorites]
I just don't understand why James doesn't apply to the DEO if he wants to fight bad guys? The fact that he doesn't apply to join the DEO or the police force just proves he's in it for the glory, which is antithetical to being a hero. I really hate this story line because I really like James and I agree with Kara that he's being reckless.... grrrrrrrrrr
Best line of the show was Livewire to Mon-El: Your cosplay sucks.
I loved that she called out Guardian and LessThanSuperman as 2 inferior boys who think they are better than a real female Superhero.
The J'onn and M'gann scenes were nice. Both those actors are excellent. And it was fun to see lowkey Maggie/Alex scenes that showed their relationship continuing to grow. So glad Kara didn't kiss Mon-El at the end. I'm glad that he confessed his true feelings and even more glad that Kara didn't "reward" him for mustering up the courage to act like a mature adult for once.
posted by pjsky at 4:04 PM on February 1, 2017 [2 favorites]
I feel as though Kara focusing on super-powers was, frankly, just the wrong thing to focus on. Alex doesn't have super-powers. But she does have a lot of training. I think even a quick line like "powers or training, neither of which you have" would have made it easier to side with Kara.
But, looking at the overall storyline here, it's clear to me that they're looking to isolate Kara, and that would explain why it's NOT easy to side with Kara.
- Alex has Maggie (and I loved their betting, it was awesome!)
- Winn has chosen James by virtue of being his sidekick
- James has chosen being Guardian over everything else, including his personal relationships and his work life (I so desperately want Cat Grant to stride into that office and yell at James for ruining her company!)
- J'onn has never been a confidante of Kara's, but he's got all this M'gann stuff now (I thought the M'gann and J'onn scenes were absolutely spectacular)
- Mon-El has finally admitted his feelings for Kara, but has also basically said "but let's forget about that" in order to move on. So even if Kara was into him (and I think it's a maybe?), Mon-El has removed that possibility for her.
So who does Kara turn to? She was already feeling underwhelmed by her superheroing last week. Now she's feeling alone.
I mean, there's Lena, sure, but Lena isn't the same as Winn or James or Alex. Clark? He's probably busy with his life and Metropolis.
I think this is the start of us seeing the full group kind of fracture into their own sort of fragments, which leaves Kara more or less alone. "Stronger together" is going to, IMHO, lead to weaker apart, and they're going to be APART until such time as they all realize they really are stronger together and will band together to take down Cadmus or whoever.
posted by juliebug at 7:40 PM on February 1, 2017 [1 favorite]
But, looking at the overall storyline here, it's clear to me that they're looking to isolate Kara, and that would explain why it's NOT easy to side with Kara.
- Alex has Maggie (and I loved their betting, it was awesome!)
- Winn has chosen James by virtue of being his sidekick
- James has chosen being Guardian over everything else, including his personal relationships and his work life (I so desperately want Cat Grant to stride into that office and yell at James for ruining her company!)
- J'onn has never been a confidante of Kara's, but he's got all this M'gann stuff now (I thought the M'gann and J'onn scenes were absolutely spectacular)
- Mon-El has finally admitted his feelings for Kara, but has also basically said "but let's forget about that" in order to move on. So even if Kara was into him (and I think it's a maybe?), Mon-El has removed that possibility for her.
So who does Kara turn to? She was already feeling underwhelmed by her superheroing last week. Now she's feeling alone.
I mean, there's Lena, sure, but Lena isn't the same as Winn or James or Alex. Clark? He's probably busy with his life and Metropolis.
I think this is the start of us seeing the full group kind of fracture into their own sort of fragments, which leaves Kara more or less alone. "Stronger together" is going to, IMHO, lead to weaker apart, and they're going to be APART until such time as they all realize they really are stronger together and will band together to take down Cadmus or whoever.
posted by juliebug at 7:40 PM on February 1, 2017 [1 favorite]
This was really good all round? Surprisingly so.
The thing with Kara, James, and Mon-el is interesting. Both James and Kara are speaking from their egos here - James's whole Guardian thing has been in large part about his ability to feel good about himself.
But ... that's not a bad thing. It's actually exactly what Kara was feeling last week - she wasn't fulfilled with what she was doing, she felt driven to be all hero-y. And it's kind of what Winn was feeling too, when he went to the DEO? And pride isn't actually a deadly sin, and good deeds don't become not-good because James is a bit self-absorbed about it.
Kara obviously doesn't lead with "I'm bulletproof", she says "You can't handle it," because on some level she thinks she's better than him. And like James with his pride, it's kind of understandable. She's young, and it's natural for the superheroing to go to her head. But what's interesting is I think it has overtones of the problems that white feminist icons often have with race. I mean ... she thinks she's better than him because she's superhuman. And she's privileging Mon-el over him because Mon-el is also superhuman.
Mon-el is like the avatar of white male privilege, and contrasting him with James is just an incredibly rich ... contrast. Both of their storylines make sense now. This one episode has made me forgive the previous eight episodes their nonsense. Not that I like Mon-el but I am, at long last, finally interested in seeing what happens to him.
This is also the first episode in quite a while to actually have all the main characters - there was a run of episodes that omitted either J'onn, or Winn, or James, as if there was just one too many characters to balance well. The writing for this episode really was a step above the rest.
The writing credits for this episode are Caitlin Parrish and Katie Rose Rogers, and the director was Rebecca Johnson. (The writing credits for the show as a whole seem to be fifty-fifty with the women getting more episodes.)
posted by Rainbo Vagrant at 10:55 PM on February 1, 2017
The thing with Kara, James, and Mon-el is interesting. Both James and Kara are speaking from their egos here - James's whole Guardian thing has been in large part about his ability to feel good about himself.
But ... that's not a bad thing. It's actually exactly what Kara was feeling last week - she wasn't fulfilled with what she was doing, she felt driven to be all hero-y. And it's kind of what Winn was feeling too, when he went to the DEO? And pride isn't actually a deadly sin, and good deeds don't become not-good because James is a bit self-absorbed about it.
Kara obviously doesn't lead with "I'm bulletproof", she says "You can't handle it," because on some level she thinks she's better than him. And like James with his pride, it's kind of understandable. She's young, and it's natural for the superheroing to go to her head. But what's interesting is I think it has overtones of the problems that white feminist icons often have with race. I mean ... she thinks she's better than him because she's superhuman. And she's privileging Mon-el over him because Mon-el is also superhuman.
Mon-el is like the avatar of white male privilege, and contrasting him with James is just an incredibly rich ... contrast. Both of their storylines make sense now. This one episode has made me forgive the previous eight episodes their nonsense. Not that I like Mon-el but I am, at long last, finally interested in seeing what happens to him.
This is also the first episode in quite a while to actually have all the main characters - there was a run of episodes that omitted either J'onn, or Winn, or James, as if there was just one too many characters to balance well. The writing for this episode really was a step above the rest.
The writing credits for this episode are Caitlin Parrish and Katie Rose Rogers, and the director was Rebecca Johnson. (The writing credits for the show as a whole seem to be fifty-fifty with the women getting more episodes.)
posted by Rainbo Vagrant at 10:55 PM on February 1, 2017
I know I'm late to the party this week, and I don't actually have much to say about the episode that hasn't already been said above (although I strongly echo that James was an absolute jackass to Winn).
What I've never noticed before that caught my attention is that Kara has decorated her apartment with a Blue Mountain Pottery dog--it's sitting on a shelf on the same wall as her door in case anybody is curious. Wow, that's a piece of Canadiana (or Ontarian culture) out of a certain era. I think it was a rule at one point that everybody had to have at least one piece in their house. (Personally, I think the vases and vessels are more appealing than the animal figurines.) It's just so odd to see a piece on American (yes, I know the show is shot in Vancouver) TV. Now I'm trying to figure out if legitimately retro cool, or only ironically cool in a hipster sort or way.
posted by sardonyx at 8:58 PM on February 3, 2017
What I've never noticed before that caught my attention is that Kara has decorated her apartment with a Blue Mountain Pottery dog--it's sitting on a shelf on the same wall as her door in case anybody is curious. Wow, that's a piece of Canadiana (or Ontarian culture) out of a certain era. I think it was a rule at one point that everybody had to have at least one piece in their house. (Personally, I think the vases and vessels are more appealing than the animal figurines.) It's just so odd to see a piece on American (yes, I know the show is shot in Vancouver) TV. Now I'm trying to figure out if legitimately retro cool, or only ironically cool in a hipster sort or way.
posted by sardonyx at 8:58 PM on February 3, 2017
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posted by oh yeah! at 6:44 PM on January 31, 2017