S02.E04: Survivors

[Tara Ariano]

Quote

Thrilled to have found another Martian, Hank is determined to get to know M'Gann better; Kara and Alex take notice of an alien fight club run by Roulette while investigating an unregistered alien's murder; and Supergirl starts training Mon-El, whom she has taken under her wing.

[bettername2come]

Drunk Winn is everything I could have hoped for without random karaoke. I like the new guy more. I ship the Martians now, so I hope she's not evil. Is Roulette going to be on every single science fiction series? That actress has been in everything.

Oliver's going to be pissed they used his warehouse for fight club and didn't invite him.

[Primal Slayer]

A race of bullies...never let Alura utter those simple Earth words ever again.

You know, it's funny that they have Maggie doing exactly what Iris should be doing over on the Flash. Investigating.

Winn and Mon-El have stronger chemistry then Kara/Mon-El do tbh. Let them be gay together as well along with Alex/Maggie.

Not really here for M'Gann starting off with all this drama, gimmie the happy innocent M'Gann until she goes overboard and leaves someone in a telekinetic comatose.

I can't take 2 pep talks in one episode, they REALLY need to tone those down or do away with them, I just cant. 

I think they are doing M'Ganns storyline all kinds of wrong, revealing her White Martianness this quickly feels like a mistake. She and J'onn should be a VERY good place, Lil Sis/Big Bro, Uncle great place. Let her at least act like she is happy instead of spending all this time being emo.

[stealinghome]

Oh my God, when Kara asked J'onn "Did you use your INDOOR voice???" I just about lost it laughing. I love, love, LOVE the Kara/Alex/J'onn trio, and glad they were finally back in force tonight.

This episode had some good pieces, but also had way too much going on. I would say it's the weakest of the season so far--every plot needed like 20% more material to be fully fleshed out. Except the Winn and Mon-El (who I have taken to calling Bland-El) plot, which was so dumb and pointless. Talk about contrived to give both guys something to do, because heaven forbid we cut characters loose who have no purpose (WINN). Or, like, not add pointless characters (MON-EL). Bland-El's only purpose is clearly to be Kara's LI, but I'll give Chris Wood this, he may be bland, but at least he is both pretty and charismatic. Mehcad Brooks only ever managed pretty.

Poor M'gann--I mean, she was shitty, but J'onn was a jerk this episode to her too. I'm glad they fixed things by the end, but he's just going to absolutely hit the roof when he finds out she's a White Martian. I kind of can't wait, as I think David Harewood is going to really rock it performance-wise. Impressed with Sharon Leal so far too. I'm shipping them so hard.

Maggie's got a girlfriend? Poor Alex. You could actually feel her heart falling through the floor at THAT particular reveal. Another thing I'm shipping hard. And give me all the "Maggie thinks Supergirl and Alex are a thing" misunderstandings and have Supergirl and Alex be sooo grossed out, please. That will never ever not be funny.

Dichen Lachman has never impressed me in any role, and this one was no different. Katie McGrath had more screen presence in like 2 minutes that Lachman had in 15. And I don't buy the alien fight club thing for a second. It's just SO inconsistent with what we saw from the show last season. I know they switched networks, but I wish they would make more of an effort to not make it seem like they've thrown out last year's world.

Kara's reporter job is still stupid and doesn't fit her. It seems to be there only because the writers feel the need for her to have a day job.

Despite my cranking, this episode was still more solid than most of last season. But a definite drop in quality from the last three.

[cambridgeguy]

It was pretty obvious that M'Gann was the White Martian guard who broke ranks.  There's no drama if she's just another Green Martian who's a bit adrift and needs the power of friendship to set her straight.  She's probably not evil but J'onn will want to kill her on the spot once her secret is blown.  Apparently one of the themes of the season will be overcoming biases.

Snapper was actually a better boss this episode - still a jerk, but not being a harassing asshole.  As for the actual boss (snicker), once again James doesn't seem to be important to the show.

[mtlchick]

Quote

Oliver's going to be pissed they used his warehouse for fight club and didn't invite him.

Hee hee!  Perfect. 

So I'm a little lost and I wasn't a coming book person so is the White Martian supposed to be good?  Bad?  Is M'Gann even real ?

They are really trying to push the Alex/Maggie coupling hardcore with the holding hands and "wear something nice" and I'm already finding it tedious.  

[Primal Slayer]

6 minutes ago, mtlchick said:

Hee hee!  Perfect. 

So I'm a little lost and I wasn't a coming book person so is the White Martian supposed to be good?  Bad?  Is M'Gann even real ?

They are really trying to push the Alex/Maggie coupling hardcore with the holding hands and "wear something nice" and I'm already finding it tedious.  

White Martians are bad but she was a good egg.

[stealinghome]

6 minutes ago, Primal Slayer said:

White Martians are bad but she was a good egg.

To add to that, White Martians are the ones who massacred J'onn's race (Green Martians) back on Mars, including his wife and daughters. They are basically Martian Nazis.

Oh, another line I chuckled at: when J'onn and Kara were having their personal revelations and Alex was just like "You look like crap!" to Winn. Something about CL's delivery was just perfect.

Edited November 1, 2016 by stealinghome

[GHScorpiosRule]

45 minutes ago, stealinghome said:

Oh my God, when Kara asked J'onn "Did you use your INDOOR voice???" I just about lost it laughing. I love, love, LOVE the Kara/Alex/J'onn trio, and glad they were finally back in force tonight.

Actually, she said "your inside voice," but agree, that was hilarious.

This Alex and Maggie being able to complete each other's' sentences while ignoring Kara just had me rolling my eyes. The show is trying too hard. Let it happen naturally!

Jeeeeebus! The Wearing of masks while at the club gave me the heebie jeebies of Eyes Wide Shut.

Kara showing up in Lena's office and the favor asking and just the whole scene gave me Clark and Lex from Smallville vibes. 

Clark saves Lex. They become friends. Clark is free to show up at the mansion or Lex's office. Lex is more than happy to help, knowing Clark will do the same (with the denizens of Smallville).

Kara saves Lena. They've become friends. Kara now is able to come to Lena whenever. Lena is happy to help, knowing Kara will return the favor.

No surprise there since Glen Winter, who's executive producer on this show, was also executive producer on Smallville.

M'Gann is one fugly looking White Martian!

Im gonna shuddup now and just say this episode was just a snooze for me before I go making comparisons to JLU's version of "Grudge Match." 

[opus]

Also liked:

Kara: Don't make me pout

Alex: She's really good at it

[Kromm]

1 hour ago, Primal Slayer said:

I think they are doing M'Ganns storyline all kinds of wrong, revealing her White Martianness this quickly feels like a mistake. 

Yeah, but it WAS fairly obvious to comic readers anyway.  And I'd argue that her White Martianness was obvious from how she told her backstory regardless.

Edited November 1, 2016 by Kromm

[benteen]

Good episode.  That was a lot of fun.  It reminded me of Combat on Smallville but they didn't have a fight here to match Clark vs Titan.  Though the action was very good.

I like Mon-El too and his interaction with Wynn was great.

[Lantern7]

At least Snapper wore his glasses properly. That's a start. Can't wait until he finds out Kara used her alter ego as a source. I'm thinking Clark's done that a few times, but that doesn't make it right.

I'm okay with Miss Martian, though the Young Justice fan in me is hoping for a "Hello, Megan!" moment. Speaking of animation, I think Roulette worked better on Justice League Unlimited than she does here.

Mon doesn't appear to indulge in being a dick, unlike Kryptonians' perception of his race. Or Henry Cavil. He didn't have a sidekick like Winn. While I'm thinking that Winn will only become important once his dad raises hell again, the concept of him as Amateur Earth Ambassador is kinda cute.

[VCRTracking]

I'm a Young Justice fan, so M'gann turning out to be a White Martian wasn't a surprise.

Glad Lena showed up in the episode.

Liked Mon-El and Winn hanging out.

Warworld mention!

Awww, Alex is so smitten. Too bad Maggie is taken.

[BkWurm1]

Can anyone help me out?  My CW station was on the fritz for like the first ten minutes.  All I recorded was a test pattern and a high pitched tone until  suddenly there was Alex watching a van squeal away.  What did I miss before that?

[BkWurm1]

Quote

 

Kara showing up in Lena's office and the favor asking and just the whole scene gave me Clark and Lex from Smallville vibes. 

Clark saves Lex. They become friends. Clark is free to show up at the mansion or Lex's office. Lex is more than happy to help, knowing Clark will do the same (with the denizens of Smallville).

Kara saves Lena. They've become friends. Kara now is able to come to Lena whenever. Lena is happy to help, knowing Kara will return the favor.

No surprise there since Glen Winter, who's executive producer on this show, was also executive producer on Smallville.

 

This so much.  

I'm of two minds about the dynamic.  I kind of love it right now (as I did in the early days of Clark and Lex's friendship) but I really am not looking forward to when their "friendship" only consists of Kara storming in and accusing Lena of being behind whatever nefarious plot of the week is going on at the time (or worse, use her for help and accuse her of being evol)

I really don't want a repeat of that.

Quote

 I think they are doing M'Ganns storyline all kinds of wrong, revealing her White Martianness this quickly feels like a mistake. She and J'onn should be a VERY good place, Lil Sis/Big Bro, Uncle great place. Let her at least act like she is happy instead of spending all this time being emo.

Brace yourself, I think it's safe to say that this M'gann will not be much like the one from the comics and that she will not have the avuncular relationship with J'onn like one might hope.  

And honestly, I'm still having a real hard time coming to terms with that.  I'm pretty flexible with comic characters becoming what the show needs them to be, but who on this show thought turning an Uncle/Niece relationship (even if it was not by blood) into a potential love interest was a good idea?  Are they the same person that thought Oliver Queen should sleep with both of the Lance sisters (not to mention his father's mistress) and have Barry and Iris grow up like brother and sister and even right after make out sessions talk about "their" dad?  And then there was how Hawkman and Hawkgirl on Lot made big life choices, by battling each other until there was a victor.  Hawkgirl always lost.

 Someone behind the scenes had a disturbed childhood.   

The episode (the part I could watch) was fine.  I can't really judge cause I missed all the set up so everything felt off.  I like the actress playing referee to the fight club and she looked the part but they never explained why M'gann and J'onn felt like they had to fight. Umm, phase though the wall and fly away.  So there was some logic gaps again.  

Thought Alex and Maggie were fun undercover.  Was James even in the episode?  

Monel was fine but again, I feel like I missed important set up.   Really, that was the whole episode, so yeah, it was fine but shrug, nothing exciting.    

Edited November 1, 2016 by BkWurm1

[Starfish35]

I'm curious - is the Uncle/Niece relationship between J'onn and M'gann in the comics? Or is that strictly a Young Justice thing? 

I just ask because a lot of what I thought I knew about Artemis actually comes from Young Justice and isn't in the comics at all, so I didn't know if it was something similar with M'gann?

Edited November 1, 2016 by Starfish35

[BkWurm1]

8 minutes ago, Starfish35 said:

I'm curious - is the Uncle/Niece relationship between J'onn and M'gann in the comics? Or is that strictly a Young Justice thing? 

I just ask because a lot of what I thought I knew about Artemis actually comes from Young Justice and isn't in the comics at all, so I didn't know if it was something similar with M'gann?

I wondered the same thing and did some reading wondering if maybe she'd been a love interest in the past for MM but as far as I can tell, that never happened.  And she has always been introduced as kind of a teenager.  She was part of the Teen Titans originally.  So the age difference alone would set up that kind of teacher/uncle/mentor relationship.   

[Trini]

Well they just about killed me with the White Martian reveal, since I only knew the tiniest bit about M'gann. I was looking forward to J'onn having a potential love interest and befriending a fellow Green Martian, and it's going to suck for him when he finds out. NOT looking forward to that.

Yay! Hologram Alura!

Wow; even Lena had one scene, but Jimmy was left completely out of the episode. I guess CatCo (minus Snapper's division) really is irrelevant now.

How are all these aliens living on Earth?? I assume - for this season - most of them aren't Fort Rozz escapees. In just a few episodes the show is reaching Men In Black levels of 'they've been here the whole time'.

I like Winn, so it sucks that now he's stuck as techie/comic relief. It's a regression from last season.

[yellowfred]

So, I'm kind of glad they didn't draw out the whole White Martian reveal.  Although, about halfway through the episode, I wondered if they weren't actually going to do it.  Like, I understand her telling J'onn that she's a Green Martian, but why would she pretend to be one for that fighting ring?  It just seems like a lot of effort to put towards hiding something that maybe three people on the planet would even understand the significance of.  

I was kind of underwhelmed by the resolution to Kara's reporter sub-plot this week.  When she said that she had a source, I was hoping it would be one of the aliens who'd been fighting, who could talk about what it was like and how they ended up there.  Instead, she just interviewed herself, which doesn't exactly bode well for Kara ever wanting to be a real journalist.  Plus, I was kind of hoping we'd get to see the article have some kind of effect (i.e. making it a lot harder for Roulette to run her business), but I guess that wouldn't have really worked with the timing of everything.  

Also, Lena's gotta know that Kara's Supergirl, right?  I mean, that ominous look she had about Kara being there to help her can't possibly be the ominous look of someone who just earned the loyalty of one of the least influential reporters in National City.  

5 hours ago, stealinghome said:

And give me all the "Maggie thinks Supergirl and Alex are a thing" misunderstandings and have Supergirl and Alex be sooo grossed out, please. That will never ever not be funny.

I have no words for how badly I want this to happen.  Also, I feel like one of them will almost certainly say, out loud, "she's my sister," because they're both kind of terrible liars, which will probably lead to a backpedal so awkward that "I flew here...on the bus" will seem smooth by comparison.

[bros402]

5 hours ago, stealinghome said:

Dichen Lachman has never impressed me in any role, and this one was no different. Katie McGrath had more screen presence in like 2 minutes that Lachman had in 15. And I don't buy the alien fight club thing for a second. It's just SO inconsistent with what we saw from the show last season. I know they switched networks, but I wish they would make more of an effort to not make it seem like they've thrown out last year's world.

Kara's reporter job is still stupid and doesn't fit her. It seems to be there only because the writers feel the need for her to have a day job.

Despite my cranking, this episode was still more solid than most of last season. But a definite drop in quality from the last three.

Dichen was great in Dollhouse. She wasn't great in this, hope she can do better in future episodes, though

[Starfish35]

I'm glad I'm not the only one that was having serious Clex flashbacks during the Kara/Lena scene.  That was straight out of the Smallville playbook.  

Honestly, now that Cat's gone, I could do without CatCo at all.  I really couldn't care less about Kara's reporter aspirations.  Everything else is far more interesting than anything going on at CatCo right now.  

Poor Alex.  She was really trying to ask Maggie out, and got shut down hard.  Ouch.  

Mon-El and Winn's bar bonding was hilarious.  But can we please find the guy a less stupid name? 

Poor J'onn.  I like M'gann already, but I'm not looking forward to him finding out the truth.  

[Agent Dark]

2 hours ago, Starfish35 said:

I'm curious - is the Uncle/Niece relationship between J'onn and M'gann in the comics? Or is that strictly a Young Justice thing? 

I just ask because a lot of what I thought I knew about Artemis actually comes from Young Justice and isn't in the comics at all, so I didn't know if it was something similar with M'gann?

The Uncle/Niece thing is purely from Young Justice, which had a slightly different version of Miss Martian.  She's always been a White Martian in the comics, sent to Earth by her parents to escape the Martian Civil War, and initially pretended to be a Green Martian as part of the Teen Titans.  One of her main storylines involved her encountering and defeating an evil future version of herself that gone full White Martian, only to have elements of her evil version merge with herself which she has to overcome.

Miss Martian is a fairly recent character to the comics, only coming in shortly after the Infinite Crisis storyline (mid-2006), and I can't seem to think of her doing too much outside of the Teen Titans books.  A couple of cameos here and there in Supergirl and Batgirl books, but not much else.  I'm not even sure if she's been introduced yet in the New52 continuity yet.  The main thing I remember about her is that she lived in Australia for a while, because the Australian Outback reminded her of Mars.  I always that was pretty cool, because we don't get too many super-heroes down here.  We're claiming her as an Aussie!

[AudienceofOne]

1 hour ago, Starfish35 said:

I'm glad I'm not the only one that was having serious Clex flashbacks during the Kara/Lena scene.  That was straight out of the Smallville playbook. 

That and the fact that now we have Kara being the worst journalist ever. Not only is she reporting on events that she is at the centre of but she's fabricating them by quoting herself. And huffing and puffing over her editor asking for 'unrealistic' things like being balanced and having sources and doing some research and not writing headlines before the story is written. The first season lacked originality and this one does too.

[thuganomics85]

Fight club!  Alien fight club, to be exact!  Should have known something like this was bound to happen.  I'm assuming this Roulette character is from the comics, since they made her out to be a big deal and got someone like Dichen Lachman to play her.  Plus, she somehow got out (hmm... who is her friend in a high place?), so I guess she's being setup as a potential recurring baddie.

Have no knowledge of Miss Martian's comic book history, so her actually being a White Martian was surprising.  I guess she was actually talking about herself, during her story about the one White Martian who decided to quit following orders.  Hopefully when Hank finds out (and you know he will), he won't automatically go into attack mode, but that is easier said then done, I suspect.  David Harewood is doing great work here.

Yep, Alex is so crushing on Maggie!  Too bad Maggie already is spoken for, but considering we barely even saw the girlfriend, I don't see it being too long before Maggie starts returning those feelings.  Cracked up over Kara's reaction when they both started to ignore her.

Mon-El and Winn going on a bender was about as fun as expected.  Chris Wood already seems to be enjoying himself way more then he did during his entire run on Containment.

Always happy for more Lena/Katie McGrath!

The Catco stuff really isn't working anymore, because Kara honestly kind of sucks as a journalist.  I get Snapper is a dick, but she's pretty much failing at the basics, like providing sources and research.  I mean, come on, Kara.  You don't even have to go journalism school to learn that stuff. Just Netflix Spotlight and take notes, and you'd probably already be 50% better then you currently are.

Speaking of Catco stuff, Jimmy didn't even appear in this one, so he clearly has slipped down the totem pole, despite Mehcad Brooks actually being the second-billed star.  Ouch!

Fun, if simple episode.

[themadman]

Is anyone missing Mehcad Brooks as Jimmy Olsen? No? I thought so. Hopefully, the showrunners are reading these forums.

Edited November 1, 2016 by themadman

[Agent Dark]

1 hour ago, thuganomics85 said:

I'm assuming this Roulette character is from the comics, since they made her out to be a big deal and got someone like Dichen Lachman to play her.

Yeah, she's a Justice Society of America villain (in the Post-Crisis continuity), and in particular for the original Mr. Terrific (the Terry Sloan version, not the Michael Holt one that's in Arrow), though she pops up in the wider DC Universe from time to time.  I thought Supergirl had a pretty spot-on interpretation of her.

[Sakura12]

2 hours ago, themadman said:

Is anyone missing Mehcad Brooks as Jimmy Olsen? No? I thought so. Hopefully, the showrunners are reading these forums.

I didn't, but I don't think the showrunners got the message if next week's promo is anything to go by. 

[benteen]

Dichen Lachman was much better in Agents of Shield.  Kind of boring here with awful tattoos. 

[KirkB]

I imagine the whole reason (out of universe) James was missing was because Mehcad is busy filming his James-centric episode.

Which is ironic, considering that episodes where James was not present at all have not (IMO) suffered from his absence. Oh, I'm sure he has plenty of fans who do miss him, but while Cat is going to be missed by a lot of people I'm not sure James has the same following.

I do agree with other posters who said the fight club seems kind of contrary to last season. We were told the only aliens on Earth were Kal and Kara El and the Fort Rozz escapees. Now it turns out National City has enough of an alien subculture to have a secret bar dedicated to them and an alien fight club. Was Fort Rozz really full of that many, mostly harmless aliens? Or do tons of planets have refugees coming to this one random city for some reason?

I don't know much about M'gann but the White Martian thing. That should be interesting when J'onn finds out.

Kara and Lena was definitely a Smallville throwback.

Kind of feel bad for Alex. That close to asking Maggie out and shot down in the most unfortunate way.

Edited November 1, 2016 by KirkB
Spelling and grammar.

[stealinghome]

4 hours ago, thuganomics85 said:

The Catco stuff really isn't working anymore, because Kara honestly kind of sucks as a journalist.  I get Snapper is a dick, but she's pretty much failing at the basics, like providing sources and research.  I mean, come on, Kara.  You don't even have to go journalism school to learn that stuff. Just Netflix Spotlight and take notes, and you'd probably already be 50% better then you currently are.

S1 Kara would be appalled at what a whiny baby she's turned into at Catco. Last season Kara had a solid work ethic and took pride in being good at her job--what happened to that?

All I can say is hopefully the showrunners are getting the memo that just about everyone seems less than impressed with the journalist job for Kara.

[ottoDbusdriver]

12 hours ago, stealinghome said:

Poor M'gann--I mean, she was shitty, but J'onn was a jerk this episode to her too. I'm glad they fixed things by the end, but he's just going to absolutely hit the roof when he finds out she's a White Martian. I kind of can't wait, as I think David Harewood is going to really rock it performance-wise. Impressed with Sharon Leal so far too. I'm shipping them so hard.

.......

Kara's reporter job is still stupid and doesn't fit her. It seems to be there only because the writers feel the need for her to have a day job.

Since all Martians are shapeshifters, how does M'Gann know for sure that J'onn is only a green Martian, but also isn't a white Martian in disguise ?

As for Kara's job, it really does feel like padding.

11 hours ago, GHScorpiosRule said:

Jeeeeebus! The Wearing of masks while at the club gave me the heebie jeebies of Eyes Wide Shut.

While those masks were creepy and being worn for no apparent reason since Maggie was able to spot numerous rich/influential people with barely any effort, what was the deal with everyone wearing those bug-eyed sunglasses at the 2nd fight club location ?

Speaking of the fight club, since J'onn and M'Gann were able to break through the ceiling of the warehouse during their fight, why didn't they just fly away ?  There was no reason for them to stay and keep fighting.

I have a big question about Mon-El's backstory -- was he also stuck in the Phantom Zone for 20 years ?  If not, where the hell has he been all this time ?
No one at the DEO has even mentioned this little tidbit.  If Daxam basically went to shit after Krypton exploded, how did Mon-El or his friend know to program the Betta fish escape pod to come to Earth ?  We know there are lots of other planets in Krypton's sphere of influence, why not go to one a little more close by ?

Also, while Mon-el claims he is getting all used to his new superpowers, it looked like he already had them on Daxam when he leapt into the escape pod.
 

[Primetimer]

Maybe it’s finally Alex's turn to 'enjoy' a romantic subplot (i.e., mooning over someone unavailable)?

View the full article

[cambridgeguy]

Quote

As for Kara's job, it really does feel like padding.

It's an excuse for her to interact with characters like Lena (although it's pretty dubious for her to be granted walk in privileges to a busy CEO's office regardless) and to engage in some heavy handed op-eds with a character who is a bit more neutral than our heroes or the villain of the week.

Quote

While those masks were creepy and being worn for no apparent reason since Maggie was able to spot numerous rich/influential people with barely any effort, what was the deal with everyone wearing those bug-eyed sunglasses at the 2nd fight club location ?

So this is a comic book universe where a domino mask isn't good enough to hide someone's identity, yet a pair of glasses are.  Can't have it both ways.

I don't think they'll make Alex the other woman so the only conceivable way to add some drama to and delay the inevitable CW-approved makeout session is for Maggie's girlfriend to get hurt/killed in some Kara or J'onn related way.

[marketdoctor]

Quote

I understand her telling J'onn that she's a Green Martian, but why would she pretend to be one for that fighting ring?

Some of the aliens (and humans) seem to know enough Martian history to know the White Martians were evil (by a human standard of ethics.)  They might be disliked in the broader galaxy, so it might be like a former Nazi claiming to be Swiss or Austrian.  Also, if any of them knew of the weaknesses of Green Martians (like fire), she might use that to her advantage in a fight.  I'm not saying a lot of people would know that, but if *any* did, she could use that to her advantage.  Or maybe she's just in the habit of using that as a disguise that's hard to disprove.

[Writing Wrongs]

I'm confused. If he isn't a Kryptonian, why is his name Mon-El? That sounds like he is related to Kara.

[Cekrypton1]

"Kryptonian kegels"--Ha! I figured the Kara/James romance would never go anywhere for that precise reason. The old "Man of Steel, Woman of Kleenex" problem, gender-flipped.

[BooBear]

4 minutes ago, Writing Wrongs said:

I'm confused. If he isn't a Kryptonian, why is his name Mon-El? That sounds like he is related to Kara.

Perhaps we can assume the "el" is a very common name in the galaxy like Smith is on earth. 

Blurg, that was a poor episode. I feel like Kara is slipping out of the main driver of the story position. I felt like everyone else was taking center stage. Alex, J'Jon, Mon-el.  I miss Kara being the special one rather than just another alien.  I also don't like how may aliens there are now. I guess we can't do much about it as they need plots but can't we get some human baddies. On Kara barging into Leana's office, why can't Kara call or text to get that information?  Pay for Katie McGrath? Plus kind of hard to believe Supergirl couldn't just use her super hearing.

I did like Mon-el a little bit more but also was kind of annoyed at his frat boy attitude. I am hoping that is a cover / wall. Mon-el, you have just been told your planet is gone and you are stuck on this one -- forever, what are you gong to do? Get drunk at a bar with Will?!! Ok maybe that is his personality but I can't see him hanging around Kara that much.  Also not buying this "you have to be watched for your own safety" err what? I am sure he can handle it.

As for Maggie and Alex, why did they have to dress up and wear masks?  Is Alex that well known?

Kara as reporter... she need a strong mentor that likes her. Maybe that will be Snapper but right now... not feeling it.

We need a major mid season calamity where half the cast gets killed and Supergirl and Superman can't do jack. Taking out Jimmy, Snapper, Cat co proper, maybe Winn and half of the aliens.

[Jediknight]

26 minutes ago, cambridgeguy said:

It's an excuse for her to interact with characters like Lena (although it's pretty dubious for her to be granted walk in privileges to a busy CEO's office regardless)

Well that CEO clearly has a thing for Kara.

I liked Winn and Mon-El as bros, good to see him getting a friend outside of Kara, Alex, and James.

J'onn as the outnumbered dad to Alex and Kara was great.

As for why M'gann is posing as a Green Martian it's because she's ashamed of being a White Martian.  She doesn't want to identify herself with being a member of a race that wiped out another, so she's taken on the persona of a Green Martian.

[Artsda]

Quote

 

Speaking of Catco stuff, Jimmy didn't even appear in this one, so he clearly has slipped down the totem pole, despite Mehcad Brooks actually being the second-billed star.  Ouch!

I didn't even notice he wasn't on the episode. I like Snapper's teaching of Kara, she thinks it's easy when there's so many more layers to writing a story.

[stealinghome]

38 minutes ago, BooBear said:

Blurg, that was a poor episode. I feel like Kara is slipping out of the main driver of the story position. I felt like everyone else was taking center stage. Alex, J'Jon, Mon-el.  I miss Kara being the special one rather than just another alien.  I also don't like how may aliens there are now. I guess we can't do much about it as they need plots but can't we get some human baddies. On Kara barging into Leana's office, why can't Kara call or text to get that information?  Pay for Katie McGrath? Plus kind of hard to believe Supergirl couldn't just use her super hearing.

This. I was thinking about this episode's weakness, along with last week's, and realized that I think it's because Kara is a bystander in her own show right now. What is her arc? I LOVE that Alex and J'onn are getting arcs, as they are by far the best non-Kara characters, but it does feel like Kara herself is getting lost in the shuffle right now.

[KirkB]

1 hour ago, ottoDbusdriver said:

Speaking of the fight club, since J'onn and M'Gann were able to break through the ceiling of the warehouse during their fight, why didn't they just fly away ?  There was no reason for them to stay and keep fighting.

I have a big question about Mon-El's backstory -- was he also stuck in the Phantom Zone for 20 years ?  If not, where the hell has he been all this time ?

For the first question, I was wondering the same thing. M'gann WANTED to be there, so I'll give her a pass, but unless the walls and ceiling were specially treated in some way I don't get why J'onn couldn't just fly out, either phasing or simply punching his through.

As for the second, if memory serves correctly they said he passed through a nebula which Kara recognized. She said "time doesn't pass there so that's why he looks so young" or something to that effect. Which I guess means he took a longer route? Now why he came to Earth in the first place, that I can't say. Unless Krypton and Daxam had been watching it for a while and decided it was a good back up colony site?

[Lady Calypso]

So, I did not realize that James was missing until about a minute ago. He really doesn't add enough that he's missed, not like Cat for me. Plus, the CatCo/Snapper Carr scenes feel like they're halting the story completely. It doesn't help that Kara's pretty bad at her job and as much as I favour progression and hard work, I'm just not interested in Kara being a journalist. And even when Snapper's a dick, I agree with him every time he speaks to Kara. It doesn't help that she's out of the office to be Supergirl more often than not. 

I found myself bored by the episode. I had other things going while the episode was on, so I wasn't really paying attention. I did like Mon-El a lot better this episode.  I even liked his bromance with Winn. I thought he had a lot more personality this episode, and Winn has a guy friend now to hang with. I even didn't mind the Kara/Mon-El romantic hints, even if I'm still not interested in them as a couple. 

I liked the Alex/Maggie scenes once again. I really enjoy the hints of them becoming a romantic couple. 

I do agree that in this second season, it's feeling less like Kara's show. I know it's unintentional, but there's a lot of ensemble stuff that takes it just over the line. Kara didn't seem to be in the episode much at all. She should be getting the most screentime, but I think other characters are toeing too dangerously to match her screentime. As much as I want other characters to get their arcs, I don't want Kara sidelined just to make the others look good. 

I don't want J'onn or M'gann's story to take up more than ten minutes an episode. I like them enough, but I'm not invested. I'm sure J'onn and the DEO will freak out over Miss Martian being a White Martian, and there'll be tension and attempted killing before J'onn saves her. 

Even with one minute of screentime, Lena still manages to impress. I think it's because she props up Kara's story. 

[North of Eden]

I can't hold myself back from commenting anymore....not about the episode but for my white hot burning HATE for the character of Snapper Carr.

He is without a doubt the most unoriginal tropey character to be presented on tv in years. The hard bitten cynical but ethical reporter (which don't exist anymore by the way) is so old of a cliche that Jesus was knee high to a grasshopper when it was invented.

It so transparently clear what they are doing here. They have essentially taken the character of Cat Grant and split her up between Snapper and Lena Luthor because they lost Calista Flockhart in the Canadian transition. Losing Cat is a devastating blow because of the great relationship she had with both Kara and Supergirl.

Meanwhile not knowing what to do with Jimmy they friendzoned him in two seconds in the premier to  Supergirl can get busy with Mon-El (damn they couldn't even have written him to getting back with Lucy  and now with no storyline he's in charge of Cat Co?

Without Cat Grant the entire Cat Co setting should have been scrapped. It's nothing without Cat. Hell Winn isn't even there.

End of rant.

[mtlchick]

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S1 Kara would be appalled at what a whiny baby she's turned into at Catco. Last season Kara had a solid work ethic and took pride in being good at her job--what happened to that?

I think it's simply the new job.  I can't remember how long she was an assistant at Catco but I'll assume it was at least 2-3 years to move up the ranks to be the assistant to be the head of the company (and I'm blanking if it was ever told if she got a college degree.)  But now it's "I'm a reporter! Let me report!" and realizing it's a lot more than chasing the story and submit.  As grouchy as Snapper is to her, it's somewhat warranted.

 

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Jeeeeebus! The Wearing of masks while at the club gave me the heebie jeebies of Eyes Wide Shut.

If someone had mentioned "Fidelio", I would have cried from laughing.  (I hated that movie.)

[regularlyleaded]

I guess I've found my place around here in the unpopular opinion camp. I'm thinking of having a flag made ;)

I like Mon-El (still hate the name). I liked his scenes with Winn and with Kara. He does seem to have a touch of party goer vibe, but the show essentially established that's the reputation that Daxamites have and Mon-El wasn't denying it. When Alura's AI called Daxamites hedonists, Mon-El's reaction was like "yep, that's accurate", so I'm not bothered by it, particularly since he's not a jerk. So far, the character seems like a genuinely nice guy who just likes to enjoy himself. No crime in that. Mon-El did seem upset that Daxam was gone, but was also just trying not to dwell on it. He says as much, and, hey, some people are like that. Plus, I find it amusing that Kryptonians, who seem to be somewhat sticks in the mud at times, have a sister planet full of hedonists. Heh. That must have been some entertaining interplanetary diplomatic relations. TBH, I think there's the potential for Mon-El to be a fun foil for Kara who is pretty serious about her duties as a hero and always very aware of the burden of having to be one of the planet's guardians. She's truly Kryptonian in that sense, and Mon-El maybe not so much (though I would imagine that being a Palace guard for the Daxam royal family, he's not entirely bereft of the idea of sacrificing oneself for others), so I think this could be fun. Of course, YMMV.

Aside from all that, I also like Mon-El has the potential to bring out another side of Kara. Setting aside any talk of him as Kara's potential love interest (which I'm still okay with, btw), I like the notion that Kara now has the chance to be the one to pass on her knowledge to someone that's new to the planet, as she was. Last season Kara really came into her own as a superhero. She found her confidence and matured into that role and is now able to stand firmly in that area of her life, so I consider it another step in her development that she now gets to share that knowledge and help mentor someone else that is like her, fresh off the boat and with superpowers that can be a danger to others. IMO, that also serves as a nice contrast to her professional/personal life as Kara where she's just barely treading water.

Kara, by no stretch, thought being a reporter would be easy. Again, she literally says that to her mother's AI  - that she knew reporting would be really hard - she just didn't really grasp how very, very hard it would be for her. But she's trying. That she doesn't know these basics really just underscores for me how much of a huge, huge, huge leg up Cat gave her by giving her this job with almost no qualifications. If I recall correctly, last season Cat had Kara editing some pieces for her here and there, and Kara seems to know how to write well, so the issue for Kara here is learning about all those things that make someone a reporter versus an opinion writer or even a novelist. So I'm really okay with her having a rough go of it. Yes, she gets annoyed every time Snapper rejects her piece, but I think that's natural when you've come from a job that you were used to being very good at to one where you're generally lost. It's frustrating for her, but she's rising to the occasion, as she should. Though, I will say that I wish Kara had actually gotten one of the other aliens to be a source for her article instead of interviewing herself. I mean, she was there so the information is legitimate, but it would be nice to see her cultivating more sources. But, truth be told, I think the reason the writers had her sourcing herself is because it was a nod to the comicverse where Clark interviewed himself as Superman.

As far as J'onn and M'Gann go, ya, J'onn is going to flip his lid when he finds out that M'gann is a white martian. I suppose the writers are going for the "overcoming prejudices" story here since M'gann seems to be a decent white martian and not an evil one. Or at least, I think that's where this is going. Eh, whatever. I like the actress playing M'gann and she and Harewood seem to work well together, so I'm up for seeing where this is going.  I did laugh when M'gann is lounging in her apartment and J'onn busts in without invitation by phasing through the door. Hehe, M'gann's reaction was funny.

9 hours ago, themadman said:

Is anyone missing Mehcad Brooks as Jimmy Olsen? No? I thought so. Hopefully, the showrunners are reading these forums.

Yikes. I didn't even realize Jimmy wasn't in this episode until it was mentioned here. That's just not a good sign with regards to my interest and investment in that character. And yet, you know what? I still miss Cat Grant. Especially every time there's a scene at CatCo. I miss Cat. Come back, Calista! :(

Speaking of missing things - I kind of miss Kara and Alex having those sisterly scenes like last year. Yes, they still interact, but last season there were so many great moments of them talking and venting as sisters, and I'm a bit wistful for those scenes. I understand that the show is branching out all the characters' relationships and integrating new characters and all that takes up screen time. I totally get that. But, I'm just saying...I miss Kara and Alex.

Final note - Please, Show, don't make Lena evil. Please, please, please, please. please. I like her like this and/or absolutely okay with her being a grey hat, but not evil.  Please?

Edited November 1, 2016 by regularlyleaded

[Sakura12]

Are they giving Kara and J'onn the same storyline, where they have to learn that not everyone from another race are bad. Kara with Mon-El and J'onn with M'gann. I know White Martians are a lot worse than the Daxamites, but she does seem to be one that didn't believe in what her race did. 

I also saw the Lex/Clark Smallville relationship with Kara/Lena. 

[regularlyleaded]

40 minutes ago, Sakura12 said:

 

Are they giving Kara and J'onn the same storyline, where they have to learn that not everyone from another race are bad. Kara with Mon-El and J'onn with M'gann. I know White Martians are a lot worse than the Daxamites, but she does seem to be one that didn't believe in what her race did. 

 

Possibly. It does appear to be a theme. Kara and J'onn, as aliens on Earth, are used to being the ones facing prejudice, but that doesn't mean they don't carry prejudices of their own. I'm reminded of one of my favorite quotes from Terry Pratchett's books: "Just because someone's a member of an ethnic minority doesn't mean they're not a nasty small-minded little jerk.” Not that I think Kara or J'onn are nasty, small-minded jerks, but even the kindest heroes have flaws and prejudices of their own.

 

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I do agree that in this second season, it's feeling less like Kara's show. I know it's unintentional, but there's a lot of ensemble stuff that takes it just over the line. Kara didn't seem to be in the episode much at all. She should be getting the most screentime, but I think other characters are toeing too dangerously to match her screentime. As much as I want other characters to get their arcs, I don't want Kara sidelined just to make the others look good.

Same. I absolutely agree. It's a season 2 development that I'm not liking at the moment. And, based on the the promos that I just saw for next week's episode, it doesn't look like the show is going to improve on this. At all. If anything it looks like it's going to get worse.  *sigh* 

Edited November 1, 2016 by regularlyleaded
Additional thoughts

[Katydid]

I'm just not feeling it so far this season.  So many things just seem so... off.  Starting with the loss of Cat.  Kara as a reporter is doing nothing for me, and James is quite literally non-existent (though I am curious about his upcoming storyline). 

But I was actually impressed when they had Maggie and Alex just grab hands and walk in like it was no biggie.  I thought it was nice to have the attraction just play out naturally without all the anvils dropping and big lead-in that I assumed they would have for a "big reveal" of Alex's sexuality.  But then poor Alex when Maggie's girlfriend showed up!  I assume this isn't the end of things with them, though.

I also enjoyed Mon-El and Winn's bromance.  Poor Winn just doesn't seem to get out much- he was always at work, first Catco and now the DEO.  I also laughed at his quip, "I'm five NINE!", and offering to design Mon-El's costume. 

[MarkHB]

3 hours ago, stealinghome said:

This. I was thinking about this episode's weakness, along with last week's, and realized that I think it's because Kara is a bystander in her own show right now. What is her arc? I LOVE that Alex and J'onn are getting arcs, as they are by far the best non-Kara characters, but it does feel like Kara herself is getting lost in the shuffle right now.

From what the producers have said going into the season. their idea is that, after S1 was about Kara Zor-El figuring out how to be Supergirl, S2 is about figuring out how to be Kara Danvers.  IOW, her actual arc is the reporting stuff.

I am still waiting for Snapper to actually snap his fingers, though.  It would have gone well with the "Bake! Bake! Bake!" line, kind of like Cat's "Chop chop!"