Supergirl: Battles Lost and Won

June 20, 2018 2:36 PM - Season 3, Episode 23

There's dead and there's not-so-dead in this season finale episode.

I don't know if anybody is still watching or not, but I thought I'd put up this post in case anybody wants to comment about the season that was or speculate about the season that will be now that the Martians are gone, Winn has been swapped out for Brainy, Ruby hasn't been handed over to Alex, Alura is back on Argo, James has gone public and Mon-El's love for Kara is still unrequited.

Apparently the goal for next season is to do the Supergirl take on Superman: Red Son. I'm not exactly sure how that is going to work as that story should be set in a past that is much further back than "two weeks ago."

AV Club review

posted by sardonyx (10 comments total)

I've been watching, but I'm pretty disenchanted with this season. Stuff:

* Lena's been wasted.

Lena's easily my favorite character on this show, and I'm pretty disappointed with both Kara's treatment of her within the story itself, (addressed in the text), and the general thing where they still won't bring her into the DEO circle. I also found Kara's attitude about synthetic Kryptonite and other weaponry pretty... not great?

Also not looking forward to them angling Lena toward maybe villainy next season.

About the only positives here were: her callout of Kara was spot-on, and I love that Ms. Teschmacher is her new super science assistant.

* The Reign stuff was full of ass-pulls.

I agree with whichever AV Club review posited that they were just making all the witch stuff up as they went along, because none of it made a lick of sense to me, either in terms of internal continuity or the rules of good drama.

(Like... they needed to terraform why again? Reign works how? Fountain of whatnow? The ghost of Sam's foster mother was there because why?)

* WTF was up with Argo City?

That should've been the revelation of the season: Kryptonians are not extinct, and they're within easy transportation range of Earth. Instead, it was treated like... I dunno. Kara's personal issue, and one that didn't seem to affect her all that much.

I was amused that, once again, Tim Russ wasn't allowed to make it to Earth though.

So yeah. I dunno.

I'm also not sold on them trying for a riff on Red Son - IMO, a key part of that story was a lack of other Kryptonians running around, and I agree that it needs more than two weeks of setup.
posted by mordax at 7:54 PM on June 20, 2018 [1 favorite]

I absolutely agree with everything you've said.

Maybe, just maybe I can give them a pass on turning Lena evil only because it might be boring to have yet another super competent person in the DEO, and this show really needs a strong character to be the villain, but that's a stretch, and they'd have to improve the writing and the plotting significantly before I could be sold on that progression.

I also don't know how Red Son would play without the Communist backdrop. I don't think Russian and foreign/not-American is enough.
posted by sardonyx at 8:45 PM on June 20, 2018 [1 favorite]

I also don't know how Red Son would play without the Communist backdrop. I don't think Russian and foreign/not-American is enough.

Yeah, agreed. My favorite thing about Red Son was that Soviet Kal-El was just as much of an idealist and true believer as mainline continuity US Kal-El. You're right about that not really checking with the setup we've seen.
posted by mordax at 8:53 PM on June 20, 2018 [2 favorites]

Also, I didn't say this in my earlier post, but like you, I can't believe how they wasted that entire Argo storyline. That should have been the plot for the season, or at least half of the season. While I can normally see the wisdom of keeping Kal-El out of the picture, this is the one time they should have brought him in, at least briefly. Imagine the delight it would have been for Kara to show baby cousin Kal around an actual Kryptonian city, and dispelling a whole bunch of his misconceptions in the process.
posted by sardonyx at 9:07 PM on June 20, 2018 [3 favorites]

Yeah. I can't imagine what prompted them burning Argo City, surviving Kryptonians, Kara's mom and everything else on what amounted to a B-plot.
posted by mordax at 10:01 PM on June 20, 2018

I've been neglectful in posting for the show, but I've been keeping up.

Another show where they saved most of the budget for the finale, but all the action looked pretty good!

Agree that this season's been kind of inconsistent, but it does feel like the show is heading into that sophomore slump that plagues a lot of superhero shows. There was too much going on this season and it definitely didn't feel focused.

But I'm glad we got some strong performances out of J'onn and Alex. I hope they continue to get these strong storylines that really grounds the rest of the cast.
posted by numaner at 11:02 AM on June 21, 2018 [3 favorites]

Thanks for posting this! I agree with everyone these last few episodes making little emotional or logical sense. Discovering that Argo City, and Kara's mother, were still alive should have been a season-long arc. As the AV Club reviewer noted, what was up with Kara being so blasé about reuniting with her mother after thinking she was dead for all those years? Plus, while I enjoy Erica Durance, she is only ten years older than Melissa Benoist and Alura should be a good 40-50 years older than Kara, who has been gone from Krypton for decades.

Apparently Winn will make a few appearances next season. David Harewood will still be a regular cast member so it will be interesting to see what story they have planned for J'onn.
posted by plastic_animals at 6:48 AM on June 22, 2018 [2 favorites]

maybe people age slower on Argo?
posted by numaner at 1:49 PM on June 22, 2018

Watching this show has been a Flash level slog with the Reign plot. I felt for Sam but otherwise...dredgey. I nth what everyone else said about the Argo City thing.

Lena + James = boring. I know they probably aren't allowed to make Supergirl bi, but I'd be down for that. Alas, Lena doesn't like Supergirl and has at least some good reasons not to.

Wtf happened with Mon-El and his wife?

I don't get why they are swapping Winn for Brainy whatsoever. That whole picture thing reminded me of Bill and Ted somehow.

They sure have dropped CatCo without Calista...but then again, I don't care about CatCo with no Cat. I wish they'd just have Calista Skype in once in a while.
posted by jenfullmoon at 9:19 PM on June 22, 2018

Mon-El and Imra were married in the future for diplomatic reasons between Earth and Saturn. They were never truly in love. I think Imra stated that with the new future they've created by making sure Blight never exists, it was less necessary for them to be married in the future so she encouraged him to go for Kara.

Jeremy Jordan stated recently that he's looking to move on with his career and also to spend time with family. So that's why they had to write him out of the show, but not completely yet. I'm not sure how his recurring capacity will work. Maybe with flashbacks, etc. (this is similar to what Keiynan Lonsdale has said about leaving Arrow-Verse)

Chris Wood is permanently leaving (so cheers if you're on the no-more-Mon-El bandwagon), as Mon-El's planned run ended.

Jesse Rath (Brainy), though, has been promoted to series regular in season 4.
posted by numaner at 4:35 PM on June 25, 2018