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Supergirl: Schott Through the Heart

Mary: On a scale of one to ten, how big of a pain in the ass are flying monkeys?
Supergirl: Maybe a two.

This episode, alas, doesn’t merit a high rating either.

We soon find ourselves at party where our group of heroes are singing karaoke, which is a sign that our heroes have time to relax. As long as the producers have chosen to do this – it’s obviously filler – they ought to show us something great. Even though Melissa Benoist has an excellent voice, the creators don’t indulge us – with the exception of Carl Lumbly, M’yrnn J’onzz who treats us to a few moments of fantastic singing – no one sings well enough, or long enough, to evoke any emotion. Then Winn gets up and is about to perform when he sees on a screen that his father (a notorious murderer known as the Toyman) has just died.

Winn runs outside to absorb the news in some privacy; James Olsen, his best bud, follows him for a conversation. Now dumpsters are logical – they’re behind a restaurant/bar – but the setting resonates emotionally as well. Winn’s father was a mass murderer; of course he wants to throw those feelings away.

The Toyman’s funeral involves an exploding coffin, which is fun (why is no one ever cremated?) – and we also meet Winn’s mother, who has been AWOL from Winn’s life for the last two decades. Although AWOL parents and kids are the norm in many TV series, in this case the explanation requires less suspension of disbelief. Mary McGowan stayed away because the Toyman said he would kill Winn if she showed up. We spend a fair amount of time with Winn and his mother, and eventually he shows he’s willing to forgive her. Although I like Laurie Metcalf in general, I’m glad that this arc is done.

Someone is still out to get Winn & Winn’s mom; the culprit turns out to be the Toyman’s Apprentice. It appears that the Toyman’s Apprentice was able to set up her stuff just outside the DEO without being detected. Either she’s fantastic or the DEO is incompetent. They beat her easily, so neither explanation works. And the villain doesn’t bring any emotional resonance to Winn’s arc; we learn nothing of substance about Winn’s father from his apprentice.

The best part of the hour – of course! – were the scenes with M’yrrn J’onzz. He has Martian dementia. He doesn’t want to burden his son with this, but I think the episode signals that J’onn J’onzz already knows (hence his reluctance to let Alex stop by). Of course J’onn J’onzz would see signs of dementia before his father would – if you have dementia, how do you know?

Mon-El has some things that he needs to tell Kara, a conversation which is postponed by danger and drama, but he finally does. (I was glad to see that Kara did not want to be the confidante with respect to the state of his marriage.) Instead he gives her a warning about a Worldkiller, with the hope that she can change the future (his history). Why does no one ever worry about the timeline? I want some of those wraiths from The Flash to show up!

Finally, at the end, we get the teasing tag of Lena looking after Sam/Reign. I hope the next episode follows that storyline, which was much more engaging.

Title musings: The title is obviously a play on shot through the heart, using Winn Schott’s last name (I needed to be reminded that it was his last name). We had several pairs who could be feeling shot through the heart: Winn and the death of his father, Winn and his mother, Kara and Mon-El, and most of all, M’yrrn and his dementia. We had the possibility of some issues between Lena and James (James has not been able to reach her on the phone throughout the episode) but they seem to be OK. It is a bold move, however, for an episode to claim that it is shooting through the heart – except for the dementia, the episode missed mine.

Bits and pieces

Laurie Metcalf plays multiple mothers named Mary. In this series she is Mary McGowan, the mother of Winn Schott. In The Big Bang Theory she plays Mary Cooper, the mother of Sheldon Cooper.

I liked one thing that Mary told Winn: how the trip in the middle of the night was not to Disneyland but to a domestic abuse shelter. Parents try to protect kids and sometimes they can’t – they just can’t.

I also liked how James told Winn that even though his mother was there for him, he still got mad at her. Kids expect their parents to be perfect, and it’s just not possible.

Mon-El’s cape stuff at the end was cool!

Quotes

M’yrnn J’onzz: (Karaoke) requires either great courage, or a complete lack of shame. But I like it.

James Olsen: When my dad died, my mother did everything … but I still blamed her, because she was the only one there.

Winn: I don’t know if you’ve noticed, but it’s like a top secret government facility here.

Supergirl: Cape tricks? I’ve been flying with a cape for three years and all it seems to do is get in the way.

Overall rating

It is hard to come back after a two-month hiatus, so perhaps I should be more forgiving, but most of the episode simply did not shoot me through the heart. Two out of four flying monkeys.

Victoria Grossack loves birds, math, Greek mythology, Jane Austen and great storytelling in many forms.

1 comment:

  1. Yeah they should not make the actors fake bad singing, just do it like in the musial episode. :)

    LEt's hope the Reing storyline resumes next week.

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