Supergirl Season 4 – Some thoughts following episode 15

Supergirl season 4, episode 15, “O Brother, Where Art Thou?” Presented us with a number of topics that I want to talk about and don’t think I can pare it down enough for comment sections of YouTube videos. So, here we go….

Lex

This is the anticipated-by-many “Lex” episode. So many reactors, reviewers, and others of this show have been champing at the bit not only since Lex’s appearance was announced, but since the start of season 2 when Lena Luthor made her first appearance. I have not been one of those bit-champers.

First, I was never that big of a fan of Lex Luthor. He populated my “Silver Age” Superman comics like nobody’s business. I found him a particularly tiresome antagonist. A little too “Johnny One-note” at the time with his single-minded, all-consuming drive to down the Man of Steel — with occasional detours to woo Lois Lane. I don’t know if books from the more recent decades have made him more complex, but he just wasn’t the villain I was wanting.

Then you add to this by having a Superman villain being inserted into Supergirl. It’s a little insulting on the surface and is enough for me to resist Lex’s appearance. That said, if we’re honest, Supergirl doesn’t exactly have a scintillating rogue’s gallery — neither with depth or fame. The few that are interesting have pretty much already been used on the show. It’s no surprise that Lex Luthor was going to make an appearance.

It was done pretty well. I wasn’t worried about Jon Cryer playing the part as many were — he has the chops. I was more concerned about the story. I needn’t have been. The writers have recently shown an understanding of where they are taking the story that wasn’t quite fully formed in the front half of the season. In this episode, the threads that had been recently set up in the loom were now being woven into a fine fabric.

Lex allows the writers to pull Lena back into the light from her dalliance with playing god. Lex even tells her that, unlike the other darker Luthors, it’s in her nature. This is a bit of self-awareness that the show hasn’t done enough of and which helps to conspicuously elevate this episode. Development via character as opposed to development via plot devices is almost always the stronger hand to bet on.

While I wasn’t expecting the twist with Eve Teschmacher being a Lex loyalist, it was honestly almost a relief. Going back on film to Chris Reeves’ era, Lex was faithfully served by not-the-sharpest-bowling-ball-in-the-toolbox Otis and smarter-than-she-lets-on Miss Teschmacher. That they are reunited here seems right and proper. Even so, I feel some melancholy that this might be the beginning of the end of Eve as a fixture in the show. Perhaps, assuming Lex is defeated, she will still be out and about.

Manchester

This brings us to dearly departed Manchester Black. I can’t say that I’m going to miss him, but I will still miss him more than Lockwood when he eventually goes away.

Manchester was not a particularly interesting character. Again, like my feelings for comic book Lex, he was way too Johnny One-note. Turns out that he was just a plot device — a dick character meant to incite J’onn from his blandness.

While I don’t advocate plot devices for this purpose, J’onn has needed a character infusion for a while. It’s fine to have a hero who doesn’t kill — here it’s Supergirl — but if you have too many of them, you start having to unnecessarily jump through too many story hoops to justify how the mega-violence is constantly A-Teamed (old action TV show where the team would fire hundreds of bullets and set off multiple explosions and yet none of their targets died).

Alex

In a similar vein, I’m starting to really enjoy Alex’s mindwipe of Kara’s Supergirl duality. This forces Kara to have to act like secret-identitied heroes of old who had to excuse their way from normality in order to attend their more super-ific duties. While the writers on Arrow breathed a sigh of relief as they informed their lead’s circles of friends and family as to their alter-egos, as this permeated the Arrowverse, the full disclosure took away some of the necessary mystery of the narrative.

In recent seasons, Lena Luthor has been the island of nondisclosure — with the incumbent whining of many as to how could she not know when everyone else does. Well…now she’s not the only one. There’s Alex. And the jury’s still out on Kelly Olsen. This group enrichens the superhero experience not by some arbitrary inability to see past a pair of eyeglasses, but by serving as surrogates for everyone else. It also frustrates the heros, as it did Kara here, as family wants them “here” when the hero desperately needs to go “there” and can’t say why. Too many don’t understand how golden this is for the storytelling.

You don’t often get to unring a bell, but they definitely found a way with Alex. I’m hoping it sticks for at least a while longer, but I don’t see how it can last beyond the next mini-crossover.

Wrapping it Up

I very much enjoyed this episode for all of the little gifts it gave us. Even though I’m not a Lex fan, his is the first truly menacing villain since Reign whooped-ass on Supergirl in S3E9 (it sort of fell apart after that). This is helped by Cryer being the best Lex in a while — Eisenberg’s is best not talked about, and Rosenbaum’s suffered from just too many seasons on Smallville.

I don’t yet having any yea-or-nay feelings about Kelly. Nothing about her character really stood out one way or the other.

I’m looking forward to Lena maybe becoming a more overt ally with Supergirl. It’s time for a rapprochement between the two following the kryptonite reveals of last season.

I did like that the flashback was four years before. This allowed it to jibe with Kara’s belated congratulations at the start of season 2 to Kal for having finally captured Lex. That Kal is conveniently off-world makes this new confrontation much cleaner — no knee-jerk “Where is Superman?” wails.

I’m interested to see how this all plays out. I feel confident that the showrunners have a plan in place and aren’t winging important parts of it. That, for me, is incredibly important. That they are also doing some live resets of some of the characters to add some interest is also a welcome recognition that the show has always had more potential than the writers room had been willing to commit to.

Lex gives this season the more interleaved structure that I think is crucial for good superhero shows. It can’t just be about one big bad for sixteen filmed hours, and it can’t be about a surprise big bad with only tenuous ties to the story inserted for the last four hours. You need more (2-to-4) and shorter arcs that can have some organic continuity if the story asks for it. It takes some of the pressure off of a story that isn’t working with the audience since a new one is around the corner, and it allows the show and the characters to show more of their facets in the best available light.

So…yay for Lex showing up.