Series Issues: Supergirl 1×08 – Hostile Takeover

Spoilers might be immune to Kryptonite because reasons.

It’s the fall finale for Supergirl 1×08: Hostile Takeover and this episode suffers of plot overload. It also suffers from what I like to call “runaround”. I usually have to explain this on other reviews, but I dread the storylines in which one or two of the characters have to run around collecting other characters constantly changing destinations in quick succession for no particular reason.

Anyhow, I did kinda love one plot this week. Cat Grant being the target of a hack where all her private life becomes public was appealing. Not everything was a stroke of genius, of course. James, Witt and Kara print out all her emails to find… WAIT THIS IS STUPID. You obviously have to use some sort of a search engine to look up key words that could be the target of scandal. You don’t PRINT each freaking email. You are looking for WORDS. That’s what a computer is good for… Ok, someone didn’t think this one through.

However, the whole idea of Cat suddenly at risk of losing her media empire was an interesting plot. Cat becomes humanized, and Kara even has to resort to Lucy Lane for legal expertise. By the way, company emails are usually kept in mail servers so all that Winn had to do- Sorry, you want me to cool it with the geek stuff? Ok, I’ll save it for later. Suffice to say they do manage to locate and find incriminating evidence on the two-faced member of the board that is trying to pull the rug under Cat’s feet and takeover the company.

The other plot, which you’ll probably argue is the main plot, is Astra. She’s back but now she’s acting like the wounded aunt that was trying to save the people of Krypton although she might have had to kill a few of them in the process. This is where the episode kinda fails for me. I’m sorry to say the whole twin sister act of Astra and Allura just falls flat. I couldn’t buy either character. Also, even if Astra is basically playing the victim to pull Kara to her side, I can’t believe that one possible lie from her mother is all it takes to make Kara turn against her. She doesn’t, she just doubts.

Astra ends up a prisoner of the DEA but as Alex finds out, she threw the fight with Kara and let herself be beaten. And there’s this big fight at the end of the episode because the Kryptonians under Lieutenant Non- That can’t be his name. There must be a silent h or something missing. Nope, guess what. That’s his name. Blah. Well, Non is Astra’s husband because of course he is. So the Kryptonians attack Maxwell Lord’s place because…? I don’t know, guess they’ve decided he’s the biggest threat? Brilliant. I’m being sarcastic. The show just needed a fight for the finale (no, it doesn’t).

The ending scene for me should have been a few moments before, when Kara finds Cat Grant alone having a drink in her private balcony and has her sign whatever. Then Cat confronts her with a smile, and brings up all the moments in which Kara conveniently disappears just for Supergirl to save the day. Then she asks Kara to take off her glasses. Kara attempts to goof off, but Cat clarifies that if she doesn’t take off her glasses she will take it as a confirmation. Of course Kara does… and this is the moment. This is where Cat confirms she’s had Supergirl under her nose all the time.

Then Kara has to be called away to the big fight and ends up in a cliffhanger in which Non, Astra’s husband and Kara’s uncle, calls her out. They both end up flying towards each other at high speed.

Highs/Lows/Shakes:

There is something to be said about the Supergirl vs Astra plot at the start. It does address the no-kill rule that Kara has inherited from her cousin. The sparring between Kara and Alex is actually more intense that the super-fight with Astra.
I didn’t miss it. During Astra’s boring interlude with her husband in which they act more like power-hungry megalomaniacs, ~~Astra lets it slip that Allura is not Kara’s real mother~~. Update: I’ve been told the line is actually, “Kara is not her mother.” I will have to check.
Cat and Kara’s moment in the balcony was the biggest moment in the series.
Ok, I have to say. Whoever is imagining the new Kryptonian names needs to dig a little deeper. Allura? Astra? Non? Why do they sound like freaking car models? Also, must every Kryptonian suffer from anger management issues?
Names aside, Astra is not making the super-villain hall of fame. There’s no plan or strategy from her faction, it’s just random appearances. And when they happen, Astra is just not making the kind of charismatic Vader-Hannibal-Luthor-Magneto-Loki speeches that would cement her authority. Instead we get ROARRRR and punch. In this episode, she appears to be trying to get into Kara’s head. To properly do that, she has to convince the audience. All that she’s convinced me is that the writers are not sure how to write her yet. Non is even worse. He’s almost Hulk-like.
Cat is not Lois Lane’s biggest fan.
If you want to search through a bunch of e-mails, you don’t print them. You use some sort of search engine to go through them. Also, you don’t need to hack a company laptop, Winn. You could just have hacked the company’s mail server. Wait, you are CatCo’s head of IT. You probably have fully authorized access to the mail server. It’s not corporate espionage if it’s the same company and sanctioned by the boss herself. This is something that Winn should know how to do as part of his job.
I want to stress that I want this show to work without having Superman intervene on Kara’s battles but – a Kryptonian Military faction is lose on Earth… Does seem like Supergirl would need her cousin here.
Oh yeah, these Kryptonians found a way to block the effects of Kryptonite with a little blue light. Nope, sorry it should be much more complicated than that. I’m talking full hazmat suit. Or there should be some major drawback as a side effect – like some superpowers being turned off.
It’s a pity because I’m enjoying the non-Super storylines much more than the Super ones, but the series needs better writing in some aspects more than others. Still on the Supergirl train, we’ll see what happens when the show comes back.