Will The Real Miss Tessmacher Please Stand Up? promo: - YouTube
MISS TESSMACHER RETURNS WITH A VENGEANCE - Kara and Lena head to Kaznia to hunt down Lex. However, Eve Tessmacher (guest star Andrea Brooks) sets a trap for the duo that could ultimately reveal that Kara is Supergirl. Meanwhile, Alex gets a long-awaited phone call, James practices using his powers, and Ben Lockwood takes a dangerous stand inside the DEO.
Have I mentioned how much I like it when we get to see Kara using her powers while trying to maintain her cover? Because I really, really like it and we got to see her do it again this week. This time she had to save a whole plane that she and Lena were riding. It was a bit of a cop out that the plane was automated (wouldn’t the FAA have something to say about that?) and so Lena very conveniently had to go to the cockpit to manually land the plane, leaving Kara alone in the passenger cabin. Still made for a good bit of comedy when Lena found Kara “passed out” in the back. At the end there was also a Christopher Reeve moment when Kara was about to reveal herself to Lena but then thought better of it. We got to see her take her glasses off and transform into Supergirl purely by posture, and then put her glasses back on and transform back into Kara again by posture alone.
Speaking of cop outs, dénouement of the Ben Lockwood and the D.E.O. conflict was pretty much J’onn ex machina. Really, really convenient that J’onn returned to Earth at that very moment.
As for the Alex subplot, why would the writers choose this moment to revisit Alex’s desire to have a child. That whole interlude was just a distraction to the two main storylines. Also, I don’t particularly care that they seem to be setting up Alex with Jimmy Olsen’s sister.
I’m bingeing and now in S4, so just jumping into something that’s bothered me in this series before but is really getting on my nerves now: in general, treatment of the military has been totally absurd, but right now it’s really pissing me off that since this colonel whasername took control of DEO, suddenly Alex is “a soldier” and apparently so is Supergirl (well, not by the chapter I’m watching, right now she’s “fired”… can you be fired from voluntary cooperation? Because either they pay her in an envelope or it’s voluntary cooperation, not work and not a job). No grade given, ever, and the only prior mentions of military grades or personnel in the DEO has been back when general whasisname took over for John Jones (I know it’s not spelled like that but damn those DC character creators really needed a bit more imagination with names).
WHAT SOLDIER WHEN WHERE DAMNIT
Oh, and mucho girl power but the military male officers get to be generals and the military female officers get to be a major (who doesn’t so much as give an order to dust those bookshelves) and a colonel.
Nava: See post #43ff, where we start wondering about Col Haley, the D.E.O. and Kara’s relationship with them.
Red Dawn promo: - YouTube
SUPERGIRL BATTLES RED DAUGHTER - Kara comes face to face with Red Daughter and the two engage in an epic battle. Determined to find a way to extract the Harun-El, Lena turns to an unlikely source for help - Lillian Luthor (guest star Brenda Strong). Meanwhile, Alex realizes she’s missing parts of her memory, and Brainy, Nia and J’onn set out to track down aliens who have been abducted by Lex.
I was wondering when we’d get around to addressing Alex’s missing memories. Cool that they brought back teenage Alex and Kara. I’m a little disappointed that the issue seems to be over and done with so quickly. It would have been better and more dramatic, I think, if Alex had slowly started to regain her memories throughout the season.
So is that it for Luthor’s false flag operation? Is that it for Krasnaya Doch? If super powered Lex in a supersuit can defeat her so easily, what does that mean for Kara? And has Brainiac 5 gone full evil ancestral Brainiac?
This season has been really good. Possibly the best of this season’s Arrowverse shows.
I thought the strangest bit was when Kara pulled sunlight out of the plants, but apparently Superman has done it in The Dark Knight Returns.
Right now, Lex’s plan has a huge problem - all Supergirl has to do to reveal it is show up in public, and Lex and the President’s credibility take a huge hit. But I suspect Lex has a plan for that too.
Gutsy move on the part of Red Daughter to use Kryptonite as a weapon against Kara.
The Quest for Peace promo: - YouTube
LEX LUTHOR RETURNS - Lex Luthor (guest star Jon Cryer) descends upon Washington, DC and summons Lena and Lillian Luthor (guest star Brenda Strong) to the White House. Supergirl realizes she has one last chance to stop Lex and turns to the power of the press to help her.
The episode title has to be reference to Jon Cryer’s previous role on Superman IV.
A great finale to cap off a great season. Perhaps the only sour note was that the “power of the press” scene was overly simplistic. In this age of trolls farms and fake news, the good citizens of Earth-38 were too willing to believe the latest thing their smart phones told them, whether it be Lex’s false flag operation or Kara’s article exonerating Supergirl. Still, we’re talking about a series whose protagonist’s primary means of solving problems is to punch them into submission.
I was anticipating Brainy, having gone full BRAINIAC, would become the Big Bad for the next season, which would have been awesome. But he came back rather too quickly. Instead, it looks like Lena might be going full Luthor. I don’t know how I feel about that. Also, Miss Tessmacher! is revealed to have her own agenda. That part I like.
The Monitor appears to have big plans for Earth-38. Bringing in another Green Martian who’s after J’onn, and seemingly reviving Lex. What’s his game?
I also wish that BRAINIAC would have become the Big Bad for next season, but there’s always the chance that, possibly through the Monitor’s machinations in the Multiverse (say that three times fast) we’ll get to see a BRAINIAC from another universe.
By the way, BRAINIAC sounded like Rod Serling, which was cool.
Finally caught up. Pretty sure I don’t like the introduction of the standard trope evil shadow organization Leviathan that Miss Tessmacher was apparently working for all along (although maybe she really did fall for Lex).
Otherwise, a nice wrap up to the season, and breadcrumbs for next year.
^That was the strangest bit. It put me in mind of Avatar.