Tuesday, February 23, 2016

Supergirl Season 1 Episode 14 "Truth, Justice, and the American Way" Review and *SPOILERS*


Throwing Ethics Out the Window?

Director: Lexi Alexander
Writers: Story by 
Micheal Grassi, 
Teleplay by Yahlin Chang and Caitlin Parrish
First Aired: February 22, 2016

*Non Spoilers and Score At The Bottom*

Wow, it feels like it's been forever since I watched our Girl of Steel fly on our TVs...or two weeks...yeah, two weeks. The show has had it's ups and downs, but in comparison of what I originally said about the first trailer, it has been soaring quite high. Last time, we had Kara deal with the infamous Black Mercy, break free of it's control, lost her hand at the hands of her sister(but J'onn took the heat), and with this death brings the Wrath of Non. Before we get there though, a serial killer has arrived in the city...and his targets...aliens?! What happened while we were gone?! Let's find out...
We open the episode with Kara being invited to Astra’s funeral by Non. It’s a nice send off to the character...and serves the perfect warning for Kara as Non tells her that in two weeks, he will attack after he leads Astra to Rao for the time of mourning. CUE THE TRAINING MONTAGE!
Kidding… But god that would have been amazing. The morning after that we see the “annoying cat grant plot-of-the-day” rear her attractive head in the form of Siobhan Smythe, or Silver Banshee for all you comic fans out there, who has been brought on to be a second assistant for Cat Grant. The first orders Cat gives her? Tell James and Lucy to look into the disappearance of Maxwell Lord(who is still being held without due process by the DEO).


J'onn calls Alex into the DEO to discuss an alien that had escaped their custody...only to get interrupted later by a grumpy Supergirl, who believes J'onn killed Astra, not Alex… It makes sense why Supergirl would be mad at the death of her last remaining relatives...but this relative just so happened to be ONE OF THE MAIN ANTAGONISTS OF THE SHOW! She and Supergirl have fought every other episode; hell she has threatened her adoptive family! Kara needs to realize that “Hey, maybe there was a REASON J’onn killed the KRYPTONIAN VILLAIN!” I wouldn’t have made such a huge deal of this, but throughout the entire friggin episode it was just SO annoying to see Supergirl act jerkish to THE MARTIAN WHO SWORE TO PROTECT HER AND HAS PROTECTED HER! It’s dumb and is just there to create tension in the show.


The night after Alex finds the alien escapee, but soon gets ambushed by an intergalactic bounty hunter called The Master Jailer(and yes that is his comic book name) who captures the alien and executes him with, I crap you not, a Laser Guillotine...its just as cool as it sounds. Alex and Hank are shocked, and when they go dig up some clues, it turns out that not only is there some kind of space serial killer, but he’s been gunning specifically for the escapees of Fort Rozz...yup, Supergirl is basically going up against a boring space version of the Punisher…. Even though Hank and Alex hinted at someone a whole lot messier and would have made the episode a whole lot cooler(LOBO IN THE FUTURE PLEASE!!).


Meanwhile in the normal world of CatCo, Lucy catches James in lying about his knowledge of the DEO AND his relationship with Supergirl. This leads to probably one of the darkest things ever put on the show. To give James a lesson on ethics, Cat tells the story of her first article...which involved an actor who was physically abusing his wife. Rather than expose this terrible act, Cat ended up just writing a puff piece...and a few months later the Actor killed his wife. It was a lapse in her ethics that really makes me want to see the tortured reporter more than the bitchy boss.


This makes James go to Kara and give her a pep talk about ethics...even though before this episode she had no problem with them. If you’re gonna have an episode that deals with ethics, it might want to pan a few episodes. Arrow Season 1 had Oliver killing almost every villain that got in his path, then the thing that set him on the right path was the death of his best friend. THIS ISN’T A TOPIC THAT CAN BE GLOSSED OVER IN JUST AN HOUR!


When Supergirl goes off to deal with this alien, she ends up meeting a Fort Rozz inmate who is unlike the others...he’s a decent alien being! He was just caught up in a bad crowd. It showed that the aliens on Rozz were not just a bunch of serial killers, it was just a normal prison, which means that there is potential for reformed aliens to help Kara in the future. However as much as I liked this kind alien-turned-professor(which makes me question how long has Rozz been crashed on the planet), it doesn’t help the fact that the Master Jailer(who turned out to be a cop I pointed out as the villain without knowing him) is just really flat and confusing when it comes to powers...he has a Megaman blaster that can knock out Supergirl? A cage that can hold her, but chains that can’t stand her heat blast? Alright I’ll stop, now i’m just nitpicking.


In the end Supergirl and Alex get the upper hand on the bad guy, release Maxwell Lord, and Supergirl tells J’onn to ^%*# off for a while...way to keep your priorities straight Kara...oh well in two weeks, they'll work together again.


Bits and Pieces:

I was not a fan of this episode...It could have been better for me if I actually cared about the flat overpowered and a bit stereotypical villain and basically the main plot. I do like the growing rivalry thats beginning between Smythe and Kara, Cat's background growth, and James questioning his own ethics while talking to Supergirl(who really has had good ethics up until the Bizarro episode). Overall, its a disappointing episode, but there was some things that showed promise for future episodes.


5/10

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