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Supergirl: Welcome to Earth

“That’s like misdemeanor treason!”

This episode got…weird. Bizarre things can happen when you take allegories too far and that’s just what this episode did.

Comparing extra-terrestrials to immigrants is tricky. It’s something the show has touched on lightly before (remember Senator Miranda Crane) but this episode went all in and the results were confusing. I can count the aliens I trust on one hand, says Alex, and it’s true. This world has shown us very few good aliens which is fine when they’re just Martians or Kryptonians or whatever but becomes incredibly problematic when the show attempts, as it does here, to use them as an allegory for immigrants. Thankfully, we did get a little more exposure to neutral aliens in National City’s premier alien-friendly dive bar.

A dive bar where later J’onn will randomly meet another Martian. Which seems…I mean, if there really are just two of them left in the entire universe and they both happen to land on the same planet, move to the same city, and then one night find themselves in the same bar at the same time where they come face to face…let’s just say that’s statistically unlikely.

Moving on. My favorite part of this episode was the ugly and frankly racist attitude we got from Kara. The Girl of Steel is great with her hope and goodness but it’s important for characters to have flaws. What’s more, it’s important to acknowledge that even the best of us can have prejudices, prejudices often taught to us by our culture. For a Kryptonian, that means hating Daxamites. Seeing her recognize her mistake, own it, and make amends was amazing. Kara is such a great role model not because she’s perfect, but because she tries to be better.

The President was in town and it was wonderful (See what I did there?). Played by Wonder Woman herself, Lynda Carter, the President was around to sign a bill allowing aliens to come out of the shadows and live openly with the full rights of U.S. citizens. Her would-be assassin, however, thinks the bill has a more sinister motive, that the bill’s ultimate goal is to force aliens into the open so the government can track them. That seemed crazy until the President was revealed to be an alien herself. Now I’m left wondering if that was just a fun little inclusion or if the show setting up a larger arc for President Wonder Woman. If so, is she a good guy or a bad guy?

In other, possibly significant news, Lena Luthor has developed a handheld device that can detect aliens immediately and is planning to market it to the public. So far, I’m really liking Lena (and enjoying the way Kara smiles whenever she looks at her) but Katie McGrath’s accent slipped enough to make me wonder why they didn’t just let her be Irish or English. They’ve already established that she was adopted, I don’t think her having an accent would be weird.

I’ve never liked Winn as much as I like him now. Well, okay, I’ve never liked Winn. But working at the DEO agrees with him. He feels less of a random insertion into Kara’s world and more purposeful. Plus, it really doesn’t hurt they backed off the whole romance thing.

Speaking of romance, it looks like Mehcad Brooks is staying, thankfully. His new job is Cat’s old job which, I have to say, is a bit awkward since we never really saw Cat do her old job. I mean, she’d get everyone together once in a while and say nice things about Supergirl but mostly she just snapped at Kara and demanded her latte. I actually wasn’t aware she was still as hands on as she apparently was. This episode sees James having to deal with dissension in the ranks as Snapper Carr decides to be even more of a dick than he was last week. I know they’re going for prickly with him, but is it possible to make him a little less hatable? He has no redeeming characteristics so far. Like, I don’t know, give him a kid or a puppy or something to distract me from wanting to strangle him whenever he speaks?

It seems like Mon-El will be sticking around which could be great. Will he suit up with Kara and become a regular cast member? A quick google search shows me that he is an established character in DC canon (I’d never heard of him), so it’s entirely possible that we’ve lost a Cat and gained a superhero. Also: romantic possibility for Kara? As much as I giggled over her and Lena I’m not naïve enough to think that’s going to happen. Now that she’s kicked James to the curb for reasons that continue to evade me, what about a handsome Daxamite on her arm?

Bits and Pieces

Daxamite sounds like a vitamin the FDA has recently revealed none of us are getting enough of.

Quotes

J’onn: “People in this world don’t have much tolerance for others who look different. I say this as an alien and someone who has worn the face of black man for fifteen years.”

Kara: “She called me Supergirl.”
Alex: “That is your name.”

Kara: “Did you hear that? That was like, a legit quote. People are going to quote her.”

Kara: “Why were you sending a distress call?”
Mon-El: “Because I’m in distress!”

President: "If you think that's cool, you should see my other jet.”

two and a half out of four Lynda Carters

sunbunny

6 comments:

  1. The immigration thing was an anvil metaphor, as you said, but really did love the in-joke that was President Wonder Woman, and what they did with Kara and the way she dealt with her own prejudices against Daxamites. I'm also hating Snapper and wondering what the heck they're doing with James. But that's okay, because I am really enjoying season two a lot more than season one. It's like they found themselves.

    That dome thingy where they held the presidential event -- I know I've seen it before in other TV shows shot in Vancouver. Anyone else know what it is?

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  2. They covered basically all the problems that are prevalent at the moment not just immigration...I didn't think it was weird just extremely heavy handed..These writers do not do subtle..But i appreciated it all the same. Superman/Supergirl and the Xmen/Inhumans(For AoS watchers) always tackle this subject matter.
    I do wish they played the WW theme softly in the background, particularly when Kara did the patented twirl to get rid of the flames and the reference to ''her other jet''.

    All the new additions seemed interesting as well and the bar (So Angel) opens up many avenues.

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  3. Yeah, Anonymous -- I was thinking of Angel during the scenes in the bar, too. :)

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  4. Nothing about new cop Maggie Sawyer and the obvious setup with Alex "hasn't had a date in two years" Danvers?

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  5. Anon 2 - I had something in there originally but I guess I cut it at some point. I'm so on board with Alex and Maggie. I just wish they'd been a little less obvious with her introduction. She was practically carrying a flashing neon sign that said "Future Love Interest for Alexandra Danvers"

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  6. I was annoyed at this episode for one reason: the whole "Kara writes an article that's more of an op-ed" thing. Now I get that given her opinions she finds it hard to write a more neutral piece about Lena's alien detector. And I distrust the idea that news can be wholly neutral. No problem there. But there's this exchange:
    "If I wanted your opinion on the news, I would have assigned you to Op-ed"
    Kara: "so.. So, I shouldn't report truthfully???"

    Kara is ~26 years old, has presumably gone to college and has been working at Catco for 1-2(?) years, and she seems new to the idea that there's a difference between op-eds and news reporting?

    Same way as with season 1 Iris in the Flash: sometimes these shows seem to portray otherwise strong women as very naive, incompetent at journalism and only hired for their connections (The Flash in Iris's case, Kat Grant in Kara's). It feels vaguely sexist that they're so portrayed as so wide eyed and naive. I can rather understand Snapper not wanting someone on the team who doesn't know the first thing about journalism but think they do.

    I see no one else mentioning this so perhaps I'm just seeing things!

    Katie McGrath as Lena Luthor is awesome. I associate her with her role in Merlin though so I keep thinking she's probably evil.

    The fate of Daxam is interesting. So the planet was destroyed by the hubris of the Kryptonians. Even for that one would've expected less of a dismissive attitude than Supergirl displayed.

    Love the alien bar. It's interesting that the DEO was not aware of its existence.

    When I saw that there were two Martians left, I immediately thought: well, they know what they have to do.

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