Screamnastics

Caity didn't seem convinced her job was safe the last time they let her speak to reporters. That (along with the lack of enthusiasm for both the power/disability story, questioning the focus on Ava, and spelling out how resistant they are to allowing acknowledgment of Sara's family) might be why we haven't heard from her in an official PR capacity since even as the rest of the cast is being interviewed about far less significant developments for their characters. I just don't get why it's gotten to this point in the first place. It's honestly baffling to me. I can think of very, very few situations where a show has treated a lead this way or worse, and every other instance was owed to obvious institutional issues like racism, there were personal issues for the actor, or conflicts behind the scenes. It's clearly not the first here and you'd be hard-pressed to convince me it could be the second.

If it's because she's blind, which I agree it probably will be, that will add an additional layer of insult. The ship can fly itself and there's been plenty of times the team is split up and others are left to make decisions in the field. There's no reason she needs a co-captain. They're willing to pretend she's not a human being but some strawman Badass Chick Who Doesn't Need To See... right up until the point that would allow her to not be pushed aside to make more room for Ava. The funniest part is all the reassuring people were doing last July that this super power story was necessary for Sara to keep up with all the magical threats. "It's a good thing! She'll have even more to do now! This was done because they want to write for her but just couldn't lately because due to circumstances totally out of their control, they had to write the type of threats no one could ever come up with a way to be challenged by a street-level hero!" Now here we are.

Who did Caity piss off and how? Because that's the only explanation I can come up with for this neverending trend of pushing her further and further out of the spotlight she worked her ass off for in all the ways that really matter. At this point, I think it would be less insulting if they just wrote her out, and it feels as though the only reason they haven't is that Sara's needed to be Ava's trophy.

I don't really see how that's the case, generally. Melissa and Grant are leads, which is more taxing than doing an ensemble show, and Grant's been in this role for nearly seven years, which can't be said for anyone else left on any of the shows but Caity. Despite rumored tensions between some people, I haven't seen any indication anyone else from The Flash is eager to leave. It hasn't lost too many cast members over the seasons and those they have have been the show's decision, except when Keiynan decided he didn't want to be tied down to anything for too long, Legends of Tomorrow included. Likewise, all of the cast exits in Arrow's first five seasons were writing choices, with the exception of Colton needing a break for personal issues; he was happy to return once he was better. Most of the later exits were the actors' choices, and mostly of cast members around since S1, although I'm unclear if Paul asked to leave, and there's conflicting stories about what led to Willa's exit. Batwoman is new and Black Lightning's had very few cast changes and no rumors of unhappiness. That leaves Supergirl. To my knowledge, only four actors have asked to leave or chose not to renew their contracts. Over on Legends of Tomorrow, three of the first four exits (Wentworth, Arthur, Victor) were definitely the actors' choice. I thought Ciara's was purely a writers' decision for years but recently rumblings suggest it might have been a mutual agreement. In any case, she has no desire now to ever return, unlike plenty of other actors across the Arrowverse who either chose to leave or were let go but are happy to make return appearances as their lives/schedules and story permit. It's my belief that all signs point to Franz's exit not being his decision, but generally fans waffle between being adamant he asked to leave and being adamant it was a decision the producers made, depending on which argument is being employed to make the producers look good. I do recall that after initially saying he was open to returning in whatever capacity, he later hinted that he'd moved on and wasn't particularly interested, but that was nearly two years ago now. Keiynan, as noted, wanted a break from acting altogether and to not be tied down. Do we know if Ramona was let go or asked to leave? She booked another role immediately after leaving. There were indications Nick was unhappy being in Vancouver late last season that certainly had a lot to do with his family, but that's no different than Echo asking to be written off Arrow to spend more time with his family or Melissa's rumored reasons for supposedly wanting off Supergirl. There's also been rumblings based on Matt's own comments to fans that he's just doing this to try to get a Constantine show back off the ground. Brandon and Courtney wanted to stay, but Courtney was only on for two and a half seasons, and that first season she was recurring. Comparing her situation to that of Melissa, Grant, or even someone like Emily doesn't make much sense. In fact, more than half the remaining cast have three seasons or fewer under their belt, versus The Flash having a majority still around since 2014 and an additional cast member who made sporadic appearances starting early on before becoming a regular a few seasons back. It also helps the Legends seasons are shorter than most of the others.