Cat Grant, Media Magnate: Your Loss, Idris

[Trini]

Cat Grant, played by Calista Flockhart.

 

Mother, mentor, founder of CatCo. Now in Supergirl's inner circle?

[queenanne]

Ha, awesome title.  

 

Calista is killing this role, isn't she?  Bit of a surprise for me, considering there's little I loathed more than the sight, smell, or sound of Ally McBeal.

[Zuleikha]

She is so good! I liked Ally McBeal, but Calista didn't stand out to me as a great actress on that show. She was fine, but Lucy Liu was the one who seemed to be something special acting wise. But I'm just amazed by how perfect Calista is at her line reads and body language and facial expressions. Cat Grant could easily have been a one-note caricature, but Calista's given her a warmth and humanity that elevates her. I can't imagine anyone else doing a better job.

[Chicago Redshirt]

I don't get the title reference.

[MarkHB]

I don't get the title reference.

 

In "Hostile Takeover," one of Cat's emails that was released involved her asking Idris Alba out and his turning her down.

[Trini]

After re-watching a couple episodes, I find it interesting that Cat has several maternal roles. She has two biological sons -- one that she thinks she "gave up on", though she does care for him. And then she also feels responsible for Livewire and Supergirl -- surrogate daughters.

 

I didn't know what to expect from Cat Grant when the show started (besides "mean boss"), but I'm glad they've given her other layers.

[Chaos Theory]

So Cat is literally the only person on the show who doesn't know Kara is Supergirl. Usually that is the position of the love interest so......

[quarks]

I ship it :)

[secnarf]

So Cat is literally the only person on the show who doesn't know Kara is Supergirl. Usually that is the position of the love interest so......

Does Lucy know?

I don't remember a scene where she found out.

[statsgirl]

No, Lucy doesn't know.  (I thinks she'd be rather freaked out to know that Supergirl was working in the same office as James and move her office down to his floor.)

 

It's rather a small cast, when I think about it.  Kara, with James and Winn as her team at Catco and Alex and Hank as her team at the DEO.  Cat as her boss doesn't know, and Lucy and Maxwell Lord are recurring, along with her aunt and Non.

Edited January 21, 2016 by statsgirl

[Trini]

In the last episode they made a point to show that several people recorded J'onn Jonzz shapeshifting; so that knowledge is out there now. I hoping that Cat adds this to her mental list of 'Clues That Kerah is Supergirl'. So when they eventually let her in on The Secret (I think the show will have to at some point) she can nonchalantly say that she already knows.

[FurryFury]

I have no idea how the show could justify Cat still ordering Kara around while knowing she's Supergirl.

[kwnyc]

 

I have no idea how the show could justify Cat still ordering Kara around while knowing she's Supergirl.

 

Because she's Cat Grant, dammit! And must keep up the appearance of being the most powerful person in the room at all times.

 

But seriously, I am also impressed as hell at Calista Flockhart's work. She's having the most fun by far of anyone in the cast, and also has amazing chemistry with Benoist. 

[Xenith22]

Okay so for the heck of it I went and compiled the (what I believe) is the full list of Cat's possible clues that Kara is Supergirl, and clues that Cat Grant possibly believes that Kara is Supergirl to date.   I really hope the writers do not screw with us and try to do anything to definitely imply that she does not know or I will be forced to start flipping some tables...

 

Cat Grant's Initial Accusation (stuff 1x01-1x08):

1)  Overhearing something impossible.   Cat Grant was standing next to her the entire time and knows she was too far away to hear anything being discussed.  Kara had no explanation for this one except "Ummm".

 

2)  Kara got sick for the first time in two years, and Kara broke her arm at the same time Supergirl went MIA.   When Supergirl returned Kara's cold was gone (and so was the sling that had been on Kara's arm although Cat failed to mention this last part.  Cat also did not mention the minor incident immediately preceding where Kara cut herself on the broken glass and just stared at her hand in shocked disbelief not responding to Cat's inquiries and then muttering a quiet "I'm bleeding."  Scene ended there so we did not get to see what followed....)

 

3)  Kara ducking out and Supergirl appearing not two seconds later during the Livewire attack on Thanksgiving.  (This ist actually sorta false as it was actually around a full minute after Kara left Cat's side that Supergirl appeared smashing through the window.  I actually remember being annoyed at how long it took Kara to return that she left Cat alone with the murderous electric supervillain...but of course Livewire needed to monologue uninterrupted)

 

4) Kara's personal investment/objection to the Supergirl name.  (Kara's counter to this one was particularly unconvincing as she clearly needed a few second to come up with an reason eventually landing on....political?)

​

5) The striking appearance between Supergirl/Kara without glasses.
​(After Cat made Kara take off her glasses, Kara was completely silent and wore an pretty obvious very nervous/serious "oh sh*t" facial expression allowing Cat to talk until at last her phone rang giving her an excuse to demurely leave offering no more denials until the next day when she tried to just laugh everything off.)

 

Cat did not mention the incident with her son Carter, probably because that one was the most open to being an actual coincidence.  Although Supergirl's duties certainly provide an solid explanation as to why Kara seemingly shirked her responsibility of really watching him thus allowing him to get on the train and be rescued by Supergirl.

 

Also a very minor thing on its own that fits into the larger puzzle but was not mentioned by Cat here (for obvious reasons), is the fact that Kara was orphaned/adopted.   Cat knows that Supergirl was orphaned and both Supergirl and Kara have especially both emphasized losing/missing their mothers on multiple occasions.

 

-----

Now for the stuff that happened after that confrontation in 1x08.  These are additional things that someone as hyper observant of Kara as Cat has seemingly become might have potentially noticed and put on file in her brain.  Again some are really minor and would mean little on their own but as part of the larger picture...  

(I am however ignoring the results of Cat's moronic background check test because that was really absurd and proved nothing.  So much hate for whomever thought that line of reasoning made the slightest bit of sense and did not make Cat look like a freaking moron.)

 

-  Kara all but admitted the truth when she made her final plea to Cat about not firing her because of how the job was important to her.  She was very careful with her words so that she could be honest.  "I know you want me to tell you I'm Supergirl, but I can't do that."  That's not an actual denial of her identity this time only that she can not say it.  Strong possibility that Cat would have picked up on that. Kara goes on to make a case for how important her job is to her and how it helps her.  Her words as such that the case she is making could apply to either identity. 

 

Now initially Cat's cold reaction to her at the end of this speech had me mad and disliking Cat...but on rewatch I finally noticed how she looks up after Kara walks away.  A possible hint of realization and acceptance as to what Kara said?   We do not see her encounter Kara again until the Supergirl meeting, but I'd like to believe that had said encounter not happened that she would have taken her ultimatum off the table before Kara said her final goodbye.   If Kara's message indeed sunk in at this moment then that explains why she doesn't push the issue again when her suspicions are reigniting following the Bizarro or Martian incidents proving that Kara standing next to Supergirl was not the definitive proof they were not the same person that Cat initiallyy thought it was..

 

-  Kara was the first one to correctly suggest the Bizarro was not the real Supergirl.  (more on this later)

 

- Kara was abducted by the Bizzaro Supergirl without any real explanation as to why. (Kara tried to pass it off as just bad luck)

 

- Kara's many additional sudden "unexplained" absences, emergency phone calls, and supposed sick days.  (more on this later too)

 

- Kara's attitude and wardrobe style changed at the same time as Supergirls during the "mind altering" incident and reverted back when Supergirl was cured of it. (Kara also did not show up for work the day after Supergirl threw Cat off the building and went totally rogue for the day)

 

- Kara was blasted through an closed window by Siobhan and returned to work later that day without a single scratch on her.

 

- Kara was hanging out with Barry Allen whom she knew was the Flash.  Meanwhile the Flash is seen teaming up with Supergirl.

 

- Kara's strong objection to Cat's calling the Flash competition for Supergirl.

 

- Barry's obvious approval seeking look at Kara when he described the Flash as more like an equal to Supergirl than a sidekick.

 

- Supergirl is also friends with Winn/James the same as Kara. (The Jimmy connection is obvious since the Superman connection/watch, but I dunno if she knew about Winn connection before Non specifically referred to him as one of Supergirls friends?)

 

- Kara is seemingly the only Catco employee who did not show up for work as one of Non's zombies...but Supergirl was there.

Possible Hints/Teases that Cat Maybe Knew Earlier:

 

- Cat's delivery of "Kira (pause) Well that, that was, um...Int-er-es-ting."  The way she says interesting and immediate acceptance of the false Supergirl idea that Kara suggests after the first Bizarro incident.

(Cat is all set to go with the story of Supergirl going bad and is just looking for the right headline when Kira mutters that it might not be the real Supergirl.  Oh sure the episode wants you to believe that Cat listening to Kara is just another example of her being nice since Kara is dating her son....but to borrow from the Grinder..."But what is it wasn't"?  (Again this is also following right after the White Martian shapeshifter incident.) Cat put a lot of thought into her Kira as Supergirl theory and so was not proud/happy to be seemingly proven wrong.  Now here comes Kara of all people suggesting the possibility of a fake Supergirl...  Cat jumps on the idea immediately, is it because she wants to believe in the hero, or because she realizes Kara might know more about a fake Supergirl?

 

- When Kara returns after being abducted by the Bizarro, Cat says she ordered an Amber Alert. Obviously she is lying since Amber Alerts are only for children under 18, and from her stupid quiz we know she definitely knows Kara's age. So this leads one to believe that she did not contact the police at all and might just be saying this for Adam's benefit because she knew Kara could take care of herself.

 

- Cat tolerating Kara's many notable absences/disappearances.

 

- Even when Cat could tell Kara (actually J'onn in disguise) was BSing her with fake tears she still gave Kara the day off as she asked for without hesitation under the lame excuse of not being able to stand the sight of her any longer that day.  Again going back to Cat's speech when she briefly believed Supergirl should not have a dayjob preventing her from saving people, it makes sense that Cat would never want to stand in Kara's way when she needs to leave.

 

- Cat hired a second assistant TO ASSIST KARA is how she initially described it. Sure moments later she tried to walk it back by calling Kara #2 (which naive Kara totally fell for) but she had already let slip the truth of why she hired Siobhan. Rather than fire Kara whom was constantly absent/disappearing from work she hired someone to aid her. Keep in mind this is also right after Kara dumped Adam and Cat blamed her son leaving on her and told her that she did not want a friendly relationship with her anymore. Also keep in mind this was after Winn had made some kind of total obvious BS explanation about Kara missing work because of a tick bite which was obviously proven false when "Kara" showed up to work later that day. So Cat knows that Kara is actually missing work for reasons other than actually being sick. So hiring someone else so she can keep Kara employed seems like extremely strange behavior unless Cat possibly had some other kind of motivation and knows that there is a legitimate reason Kara is constantly ditching work?

 

- Cat said to Kara "National City may have lost faith in Supergirl, but I haven't (pauses and suddenly STARES directly into Kara's eyes) and you shouldn't either"  (This was the day after Supergirl was last recorded looking dejected on the news after being jeered after foiling a robbery).

 

​-  Also in World's Finest, Cat is right in the middle of a phone conversation when she notices Kara is not at her desk.  I could be imagining things but I believe there is a bit of concern in her voice when she asks where Kara is?   Cat covers by saying she wanted to tell Kara to book a special massage for her.  However there is no way that she interrupted her phone call mid conversation to suddenly tell Kara that.   She then tells Winn she is fine and unafraid.  Since he did not actually ask she is clearly trying to reassure herself after noticing Kara is missing.  So either she thinks something may have happened to Kara (which Livewire had no beef with Kara, and she did not know that Siobhan had teamed up with her yet.) ​ or she was expecting Kara to be there to protect her from Livewire.  (Which goes right back to her I have faith in Supergirl speech)

 

- Cat said to Kara while again staring her directly in the eyes "Kira I can spot the extraordinary pretending to be a nobody in my midst just like that." (Other than Barry who else would she be referring to but Kara? Because it certainly sounded like Barry was not the only time she had done this? )

 

- Cat cited Barry's being so unfailingly nice as a giveaway that he was either a superhero or a Mormon. (So uh do we think that she believes Kara is a Mormon?).  She also mentions Barry's insistence on the name Flash as a giveaway...which again calls back to Kara and the Supergirl naming discussion/argument.

 

{For now I am excluding the 1x19 hug and Cat's dramatic reaction shot.  If her sudden surprised eyes wide open reaction mid hug was so supposed to imply some realization regarding Supergirl I am drawing a total blank on what that would have been, since Supergirl clearly says nothing new and "incriminating" during their talk and Cat has never hugged Kara (unless there was a deleted scene in a prior episode...which would be a major editing fail)?  Also whatever Cat is doing with her hands is strange. } 

Edited April 13, 2016 by Xenith22

[mtlchick]

So Han Solo isn't her type, eh? 

[Xenith22]

Huh...so I guess there is a limit in how long after a post you can still edit something.

 

So one final point for the Cat Knows column from this season at the end of the finale...

 

- Cat promoting Kara to any job she wants and giving her a private office.

Let's examine this shall we.  Cat says she is doing it because Kara is the best assistant she has ever had.  While it's possible she has had a string of abysmal assistants before Kara, we also know that Kara has not been a great assistant for her.   Sure when she is there she is excellent at her job and goes above and beyond what Cat asks of her, but as previously mentioned due to her double life she misses work A LOT.  So much so that Cat actually felt the need to hire a second assistant to do Kara's job when she was not there.   Most employers would be firing someone like Kara at this point not giving them a promotion!  

Now let's talk about that promotion:

 

The first thing is that Kara is to hire Cat a new assistant.  You know so Cat can actually have an assistant that is at her beck and call at all times during normal working hours which she knows she is not ever going to have with Kara.

 

Next Kara gets to choose to do pretty much anything she wants...which again from an employer perspective seems absolutely nuts.  But essentially what this does is give Kara an non-essential job since whatever job she chooses will not have existed before now.  (Unless Kara wants to be the fashion reporter...which seems unlikely without more Red K exposure).  So basically anytime Kara has to leave due to Supergirl stuff she won't be leaving anything important/urgent to be done at work.  And there is nothing at work that prevents Kara from being able to leave whenever she needs to without permission. Yet Kara still gets to experience the sense of personal fulfillment at work of doing something she likes and being able to interact with people like Cat as a normal person.

 

Finally there is the fact that she gets a private office that is set well aside from the rest of the newsroom.   There are now at least two other open desks in the newsroom Siobhan's and Kelly's that Kara could have been relocated to in order to do her new job.  Yet Cat gives Kara her own office?  Think back to Livewire/Siobhan's attack on Catco which was only a couple days ago in universe time.   Kara was not there at the time, but even had Kara been at her desk outside of Cat's office in plain sight of everyone what could she have done?   There was no chance she could have slipped away to change into Supergirl, so she either would have just had to stand by and watch or else expose her secret identity to everyone.  Cat may have even figured after the fact that this is why Kara was not there at the time to protect her and instead was relying on James to trigger his watch to call her if Livewire showed up.  (too bad for her that James is dumbass and ruined that plan by getting too close). With Kara's new private office that would not be a problem.  If a supervillain shows up in the bullpen targeting someone like Cat she should easily be able to slip away and change unnoticed with as far away as her office is now from the action, not to mention the additional privacy an office provides to have any secret conversations related to her other life (since Cat likely does not actually know about the room on the other floor that she uses for such purposes).

---

 

I wondered if that was going to happen because Kara won't be her assistant anymore. Actually prior to now I think it was very hard for cat to let Kara know she knew she was Supergirl because she can't order Supergirl around.  But now that she moved her out and gave her a position where she isn't ordering her about like a slave she could reveal she knows more easily.

That may be part of it, but I think it's only a small part of it?   I mean going back to the first time that Cat accused Kara of being Supergirl, Kara chose to quite her job rather than come clean to Cat.  (Sure things weren't quite that simple due to Cat's ultimatum...and lack of tact.  She also never should have referred to Kara as a story even though I do not believe she was planning on publicly outing her at the time.)  But on some level I think that Cat was still hurt by the fact that Kara whom she had known for 2 years and had begun opening herself up to (which like she told Supergirl in the penultimate episode she never does) would not trust her with her secret.   So at this point now I think Cat either wants to become close enough with Kara that Kara will open herself up to her about her secret on her own,  or else there is part of her that is afraid that if she lets Kara know she knows again that Kara will once again start to pull away and she could lose her only true friend?

Edited April 22, 2016 by Xenith22

[MarkHB]

So Han Solo isn't her type, eh? 

 

According to an interview I saw with, I think, AK, "especially when they're married" was contributed by Calista.

[bettername2come]

Random moment I love from tonight's rerun: Cat looks like she's about to make herself a drink when her email is hacked and instead starts shoveling M&M's into her glass from the ice bucket.

[Trini]

Has anyone heard anything about Cat/Calista making another appearance? We knew she would be seen a lot less, but I thought she would be more recurring instead of 'special guest star'. Now I'm afraid we won't see her again until the last few episodes of the season. I'd really like to know what she'd say about Guardian and the Alien Fight Club.