S05.E14: The Bodyguard

[Trini]

Lex tasks Supergirl with protecting Andrea from an anti-tech extremist, but his nefarious purpose goes beyond merely keeping Andrea alive. Meanwhile, Lena moves forward with Non Nocere, with Lex's help.

Gregory Smith directed the episode with story by Lindsay Sturman and teleplay by Emilio Ortega Aldrich & Chandler Smidt.

Airdate: 3/8/2020

[ottoDbusdriver]

I listened to the episode rather than watched (was cooking), and I may have to go back and watch because I couldn't make sense of what was going on.  And based on the level of comments so far, I'm thinking I wasn't the only that had trouble figuring what happened. 

The only thing that stuck out as really odd is that the aliens in charge of Leviathan are from the same solar system as Krypton -- how many habitable worlds were in the Kryptonian system ?  Krypton, Daxam and a 3rd planet ?

Edited March 9, 2020 by ottoDbusdriver

[Lady Calypso]

Oh, yeah, I'll totally be honest in saying that I ended up zoning out and doing other things on my laptop at some point during the episode. It's not that it was a bad episode, but I didn't find myself caring about any of the plots that were going on. It was a pure filler episode.

The only things that progressed the plot were Andrea gaining her powers in this new timeline (hi Shadow Chick!) and Lex's scene at the end. 

I guess we got to see more of Lena's humanity with helping Willie Garson's character. I still think she's wrong and don't agree with her actions, but it seems like the show finally listened to the criticisms about how unlikeable Lena was being and gave her a plot that reminded us that she still cares...in her own Luthor way.

I just keep screaming at Lena to not trust her brother but it seems like it's all systems go for Lex to betray Lena and for Lena to be at least partially shocked.

Yawn to Kara/William. Although I do think that these two won't last. So if this is simply a temporary relationship to give Kara some fun (or some "fun" as I think William is as dull as dirt), then...I guess I can accept it. Granted, whenever they have scenes, I'll find other things to do.

Alex/J'onn's plot was decent, and now Alex has been equipped with a Magic Shapeshifting Weapon! Alrighty, then! 

[Lantern7]

I was also halfway paying attention. From what I can remember, the main theme was learning to deal with loss. Also: Lex runs around wearing a "I SWEAR, I WOULD NEVER BETRAY LEVIATHAN" t-shirt, and Alex gets the poor Martian's version of a Green Lantern power ring.

[shantown]

I really hope they are secretly setting up that Lena is playing Lex or something, because there’s no reason to be writing her 1) as this dumb, and 2) alone in every scene and storyline. Her character just sucks this year! She used to be so smart and capable!

Happy to see J’onn and Alex teaming up  I love those two together so much. Their detective agency setup is the perfect catalyst for a more Villain of the Week type set up and I wouldn’t mind more of that. I think they went in a little over their heads trying to tie together Crisis and Leviathan and Lex and Hope and the amulet and all these things and are now floundering how to wrap it up.

Speaking of villains, is William gonna turn out to be a bad guy? They’ve gotta do something with him cause he is absolutely painful to watch. I’d prefer watching paint dry at this point. Please don’t let him survive this season, villain or not.

I felt like there was more that could have been done with the Bodyguard idea, but I also tend to zone out during the Lex stuff so that might have been it too.

 

Edited March 9, 2020 by shantown

[quarks]

Lena: Based on the behavior of a dog and an alien and advice from someone I know is evil, I shall now commence human trials, and continue them even when they are obviously not going well.

Commercial break: Coming up at 10, experts explain why it may take months or even a year before human tests for a coranavirus vaccine can begin - and which stores still have hand sanitizer in stock!

It's not that I expect scientific accuracy from these shows but the whiplash effect in this particular case was intense.

 

[thuganomics85]

Yeah, I didn't think this episode was bad or anything, but it just felt like a lot of this stuff has been covered a lot, already.  Once again, Brainy looks shocked over Lex's antics and expresses regret for throwing in with him, but he continues on for... reasons?  Once again, Lena questions if she is going too far with her experiments and maybe Kara was right, but she lets Lex talk her back into it, because, sure, why not?  Andrea continues to be a pawn in everyone's game.  Kara laments about her love life some more.  Alex and Kelly continue to have a loving, but shallow relationship.  J'onn... gives pep talks?  William... snore.  Lex and Gemma/Cara Buono's character continue to sinisterly play off one another.  Did I miss anything?

But, hey, it was fun seeing Willie Garson's character again, and I hope we get more of him.  Also, I'm pretty sure the inmate bullying him was the same actor that played Tall Boy on Riverdale, which is pretty cool too!

And... we're going with Kara/William after-all.  Kara has the most boring love interests ever, apparently.  Could be worse, I guess.  Because I almost wouldn't put it past them to try her and Lex for shits and giggles.

At least they were kind enough to give Nia not one, but two scenes!  Progress!!

But the biggest takeaway of this episode?  That video games and staring at your computer devices are evil!  Put down the tablets/contacts, kids!

Edited March 10, 2020 by thuganomics85

[Trini]

2 hours ago, Lady Calypso said:

Oh, yeah, I'll totally be honest in saying that I ended up zoning out and doing other things on my laptop at some point during the episode. It's not that it was a bad episode, but I didn't find myself caring about any of the plots that were going on. It was a pure filler episode.

The only things that progressed the plot were Andrea gaining her powers in this new timeline (hi Shadow Chick!) and Lex's scene at the end.

I felt kind of the opposite; I thought this episode advanced quite a few ongoing plots. To me this was more of a transition episode, setting up things for later.

• Alex transitioning to 'hero' work outside the DEO,
• Kara starting agreeing to date William,
• Lena having success with human trials,
• Obsidian VR tech is launched so that Lena can use them for Non Nocere later,
• Brainy furthering Lex's plans...
• ... and Lex digging deeper into Leviathan,
• Andrea is now aware of her Acrata powers.

Cool to see Willie Garson again!

And while there were several fights, etc., I liked that Supergirl was able to talk down the villain - a good change up every so often.

I wish they'd explain exactly why Brainy has to have his loyalty to Lex (Lex!) first, and thereby is working against his friends. Also I need him to confide in someone else soon; or someone calls him out on his behavior.

[BaggythePanther]

2 hours ago, Trini said:

I felt kind of the opposite; I thought this episode advanced quite a few ongoing plots. To me this was more of a transition episode, setting up things for later.

This episode made me realize that the show has basically been treading water since Crisis. It felt like a table setting episode to me too, with all the plot lines set up before Crisis getting some forward movement, but I was still bored by it.

Kara was a nonentity in this episode until she talked down the villain. What is her arc this season? I think I’d be more open to her relationship with William if the show would acknowledge the old version was an asshole when they first met and explain if things played out differently in the post Crisis timeline.

The AV Club’s review of the episode makes a good case that the Lex/Lena relationship is a classic example of emotional abuse/manipulation so I can kind of forgive her dumb decisions because she’s put herself in a position where Lex is her only ally and supporter. I’m just waiting for the day Lex uses non Nocere on Lena or uses for his own purposes.

I love that Brainy is worried the Superfriends will uninvite him to Thanksgiving when they find out he’s been working with Lex. I wish he and Lena would talk.

When Andrea was doing her first interview for the launch and the villain knocked out the lights in the auditorium and tried to attack her, for a moment I expect her to tell Andrea “You have failed this city.” Then I was disappointed when it didn’t happen.

While I wasn’t the biggest fan of this episode, I did like that everyone got something to do. Wish we could get episodes that utilized the whole cast more often.

Edited March 9, 2020 by BaggythePanther
ETA a thought

[Starry]

I wish Kara was more involved in the main arc of the season instead of being relegated to romance drama, Lena drama and pep talks to villains. I don't mind that she agreed to a date with William. I'd rather it not work out between them because they don't mesh as opposed to Kara missing out on something good as a result of her own fears. They need to give William some character flaws though. He doesn't have to be a condescending ass but he doesn't need to be perfect either.

I am glad that we are getting more with Alex and J'onn working together but why do I feel like J'onn giving Alex that Martian weapon is gonna backfire?

Is Lena starting to see the errors of her way? I hope there's more movement on that front. I am tired of watching her be so isolated with Lex having such a strong hold over her.

I think the show has forgotten that Nia and Kelly are supposed to be series regulars. On the other hand, I forgot that Andrea could have been in the dark about her Acrata powers. These Crisis changes!

It's not that this was a bad episode. It was just mostly boring. And I think they are underestimating the risks of those VR lenses.

[MarkHB]

My biggest takeaway (other than apparently needing to reuse XS's magenta lightning for tax purposes / T-Mobile product placement) was that Non Nocere has unforeseen side effects, and that slightly tapping them with a hammer makes them all go away.  Yes.  Uh huh. I have 100% confidence.

Also, Lex is so amazed by himself that he thinks he can play 1000+ year old aliens with astonishing powers?  If we get to see Gemma actually playing mental chess with him instead of just being enigmatic, that might be entertaining.

[angora]

I agree that this was mostly a filler episode, although there was still stuff I liked.

Kara talking Amy down was good. Even though the "technology = disconnection from the real world = so obviously bad!!!!" anvils have been dropping all season, it worked decently in the specific context of an addiction to VR, and I liked Kara pointing out that, by obsessing over the past/revenge, Amy wasn't living in the real world either.

Happy to see J'onn and Alex working together. I feel like, already, J'onn got more to do in his first team-up with Alex than he has in any "J'onn on freelance/solo mission" story since he left the DEO. But seriously, it didn't occur to anyone until AFTER their first mission investigating a suspected terrorist that Alex should probably be armed? Who'd have thought?!

Brainy's plot is still grr, but I enjoyed seeing Ponytail Brainy again. I love that guy. (But he's on the "must work with Lex to stop Leviathan" train too? Did he have a similar experience with Leviathan, or is he just going off of what Meghan Rath Brainy said?) I'm glad that going off to "the Big Brain" didn't mean we never get to see one of the other Brainys again. Used with discretion, it could be a fun recurring thing. Ultimately, I'm still rooting for Brainy and Lena to confide in each other, though.

Speaking of which - oh, Lena. Sigh.

While I have no particular desire to see Kara/William play out (and I think seeing Mon-El again in the last episode made me even more disinterested in Kara/William,) I did appreciate that he realized he was being a little too forward/over-eager, given Kara's expressed wish to just be friends. It was nice to see a guy acknowledge that he was overstepping his boundaries.

Hey, someone remembered that Nia is on this show! Good to see you, Nia!

[tennisgurl]

So we are still doing this William and Kara romance. How exciting...I guess. William might not be the prick that he was when he was pretending to be a prick when we first met him, so thats nice, but now he is just insanely boring. Its fine for Kara to want to date, and to date casually, but this relationship is just the opposite of interesting television, mainly because William has become so blandly perfect that he doesent seem real, like I am half waiting to find out that he a program the whole time. Look, Mon-El was frequently an asshole, but at least he had a personality! At least he had some presence and was played by a charismatic actor! This is just a vortex of boredom. 

The episode itself was alright, kind of a set up episode for a number of different plots that are going on, and it had some good stuff, but it wasnt exactly memorable. J’onn and Alex team ups are always very welcome, so that was decently fun, and I do like that Kara talked the villain down instead of having a big fight scene, it adds some more variety to the climaxs of episodes, and it was fun seeing Willie Garsons character again! The scenes with Lena and Lex are kind of interesting, and as dumb as Lena seems to be acting, I can kind of get it. She has been so desperate for family for so long, and was so lonely, and now is estranged from her whole friend group who she feels betrayed by, so she is looking for connection and validation from anyone, even her clearly evil brother. And she does mean well, as seen here when she was bending over backwards to help Willie Garson, just that its clear that this is so going to go badly. Yeah, as nice as "get rid of bad emotions" sounds, it sounds a bit more like giving a few billion people a lobotomy without asking if thats what they want. 

Nice to see Nia, even if it was just to chat with Alex and Kara and drink coffee. Hi Nia! Nice seeing you! I wish you were still hanging with Brainy, the guy is seriously spiraling. He clearly hates working with Lex, knows his friends will be pissed when he finds out what is going on (even not inviting him to Thanksgiving!) keeps seeing over and over how untrustworthy he is, so why is he even still with this guy? What are these alleged calculations anyway? 

Its kind of weird to get a "dont look at your screens and get infested in a fictional world, get out there into the real world and meet people!" lesson this season on a TV show. You know, a show you watch on a screen...where you get invested in a fictional world...

Edited March 10, 2020 by tennisgurl

[Chyromaniac]

I don’t know if I’ve said this before, but Non Nocere is an exceptionally silly name for an evil scheme.

[diebartdie]

To me, it always sounds line "Nona Cherry" like it is some free jazz trumpeter about to be unleashed on the world...

[bros402]

So, uhhh, that weapon Alex got - does it make its own ammunition? Does it never run out of ammo? If she were to eject a clip from it, would it be unable to change until she put it back in?

Could she turn it into an RPG?

Could she imagine Kryptonite and get a chunk of Kryptonite? Many things can be weapons - could she summon a Delicious and Healthy Subway Sandwich(tm)?

[Rushmoras]

Am I the only one who's wandering why Kara is still working at CatCo, if we haven't seen "real" journalism from her since... maybe even that far long as S1 or S2... And, yes, I'm quite aware that a couple of episodes back she was "working" with William on Lex (in the sense that William done all of the investigative journalism, Kara did..,. I have no idea what she did, I know what her alter ego was up to, but Kara...?)

P.S. I actually would not be surprised, if in this Earth William is actually working with Leviathan. Now, that would be a "twist".

Edited March 11, 2020 by Rushmoras

[Chicago Redshirt]

On 3/11/2020 at 11:04 AM, Rushmoras said:

Am I the only one who's wandering why Kara is still working at CatCo, if we haven't seen "real" journalism from her since... maybe even that far long as S1 or S2... And, yes, I'm quite aware that a couple of episodes back she was "working" with William on Lex (in the sense that William done all of the investigative journalism, Kara did..,. I have no idea what she did, I know what her alter ego was up to, but Kara...?)

P.S. I actually would not be surprised, if in this Earth William is actually working with Leviathan. Now, that would be a "twist".

Actually, last season had Kara's journalism bring Luthor down, and help show that aliens are people too.

This season started off with a commentary on how bad owners were diverting resources from real journalism about substantial things to click-driven fluff pieces. But the ins and outs of reporting seem to bore the writers.

[Rushmoras]

Oh, you mean that 5 min. thingy in the end episodes where off-screen Kara wrote an article, and people miraculously changed their minds about everything? Because, I don't remember her doing any journalism on-screen since S2. I mean, I sort of vaguely remember her writing blogs (during Mon-El seasons I think?), but again, don't remember her Nancy Drewing her cases or anything...

Edited March 12, 2020 by Rushmoras

[legaleagle53]

On 3/12/2020 at 11:59 AM, Rushmoras said:

Oh, you mean that 5 min. thingy in the end episodes where off-screen Kara wrote an article, and people miraculously changed their minds about everything? Because, I don't remember her doing any journalism on-screen since S2. I mean, I sort of vaguely remember her writing blogs (during Mon-El seasons I think?), but again, don't remember her Nancy Drewing her cases or anything...

Well, Kara did interview Batwoman to give Batwoman the opportunity to come out as a lesbian, so there's that.

Lex, don't get cocky. You may think you're playing Gemma, but don't forget that she's at least a few thousand years older than you are and has been playing the long con since long before you were born. And if she's from another race that is related to the Kryptonians and the Daxamites, you just may find yourself in WAY over your head once she finds out that you've been trying to play HER!

Welcome to the powers that you didn't know you had because Leviathan never activated you, Andrea. Now maybe you can prove that you're not the total ice-cold bitch that you were when we first met you by learning how to use your powers for good. That would be refreshing.

And Lena, there may be hope for you eventually now that you've started second-guessing yourself. But you still haven't learned that anytime you play God, there's always Hell to pay. That's what Kara tried to warn you about. Stop letting Lex live rent-free in your head and get over your Savior complex. It's only going to blow up in your face -- and you know who's going be the first to deny that he ever knew you when it does? LEX.

[Rushmoras]

9 hours ago, legaleagle53 said:

Well, Kara did interview Batwoman to give Batwoman the opportunity to come out as a lesbian, so there's that.

Again, off-screen. We never saw it, we just saw a completed journal cover in one of Batwoman eps.

[BaggythePanther]

On 3/12/2020 at 1:59 PM, Rushmoras said:

Oh, you mean that 5 min. thingy in the end episodes where off-screen Kara wrote an article, and people miraculously changed their minds about everything? Because, I don't remember her doing any journalism on-screen since S2. I mean, I sort of vaguely remember her writing blogs (during Mon-El seasons I think?), but again, don't remember her Nancy Drewing her cases or anything...

The article she wrote in season four also exposed Lex’s hold over the president and Lex’s plan to work with a foreign power to attack the US. That situation got the president kicked out of office. And we saw Kara doing the research and legwork for the story when she and Lena figured out Lex was behind everything and they traveled to Kasnia to confirm Lex’s involvement. She used the research from that trip to write the article.So she did do actual journalism work on screen last year.

[Rushmoras]

11 hours ago, BaggythePanther said:

She used the research from that trip to write the article.So she did do actual journalism work on screen last year.

OK, with that I agree. Still, does not negate the fact that for 99 percent of time she's popping in to CatCo just to say hi to someone.

Edited March 16, 2020 by Rushmoras

[BaggythePanther]

On 3/16/2020 at 2:33 AM, Rushmoras said:

OK, with that I agree. Still, does not negate the fact that for 99 percent of time she's popping in to CatCo just to say hi to someone.

She does her job once a season. That’s on par with the other Arrowverse superheroes. Barry has done a little more CSI work this season, but that’s the exception, not the rule.