Supergirl: Stranger Beside Me

October 14, 2019 3:29 AM - Season 5, Episode 2

Supergirl, Alex, and Brainiac thwart an alien attack while William investigates Kara. J'onn J'onzz and Kelly use Obsidian tech to solve a problem.

Den of Geek - Supergirl builds off the story threads introduced in the season premiere, with multiple threats brewing.

TV Fanatic - Is Lena going to finally become a full on Luthor?

posted by oh yeah! (4 comments total)

I was kinda fascinated by the whole allergy plotline more than anything else. I kept wanting to say "how long have you been dating again?" and "It's not like blueberries come up in every meal, it's not that kind of allergy you have to have the talk about on date one," and "chill, girl, it was an oops but since you didn't actually shove the food in her mouth and she never got around to mentioning it since it hadn't come up..." And then it turned out to be another way to confirm a shapeshifter, so I liked that bit. Anyway, don't think I've seen an allergy plot on anything before.

Oh, Brainy: you are either whole hog or none at all. A sushi wall?

Lena: hi, Lena, there's that whole road to hell thing. That was...bad to upload your creepy AI into Eve. Though maybe that'll make "Eve" more interesting because I just literally can't continue to pay attention every time that girl is on screen. I have always found her dull somehow.

Also dull to me: whatever the hell is always going on with the Martians.

James suddenly becoming a senator is ...so 2010's.

Once again: whether or not she actually deserved it, Kara has a major award, and you decide to assign her to the fashion beat?! You're trying to get her to quit, right?

I rolled my eyes at the fucking soup kitchen reveal. Any asshole can sign up to dish out potatoes at a soup kitchen, y'all.
posted by jenfullmoon at 10:19 PM on October 14, 2019 [2 favorites]

Thanks for summing up my thoughts exactly, jenfullmoon! I love this show's heart but, jeez, sometimes it is unbelievably stupid.

This whole episode was so clunkily written. The blueberry allergy plot line would have been fine if we hadn't been hit over the head with it several times before the payoff. Dear writers, please trust your audience, we aren't all dumb as a box of rocks.

Can the CatCo storyline get any more awkwardly bad? Andrea's decisions make no sense. I'm sincerely hoping the upcoming Crisis results in CatCo being wiped from existence as it has been terrible ever since Cat Grant left.
posted by plastic_animals at 8:04 AM on October 15, 2019 [2 favorites]

I love this show's heart but, jeez, sometimes it is unbelievably stupid.

That sums up a lot of the CW/superhero shows I watch, unfortunately. Very true statement here!
posted by jenfullmoon at 12:12 PM on October 15, 2019

I think the blueberry stuff was summed up by what Alex said at the end, that she just realized she's falling hard in a short amount of time they knew each other. Clearly they've only been dating for maybe a couple of months, since this is following the previous season pretty closely.

Both Andrea and William knows Kara has a Pulitzer, but what better way to rein in an employee who's clearly more talented than you than to gaslight them like they didn't just win a Pulitzer? They know exactly what they're doing. They're clearly not dumb. The soup kitchen reveal is a bit eye-rolly, but _Supergirl_ is nothing if not eye-rollingly sincere and heartfelt but that's where most of the charm of the show comes from. For every awkward and cliched sincerity it drops on us, it also delivers truly great character moments like Kara's confession to Lena last episode.

I think the Martian stuff felt out of place because its tone is very different from everything else that was going on. But that's the big-bad (probably up to midseason) so they have to wrap everything else around it. What kind of hindered the plot was them trying to explain why J'onn suddenly has a brother he doesn't remember without giving us too much detail right away. I think the reveal about J'onn having had his memory wiped about his brother should have been delayed a few more episodes, letting the menace of the Malefic build up as he's trying to break the team. Of course they could also be giving Malefic a redemption arc, which means you need to have time for that later.

I think Eve is more interesting than she seems, especially because she plays the part of the vapid survivor so well. She's willing to be sincere in the moment to save her own skin, and also knowing who to actually fear. We still haven't seen or heard much about this shadowy organization, but they're clearly far worse than anything we've seen so far (hopefully). Having Lena controlling her with Hope though, is an interesting plot. I can see the rabbit hole Lena is going down and I don't know how they'll redeem her, if at all. But this somehow make me sympathize with Eve. She was so despicable last season, but they turned that around at the end, and now I kind of want her to survive.
posted by numaner at 4:25 PM on October 15, 2019