Supergirl sings (literally) with the return of Mister Mxyzptlk
Thomas Lennon brings a welcome dose of comedy as the infamous fifth dimensional imp
TV Reviews Supergirl
Covens, covers, and cat jokes? Supergirl was
speaking my language this week! This show can be so self-serious in its
earnestness that it sometimes loses sight of just how charming it can be when
it leans into its more comedic impulses. And nothing brings out Supergirl’s
comedy side like Mister Mxyzptlk, the goofy fifth dimensional imp we last saw in
the show’s 100th episode, where he returned played by Thomas Lennon
rather than Peter Gadiot. Like a lot of late-season Supergirl episodes, “Mxy
In The Middle” suffers from a stultifying amount of exposition and a bafflingly rushed
climax that’s genuinely hard to follow. But when everything else is so fun, it’s easier to forgive those flaws.
How can you not be delighted by an episode that features Kara using her heat
vision as a giant laser pointer to distract a magical two-story cat?
The same goes for Mxy doling out Princess’ Nyxlygsptlnz’s
backstory via a performance of “I Will Survive.” As with the goofy “eat your vegetables” PSA from last week,
it’s a scene that allows Supergirl to poke fun at its weaker
storytelling impulses. And it’s true that it’s easier to swallow all the cosmic exposition when it’s doled out in comedy. As Mxy reveals through his less-than-dulcet tones, Nyxly’s problems started when she and her brother teamed
up to overthrow their tyrannical father, Wicked King Brpxz. When their
rebellion failed, Nyxly’s brother was welcomed back as a golden boy while she
was banished to the Phantom Zone. (“Because, hey, patriarchy,” Mxy sings.)
Now her goal is to find the seven totems that make up the AllStone—a device
that gives its user mastery over literally everything in the universe. And to
do so, she needs to trap Mxy in her crystal because he’s the last descendant of
the evil imp Jyrryd who created the AllStone in the first place.
Got it? Not really? Well too bad because Supergirl is
already moving onto its episode-specific technobabble!
The Super Friends quickly decide to use Dr. Raab’s device, a magical amulet,
and some DEO power-dampening cuffs to de-power Nyxly without having to force her back to the Phantom
Zone—a punishment Kara deems too cruel for an imp who’s at least justified in
her anger, if not her methods. All that long- and short-term exposition is a lot to take in, particularly in an
episode that also features a whole separate backstory-filled side quest for Lena
and the somewhat confusing return of Mitch the menagerie criminal. But, again,
a little self-aware comedy goes a long way towards encouraging the audience to
handwave away the details and just go with the flow.
And the flow is pretty damn fun. As in the 100th episode, Lennon’s comedic energy is a perfect fit for Mxy—a character so goofy
that even the silliest of the Super Friends looks like a straightman compared
to him. (I love that Brainy has absolutely no time for his antics.) Lennon knows just how to play the “I Will Survive” number so that it’s silly and self-aware without being actually cringe-y, something that’s helped by the team’s hilariously blasé reactions. And Supergirl gets a good amount of comedic
mileage out of Mxy being forced to contend with just how few practical skills he has since he can’t use his powers without Nyxly being able to track him.
Emotionally,
however, the heart of this week’s Super Friend’s story belongs to Nia, who’s really
feeling the weight of her guilt about helping Nyxly escape the dream realm. It’s
not totally unfamiliar territory for the insecure young hero, but I like that Supergirl doesn’t forget how much Nia has grown too. For one thing, she opens up to Brainy as
soon as he reminds her that they promised not to keep secrets from one another.
The duo get an incredibly sweet scene where Brainy reassures her that he knows
exactly what it feels like to be manipulated by a villain, given everything he
went through with Lex last season. And though it takes Nia a little bit to
build up the courage to confess to Kara, her recent tough love tutorial from her mom does seem to have helped her gain new confidence in her abilities. She’s no longer frightened by her dream powers, she’s
eager to use them.
And speaking
of powerful women: It turns out Lena is a witch! It’s a development that’s both
utterly random and utterly delightful, and definitely not where I thought the “Lena
learns about her biological mom” storyline was going. Lena takes a trip to the heavily
accented town of Fortune Bay in Newfoundland, Canada, where she seems to uncover
some dark secrets about her mom’s murderous past. It’s almost enough to destroy her newfound sense of peace and optimism. But, like Nia, Lena has evolved quite
a bit since last season. Rather than shut herself off, she takes Andrea’s
advice that she should dig deeper to learn the real truth.
And
the real truth is that Lena’s mother was part of a coven. When the
trio of nature-loving Newfoundland witches teamed up to threaten one of their abusive husbands,
they accidentally killed him instead. (It’s all very Practical Magic.) With their magical covers blown, Elizabeth Walsh fled
to the States to shack up with Lionel Luthor and give birth to Lena; Margaret Bishop stayed in Fortune Bay
where she raised a daughter who now hates all Walshes; and Florence Abbott ran
off to live in a witchy cave, which is where Lena finds her in the present. Thus Lena, woman
of science, learns that she’s also a woman of magic. And while, again, it’s all a bit random, I’m never going to be mad about a TV show putting witches front and
center.
Though
“Mxy In The Middle” doesn’t make the parallel explicit yet, it seems clear that Supergirl is setting up Lena and Nyxly as magical foils for one another, much the same way
this episode draws a parallel between Nia and Kara as heroes with a guilt complex.
It’s a welcome reminder of how deep Supergirl’s bench of complex female
characters is. And while this episode’s climax doesn’t weave everything
together as well as it could (the talk about privilege was pretty clunky and it took me two viewings to see Mxy put the cuff on Nyxly as he got
sucked into her crystal ball), on the whole “Mxy In The Middle” offers some welcome
reassurance that Supergirl still has gas in its tank in this final season. It’s a fun subversion to see one of Kara’s big empathetic speeches fail for once. And it’s an even better twist that it’s Kara’s words that inspire
Nia to give the team the rallying speech they need to get back up and keep fighting.
Stray observations
- Supergirl’s promos return just in time to tease an
episode that was co-written by Kelly herself, Azie Tesfai, and features a
crossover appearance from David Ramsey’s John Diggle! - So about those totems: They represent truth, destiny, love,
dreams, hope, humanity, and courage, and they’re scattered across the known universes
where they can be disguised as literally anything. It definitely made me think of the
Paragons from Crisis On Infinite Earths, especially because those sure seem like qualities
our seven Super Friends each embody. - Here’s yet another plea that The CW continue to use Nicole Maines and Jesse Rath in the Arrowverse after Supergirl ends. They’re so, so great together!!
- I like the way this episode uses Andrea as Lena’s friend
rather than Kara’s boss. - It feels like we’ve been really light on J’onn stories in
this back half of the season. Surely it would’ve made more sense for him to be
the one to shapeshift into the Mxy
decoy? - I love that Nyxly’s
commitment to evil is symbolized by her slightly more glam look.
53 Comments
Lennon knows just how to play the “I Will Survive” number so that it’s silly and self-aware without being actually cringe-y, something that’s helped by the team’s hilariously blasé reactions. I loved it so much. Some Legends-quality WTFN right there.-They borrowed the Morrigan from Lost Girl! And she’s big mad about Lena’s bio-mom!-Newfoundland? Are they retconning the Irish retcon?!?! At least this is petty stupid writing instead of important stupid writing. -The phone acting in the Lena-Andrea conversation is dreadful.-The witch lady used a parallel lines analogy correctly and my inner math dork is happy. And speaking of powerful women: It turns out Lena is a witch! It’s a development that’s both utterly random and utterly delightful, and definitely not where I thought the “Lena learns about her biological mom” storyline was going. Sooooooo Witchcraft!Lena is gonna study for two minutes and solve the Nyxly problem? This feels like it would have been a *great* arc to start like two years ago. Surely it would’ve made more sense for him to be the one to shapeshift into the Mxy decoy?Wouldn’t that risk J’onn getting locked in the crystal?
I wish this whole show could get locked in a crystal. It’s incapable of doing anything well. The dialogue is ham-handed and resembles nothing any human has ever said in history. (It doesn’t help when it’s delivered by terrible actors.) The villains are less threatening than they are annoying. Most of the characters are incredibly stupid and learn nothing from their experiences.
Is Alex’s Kathy Kinney-levels of eye makeup supposed to keep people from recognizing her? (Same with Nia.) I guess it’s like we’re not supposed to notice how awful McGrath’s “American” accent is.I’m still watching because I’m in this deep, but it can’t end too soon for me.
A magic Lena. That is so great. It would be nice if DC pursued that idea but considering how much they’ve screwed up Supergirl I doubt they would do something so intelligent.It was nice seeing Emmanuelle Vauger however briefly.
I have to say, it’s really great to see Mxy back just because in this Covid season I’d expect them to half-ass an explanation for why he’s not involved in a fifth dimension story.
Good grief almighty, what a bunch of cobbled-together nonsense.
Missed last week’s episode, and somehow I simultaneously feel like I’ve missed nothing and everything at the same time.I really wished they had used something other than “totems” as it reminds me too much of the Legends’ totems from season 3, but most of the iconic McGuffin objects (stones! boxes! rings!) have probably been used by this point.Anyone remember that season of Smallville where Lana’s ancestor was a witch? This reminded me of that. It just feels so utterly…random. I guess it’s the final season and the show can do whatever it wants with Lena and give her powers, it’s just feels like such a weird tangent to go on when the character’s been pretty consistent since season 2.I can appreciate how even when the characters make idiotic decisions, unlike The Flash everyone is pretty understanding and forgiving instead of accusatory. That saves what has otherwise been fairly bad writing with both Nia and Supergirl not sharing anything on their encounters with Nyxly.I like the way this episode uses Andrea as Lena’s friend rather than Kara’s boss.This stood out to me as well. It’s a nice contrast to how Andrea treats the working staff and rounds out a relatively flat character.
Alright, the laser eye thing with the cat was actually funny. Well done Supergirl.I thought Lena was heading to Ireland. Why was she in Canada? Also this magic plot, much like Kelly becoming Guardian, feels like something way too late to introduce into the game. Nice to see Emmanuelle Vaugier again though.
At least there was no Guardian this week.
originally the episode description said her birth place was ireland but a few of us think that newfoundland was just easier for them considering where they film the show even though it makes a lot less sense. i completely agree that both these plots are being introduced way too late.
Weird that Lena is now having her version of Siobhan/ Silver Banshee’s story from s1, inheriting her Irish family’s witchy powers. Maybe they changed the backstory to Newfoundland to make it less obviously the same
they haven’t thought about season one in a while. i doubt they made the country different just because it might have been a slight comparison to another character’s story in season one
I’m just glad any time a series doesn’t do the whole Magical Ireland thing – even if Newfoundland is the next nearest thing.[IRL, did Ireland ever even have a witchcraft tradition?]
If by witchcraft tradition you mean did they murder innocent women for it, then yes, like most places they did.If you mean were there real witches, well my legendary ancestress Cliodhna would probably disagree, but I lean toward no. https://www.ireland-information.com/irish-mythology/cliodhna-irish-legend.html
That’s so stupid. They could have just made a fake sign that said Ireland.
I need to re-watch this, I totally missed one of the guests was Emmanuelle Vaugier.
To be fair, she didn’t really do anything.
I liked the episode but I still don’t get how Lena’s mother was with Lionel so he would control her or watch over her. That just seems really weird. Like Lex’s version of her being a mistress makes more sense than a witch goes to be with a controlling man after just trying to stop another controlling abusive man.
Yeah, ‘I just killed a controlling abusing man, and so not to do it again I’m going to put myself under the control of a controlling hopefully less actually abusive man’ is a thing to put it lightly.
Pretty good episode but for the final season they have like two storylines that don’t seem to be a good idea in the final season like the New guardian and the Lena witch one. Also is Lex coming back or not because I could see him being used on Superman and Lois?
Lennon sang that whole scene on set too, no dubbing (was it one take!?) … and with a steady-cam guy doing circles around him. That would be a fun “making-of” outtake to see.
I did not have Supergirl doing an episode of Nancy Drew on my bingo card for this season. That being said, Lena’s a witch, okay, sure, fine, whatever, it’s still better than how she got treated in the Superwoman comic book.Heat vision as cat distracting laser beam is one of the best gags the show’s ever done.
I flat-out thought the Totems and the Paragons were the same thing. My bad.
I get that Lena is a scientist, but come on! Dream energy is no problem, but magic is where you draw the line, girl.
That is like the vampires on What we do in the Shadows not believing in ghosts
“I like the way this episode uses Andrea as Lena’s friend rather than Kara’s boss.”This times infinity. It was nice to see Andrea be an actual human being for once.
i just can’t take andrea seriously as their boss. she’s always threatening some punishment you just know means absolutely nothing
I was absolutely not expecting to see any of the Arrowverse shows to pop over to Newfoundland, I kinda love that.Won’t be able to watch the episode till this evening, but I’m looking forward to seeing how true to life the accents and setting will be.
This may be an unpopular opinion but I find making Lena, the scientific genius character, a witch halfway through the final season to be random and stupid. It feels like a contrived reason to make her more important to defeating Nyxly. Alex and J’onn show no signs of getting any real arc or story this season and lately Alex’s role on the field is to try something that doesn’t work before others do something that does. It’s the final season and two remaining supporting characters from Season 1 are not a priority for the writers. Though I would prefer no story over one as out of nowhere as Lena’s.Despite my ranting I actually thought this episode was better than the last one. Thomas Lennon is great as Mxy and I hope this isn’t his last appearance. He pulled off that musical number. Kara using her heat vision to distract the giant cat made me laugh. Nyxly is also a decent villain so far.
I think that’s the problem I have with the Lena arc, too. We had a strong, interesting character not reliant on superpowers, and magic might have been interesting as a one-off in the middle years, but seems like such a weird way to cap off the character.
This half of the season has quickly become something akin to The Return of Jafar, with Nyxly as Jafar and Mitch as Abis Mal. And if imps can’t kill anyone… Well, you’d be surprised by what you can live through.
My favorite bit (although the laser-distracted cat is a very close second) is where Nia realizes that she has to confess to Kara. Even though Nia dreads the anticipated “nice job breaking it, hero” speech, she has learned from her mother that you have to admit what you did and deal with it. And of course, as Brainy told Nia earlier, Kara would not (and did not) react that way. Nicole does a superb job communicating all of that just before she walks over to Kara to confess. Also had to love Supergirl’s optimism as the all-loving hero that she can talk down a super-villain who has been fuming over betrayal literally for centuries. Nyxly does ponder for a few moments, but it wasn’t particularly suspenseful.
Hey look, Katie McGrath’s a witch again. (You guys in the US, I don’t know if Merlin’s available over there, but I urge you to seek it out…)
It was an NBC event here! Now it’s on Netflix.
She was on Merlin? The show that had John Hurt voice a talking dragon? How did I forget that?!
I loved Alex when confronted with the giant kitty immediately converting her Martian weapon into a bazooka. But Alex does not f*** around
I watched this because it is a Mxy episode and I really like when they do comedy. The Mxy parts again succeeded. The cat laser pointer was hilarious. But they just have way too much going on, too many characters and too many plots to service. You have a great comedy guest star, they really should devote the entire episode to that person, with maybe a “B” story that ties into something about the theme of the episode. That is one of the reasons I stopped following it, the show is great at times, but just cannot get out of its own way.
Too many plots and characters seems to be a common Arrowverse problem. Even before they added William and Andrea I thought the cast was getting a little big.
It is and they have not learned from it at all. Except Stargirl and the new Superman, who is made with HBO Max. The rest have not learned at all and keep making the same mistakes over and over. If this was just a Mxy/Supergirl episode, this would be an A plus series highlight but the few funny moments are just overtaken by the mediocre rest.
Yeah, I know J’onn, Alex and Brainy contributed to the episode, but I’d be hard-pressed to recall what, a day after…I tend to think the problem stems from a conflict between plot necessity versus production reality. You don’t need every character all the time, but they’re needed just enough and need to be given something substantial to do or you risk losing them to another show. Also, casts just tend to grow as a series progresses – I’m sure by season 3 or 4, Superman & Lois will have a bunch of additional side characters running around as well.
True, but losing characters is not a bad thing. That is what the old arrowverse never learns. More characters give you more options, but it just tends to make everything mediocre. Half of the cast could have been “Winn”-ed out ages ago. I think it never occurred to them that they can just have co-stars for a couple seasons then bring in new blood. Instead these shows hold on to everyone way past when they should
This was fine, but meh. Next week though, based on the previews…no thank you. It’s introducing new Guardian and my god it’s so heavy-handed I can’t even describe it.
It’s weird to me that Kelly becoming a superhero was given more development and promotion than Alex becoming a superhero. Kelly was a minor character until this arc.
It can’t be tha-*watches trailer*…oh for fuck’s sake…
Speaking of self-aware, the creative team had to know what they were doing when they made the flashback/vision quest sequence look like a Loreena McKennitt video:
Much as I loved the laser pointer moment, like everyone else, there is one glaring issue with this episode and story arc. They have introduced magic totems and I can guarantee you 100% that neither Mxy nor Nyxly will do anything with them as weird or hilarious as creating a giant Beebo. When your fifth dimensional imps can’t out WTFN the Legends, you have problems.
Why does Lena need to be a witch? Why does Kelly need to be Guardian? Why does the imp history lesson sound like something the Cybernetic Ghost of Christmas Past from the Future would come up with? I should have gotten a snack!But then Kara distracts me with a super laser pointer for Cat Grand and all is well again.(But seriously, why are we doing the witch & the Guardian things?)
they are doing witch lena and guardian kelly because somehow they are under the impression that these characters can’t contribute without eventually becoming superheroes
Yeah, and it’s just so contrary to everything. They basically turned Brainy (and Alex somehow?) into the science resource, which is the thing Lena should be doing. Again, if you have Lena and Alex, why is Alex doing science for you? Lena is a super genius at it! Instead, she’s on a path toward an Irish-Canadian spinoff of Charmed?
But Kelly being Guardian is so much worse because time and again, this show has told us that ordinary people doing good and helping each other are the real heroes. Kelly is the shining example of that, and if they had built her out as their civilian hero then her character would have been much more interesting. But instead she’s jumped from James’s sister to Andrea’s employee to Alex’s partner to superhero. They’ve never given her a well-defined persona outside of other people.
Why does everyone in Newfoundland have an Irish accent?
Ok so wow, the Newfoundland stuff. On the one hand it’s not a super-retcon regarding Lena’s Irish heritage, Newfoundland has a lot of Irish decendents (hell there’s even a band with that exact name) but the framing definitely feels weird.There’s no town called Fortune Bay, that I’m aware of, but there IS an actual bay with that name. Some of the panning shots were good and felt right for the province, but I the bar/restaurant setting felt wrong, no town with a population of around 800 is keeping up a business like that.Also, witchcraft is not really a thing in our folklore, at least not of the Salem variety that the show seemed to be leaning into. If they had gone with something more like the Fae folk it may have felt a bit more authentic. But the accents. My god. It’s true the province has a wide range of dialects but most of the people in this town didn’t even sound like they shared the same one. Really makes it feel like this was a last minute setting decision, even if that’s not actually the case.And I think I pulled something cringing at Andrea when she said ‘Newfinlind’. That was old in the 90s, American media! How is that pronunciation still a thing?!Rest of the episode was OK I guess.
I know there are only like 10 episodes left anyway, but between the contrived “Kelly becomes Guardian” story (can’t this show think of ANYTHING ELSE to do with the Olsen family?) and the implication that Lena might become a witch, this show is really doing its damnedest to make me quit early.
I’m happy any week we don’t get to see Kelly. The show has been bending over backwards to tell us how wonderful she is, but I’d really like to have come to that conclusion myself.Disappointed that J’onn isn’t J’onn so much as “helpful guy with powers”. While it’s Supergirl’s show and she should rightly be the one who speaks in inspirational tones, I feel I should expect some of that from J’onn sometimes too. If not inspirational, then at least reminding people of what the right thing is.I feel like the show doesn’t really know what it wants to say any more. Maybe the show’s gonna rally, I’d sure like to see that. Maybe Supergirl’s efforts to reach Nyxly’s better side won’t be for naught after all.
Brainy reassures her that he knows exactly what it feels like to be manipulated by a villain, given everything he went through with Lex last season.I don’t remember that happening, but I forget a lot of what happens in these shows after watching them, because UUUUUUGGGGGHHHHHH there’s so much to catch up on! If Lex didn’t needle Brainiac-5 with comparisons to his more infamous, villainous forebear, BRAINIAC-1, he should have. It just feels very “Lex”, doesn’t it?
Yikes.