Superhero Weekly: Supergirl’s Homecoming, Flash Attacks Central City and Arrow Fights Fire With Fire

Spoilers will be unmasked.

Supergirl upped her game this week bringing in Dean Cain. If you had reservations about Jeremiah Danvers after he helped Kara and Mon-El escape Cadmus back in Darkest Place, you will have been wary this episode as well. Strangely enough, the first one to suspect him is not J’onnz. The Martian Manhunter seems to be as emotionally stunted as the Danvers girls. No, it’s Mon-El.

The reason why I find it strange is that so far, the character is still trying to shake off its frat boy image and all of a sudden he’s the only skeptic. I get it that he’s the most distant to the situation, but this ‘flashes’ of insight have not yet been explained. There’s one parenthesis here but I’ll leave it for the highs and lows.

I’d rather talk about Alex Danvers. I think it’s the most passionate acting that Chyler Leigh has done as the daughter that has missed her father so terribly that is blinded by her own emotion. The anger she directs first at Mon-El and later at Kara when she also starts to suspect her father was so close to genuine. It’s Alex in the end that confronts her father only to choose to let him go even though she’s badly hurt at his betrayal. It was some of her best acting, and you can feel her heart break the moment she lets her father escape.

The Flash brought back Grodd for the second part and conclusion to the telepathic gorilla’s plans of domination. It’s just hard to feel invested in a CGI character, may he be a gorilla or a Speed God. More on that in a second.

We get a real treat as Tom Cavanagh plays two roles as H.R. and the less amicable Harry, Dr. Wells from Earth 2 and Jesse Quick’s curmudgeon father. I so much more prefer Wells as the morally ambiguous scientist than the buffoon-esque car salesman. It’s short-lived.

Instead the show seems to want to focus more on relationships. Gypsy comes back to form a reluctant alliance with Cisco. Jesse decides to stay and see if there’s any future with Wally. And Barry decides to take the next step with Iris because, why the hell not?

Arrow is really digging into the skin this week. Mayor Oliver Queen faces an impeachment hearing. D. A. Adrian Chase is representing him but something is definitely up.

Meanwhile, Mr. Terrific ups his tech game and Felicity stops short of blackmail as Thea tries to play underhanded politics. To this I have to say that Curtis is becoming more of an asset. Felicity is more interesting the deeper she gets into the hacker matrix and I can’t help but think Thea still has a lot more to contribute to the group because she thinks different than anybody else.

But I guess the biggest surprise is that Adrian Chase does not turn out to be Vigilante. Instead he comes behind the mask of Prometheus, something that I didn’t expect. Now we’re in the dark about Vigilante unless we’re doing a Fight-Club-esque turn of events here.

Highs/Lows/CGIs:

Chyler Leigh’s best acting yet as devout and fiercely loyal daughter and then broken down and betrayed but still loving daughter at the end.
I knew something was up when Jeremiah Danvers offers to escort Mon-El out. “I know who you are,” is Jeremiah’s threat. “…And?” is Mon-El’s reply. That still makes me think that we want to cast doubts of whether Mon-El of Daxam knows who he really is. The show might be going for making him the Prince of Daxam instead of a royal guard.
When J’onn J’onnz finally doubts Jeremiah we hear him say: “Why can’t I read your mind?” That means that either a) J’onn has been attempting to read his mind since they met again but has been unable to do so, or b) J’onn chose to trust Jeremiah without reading his mind until now. I don’t know which option I would chastise the Martian Manhunter more, but it’s obvious he should’ve done that since the beginning AND suspect him.
The Flash was the low point this week. Wait, really? Yeah… it wasn’t really a very thrilling episode. It was all about couples.
At least we got Harry Wells facing H.R. Wells. Too little and too far between.
I like Cisco but he’s a bit full of himself sometimes. A little more awkwardness would’ve gone a longer way with Gypsy. At least he gets shot down at the end. Yeah, he’s got a chance to be good with his powers, but he’s got a long way to be able to handle her.
Grodd is taken down by Solovar. Wait, the God of Speed? No, that’s Savitar. Solovar is the white ape and nemesis of Grodd. Savitar is the Megatron lookalike God of Speed. Unfortunately the names were already part of the Flash’s mythos and couldn’t be changed.
With another grand gesture involving candles and petals, we get Barry proposing to Iris. Cliffhanger, she hasn’t said yes yet. Perhaps she’ll say now because blah blah must beat Savitar first blah blah my imminent death blah blah.
Wally West runs into Savitar, which is good because I wasn’t looking forward to next week’s episode without some threat. Too bad it’s just more CGI. That’s why I still think the Reverse Flash was still the better nemesis for Flash.
And Arrow was dark but actually good this week, breaking down a few theories and spawning others.
First, good on Mr. Terrific as he finally starts designing more badass hardware, even if they’re called “balls” by everyone.
Second, poor Curtis Holt as Paul comes back… to obviously deliver divorce papers. That was really naive of Curtis. Everyone saw that heartbreak coming a mile away.
Third, Felicity joining Helix. I actually like Felicity more as a full-blown hacker than a tone-down one. Gives her character a lot more agency that the freaking IT Girl.
Fourth, I liked Thea being a manipulative scheming political player. She was not the heroine that the city needs but the one it deserves.
Adrian Chase’s character is becoming increasingly interesting and was even more so this week as he’s revealed as Vigila- wait, he’s Prometheus?!? Seriously? Who saw that one coming? The ending with him asking Susan Williams to make time to talk to him was the creepiest thing.
Who’s Vigilante then? I mean, if he’s in the cast… Wait… If she’s in the cast… Could it be that Susan Williams is Vigilante? Now THAT would be the one thing to turn Susan Williams’ character interesting. Did Adrian Chase figured it out and that’s the reason he’s trying to kidnap Susan?