With the Siegel Award reference, we finally get the last real Easter Egg I expect right off the bat in the show. Though I think there will probably be a shout out to Peter David at some point, and I’m crossing my fingers for nods to Jim Mooney, Paul Kupperberg, and Carmine Infantino at some point too.
Some people online don’t like that Cat is being, well catty, to Lois Lane, especially since Lois isn’t there to defend herself. They see it as a denigration of one of DC’s premiere female characters, and pointless. I think it serves to sharpen Cat’s character. She’s not nice, and definitely wouldn’t be to a competitor. I don’t think that the jabs in the show are meant as mean spirited towards the character from the show, but from a character within it.
With this episode out of order, as said last week, there are some things that seem out of place. Cat’s asking about Kara’s mother, the Danvers sisters being more trusting of Hank, and James and Lucy are the three big ones. Not big enough to throw off the flow of the episode, in my opinion, but big enough that I noticed.
Speaking of her, I’m loving the show’s version of Lucy. I’m trying not to let my knowledge of what happens with her in the comics color my feelings on her, and Jenna is doing a good job to make me care about her. But again, it does look like this show is taking so many cues from Sterling Gates’ run on Supergirl, and that makes me so incredibly happy every time.
I really enjoyed the breakaway from traditional Monster of the Week episodes, letting Kara deal with a more realistic threat. I am sad at the timing that makes this episode a little too realistic though. I said it last week, and I’ll say it again. I’m glad CBS delayed this episode.
The one thing I didn’t like about this episode now. I really dislike the term “friend zone”. And I’m sorry, but I’m getting on my feminist horse here, but I feel it’s appropriate with how utterly feminist this show has been up to now. “Friend zone” takes the concept of friendship and makes it an inferior thing to love. Like friendship is some sort of consolation prize for losers who can’t hack it at the “real” thing. It’s not. My friendship is not something I freely give, it’s as equally earned as my love. And in fact, my friendship can sometimes be even easier to lose and harder to gain than my actual heart. I dislike that this show has used the term, though I’m at least a little relieved that it was at least gender flipped from the norm. I could have sworn that the term would have been thrown out about Winn well before it was thrown out about Kara. But I still dislike it, and unlike the little continuity blips I mentioned above, it did break the flow of the episode for me.
Carter’s crush on Kara is absolutely adorable. And I loved Kara’s super defensive “NO YOU DON’T” when Winn claimed he knew Supergirl. Carter’s first meeting with Supergirl was absolutely great. I love that she inspired courage in what was surely a terrified young boy. That’s what my Supergirl is all about. This was also really shown when Supergirl confronted Knox. Even in horrible situations, Supergirl should see the best in people and try to instill hope in everyone.
While I’m still not sold on the idea of him in that role, this episode continued to do a good job of making Max into Kara’s Lex Luthor. A couple of nice little nods to that were the double R of SupeRRail and the end talk between Supergirl and Max. The latter was almost a direct homage to the confrontation between Dean Cain’s Superman and John Shea’s Luthor from the pilot episode of Lois & Clark.
I loved that Kara and Lucy were not afraid to show others their insecurities. I feel it’s important to show that everybody has them, even if you’re the most powerful woman on the planet.
Count me among the Hank is a Cyborg theorists, and not the Hank is a Martian theorists. Hopefully that gets answered soon.
A final note, this episode is the first to not have a scene that emotionally reduced me to a sobbing mess. I'm kind of sad to see that streak end.
Another week and another great episode. Like last week, my flaws with this episode keep it from being my favorite episode, but the show is still far and away my favorite thing on TV. Don’t get all red in the face while we wait for next week, until then, stay super!
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.
