Spoilers will not stay in the Speed Force.
The sophomore season of Supergirl started with the arrival of Mon-El. His story has permeated the second season, sometimes a little too much in the forefront. That being said, eventually the show found a place for him, right at Kara’s side but more important as a support character rather than a main one.
Lena Luthor became the real breakout character to both engage Kara and move the Supergirl mythos forward. Contrary to the Clark/Lex antagonist dynamic, Kara/Lena are closer to partners right now. That means that Lena’s agency could change, which might be interesting at some point but we haven’t exhausted the rich stories that can come out of their friendship. I hope the show doesn’t hurry to turn them against each other.
Alex and Maggie Sawyer got off the ground awkwardly, shakily and sometimes a little corny. That was perhaps the best way to depict a real relationship. It matured the show and grounded it a lot more. Sometimes the drama was played up to use for a storyline (the typical one of them neglects to trust the other, they have a silly fight, they make up at the end) that was unnecessary. But other times like in Alex, being apart show them as a couple even more than being together.
Cat Grant is back and so is the blurry filter. The important thing is she can still be the best mentor that Kara can ask for. And yes, we’ve all been saying it since Season One, she knows Kara is Supergirl. How could she not?
We’ll leave more achievements/disappointments for the Finale Thoughts, but perhaps one of the most obvious things of note was the political content. The show is an escapist fantasy where we dream of superpowers and heroics, yet it’s not a stranger to show its cards in the political arena. This season it was anything but subtle, specially in Resist. Perhaps it was a condition for Calista Flockhart rejoining the cast, given she’s the biggest conduit for these messages. I’d prefer they exercise some restraint and go for the center than lean too much to either side.
The Flash finale had a little of everything. You do see a lot of what looks like alternative finales almost taking place. The strangest one is the whole redemption of Savitar that takes place in the middle, because it goes nowhere. Fortunately they had an open ended finale for Caitlin Snow/Killer Frost that I am dying to talk about.
First, we clear the air of the sadness of the passing of a main character and switch to the passing of a secondary one. The only clue we had about HR Wells switching places with Iris was the moment he looks at Savitar’s broken off talon. Other than that, it’s the face hologram thing which does not explain how it works on Iris. Either the range is a million miles, around corners and through walls or he should’ve built one for Iris first. That being said, we just skipped over a mountain of sad to have a hill of sad as HR Wells dies. He wasn’t a coward after all.
The whole reaching out to Savitar shouldn’t have worked from the beginning. They’ve approached him before to stop him and it works now because… They’re really certain? It was a bit patronizing. Also the whole “he’s not going to kill Iris because killing her will not make him a God anymore” does not make sense.
First of all, Killer Snow gets to defeat Vibe. Yes, Savitar stops Cisco as he needs him to sabotage his plans. Sorry, I mean to alter the Speed Force Bazooka. The fact that Cisco makes the changes with alterations, well… Savitar was a complete idiot not to see that coming and that part is just weak. But I did love the Killer Frost resolution. She’s given the formula and she then makes her own choice. And what her choice turns out to be, is not turning back into Caitlin Snow or remaining Killer Frost. She decides to make a new path of her own. You want to talk female empowerment? This is Cait-Frost choosing to make her own identity and not just drinking the blue Kool Aid.
Arrow has been all over the place this season. Part of me was hoping against reason that the finale was not a complete mess. Part of me knew that they would try to pull all the stops and end up running around from showdown to showdown. And yes, they do aim to please so they hit a few marks, then run around from showdown to showdown. The most honest thing I can say is that a partial mess is still a long way from hit.
It’s a brawl and we know all the contestants. Putting all these characters does not necessarily make for an epic finale. Black Siren finally goes against the new Black Canary. Deathstroke switches sides fooling everyone and then fools everyone again. Felicity and Oliver have a kiss because what the heck, we’re throwing the kitchen sink too.
And then we have a very messy finale where there’s a lot of bombs and a remote trigger and a sabotaged plane and a kidnapped son and… Okey, for the sake of making a coherent story I really wish they’d pick one challenge worth the episode. It also doesn’t seem like the challenges are not even solved? The finale is a mess because it’s a mess. Unfortunately, Arrow has missed its target.
Finale Thoughts:
- The first big one is that given the other shows I’d love to cover and the superhero theme fatigue, I can’t really confirm I’ll be doing the Superhero Weekly when all this shows’ next seasons roll along. Either it’s back in an even shorter form or it’s not back at all.
- There has been times that Supergirl has being about as subtle as a brick on their political message, specially when Calista Flockhart rejoined the cast in Resist.
- In case you never noticed this in season one, they use a CGI blur when they do close ups of Calista Flockhart. They’re trying to be tastefully restrained with it when she’s with someone else, otherwise everyone looks like a Maybelline ad.
- “So for the millionth time, I’m lost in all this time travel stuff.” Joe West would be excellent at CinemaSins. He speaks for the audience here, but I gotta love a good time travel paradox. As long as I can follow the entire loop. Otherwise it’s a lot of exposition.
- Caitlin Snow’s arc was seldom a fair one, but Killer Frost gets some justice. Instead of taking the antidote, which would mean rewriting her DNA so she can be the person her former friends miss she chooses to walk her own path, more fully in control of herself. That’s a great ending for her character but it also means we could be losing Danielle Panabaker from the main cast.
- Savitar’s big twist is that he was a future version of Barry, a time remnant and able to know everything Barry knows, even if the time changes. The armor was just silly.
- Barry joining the Speed Force is perhaps something that he’d eventually had to do, but for an episode that already has had many finales, it’s a bit of an overload. That being said, it was kind of cool as a cliffhanger. Perhaps he’ll learn some tricks.
- Do I really need to talk about Arrow? I have a soft spot for the characters, and for days of old, but the whole psychological torture of Oliver is stressing as fuck. There’s no other way to put it. And no, there’s literally no way that Chase prepared everything in a short time, which means he either had hundreds of people helping him or took a few years to set each thing and somehow nothing went wrong ever.
- Black Siren finally gets to face the new Black Canary. She also gets a stick to the face courtesy of Quentin Lance. See? That was a plus.
- Talia and Nyssa finally face each other off. Of course, Talia can’t die here. Nyssa still gets to win though.
- Chase kills himself. Chances are you’ll run into him on Legends of Tomorrow. That was a joke. Kinda. Who knows. The thing is his death also triggers explosions all around the island. As in, the whole island blows up. You know what? A nuke would’ve been more believable.
- Obviously, everyone is not dead. You can’t start a show from complete scratch with just the main character.
- I think for once, I would have ended Arrow with the flashback story, at the point where Oliver calls his mom from the boat that rescues him.
That will do for now.
Never Think Impossible 