This week on #Supergirl: Lena sacrifices her kryptonite to save Supergirl. More #Supergay at 10.
Spoilers through Supergirl season two, episode eighteen: “Ace Reporter.”
Supergirl is finally back on our screens and thankfully, it brought Lena with it! In fact, it brought a Lena-centric episode and the only thing that would have made “Ace Reporter” better would have been an Alex/Maggie B-plot instead of the weird Team Guardian thing they had happening. (Also, when are Alex and Maggie going to get an A-plot? Anytime soon, Supergirl?)
The Case For Supercorp
Things are slow at the DEO, like Alex has one line and disappears forever kind of slow, so Kara heads home for the day to do a little baking. If Cat Grant could see Kara in that moment, she would smash her pretty face into those scrumptious desserts. All is well, however, as Lena shows up on Kara’s doorstep to ask her only friend in National City for a favor. Lena’s ex, Jack Spheer (guest star Rahul Kohli), is in town and she can’t possibly face him alone, not while she’s still vulnerable emotionally, so she asks Kara to come with her to his Biomax demonstration. *wink*
I’d like to submit Exhibit A into Evidence in the case for Supercorp. You can’t tell me that this is a completely platonic scene. There is some serious flirting happening with their super gay eyeballs.
The pair head off to Jack’s presentation and it plays out a bit like the opening part of Big Hero 6. Kara does that thing that we Hermione-types hate and raises her hand to ask a question even though she’s completely unprepared to do so. Despite fumbling through her question and being interrupted by Snapper, Jack later remembers her as the “one who grilled him” and I died a little inside at the comment. Lena introduces Kara to Jack as the best reporter she knows and I’d like submit THIS comment as Exhibit B. We all know that Kara is, at BEST, a middle-of-the-road reporter who was recently fired from her job. Lena says this because OF COURSE she supports her only friend, but also because she’s been giving her sex eyes since they first met. Kara’s response is eerily reminiscent of an earlier interaction with previous crush James and that comparison is Exhibit C.
Kara has an explosive meeting with a Biomax whistleblower and while I know this meeting is integral to the plot: why? Why in the world would this dude choose the writer of Danvers.com? Kara has posted ONCE on the internet. There’s no way that kind of thing would happen. Either the writers have no idea how the internet works or Kara is more internet popular than first imagined.
Kara has a second interaction with a Biomax whistleblower, this time saving Snapper’s life, and thank goodness for that, too, because no one else on Supergirl dares to call Kara on her bullshit. You know why Legends of Tomorrow and Arrow worked so well this year? Because their characters weren’t afraid to call the leads on their crappy behavior. Kara has been a crappy reporter and since Cat Grant isn’t around to put her foot down, it’s up to Snapper to do so.
Knowing that Lena might be in danger, Kara crashes her girlfriend’s dinner and brings along Mike as her beard. Lena looks absolutely stunning and 100 House Points to whomever at Supergirl’s costume department chose that red dress.
Also Exhibit D:
Kara breaks into Jack’s office, which I thought was in Metropolis (?), and steals a few vlogs detailing his transformation into the villain from Big Hero 6. Kara tries to warn Lena about Jack, but Lena won’t hear any of it because she needs that beautiful man around to relieve all the sexual tension from when she’s near Kara. (It’s the only reason I’ll accept for why she kisses him.) Even still, Lena and Kara share several looks that all scream, “I want your lips on my lips and may we die before we stop.”
Lena confronts Jack about his villainous use of the nanobots and he’s all adorably confused by the allegations. Really, I want to hate him but Rahul is just so darn likable. Jack’s assistant, Beth, steps from the shadows and does an “okay” villain cackle. From a one to Ursula, she’s about a four. Bluetooth Cupcake confesses she’s been controlling Jack all along and the entire gay community cries out that for an entire episode, Lena has been attracted to a woman the entire episode and I guess that’s a hesitant Exhibit F. (Mostly because Kara/Lena’s eye flirting game is hella strong.) Supergirl shows up to protect her girlfriend but Lena is a strong independent Luthor who don’t need no Super. She elbows Miss “I have a black belt” in the face and the drops the line:
Lena: “Oh, I wouldn’t know. I’ve never stood behind a man.”
Exhibit G is Kara’s heart palpitations after Lena kicked Beth’s behind and then, without hesitation, chose to save Supergirl over her own Kryptonite. (While this is romantic, I also kind of admit it was her only option.)
At the end of it all, Kara goes to Lena’s couch, the place where all magical things happen, and consoles her closest friend. I don’t know about y’all, but I’ve consoled a lot of female friends, and it’s never been quite that….intimate before. Therefore, I submit into evidence Exhibits H thru Z:
This final scene was great not just for Supercorp shippers, but for fans of Lena as well. Lena is a character who struggles immensely with her levels of goodness. In her mind, an ounce of evil thought is a gateway drug to becoming just like the rest of her family. She’s terrified of letting herself slip into the darkness, into a place from where she can never return. I equate it to being like a child who grew up with parents who suffered from addiction. While they themselves may never go over the edge to the extent that their parents did, it’s a fear that sits inside them. Lena is terrified of that darkness.
In Kara, she sees the light, the anchor to the goodness of the world. When Kara promises to protect Lena, Lena believes it in a way she never has in her entire life. Kara doesn’t protect Lena until the time comes when she can use her. Kara protects her because she loves her, because she’s a good person and that’s what good people do. Despite not agreeing with one another, Kara has unwavering faith in Lena, something she’s never believed she deserved because all her life she was defined solely by being a Luthor. Kara Danvers, not Supergirl, is the one who gives Lena hope.
And if that thought doesn’t choke you up, well, I don’t know what to do with you.
Random Thoughts
James, Winn, and Lyra had a bit of a spat on Team Guardian that didn’t make much sense to me. Crime was so low that Kara had nothing to do, but James seemed pretty busy. Lyra was all over the place with her emotions and while I’m all for bringing her onto Team Guardian, their entire plot of “Ace Reporter” felt forced and over-the-top. That time would have been better served showing us Alex’s knife-fighting routine.
Speaking of, WHERE THE SHIT WAS MAGGIE THIS EPISODE?!
Kara got her job back as a reporter at CatCo and while I’m happy to see her working as Kara Danvers again (because again, that identity is more important than Supergirl), I still don’t love her as a reporter. I am glad that Snapper is hopefully making her realize that she can’t bend the rules to her whims as she so chooses.
Next week’s episode looks too hard to watch alone. Someone please come over and hold me because I don’t think I can suffer through Alex being hurt.
Supergirl airs Mondays on The CW at 8pm EST.
Thank you!! It’s very nice when the media notices and actually acknowledges a f/f pairing, it gives us credibility
F/F pairings are pretty much the first thing I look for in a TV show. Supercorp makes it incredibly easy to spot, though.
This is a good review! I like your thoughts 🙂
Thanks for reading!
The case for Lena/Kara is strong indeed. Lena Luthor has been such an interesting character all this time though and seeing her choose Supergirl over Jack was so telling. She chose to save Supergirl not because she cares about her more or whatever (cuz she doesn’t know that she is Kara. I think?) No, she saved her because she realized that a dead supergirl would mean that National City would lose its beloved superhero, its hope. She decided to be selfless and think about the greater picture even if that meant being miserable. She is good, she has been CHOOSING to be good all this time. And that’s why Lena Luthor is so lovable.
EXACTLY! But the thing I love even more about Lena is that she does all these miraculously selfless things–putting her mother in jail, letting Jack die–and STILL she is so focused on what other GOOD she can do. She has one dark moment and she’s immediately concerned about becoming a Luthor. Her self-awareness is fascinating to watch and I think she’s every bit as good as Kara.
I’m just waiting for the poetic justice that is Mon-el leaving the show (possibly permanently) in the season finale.
Him being the one to die or to be put in the Phantom Zone like the comics seems to be the most likely thing to happen.
Once he’s gone, hopefully our girls can be together if the CW and the showrunners listen to Sara Barielles lol.
I loved and hated this episode almost in equal measure. I loved it because we finally got some Lena backstory, Supercorp was just too real and Kara admitted that she was wrong to Snapper and learned a lesson. I hated it because oh my god, the secondhand embarrassment! I honestly can’t remember the last time I felt such intense secondhand embarrassment because of a piece of media. There’s cheesy writing and then there’s “you’re the one who grilled me”. That aside, I am very worried about Lena. I’m seeing the writers planting more signs of her possible slide into villainy, as she’s now completely vulnerable and dependent on Kara. Kara who is hiding the fact that she’s Supergirl. Part of me wants to say that I’m paranoid for feeling this way but another part is endlessly distrustful of these writers and all writers in general. I’ve been burned way too many times before to not be wary.
It feels like I’ve despised every episode of Supergirl since “Luthors,” but “Ace Reporter” broke that streak by focusing on Lena Luthor again. I was concerned about them giving Lena an ex-boyriend (did the show already max out on lesbians?) in obscure supervillain Biomax, but Katie McGrath’s chemistry with Rahul Kohli is on par with hers with Melissa Benoist. (Does McGrath just have chemistry with everybody?)
Maybe the real villain was Earth-38’s FDA for not bothering to verify Spheerical Industries’ (the company with balls!) specious human testing trials?
https://mattthecatania.wordpress.com/2017/04/28/dc-tvs-almost-home-run-week/
Let me start by defending Mon-El as a character.
I don’t think we all hate Mon-El because of who he is; yes, he’s a typical frat-boy, with all the baggage that comes along with that. He’s a flawed character; so what? Flawed characters are often the most interesting. He could be such a force for good on the show (good with regards to helping to craft a good story, not good as in good vs evil).
I’m tired of the typical trope of having tough guys act like arrogant teenagers; men who are actually tough are confident, not arrogant; quiet, not loud. Those who, like Mon-El, are more the frat-boy, arrogant/loud type, are really just projecting what they want to be, but they are really racked by self-doubt.
That’s fine, there’s nothing wrong with portraying a character like that as long as you realize it’s a front. For Mon-El, I think it works: he’s absolutely out of his element and it makes sense that his insecurities would make him act even more like that immature child that he is. He’s new to this world and, even more, he’s never been comfortable with who he is.
That can be a good thing though: he can be a kind of stand-in for Kara, showing us how he reacts to his new planet we can see what Kara must’ve gone through; seeing her reacting to his reactions we can see how she’s adjusted and grown.
He can improve our understanding of Kara in this way; that can be a great thing for the show.
If Kara is both his friend and also… I’m not sure if mentor is the right word, even role model is maybe too strong, but if she can model for him the right way to act, if he can see how she tries to use her awesome powers to do good, to help people, if he can see that she doesn’t allow her powers to make her arrogant, if he sees that she still doubts herself (like when she did everything right in the Red Tornado episode but the child General blamed everybody but him for his many, many failings, especially her) but when she believes in something she won’t back down (like when she had Lena’s back when nobody else did in “Luthors”), if he can see who she is and realize that’s who he wants to be, I think there is absolutely potential for his character on this show.
If he sees the person she is and realizes that he wants to be better, if he matures by watching her and learning, we could grow to care about him, and appreciate him all the more for his growth, being able to appreciate the journey he took from self-absorbed royalty to a mature adult.
And we’d love Kara all the more for it, for being the example that he learned from, for being a friend to him and seeing the potential in him, for not making him feel like shit but instead making him feel like he could aspire to be better.
The problem is that the writers want him to take this journey not as her friend, but as her boyfriend, and that requires a lot more from him than he is able to give, it requires him to be better than he is. Instead of being a kind of younger brother learning from his older sister, he is supposed to be her equal, which he isn’t.
More than that, he is supposed to not just be her equal but to lift her up and he’s not able to be that for himself; how can the writers possibly think he can be that for her?
I don’t want Kara to be gay. I’m anal-retentive about canon and I hate change; I hate that they made Jimmy Olsen and Guardian the same person.
What I want – I think what we all want – is for Kara to be with somebody worthy of her, who makes her happy, who is good for her. Somebody who both complements and compliments her; it’s obvious that that somebody is Lena.
It’s not about gay or straight, it’s just about who is good for her, and what’s right for the story.
But I fear that the question the writers ask isn’t the question we ask. I think to them it’s not about who makes her happy, it’s about needing to manufacture bullshit drama because they aren’t talented enough to write good stories (or maybe they just don’t trust their ability enough to try).
Instead, they keep her in relationships full of drama and melodrama. They won’t give her a solid, stable, healthy relationship because they buy into the garbage that keeping characters miserable is the only way to create drama and tension.
That’s such garbage; there’s no reason there can’t be action and excitement with the Supergirl side of the show, tension and relatable struggles with the reporter aspect of the show, and then warm, tender feelings with the relationship aspects of the show.
There’s no reason they can’t show her struggling at work then coming home to Lena, allowing Lena to be a shoulder for her to lean on (or providing one for Lena); show her fighting as Supergirl and failing the first time, but working together with Alex and Winn and Guardian, even allowing Lena into that side of her too, allowing Lena to contribute (eventually confiding in Lena that Kara is Supergirl – so Lena can stop pretending she doesn’t know), showing the friends triumphant together, then going home and basking in the glow of doing something good for its own sake.
Being together at EDO working together to protect innocent lives; being together outside of work and enjoying the company of friends; being at home with their loved ones (Alex with Maggie, Kara with Lena), all of those aspects are important in showing the full depth of the characters we care about. All of those elements add depth to the show, to the characters, that would allow us to love and appreciate the characters even more.
Quiet time is important, having calm moments allows us to appreciate the characters more and serves as a counter-point to drama and tension; it enhances the story.
I hope the writers figure that out and make the right decision so I can go back to watching the show as I did before Mon-El was forced into a pseudo-romantic relationship with Kara.
I want say, I love your take on this. Lena is good for Kara not because Kara’s gay (imho she’s pretty darn bi). But because she’s LENA. They’d be so good together because they care so deeply and the blatant sex- eyes kinda say it’s non- platonic. 😉
Mon- El would’ve been interesting without being shoehorned in as Kara’s love interest. Like, really? Since when was that a thing? Is it because he is hot and he’s a dude? Because I believe Kara’s attraction to a person runs so much deeper than that. Mon-El’s redemption arc would’ve been much more believable as a hero-in-training who came to a realization that he wanted to save the world in his own way and save it well, just differently from Kara.
Making Mon-El Kara’s bf gave him too much power, too much say in her life. I just didn’t buy their romance. They forced the Romeo and Juliet thing (even managing to reference it at some point) when the Writers had a perfectly wonderful relationship to build with Kara and Lena. Even if they kept it platonic. Kara got James and subsequently turned him down because she needed to be Kara Danvers.
You know who loves Kara Danvers and could therefore help Kara explore the deepest parts of herself completely? Lena Luthor. Their scenes, gay ass sex eyes aside, were so perfect and they see each other’s deepest selves as completely. Lena was the one Kara could find herself with. Mon-El made her lose a lot of what made her herself in the first place. If even for a second. Lena never made Kara doubt who she was. Ever. And Kara does the same for Lena. The time Kara spent with Mon-El, should’ve been spent with Lena. Even if platonic. It’s the better thing for Kara.