Supergirl Season 2 – Random Miscellanea, Part 1

In my end of season post (Supergirl Season 2 – Some Post-season Thoughts) I tried to be sort of coherent and concise (yes, for me 3000+ words passes for concise). A consequence of this effort is that I’m left with a lot of random snippets that didn’t survive through the final cut. Since I’m apparently not yet done talking about this season’s Supergirl, here they are. There is no deliberate order, but order might arise completely by accident. We’ll be surprised together.

The Proposal – A lot of reactors felt that Alex’s proposal was out of the blue. I disagree. I think that her near-death experience in 2×19 “Alex” not only pushed her to say the L word, but also started her thinking about maybe making it more permanent. Then heartbroken Kara tells her never to let Maggie go, and with that push, combined with always looking out for Kara’s feelings, Alex sort of had no choice but to propose.

The Proposal, II – I don’t think there is going to be a Sanvers wedding in season 3. I think there will be an engagement. There might even be a moving-in, but I think they’ll take their time with the larger marriage process. Although, Kara does seem the type to encourage all sorts of tradition on Alex.

Homecoming…ugh – My least favorite episode of the season was 2×14 “Homecoming”. Conceptually, it was fine, but the execution was rather slap-dash. Never mind the obvious rescue of Jeremiah trap, the failure of the episode is that the main cast seemed to be in some sort of mirror universe.

• There’s Alex’s medical exam. She can’t tell that her father’s right arm is cybernetic? Are you kidding?
• Why wasn’t there a scan for trackers or other agents? Kal did admonish Kara about not scanning for data cores, after all.
• J’onn didn’t do a preliminary mind scan and thus discover that he can’t be mindread?
• He’s allowed access to the DEO as if he’d only gone missing for a day instead of living with the enemy for almost 13 years?
• Why was it so hard for the characters to stick to the 12-13 year absence? Kara had just celebrated her 13th Earth-birthday. While it can be attributed to rounding convenience, it made the characters sound dumb.
• All of a sudden Mon-El is the voice of reason? Where’s the context for that? Was it from his time on Daxam? Guess we’ll never know.
• Alex let Lillian and Hank just run away? She’s supposed to be a good shot. You shoot them. (Actually, they should have been shot just as soon as she arrived with Kara — the Cadmus folk are all fugitive types.)
• By the same token, Alex, you can just shoot your dad in the leg. It’s not only kill or release.
• Yes, it’s bad that the National Alien Registry was taken, but that’s only for the US aliens who deigned to register. Surely the majority of aliens are spread around the world. Also, I don’t recall there being any penalty for not registering.

Exodus – I’m not doing an episode-by-episode list, but 2×15 “Exodus” (which is sort of “Homecoming” Part 2) had a few things that caught my attention as well.

• How high up into the atmosphere can Kara go before she can no long get enough oxygen to function? Despite the breeze that was flowing her hair and flapping her cape, from the curvature of the Earth it looked like she was pretty close to her limit.
• Does Cadmus not frisk people when they capture them for weapons or, I don’t know, remote controls that could be used to detonate mines scattered throughout their facility?
• How long did it take Alex to surreptitiously plant two independently triggered sets of mines throughout the facility without getting caught? I guess she really is that good.
• How did the spaceship get down? It’s engines were blown, and Supergirl looked a wee bit tired. (Does this mean the DEO now has a big honkin’ spaceship in storage?)

Up, up, and away – I think I’m in a minority, but I’m not a big fan of Kara constantly ripping open her blouse to reveal the “S”. It seems awkward and hard on the wardrobe.

Time to Change – As it’s already established that Kara can change outfits in essentially the blink of an eye (where/how she stores them will likely remain a mystery), why do the “S” reveal at all? Seems like she’s just asking to be outed.

Smelling Salts – Something that bugs me is how easy it seems at times to knock Supergirl out. In 2×01 “The Adventures of Supergirl”, the Maid of Might is brought down by a pretty weak-ass looking rocket (it might be a missile, but that seems unlikely for something that small*). Fast forward to 2×22 “Nevertheless, She Persisted” and she’s on the receiving end of a number of haymakers from Superman, which, considering they both “have more power than any human army on Earth”, a teeny little rocket shouldn’t have downed her.
* Generally speaking, missiles are guided on-the-fly while rockets are unguided point-and-shoot.

Little Green Rocks – How resilient is Kara to green kryptonite at this point? Is it something that you gain some tolerance for, if only in regards to short-term symptoms? It does seem that Kara’s familiarity of how it feels to suffer the effects of green kryptonite helps some — sort of like a figure skater getting used to the dizzying feeling of fast spins; they don’t get any less dizzy, it just doesn’t derail them like it does regular folks. How far does it go? How long does it take for her to recover now compared to when she was first exposed?

Sanvers Freak-out – It was recently announced that Floriana Lima was going to be a recurring, not regular, in season 3. Needless to say, many Sanvers shippers are in meltdown. Seriously? Do you realize what series regular means for the creative team? It means they have to come up with a plausible reason for the character to be in pretty much every episode (they get paid even if they don’t appear). For a supporting character like Maggie — who is actually supporting a supporting character — that doesn’t make any sense. It’s a better use of available budget (which effectively decreases pretty much every season) to not have to contort the story for a character that isn’t on the top of the hierarchy. It doesn’t necessarily mean she won’t be on as much as she was in season 2, just that when she does arrive it will be more than for one line and standing in the background.

Called It! – Guys, seriously, your “called it” is only valid if you called it either at the very start of the episode (for an end-of-episode twist) or earlier. Guessing the twist during the scene before the reveal isn’t “called it”, it’s “paying attention”.

Poor Arrowverse – When you sit back and see how over-powered (OP) Supergirl is: can lift at least 100 million tonnes from the ground into space; heat vision, x-ray vision, telescopic vision, super hearing, super speed (I’d argue she’s faster than Flash as he’s almost always the slowest of the speedsters up to this point), super durable, and super persuasive; how can they use her for any crossover plot that doesn’t involve aliens or similar? I mean, compared to the Daxamite problem, the Dominator event in the “Invasion!” crossover was laughable. Kara should have been able to handle it mostly on her own.

Hiding Iris – OK, this is more a Flash thing than a Supergirl thing, but when they were trying to protect Iris, why not hie over to Earth-38? One punch and Savitar is done — if he thought to go there at all.

Not Holding Back – Staying with “Invasion!”….I cringed when Oliver told her not to hold back. sigh Son, the only reason every single one of you is alive is because she held back a lot. I even suspect that she wasn’t completely controlled by the Dominators as, again, there’d have been a very dead validation-needing Wally if she hadn’t.

Supercorp – Getting nearly as much buzz as Sanvers has been Supercorp — the ship of Kara/Supergirl and Lena Luthor (of L Corp fame). The attraction between the characters is very obvious. Katie McGrath said that wasn’t how she was playing it, but when Melissa pointed it out to her she saw it too. A lot of reactors, after a rough patch of comments, now conspicuously disclaim that yes, they love the ship but they know it’ll never happen given that the network already allowed Sanvers and that Supergirl/Kara is the iconic lead of an American network show. That said, I think there is definitely some Supercorping from Lena’s side. She obviously has a Supergirl crush (comparable, almost, to Winn’s crush on Superman) but with Kara she seems much more platonic. It’s an interesting combo.

Aim – What the heck is with the convenient moments of Kara not being able to aim her heat vision with pin-point accuracy? She is literally aiming at what she’s looking at. She should never miss except against someone or something going at a high enough speed she can’t keep them in sight. She missed hitting both Flash and Arrow hiding still behind the presumably not lead-lined wall during “Invasion!” — but, as I said, I think she still had some smidge of control. But what about in 2×11 “The Martian Chronicles” when the Winn-martian was scurrying away? There is no way she should miss unless she once again got conveniently dazed and was having trouble focusing.

Mentor of Steel – Enough good cannot be said about Tyler Hoechin’s version of Superman. He’s everything you’d want from a Man of Steel who’s been at the superheroing for a while but still isn’t cynical about it. He’s both a teacher to Kara in the ways of the cape but also still a little boy who looks up to what his “older” cousin knows about their people. He gives and receives with equal grace and is overall more even-tempered than his cousin (or, it seems, most others raised in Rao’s light — I’m sensing a correlation).

Prêt-à-porter – How durable are super suits? Is it the material or that special Kryptonian aura? Superman’s looks well-used but not tattered. Supergirl’s looks just as good as the day Winn sewed it together with Earth fabrics.

Let’s Be Fair – I can’t help but shake my head and laugh at the commenters who complain that men and the male point of view aren’t represented enough in Supergirl. Yeah, given the comments they make when the opposing side complains about a lack of female agents and perspectives on other shows that have aired for the past six or so decades, I can’t even muster crocodile tears.

National City Contractors – The blue collar set in National City is amazing. At season start they repaired the it-almost-fell-over L Corp building literally overnight. At the end of the season, CatCo was also well on its way to being repaired not long after some portal side-effects.

Identity Conceits – I wish people would stop pointing out how “x” character doesn’t recognize another character hidden by an insubstantial disguise. Guys, pointing it out at every single instance, much less whining about it, doesn’t help. It’s one of the gimmes that goes along with this sort of show. It’s not supposed to be reality, so settle back and enjoy the ride. It’s more fun that way.

The DEO Tower – So…does the DEO own all of the skyscraper they are in or just some select floors? If it’s the whole building, just how many people do they employ and how the heck does no one know about it? Is there a fake real business so that people on the street who wander in don’t think it’s a base of operations for a clandestine paramilitary organization — maybe a large official Supergirl souvenir shop or something? Also, given the openness of Kara’s identity within the DEO, how did they find that many people able to not “happen to mention” to their significant others that they know who Supergirl is? Yes…yes…comics gimme.

National City Contractors, part zwei – I realize that Lena is a hard worker and all, but no one seemed to wonder at how quickly she built a portal capable of transporting an alien fleet with multiple ships crossing at the same time. Can we appreciate how huge that had to be and how long it took to build (or how many D-cell batteries it must take) — but Lena only missed a couple of lunch dates with Kara? Makes the LHC look like a kid’s tinker toy in comparison. [Edit: OK, so apparently L Corp already had built a large scale generator ring. I missed that line of dialog Rhea tossed off in “Alex”. My bad. – CJ]

Fortress of Everyone’s Welcome – Seems everyone gets to spend some time at the Casa de El. Nevermind that its location makes it all but impossible for non-powered beings to get there in a timely fashion (which makes you wonder how Lillian, Lena, Hank, and Mon-El made it back to National City as Supergirl never seemed to go back for them — private jet at the Fortress of Solitude Airport and Gift Shop?). But in addition to James who already knew where it was last season, the guest registry also includes: J’onn, Alex, Lena, Lillian, Hank, Mxyzptlk, Mon-El, Rhea, and I think that kid that used to deliver my newspapers in the 80s. For a secret fortress with a 100 million tonne dwarfstar El-family-specific key, a lot of folk, including enemies, seem to know where it is and how to get inside. (That doggie door for Krypto was probably a bad idea.)

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Because of the length of the original post, I’m splitting it up into two parts. You can continue by clicking on over to Supergirl Season 2 – Random Miscellanea, Part 2.