Squeeing Over Supergirl: Episode Five

David McDonald and Tehani Wessely have been squeeing about the new Supergirl television show for months, so they decided to take time each week to discuss the new episodes as they air. They may occasionally rope in their friends to get excited too.

Supergirl – Episode 5, “Livewire”

TEHANI: Well, I’m just going to say it: this episode had my least favourite dialogue of the season so far. Some of it was downright clunky, and a lot of it was disjointed and awfully juvenile. I mean really, would Supergirl say … “You MEAN girl!” in the middle of a battle? It was just a bit naff, and I kind of expect better. And the “coming out” innuendos were cute, but just a touch overdone.

DAVID: I really didn’t know how take those, as nice to see that TV has moved to a point where those references are just part of everyday culture rather than being used as insults, or whether it is appropriating the real experiences of people and using it in a way that cheapens it. I don’t think I am qualified to make that call, but I would be interested to hear from people for whom it has a personal meaning.

TEHANI: I also had some concerns about the mother/daughter dynamics portrayed here. I mean, Kara doesn’t even call Eliza “Mum” (or Mom, whatever…), but Eliza does and apparently consistently has put Kara above Alex. And the kind of non-resolution at the end was very wishy washy. I get what they were aiming for, but it fell a bit flat.

DAVID: I thought that was really weird, and actually kind of toxic! When Winn calls Eliza Kara’s mom, and Kara very clearly and very firmly corrects him with “foster-mom” I saw that as a bit of a warning sign that the relationship had a weird dynamic—even if Kara doesn’t call her mom, you would think in that context she wouldn’t have been so quick to correct it.

I am also not sure that one Thanksgiving mother/daughter chat is going to make up for decades of psychological trauma on Alex’s behalf. Those sort of things just don’t go away, and it isn’t as if she is all of a sudden not going feel undervalued or under extreme pressure from her mother’s expectations.

Eliza just didn’t come across as a very nice person, or a particularly good mother. I know that’s harsh, but we only go by what we see. Now, that’s an interesting story choice, because the Kents are held up as the gold standard of parenting (and even their relationship with Supergirl is traditionally much better than the one with Eliza shown here). It’s fascinating to see a Supergirl whose family life is a bit more…dysfunctional.

TEHANI: It will definitely be interesting to see if we get more of this. I’m going to make a prediction here – I reckon Alex’s dad, Jeremiah Danvers, isn’t really dead…

I was completely unsurprised to discover (thank you Wikipedia) that this episode was originally slated to air as episode five, with another episode (“How Does She Do It” – scheduled now for next week) supposed to run prior. The sudden jump in James and Lucy’s relationship didn’t make sense, and Cat Grant has mellowed somewhat, rather abruptly it seemed. Sort of feels like something else has gone down with Winn and Kara too. A couple of times while watching I wondered if I’d missed something!

DAVID: I’d already heard that they had changed it but, yes, there are some bits that seemed to have jumped well ahead. I’ll be interested to see the one that was meant to show.

The James and Lucy thing is a bit odd, too, he is so obviously into Kara that I feel bad for Lucy.

TEHANI: I think we really missed something in the network switching the air dates – hopefully that will be a bit clearer after this next week.

Despite my reservations about the dialogue, there was a lot I liked about the episode. I think it started really strongly, and I continue to adore the relationship between Kara and Alex. It was also lovely to see Helen Slater and Dean Cain getting airtime, although I really hope we don’t fall into the flashback trap that can become a bit tedious in Arrow. And this is a show about Supergirl, so keeping the focus on her is important.

DAVID: That’s very true, but the twist with the history with Henshaw has made things very interesting, and made the flashbacks worthwhile all by itself. I can’t wait to see where that goes, because it has major ramifications not just for Kara, but for Alex.

TEHANI: I particularly liked Cat Grant’s shot at Leslie Willis regarding attacking Supergirl about her body and that sort of thing. It was a bit undermined by the idea that Cat was only defending Supergirl because she was trying to build a relationship with her to exploit, but I think that’s a bit of a front. It certainly follows on from other points like this that have been made previously, and is echoed when Cat decided not to publish awful photos of young celebrities the day after Thanksgiving.

DAVID: I think it is good that Cat made a stand on that sort of toxic commentary, but it is weakened by the fact she didn’t do it until it was affecting her plans for Supergirl and her magazine. I am sure that Leslie did the same to other celebrities, so why was Cat only reining her in now. Leslie was quite justified in calling her on her double standards.

But, maybe the photo thing did show that she has had an epiphany?

TEHANI: I wonder if the next episode (which should have come before this) will mean we see this differently? Perhaps there was another lead up event. We’ll have to see!

Look, I know that Marvel and DC riff (rip?) off each other a lot, but seriously, Livewire? Last week a cut-rate Iron Man, this week, a genderbent Electro, for goodness sake!

DAVID: In fairness, Livewire is a very established DC character (who is also a very fun character), so I am not sure who was first. However, I had never heard of Reactron before and, given Iron Man’s current profile, I think they made a mistake there by not distinguishing the two enough. But, I doubt too many people would be comparing Livewire and Electro in the same way.