By Corinne McCreeryThis show continues to amaze me. While “Fight or Flight” continues the trend of episodes that I loved more than the last, I was a little worried about this episode coming in, for two reasons.
The first is that Reactron is my favorite Supergirl villain, due mostly to Sterling Gates’s amazing run on the Supergirl comic in which he made her Kara’s archenemy, and with a very personal backstory to it. I was annoyed when the show announced that he was going to be introduced as a former Superman villain, because Reactron has always been a Supergirl villain first. Despite that reservation, I was really hyped for this episode, because I never, ever thought I’d see Reactron on screen. So a little bit of my worry was that I was overhyping it. The second reason was that I saw a spoiler for something that happened in this episode, and it seemed to point at the episode being a big let down episode. I saw that Superman was going to appear, and saw the clip of him saving Supergirl, and that worried me profusely. More on that scene in a bit.
I didn’t need to be worried though, because this episode hit on all cylinders. Calista continues to embody the Cat Grant of Gates’s run. Her unnecessarily critical article about Supergirl is so great. I did love the “Nobody asks my cousins these questions” moment, as a shout out to the sexist hogwash that women go through in interviews whereas similar men don’t.
Kara’s crush on James is absolutely amazing. One of my favorite moments of the episode was the “Stop it, first of all, he prefers James.” While I still hold out hope for Brainiac 5 and the Legion of Super-Heroes to come along later, for now I’ll definitely be fine with a James and Kara romance. Though the addition of Lucy at the end of the episode looks to slow things down a little bit.
On to Reactron, I absolutely loved Chris Browning’s portrayal of him. While the backstory isn’t the one I wish it was, it worked well for this story. While I’m still a little bit upset that he’s not a Supergirl villain first, I think that even in-universe, he’s going to hold more of a grudge against her now than her cousin, because she’s the one that took him down. I did like that he was a legitimate threat and that James addressed that, emphasizing that he had nearly taken down Clark (while blowing Winn’s mind by spilling Kent’s secret). Tweet of the night, by the way, goes to Sterling Gates with:
"I can TOTALLY keep secrets!…unless they're Clark's." - James Olsen #Supergirl
— Sterling Gates (@sterlinggates) November 10, 2015
I also love the score when Reactron is on the screen. The music reminds me of a Geiger counter, and seems fitting knowing that Fallout 4 was released the day after this episode aired.
Max Lord, on the other hand, was pretty much the only thing I was ambivalent on in the episode. In sentiments echoed by a friend of mine, I think the show’s trying a little too hard to make him the Lex Luthor of Supergirl’s world. It started last week with his anti-alien spiel and continued this week when they made him a super genius. I do enjoy Peter’s ultimate smug snake persona in the show, though.
On to the elephant in the room. Superman made his second appearance in the story: to save Kara. I was not looking forward to that moment, because I don’t want the show to be about that. Kara’s her own woman, and doesn’t need her cousin swooping in to save her like Cat Grant implied in her article. BUT the context in which they used him worked really well for me. It wasn’t Kara calling him for help, it was James using his watch (I need that watch btw. No need for an Apple Watch, just give me that one). And he did it because he was terrified of losing Kara. “Someday you’ll be the one saving him,” gave me feelings. Lots of them. My favorite comic of all time is Crisis on Infinite Earths #7 in which she does just that, by sacrificing her life so her cousin doesn’t. I still cry every time I read it. And though I don’t want it to be a recurring thing, a one-time save is good, especially with Clark’s acceptance at the end that Kara wants to stand on her own. The chat at the end was the moment in this episode that brought me to tears. It was amazing, and his kudos to her for doing something he hasn’t warmed my heart. The only thing about Clark’s appearance that left me disappointed is that he wasn’t wearing his red underoos. I know it’s not the norm anymore, with both the comics and the movies moving away from them, but I miss the trunks.
While I talked about my feelings for James and Kara earlier, I can’t help but feel a little bad for Winn. He’s great, and I love him, and I feel a bit sad every time Kara doesn’t notice him. I love that Jeremy Jordan was trying to get them to allow him to say “My hero” when she saved him, but the producers wouldn’t let him.
The sister/sister relationship still shines for me. It reminds me a lot of my own relationship with my sister. We may annoy each other sometimes, but we also really love each other. I’m glad my baby sister doesn’t have superpowers that she can threaten to “melt my face” with though. Just saying.
In all, this was my favorite episode yet. And while the ratings slipped, it’s still holding fairly strong, and I’m not worried yet. 'Til next time, even Superman admits this is a job for Supergirl.
Corinne McCreery has been a fan of comic books for over twenty years, and a fan of Supergirl in particular for just about that long. Other comic characters near and dear to her heart are the members of the New Teen Titans (Especially Nightwing), Kitty Pryde and Roy Harper. Other non-comic related interests include water skiing and tattoos, of which she has five, three of which are comic related. One of the best days of her life came when she met Dean Cain, and was able to recreate the famous Crisis on Infinite Earths cover with the Man of Steel that she grew up with. Currently she lives in Oakland, CA; a transplant from South Dakota. You can find her online on tumblr at effyeahsupergirl or Twitter at @corimarie21, where you will likely find her live-tweeting the west coast airing of Supergirl every week.
