Spoiler-ish content may follow.
Supergirl sometimes has to make drama happen for no reason. Yeah, I’m skipping even the barest hint of a recap this week. Last week it was that forced fight between Maggie and Alex and this week… Well, everything. Supergirl goes over the top thinking that Livewire is a criminal and – out of nowhere – her nemesis. Also, she seems to be hero-police this week as she seems capable of judging who’s ready for being a hero and who isn’t.
Spoiler alert, it’s not Mon-El. Or Guardian. See, Mon-El is not the same kind of person that Kara is, he’s less serious but so far, he’s actually become less full of himself. Turns out he makes a mistake and hurts Guardian and a cop and that’s unacceptable. Didn’t Kara made a lot of mistakes in her first outings? Also, how is James supposed to judge Mon-El when he’s just become a hero himself? The thing that both forget is that Mon-El made a mistake while trying to protect Kara – something that literally everyone in this show could’ve made.
I think the answer to the real question should’ve been that nobody is ready to be a hero. I don’t think Mon-El is past his frat boy past just yet, but he is doing things for people other than himself. Kara has no right to tell James not to try to be a hero when she is one, not because he’s ready – but because she is not above anybody else.
And to be clear James is not a hero either, and Guardian is actually even more prone to mistakes with human reflexes, no speed (that armor realistically should slow him down) and limited vision. Guardian’s suit protects him. It doesn’t do anything else. It doesn’t make him stronger, just able to handle more punishment. If Wynn could put a robot in that suit, that would make it a better hero. James is the weakest point of the deal. What’s more, James is head of a news corporation – shouldn’t that require a lot more time and energy out of him? Sorry, Guardian is not working for me at all.
The Flash named this episode Dead or Alive. The idea was to give some showdown-esque feeling to the duel between Cisco as Vibe and newcomer transdimensional collector Gypsy. Sigh. The premise could have used a better setup, and it’s freaking obvious nobody is going to die, but all and all, I liked the duel.
That’s because they had fun with it and made Vibe and Gypsy jump through portals everywhere. Obvious easter egg was the jump into the CatCo’s building – and right into Cat Grant’s office (I know I should say James’ but he spends less time in there than Kara). They even got Eve Tessmacher (Andrea Brooks) who really should be wondering where does James Olsen go most of the time.
Good to see another side of Iris as she goes full death wish with a baddie pointing a super-gun at her. No, I don’t want to see Iris die but she rarely gets things to do nowadays except reassure Barry’s damaged ego. Is it bad that I liked that scene, although I fully expected Wally to get the drop on the gunman.
Oliver may be close to some closure in Arrow. Meet Tina Boland (don’t worry it’s not her name) played by Juliana Harkavy. The prospective only new candidate even has a canary all of her own and the moves to be a problem to whoever gets in her way. I did like this character, she’s not someone that needs to be trained to fight and/or defend herself. It’s kind of a reverse Laurel, where Laurel had the sense of justice but had to train to become a fighter, Dinah (spoiler alert!) already is a badass but has to find herself.
There’s still a bit of a I’m-the-superhero-in-the-title attitude, same than Supergirl and The Flash but it seems slightly more warranted in this case. We also get Talia Al Ghul in the flashback storyline as Oliver learns back the bow and arrow trade from the other daughter of the League of Assassins.
Felicity gets some traction on a story about her former hacktivist self, Ghost Fox Goddess (not completely sold on that name yet), which makes me think she might actually go back to doing some hacking for good. And she was happy trying to hack the NSA. I wonder if she saved any other stuff she found in Adrian’s laptop that might lead to her uncovering that he’s Vigilante. That would be sweet.
Highs/Lows/Vibes
- Supergirl / The Flash / Green Arrow all need to realize they don’t get to be the judges of Who Wants to Be A Hero. Seniority and experience gives you wisdom, not authority. They should know they’ll alienate the people they train/inspire if they drive them away from what they do themselves.
- Mon-El has grown up a little, still needs to grow up more. That being said, he doesn’t need Kara’s approval.
- Guardian/James Olsen doesn’t need to grow up more or Kara’s approval. But Guardian is a hero that should 1) arrive last at every scene, 2) hit softer than Kara or Mon-El or J’onn or M’gan or Alex or Maggie or any other member of the DEO. Okey, perhaps he’s stronger than Wynn. He also is the most prone to get hurt and most prone to get other people hurt because he has slower reflexes than everyone already mentioned. Realistically, James also would protect Kara if harm was coming her way. So don’t give me patronizing James telling Kara how Mon-El isn’t a hero. Guardian is only a hero because the show keeps writing him in some batman-robocop convenient scene where nobody has noticed him until the last minute.
- Can we put Eve Tessmacher in more scenes? Some dynamic with James would be nice. Oh yeah, that would require him to actually be at work more often. Wonder how we could accomplish that one. Yes, I’m being sarcastic.
- HR Wells is boring and I prefer evil Harrison Wells or rude Harry. I’m glad Julian is here, because snark and snobbery have been missed.
- Iris had her own agency this week. Holy crap, she did? Yes, she seemed more like a three-dimensional character than a girlfriend. Give her more roles like that. I’m not asking her to be a mary sue, just imperfectly human.
- In one of these scenes where all the heroes are down and the rest of the team seem helpless, Caitlin should tear off her dampers and just throw in some ice. Yeah I said it.
- Trial by combat? She comes from an earth where they can travel across universes as if it was a common occurrence and trial by COMBAT? Why does it all seem like Cisco just wanted to say that phrase?
- I like Felicity revisiting her past as a hacktivist and running into a fan of her past life. There might be some about her revisiting her Ghost Fox Goddess persona. She actually seemed happy – and said so herself.
- Tina Boland aka Dinah Drake will inevitable become the new Black Canary. Can someone let Quentin Lance know it’s not Laurel or Sarah before he thinks he’s got a daughter back? That is, if Paul Blackthorne is still in the cast.
- Willa Holland might be working on other projects since we’re not getting any scenes with Thea this week.
- Talia Al Ghul (Lexa Doig) is a fitting character to train Ollie until he reaches his Hood persona.
- We used to have Laurel, Sara and Thea as part of the action team. I’m glad we’re getting Dinah at least and Felicity might be getting a storyline of her own with her past. I still don’t get why Wild Dog gets so much screen time.
That will do for now.
Never Think Impossible 