S04.E15: O Brother, Where Art Thou?

[Trini]

Quote

JON CRYER GUEST STARS AS ICONIC DC COMICS' VILLAIN LEX LUTHOR -

Secretly furloughed from prison due to failing health, Lex Luthor (guest star Jon Cryer) visits his sister, Lena, to seek her help finding a cure. Savvy as ever, Lena is suspicious of Lex's motives but when she's faced with a life and death situation, she must decide how she truly feels about her brother. Meanwhile, Supergirl and J'onn face off against Manchester Black. James' sister Kelly (guest star Azie Tesfai) comes to town.

Tawnia Mckiernan directed the episode written by Derek Simon & Nicki Holcomb.

Airdate: 3/17/2019

[bettername2come]

I really enjoyed this one. I wish we could have gotten a James and Lex scene. I liked how they remembered they have a history and how Lex kept calling him Jimmy. It was just believable and a little petty. John Cryer makes a surprisingly good Lex Luthor. Nice "The Watchmen" reference with "I had someone give me the cure ten minutes ago." Miss Tessmacher is evil?! Why am I surprised by this?

Is it just me or was this the strongest storyline James has had in two years, and he spends most of it unconscious offscreen?

[jay741982]

Man fuck Tessmacher. Not personal my ass Bitch! James was good to her. Should've known they would keep her Lexs stooge.  Jon Cryer is a fine Lex Luthor by the way. And we get Red Daughter next week!

[cambridgeguy]

James is Kara's best friend?  I suppose there aren't too many candidates to choose from but that didn't seem right after the past few seasons.  Nor did Alex being so strident - just how many James-Alex solo scenes have we actually had? 

While I can certainly buy Lex sabotaging the power at the hospital and forcing Lena's hand how did he know it would coincide with Manchester's actions?  That's pretty convenient. 

I'm sure Eve was just waiting to bust out her evil henchwoman outfit - but congrats to her for apparently pulling off one very long con if she really had been working for Lex since before we first saw her.

[jay741982]

I'll also add WHOA did we actually see MM Vaporize Manchester Black? I'm stunned but looks like it had to be done.

[mommalib]

Damn I kinda figured it was Eve who plugged James. I hated that it took him getting shot but I like that he's the center of attention for a change. Also I think James and Lena will get back together which makes me happy.

Edited March 18, 2019 by mommalib

[mxc90]

I guess Eve/shooter got tired of waiting for the Catco's cleaning crew to make it to to the top floor to find the body and had to use James' secret watch to call Supergirl. 

The show couldn't afford some red liquid to put by James instead of the plastic blood?

Too bad Nia couldn't "dream" of the answer to her question of who would shoot James.

Why would a warden sign off to have Lex take a trip out of prison? What a waste off guards for this.

A simple "no water for him" would have sufficed from the guard.

Where was James' sis during his arrest/legal troubles as Guardian? Out of the country? Didn't take long for Alex to take notice of her. I'm sure the jello line won her over.

Lena walking in the surgery room and kicking the staff out were ridiculous. Should the hospital now look after James if Lena's cure was illegal? It's Lena cure and she should monitor his recovery at her place.

I must admit: "Alan Harper" entered my mind twice during Cryer's scenes.

I know Lex won't be around long but I hope they find a way to have Miss Tessmacher stay. She couldn't wait to get in that new black outfit.

Lex tells Eve he doesn't intend to kill but to stay and take care of her. What does "take care of her" mean?

So we had to wait for Lex to arrive to get the Russian Super girl story line going.

Why should J'onn be ashamed to tell Kara/Brainy what he did to Manchester? 

Edited March 18, 2019 by mxc90

[Ubiquitous]

Was it me, or was this ep less coherent than usual? There was so much that didn't make a whole lot of sense, like Manchester Black so easily being able to telepathically mess with Jonn's mind.

[thuganomics85]

Lex Luthor has arrived in the form of Jon Cryer!  Not exactly the first person that would cross my mind for the character, but he was actually... kind of good?  Granted, it probably helps that I haven't been wild about many of the iterations of Lex in live action entertainment outside of Michael Rosenbaum (of course, for my money, no one will beat Clancy Brown in the various animated Lex Luthors that he has done), but I thought he stuck the right balance of being sinister and villainous, but I at the same, seeming like he truly does consider Lena a sister that he loves, and believes that he is helping her in his own twisted way.  Overall, I'm actually kind of curious now to see where this is all heading (since he's obviously anti-alien, I'm sure he'll eventually cross paths with Lockwood and the Children of Liberty.)

Heh, so it was Eve who shot James after all, but it wasn't to protect Lena, but because she was working for Lex this entire time.  Lena is so going to have even more trust issues after this! Just wait for the day if/when she ever finds out what Kara has been keeping from her...

Not surprised that it ended with Lena giving James the serum, but I did like that he knows that he would have died without it, and doesn't seem to be holding it against her.  But I suspect this will come back into play.

So, did Manchester actually want to die?  He suddenly went from only going after racists to being willing to kill innocents, so I have to think he was giving J'onn an excuse to finish him for good.  If this is truly it, kind of an anticlimactic way to go.  Although, I'm guessing J'onn wouldn't agree with me!

I did like how Alex not knowing Kara's identity led to her wondering why Kara just up and left the hospital, and being upset about it.  Kara can't just drop everything and run as easily as she used to.

Oh, Nia and Brainy!  I'm still rooting for you two!

So, Otis Graves is still alive?  I wonder what that means for Mercy.

[Lantern7]

As heavy-handed as this series can be (and it'll get worse with Black Lightning wrapping up tomorrow), it does give us something we never knew we'd get from them: great alternatives to DCEU characters. This week: John Cryer as Lex Luthor! A bearded Lex Luthor! And he does a better job than Jessie Eisenberg in Man of Steel. Well, at least fort he first episode.

We also get something akin to what a comic book Luthor would do: have Jimmy James critically shot, forcing Lena to give him The Cure . . . and because that worked, Lex takes it for himself. As much as I can see how he can view mankind getting weaker because of their relationship with a superman . . . that's evil. You think Smallville-era Lex would have done that? He spent a lot of that series in the morally grey. Not this Lex . . . he's cured of his self-inflicted radiation poison, and he makes an escape by killing a shit-ton of agents. Oh, and Ms. Tessmacher was Team Lex the entire. friggin'. time. Oh, and Otis is alive, because he's older movie canon.

Is Manchester dead-dead? I have doubts. He's too good of an antagonist to waste far away from the finale. Also, if Lex is going to back Agent Libertardy and his forces, Manchester has to be there to make things so much worse.

Nice touch with Kara disappearances on Alex having consequences. Also takes me a minute to remember she no longer knows the secret.

Angsting Brainy isn't the best Brainy. The bit about his predecessors being evil was a nice touch, though.

[sonyab]

Brainy and Nia: Their chemistry is so strong it's palpable!!! I have been wanting them to kiss for a long time!!! It's like come on kiss her already! You are driving me crazy!!! Then she kisses him tonight! YESSSSSSSSSSSSSSSS!!!! 🙂 Wait Brainy! Why can't you two be together? You are breaking my heart here!! Are you scared? Seems like you are.  You keep pushing her away!!!

James: I am so glad he is okay!!!! When he got shot, I wasn't sure if the actor was leaving or not.

Jon Cryer: He made a fantastic Lex Luther!!!!!! 🙂 Bravo!!!! Whoa Lex shot James?!!?! I did not see that one coming.

[sonyab]

2 hours ago, cambridgeguy said:

I'm sure Eve was just waiting to bust out her evil henchwoman outfit - but congrats to her for apparently pulling off one very long con if she really had been working for Lex since before we first saw her.

Yeah she fooled me!!! I wanted her to be with Alex! Nevermind now!!!

[sonyab]

49 minutes ago, thuganomics85 said:

Oh, Nia and Brainy!  I'm still rooting for you two!

Me too me too!!!!!! 🙂 Do they have a couple name?  GAH they are so adorable together! 🙂

[ottoDbusdriver]

4 years ago was when Lex arrested -- isn't that around the same time that Supergirl revealed herself to the world (in the Season 1 premiere).
Wouldn't Kara have mentioned the whole red skies thing at some point ?  Because that's something that would have affected her too.
When I saw the Red Skies in the flashback all I could think of was The Flash, specifically the newspaper headline in 2024.

If Manchester Black is truly dead, it seems like a waste of the character.  I guess this means The Hat, Menagerie and the Morae are still in DEO custody.
I'm sure Lex will probably break them out at some point.

Was there even a mention of the Children of Liberty or Ben Lockwood in this episode ?  I guess they knew that Lex was in town and took the night off.

Still no sign of Kasnian Supergirl.  This is now 15 episodes since the character was introduced, and still nothing since we last saw her in a coma with the Kasnian guard calling someone in North America.

5 minutes ago, sonyab said:

Me too me too!!!!!! 🙂 Do they have a couple name?  GAH they are so adorable together! 🙂

Drainy ? Breamer ? Bria ? Mainy ?

[VCRTracking]

2 hours ago, ottoDbusdriver said:

Still no sign of Kasnian Supergirl.  This is now 15 episodes since the character was introduced, and still nothing since we last saw her in a coma with the Kasnian guard calling someone in North America.

She's in the promo for next week

Loved the ending with Lex, Otis and MISS TESSMACHER! Should have known she was working for Lex. Loved the nod to Superman IV with Mozart.

I'm really glad they made Lena Irish)or half) like Katie in real life.

Alex and Kelly. Yep, I ship it.

Shallow note: Melissa looked great in those jeans.

3 hours ago, thuganomics85 said:

Lex Luthor has arrived in the form of Jon Cryer!  Not exactly the first person that would cross my mind for the character, but he was actually... kind of good?  Granted, it probably helps that I haven't been wild about many of the iterations of Lex in live action entertainment outside of Michael Rosenbaum (of course, for my money, no one will beat Clancy Brown in the various animated Lex Luthors that he has done), but I thought he stuck the right balance of being sinister and villainous, but I at the same, seeming like he truly does consider Lena a sister that he loves, and believes that he is helping her in his own twisted way.  Overall, I'm actually kind of curious now to see where this is all heading (since he's obviously anti-alien, I'm sure he'll eventually cross paths with Lockwood and the Children of Liberty.)

Sherman Howard who played Lex in the 2nd season of the late 80s syndicated Superboy series was pretty good. His Lex was crazy and chewed a lot of scenery but was entertaining. Cryer's Lex is more collected but his cavalier attitude toward killing lots of people reminded me of him.

Michael Rosenbaum tweeted his props to the new Lex:

Edited March 18, 2019 by VCRTracking

[Jediknight]

Supergirl has went from Lockwood and Witwer's portrayal as the main villain, to Manchester Black and his understandable rage as the main villain, to Jon Cryer's fantastic Lex, with Kasnian Supergirl waiting in the wings.  Meanwhile Flash is still stuck on the freaking Cicada shit.

It's no question who's done a better job with the villains, and the actors portraying them.

I'm disappointed that Eve is a baddie.  I would have liked her to stay on Lena's side, maybe help bring down Lex.  Of course she could still do that, but it would have been nice for Tessmacher to be on Lena and Supergirl's side the entire time, and never side with Lex.

Brainy is right, Keanu Reeves is a wise man.

[Rushmoras]

Sigh, already the beginning of the episode, and I found a non-sense. Lex talking about an aphorism from Epicurus (ancient Greece philosopher): "An aphorism, which is 230 years old"... No, bitch, more like 1790 years old give or take.

[Cthulhudrew]

I had a feeling that they would make Ms. Tessmacher a Lex henchwoman, even if it doesn't make narrative sense. I assume she's the one that also shot James, though I'm not sure the timeline works on that point, either (she is seemingly at the house at the same time as Lex and Lena while James gets shot).

Otis is alive? That's an interesting trick. I don't imagine we'll ever learn how that is actually possible, but I kind of liked the character (and actor) so can't say I'm sad to see him back. I was half-expecting Eve to turn out to be an image-induced Mercy Graves. (I did not care for Rhona Mitra's Mercy, though, so I don't much care if she comes back. RM is usually a much more capable actress than she did with her time on this show.)

Looks like Russian Kasnian Supergirl (Commiegirl?) will finally be popping up next week, albeit as a henchman for Lex? I have a sinking feeling that all the buildup they've given her will be completely wasted for use as a one-off villain, but that's fine.

I'm not sure how I feel about Cryer's Lex. I liked it and didn't like it. It veered a little too close to camp at times for my tastes, but in the dramatic scenes I thought he did a good job. It was pretty obvious he was behind the James shooting and was manipulating Lena the entire time, but there did seem to be a hint of sincerity to his performance as Lex to indicate that it wasn't all for show. 

[ottoDbusdriver]

6 hours ago, VCRTracking said:

She's in the promo for next week

Thanks @VCRTracking -- I missed the promo.  But the payoff for dragging out the Kasnian Supergirl plot for so long had better be awesome.

[Ubiquitous]

9 hours ago, ottoDbusdriver said:

Still no sign of Kasnian Supergirl.  This is now 15 episodes since the character was introduced, and still nothing since we last saw her in a coma with the Kasnian guard calling someone in North America.

As has been mentioned already,  the teaser for next week seems to imply she's a project of Lexx Luthor's,  apparently while in prison with terminal cancer. It kinda reminds me of the plot of Superman 4.

[sonyab]

10 hours ago, ottoDbusdriver said:

Drainy ? Breamer ? Bria ? Mainy ?

OH! Bria! Perfect. 🙂

[immortalfrieza]

11 hours ago, ottoDbusdriver said:

Drainy ? Breamer ? Bria ? Mainy ?

How about BraiNia?

5 hours ago, Cthulhudrew said:

It was pretty obvious he was behind the James shooting and was manipulating Lena the entire time,

Yeah, I figured that Lex was behind the shooting pretty much since the promo, and manipulating Lena into testing the super serum as the motive became pretty obvious once they started talking about the stuff. Lex does those kind of things and Lena was pretty stupid for falling for it, but Lex did pretty effectively maneuver her into a situation where she had no choice but to finish and use the super serum regardless of whether Lena knew Lex was manipulating her or not.

I would have found it more believable if Lena had known that and threw in some counter moves that Lex blew through anyway, rather than as it is where she fell for it hook line and sinker, she should be too smart for that.

Quote

but there did seem to be a hint of sincerity to his performance as Lex to indicate that it wasn't all for show. 

Of course, the best liars tell the truth.

[VCRTracking]

Another thing, Brainy quoting Keanu Reeves in Speed about relationships that begin under  high pressure situations never work and disappointed Nia not choosing to answer with Sandra Bullock's "We'll just have to base it on sex then." which now listening to it a total Joss Whedon line(he rewrote most of the original script).

[AnimeMania]

Supergirl's "Red Son" Plot starts with Lex Luthor's "Red Sun" Plot. There is no mention of how Lex's plot ended, who ended it, how wide spread it was, whether Supergirl was affected, why it was the police who arrested Lex, why Lena was there, whether Lex has been in prison since the Red Sun incident, or why it was even portrayed in this episode.

The serum that James took and the one given to Lex, did it just cure or did it also convey superpowers.

J'onn was pretty much unstoppable, the only thing that held him back was his moral code. Manchester made J'onn throw out his moral code as well as giving him an all powerful staff, making J'onn one of the most powerful beings ever. Something tells me that J'onn might have to take a trip to reevaluate his moral code, getting him off world like Superman, so that Supergirl can feel the real threat of "CommieGirl".

[iMonrey]

I really hope we're done for good with Manchester Black but we've still got the whole Agents of Liberty thing going on so who knows how Lex will figure into all of this.

The whole plot point of Alex forgetting who Supergirl is just gets more and more nonsensical and convoluted. I don't see how she can still retain her memories of "her sister" Kara without any memory of her being from Krypton. There would be huge gaps in her memory. Like, days or weeks. And J'onn didn't do anything to mind-wipe their mother; has she been clued in on this? What if Alex calls her mom or something and it slips out?

There was a really clunky exchange between James' sister and J'onn after he introduced himself. It was background dialogue as they walked away from Alex and Kara, but you hear J'onn say his name then the sister says "Cool name!" Um . . . unless you're reading it, it just sounds like "John" Nothing wrong with the name "John" but not something you'd respond to with "Cool name!"

[Ubiquitous]

Yeah, I wondered what was so cool about his name, too, but I at first thought the girl claiming to be his sister was actually J'onn doing something useful for once, especially after it was established that Jimmy Olson had no family contacts. Speaking of J'Onn, why does he seem so useless on this show? He cannot telepathically find Manchester Black, who was able to make him his bitch more than once and whined about how ashamed he was at how he recovered Brainiac's Legionnaire ring. 🙄

[AnimeMania]

1 hour ago, iMonrey said:

There was a really clunky exchange between James' sister and J'onn after he introduced himself. It was background dialogue as they walked away from Alex and Kara, but you hear J'onn say his name then the sister says "Cool name!" Um . . . unless you're reading it, it just sounds like "John" Nothing wrong with the name "John" but not something you'd respond to with "Cool name!"

He pronounced it the way the French pronounce it, After she says "Cool Name" she says "Is that French?".

[VCRTracking]

4 hours ago, AnimeMania said:

Supergirl's "Red Son" Plot starts with Lex Luthor's "Red Sun" Plot. There is no mention of how Lex's plot ended, who ended it, how wide spread it was, whether Supergirl was affected, why it was the police who arrested Lex, why Lena was there, whether Lex has been in prison since the Red Sun incident, or why it was even portrayed in this episode.

More is probably going to be told next week with Lex's trial. It was just a way to establish how he endangered the entire world because of his hatred of Superman and why he was in prison in the first place.

ETA: I also thought the flashback being only four years ago was too short but then I remembered that 1) Supergirl debuted in the fall so that insident could have been earlier that year and 2) Lena only appeared on the show since season 2.

Edited March 18, 2019 by VCRTracking

[Writing Wrongs]

I'm starting to really dislike Alex. And her haircut.

[mtlchick]

When he yelled out "MS TECHMACHER!"  I could have sworn it was Gene  Hackman saying it.  Jon Cryer is definitely a big step up from Jesse Eisenberg.

[Perfect Xero]

On the one hand I thought Cryer gave a good performance, on the other hand having a long scene of him looking at a picture of Brenda Strong as Lillian and calling her "Mom" and telling stories about meeting Lena's mother when he was 7 really just reinforced that he's way too old for the part.

[sonyab]

6 hours ago, immortalfrieza said:

How about BraiNia?

Ohhhh! I like that one too!!!! 🙂

[secnarf]

I thought it was a foregone conclusion that Eve would be evil since she was first introduced, and have been waiting for it all this time. Since people seem to be surprised - and I am not very familiar with the comics - did I make that up?

I thought James' sister looks nothing like him - it was hard to believe they are siblings. She did seem unnaturally calm so was glad Alex asked about that, but despite the explanation didn't quite seem believable.

Continue to be annoyed that Alex doesn't know Kara is Supergirl. That has to end, and quickly. It has already gone on too long.

[mxc90]

21 hours ago, thuganomics85 said:

Overall, I'm actually kind of curious now to see where this is all heading (since he's obviously anti-alien, I'm sure he'll eventually cross paths with Lockwood and the Children of Liberty.)

It would be a nice twist if Lex eliminates this group for good. His ego wouldn't want to be on the same stage with them.

Also, there are not many options to take care of a group like this and our heroes are not willing to get dirty the way Lex can.

18 hours ago, VCRTracking said:

Shallow note: Melissa looked great in those jeans.

I agree.

Edited March 18, 2019 by mxc90

[Winston Wolfe]

17 hours ago, Ubiquitous said:

Was it me, or was this ep less coherent than usual? There was so much that didn't make a whole lot of sense, like Manchester Black so easily being able to telepathically mess with Jonn's mind.

I'm fairly certain now that Manchester was/is the DCU's iteration of a mutant.  In his first appearance there was a slight hint that he was a low-level telekinetic.  Kinda sad to see Manchester go.  Interesting character with charisma and a lot of potential.  His agenda got really muddy, though.  To me there was no way of telling what his long game actually was, it never really made sense.  In a way Manchester was SG's most formidable foe, he deserved to hang around a while longer IMO.

16 hours ago, Lantern7 said:

Angsting Brainy isn't the best Brainy. The bit about his predecessors being evil was a nice touch, though. 

One thing that really bugs is how the writers are time-releasing his backstory.  Brainy's one line about Mon-El being dismissive of him was delivered with subtle intensity; you can tell that he's still holding a grudge.  I'm hoping we get a Brainy stand-alone episode soon.

3 hours ago, AnimeMania said:

J'onn was pretty much unstoppable, the only thing that held him back was his moral code. Manchester made J'onn throw out his moral code as well as giving him an all powerful staff, making J'onn one of the most powerful beings ever. Something tells me that J'onn might have to take a trip to reevaluate his moral code, getting him off world like Superman, so that Supergirl can feel the real threat of "CommieGirl".

Well two seasons ago Superman did say J'onn was the most powerful being on the planet.  Makes sense because he has so many impressive powers (invisibility, shape shifting, and intangibility) that Kara and Kal-El don't have.  He just fails to use them effectively.  I'm really curious as to what the staff does, don't remember him having one in the comics, but then I stopped reading DC books 20 years ago.

[Trini]

First off, I thought Cryer did a great job as Lex. I was never worried about his acting, just that he's too old for the timeline they set up on the show.

I wish Lena had figured out that Lex was behind James getting shot. I'm not surprised at Ms. Tessmacher working for Lex, just disappointed.

I'm not buying that Manchester is dead. He was homicidal, not suicidal. Even though he got J'onn to turn from his pacifist path, that doesn't mean that he going to be murdering CoL (Manchester's goal). That being said, I found this a pretty good arc for J'onn/Harewood.

Glad that James finally has some family show up ... it only took 4 seasons!
 

On 3/17/2019 at 9:09 PM, cambridgeguy said:

James is Kara's best friend?  I suppose there aren't too many candidates to choose from but that didn't seem right after the past few seasons.  Nor did Alex being so strident - just how many James-Alex solo scenes have we actually had?

Aaarrrgghhh They deliberately, and specifically torpedoed that pairing, but then they want to use lines like "best friend" later on. The disrespect is UNREAL.
 

23 hours ago, Ubiquitous said:

Was it me, or was this ep less coherent than usual? There was so much that didn't make a whole lot of sense, like Manchester Black so easily being able to telepathically mess with Jonn's mind.

Than usual? Probably not. But I do think the whole thing with the staff and Manchester was out of nowhere.
 

19 hours ago, Jediknight said:

Supergirl has went from Lockwood and Witwer's portrayal as the main villain, to Manchester Black and his understandable rage as the main villain, to Jon Cryer's fantastic Lex, with Kasnian Supergirl waiting in the wings.  Meanwhile Flash is still stuck on the freaking Cicada shit.

It's no question who's done a better job with the villains, and the actors portraying them.

I haven't liked everything this season on Supergirl, but I'd love it if these writers took over writing the next Flash big bad. So much better over here.

[Perfect Xero]

Manchester was so weird in this episode that I thought he was going to be revealed as a Lex-bot.

[Cthulhudrew]

23 hours ago, ottoDbusdriver said:

Drainy ? Breamer ? Bria ? Mainy ?

Y'know, reading these 'ship name suggestions, I'm suddenly disappointed they called Nia "Dreamer" instead of "Insomniac" because I think the latter fits her much better as a teammate for Braniac.

EDIT: OOOH! Even better, how about InsomNia?

Edited March 19, 2019 by Cthulhudrew

[ruby24]

Jon Cryer is incapable of being intimidating. He's just not a threatening presence. I think Lex would be okay if it was someone else- the guy who plays Lockwood, he'd be good.

I just can't buy it from Jon Cryer though. I also think it's such a waste that they'll never let Lena go evil for real. Katie McGrath IS intimidating and powerful, I can see that she has the potential to be a great villain, but they won't let it happen. I can tell. Sigh.

I really, really don't care about this Brainy/Nia thing. At all. I don't understand why they even started it. Did anyone want that? Brainy is supposed to be a comics canon love interest for Kara, why wouldn't they just do that?

[tennisgurl]

Color me surprised, but Jon Cryer actually makes for a pretty good Lex Luthor! Who knew? He has a great combination of charisma, ego, showmanship, and twistedness that makes for a good Lex. I also am super interested in the relationship between Lex and Lena. There really does seem to be some affection for each other, even though Lena is obviously disgusted by his evil, and Lex is...well Lex Luthor. I do think that he cares about Lena in his own creepy way, and its a really interesting dynamic. Really, its just nice to wash the taste of Lex Zuckerburg from the DCEU out of my mouth. GOD what an awful idea that was. 

I wonder if Lex will work with the Children of Liberty, or actually take them all out, either because he hates stealing the spotlight, or thinks that they're too common for his brand of dastardly supervillany? I mean, have they ever used a laser beam? I think not!

Finally James gets some attention, even if he has to be asleep for it. I like his sister, and I liked the references to the history he and Lex Luthor have. Him calling him Jimmy over and over was so petty, it was super in character. Maybe now James and Lena will get back together soon? Loved James sister telling J'onn that his name was cool!

Speaking of getting together, I hope that Brainy and Nia can work it out, they're so cute together! Is the only reason they cant get together is because he is from the future? Come on, you can work around the timeline! People in this franchise do this all the time! I do wish we could have a Brainy centric episode, I feel like we keep getting all of these little hints about his backstory that sound really interesting, especially his evil family, but we still dont get all that much.

So is that really how the Manchester story ends? He commits suicide by J'onn?

Miss. Tessmacher!! That shout out was amazing, but Eve how could you?

Edited March 19, 2019 by tennisgurl

[MarkHB]

On 3/18/2019 at 12:55 AM, VCRTracking said:

Shallow note: Melissa looked great in those jeans.

13 hours ago, mxc90 said:

I agree.

I'm usually more of an Alex-in-jeans guy, but I'll agree with you both. 

13 hours ago, secnarf said:

Since people seem to be surprised - and I am not very familiar with the comics - did I make that up?

Eve isn't from the comics, she was Lex's henchwoman in Superman: The Movie.  She wasn't even really "evil" there, more ditzy, but Eve here had never really seemed to be more than an Easter egg so her working for Lex was a slick heel turn for her IMHO.

[Winston Wolfe]

1 hour ago, MarkHB said:

On 3/18/2019 at 12:55 AM, VCRTracking said:

Shallow note: Melissa looked great in those jeans.

15 hours ago, mxc90 said:

I agree.

I'm usually more of an Alex-in-jeans guy, but I'll agree with you both. 

Melissa is a cutie, but Alex has that killer hour-glass figure going on.

[Ubiquitous]

20 hours ago, VCRTracking said:

More is probably going to be told next week with Lex's trial. It was just a way to establish how he endangered the entire world because of his hatred of Superman and why he was in prison in the first place.

ETA: I also thought the flashback being only four years ago was too short but then I remembered that 1) Supergirl debuted in the fall so that insident could have been earlier that year and 2) Lena only appeared on the show since season 2.

Lex's trial? Didn't he and Otis and MISS TECHNACHER escape in a helicopter?

I am quite certain Lex turning the sun red never happened on this show, but it sounds familiar for some reason...

1 hour ago, Winston Wolfe said:

Melissa is a cutie, but Alex has that killer hour-glass figure going on.

But she has that terrible haircut!

[VCRTracking]

1 hour ago, Ubiquitous said:

Lex's trial? Didn't he and Otis and MISS TECHNACHER escape in a helicopter?

I'm talking about a flashback to four years ago after he got arrested for turning the sun red.

1 hour ago, Ubiquitous said:

But she has that terrible haircut!

Yeah. I never liked Chyler Leigh with the bob either. For years, since Not Another Teen Movie she's had long hair, which I preferred.

19 hours ago, Perfect Xero said:

On the one hand I thought Cryer gave a good performance, on the other hand having a long scene of him looking at a picture of Brenda Strong as Lillian and calling her "Mom" and telling stories about meeting Lena's mother when he was 7 really just reinforced that he's way too old for the part.

On the one hand if he was only a couple years older, we'd have a group of viewers thirsting over him for being a "misunderstood" bad boy and there would also be shipping him and Lena (because people ship siblings, especially villains. No offense to Jon Cryer but I don't there'll be any Supergirl viewers thirsting over him, even those into "daddies".

[Trini]

2 hours ago, Ubiquitous said:

I am quite certain Lex turning the sun red never happened on this show, but it sounds familiar for some reason...

Well it seems like they are placing the event before the events of the Supergirl premiere.

There were some red skies in the last crossover, and red skies have been in the future newspaper on The Flash; maybe that's where you've heard of it?

[MadyGirl1987]

I actually really enjoyed Lex in this. While Michael Rosenbaum was great, he came across too often as a cliched "bad boy who just needs love" to me. When he was allowed to be plotting, twisted and villainous is where he shined. Lex here, you can see him being Superman's greatest foe. He may not be strong, but he is smart and cunning. He also has a flair for the theatrical I liked. The end scene with his escape seemed like it could have been Gene Hackman. I would really like to see him go up against Tyler Hoechlin's Superman. That would be something to see!

[Quark]

Not particularly impressed with Lex, but it looks like we will be seeing more of him.

Why on Earth did Alex think she should be considered Next of Kin? Very odd.

Disappointed that Manchester Black is gone. He made a good villain.

That ending was surprising.

Melissa Benoist's accent in that promo is hilarious.

[Rushmoras]

Sooooooo, will we see Non soon, then? If dead guys are not actually dead? I mean, it's from the cliche genre, which was perfected in soap-operas, of "You thought I was dead, but surprise, it was me all along! MUAHAHAHAHAHA *twirls moustache*" (all it needed was that music DUN-DUN-DUN). I mean, what I don't like about this series, is that it lacks consistency and it seems everything is done randomly.

Edited March 20, 2019 by Rushmoras

[angora]

I really enjoyed Cryer's Lex, especially his dynamic with Lena and that ridiculously-dramatic massacre at the end with the mounted lasers and the classical music.  I liked that, while he was of course playing her the whole time (which Lena herself was pretty much fully aware of,) he also genuinely "loves" her, or whatever feeling a sociopath like him calls love.  The story about her mom was great, with her "stop comparing this gravely-injured human being to your dead dog" comments and his reassurance that, unlike him, Lena didn't come from poison.

Brainy's spiral here made sense.  Obviously, the march last week meant a great deal to him, so I get why he immediately connected the shooting to the fallout from that and blamed himself, and why everything else he'd been through started catching up with him.  I liked that he was kind of startled to discover that he was crying; by the time James's sister got there, he looked pretty wrecked.  But he still made me laugh when he was bested by the vending machine and exclaimed that he usually gets along so well with machines (Kelex would disagree, Brainy!)  That kiss was lovely.  The stupid "we can never be together" thing was annoying.  Come on, show!

I liked the Kara-Alex conflict in this episode.  When they talked it out at the end, I appreciated Kara saying she'd been too scared to stay at the hospital and face up to the possibility of James not pulling through - obviously, there were Supergirl-related reasons for her absence, but I think this reason was true as well.

Interesting that Lena was very specifically working to separate the drug's curative properties from its superpower-bestowing properties, 'cause I think most of us were expecting this to go the "James the Superfriend" route.  I suppose there's still a chance that the separation wasn't as effective as Lena thought, but at no point did she really seem to consider giving James powers to be a viable option.

[bros402]

Jon Cryer is a fun Lex.

I loved how comic book-y the flashback was, making the sun red. That is just so campy. Also, how did he make the sun red?