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Welcome back to Maid of Steel! We’re back this week discussion Supergirl Season 2 Episode 5 entitled “Crossfire” which originally aired on Monday November 7, 2016. The villain of the week was, underneath it all, Cadmus, but the puppet Cadmus was using was named Chet Miner, portrayed by Alexander Cendese.
Weapons of Alien Destruction
Armed with alien weapons, Chet and his small gang carry out the request from Cadmus to wreak a little havoc on the city and hopefully inflict a little damage on National City’s alien heroine. A surprising solution to this new threat is found in one Lena Luthor, however, as she stages a gala in order to unleash a device of her own making on the men who’ve been terrorizing the city.
Everyone wants to play the hero! I’ve said many times on the podcast that I love watching the Lena character. Aside from the fact that the Luthor/Super “rivalry” is nearly incomparable, there is always a characteristic or three within the Luthor character that entices me to sympathize with them. Lena is smart, clearly, as we saw in this episode. But where is her alliance? Now that we know the head of Cadmus is also her mother, does that mean she knows the organization her mother works for… or does she unknowingly stand against the bad guys her mother deploys?
Time will tell!
Adjustment Period
The irresponsible pretty boy is a little overdone in mainstream television, but add an alien component to it and you’ve got something! The scenes with Mon-El this week were great; the humor blended with commentary on purely human concepts (i.e. FICO score and telephones) made Mon-El’s first day (and last day? time passage was hard to determine) a memorable experience.
What will he do, though, now that he’s been fired from Catco? There aren’t many princes in this neck of the wood to bodyguard for. As much as he embraces the partier facade, there is a genuineness to him that I can’t quite pin down. It seems like he’s making himself vulnerable to Kara, but then turns around and makes no effort to carry out the suggestion and guidance she has for him. The conversation between Kara and Alex clarified much of that disconnect and gave Kara the much needed change of perspective over her mentorship of Mon-El, which was great.
To Thine Own Self Be True
This week there was a theme about finding one’s self. Kara was reminded that she was allowed to grow up and be who she wanted to become, she learned that Mon-El will have to do the same, James is starting to want more from his life, and Alex is coming to some life-changing conclusions of her own. She’s just starting to learn about what she wants in a relationship, and it’s nothing like she expected. She’s attracted to Maggie and it shakes her. Maggie Sawyer is groundbreaking in the comics, and I (Scarlet Cougar) like that they’ve brought her to Supergirl – where it’s all about having a safe place to be whomever you are.
Chyler Leigh delivered a stunning performance this week, and kudos to her. We’ve been touched by the feedback from you, our listeners, that we’ve gotten about how this storyline has affected you – and it just shows how much television can impact our daily lives. Thank you for sharing all of that with us, and please continue.
Cougar’s Comic Corner
Cougar here with my Comic Corner for this week! My awkward drop in on this week’s podcast included these two issues as your homework for this week. If you’re inclined to have a looksee, here are the descriptions and links to grab ’em! A couple of bucks apiece for some quick entertainment… not a bad deal!
Action Comics (1938-2011) #685 ($2)
Part of “World Without a Superman.” What will happen to Superman’s body? Fighting erupts in Metropolis, and it’s Cadmus and Westfield vs. Luthor’s men and Supergirl! Also, all over the world, people struggle to accept Superman’s death.
Superman’s Pal, Jimmy Olsen Special #1 ($2)
Straight from the pages of SUPERMAN, Jimmy Olsen, would-be star reporter, doggedly investigates the mystery surrounding Superman’s newest foe, Atlas! But the secrets behind the titan of yore lead Olsen across the country and into great danger as he must survive attacks by none other than Codename: Assassin! And just as Jimmy is getting to the truth, he finds himself in the Midwest and seeking the aide of a hero long thought dead. This story leads directly into SUPERMAN: NEW KRYPTON SPECIAL #1!
Feedback
Join in the discussion each week by getting in touch after a new episode airs! We only ask that your contributions are respectful and considerate. Please use our feedback page! You’ll have the chance to upload an audio file, type out an email, or use our voicemail speakpipe widget.
As promised, our feedback from The UPS Man:
Karen and Emily,
Thought I’d give you a little more El Dorado backstory. He was a real member of the Super Friends. He and a few other “people of color” were added to the Super Friends cartoon in the 70s and 80s. Check them out. I don’t know if El Dorado ever made it into the comics.UPS Man
Links
- Watch Crossfire online
- Season 2 Episode 6 “Changing”:Watch Promo
- Changing promo pics: here
I hope you feel better Karen; nice to hear Geoff filling in.
The handling of Alex’s story has definitely been one of the best things in the history of television! According to interviews with crew members, Alex’s plot is something they wanted to do last season but they felt there was already so much going on with the characters and establishing the world that they decided to start it this season so they could give the plot the respect it deserves. The fallout from “The 100” was due to poor handling of a fan favorite character’s exit; they broke so many previously established plot and character points to try and pull off this storyline fitting with another that it just felt like a complete disrespect to previous events…that added to the rushed pacing is what caused so many fans to be angry. The main character of Clarke never cared for the main male of Bellamy romantically so that wasn’t as big a part of it as the poor handling for Lexa’s exit; add that to poor handling of the Lincoln character exit and fans were very unhappy with the showrunner during S3. “The 100” fallout was mainly due to showrunner ego not the network saying anything.
I do believe Alex was attracted to Maxwell’s brain, but romantically I never felt she was going there even if she was straight because if you try to kill Kara you’re off Alex’s list for potential dating; it was clear he liked her but it was very ambiguous as to what her feelings were for him. There’s some great deleted scenes on the S1 DVD where Max tries to talk Alex into things but she continually shuts him down; Peter and Chyler have GREAT banter chemistry and I hope we see that again but I never felt Alex liked Max to the degree he liked her. Tolerance is also a theme of the show.
I took it Mon was a bodyguard for the Prince; to be fair, no one had powers on Krypton either. Mon might not have had an experience with Eve like Clark has with Lois or Kara will have with someone because again his abilities are different, yes he’s strong but how exactly does that translate; who’s to say he wasn’t weakened enough to be okay given his kryptonite is lead and there could have been plenty of it around to dampen his powers or at least make it safe enough for them? Side note: I hope we see Kara and Alex getting these moments as well, nothing too graphic of course as it’s a family show, but if Winn (with Siobhan S1) and Mon are going to be shown in these post/pre sexy moments then it’s only fair Kara and Alex (and Jonn whenever he gets to that point, also James whenever he gets involved with a romance) get them as well – if Winn can be shown coming out adjusting his clothes and Mon being shown shirtless then Alex can throw off some jackets with her girl and Kara can take off her glasses during a kiss. Again it’s a family show so heated kisses and rushes to throw clothes on are the understandable limit, but it’s only fair everyone get the same handling. I feel these writers will treat each romance the same; it would be a shame if one got edited over others.
“National City Devastated By Party Boy!” should be one of your titles for Mon’s recap portion of an episode when he starts crime fighting Karen. 🙂 The cast is good looking! I’m definitely hoping Lena is one of the good guys overall also. I’d rather see more Mon-Winn buddyship than Winn-Lena myself. I go back and forth on Mon/Kara, they have good banter chemistry but it feel clichĂ© if she got with him because of the whole rival planet thing; I hope of they do get together it won’t be until almost the end of the season because they rushed the Jimmy/Kara end so there needs to be organic time between relationships because if Kara broke up with James only to instantly start dating Mon basically that’s going to rub some people the wrong way. Maybe Jonn was busy during the party? I was definitely looking forward to Melissa doing Jonn being Kara!
I may be hearing this wrong, but Geoff I have to say every time I hear the PC comment it just sounds off to me; Alex/Maggie to me is no more PC than Mehcad Brooks playing Jimmy, the crew rightfully felt why does Jimmy have to be his comic image – what’s wrong with diversity…Alex is just representing sexual diversity so I don’t understand why this would be political correctness instead of just more embracing diversity. My apologies for any misunderstandings but I’m just having a disagreement with the terminology. I think Alex’s progression has been extremely organic; again her interactions with potential romances were extremely ambiguous – yes she said she dated guys before but that stop her from being not straight.
I can see how Christy and others might feel James’s desire to be Guardian was rushed, especially if you just viewed this season, but I go back to Lucy calling him out in S1 saying he’s always been obsessed with powered people so him rushing out to be a costumed hero isn’t that much of a rush to me. Jeremy’s feedback this week was nice. I agree with Karina about listening to the podcast; a GREAT comment about Alex and YES to it running for a long time! Nicely said Justina about the safe space here! Nice “Leverage” shout out Opal and yes to a possible anti-hero Mon.
I haven’t seen “Changes” yet, but Catlin Parrish has yet to disappointment me writing episodes.
Happy belated birthday Geoff!
Some blog post comments…
“Chyler Leigh delivered a stunning performance this week, and kudos to her.” – all the awards to Chyler; this has definitely been a well handled plot and I love the writers went here!
Thanks Aaron! Great comments as always! I popped in to update the title and wanted to make sure that I said hey to you as well. I love reading your comments here and in the emails. <3