A shocking cliffhanger sends Supergirl barreling towards its final episodes
It's (hopefully) darkest before the dawn, as Supergirl prepares to say goodbye
TV Reviews Supergirl
Welp, it turns out the one way for William Dey to finally earn my respect was to use his dying breaths to dictate a petty-as-hell subject line for an email to his overstepping boss. Buckle in folks, because tonight’s episode of Supergirl is a bit of a weird one. It starts out overly talky, gets kind of goofy for a moment, and then takes a decidedly dark turn at the end. In fact, watching Lex casually stroll back into a room to shoot William to death is one of the darkest things Supergirl has ever done. And while giving the Super Friends someone to avenge drastically raises the stakes for next week’s two-part series finale, it also speaks to some of the focus issues Supergirl is having as it prepares to fly off into the sunset.
On the one hand, spending extra time with William in this episode helps makes us feel the weight of his death even more. (He stands up to Andrea about journalistic ethics! He’s sweet to Esme as he gives her baking tips from his aunt in India!) But it also eats up a lot of screentime in one of the precious few episodes we have left in a long-running series that has a lot of main characters to check in with. I wonder if Supergirl would’ve been better served by killing off William earlier in the season in order to explain why Kara sees Nyxly as a threat beyond anything she’s faced before. Instead, placing his death as the cliffhanger of the antepenultimate episode runs the risk of making William too important to the finale compared to the role he’s played on the show has a whole. (Also, weird time to throw Andrea’s morality crisis into the mix too.)
We’ll have to wait and see, as I still have no idea what kind of shape next week’s finale might take or where it will leave its heroes and villains. While last week’s episode treated Lex’s love for Nyxly as a bit of a joke, this week’s episode really tries to invest in it as a major fulcrum point for Nyxly’s arc about her fear of trusting anyone lest they betray her. Again, however, it feels like a strange use of the show’s runtime this late in the game. Though Nyxly’s been a fun antagonist for this final season, she’s not the character I really want to be spending time with in the show’s waning days.
Thankfully, in between Nyxly’s hunt for the Truth Totem and the Super Friend’s various attempts to steal her totem collection from her, “Truth Or Consequences” at least finds time for some meaty conversations between characters I actually do care about. The thorniest of these is Alex and Kara’s fight over how to raise Esme. Kara is eager to share advice based on her own experience as kid with overwhelming powers who found value in using tools to help suppress them (like her lead-lined glasses). Alex, however, recalls the years she spent suppressing her sexuality and wants to ensure her daughter doesn’t ever feel like she has to hide who she is to fit in.
It’s a fascinating debate that reflects real-world issues of parenting kids who have different experiences than your own. And I’ll be curious to see if the show returns to it or if we’re supposed to think the whole thing has been resolved by Kara apologizing to Alex for overstepping. Because—with the caveat that I’m neither a parent nor a space alien—I actually kind of think Kara is in the right here. While Alex is drawing a metaphorical connection between her experience as a lesbian and her daughter’s experience as an alien, Kara has actually lived exactly what Esme is going through. And it feels like Alex should at least be open to listening to what Kara has to say, rather than immediately shutting her down.
Maybe that’s the point the storyline is building to or maybe the issue will never be brought up again! It’s hard to say on a season that’s had uneven levels of emotional continuity—especially now that Esme has been kidnapped, which is obviously a much more pressing concern. Still, it’s nice to see the Danvers sisters get some meaningful scenes together. Their conflict also allows for a few sweet Space Dad moments too, as J’onn points out that he and Kara are both protectors, and later encourages Kara to let loose at Alex and Kelly’s bachelorette party because he’s keeping a psychic watch on the city. (Although just ask William how well that one worked out…)
For an episode with some strange loose ends, the one absolute home run is Brainy and Nia’s throughline. After checking in with Winn in the future, Brainy is devastated to learn that the Legion of Superheroes need him to return to the 31st century to merge with the “Big Brain,” thus sacrificing his current corporeal form. Brainy really doesn’t want to say goodbye to his found family—and especially to Nia. But since it’s the only way to save the Coluan race from extinction (the Big Brain was critically damaged by an AI plague), he doesn’t really have much choice in the matter, devastated as he may be.
Jesse Rath is such a fantastic comedian that I sometimes forget what a great dramatic actor he is too. And giving him meaty emotional scenes is exactly what Supergirl should be doing at this stage in the game. “Truth Or Consequences” not only lets Rath put his tragic, tear-jerking romantic leading man chops to use, it also emphasizes his range as an actor in a scene where he gets to play against himself as a second, more logical iteration of Brainy. Of course, it helps that Nicole Maines is every bit Rath’s match too. There’s a lovely bittersweet quality to the way Brainy and Nia struggle to accept the idea that even though they love each other, they have different destinies in life. (“I hate the space-time continuum,” she sighs.)
In the end, Brainy and Nia decide it’s best to try to appreciate the time they have left together rather than mourn their future parting. That’s the mindset I’m trying to take with Supergirl too, as I truly can’t believe the show is ending next week. While “Truth Or Consequences” isn’t an episode that’s easy to love in its totality, in its strongest moments, it captures a lot of the character-focused kindness I’m going to miss most about this show.
Stray observations
- I know Nyxly has inspired a certain “carpe diem” attitude in the Super Friends lately, but based on Kelly’s comment that Esme’s rose tattoo wasn’t there at bathtime yesterday, are we supposed to think they’re having their bachelorette party literally one day after getting engaged??
- Speaking of which, everyone is serving lewks at that party!! Kelly, Alex, Lena, and Nia are in a close race for best dressed, but I also loved Brainy’s suspenders and the kind of nerd chic Kara brought to the affair
- The scenes with Kara and Esme are so sweet that I wish Supergirl had thought to pair her up with an alien kid before this. That could’ve been a great season-long arc.
- The way the Super Friends just kind of casually manage to steal the Dream, Truth, and Hope totems from Nyxly at various points throughout this episode is pretty anticlimactic, but I loved the shot of Kara using her heat vision to bust out of her Anti-Kryptonite suit.
- Seriously, sending his literal death video to Andrea with the subject “Here’s your real story” is maybe the most badass way William could’ve gone out.
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Congrats to William on being the most useful he’s ever been on this show, yelling at Andrea about how awful she is and making cookies with the kid. And then he died, going out on a high.Also, this shows Powers metaphor is still shit. I get the idea behind the “not hiding your true self” metaphor but the problem is when a kid has a really destructive power that they can’t control, it’s not a matter of them being themselves, it’s a matter of making sure they have it under control. Like the foster kid from earlier with the EMP power, regardless of the kids circumstances, if he couldn’t control the power then he was a great danger to a lot of people. Being yourself solves nothing in that situation.
Yeah it’s like comparing apples that are slightly different from ‘normal’ apples with oranges that can blow up a city.
Unfortunately, this is how a lot of shows deal with “themes” now. They pick a hot topic – the plight of immigrants, gay people, trans people, or just general feminism – and find something in their story that is vaguely analogous in some way, and pretend that they’re identical, so that they can teach us the correct attitude toward the real thing by telling us that it’s the correct attitude toward the fictional thing.I would prefer it if shows were less invested in teaching the correct beliefs through tortured and inconsistent analogies, and more in teaching the correct way to reason about beliefs, by having their characters deal maturely with the complex situations they find themselves in – rather than just picking the winning analogy. Oh, Kara is an immigrant, and Esme’s situation is an analogy for immigration, so Kara wins – wait, no, Esme’s situation is really an analogy for being gay, and Alex is gay, so Alex wins! None of it is addressing the complexity of Esme’s situation in its own right, rather than as a stand-in for something else. Showrunners would probably say that failing to make it a stand-in for a hot topic is missing the opportunity to educate viewers about the topic; but I’d rather they educated viewers in relating to individuals and dealing with complex situations. Because those are skills that transfer to a wide range of topics.It’s also often counterproductive: when the analogy is obviously flawed, viewers are pushed to reject the show’s reasoning, which puts them in the position of sympathising with the ‘wrong’ side of the argument. I remember having this exact discussion about that X-men spin-off show a few years ago (at least, I assume it was that show; maybe there was another one I’m forgetting?) – when you insist that mutants are gay people (immigrants, trans people, insert minority here), and then show that stricter government control of mutants is effectively essential to public safety because one mutant having a nightmare can wipe out a whole city (or similar), then you’re encouraging viewers to on some level sympathise with arguments against the liberty of other minorities. Which isn’t what the showrunners are trying to do. And on the other hand, if you make the argument too well, then viewers can draw other analogies of their own – if you really do persuade people that mutants have a right to wield their powers without surveillance or control no matter the risks, then you’re also effectively persuading viewers not to support gun control… [more generally, these stories always seem to come down on the side of rugged-American-individualism-at-all-costs, which might be a cheap way to win the argument on certain issues, but sets you up to lose other arguments down the road…]
Exactly this. This was what broke season 4 so badly. After the ending of season 3 promised us a Supergirl version of Red Son, instead we got a ham-fisted metaphor of aliens as immigrants, delivered so poorly that until he suddenly went full-on cartoon evil for no reason and then turned out to be backed by Lex Luthor to boot, the audience had every reason to vote for the “villain” because they made it abundantly clear that he was right! Aliens with their supernatural powers were clearly and unambiguously shown to be a threat to humanity, and even when the relatively good ones such as our protagonists tried to fight the more sinister ones, they caused even greater harm to innocent civilians and seemed oblivious to it.
A story can’t be a good metaphor without first being a good story, and unfortunately Supergirl’s writers lost the ability to tell good stories waaaaay back in season 2.
I feel like a lot of Supergirl’s post season 2 writing was damaged by the Trump presidency. Which I realize is a statement that sounds kind of ridiculous, but it was after 2016 that the show really started going all in on the metaphors about immigration. And like, it’s great that the writing staff was taking a very strong anti-Trump stance, I am not a person that thinks politics has no place in superhero media… but all the ham-handedness ultimately made the show worse. Having your heart in the right place does not make clumsy metaphors and bad writing less clumsy or bad.
It started reaching after school special territory.
Yup, that was a big problem with that season (which is why it’s the last one I watched consistently). And yes, that’s how so many moral dilemmas seem to be dealt with on TV: if it’s not clear who’s right, just have one side Suddenly Become Evil For No Reason. Or rather, reveal themselves to be Evil – because if you’re wrong, you must be evil, same thing. It’s bad TV in my opinion, and I also think it’s bad for society to be hammering that message again and again – that you don’t need to worry about why They think the wrong thing or how they can be comfortable doing bad things, or what happened to them to make them end up doing bad things, because the answer is always Well They’re Just Evil Aren’t They…
In The Pale Moonlight is widely regarded as one of the greatest Star Trek episodes of all time, for its complex handling of a serious moral dilemma, measuring some very serious crimes against the pressing weight of the greater good. You have to wonder if an episode like that could ever get made today, on *any* TV show.
I’m not so sure that he was right. Even on the show it went out of their way to demonstrate that a lot of harmless aliens were being persecuted and attacked because of the actions of a few. There’s plenty of ways that can be analogous to our current society, and it doesn’t make punishing innocent people right.
I remember thinking that the arguments from the heroes would have carried more weight if there’d been even one powered human hero or even villain on the show. The DCU is full of them. The Arrowverse is full of them even. Heck, even “Supergirl” itself had a few early on, but they’d all been long forgotten.I’m glad I’m not the only one who felt like the show was actively arguing against its own supposed ethical position. The dissonance was painful.
William’s death had so little impact on me that A) I couldn’t remember what the finale referred to in the headline was, and B) it took me a moment to remember who William was once it was mentioned he was dead.Every week, I think I can’t hate this show more, and every week they come up with new bottoms to the barrel. Next Tuesday at 10:00 can’t come too soon.
I don’t think I’ll ever understand people for whom watching a show seems to be a kind of masochism but who still turn up to dump on it anyway.
I understand that sentiment, but I’ve been watching since the beginning and am so close to the end that I have to see it out, no matter how terrible it’s gotten. If there was another season (or more) left, I’d be out. I don’t dump on it with pleasure, but rather as a means of revenge.
Flash was so tough to get through. Ugh………
F you Andrea.
I wish she had remained unrepentant until she got William’s email rather than unnecessarily softening her by having a scene in which she called Lena for advice.
So much of the evil plotting on these shows is high concept to the point of goofiness, which of course we are all clamoring for because it’s fun, but then to have a villain use a gun — not a nanobot wrist thingy, but an actual recognizable weapon — to plug an innocent for basically no reason, well, as the Youths might say, it hits different. Not enough to make me give a shit about William, but you know, it was actually evil, so that’s good. Carries more weight.
Andrea still sucks but I did like her talk with Lena, just for “Am I really a monster?” “Well…….yeah, kinda.” And now she is indirectly responsible for the death of a boring but still innocent man! I was kind of hoping William would have said something like “whoa Lex, you got the wrong guy, that was my boss who has super powers that everybody forgot about”.
Kara was trying to help and made good points, Alex was being a bit of a shit with her “don’t tell me how to raise my kid who entered my life about 4 days ago” stuff. When J’onn was telling Kara to apologize, I was booing the screen.Brainy is good and Nia is good and they are good and their current predicament is good and this should have been more of a season-long thing but I guess there’s no room when we’re dealing with imps and totems and Lena being a science witch and a precocious little kid and all the other things I forgot.
It was nice of the show to remember that Lena and Andrea share a personal history, and to give Katie McGrath something to say that wasn’t tongue-twisting exposition.
“Kara was trying to help and made good points, Alex was being a bit of a shit with her “don’t tell me how to raise my kid who entered my life about 4 days ago” stuff.”Kara did make some good points. Alex got angry too quickly. I think Caroline made a good point about Williams death. It may have been better if it happened a little earlier and we had more screentime for characters who have been on the show longer in the episodes leading up to the finale.
I think it makes sense for Alex to get angry. She probably flashed back to all the years she had to spend as a kid covering up for Kara’s powers and doesn’t want her daughter to go through that. But I may be putting more thought into this than the writers did.
I was kind of hoping William would have said something like “whoa Lex, you got the wrong guy, that was my boss who has super powers that everybody forgot about”.Me too, but it’s probably a better character statement that he chose not to inflict that upon Andrea.
to have a villain use a gun — not a nanobot wrist thingy, but an actual recognizable weapon — to plug an innocent for basically no reason, well, as the Youths might say, it hits different.This. William wasn’t hit with an energy blast, sucked into another dimension or some other sci-fi death. It speaks to how well the series has written Lex that the moment he showed up in the tower, I realized William was a goner.
Kara was trying to help and made good points, Alex was being a bit of a shit with her “don’t tell me how to raise my kid who entered my life about 4 days ago” stuff. When J’onn was telling Kara to apologize, I was booing the screen.
I felt that way after she was moving heaven and earth to help Orlando and others in his situation for several episodes, and then suddenly she’s entirely oblivious, out of touch, and needs to be yelled at for not caring about Orlando and other in his situation.
One of those really frustrating moments where you fully support what they’re going for, and yet the way they’re doing it so so effing awful and clunky, in this case outright character assassinating Kara along with ignoring very recent episodes of their own dang show, that it ends up badly sabotaging the delivery of valid points that need to be made.
– Once again, the stans on Twitter were obnoxious, posting “RESPECT KARA DANVERS” in every post.- Subtlety is not this show’s strong suit, but Lena talking about the bachelorette party RIGHT after William talks about Lex building an evil army to cause mass destruction is just…. wow.- God, Andrea is such a waste of a character. Especially Post-Crisis. I legitimately would have preferred Ruby returned. – Brainy pulling a Kyle Reese couldn’t be any more telegraphed.- The fact that Alex is rejecting Kara’s advice out of hand is so in-character makes it even more infuriating.- Considering how Twitter is about SuperCorp, you can imagine how much they are loving Brainy and Dreamer being split up.- “Do you think I’m a callous, narcissistic monster?” I haven’t laughed at a line in this show this much in a long time. – Is this the first time Lena and Andrea have spoken to each other this entire season? Even though they are supposed to be good friends? And how did she contact Lena in the Super Tower so easily while not being able to find out where said Tower is? Surely someone of her stature has connections that include tracking cell signals.- The CG suits retracting looked so terrible.- I miss J’onn’s spaceship car.- Taking on a 5th Dimensional Imp and Lex, both of whom are powered up and more dangerous than ever. You’d think someone there would at least suggest contacting Kara’s cousin for assistance.- So, William was supposed to attend the party, but Brainy has been showing his green skin so much to hide his human identity, but presumably, if William had attended the party, Brainy would have still been his human skin so… what was the point again?- I feel like I haven’t praised Jon Cryer’s Lex enough the past few episodes. Fuck, he’s awesome.- OMG, the funeral we’ve seen BTS photos for were William’s and now I’m groaning. Hard. – A little surprised we didn’t get Lillian coming back at least once since Lex came back. Then again, M’gann is still MIA and I didn’t see her in the lineup during that promo.
Jon Cryer as Lex is so, so good, it’s been a few years and I still can’t believe how perfect he is as Lex.
Jon Cryer as Lex is sort of in his own league as an ArrowVerse villain. Manu Bennett as Slade Wilson and Tom Cavanagh as Thawne were also perfect but you can’t really compare them.
I loved season 1 Thawne but he did suffer diminishing returns as The Flash series kept trotting him out whenever their new villains weren’t quite working. Lex on Supergirl is consistently written at a tier above even the main characters at times, and I think he appears just sparingly enough that you’re always wanting more (he only appears in 3-4 episodes at the end of season 4 IIRC, but casts a huge shadow over the back half).
Lena and Andrea had a few video calls in the episode where Lena went to Ireland Newfoundland to research her mother.
“Considering how Twitter is about SuperCorp, you can imagine how much they are loving Brainy and Dreamer being split up.”I don’t look at the reactions on Twitter, but I thought the Twitter fans were all convinced Kara and Lena would become lovers. Why do they want Brainy and Dreamer split up? Are they all transphobes?
– Considering how Twitter is about SuperCorp, you can imagine how much they are loving Brainy and Dreamer being split up.
I haven’t seen this at all? From what I’ve seen, most of the Supercorp fans are also fans of the Brainy and Nia pairing.
Has Alex ever been wrong on this show for the last five seasons? I would love to be against Kara here but Alex is such an annoying Mary Sue it is hard to take her side on anything now
i definitely thought that scene in the beginning took a very big tonal shift
“You’d think someone there would at least suggest contacting Kara’s cousin for assistance.”If you’ve gotten this far into a show and haven’t accepted the superhero conceit that other heroes are having their own just-as-important adventures and aren’t able to stop by and solve the plot in 5 seconds, then this show (and most superhero stories) probably wasn’t for you.
“So, William was supposed to attend the party, but Brainy has been showing his green skin so much to hide his human identity, but presumably, if William had attended the party, Brainy would have still been his human skin so… what was the point again?”Brainy has been wearing his green skin when William is around. It’s reasonable that if William had attended the party Brainy would have been in green skin. Since William wasn’t there he was able to be in human skin.
Here lies William, he never learned Kara was Supergirl. I was, btw, fairly convinced Esme was going to spill the beans to William about Kara’s identity, but I guess that’s moot now! The show never quite figured out how best to use William, though baking buddy was probably the closest they got in that regard.I would love to know when the writing staff knew this was going to be the last season because I suspect between Covid and Benoist’s pregnancy they had to reshuffle a few things. And really they’re trying to fit the entire last season into the twelve or so episodes they to spend so much time with Kara in the Phantom Zone. Though, then again, that’s about as many episodes as Arrow got in its last season, and that felt much cohesive despite also having a crossover ep and a backdoor pilot thrown in for good measure. I guess where I’m going is Supergirl is shaping up to go out as it lived, a show whose writing ultimately did not live up to its ambitions.
How chaotic this season has been is probably a fitting legacy for this show, so much potential and often nearly great but also just a lot of noise and false starts too.
there are so many times watching Supergirl where something, from a small detail about how jobs or buildings work to a large plot/thematic thing like Kara’s friggin’ mom being resurrected, makes me just want to shake the screen and tell the writers to think for 2 seconds about the things they write. this show absolutely has to be the worst-written TV series I’ve stuck all the way through.
Yeah I’m honestly surprised things worked out as well as they did this year. I think COVID in some ways worked out in their favour, as the filming delay coincided with Melissa Benoist’s maternity leave. She definitely appears in enough of the early season episodes that you’d never think she was on leave for any substantial period.
My guess is they shot all the stuff in National City at the start of the season while Benoist was on maternity leave, and then had Benoist film her Phantom Zone stuff when she got back. Which is why she’s flat not in the time travel two parter. However I haven’t read anything that confirms that.
That’s exactly what happened. The show started filming last October, but Benoist only returned in January.
That time-travel two parter was so good, and young Kara was so great in it, that when I read your comment I thought you were wrong about Benoist not being in those episodes. It was like I thought Benoist had played her younger self there.
In the promo we see a return of Guardian (James) and Wynn. I wonder if they will basically use it as a last hurrah for all non-dead characters?
My jaw will hit the floor if Cat Grant shows up.
If nothing else, I hope they got her to film another TV segment cameo (is she still the President’s press secretary?)
They also mentioned that Mon El will show up (no-brainer). Based on photos taken on the set months ago, those were the only 3 confirmed.
Helen Slatter is back as well.
I won’t be impressed unless Maxwell Lord drops in for a cameo.
Hope Hope Hope they got Tyler for a quick cameo.
I was surprised that Wynn got mentioned when Brainy was talking to the 31st century and thought when the camera shifted to what Brainy was looking at we’d actually see Wynn.
I want Nicole Maines to Pretty Please post the outtakes of her saying “I hate the space/time continuum.” How does one dramatically deliver such a nutty line?“I HATE the space/time continuum.”“Dammit, I hate the space/time continuum.”“(Grumble) I hate the (grumble m-f-ing) space/time continuum.”“Brainy, just… screw the space/time continuum! Aargh!”There’s got to be dozens of ways to try it. Hey, being honest, I hate the space/time continuum too. So I can relate. I kind-of want the line on a t-shirt, though.
I’m still hoping Jessie and Nicole will be in some kind of Legion of Superheroes spin off. They are so good together.
Jesse specifically could use this show as a massive resume to land just about anywhere on Broadway. Gen Z needs a string of breakout comedies like Old School, Horrible Bosses, and Wedding Crashers to define a decade’s worth of comic talent. Put Jesse and Nichole on the cover of GQ or something (whatever the current equivalent is … the hottest 30 under 30 … or whatever).
They should join the Legends of Tomorrow.
You read my mind.
Did Merlin Girl forget her outfit?
How could Alex have spent years supressing her sexuality when it hadn’t even occurred to her that she was gay at all? Didn’t she essentially have a lightbulb moment when she figured it out during her talks with Maggie?
So…I didn’t hate William. He failed to serve much of a purpose after Crisis, but killing him off was kinda jarring. What’s worse is the “fans” who harassed the poor actor. His Instagram post was bittersweet and I don’t think he deserved the hate he got.I expect nothing less than weird CGI when it comes to Supergirl; after they moved from CBS, the budget just wasn’t there anymore. I half expected Mitch to die when his ship exploded, but I guess they figured the show still needed its lapdog.I don’t know how to feel about the Kara and Alex blowup. I guess I’m just more willing to listen to advice than most. But, I’m also an exception to damn near every rule on the book.Nia and Brainy are so adorable together. I have no idea how that’s really gonna end.
William was an unnecessary addition to an already large cast but I didn’t hate him. He was certainly more likeable than Andrea.
I love Julie Gonzalo. I really do. She’s a really good actor and – superficially on my behalf – very easy on the eyes. I really don’t like Andrea Rojas in this show. Her character is utterly unnecessary.
I agree. I’ve never liked Andrea but Julie Gonzalo is a good actress. I wish she had a better character to play.
I wish Andrea had been more relatable – when she chats with Lena you get the sense of a real character, but as a boss she’s basically Disney Channel-levels of exaggeration. There was an opportunity to add nuance, whether by highlighting her inexperience or her commitment to keeping Cat-Co running through ratings. Ironically I think her seeing William get killed due to her actions would’ve been a great setup to keep developing the character had they gone another season.
at the very least they needed to give andrea better writing in her boss role. every time she makes a threat it seems so empty.
I definitely think you need characters like William and Andrea to flesh out the world – otherwise the Superfriends are always going to be meeting one-off guest reporters/bosses where there’s no potential to build audience investment in. But both characters were clearly written to be plot specific to season 5 without any thought given to how they would progress into season 6. I don’t know if both signed a multi-year contract to retain them as series regulars, but I think it would’ve been easier to “demote” them to recurring or guest and bring them only when needed.
Mitch and Otis need to battle it out for who can be the comic relief lapdog for Lex and Nyxly. Or maybe it’s a case of each of them needing their own.
William suffered from CW Designated Love Interest syndrome where all the interesting parts of a character are sanded off in a misguided attempt to make them “likeable.” The irony being that no one likes the bland boring character they wind up with. It sucks for the actor who often gets blamed for how poorly the character is written.
Did the actor really get harassed that much? My sense was the writing for his character got a lot more criticism for the ham-handed attempt to set him up as a love interest for Kara (which they thankfully abandoned)
When the ship blew up I also thought Mitch was dead, and was surprised that J’onn didn’t try to save him, since he was had knocked out Mitch and knew he would die when he and Supergirl realized the auto-destruct was about to go off.
I also was impressed with Jesse Rath’s performance in this ep, and Nicole’s as well. Their only hope is for someone from the MCU to drop in and explain to them that BTTF is ———-. That should resolve that problem.Also a relief to see powerful characters actually exerting some power for a change. J’onn finally remembered his power level from Season One and shredded those Lexosuits like they were paper towels. (Bonus points for Mitch stammering, “Uh…can we talk this over?”) And I agree that Supergirl blasting her heat vision through her disintegrating spacesuit and temporarily trashing the villains was a welcome upgrade from when she used to get tossed around by deranged aliens in a bar. I hope we get a pumping theme music power-up for when they kick ass next week.
RIP William, a good guy, great journalist, and poor love interest. Lena should kill Lex again, but deader this time. So are Nyxley & Lex and Dreamer & Brainy both headed for tragic breakups in the series finale? That is a lot of heartbreak. Maybe M’Gann could come back & break up with J’Onn too. Or Mon-El could return and he and Kara break up one last time (actually I hope this does happen).
I hope they will address where M’Gann is in the finale.
I think we both know Mon-El is coming back from the future and will somehow “end up” with Kara after all
Yes but I am hoping not
This is soo in the bag that Supergirl is going to the 31st Century and being with her “true love” I am giving 10 to 1 odds
I agree & I am going to hate it
Are Kara and Alex ever going to find out that Lex had Jeremiah murdered or have the writers forgotten about that?
M’gann will tell them when she shows up again next season.
The show forgot about that
to put it simply, that reveal means nothing if only the audience ever knows about it
As messy a show as “Supergirl” became, I will still miss it. Glad to see a bunch of returning characters in the finale trailer; still hoping for Cat Grant to sweep into CatCo and shriek “What in the fuck have you done to my company?”Do we really buy this “Lex in love” thing? I keep expecting another long con. After all, we only have Nyxly’s word as to what the Truth Totem showed her. My hunch (and I am generally wrong about these things) is that it actually revealed that Supergirl (or maybe Mxyzptlk) is the one who cares about her.At least William had a point to him in the end, if only to serve as the rare male variant of the “Women in Refrigerators” trope. I was unaware that the actor had been harrassed. That sucks for several reasons, not the least of which is that it’s certainly no fault of his that the writers didn’t know what to do with him.
As much as I love this new façade of Lex where he is putting other’s above him, he did give this one look that lasted a second or two that totally made me doubt it all and think that it was indeed a long con.
The thing that I find fascinating with William is..they brought him on to be a new love interest like literally every other show on the CW has..and they did not even try. They went through all the trouble of writing him in, casting him and giving him screetime..and they ran like they were on fire because the stupid small “supercorp” whined. I do not know how they can be so bold in some areas and in story issues be such wimps.
I (thankfully) am blissfully unaware of the online fan community for this show, so I don’t know what their issue was. (Is it pining for a Kara/Lena pairing?) I felt like the producers made a half-hearted attempt last season to spark some romance between William and Kara, but from where I sat it was about as lifeless a relationship as the one between James and Kara. (Really, the only boyfriend Kara sparked with was Mon-El, which…well, one would hope.)
You’re better off not knowing. Yes, it is Kara/Lena pairing, and it gets to some pretty bad levels. The only thing worse is the ships where they pair the actors instead of the characters.
I mean, I sorta get it; the two actresses definitely have some chemistry. On the other hand, I think it’s okay when two TV partners/peers like each other without having them fuck.
Yes Supercorp is wanting Lena to be with Kara, and it is pretty toxic except the show seems to not want to piss them off. And they never really even tried. With love interest it rarely is like super chemistry right off the bat, you kind of have to tell the fans, “this is her new BF..get over it” and stick with it..and they never really did for any of them. On the Flash, Barry and Iris have the chemistry of a wet paper napkin, and the writers said too bad, this is his true love…and you either except it or not. Same on Arrow.
That was a brutal yet fantastic way to set us up for the finale. While I wished the writers had done more with William’s character sooner, maybe set up the ‘embedded reporter’ concept earlier in the season, I think they got him there just in time for his death to have some real impact here. I totally teared up. Andrea on the other hand…I can see what the writers were going for, but turning her into the cartoony bad boss for the sake of redeeming her just never rang true. Also William setting up the phone to record was a glaringly awkward moment – maybe something that read well in the script, but there was no way Lex wouldn’t notice him doing that. Nice to see they brought back the AI plague subplot that was the impetus to have Winn replace Brainy back in season 3 – I really wish the show had found time to do a future arc and touch on this, though I suspect Brainiac (prime) was off limits for awhile due him appearing on the Krypton series. Fingers crossed Nia and Brainy get some kind of happy ending (call the Legends! Find a time loophole!)Kara and Alex clashing over parenting was an odd bit of conflict in that it’s fairly substantial, yet also one-and-done this close to the end of the series. Felt like something that might’ve carried a few episodes.
Welp, looks like it wasn’t the right time for a bachelorette party, after all. Funny how Kara quits her job because she doesn’t have time to both be a reporter and be Supergirl, but she suddenly thinks they can all afford to go party.“Don’t tell me how to raise my kid!” Says the woman who thought it was a good idea to have her try mastering super-hearing right away. Esme doesn’t even have a constant set of powers, they change moment to moment depending on what other aliens are around her. She basically needs to be prepared to control every power in existence. OF FUCKING COURSE she needs help with that, Alex, she’s EIGHT.Why does Brainy need to leave RIGHT NOW to go back to the future? We’re talking about time travel. Can’t he just stay in our time for like 40 years and then use the time machine to arrive at whatever moment they need him, like nothing happened? Does joining with the Big Brain only work if he’s young?
I don’t think Esme is even as old as eight. She doesn’t seem older than five to me.
Haven’t they said she’s eight on the show?
I don’t recall anyone mentioning her age.
She’s going to school and participating in a baking contest. Would a 5-year-old be doing that?
Maybe not but the writers has done more illogical things than have a five year old participate in a baking contest. If she’s older than 5 0r 6 than she’s small for her age.
William gets killed by Luthor while the others are partying is why Superman and Supergirl has become irrelevant in 2021. Why would an invincible superhero with a self-appointed responsibility to protect Earth and its people have secret identities and private personal lives when the truth is they are needed 24/7 to battle villains and save people from disasters and evildoers? Superman killing Luthor once and for all would do wonders for that storyline.
They are like Santa really…
If you think that Superman should kill Lex then you really don’t understand Superman.
This show has been rough for a long time now but Jon Cryer is carrying it on his back over the finish line and I gotta give him the maddest of ups for it. If not for Lex I definitely would’ve tagged out by now.
William Dey may be the most improved character in the whole Beeboverse Post-Crisis. (Myxy is a very strong contender.) Did they always intend this change, or did the writers just seize the opportunity once they saw he wasn’t clicking with the fans? How did Lex not notice his phone?
If Lex writing love poems about destroying his enemies was supposed to make me like him less, the writers FAILED!
It’s amazing that they have similar powers yet I have opposite reactions to Acrata & The Shade appearing on my TV.
Can’t Brainy wait until after he has a long & fulfilling relationship with Dreamer before arriving at the crucial moment because time travel?
Dreamer and Brainy remains the best thing left on the show. Alex…I dunno. She probably shouldn’t have this kid, and now she’s telling off the person best-qualified to help her. I like where we seem to be headed for the finale, but lots of missed opportunities.
Well, one reason you can’t believe the show is ending next week is because the show is doing everything in its power to act like it is not ending next week.At this point, I’m staying for the ironically detached metacommentary. Kara v. Alex was rich with it. On Supergirl, who the hell do you think is going to win in a contest between an in-universe literalist (Kara, the actual alien with actual powers giving advice on raising an actual alien with actual powers, and who also was not suggesting that Esme be pushed into the ‘regular human’ closet at all) or a real-world-social-issue allegorist (Alex, who apparently missed the memo that lesbianism does not in fact cause buildings to blow up. I guess she picked one really bad day to watch FOX News instead of other programming?)That is not a hard question to answer.Shoutout to Jon Crier and the writers for continuing their inexplicable hit streak whenever Lex is involved with anything.
I bet Brainy would feel better if he sat down and contemplated the absurdity of the time travel “rules” (read: total lack thereof) that have been established in this show. “Yes, as I sit here in the past, constantly changing the future whilst simultaneously fretting about changing the future – you know, after having come back on a mission to change the future, which succeeded – I shall contact the future, but only one specific time in the future, and be told that the only way I can affect something in the future is by traveling back to it. Quite.”Maybe those aren’t tears of sadness. Maybe that’s his brain juice leaking out of his head in protest.
Don’t think too hard about Brainy’s dilemma here. Coluans presumably have a really long life span if he’s only 4 generations removed from the original Brainiac after 1000 years, he could just wait for Nia to die of old age and then return to the future right at the moment he’s needed.
It is very uneven but I will miss it when its gone. Generally I am kind of with Kara here (I mean and its the main issue with Superman and Lois that while Clark can kind of get what Jordan is going through, Kara knows exactly what he is going through) and while she may want to assimilate, she still wears the glasses even among friends, they are more a psychological tool too which is probably all Kara meant. Like get Esme a pretty necklace that alerts her to a new alien nearby so she can prepare herself.Brainy’s story is so sad, especially considering we know something more about his relatives. Nxley is a good antagonist but sometimes I feel like they locked onto this quest idea and kept tripping over themselves to not basically make them be infinity stones but then being like who cares.I am wondering if Andrea’s super useful superpower will come back into play for final redemption purposes. I feel like Kara and J’onn just figured it was reset and she never got the powers because they knew
I watched this for the first time in forever and will watch the finale. This episode incapsulates all of what Supergirl has become. Lex? Great. Weird tonal swings, ending of what was supposed to be a new romantic partner before they ever became romantic. Alex never, ever being wrong and being still the biggest Mary Sue in TV history, character first always and story is baffling in its complexity.This show will be known for its absolute bizarre lack and/or treatment of romantic partners for Kara. This is the third one they basically ended without ever even trying to get the audience on board. This show seems to listen to a small zealot group of fans, but weirdly also does not give them what they want. They might as well made Kara gay with Lena for the bizarre treatment they give romantic leads for her. James, Mon El (who she married IRL) and now Willaim..all quashed where they never even really tried. It is weird and no other arrowverse show has listened to its “fans” like this. Barry and Iris have the chemistry of a old turnip, and Felicity and Oliver were hated, and the showrunners have told their critics to suck it and these are the cannon couples and they are super in love, deal with it. This show? They have run screaming from the slightest criticism.It is a bad way to run a show and partly explains its slide into mediocrity. You are the storyteller, not shippers on twitter.
They have had all season to give us a reason for Supergirl to leave. I can’t see in two more episodes how she can “go away” without it coming out of nowhere. We can only guess why she will do it and where she will go. They should have spent a few more episodes setting up her departure as part of the current story arc.
So why can’t Brainy return to the 31st century in 50 years, after he and Nia have had a long, full life? I mean as long as he gets there it doesn’t matter when he leaves for it, right?I know they want the plot point for dramatic purposes, but I don’t know what time travel rules they are playing by. Well, they finally made me like William. Took a while, but I’ll bake with you anytime, bro.
I stopped reading the review after I saw the title. “Shocking cliffhanger”. Hah! Really?
Well it was a shocking scene for Supergirl’s standards, but poor William had the word expendable floating over his head during this whole damn season.
This season is bad. It is bad. It is like if everyone, writers, actors, directors were become really bored with the show and they didn’t invest any passion into ending it. They just waited for it to be over and move on. It is like if no one cares.
The writing is beyond stupid and character’s development (if any) is lame.
Lex is so gonna be revealed to be under the Love Totem’s effect.
William was such a pointless character lmao
Poor William, one-time love interest in waiting for Kara, retooled post-Crisis because his original iteration was really unlikeable, but the deadline hanging over the series meant that he couldn’t really get the development he needed. He ended up filling the dependable civillian reporter position, but the show had moved on so much from Kara splitting her time between being Supergirl and working for CatCo (acknowledged a few episodes ago when she quit) that he became basically redundant to the narrative. So in a last ditch effort to keep him on the show, the writers contrived to have him hang out at the Tower… maneuvering him into place for a Noble Sacrifice. I will give the show credit, though, for having Lex just shoot him and seeing it through with no last minute medial miracle saves or technobabble cures.
(Nitpicking: all William had to do was to yell “Supergirl” and Kara could have been there in a flash. Either he didn’t know that she had super-hearing, or forgot, but that’s been such a recurring plot device over on Superman & Lois that I’m surprised that it was so conveniently forgotten about here.)