S04.E06: Call to Action

[Perfect Xero]

The alien story would work much better if they made it part of the story that the alien races who have powers are the exception and most of the aliens coming to Earth are no more super powered than humans, instead of constantly hitting on how aliens have special DNA that gives them powers that can't be replicated in humans.

Then a bunch of angry dudes going around beating up random aliens with such amazing high tech alien fighting gear as baseball bats and Tiki torches because their dogs barked at a house would make a lot more sense.

As it stands 95% of the alien races that we've seen on the show could take out a Liberty squad who shows up at their home about as easily as Brainy did.

[statsgirl]

6 hours ago, cambridgeguy said:

Nia needs to work on her lying skills.  If you've been diagnosed with a condition like narcolepsy you shouldn't need someone else to remind you of what it's called.

Yeah, I also think that she doesn't have narcolepsy, she has/was up to something else and just pulled out the first thing she could think of. Prepare better, Nia!

6 hours ago, AD35 said:

I'd have to go with Lena on this.  The situation James was putting himself wasn't just risky but downright foolish in case something went really bad and he didn't have any back up. He could have at least offered to wear some sort of  tracking device.

They might have found the signals from a tracking device and killed him. But it is an option, although one Lena refused to consider.

Journalism can be a very dangerous profession. 45 journalists have been killed this year, 1324 since 1992. because they believe that what they do important even if it is dangerous.  James believes that he has the best chance of getting into the minds of the cult and that information is important to help stopping them. Ever since season 1 James has wanted to do more to help the city; Lena really needs to talk this out with him if she wants to keep their relationship. (Yes, I'm loving this arc because it's not OTT like many things on these shows.)

It's too bad that Lena doesn't know that Kara is Supergirl (eyeroll) would she try to stop her from saving National City if it's dangerous?

A much better story for James that yearning to be a superhero like Supes and Kara.

[ItCouldBeWorse]

15 hours ago, cambridgeguy said:

Kara has blonde hair, is immune to fire, and gets along with dragons.  She must have some Targaryen blood in her.

I almost forgot! When Nia Nall asked Kara if she had added highlights and she replied in the affirmative, I wondered what kind of bleach can affect Kryptonian hair?  Was Kara not telling the truth?

12 hours ago, rtms77 said:

 

15 hours ago, ItCouldBeWorse said:

I wondered why she was incinerating the previous tumor specimens.  I guess it was to let her realize that the last one was indestructible.

Hmm I thought she was incinerating them because they became useless test subjects. Remember she was trying to cure cancer and both hearts showed the tumours growing. She tried to destroy the second subject only for it not to die. She was shocked and surprised by this. Looking for invulnerability was not her goal.

I was unclear.  What I meant was, failed test material isn't usually incinerated individually and so spectacularly.  It is often discarded with other medical waste.  However, Lena needed to use this particular procedure in order (for us) to have that moment when she realized that the heart was impervious to fire, giving her the idea for her next plan.

Edited November 19, 2018 by ItCouldBeWorse

[UNOSEZ]

I get it wasn't subtle.. But what really was the problem with the anti alien idiots using tiki torches like those white supremacists.. Both are equally idiotic and reprehensible.. I mean maybe the show also needs more non kill all roaches humans.. But those children of liberty folks are the worst of them... 

[mrspidey]

So Lena now has a heart in a jar that is invincible and has growing tumors. Do you want Deadpool, Lena? Because this is how you get Deadpool. 

Edited November 19, 2018 by mrspidey

[iMonrey]

Quote

Haley is already boring me.  Really, does she expect Kara to just ignore crimes now and only work whatever is under the DEO's purview?  So, if a building is on fire, is Kara suppose to be like "Sorry, folks!  That's the fire department's job, not mine!  Peace!"  Does Kara even really need them (with respect to Alex and Brainy)?  I'd love it if she just told Haley to piss off, and quit.  Don't see the DEO being able to do squat without her, especially if Haley continues to hold Alex back as well.

Yes, the idea of some new boss coming in an making things difficult for Alex and Supergirl is really a tiresome trope and doesn't make a lot of sense. I don't really see what Haley could do about it if Alex and Supergirl just sort of go it alone. Hell most of the DEO would follow them and ignore whatever military stooge the government sent over to run things their own way. 

[HunterHunted]

18 hours ago, UNOSEZ said:

I keep seeing the term aliens as if they're all the same.. Kryptonians and Daxamites were the ones who have tried to destroy the world so far.. And those worlds are gone.. Maybe Kara shoulda pointed that out in her debate...

Furthermore, season 1 is kind of a wash. Almost every alien threat in season 1 was from an escapee from Fort Rozz. It would be like concluding that every person of Mexican descent or white guy was dangerous just because there was a massive breakout at a super max prison and hundreds of incarcerated individuals who were in the Aryan Brotherhood and Mexican Mafia were out on the street murdering people left and right. The Fort Rozz escapees were criminals and were supposed to be incarcerated there for some amount of time. It was only the massive destruction of Krypton that knocked Kara's pod off course and accidentally slaved Fort Rozz to her pod and engine that brought these criminals to Earth. But for that, season 1 might have played out differently. 

I also find Lockwood's comparison to Thanksgiving to be a bit shallow. From what we can see, humans were not really supportive or welcoming of aliens in season 1. They were happily catching them and imprisoning them in part because these aliens were mostly criminals. It actually reminds me of the colonization of Australia more than the colonization of North America.

Edited November 19, 2018 by HunterHunted

[HunterHunted]

20 hours ago, The Crazed Spruce said:

Were they actually shown to be aliens? I took them to be humans with an alien pet, and the dog was barking at the dragon.

I'm hoping that it turns out that the pet dragon is the alien like Lockheed or Nibbler

14 hours ago, thuganomics85 said:

Haley is already boring me.  Really, does she expect Kara to just ignore crimes now and only work whatever is under the DEO's purview?  So, if a building is on fire, is Kara suppose to be like "Sorry, folks!  That's the fire department's job, not mine!  Peace!"  Does Kara even really need them (with respect to Alex and Brainy)?  I'd love it if she just told Haley to piss off, and quit.  Don't see the DEO being able to do squat without her, especially if Haley continues to hold Alex back as well.

Haley is either really concrete or has some other weird agenda. She honestly thinks she can prevent Supergirl from doing whatever she wants. She doesn't want to get involved with stopping the Sons of Liberty when anyone with eyes can see that this violent vigilante group is only going to be met with alien reprisals. It's really just preventative law enforcement. If she had any leg to stand on she would have told Alex to turn the info over to the local police, the FBI, or the interagency taskforce because there's always an interagency taskforce.

6 hours ago, tennisgurl said:

Loved Brainy kicking ass...through physics!

While I liked the concept, I found the execution of a similar fight on the otherwise execrable Inhumans to be superior.

It displayed both the physics and probability type analysis that someone like Brainy would be doing in a fight like that. Another similarish example is from Person of Interest when Root and Reese are in god mode.

Or the Martine vs Root god mode fight.

 

Kara's highlights--she puts Sun-In in her hair and sits under the red sun lamps at the DEO for a couple of hours.

Edited November 20, 2018 by HunterHunted

[tennisgurl]

Can I get more information about the lizard dragon alien living with some family in suburbia?!? 

[GHScorpiosRule]

9 hours ago, AnimeMania said:

Agent Liberty is just the face/mouthpiece of the movement. We already knew this from when Mercy Graves recuited  Ben Lockwood in the back of the stretch limo. Mercy said she wasn't the head of the Sons Of Liberty and I assume whomever is, is rich and has been paying Ben Lockwood, which is why he now has a nice home to live in.

Oh yeah. Forgot about that.

[Cthulhudrew]

12 hours ago, GHScorpiosRule said:

We already know that Agent Liberty isn't a billionaire. His father losing his factory and Ben himself losing his job because of his sudden xenophobia, and homeowners insurance not covering the loss of his home is the reason he became Agent Liberty in a Destro* wannabe mask.

* TM @Cthulhudrew

LOL! I'm just going to refer to him as Agent Destro from now on. And now there's apparently a whole Destro Brigade to boot.

Edited November 20, 2018 by Cthulhudrew

[Chyromaniac]

Forget metas- I want to know if Game of Thrones exists on E-38. Because if so, I don’t see how anyone can take these clowns seriously, walking around like a bunch of Dollar Tree Sons of the Harpy...

[GHScorpiosRule]

25 minutes ago, Cthulhudrew said:

LOL! I'm just going to refer to him as Agent Destro from now on. And now there's apparently a whole Destro Brigade to boot.

 

[legaleagle53]

5 hours ago, Tasha Brand said:

I'm surprised Maroon 5 actually exists in Supergirl's world!  Then again, back in season one, Cat mentioned that Taylor Swift also exists, as does The Talk, so I guess it's possible.

And when Barry Allen visited Earth-38 and met Cat, she said that he, Kara, Wynn, and James all looked like "the cast of a racially diverse but harmless show on the CW."  How meta can you get?

[angora]

I like the idea of James using Guardian to infiltrate the Children of Liberty, but this episode might prove he doesn't quite have the stomach for it.  He definitely doesn't have a problem with the risk involved, but he was only with that guy for a little bit before he started arguing against the anti-alien rhetoric, which doesn't make him seem like someone who's genuinely interested in joining their side.  I totally get it - it has to be stomach-churning to walk down the street with someone casually talking about roaches - but if his goal is to get in good with them and make it to the inner circle/meet Agent Liberty, he's not going about it the right way.

Brainy's fight was awesome - loved the music, his complete nonchalance throughout, and how pleased with himself he looked at the end.  I also enjoyed him handing Alex his pie when she gave him the Children of Liberty mask, blithely informing Kara that the flowers he brought her were fake, and bringing the Children of Liberty mask to Thanksgiving dinner so he could work if he got too bored.  Hee!  He and Nia are going to be fun together.

Kara switching on a dime from approaching the dragon as a monster to approaching it as a pet was adorable; I loved that.

[Featherhat]

11 hours ago, Chyromaniac said:

Forget metas- I want to know if Game of Thrones exists on E-38. Because if so, I don’t see how anyone can take these clowns seriously, walking around like a bunch of Dollar Tree Sons of the Harpy...

I think at one point Kara and Mon El were curled up on a sofa and Kara made a crack about Winter Still Not Coming or something. I might have been imagining it though since I haven't watched S2 since. 

It's been said before but I just can't with how this show is going about this season's storyline. The importance of the message is completely lost in the cringe factor for me. Both the message and enjoyment of the show are lost in feeling 2nd hand embarrassment it. When LOT tackles some of the same issues in a more subtle manner......Eh. I guess it is working ok for some though.

Yawn at the Haley plot. It just feels very paint by numbers to keep a DEO plot in the mix. There's nothing to literally or legally hold Kara there if she doesn't want to be or stop her saving people not mandated by the DEO. After all, if a regular person sees someone in trouble, there's nothing stopping them stepping in from trying to help, even if it isn't their job. 

At this point not even a Cat Grant esque "well obviously I always knew, you didn't fool me the first time I challenged you about it, I just value your privacy" type thing will save her not figuring it out.   

[Ubiquitous]

Apparently, Earth First has trained dogs to detect disguised aliens as part of their plan to mark every house in notMetropolis with paint that can only be seen with special infrared lenses in those bronze masks in preparation for some sort of Kristallnachton the eve of Thanksgiving. I am not sure where to begin with that one:

• How would one train dogs to detect aliens?
• How did Earth First tag the houses without being noticed?
• Just how many members are there to mark every alien house in notMetropolis?
• How did they get the money for all this equipment?
• SuperGirl used her heat vision to obliterate the markings. Wouldn't that leave burn marks?
• Supergirl isn't fast enough to get all the marks?
• What kind of pigment are they using that Brainiac can rub it off with some spit and some elbow grease?
• "Using physics" does not allow you to move a la The Matrix.
• No one noticed these goons running around and breaking into homes?
• Earth First's fun is prematurely ended when they beat up a little girl's father, not knowing her pet iguanna, a fire-breathing dragon, is the alien their dog detected. OK, I wondered if there were any other people misidentified.

[MarkHB]

8 hours ago, Ubiquitous said:

"Using physics" does not allow you to move a la The Matrix.

While the rest of your points are very well taken, Brainy was wearing his Legion flight ring and I gave that credit for the wall-standing.

[Kimmel77]

On ‎19‎/‎11‎/‎2018 at 3:20 PM, Trini said:

You think this isn't going to happen? This is totally going to happen.

I bet they get bracelets instead.

[GHScorpiosRule]

On ‎11‎/‎20‎/‎2018 at 8:22 AM, angora said:

I like the idea of James using Guardian to infiltrate the Children of Liberty, but this episode might prove he doesn't quite have the stomach for it.  He definitely doesn't have a problem with the risk involved, but he was only with that guy for a little bit before he started arguing against the anti-alien rhetoric, which doesn't make him seem like someone who's genuinely interested in joining their side.

Except that's not what James was doing. As he told Lena, he wanted to meet with them so that he could "change their minds." As if it was a simple thing to change people of that mindset. And he was so smug that he had done so with that one guy. But dude turned him over to his team at the end. It would have been more interesting if James had decided to go undercover to find out more about them and who their leader is. 

And please give me J'onn Jones of Justice League/Justice League Unlimited, who wouldn't hesitate to read people's, villains' minds to get the fucking intel so they could get the job done. This show has done the character NO FAVORS.

[Perfect Xero]

1 hour ago, GHScorpiosRule said:

Except that's not what James was doing. As he told Lena, he wanted to meet with them so that he could "change their minds." As if it was a simple thing to change people of that mindset. And he was so smug that he had done so with that one guy. But dude turned him over to his team at the end. It would have been more interesting if James had decided to go undercover to find out more about them and who their leader is.

I feel like he expressed both things at some point, maybe it was the end of the previous episode that he said he could infiltrate them to find their leader then in this episode he went all hearts and minds?

[Ubiquitous]

5 hours ago, Kimmel77 said:

I bet they get bracelets instead.

I bet those bracelets have "What Would Destro Do?" on them.

 

17 hours ago, MarkHB said:

While the rest of your points are very well taken, Brainy was wearing his Legion flight ring and I gave that credit for the wall-standing.

OK, I can excuse using the flight ring to walk up the wall, but this?

[GHScorpiosRule]

30 minutes ago, Perfect Xero said:

I feel like he expressed both things at some point, maybe it was the end of the previous episode that he said he could infiltrate them to find their leader then in this episode he went all hearts and minds?

Yep. And I was expecting an undercover/infiltration type plot. And James should know, from his personal experience, that you can't change the minds of people filled with so much hate.

[silverstream]

Did the writers seriously have Alex compare the Children of Liberty to the White Rose because both distributed leaflets? I'm baffled and honestly a little disgusted.

On 11/20/2018 at 3:32 PM, Ubiquitous said:

Earth First's fun is prematurely ended when they beat up a little girl's father, not knowing her pet iguanna, a fire-breathing dragon, is the alien their dog detected.

I took it to mean that it was some power the little girl had that turned her pet into a dragon. The father seems to have be an alien at the very least - he implied that much when trying to defend himself, as somebody pointed out upthread.

Edited November 22, 2018 by silverstream

[immortalfrieza]

On 11/18/2018 at 11:28 PM, Trini said:

I'm not convinced this is the direction they're going with her.

They've been going

"*wink wink* Lena is going to go evil! *wink wink*"

"Wait, no she's not, she's actually a fine upstanding person!"

far far too much for me to really buy it if they ever actually DID make Lena evil, nor would I ever like it if they did. Make Lena morally ambiguous I could see working, but making her evil would just smack of bad writing no matter how they did it.

 

On 11/19/2018 at 12:14 PM, tennisgurl said:

Well, they already used Make Daxum Great Again, so maybe they want to give us a little time in between. I mean, ticki torches? Really show? Did you not think we got it yet? Did you think there was one person person out there like "oh my God, now I get it! This season is about immigration being good! I never picked up on that!"? 

Maybe if your going to have a counterpoint style round table thing, have a journalist who is a bit more hard nosed than Kara. Sweet Kara still freaks out about internet comments, I cant imagine her doing much against someone like Ben Lockwood beside talking about her human interest pieces on nice aliens. She could have used facts or statistics on how many aliens are actually violent, how many are living in the city, etc. There are points she could have used, but Kara, God love her, isnt really great at tough question and answer sessions. Also, holy CRAP is Ben Lockwood smug. His smug smirk is getting smugger by the day. 

I already love Manchester Black, he can stick around. He is so not close to playing around. 

Wow, James actually gets a decent plot! I actually like the ideas the show is discussing with the role journalism plays in politics and culture, especially with these fringe group types. Lena wants to condemn them and basically ignore or fight them, which means its harder for them to spread their message, but it also just makes them more pissed off and feel more disenfranchised (even when they obviously arent), while James wants to actually try to understand them and reason with them, which does hopefully make them feel like pissed, but also gives them a platform. Theres a lot going on, and I think its pretty interesting.

 

There is only 1 way to deal with fringe like that, condemn them and then ignore them, only even acknowledging their existence when they do something harmful, and even then just stop them and move on. Trying to reason with or debate people like that especially in an official capacity just gives their position look like it has legitimacy particularly if they are good at twisting your words around to sound like you support them and/or make you look bad. Inflicting violence upon them for any reason other than trying to cease the violence they are or have already inflicted or trying to shut down their hate speech just bolsters them and may even turn them from fringe to mainstream. Nothing boosts a group faster than trying to shut them up and/or stop them by force when they aren't doing anything physically and obviously harmful.

 

Quote

Also, Lena really does control James too much, booking interviews and stuff without telling him. Thats why its sometimes awkward when your dating your boss. 

My thoughts were: "Oh poor little James, your boss decides to tell you what to do on matters involving your job! Surely this is an unprecedented event unheard of for every employee ever!" The fact that they turned what was an extremely reasonable position for Lena to take both for the sake of her boyfriend's safety and morally into her being "controlling" was ridiculous.

On 11/18/2018 at 10:36 PM, MadyGirl1987 said:

And that sums up my problem with the whole aliens=immigrants thing they have going on. Yes, people are taking it too far, and killing innocent aliens is absolutely wrong, but they are acting like it is absurd and hateful for people to be afraid and mistrusting of aliens. We have seen multiple alien attacks. Some aliens have abilities they could use to harm or control others. Supergirl, Superman and John themselves could each burst into the White House and take over the government if they so wanted. A human immigrant from Mexico or the Middle East, on the other hand, is simply human and no more a threat then any other person. The show wants to have it's cake and eat it to. It wants to show dangerous, high-stakes, intergalactic fights, like the Daxamite invasion, while saying aliens are totally cool and should be treated like everyone else.

It's just like Mutants with X-Men, humans actually have very GOOD reason to be scared of and despise aliens. When you've got beings that can destroy a city block with but a thought, maybe even by accident all over the place AND have actively tried to destroy the world more than once, wanting them gone is a pretty rational point of view all things considered. Bigotry is one thing, having legitimate cause is quite another. This is especially true with aliens since if DC lore is any indication while aliens were there before then ever since Superman showed up the world has gone pretty well to hell due to all the aliens deciding Earth is the only planet in the universe they could go to.

 

To add to a cliched phrase, it's true, people fear what they don't understand, but they're downright terrified of what they DO understand. The more you know, the more reason one has to fear.

On 11/19/2018 at 3:30 AM, thuganomics85 said:

Don't see the DEO being able to do squat without her, especially if Haley continues to hold Alex back as well.

I had to laugh at this, because it's so freaking true. Aside from sometimes Alex, Winn, Brainy, and J'onn when he decides to get off his butt the entire DEO is utterly worthless without Supergirl to swoop in and do their jobs for them. The number of threats that have been on this show that weren't of alien origin and thus the DEO isn't supposed to be designed to handle without a near invincible alien to bring in and solve could be counted on one hand. Yet, the whole organization can't do anything to stop these threats which the organization itself exists to stop and just die in droves if they even show up.

Edited November 22, 2018 by immortalfrieza

[Rushmoras]

A much much better episode than the last one. I always like these festive-themed episodes (just feeling sorry that it wasn't more festive, but, oh well), because they are not desperately trying to make you swallow your healthy dose of primary school world-view politics as much. So, Lena is trying to cure cancer with Harun-El, but accidentally discovered that it makes a person invulnerable? Hmm, could this be origins of Power Girl in this show?

P.S. I really don't care how tough colonel Halley thinks she is, you just don't boss around a god like being unless you have kryptonite in your pocket. In Kara's shoes I would have tapped her 'friendly' over the shoulder, and walked away.

[Rushmoras]

On 2018-11-21 at 4:08 PM, GHScorpiosRule said:

Except that's not what James was doing. As he told Lena, he wanted to meet with them so that he could "change their minds." As if it was a simple thing to change people of that mindset. And he was so smug that he had done so with that one guy. But dude turned him over to his team at the end. It would have been more interesting if James had decided to go undercover to find out more about them and who their leader is. 

And please give me J'onn Jones of Justice League/Justice League Unlimited, who wouldn't hesitate to read people's, villains' minds to get the fucking intel so they could get the job done. This show has done the character NO FAVORS.

Of course it's simple. Kara does that all the time in the show, lol. Hope speeches! They can change even Hitler, Stalin or Mao!

[Ubiquitous]

12 hours ago, silverstream said:

I took it to mean that it was some power the little girl had that turned her pet into a dragon. The father seems to have be an alien at the very least - he implied that much when trying to defend himself, as somebody pointed out upthread.

I am only a casual viewer, but I took the lack of a lame disguise machine being disrupted by impacts (like the guy before the credits) and him saying he's lived there before the aliens arrived on Earth meant he's an earthling.

Where were the cops when all this went down?

[jay741982]

On 11/18/2018 at 11:52 PM, UNOSEZ said:

I keep seeing the term aliens as if they're all the same.. Kryptonians and Daxamites were the ones who have tried to destroy the world so far.. And those worlds are gone.. Maybe Kara shoulda pointed that out in her debate... Also I just wanted Manchester to look at Kara and go.. Ur Supergirl.. And then keep it moving... I still hope they play it that way.. He seems like the type to figure it out but not really care all that much

I expected Manchester to figure out Kara was an alien in this ep. The guy he had strung up in the bathroom of his place had Kara's address on him so I figured her place was marked and was going to have Children of Liberty storm the place 

[bros402]

On 11/18/2018 at 10:12 PM, ItCouldBeWorse said:

Looks like Lena will be our next metahuman.  There's no way she would experiment on someone else.  I wondered why she was incinerating the previous tumor specimens.  I guess it was to let her realize that the last one was indestructible.

I half want it to be Eve Tessmacher or whatever her name is.

[slowpoked]

20 hours ago, jay741982 said:

I expected Manchester to figure out Kara was an alien in this ep. The guy he had strung up in the bathroom of his place had Kara's address on him so I figured her place was marked and was going to have Children of Liberty storm the place 

No, the reason why Manchester had Kara's address with him was becaue J'onn wrote it for him on a piece of paper before he left, telling him the address of the Thanksgiving dinner.

I'm confused by the ending. I feel like I missed something during the episode. Did Lena say that the humans are in a civil war with the aliens and that humans need to protect themselves? Does that mean she's taking the side of the Children of Liberty even though she was pushing for James to disavow them? Or will she be forming a different anti-alien faction?

Re: Lena knowing/not knowing about Kara/Supergirl - I'm on the side that thinks that she's always known, just like Cat Grant. She just hasn't made a big deal out of it because she wants to keep the peace of the status quo.

[AnimeMania]

Lena wants an insurance policy, she knows Supergirl has the humans best interests at heart but Supergirl may not be able to fight or might not agree with the humans in every situation. The way Batman has a plan on how to take down every Superhero, Lena wants to be in the same position.

[statsgirl]

On 11/22/2018 at 12:48 AM, immortalfrieza said:

My thoughts were: "Oh poor little James, your boss decides to tell you what to do on matters involving your job! Surely this is an unprecedented event unheard of for every employee ever!" The fact that they turned what was an extremely reasonable position for Lena to take both for the sake of her boyfriend's safety and morally into her being "controlling" was ridiculous.

James went from photographer to investigative photo-journalist. That's what he wants to do now, use his unique position to investigate the Sons of Liberty. It's not an unrealistic position.

James was promoted to run things behind the scenes, not to be an on-air spokesperson. If Lena wants him to do on-air interviews, she can ask him if he's willing to do them.  She can even order him if she wants him to consider quitting. But she shouldn't blindside him like that, not as an employer and especially not as a significant other.