Supergirl is stranded in the Phantom Zone, Lex Luthor has been stopped, captured, and memory erased of Supergirl's true identity. Brainy is alive and working on his relationship with Nia, and finally, Alex needs to tell Kelley about her sister's true identity! Woof, ok there is a lot to cover going into our second episode. Of course, we can understand that with Covid-19 and such this is kind of the true season premiere that we've been looking forward to. Frankly, we view it as a gift, no summer break for resolution, just straight into the next episode. In terms of network television, this is as close to binging multiple seasons as it gets! Here's what stood out to us:
- Error: Our service that allows us to watch East Coast feed pre-empted us to watch a baseball game. We found an alternative where we joined Andrea giving Cat Co new marching orders. William and Nia were tasked with tracking a new story together. Lex Luthor is in prison where he is being visited by Lillian. In The Phantom Zone, Supergirl is rescued by Zor-El, her dad!
- Zor-El: Supergirl is able to meet her father and tell him that he's saved his daughter and Argo survived. Zor-El is a tormented soul. He won't face the Phantoms. As long as he stays in his cave, the phantoms leave him alone. Kara speaks about Fort Rozz and that there is a doorway out. Zor-El is terrified. Andrea presses Lena for an interview but Lena refuses and walks out on her. The Alien who is helping team Supergirl to build a door into and out of the Phantom Zone, Silas, is terrified. He tried to do it before and lost his husband Owen. M'Gann calls out J'onn on his obsession on getting Supergirl out. She notes that J'onn is acting as a father, not a soldier. In the trial of Lex Luthor, Lex represents himself. He breaks down Miss Tessmacher on the stand. The case is heavily dependent on Miss Tessmacher's testimony but Lex forces her to look like a jilted lover.
- Luthor Corp Buy Out: Lillian goes to Lena to sell Lena her shares. This would give Lena control of Luthor Corp. Lena wants to testify against him but Lillian cautions against it. Brainy and Dreamer begin to train to try and locate Supergirl in the Phantom Zone. This will be a tax on Dreamer and her abilities that she's never experienced before. Supergirl decides to leave the cave of protection the Phantom Zone provides. She is attacked by phantoms almost immediately. Zor-El comes swinging.
- Determination: Supergirl won't stop for anything to march through the Phantom Zone and escape. She inspires Zor-El to help her. Lena takes the stand to go toe to toe with her brother. Lena walks Lex into his ego and he loses it.
- Portal to The Phantom Zone: Crisis on Infinite Earths has fractured the Phantom Zone into nearly infinite pieces. We may be all aligned on one Earth, but the pocket dimension that Supergirl is in is nearly impossible to detect. Phantoms break free from the portal and team Supergirl holds them off until Silas can reopen the portal and force them back into the zone.
In the final wrap up moments of the episode, Lex Luthor is found not-guilty. Andrea tasks William with finding her the next big story. J'onn and M'gann share a moment and J'onn realizes that he has been reacting like a father. Back at Alex's appartment, Alex has bought all the pot stickers in National City only to take defeat. Alex feels terrible and is starting to wonder if there is a world without Kara and Alex is breaking down. Andrea goes to apologize for trying to use Lena. Lex and Lillian share a chess game while Lex considers his next move. A phantom hid inside Silas and is free in National City. Kara and Zor-El watch the Phantoms use portals to move around. They develop a plan to capture a Phantom.
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Comments
A bad decision by them, IMO. They should be better tuned-in to their audience. Showing Alex telling Kelly would only have taken a few minutes; it wouldn't have required lots of drama, because of Kelly's nature. But people wanted to see more of that and less of Lex's trial, Lena and Andrea talking, and William watching TV. Blown opportunity.
This was the apparent reason:
https://www.thewrap.com/supergirl-why-kelly-found-out-about-kara-off-screen/
* Kara in the Phantom Zone
* Lex on trial
* The team attempting to find Kara
* CatCo shenanigans
All while trying to advance the J'onn and M'gann, Brainy and Nia, and Alex and Kelly relationships. Add a dash of Luthor family politics, and it was just too much for 40-couple minutes.
I'm actally not hammering the writers on this one. They have to accomodate a fairly large cast, with covid-related constraints, and the absence of the lead actress for the first few episodes.
I'm amazed they are doing as well as they are, but it's still a bad situation.
I hope they find a better balance going forward, because there is a lot of potential in what they set up.
Kara trapped in the PZ promises to be a very intriguing story. As always, Melissa was terrific. I really liked this comment from jackscot01, especially the last sentence:
"SuperGirl - I thought the last thing Kara said to her dad was so typical of SuperGirl & her strength of character, her ability to use a cool head when thinking of solutions. When they saw the phantoms going through a portal. SuperGirl started: Where did they go?" "I have no idea, I've never seen a phantom do anything like that. " "Well if they use portals to get around, maybe we can use one to get out." "Looks like the portals only open and close long enough for a phantom to get through." "Well I guess we're going to have to catch a phantom." That look she has when she says those lines show confidence &the ability to do what it takes to achieve a goal."
The phantom's attack on the Tower was exciting; I liked the team working together to repel them. Good job by the actor playing Silas.
The pep talks (Kelly to Silas, Brainy to Nia, Kara to her father, and Nia to William) showed the characters channeling their "inner Kara" to inspire the others. M'gann also emerged as a voice of calm reason amid the chaos.
The pain of losing SG, especially to Alex and J'onn, was powerful. This aspect should lead into the flashback episodes, which promise to be very interesting.
On the minus side, I regret not seeing Alex reveal Kara's identity to Kelly. I agree there was too much time for Lex's trial; over 12 minutes, by my count. I hope that as the season progresses a reason for that will become clear.
When Lex finally gets taken down, PLEASE let Supergirl deliver the coup de grace! The others, especially Lena, can help, but at the end I want him to know that he has lost to Supergirl.
One reason I feel the characters may not be showing alot of emotion is because in their minds to do so would be admitting that Kara/SuperGirl is dead. When dreamer wanted to play the recording crystal at the fortress, Alex was emphatic that it not be played because her sister was not dead and they were going to get her back. I have noticed that as we get further into the episodes, Alex is starting to break regarding losing her sister including throwing the food box of potstickers when she realized Kara may really be gone for good - but one can see that if Alex lost it all in emotion, she would be unable to concentrate enough to rescue Kara. Also next week we see her sitting on the sofa in tears over thinking about Kara being in a cold and phantom filled environment.
Also, in next weeks episode Alex is even beginning to ask J'onn why he isn't making more of what has happened and J'onn basically answers if they don't keep a straight head regarding keeping their emotions in check they will not succeed in freeing Kara. I think Brainy this week showed alot of emotion when he broke the keyboard - angry that Lex was free and Supergril was in a PZ prison environment.
As for Kelly - she doesn't show alot of emotion anyway. When her brother was shot she was the most non-emotional one at the hospital. Also in that episode when Kara went to apologize to Kelly for not being there earlier, Kelly said to Kara it was okay because Kara was were she needed to be at the time. I think Kelly knew then that Kara was supergirl.
I don't know how long they intend to keep Kara in the PZ but the longer they do, the more I think we will start to see characters come apart.
I checked around and found that (perhaps) the blame goes on WHP-TV in Harrisburg, PA...which has the CW on DT3 (21.3). And just to balance things out...I checked to find out if there will be a pre-emption for the Yankees on WPIX...sure enough...according to their website on April 27th, they have a game in Baltimore set to be on PIX11.
1. I was shocked and ecstatic when Kara found her father. What a fantastic moment! However, just like when she found her mother, we see Kara's shocked face (Melissa showcases this beautifully) and then the show went to commercial break. After the break, Kara and Zor-El are just talking. Where were the hugs, tears, etc., after that initial recognition? It's as if the writers are afraid that the actors can't do those moments justice.
2. Alex and Hank mourned Kara some, but really, the most we saw was Alex at the end with Kelly. Otherwise, the characters just seem to be brooding some, and then another character goes up to them and gives them a hope speech. That's OK, but this is excellent material for showcasing the emotion these characters feel after the "loss" of Kara/Supergirl. I hope they milk this more in upcoming episodes. Also, Dreamer wins the award in this episode for Best Hope Speech.
3. When did Alex tell Kelly Kara is Supergirl? I have a sneaking suspicion that Kelly might have already known through James, but if not, I wanted to see her reaction. Those reactions are always priceless.
4. I think there was too much of the Lex Luthor show in this episode. Can't we be done with Lex for Season 6? Lillian is a good villain for Supergirl to fight. Supergirl deserves her own villains; she doesn't need to fight so much with Superman's old villains. Lena is great, but there is just way, way, way too much Lex, I think.
Up, up, and away! :)
Things that stood out to me:
Silas is nice & he is very patient - alot of people when J'onn yelled at them like he did to Silas would have told J'onn where to go and a short way on how to get there.
J'onn is definitely behaving like a father & it is understandable considering he feels that Alex & Kara are his daughters. One cannot blame J'onn for being upset.
Alex just cannot see a world without her sister being in it. Silas did not give a timeframe but when people are upset like Alex is, we often hear what we want to hear even though it may be wrong and that's what happened here right down to Alex buying food to welcome Kara home that day. Her expecting an impossible timeframe and buying loads of potstickers and other foods for Kara all make up a person who is so hopeful for events to happen the way they want them to.
SuperGirl - I thought the last thing Kara said to her dad was so typical of SuperGirl & her strength of character, her ability to use a cool head when thinking of solutions. When they saw the phantoms going through a portal. SuperGirl started: Where did they go?" "I have no idea, I've never seen a phantom do anything like that. " "Well if they use portals to get around, maybe we can use one to get out." "Looks like the portals only open and close long enough for a phantom to get through." "Well I guess we're going to have to catch a phantom." That look she has when she says those lines show confidence &the ability to do what it takes to achieve a goal.
You're not the only one. That was a major point of contention with fans on social media immediately after the episode aired. Fans wanted to see that scene. It would have helped elevate the episode.
I personally wanted to see Kelly's reaction. Part of me thinks she may have figured it out, but the psychologist in her was keeping mum about it until the Alex and the Superfriends wanted to let her in...