Supergirl: Myriad

"We're way past villains of the week and kittens stuck in trees."

We can safely state that only supervillains truly like crime, famine, disease and climate change. But would anyone prefer a life without control of their own mind, even if it saved their planet? It might have been an interesting intellectual exercise to explore if, say, Non had planned to (1) fix the Earth's problems, and then (2) let everyone go instead of keeping them permanently possessed and lacking a sense of humor.

Unfortunately, this moral dilemma was stuffed into an already too full penultimate episode that was clearly intended only to put the pieces in place for the season finale. It also made me realize that, while I love Melissa Benoist's Kara/Supergirl very much, none of the villains this season have worked for me. Come on. When did Non get so charitable? Does it make sense that Astra's creation of Myriad wasn't a "kneel before Zod" thing, but simply a valiant but misguided attempt to save Krypton? (Imprisoning her sister for such a thing didn't make Alura look good, did it?) Indigo was all threatening and let's kill Supergirl so we can use Myriad to take over the universe, and that helped up the villain stakes a little, but she just didn't get to me. Neither did Max Lord, even with his almost gleeful plan to kill all of the aliens with a K bomb while wiping out 8% of the population of National City.

The opener with Maxima, Queen of the planet Almerac and Superman stalker, was a lot of fun, but it just made me want to see Superman in this series, and, of course, we didn't. First, Kelex, the robot hanging out at the Fortress of Solitude, said Kal-El was out of town. And then we caught a glimpse of Superman in the distance dashing to the rescue, right before he plummeted to the ground because somehow he was susceptible to Myriad and Supergirl wasn't, because Sesame Street. I realize that they probably didn't have permission to include the character of Superman in this series (during the first season, anyway), but it was a somewhat silly and outright clumsy way of writing him out.

Cat, and her scenes with Supergirl, were by far the best part of this episode. Calista Flockhart completely sold her character's confession that she had changed, that Supergirl had given Cat hope for the future. Leaving behind the silly idea that Cat would have worn earrings sent to her anonymously the previous day, I loved her one-liners, her expression as she was actually hugging the girl of steel, and her cut-through-the-crap advice about how to deal with their problem. A huge plotline this season has been Cat starting out as the devil wearing Prada, and turning slowly into a true mentor and mother figure for Kara. It nicely paralleled the closeness between Alex and her father figure, Hank/J'onn.

Speaking of which, the other bits in this episode that worked for me was Eliza Danvers asking Hank a zillion questions about how shapeshifting works, and Hank Hulk-slamming Indigo. Unfortunately, Indigo turned around and Terminator Two-d him. I am assuming Hank is not dead.

Also unfortunately, Alex didn't listen to Hank and stay in Midvale. And now she's mind-controlled, outfitted with Kryptonite accessories, and ready for a showdown with Supergirl. And I am again thinking, if Superman is mind-controlled like the rest of National City, wouldn't he be a more logical opponent for our bad guys to set against Kara?

Bits:

— When Winn and James jumped off the building, Kara was able to catch them before they hit the ground, but not her other coworker Kelly, whom we didn't know. That could have been a heavy emotional moment, but it fell flat (pun intended). What if there had been no banshee thing and it had been Siobhan, for instance?

— Kara managed to dig a Kryptonite bullet out of her own arm. She's tough.

— Loved Alex and Hank in very blond disguises on the bus. I actually didn't recognize Alex under the hair and sunglasses.

— Winn was programming in Kryptonian. It looked like The Matrix.

— General Lane appeared briefly in order to quarantine National City and act reasonably for a change. Then again, his daughter Lucy was in danger and he probably didn't want to piss off Supergirl.

— Our female president was mentioned again. And by the way, she's been cast for season two. And happily, so has Kara's cousin.

— Max revealed that his parents died because no one would listen to Max about their hazmat suits being faulty. Honestly, I really don't care about his tragic past. It's no excuse for flirting with evil, Max.

— We did finally get all three Supergirls (Helen Slater, Laura Vandervoort and Melissa Benoist) in the same episode. But not in the same scene. Does it count?

Quotes:

Queen Maxima: "I once sought to make your cousin my mate."
Kara: "Eww, gross."

Cat: "Kira, call Harrison Ford and tell him I'm flattered, but once and for all, I do not date older men. Especially when they're married."
Hilarious in-joke. Well done.

Supergirl: "You're not a mindless drone."
Cat: "No, I learned that lesson when Demi Moore and I wore the same dress to the premiere of Ghost. Never again."

Non: "It's what everyone wants, is it not? Peace on Earth, good will towards men."
Cat: "It's a lot less like Christmas out there and more like Dawn of the Dead."

Eliza: "I have to ask. Underneath it all, are you a little green man?"
Hank: "I'm a big green man, actually."

Supergirl: (to Max) "Make another choice that honors your parents. And mine."

I really enjoyed about half of this episode, but found fault with the rest. Two out of four anti-mind-control earrings,

Billie
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Billie Doux loves good television and spends way too much time writing about it.

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