Supergirl Season Finale: Better Angels - Episode Thread

[Heroine Addict]

Just one more day to go. Here's the trailer.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xvfjmdHiAlM

And here's a couple of sneak peaks. WARNING: Massive spoilers.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IXSuxllG8NE
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Fo2sTHIvlYE

[FallOutDweller]

Non is the kind of villain who likes to play with his fuck dolls and action figures a little bit too much far far away over the top. He is able to mind control a whole city plus Superman, not to mention Alex the ManHuntress, and do little to nothing. The Mighty Hypnotic at least in perfectly capable to fuck around and be more objective against his foes with a far lower budget.

[shevek]

I really hope she doesn't beat Non & Indigo by essentially doing a Weekend Update..that is just a lame approach to battling alien super villains. I kind of hope it doesn't work and there's a cliffhanger for next season. But it probably will.

[FallOutDweller]

Non controls Superman, WTF was he thinking no matter whatever happen at this season finale. YOU CONTROL SUPERMAN YOU IDIOT, that's like having the Holy Hand Grenade of Antioch and never use it against that damn bunny.

Honestly, the reasonable explanation must be : "I'm a Barbie guy, I don't like to play with Action Figures and first thing I did was burning all my Ken Dolls."

[DrDominator9]

I really hope she doesn't beat Non & Indigo by essentially doing a Weekend Update..that is just a lame approach to battling alien super villains. I kind of hope it doesn't work and there's a cliffhanger for next season. But it probably will.

If they have any marketing sense at all they'll leave Season One as a cliffhanger. Didn't I see a picture with SG with a mind control band around her forehead? I'm thinking she sacrifices her freedom for others somehow and we spend the summer with SG as a slave to Non. (Though I wish it could be Indigo instead...although knowing her attitude, she's probably just kill SG right off.)

[Visitor]

Non is a follower, not a real leader. Myriad was Astra's idea and she never got around to changing her orders. Sending Alex after Kara was Indigo's idea. The guy's got hardly an original thought in his head and I bet his marriage wasn't his idea either.

He's a figurehead for the remaining Kryptonians and inherited the job because his dead wife ran everything. They probably are letting him run the show since there's an expiration date for the job.

[FallOutDweller]

Non is a follower, not a real leader. Myriad was Astra's idea and she never got around to changing her orders. Sending Alex after Kara was Indigo's idea. The guy's got hardly an original thought in his head and I bet his marriage wasn't his idea either.

He's a figurehead for the remaining Kryptonians and inherited the job because his dead wife ran everything. They probably are letting him run the show since there's an expiration date for the job.

Are you saying Non is an elected Dictator ??? Who vote for this asshole ? There was an Astra&Non 2016 ? Seriously, I would vote for Zod if I could.

[Heroine Addict]

As predicted, the Batman v Superman-style cliffhanger was resolved with parent stuff. I guess they thought that would be a callback to a movie everyone loved.

Nice to see Cat finally call "Keira" Kara. It will be interesting to see how things develop now that Kara is in charge of a thing at CatCo, whatever it may be.

Interesting that we got a reference to Harrison Ford last week and Working Girl this week. Maybe Calista's famous husband could be persuaded to appear as Perry White?

Now that Kara and Jimmy have not got together for the umpteenth time, I hope the writers can just let them move on. The constant "Will they? Won't they?" thing gets tiresome after a while.

Non and Indigo's fate was inconclusive. I guess they (or their remains) were just rounded up by the DEO. There's no point in asking Chris Vance, though, as he has signed a Non-Disclosure Agreement.

So, who or what was in the pod?

[4havokk]

Who is in the pod...Hmmm Gen Zod's daughter, her mother or judging by the theme of the show another lil girl (Supergirl from another earth. The Flash crossover.)

[Camvoy]

In the pod? Either Superboy or Power Girl. Hoping for the latter since it'll help spawn off more Multiverse fun.

[Bert]

I've been a big booster of this show from the beginning. I love Benoist, the suit, the setup for the show, the fact that Supergirl isn't invincible and finds herself in perilous situations, all good stuff. It could have been much worse, and I'm pleased that they got so many things right. Many people complained about the feminist bent of the show, but that never bothered me. The writing/storytelling wasn't great, and that could be annoying, but I mostly looked past it and enjoyed the positives.

After the first spate of episodes, things started to change. The increased focus on relationships was fine, but the move to downplay the action and peril, the shorts under the skirt, these changes all smack of do-gooders exerting influence to tame the show and lessen the potential for dramatic fights. There were fewer bright spots in the second half of the season. Now onto the Finale. Beware, here be spoilers.




The opening fight with alex in the kryto suit was great. It could have been a bit longer, but still, great. After that, the episode went straight downhill. As someone who has striven to look past the shitty writing all season, it really caught up with me tonight. So many stupid things. The hope speech that cures everyone? So sappy. The gradually increasing signal to kill everyone, but with enough time for our heroes to intervene? So convenient. The almost season long buildup to a final confrontation between Supergirl and Non? What a massive letdown. Specks in the sky knocking each other around, followed by heat vision duel, which is boring, implausible and a cheap rip off of the great Red Tornado scene from earlier in the season. Total anticlimax. Then the lifting of the entire Fort Roz prison into space? That's a power level so off the charts compared to what Supergirl has shown throughout the season that it made me really hate the writers. So lazy, so inconsistent. And finally, the stranded in space thing? Even if we accept that she can't fly in space, it would have been the simplest thing to just push off the ship to launch herself back to earth. So stupid. And how did Alex find her so easily? And how did she get her into the ship? Jesus, that's just terrible, lazy writing at its worst.

I really hope there's a second season for the show. I'll watch it. But man, the finale was a disappointment.

[Visitor]

If they want to have some fun about the age difference, bring Harrison Ford in as Cat Grant's dad. They already had her mother.

[FallOutDweller]

I really hope there's a second season for the show. I'll watch it. But man, the finale was a disappointment.

Supergirl is the polar opposite of Adam West & Burt Ward's Batman and Robin, she is the Queen of Tease & Denial ! What did you expected ? Thank God if Linda Carter's Wonder Woman standing right in the middle of the balance just to give us some standards of what expected from primetime tv if this series get through at least three seasons between comic book drama and blunt comic book T&A instead of more T&D.

[shevek]

I'm the middle of watching the finale right now. Solution to the first Myriad signal was maudlin as fuck. "Hope"? Give me a break, I knew John F Kennedy and Kara Zor-El, you're no John F Kennedy

So the scene where they're picking up the debris around the DEO. Last I checked, the prone body of Maxima was scattered amongst that debris. What happened to fucking Maxima? So stupid that they put Eva Torres in there just to toss her away after two minutes.

The sheer amount of time eaten up by saying goodbye to everyone? More sappiness. GIves us the impression that a heroine with "compassion" (is that supposed to be a feminist approach to solving problems? not sure. the only feminist reference in this episode was when she said "I'm all about consent") has to go around telling all of her friends her "feelings" about them before jumping into battle. Instead of just jumping into battle. And yup, the "time" it took for Max Lord to track down the signal was very convenient, giving her enough time to fly around saying her goodbyes. And the goodbye to Jimmy was just stupid. It's obvious that she *loves* him more than she loves any other man, from the writing in the previous episodes. I'm beginning to think that Supergirl has to stay some kind of supervirgin to retain her credibility as a character on a CBS show (the Old People's Network)..it's almost like she'd lose her powers if she had a real lovemaking scene, huh? We deserve to see Benoist making the O-Face even if it's just for a second..like Morena Baccarin did in Deadpool. We deserve it!

Anyway....at least they acknowledged that Martian Manhunter is Supergirl's "sidekick" (personally I'd rather have Miss Martian but what can ya do) and let him do his super-alien job. They're in Nevada...one thought: how can a signal broadcast from a terrestrial source (even one terabytes strong, according to Max) cover the whole Earth and do the brain-busting damage it's supposed to do. Answer: it can't. The whole time, I thought it was going to be from some space satellite. So, at least for one thing, the whole other side of the planet is safe from the Myriad blast..didn't anyone think of that?

Also..if the signal is even at "80 percent strength"..doesn't that mean 80 percent brain damage? I mean it's not like a switch would suddenly go off and the problem would only manifest entirely above a certain threshold. Electromagnetic waves (or whatever they are) have a continuous spectrum, they're not discrete...the level of damage would build gradually. So how is everyone going to recover from 90 percent brain damage? Nobody thought of that either? (At least Max and Alex are holding hands...get a room guys!)

Why would Indigo die just from being torn in half? Didn't she discorporealize a bunch of times in earlier episodes? I thought she was just made of bits and bytes that solidified when she felt like it. I would think she couldn't be defeated without being "hacked", or something.

Why would Supergirl need to "breathe" in outer space? Or worry about generating "thrust"? Superman can do those things in outer space, he does it all the time, why would Kara be different? That whole warning Alex made was unnecessary: Supergirl could have (and should have) gotten back under her own power. I mean how did Alex learn to fly the pod anyway? Had she been taking it out for test-drives in her years working for the DEO? (If so, they should have said that). The only reason the writers did that was because they needed to show that ordinary people can make a difference (btw, is anyone getting a bit tired of the overuse of the word "bad-ass" to describe powerful female characters? I would never use that, it just sounds trite and lowbrow. There's a dictionary out there...use it!) and because the relationship between Alex and Kara has to be continuously proven to be the most important in the show.

Because solidarity and love between women is the prevailing feminist message (at least as long as she remains supervirgin, which I think she will) of the show. Women promoting women..you'll notice that no woman who stands for this message ever takes a step down - Kara gets her own office, Lucy gets to stay with J'onn at the DEO, there's a female president, etc. It's very important for this show to demonstrate women continuously succeeding..saving the world, even. The show is a perfect feminist role model (characters who don't fit that mold, such as Maxima or Banshee, get cast aside) and I believe that was the intention of the writers. Let's see how many Tumblr bloggers over the next few months rapturize over how the first season's arc has unfolded as a feminist manifesto. Mind you, by no means am I saying this is bad or unwanted at all...just that it's blatantly obvious. It's practically a season-long campaign ad for Hillary Clinton. If you have a daughter, she needs to watch this show. Amirite?

[shevek]

So...let's take a betting pool-slash-poll. It's called "who's in the Pod"?

1) Power Girl (Kara Zor-L of Earth 2)
2) Astra revived
3) Faora
4) Lor-Zod (Chris Kent/Nightwing)
5) Mon-El
6) some Kryptonian tech that her mom sent ahead to help her build her own bad-ass HQ
7) Krypto (the dog)

running out of ideas..anyone have any other guesses?

By the way, there's a new Adventures of Supergirl comic that's been coming out since Feb 2016, based on the TV show version of the character (although the drawn character inside does not look much like Benoist). So far six issues. I read issue one and so far they've retconned Rampage as a Kryptonian or alien of some kind (rather than her original identity as a human scientist). I'll check them out and report back. It'll be something to tide us over until the next season.....

[ksire_99]

So...let's take a betting pool-slash-poll. It's called "who's in the Pod"?

1) Power Girl (Kara Zor-L of Earth 2)
2) Astra revived
3) Faora
4) Lor-Zod (Chris Kent/Nightwing)
5) Mon-El
6) some Kryptonian tech that her mom sent ahead to help her build her own bad-ass HQ
7) Krypto (the dog)

running out of ideas..anyone have any other guesses?

Cyborg Superman

[Bert]

I have zero problems with the show emphasizing strong female characters, regardless of how overt it is. If more women and girls are drawn to a superhero show because it features strong women, that's great. If the show gets a second season, I hope they run with Kara moving on from being Cat's assistant and taking on more responsibility. My big problem is the lazy/poor writing, culminating in a pretty awful season finale. I really hate that they had her lift the entire prison into space. That power level makes finding opponents for Supergirl way too hard. If a man-made robot (Red Tornado) can give her a good fight there's some hope for battles where the outcome isn't a forgone conclusion. If she can fly away with thousands of tons on her back, who can compete with that?

After her battles with Vartox, Reactron, Astra and Red Tornado early on, I was, ahh, super-excited for the rest of the season, but then the action started taking a back seat and the fights got shorter, less interesting and fewer in number. Come on Supergirl producers, don't skimp on the action.

[Visitor]

There was lots of bad writing in the show recently in order to build up some suspense and make it look like Supergirl could die to save the world. The worst was Supergirl in space which contradicts years of comics and movies.

Indigo can easily come back especially after "dying" once before from a computer virus. There are all the remaining prisoners sleeping in Fort Rozz as future villains.

They don't want Kara in a long term relationship since that eventually kills the sexual tension of will they or won't they. Some shows consider it their jump the shark moment before cancellation.

[shevek]

Bert, I didn't say I had any problems with the strong female characters and how they always triumph and gain ground..it's just blatant how obvious it is.

Visitor: are you saying that Supergirl *can* or *can't* survive in space? Because given Superman can survive in space I would assume she could as well.
Is there canon on that?

More annoying, though, is that they show her in space with her *hair blowing around*. It's sexy, but *there is no air in space*. Duh.

And for the relationship, I'm not looking for anyone going steady or a marriage proposal. I'm just looking for some acknowledgement of Supergirl as a being with sexual needs who fills out a costume nicely. A makeout session, a long kiss, or a inference that she had a one-night stand. Something to pique the imagination.

[Camvoy]

The season ends still being the most regularly watched of the entire genre on TV yet is the only one that hasn't been renewed. I'm hoping they rectify that soon.

[Bert]

Yeah, subtlety isn't exactly rampant on that show. Still hoping for renewal.

[Richpartist]

Enough of this bull**** show.Big surprise ANOTHER wake up on a table.......whoooooooooo thats great and sexy NOT

[4havokk]

Just read the season review on polygon. Pretty much explains why this show shouldnt be renewed. This show is supposed to be about action not some sappy office drama. Supergirl the show that could have been good, but chose not to be.

[travis36]

So...let's take a betting pool-slash-poll. It's called "who's in the Pod"?

.

Not who....Its a note from a CBS executive saying that the show is canceled.

Okay, so maybe the program is pitched toward younger, less discriminating viewers, but they keep crossing over into insulting everyone else's intelligence with the sorry writing that marked the finale. We are informed that there are four hours left before everyone on earth's brain explodes. One would think that this would generate a sense of urgency among those tasked with preventing this, but our heroine decides to change back into her civvies and conduct an emotional goodbye tour. The she finally suits up and instead of going into action, invests more of the diminishing time in additional farewells and plucky statements of resolve.

It was stated that those nearest the the signal's origin were already showing up in hospital emergency rooms, but Supergirl didn't seem to view this as a reason to rush to the rescue at the expense of her emotional needs.

The cop-out nature of the hope-defeats-mind control solution was typical of the unimaginative, and credibility lacking plot resolutions which the show has trotted out all season.

[JennyFromTheBlock]

Ok, so uh yeah. Lots of talk about the writing merits of the show but seriously...

vlcsnap-2016-04-19-17h59m29s946.png (315.87 KiB) Viewed 8586 times

[Night_Lantern]

After a few episodes, moments like this were all I watched the show for. And they were precious few and far between. Really could care less if this series comes back though I'm hoping it does. Bring back the Jailer and introduce him to Krytonite for those chains!

[Bert]

She's gorgeous, the suit is awesome and there's some peril from time to time. It's a network show aimed at a broad audience. Given that it delivers some of what we like, why wish for it to disappear? A new season is new hope for better stories and better action.

[Heroine Addict]

As for the stuff about Kara needing rescuing from space, it's already established that she can lose her powers after a major exertion. (Such as after the Red Tornado fight.) The fight against Non combined with lifting Fort Ros into space would definitely count as something that would drain her powers.

I'm pretty sure that's why the fight against Non was so similar to the Red Tornado's defeat. However, it was a little sloppy that we didn't get even a single line of dialogue to remind everyone of this.

Personally, I thought the "Kara floating in space" thing was a blatant callback to Batman v Superman. As with the bear-fighting suit and the "parent stuff" resolution, I get the impression the Supergirl producers thought BvS references would be crowd-pleasers.

[viking]

I agree with the comment that this show is becoming more of a sappy office drama/soap opera than an action adventure.

[shevek]

Well, if it does get renewed, they did mention going to find Jeremiah Danvers at Project Cadmus.
So I hope someone cool and sexy plays the eclectic teenage genius head of Project Cadmus, Serling Roquette! (sense of style, apparently bisexual)

[DrDominator9]

I know I'm late to the game on this but in my opinion this finale was one of the weakest shows of the season. Not the way you want to wrap it up. Also it's strange how little they've rerun past episodes. Like they are afraid of going up against competition. Maybe when the Voice is done they will.