S03.E06: Midvale

[CletusMusashi]

I think the writers wanted to just fast-forward their way past all the breakup angst, so they basically said "Fuck it, let's do a show where they're crime fighting teenagers." And... I'm OK with that. it was actually a little better than most regular episodes.

Edited November 15, 2017 by CletusMusashi

[AnimeMania]

I am kinda surprised that the girls drove, considering that the car can fly.

 

They should have Chitty Chitty Banged it.

Edited November 15, 2017 by AnimeMania

[tofutan]

Quote

She does know about Clark and Lois, right? So much of that was like Smallville Clark talking about being ALONE.??

I think it's pretty clear that Kara thinks that she is above Superman in this regard, she made the choice he couldn't have made, she fought the battle he couldn't have fought. It's nice and all that Clark has his nice little life but angsty!Kara (who in the end is the older one in Kryptonian terms) must be better and even more responsible than him. 

Of course it's a bunch of crock and she will eventually realize that, but that's her mood at this point. 

[nightwing877]

2 hours ago, Trini said:

Space Dad!
 

The only thing is, when Barry crossed over the first time in Season 1, he couldn't find any Green Arrow/Oliver Queen; so there might not be one on Earth-38.   :(

Good point, unless Oliver isn't a Queen. He could just as well been Oliver Merlyn in this world lol but nah I think he doesn't exist. 

[KirkB]

The more I think about it the less this episode worked for me. I mean, overall I liked it. But they combined two stories--seeing into the past with young Kara and Alex and current Kara helping Alex deal with her breakup and with her own--which means neither one got the focus it deserved.

[Perfect Xero]

14 hours ago, Lantern7 said:

Before I forget: I think this is a different Chloe. No friggin' way should any continuity of Smallville should rear its misshapened head. Okay, we can have both versions of Oluver Queen in awe about being attracted to nerd girls with blonde dye, but that's it.

Right, they can't be the same continuities, Kara was a character on Smallville for the last couple of seasons, was about the same age as Clark, and was adopted by the Kents and publicly known as Clark's cousin (she also learned to fly before Clark did on the show). So it doesn't match up at all with Supergirl.

Edited November 15, 2017 by Perfect Xero

[tofutan]

Well is Earth 38, so their lives could have taken different trajectories here, while still being the same characters. 

[Perfect Xero]

Midvale Teen 1: Hey did you hear about this Superman guy arresting this really rich dude?

Midvale Teen 2: Yeah, crazy rich, his name is Lax Looker or something.

Kara: Lex Luthor, he's Superman's nemesis.

Midvale Teen: Whoa, whoa, whoa. What's up with you knowing all this crazy accurate info about Superman and the richest man on the planet and their recent big news story that I was just talking about?

Midvale Teen: Yeah, it's really weird that you know all this super detailed information about the god like being that walks among us. Almost like you heard the same story we did, but paid attention better. What, are you like, some deranged Superman Stalker or his COUSIN or something!? Freak!

Never change, TV teens dealing with people who have super powers, never change.

[paulvdb]

Don't forget the bit where one of the teens made fun of Superman for wearing his underwear over his tights.

[GHScorpiosRule]

5 hours ago, Perfect Xero said:

Midvale Teen 1: Hey did you hear about this Superman guy arresting this really rich dude?

Midvale Teen 2: Yeah, crazy rich, his name is Lax Looker or something.

Kara: Lex Luthor, he's Superman's nemesis.

Midvale Teen: Whoa, whoa, whoa. What's up with you knowing all this crazy accurate info about Superman and the richest man on the planet and their recent big news story that I was just talking about?

Midvale Teen: Yeah, it's really weird that you know all this super detailed information about the god like being that walks among us. Almost like you heard the same story we did, but paid attention better. What, are you like, some deranged Superman Stalker or his COUSIN or something!? Freak!

Never change, TV teens dealing with people who have super powers, never change.

 

3 hours ago, paulvdb said:

Don't forget the bit where one of the teens made fun of Superman for wearing his underwear over his tights.

And when they actually meet Superman, or any other hero, they're the first ones to start gushing and get all excited to meet them. Jerks.

[Quark]

Chloe.

Lois.

God I miss Smallville.

[GHScorpiosRule]

1 minute ago, Quark said:

Chloe.

Lois.

God I miss Smallville.

Lex

Lionel

Martha

Bo Kent (YES! Even HIM!)

Ollie

Clark (YESSS!!! Even the BDA!)*

*Big Dumb Alien

[Lantern7]

I'd settle for Kara having "Save Me" as her ringtone. Hey, I assigned one for Winn. Let's speculate on tone tastes!

On-Topic: Fuck the one-dimensional jocks. I'm not expecting genuine tears, but they were assholes about it. Seriously, couldn't they at least mourn the loss of thirty seconds per day from when they needed to feel like big men by picking on the one nerd? I have to remember: this was the mid-2000s. They probably never saw the video for "Jeremy."

[KirkB]

19 minutes ago, Lantern7 said:

I'd settle for Kara having "Save Me" as her ringtone. Hey, I assigned one for Winn. Let's speculate on tone tastes!

I love that song.

Winn would probably assign J'onn's name to play the theme to My Favorite Martian whenever he calls.

[legaleagle53]

5 hours ago, GHScorpiosRule said:

Lex

Lionel

Martha

Bo Kent (YES! Even HIM!)

Ollie

Clark (YESSS!!! Even the BDA!)*

*Big Dumb Alien

I shudder to think what the viewer reaction would be if Lana Lang ever showed up on Supergirl.

3 hours ago, Lantern7 said:

I'd settle for Kara having "Save Me" as her ringtone. Hey, I assigned one for Winn. Let's speculate on tone tastes!

Oh, please. You know full well that Winn's ringtone would be "Can You Read My Mind?" from the first Superman movie.

[GHScorpiosRule]

15 minutes ago, legaleagle53 said:

I shudder to think what the viewer reaction would be if Lana Lang ever showed up on Supergirl.

You take that BACK!!!!!

[legaleagle53]

7 minutes ago, GHScorpiosRule said:

You take that BACK!!!!!

Hey, it could happen.  "Hi, I'm Lana Lang.  I used to date your cousin when we were in high school."

[Miles]

Still so jarring that they recast Kara's mother with an actress who looks absolutely nothing like the old one.

[tofutan]

Kara was close friends with Lana Lang in at least some of the comics. Lana was a bit of a mentor figure from what I remember and Kara even lived with her for a while. I remember them having a story where Kara was pretty angry at her that Lana was hiding the fact that she was sick. 

I could easily see a grown up version of Lana Lang on Supergirl, as some sort of business woman. She worked at Lexcorp at various times and I think she was also in politics because her husband Pete was. So they could have her be a manager of sorts at Lexcorp or maybe have her work for the mayor's office or something like that. 

If they just made her a readhead like in the comics then it also wouldn't have to trigger any Smallville fans. 

[Cthulhudrew]

Best episode in a while! I really enjoyed that.

I wasn't at all sure that an episode that largely involved actors other than the main cast playing the same characters would work, but I was more than pleasantly surprised. Both of the actresses playing young Kara and Alex did a good job and had a lot of chemistry together, even some of the same mannerisms as their "adult" counterparts (especially the girl playing Alex). I didn't even see the plot twist with Sheriff Cutrate Nathan Fillion coming a mile away like usually happens in mysteries, which is a credit to the writers for actually getting the story to focus on the characters and how the mystery affected them and their relationships, as opposed to trying to "wow" everyone with the cleverness of their convoluted writing, as it typical.

Add to that the bookends of what has consistently been the backbone of this show, the relationship between Alex and Kara, as exemplified by Chyler Leigh (MVP once again!) and Melissa Benoist. Plus we got J'onn in a really touching scene (well, Kara and Alura, really). 

I'm going to have to check and see other work by the credited writers on this ep. Very impressed. And I wouldn't mind seeing some more flashbacks with the young Kara and Alex actresses.

[tofutan]

Quote

I'm going to have to check and see other work by the credited writers on this ep. Very impressed. And I wouldn't mind seeing some more flashbacks with the young Kara and Alex actresses.

It appears they haven't written in this combination before. 

Jess Kardos was involved in writen Supergirl Lives (Kara and Mon-El go to Slaver's Moon) and Star Crossed (Mon-El's parents arrive, Winn is framed by Lyra). 

Parrish has written a ton of stuff, including the season premiere, the season 2 finale, the Livewire episode, the Lena backstory episode with Jack, the episode where Jeremiah returns. She's been with the show since season 1. 

Edited November 17, 2017 by tofutan

[Star Aristille]

So the girls singlehandedly solved a murder and they're outcasts for their troubles?  I guess those are high school students for you.

[MarkHB]

On 11/15/2017 at 5:57 AM, paulvdb said:

Don't forget the bit where one of the teens made fun of Superman for wearing his underwear over his tights.

I chuckled at that, too... and then realized that in 2007 in the comics, he still was wearing the red trunks!  But otherwise that whole comment was largely in the same vein as Winn's "Capes are stupid, and you can tell your cousin I said that! Actually, don't ever tell him that..." in the pilot.

[Star Aristille]

5 hours ago, MarkHB said:

I chuckled at that, too... and then realized that in 2007 in the comics, he still was wearing the red trunks!  But otherwise that whole comment was largely in the same vein as Winn's "Capes are stupid, and you can tell your cousin I said that! Actually, don't ever tell him that..." in the pilot.

Wait.  How did Winn ever find out whom she was?  Did he already know at the beginning?

[paulvdb]

No. Kara took him to the roof of the Catco building to tell him. When he didn't believe her she stepped off the edge of the roof and flew back up. That convinced Winn.

[MarkHB]

I won't link it in this thread, but if you Google Supergirl first look fight song you'll find the original CBS upfront video that summarizes the pilot.  JoBlo has it; CBS changed the original after.

[legaleagle53]

13 hours ago, paulvdb said:

No. Kara took him to the roof of the Catco building to tell him. When he didn't believe her she stepped off the edge of the roof and flew back up. That convinced Winn.

Which was the day after she had first gone public with the rescue of the plane that Alex had been on.  So it can still be accurately said that Winn knew from the beginning who Kara was -- from the beginning of her career as Supergirl, that is.

Now, it wasn't until much later that Winn also found out that Clark Kent is Superman, and that was by accident when Jimmy blabbed about that secret right in front of Winn (who, quite true to his huge mancrush on Superman, completely geeked out over the unexpected revelation).

[Jediknight]

On 11/17/2017 at 6:48 PM, Star Aristille said:

So the girls singlehandedly solved a murder and they're outcasts for their troubles?  I guess those are high school students for you.

They also outed the affair between the teacher and Alex's friend, which rightfully would result in the teacher being fired.  So, if he's popular, students would be mad.  The student body also really didn't give a crap about Kenny.

[legaleagle53]

1 hour ago, Jediknight said:

They also outed the affair between the teacher and Alex's friend, which rightfully would result in the teacher being fired.  So, if he's popular, students would be mad.  The student body also really didn't give a crap about Kenny.

And they also got the popular quarterback suspended from school and kicked off the team for doing drugs.  In certain parts of the country where high-school football is practically a religion, that's considered a capital offense.

[Star Aristille]

8 hours ago, legaleagle53 said:

And they also got the popular quarterback suspended from school and kicked off the team for doing drugs.  In certain parts of the country where high-school football is practically a religion, that's considered a capital offense.

 

9 hours ago, Jediknight said:

They also outed the affair between the teacher and Alex's friend, which rightfully would result in the teacher being fired.  So, if he's popular, students would be mad.  The student body also really didn't give a crap about Kenny.

Like I said . . . high school students.:-P

[LisaM]

The actor who played Kenny was Twon from this season of The Americans. 

Loved the Noel Neill mention. 

Nice episode. Enjoyed seeing the development of the sisterly bond. 

[ItCouldBeWorse]

On 11/13/2017 at 9:58 PM, Oreo2234 said:

Yeah I wondered what all that space was being used for if they only have one bathroom and two bedrooms. 

I assume that the mom has her own bathroom in her bedroom, but the girls' stuff is in their shared bathroom.

Why did Kara need to wear glasses?  She didn't have a secret identity yet.

Apparently they only needed to stay 1 day instead of 3.  I wonder if the girls have a collection of cooler bags from visits home?

Edited November 21, 2017 by ItCouldBeWorse

[legaleagle53]

6 hours ago, ItCouldBeWorse said:

Why did Kara need to wear glasses?  She didn't have a secret identity yet.

This was explained fairly early on in Season 1.  The glasses are made of a special partly lead-based material that acts as a dampener on her sensory powers to protect her from sensory overload.  Jeremiah made them for her shortly after she arrived on Earth and started going crazy from having her super-hearing and vision powers kick in all at the same time.

And "Kara Danvers" already was her secret identity. It was only a role that she created to hide her true identity as the super-powered last daughter of Krypton, Kara Zor-El.

Edited November 21, 2017 by legaleagle53

[ItCouldBeWorse]

23 minutes ago, legaleagle53 said:

This was explained fairly early on in Season 1.  The glasses are made of a special partly lead-based material that acts as a dampener on her sensory powers to protect her from sensory overload.  Jeremiah made them for her shortly after she arrived on Earth and started going crazy from having her super-hearing and vision powers kick in all at the same time.

And "Kara Danvers" already was her secret identity. It was only a role that she created to hide her true identity as the super-powered last daughter of Krypton, Kara Zor-El.

I had forgot about the reason for the glasses.

As to her secret identity, I meant that she wasn't yet concerned that people might realize that she was also Supergirl.

Did the image on the laptop of Kara flying seem clear enough that people would have known it was Kara?  It looked very blurry to me.

[legaleagle53]

1 minute ago, ItCouldBeWorse said:

I had forgot about the reason for the glasses.

As to her secret identity, I meant that she wasn't yet concerned that people might realize that she was also Supergirl.

Did the image on the laptop of Kara flying seem clear enough that people would have known it was Kara?  It looked very blurry to me.

Some might.  It's why Kara always got the same lecture every time she was caught using her powers, especially when she and Alex would sneak out at night to go flying.  In fact, it was what led Jeremiah to offer himself and his store of knowledge regarding Superman and Kryptonians in general to the DEO so that Kara wouldn't have to go there after she had been spotted flying around with Alex one night.

[Chas411]

On 14 November 2017 at 2:28 AM, AnimeMania said:

That house is huge for 3 people, why would they be fighting over a bathroom?

Why were they sharing a bedroom in the first place?

Edited November 21, 2017 by Chas411

[AnimeMania]

7 hours ago, Chas411 said:

Why were they sharing a bedroom in the first place?

The bedroom was huge and an alien might need constant supervision and instruction on how to appear human, so that didn't seem that odd to me.

[AudienceofOne]

The flashbacks were quite good as an episode of television but I couldn't get over the fact they had no purpose. We learnt nothing new and it ended up feeling like a bottle episode.

[Trini]

On 11/24/2017 at 8:54 PM, AudienceofOne said:

The flashbacks were quite good as an episode of television but I couldn't get over the fact they had no purpose. We learnt nothing new and it ended up feeling like a bottle episode.

I really liked this one, but it was totally filler.

[Chicago Redshirt]

On 11/24/2017 at 7:54 PM, AudienceofOne said:

The flashbacks were quite good as an episode of television but I couldn't get over the fact they had no purpose. We learnt nothing new and it ended up feeling like a bottle episode.

YMMV, but I think we learned some.

We learned how Alex first came to appreciate Kara as a sister.

We learned that J'onn seemingly was keeping his promise to watch over the Danver girls from close to the start.

We had it emphasized why Kara didn't use her powers from when she was a teen, despite presumably having ample opportunities/needs to do so, and how she makes an exception for Alex.

We learned Kara is a bathroom hog.

We learned that Chloe lives/lived in Supergirlverse.

We learned there was no need for political anvils 10ish years ago.

It felt like it could almost have been a backdoor pilot for "Midvale," like a Supergirl version of "Smallville." Which I would watch the crap out of, despite superhero oversaturation at this point.