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Supergirl: The Bodyguard

Nia Nal: “Rejection never looked so good, or was so cool about it.”

Lex Luthor tasks Supergirl with guarding Andrea as Obsidian launches, but his main interest is getting close to Leviathan.

The cold open looks very unlike an episode of Supergirl, so much so that I wondered at first if CW might be showing an ad for another show, but it was the virtual reality of Obsidian. The woman chasing a dragon isn’t the lithe dark beauty but a gray-haired woman packing some extra pounds.

There’s a nice moment near the beginning, where Kara, Alex and Nia are wandering around chatting. Maybe Kara should just accept Nia Nal as her best friend. Nia seems much nicer. And has some good remarks about William, who, despite Kara’s turning down his invitation, is behaving really nicely. Not just in bringing her the coffee she likes, but in not showing any hurt or resentment at her refusal. I liked that about him! Of course, William doesn’t deserve Supergirl, but no one does, and I’m tired of her being lonely.

Lex arranges for Lena to go to that prison they own in order to do some testing on her do-no-harm pills. Frequently Supergirl is a little too obvious – of course it’s based on a comic book – but I still appreciated watching the interactions in the prison. I hadn’t thought much about what sort of hell prison must be for the weak, and it’s a good reminder why prison is a bad place to be.

Andrea Rojas is threatened by a plant woman, and Lex, for reasons of his own, tells Supergirl to guard Andrea. I’m sorry, but I don’t care about Andrea. Her conversation felt forced, and I sensed no chemistry between Supergirl and Andrea, even as Andrea was oversharing in some exposition serving to remind us of who she is. Perhaps this was intentional on the part of the writers, as Supergirl in her Kara persona has to report to Andrea, and doesn’t like her much.

Steve, the omega dog in the prison, wants to be a bully after Lena’s drug. The world won’t do well if all the non-bullies become bullies. There's some good conversation between Lex and Lena afterwards. He admits his obsession with Superman has been his downfall.

Andrea and Lena are both tinkering with the human race, trying to control them, and the show is finally, finally getting into the moral questions about the uses of virtual reality. I appreciated the point of view of William, his description of how it really would tap into what people need most – that sense of feeling connected – while actually driving people further apart. It can also become an addiction. But like many other “advances,” they are hard to stop. Evolution is merciless.

Of course, we’re subjected to manipulative influences all the time, such as advertising and chemicals. In fact, there’s evidence that we have far less free will than we tell ourselves. Our brains are not really rational thinkers, but rationalizers – finding excuses to do what our instincts tell us we want to do (like eat more of chocolate cake).

Kara reaches Amy – she's the plant woman who has been causing all the mayhem – with reason and hope rather than punches, which is when I love Supergirl the most. And at the end of the episode, Kara reaches out to William, in a way that really made me smile.

Title musings. The title of this episode is “The Bodyguard,” which is the same as a movie starring Whitney Houston and Kevin Costner. I have never seen it, so I can’t comment on its relevance.

Bits and pieces

Leviathan is from the same solar system as Krypton. I somehow missed that.

Of course Kara/Supergirl can consume drinks supercharged with calories. Wish I could! Well, I can’t fly, either.

There was an ad from Apple during the episode that looked like it’s only a few generations away from Obsidian. Hmm.

Jon Cryer (Lex Luthor) steals whatever scenes he’s in. Jesse Rath (playing a couple of Brainies) was excellent too.

I really liked the scene where J’onn J’onzz helps Alex with her difficulty in transitioning to a new lifestyle.

Shapeshifting weapons sound amazingly cool. And dangerous.

Quotes

William: Well, I’m an investigative journalist, but don’t we all know our friends’ orders by heart?

Lena: Can you imagine what humanity would be like if we didn’t succumb to terror, rage and worry? We would be the best versions of ourselves.
Ed. note: Sounds like The Good Place.

Gemma Cooper: And if you know my people, you know what I can do to a yappy little dog that nips at my heels.

Andrea: Hashtag Superguard.

Brainy: I’ve done the calculations. There is a 93.2% chance that none of them will invite me to Thanksgiving after I do what must be done.

J’onn: Sometimes it takes a while to grow into the new version of yourself.

Supergirl: Nothing can change the past. Believe me, I’ve tried. But you are in charge of your own future.
Ed. note: Reminds us of last week’s episode.

Lex: I’m the chocolate to your peanut butter.

Overall Rating

A little flat in some places, but in other ways solid, and I’m so glad they’re finally addressing the issues of VR. And I liked the William-Kara interactions. Three out of four highly sugared, overcaffeinated hot drinks.

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

2 comments:

  1. Victoria, a lot of agreement with your review here. I've been waiting awhile for some discussion about the ethical problems with Lena's research, so that's good, give me more. I'm starting to like William a little bit, and I didn't think that would ever happen. I'm torn about what they're doing with Brainy -- I want them to do interesting stuff with him, but it doesn't feel like this is the way to go. And I'm rather enjoying J'onn and Alex as detecting partners no longer in the DEO.

    ReplyDelete
  2. Oh, and I've seen The Bodyguard movie a long time ago and I don't think it had anything to do with this episode. :)

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