S04.E21: Red Dawn

[The Crazed Spruce]

Quote

Kara comes face to face with Red Daughter and the two engage in an epic battle; Lena turns to an unlikely source for help; Alex realizes she's missing parts of her memory; Brainy, Nia and J'onn set out to track down aliens who have been abducted.

[Jediknight]

So, they're gonna say that Rao was the one who saved Kara, right?  Who better to cause the light to go into Kara than him?

The acting this episode was top notch.  Massive props to everybody involved.  Melissa killing it as Red Daughter, Chyler's breakdown at Kara's "death", Witwer playing Brainy, and Brainy going emotionless.

And we've got our season 5 big bad, Brainy has become Brainiac.

[mxc90]

So when is Lex going to expose Clark's identity? He has gotten so far with checking Kara's background he has to know this.

How did that fight go from daytime to nightime so quickly?  

Lena knows the best way to say "Happy Mother's Day!" with a little poison!

Lockwood finding out he has been a puppet all along! I would say poor guy but he was an ass way before Liberty! F*ck him!!

Did J'onn not know the effects would eventually wear off on Alex?

Edited May 13, 2019 by mxc90

[bettername2come]

I liked this one although some parts happened too fast for me to completely understand and I have no idea if I should trust Mama Luthor. 

1 minute ago, Jediknight said:

So, they're gonna say that Rao was the one who saved Kara, right?  Who better to cause the light to go into Kara than him?

The acting this episode was top notch.  Massive props to everybody involved.  Melissa killing it as Red Daughter, Chyler's breakdown at Kara's "death", Witwer playing Brainy, and Brainy going emotionless.

And we've got our season 5 big bad, Brainy has become Brainiac.

Word to this entire post. You said everything I was thinking. Except the Rao part, That I hadn't thought of. But I was heartbroken when Alex started the "There's sunlight in everything, there's sunlight in the grass!" breakdown and then it actually worked! I'm sitting here in shock trying to figure out if that's a terrible idea or a brilliant one.

Question though - how far does their mother live from them? I thought it was hours and required a road trip, but Alex didn't seem to be taking too much longer than Supergirl to get there.

Ten years Jesse Rath has been showing up sporadically on my TV screen and this was the finest work I've ever seen from him. The way he shuffled through all those emotions and then turned cold and calculating. I have to say if he keeps these skills up, he's going to be a very believable and formidable villain next year. 

[cambridgeguy]

Did Red Daughter literally knock Kara several hours into the future or were they really fighting for so long that the sun set?  I guess it had to be long enough for Alex to get there - I think Midvale is supposed to be pretty far from National City.

Sucking energy from plants is actually something Superman did in The Dark Knight Returns.  Good thing they weren't fighting in a desert!

[jay741982]

32 minutes ago, Jediknight said:

So, they're gonna say that Rao was the one who saved Kara, right?  Who better to cause the light to go into Kara than him?

The acting this episode was top notch.  Massive props to everybody involved.  Melissa killing it as Red Daughter, Chyler's breakdown at Kara's "death", Witwer playing Brainy, and Brainy going emotionless.

And we've got our season 5 big bad, Brainy has become Brainiac.

UGH I really hope not. Super girl's Brainy is a Good guy in the Comics. I'm mad at the writers for what they did to him tonight. Brainy/Nia was a ship I was rooting for 

[tennisgurl]

So nobody is going to call at least a "wait...what now?" on Lex Luther, well known domestic terrorist and attempted world conqueror, who killed everyone in his courtroom out of spite,, being the total good guy hero and the president hailing him as the conquering hero? Nobudy thinks this all sound just a teeny bit sketchy? Of course these are the same people who think that Supergirl went from hero to psychopath over night, so this is pretty in character I guess. 

The acting was really great from everyone tonight, and I am so glad that Alex finally got her memories back and knows the truth! Her crying to badly injured Kara was really well done, and even knowing that Kara would be fine, I still felt some real feels. So she got the energy from the plants around her? That will hopefully be a nice trick to know later on, maybe Kara should invest in a garden?

Jesse Rath really stood out as well, going through all of his programs and being increasingly horrified by his genetic memories, then losing all emotion and becoming Brainiac. I guess he was kind of taken over by the evil past Brainiacs, or the memories closed off his emotions and empathy? I do wonder if Brainy will become a villain next season, but I honestly hope not. I like him a lot and find him and his romance with Nia to be really sweet and endearing, and him becoming evil because he drowned in his evil relatives memories after being tortured just seems terribly depressing. 

I would feel bad for Lockwood finding out that he was a patsy this whole time (even though even Lex wouldn't have come up with that stupid outfit!) but...Lockwood sucks and I hope bad things continue to happen to him.

[Ubiquitous]

Wow, Red Daughter hit Supergirl so hard that she was knocked eight hours into the future!

[ottoDbusdriver]

I thought this episode was a bit of a mess.   The episode started to lose me at "Aaah, spider !!"

Really Kara -- you gave your only copy of your evidence to the President ? That was just plain dumb.  Should have at least kept a copy at the Fortress of Solitude.

Lockwood is the key -- the key to a lock, perhaps ??

Red Daughter, about Lex -- "He did those things in service to the world ?"  Really ? Killing everyone at the court house -- how was that in service to the world ?

Why was Red Daughter stalking Kara even after the attack on the White House ? And why go after Eliza now ?  What was she waiting for ?

Where did Lena get a baby truthseeker from ? Where do truthseekers even come from -- I thought they were alien ?  Is there a farm somewhere that breeds truthseekers ?

Does this reboot of Brainy mean his name  is now Brainiac 5.1 ?  6.0 ?

So, is Otis dead now ?

And what was with that stupid and useless backwards flip kick that Kara did against Red Daughter ?  It didn't accomplish much, and looked like something no one would ever use in a fight.  Ever.

In 2nd place in the dumb category, the Supergirl lunge/Red Daughter limbo slide while they were on the road -- what the hell was that ?  Who is choreographing these fights ?

Followed by the pirouette Red Daughter performed while punching Kara with her "evolved" powers.  Were those just powers from the suit or actual new Kryptonian powers ?

I guess the Kasnians have never heard of the double-tap -- to make sure your enemies are down for good -- and never taught Red Daughter.   Just leaving after hearing Kara's heart stopped was just weak.

And then as Red Daughter was hovering over the forest containing Kara's body, she heard that her Netflix account was expiring or something like that and dashed off in a hurry.

"Take the grass !    Please."      Umm, if Kara was dead, how did she summon the sunlight in the plants, exactly ?

Lex killed the "terrorist" known as Supergirl, but is no one going to notice that the emblem on "Supergirl"'s chest was not Supergirl's 'S', but a hammer.
That seemed really sloppy.

30 minutes ago, cambridgeguy said:

Sucking energy from plants is actually something Superman did in The Dark Knight Returns.  Good thing they weren't fighting in a desert!

Superman was in the 'The Dark Knight Returns' ??  Are you sure about that ?

[srpturtle80]

2 minutes ago, ottoDbusdriver said:

Really Kara -- you gave your only copy of your evidence to the President ? That was just plain dumb.  Should have at least kept a copy at the Fortress of Solitude

I believe she said that her boss had all the evidence but then the President’s agent told her that they wiped all of the Catco servers, so that copy was gone as well. Guess she only gave James an electronic version lol.

[mommalib]

Nice to see James and Lena working together.

[Lantern7]

One more episode to go. As heavy-handed as this series can be most of the time, at least the finale looks more promising than The Flash and Arrow. It's been a slog, but it didn't feel like an endless one.

Alex remembers! Thank goodness that shit was not drawn out any further. And we didn't see a torrent of blood gush from her nose, so it looks like remembering won't be that traumatic. Now . . . the bit where Alex tries to "feed" grass to Kara? That was stupid. Yes, I've read The Dark Knight Returns. That happened after Superman had a massive trauma inflicted on him (long story), but seeing Kara absorb stored solar energy was a little weird.

Hi, Otis! Bye, Otis! He's basically the Kenny McCormick of Supergirl. Lockwood has at least gotten a clue as to what a humongous stooge he's been mad out to be. I'm thinking the only redemption he gets is death. Preferably by throwing himself at certain death to save an alien. Hey, maybe it'll be that little alien girl!

Brainiac Rebooted! Since the original Brainiac never got pushed in the movies (I'm thinking maybe he was in Superman III but then the writers went, "Nah, how about a complete putz who turns out to be a computer whiz? Hey, is that  Richard Pryor's number?"), most people don't know what he was about, let alone his descendant from a thousand years in the future. Sadly, this Brainy is a lot more cold-hearted, so there goes any shot he wanted to have with Nia. Chucking J'onn into the trap was the icing on the asshole cake. I've actually grown to like the kooky Coluan this season. I think having the image inducer on most of the time probably helped.

48 minutes ago, ottoDbusdriver said:

I thought this episode was a bit of a mess.   The episode started to lose me at "Aaah, spider !!"

I thought that to be funny and in character. We've seen Kara have to do Supergirl stuff as Kara. Beating up two guards while seemingly helplessly tied to a chair fit in quite nicely.

ETA to fix the Brainiac paragraph. And I know the original Braniac been on lots of TV shows (from Challenge of the Superfriends all the way to Krypton). I'm just saying that when it came to the big-budget movies, it was usually Lex as Superman's nemesis.

Edited May 13, 2019 by Lantern7

[tennisgurl]

I just wanted one person to yell "Wolverines!" at some point in this episode. Just one person, is that so much to ask in an episode called Red Dawn?!?

[cambridgeguy]

1 hour ago, ottoDbusdriver said:

Superman was in the 'The Dark Knight Returns' ??  Are you sure about that ?

He was absolutely in the comic book.  You can even see the scene in the animated adaptation here

[ottoDbusdriver]

13 minutes ago, cambridgeguy said:

He was absolutely in the comic book.  You can even see the scene in the animated adaptation here

I was thinking of the movie 'The Dark Knight Rises'.  My bad.

Edited May 13, 2019 by ottoDbusdriver

[Trini]

Brainy, no!  😭

Red Daughter - did they really kill her offscreen?? 😭

Yes, Alex finally remembers!!

Kara just gained a new superpower? I'm glad she's not dead, but it was just a bit too "magical" even for this show.

So, will James keep his powers?

Brainy/Nia has got to be the weirdest interpretation of the will-they-won't-they trope I've ever seen. Are both of them going to be here next season?

[VCRTracking]

Sam Witwer playing Brainy pretending to be Lockwood was hilarious.

I always love the Danvers sisters moments and Alex remembering everything was great.

Oh shit THE Brainiac is here!

Color me shocked Lillian actually does love Lena, even in her cold way.

I don't think Red Daughter is actually dead at the end but I hope they don't kill her off in the finale.

Edited May 13, 2019 by VCRTracking

[Trini]

Props to Jesse Rath's acting. 👍

3 hours ago, Lantern7 said:

One more episode to go. As heavy-handed as this series can be most of the time, at least the finale looks more promising than The Flash and Arrow. It's been a slog, but it didn't feel like an endless one.

I'm very impressed. These last few episodes are probably the best finale arc the show has done so far. Lots of great character moments.

[Ubiquitous]

Supergirl literally sucking the sunlight out of the plants in the forest was one of the stupidest things I have ever seen and shows a lack of elementary school knowledge of biology.

 

The whole lack of sunshine thing also reminded me of the Nuclear Man in that terrible Superman 4 movie.

5 hours ago, ottoDbusdriver said:

And then as Red Daughter was hovering over the forest containing Kara's body, she heard that her Netflix account was expiring or something like that and dashed off in a hurry.

Oh, was that Kara's heartbeat she was hearing in her Ironman suit? I thought it was someone else's and she rushed off to save him.

5 hours ago, Lantern7 said:

Since the original Brainiac never got pushed in the movies (I'm thinking maybe he was in Superman III but then the writers went, "Nah, how about a complete putz who turns out to be a computer whiz? Hey, is that  Richard Pryor's number?"), most people don't know what he was about, let alone his descendant from a thousand years in the future.

Funny you should mention that! I recently watched something on YouTube about the third movie and it was originally planned to have Brainiac, but the plot was going to be that he had kidnapped Kara as a baby for some reason and ended up falling in live with her but she fell in love with Superman and left Brainiac for her him. The scripts were redone and Richard Pryor was in it because he once said on the Tonight Show that he'd love to be in a Superman movie.

So why didn't Kara make at least one a very public appearance after it was announced that Lex Luthor killed the renegade Supergirl?

[sonyab]

Alex, Brainy, and Lina:

Brainy: And I WILL tell Dreama that I am in love with her.

My jaw dropped! ROFL! Well yes Brainy TELL HER!!!! 🙂 It's because of that interview she did that you realized you are in love with her! YAY! 🙂 Love my Bria! 🙂

Bria and J'onn: Man he really really wanted to tell her so badly!!! 🙂 Come on Brainy! You can do it!!!

Bad guys and Brainy: NOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO! Stop hurting him!!! Leave my Brainy alone!!!! 😞 I had a bad feeling that after all this, Brainy will forget his feelings for Dreamer.. Man Jesse Rath is a fantastic actor. He did a great job with the scene!!! BRAVO! 🙂

Bria: I KNEW IT! He forgot his feelings for her and became cold. 😞 Damn you writers. 😞 I don't think she is going to forgive him or want a relationship with him. 😞

Lina and James: Are they going to get back together? Please?

Alex and James's sister: Hmmm. Are they going to become a couple? 🙂 Not sure about them. Don't see a lot of chemistry.

Alex, Supergirl, and their mother: I love that Alex remembered that Kara is Supergirl!!! 🙂 Hmmm Alex seemed more upset that Kara is "dead" than their mother.. Strange. Love the light that saved her. 🙂

Edited May 13, 2019 by sonyab

[sonyab]

13 hours ago, bettername2come said:

I have to say if he keeps these skills up, he's going to be a very believable and formidable villain next year. 

I don't want him to be villain! :(

13 hours ago, jay741982 said:

UGH I really hope not. Super girl's Brainy is a Good guy in the Comics. I'm mad at the writers for what they did to him tonight. Brainy/Nia was a ship I was rooting for 

😭

[Writing Wrongs]

I know it's easier for the fighting bits with lookalikes, but it felt lame that Red Daughter had a helmet on the whole time. Two Karas fighting to the death would've been cool.

[bettername2come]

2 hours ago, sonyab said:

I don't want him to be villain! 😞

😭

I mean, I don’t think he’ll stay villain since it’s not his fault he went darkside.

[Xenith22]

15 hours ago, Trini said:

Props to Jesse Rath's acting. 👍

I'm very impressed. These last few episodes are probably the best finale arc the show has done so far. Lots of great character moments.

Honestly I feel the opposite.  It feels like Supergirl has pretty much nothing going into the finale.

The Alex memory wipe is over and now seems it was completely pointless.  We got some angst scenes with Kara over it and Alex fretting about something being off.  That's about it though.  Can't think of any actual great scenes or plot implications (even smaller things like forcing characters to make different decisions or any in-depth examination of Alex and her bond to Kara ) that were caused other than I guess Alex bonding with Jimmy's sister.

Red Daughter can't actually be dead right?  That plot would have been even more pointless than the Alex one if she is.  At the very least nothing came of her surveiling Kara plot.  But if her arc seriously ended with her beating Kara once and then dying offscreen...wow.  Yet I can't rationalize this Lex faking it to leave an very obvious loose end alive.  Even if he did somewhat care for her I still see him as the Thanos type more than willing to sacrifice someone he loves for the sake of his plan.

Speaking of Lex after only arriving midseason, I can't help but feel that his disappearance behind the scenes has caused a lot of momentum to be lost.  He's done nothing at all with his knowledge of Kara, and hasn't directly interacted with the cast in how long.  The fact that his Grand scheme still seems more dumb and confusing than menacing is also not helpful.  I mean at least earlier in the season when it seemed like he wanted a war, well there was a tangible big bad thing with a doomsday clock that had to be stopped.  But now that it went false flag...so what?  He stopped some bad guys so now people are just going to ignore all the bad stuff he did before and view him as a hero...okay?  I guess we could be headed to a President Luthor type plot, but still don't get why I should care for the finale.  Oh I guess he is also rounding up aliens to power his suit...somehow?  No idea how that is supposed to be working, and again no clue what he even needs the suit laser for at this point as doesn't he already have superpowers?  The Kara as public enemy is another plot that basically had potential that resulted in pretty much nothing, other than sorta restoring Supergirl's relationship with Lena.  Kara's vow to come clean with Lena when the Lex stuff is over should at least prove interesting and maybe what I am most interested in seeing next episode.

Jimmy was injected midseason and hasn't done squat with the powers he received to this point.  After getting a stabilizing agent that we only just learned he needed because reasons (umm does Lex need a stabilizer too?)...he will presumably do...something in the finale?

The evil Braniac plot had no build before this episode to call it any kind of arc.  I would bet it will seemingly be resolved with Brainy being turned back to normal in the finale, only to reveal that it is only a ruse and that version is still lingering in him setting up next season.  Jonns plot wrapped midseason so he basically just seems thrown into here to have something to do.  I guess there is the Brainy/Dreamer relationship arc to resolve.  Will he get to tell her and will she reciprocate?  I guess I care about that somewhat.

The liberty plot has tossed aside the idea of public sentiment to focus just upon Agent Liberty (with the Sons now just being a plot device for Lex to use as minions)...whom I guess is now being treated like an anti-hero?  He may have been manipulated but he is still a smug uninteresting tool whom I honestly don't care what happens to him.  No...I take that back any actual redemption plot would suck.  

Really though Agent Liberty is pretty much the only character whose fate is remotely in question other than maybe the hardass DEO lady.   But neither character would be missed.   So what are the stakes?  What is supposed to get me excited or worried?   What's weird is that I have thoroughly enjoyed many of the individual episodes of Supergirl this season including the last couple. It's really only when taken as a whole that everything just seemingly falls flat building to a finale unless they pull out something really unexpected.

Edited May 13, 2019 by Xenith22

[HunterHunted]

3 hours ago, Writing Wrongs said:

I know it's easier for the fighting bits with lookalikes, but it felt lame that Red Daughter had a helmet on the whole time. Two Karas fighting to the death would've been cool.

Because Kara is so physically powerful, they've done mostly crap work at coordinating these stunts and fights. The tv gold standard doppleganger fight is still Agents of SHIELD's Agent May vs Agent 33 in Agent May disguise. Agents of SHIELD has a showrunner who is related to a very good choreographer and stunt director who has done of work on the show. Here's the thing though, the May vs 33 took a lot of planning, training, and coordination. I get the sense that the only fights that get that level of planning in the CWverse are annual crossover fights.

[thuganomics85]

At least Alex has regained her memories now, so they'll quit with the whole "hiding things from Alex" stuff, which makes me happy because I think that could be part of the reason why it felt like Alex kind of became insignificant for the later half of the season.  Both Chyler Leigh and Melissa Benoist killed that scene.

I also love Benoist's performance as Kasen Supergirl, so I really hope she isn't actually dead fo good, although it is certainly looking that way.  Plus, it would be hard to believe that someone like Lex didn't make damn sure she is dead, if that was always what he attended.

As soon as Brainy said he wanted to tell Nia he loved her, I figured something was going to mess that up, but I wasn't predicting that he was going to turn into robotic, uncaring Brainiac!  Poor Nia!  And J'onn!  I wonder if he'll stay this way and be a new enemy or if they'll fix him, but this will continue to haunt his relationship with the rest going forward.

Ben is either getting setup to exit this season and possibly being "redeemed" by sacrificing himself or he's going to remain and be a shady ally going forward.  Either way, I wished I care more but he's still kind of lame.

I'll actually miss old Otis!

The battle between the Supergirls was fun even if they had to resort to hiding the stunt double under a helmet for all of it.  I guess they didn't have it in the visual effect budget to impose Melissa's face on a stuntwoman's body, like they did with Ming-Na Wan/Melinda May on Agents of SHIELD.

Glad Lex will return for the finale and that alone makes me more interested in that over Arrow tonight and The Flash tomorrow.

[angora]

Man, everyone brought their A-game tonight.  First up was Melissa Benoist in those scenes between Kara and Red Daughter (plus, her breakdown with J'onn over wanting to tell Alex the truth.)  Please tell me Red Daughter isn't really dead!  I agree that it seems un-Lex-like not to tie up the loose end, but I really like the inner tug of war going on with her character, and I want so badly for her to team up with Supergirl and co. before the end.

Side not:  "Hope, help, and compassion for all," hell of a mission statement.  I love it, and that's precisely why I love Supergirl.

Next was Chyler Leigh as Alex remembered the truth about Kara's identity.  I still think the show fumbled the mindwipe plot overall, as it messed with the Danvers sisters dynamic for the better part of a season without really exploring it in any meaningful way, but this was a beautiful way to bring it home.  That montage of memories resurfacing, with both past scenes and flashbacks with the younger actors, was gorgeous, and Leigh knocked it out of the park.

But holy shit, Jesse Rath - I've been loving his performance as Brainy all season, but this was on a whole other level.  The torture/rebooting sequence was just killer, and the switch was done so effectively.  I already miss the lovably-weird old Brainy and hope our heroes can bring him back sooner or later (he was gonna tell Nia he loved her!), but I'm definitely intrigued by what's happening with this colder Brainiac.  It's really fascinating to me that it's not as simple as him "turning evil."  From his actions here, he's still working toward the same goal as the good guys (finding out what Lex is doing with the captured aliens and presumably(?) stopping him,) it's just that he has no emotions to get in the way of achieving that goal in the most logical way possible.  Throwing Nia and J'onn under the bus was utilitarian, and he felt NOTHING about doing it, not conflict but not evil delight/satisfaction either.  He's just cold and hard as granite.  If this Brainiac carries over into next season, it will be interesting to see if they keep threading that needle with him or if they go more straight-up evil.

(Honorable mention for Sam Witwer playing Brainy pretending to be Lockwood.  That was awesome.)

Also, way to go Lena for getting shit done, keeping Lillian in line, and looking hella fierce while doing it.  I am LIVING for her in those suits.

[sonyab]

15 hours ago, VCRTracking said:

"Sam Witwer playing Brainy pretending to be Lockwood was hilarious."

Yes! It was hysterical!!! ROFL! Great job!!! 🙂

"I always love the Danvers sisters moments and Alex remembering everything was great."

So happy she remembers!!!! 🙂

"Color me shocked Lillian actually does love Lena, even in her cold way."

The truth is out!!!! 🙂  Sorry I don't know how to do multiple quotes.

[shantown]

Overall, I loved this episode. I feel like we've gotten more action and development and reveals in the last few episodes of the season than the first 3/4ths combined! But that led to two moments that I felt like should have gotten a lot more "oomphf" or time dedicated to them.

The first was the Alex mindwipe reversal - this should have shaken the core of the show more, and there should have been more buildup to Alex starting to remember. It was a chance for them to really explore what makes Alex Alex if she's missing this core relationship, and with that a lot of what defined her character. How it affected her day-to-day emotions and motivations and personality was never really explored. And there was not much to her starting to remember - a couple dreams within as many episodes and then a fast "OH YEAH!" moment. This was something I felt Alex (and Kara) (and J'onn, and Eliza, and Jimmy, and...) should have struggled with more. In the end it didn't really amount to much when it could have been a huge source of conflict and comedy and drama and character development.

The second was the fake attack / Lex saving the day / the death (?) of Red Daughter. They've been talking up the plan for a couple episodes but all those pretty big moments got summed up in a 30 second newscast. I'm hoping we get more info next week, but that could have been a whole episode right there!

But I did enjoy the episode and thought everyone really brought their A-game and I'm hoping that continues with a stellar finale next week!

[sonyab]

4 hours ago, bettername2come said:

I mean, I don’t think he’ll stay villain since it’s not his fault he went darkside.

No it's not his fault.. 😞 I didn't even know he was in the comics! He is good in the comics? Well then why are the writers making him bad? 😞 I hope the villian side of him is short lived.

[Trini]

I did appreciate that they brought back Eliza for Mother's Day!

[secnarf]

This is the first episode in a while that I have really enjoyed. Glad I ended up sticking around long enough to see Alex regain her memories - it was touch and go there for a while.

I never really liked Brainy - found him rather annoying - until we got this new Brainy who puts Vulcans to shame, and now I find myself wanting the old Brainy back.

So happy the Danvers sisters are back, though. Easily the best part of this episode - that scene was done so well that I can easily handwave away the whole sun-from-grass thing. Though I did find myself wondering how they could know that Kara is 'dead' - can you check a pulse on a Kryptonian? How does that work? How did we know she wasn't just knocked out? She can survive in space so obviously doesn't NEED to breathe, so absence of breathing =/= dead. But anyways, other than that, it was a great scene.

[tennisgurl]

I dont really want Brainy to become a villain for next season, but if he does, I feel like it would be a decent shot at doing the Reign arc, but better. You still have a villain who is actually the evil alter ego of a friend, who the heroes want to save as much as defeat, which lends a lot of dramatic weight to any confrontations they have with them, knowing that they're really a good person and their evil actions arent their fault, except it would be way less clumsy. The problem with Sam/Reign was that she was never defined all that much as a character beyond her function as Reign, and as a mom. They had to super push her friendship with Lena and Kara to make her becoming Reign more dramatic, and when she was done being Reign, she just kind of wandered away. With Brainy, he was added to the show in a wholly different plot and him being integrated into the show and the characters lives has been much more organic, because he was created to be a villain who is also a good guy, which I think could make the story of the good guys having to fight him be even more heartbreaking. We really got to know him, so having him become a bad guy against his will would be even more tragic.

That being said, I hope it does not come to that and he gets back to his normal self soon, him being tortured into becoming his evil ancestors is just really depressing, and I would miss his normal self a lot. Besides, it seems like even this emotionless Brainy is still working to the same end as the rest of the team, just with cold logic and no empathy.

Edited May 14, 2019 by tennisgurl

[Quark]

Really good episode, with some very strong acting, particularly from Chyler Leigh.

Very much looking forward to the finale next week.

[AnimeMania]

I think they didn't want to show Lex fighting Supergirl twice, so that whatever dirty trick he used on Commiegirl, will be a surprise when he uses it on Supergirl.

[Rushmoras]

And just when I thought that it can't get any more absurd, the writers say: "Wait, hold my beer!"

1. The main big bad, who was teased since the end of season three, the whole build up to it... just wiped off, killed off off screen. I mean, well, OK, fine, you did not have the budget to do it longer than five minutes, or Melissa felt uncomfortable to having to change clothing more then usual, but... man, that's just waisted...

2. Lex Luthor is hailed a hero. Nope. Nope. Nope. Nope. Nope. This is the most f... absurd thing ever. Person, who was sent to jail for terrorism, crimes against humanity, poisoning a court-room, is hailed a hero, because he thwarted plans of invasion and killed the terrorist. And no one is questioning, what the f... just happened.

You know, I was going to wait for the final ep to say this, but I will say this now... this season is the most absurd and pointless season out of all SG seasons there was. Can't believe I'm saying this, but season one, minus its white male bashing and mentioning of Superman's trade-mark for half a season every ten seconds or so in one way or another, was the most quality and interesting season of SG to date. This season, is the worst to date. There, I've said it.

Edited May 15, 2019 by Rushmoras

[AngelKitty]

38 minutes ago, Rushmoras said:

And just when I thought that it can't get any more absurd, the writers say: "Wait, hold my beer!"

Heh, heh, I totally agree. So many things just seem stupid. I hated that they removed Alex's memory in the first place because it didn't make any sense. But then again, not much of this show does make sense.

[MarkHB]

On 5/13/2019 at 5:24 PM, angora said:

Side not:  "Hope, help, and compassion for all," hell of a mission statement.  I love it, and that's precisely why I love Supergirl.

That was originally written by Sterling Gates in the "Adventures of Supergirl" comic (the one based on the show). He tweeted how honored he was that it made it into the show. I also loved Red Daughter's retort, "you'll be lucky to be standing at all!"

[AnimeMania]

2 hours ago, Rushmoras said:

2. Lex Luthor is hailed a hero. Nope. Nope. Nope. Nope. Nope. This is the most f... absurd thing ever. Person, who was sent to jail for terrorism, crimes against humanity, poisoning a court-room, is hailed a hero, because he thwarted plans of invasion and killed the terrorist. And no one is questioning, what the f... just happened.

If the President says "Lex is a hero", then Lex is a hero and why wouldn't the President say that since he is working with Lex. The President says "Supergirl is a traitor" and a lot of people seemed to believe it.

[Perfect Xero]

Sam Witwer is really fun when he gets to play something other than Lockwood's constipated rage.

[ottoDbusdriver]

18 hours ago, Rushmoras said:

And just when I thought that it can't get any more absurd, the writers say: "Wait, hold my beer!"

1. The main big bad, who was teased since the end of season three, the whole build up to it... just wiped off, killed off off screen. I mean, well, OK, fine, you did not have the budget to do it longer than five minutes, or Melissa felt uncomfortable to having to change clothing more then usual, but... man, that's just waisted...

2. Lex Luthor is hailed a hero. Nope. Nope. Nope. Nope. Nope. This is the most f... absurd thing ever. Person, who was sent to jail for terrorism, crimes against humanity, poisoning a court-room, is hailed a hero, because he thwarted plans of invasion and killed the terrorist. And no one is questioning, what the f... just happened.

You know, I was going to wait for the final ep to say this, but I will say this now... this season is the most absurd and pointless season out of all SG seasons there was. Can't believe I'm saying this, but season one, minus its white male bashing and mentioning of Superman's trade-mark for half a season every ten seconds or so in one way or another, was the most quality and interesting season of SG to date. This season, is the worst to date. There, I've said it.

The whole 'Red Daughter' plot has been the longest drawn out plot thread that goes nowhere since Itchy and Scratchy went to the fireworks factory on 'The Simpsons' (at least that was contained within 1 episode).  But this was dragged out over nearly a year, and it just fell flat.

For example, we never found out why this Supergirl doppelganger ended up in Kasnia in the first place.  Why Kasnia ? Or did Lex arrange that too ?
Or where she got that blanket from when she was first found by the Kasnians ?  If she was a blank slate and immune from the cold (since she's Kryptonian), how would she even know to do that ?

The Kasnians "invading" San Diego is just all kinds of stupid.

 

[Ubiquitous]

On ‎5‎/‎12‎/‎2019 at 9:28 PM, cambridgeguy said:

Did Red Daughter literally knock Kara several hours into the future or were they really fighting for so long that the sun set?  I guess it had to be long enough for Alex to get there - I think Midvale is supposed to be pretty far from National City.

I briefly considered that RD hit Kara so hard that she landed on the other side of world (Kazastahn), but thought that would be too silly for this show. :-D

[AnimeMania]

3 hours ago, ottoDbusdriver said:

The Kasnians "invading" San Diego is just all kinds of stupid.

I wonder why my first thought was "Comic-Con".

[Chicago Redshirt]

On 5/12/2019 at 8:09 PM, mxc90 said:

So when is Lex going to expose Clark's identity? He has gotten so far with checking Kara's background he has to know this.

....

Did J'onn not know the effects would eventually wear off on Alex?

Kara and Clark aren't as far as we know publicly linked as cousins or anything. So there's no particular reason to think that Lex knows Clark's secret identity.

I think this episode established that J'onn understood that there was a possibility that the mindwipe could be undone organically, but that a) there would potentially be risks if it happened and b) he himself could not undo it.

On 5/12/2019 at 9:29 PM, ottoDbusdriver said:

Why was Red Daughter stalking Kara even after the attack on the White House ? And why go after Eliza now ?  What was she waiting for ?
...
Where did Lena get a baby truthseeker from ? Where do truthseekers even come from -- I thought they were alien ?  Is there a farm somewhere that breeds truthseekers ?
...
So, is Otis dead now ?
...

Lex killed the "terrorist" known as Supergirl, but is no one going to notice that the emblem on "Supergirl"'s chest was not Supergirl's 'S', but a hammer.
That seemed really sloppy.

Red Daughter was pretty well established as a stalker from jump street, what with all her pictures of Kara and Alex, and visiting Kara's apartment. Stalkers gonna stalk.

Lena's a resourceful woman who has been spending a lot of time at the DEO. We know the DEO has at least one truthseeker, because that was the impetus behind the whole brainwash-Alex-so-she-can-beat-a-truthseeker plot. So probably from there.

It seems like replacing Kryptonite on a Metallo revives them, so they can probably bring Otis back whenever they want. 

People who are willing to believe that Supergirl went nutso traitor after three years of world-saving and goody-two-shoesness in service to truth, justice and the American way are probably not going to get too hung up in her fashion choices.

[KirkB]

Wasted potential. I think that pretty accurately describes both this episode and the season as a whole.

GOOD THINGS: Brainy turning bad, however temporary. First time in a while I didn't want to slap him for being annoying (and for replacing Winn).  MB and CL reminding everyone how good they are together.

BAD THINGS: Hmm...I wonder what the character limit is? Seriously, I'll just name a few. So...Alex's mindwipe is over, huh? What was the point of that again? Other than giving Kara a couple of extra angsty moments I mean. Red daughter is dead? Maybe not, in which case I'll take this one off, but wow if she's really gone off screen like that...I have no words for what kind of a "we just gave up trying" moment that would be. Lex being viewed as a hero. Kara being public enemy number one, fine, the world at large saw it and didn't know she had a clone, but Lex is a certified, publicly known psycho, and even if they wanted to credit him for stopping an invasion how would anyone besides his presidential puppet CALL him a hero? James having superpowers in general. The Guardian thing didn't (IMO) work out so why would making him as strong as Kara?  If you have to keep going to these lengths to make/keep the character relevant, maybe the character isn't working out,

SPECIAL NOTE: The sudden change from day to night when RD punched Kara. Count me as one of those who originally though RD hit her so hard she flew to the other side of the Earth or something but unless there is a better explanation coming that was some seriously bad editing.

I'm curious to see how/if the finale wraps everything up.

Edited May 19, 2019 by KirkB

[bros402]

On 5/16/2019 at 7:02 AM, ottoDbusdriver said:

The whole 'Red Daughter' plot has been the longest drawn out plot thread that goes nowhere since Itchy and Scratchy went to the fireworks factory on 'The Simpsons' (at least that was contained within 1 episode).  But this was dragged out over nearly a year, and it just fell flat.

For example, we never found out why this Supergirl doppelganger ended up in Kasnia in the first place.  Why Kasnia ? Or did Lex arrange that too ?
Or where she got that blanket from when she was first found by the Kasnians ?  If she was a blank slate and immune from the cold (since she's Kryptonian), how would she even know to do that ?

The Kasnians "invading" San Diego is just all kinds of stupid.

 

At first I was thinking "oh maybe Kasnia is on the opposite side of the earth from California?"

just checked, the antipode of San Diego is somewhere in the Indian Ocean southeast of Madagascar.

Maybe she appeared where she did because a clone of herself was created a second afterwards, and the planet moves - maybe that is why the clone ended up there?

Or maybe they wanted to do a copy of the Red Son story.

[Ubiquitous]

18 hours ago, bros402 said:

Or maybe they wanted to do a copy of the Red Son story.

Yeah, that's my theory, plus, besides, what else would make the clone more the opposite of Supergirl than making her Russian-ish?