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“Battles Lost and Won” wraps up Season 3 with some whiz-bang battles, character changes, and resetting the table for “Supergirl” Season 4. The team put the Sisters of Juru down, saved Sam, saw the death of M’yrnn, and serious changes are coming for our characters. And, we’re left with some interesting tidbits for the start of our next Super-season!
The Salvation of Sam
Season 3 has been the season of Samantha Arias, her daughter Ruby, and her WorldKiller alter-ego Reign. We’ve watched Sam take over the day-to-day of L Corp letting Lena run her newly acquired CatCo and we’ve watched her confront the reality that her origin is not a human one. We learned of her earthly mom not knowing what to do with the angry impulses under the surface of Sam and throwing her out when she got pregnant with Ruby. We watched her fight with the Reign part of her and battle to keep her own individuality. We almost watched her lose that battle. In this episode we watched Sam find the Fountain of Lillith through the guidance of her now deceased mom – whom Reign murdered – and make herself whole again. In fact, she’s better than whole, she’s super – and she’s ticked. She flies (!) to the Fortress of Solitude and stabs Reign through the back. Reign fights back and kills Sam. Kara has had it and punches Reign into the fiery pit and Reign lets loose on everyone, killing Alura and Mon-El after their battle has already destroyed Imra and Brainy. J’onn survives and Kara is devastated that in her rage to kill Reign she has lost everything she stands for. She takes Mon-El’s Legion ring and asks Alex and Winn to find a disturbance where she can turn back time and go back to the point where Sam strikes Reign stopping her. They use the nearby Stone of Haru Nel and go back to the Dark World where Sam punches Reign right out of existence. Upon getting back to reality Sam is found to be fully human again and all of her Kryptonian-ness is gone for good. Ruby and she are ecstatic! Oh, and in the beginning of the episode M’yrnn does sacrifice himself and bonds with the Earth to stop the New Krypton terraforming. Coville did indeed survive to get to J’onn’s ship and give the team a beacon to find the Witchy Sisters. We think he’s now dead dead. Not just mostly dead. And we’re not sure that we’ll ever see Sam and Ruby again. That makes me sad.
Back To The Future!
During all of the fighting our favorite two Legionnaires show back up to help save the day. After their victory of stopping the Juru’s, Imra and Mon-El have a heart-to-heart. They came back because the supposed broken beacon Mon had on Argo actually did work. But, he wasn’t really calling them to bring him home. Awkward! During her time away Imra has realized her marriage to Mon-El just wasn’t all that at the end of the day. Mon is settled to stay here on Earth. UNTIL! Brainy has a meeting with Mon and Winn where he explains that with the death of Pest-tu-lants (Oy), his distant relative has started coming after all of the AI and it’s not safe for him there anymore. The future needs leaders, leaders like Mon-El, and apparently it needs Winn as well because he designed the basis of the tech that has been revolutionary in the future. His design that he scratched out for Demos (RIP, Agent Demos) last episode is now a rare artifact, which apparently Brainy has lifted from The Archives. Not very Legion of you there, Brainy! After discussing it with James, Winn decides that his calling is, in fact, the future. The DEO throws a party. Alex tears up. I tear up. We all tear up.
Are We Going to Be OK?
Alex asks a rather meta-question as the episode closes. Let’s run the list of what’s happened: Kara has realized that the balance of Kara Zor-El and Kara Danvers is who she is and that can only be here on Earth. She says goodbye to Alura and sends her back with synthesized Haru-Nel and the recipe to make more from Lena. Alura assures Kara that the Witches will get a fair trial. Is that the end of Argo? Likely not, hopefully not. Anywho, Alex decides to hang up the cool new suit and tells J’onn that she can’t do that thang she do and be a mama. He tells her to slow that resignation roll because he’s now going to follow his late father’s (RIP, M’yrnn) footsteps and become a man of peace among the people. Congratulations, Director Danvers! You can be everything on your own terms. Mon-El and Kara say a very respectful goodbye and he leaves his Legion ring with her, just in case she needs to find him. Lena and Miss Tessmacher have a little of the Haru-Nel left behind and we’re ready for experimental stage 2 because…Luthor. Finally, it would seem that Kara’s messing in disturbances and going back in time have left a very naked version of her wandering around Siberia. Hmmmmmmmmmm.
Closing Thoughts
Season 3 was the WorldKiller Season. I loved the concept, I loved a lot of the execution of the concept. I was also confused at times and here at the end it feels like it fizzled to an end. And with Kara having to Super mess with time and create an assumed Red Daughter of Krypton my major hope is that Sam and Ruby will still be in National City. No official word has been put out there but if we lose Odette Annable and Emma Tremblay that will be tragic indeed. Cramming Argo into the last few episodes felt awkward and forced and unemotional and…weird. As far as a season finale this episode certainly did deliver resolution and setup for the next season. The question is the execution and I came away unfortunately feeling rather “meh” about it rather than highly emotional about the happenings and circumstances for our characters. I think it comes down to the very end of the episode, on the couch, with the Danvers sisters. This is the heart and soul of this show and it seems to me after “Midvale,” they collectively lost that heart and soul. The introduction of the Legion, the time in Argo, the time dedicated to J’onn and M’yrnn (which was also the season highlight to me) robbed Kara of “her” show. I don’t know if we’re just done exploring Kara and the different facets of her life or if they’re trying to ensemble “Supergirl” just as they have “The Flash” from the beginning of that show. The trouble is that “Supergirl” didn’t really set out to do that from the beginning. Sure she’s been surrounded by the team but the emphasis of the storylines used to be more procedural and reflected on Kara and her life. Now we’re in episodic storytelling, and I’m great with that; but, I also feel like I’ve lost touch with our main heroine. Are we going to be OK? Yes, I’m confident that we will be but changes have been and have to be made. Let’s see where we go up, up, and away from here.
Cougar’s Comic Corner
Superman: Red Son [amazon] by Mark Millar (Kingsman: The Secret Service, Wanted, Kick-Ass, Civil War (basis for Capt. America: Civil War))
[From Wikipedia] Superman: Red Son is a three-issue prestige format comic book mini-series published by DC Comics that was released under their Elseworlds imprint in 2003. Author Mark Millar created the comic with the premise “what if Superman had been raised in the Soviet Union?” It received critical acclaim and was nominated for the 2004 Eisner Award for best limited series.
The story mixes alternate versions of DC super-heroes with alternate-reality versions of real political figures such as Joseph Stalin and John F. Kennedy. The series spans approximately 1953-2001, save for a futuristic epilogue.
In Red Son, Superman’s rocket ship lands on a Ukrainian collective farm rather than in Kansas, an implied reason being a small time difference (a handful of hours) from the original timeline, meaning Earth’s rotation placed Ukraine in the ship’s path instead of Kansas. Instead of fighting for “… truth, justice, and the American Way”, Superman is described in Soviet radio broadcasts “… as the Champion of the common worker who fights a never-ending battle for Stalin, socialism, and the international expansion of the Warsaw Pact.” His “secret identity” (i.e. the name his adoptive parents gave him) is a state secret.
[From Millar] Red Son is based on a thought that flitted through my head when I read Superman #300 as a six-year-old. It was an imaginary story where Superman’s rocket landed in neutral waters between the USA and the USSR and both sides were rushing to claim the baby. As a kid growing up in the shadow of the Cold War, the notion of what might have happened if the Soviets had reached him first just seemed fascinating to me.
News:
Supergirl Season 4 moves to Sundays beginning October 14 at 8:00e/7:00c followed by the reimagined “Charmed” on the CW!
The ending song of this episode is “Through It All” by Charlie Puth. I kinda dig it!
Feedback
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Part 1 of 3
Some blog post comments…
“Season 3 was the WorldKiller Season.” – some of the time; I wish they’d done even more with them though instead of their stuff feeling disjointed because of the arc gaps throughout the season.
“Cramming Argo into the last few episodes felt awkward and forced and unemotional and…weird.” – STRONGLY AGREE! I don’t mind them doing Argo City but it could have been saved for next season. If they just HAD to have Celine in the season she could have arrived from any planet as survivors are spaced out this it didn’t have to be Argo City we saw.
I don’t mind ensemble shows either but for me “Supergirl” wasn’t ready to go there fully just yet; Kara needs to find the balance again between Kara and Supergirl because in S2 she went to the extreme of being just Supergirl basically and she didn’t get a lot of time to recenter herself in S3 so I think she needs to find that happy S1 balance again before they go full ensemble. I think the “origin” plot if you will, basically the character foundations we got in season one, is done but there’s definitely stories they can tell with Kara as long as they embrace that Kara isn’t Clark so sometimes she will be darker than one might think a Super show would be; I’m not saying she has to be Oliver dark but again more like she was in S1 where they didn’t shy away from the fact Kara would kill if that was the last resort – see Master Jailer. S1 isn’t perfect but I think it did a lot of the plots right so I keep bringing it up as a comparison for when the series was on point as they say; honestly the only thing that could have made S1 better to me is if Alex had been out in it but I do love that aspect got the screen time it deserved instead of just being a footnote in the season, the refreshness of plot handling was also great as the series went more character based than action based like other comic shows and it had romance but it wasn’t all there was to the series…it was all just well done.
“followed by the reimagined “Charmed” on the CW!” – John in one sentence you better promoted the series than the CW has since the beginning! I don’t think so many original fans would be angry at this reimagining if they hadn’t promoted it the way they did so this was nice to see; good job sir. I’ll check out the pilot just to see how it compares but I’m not holding my breath for it to give me good feelings.
Part 2 of 3
On to the podcast remarks themselves…
Ah – SHUT UP JOHN, no I need more than 13 episodes of this show! I will debate with you for like maybe 18, maybe we can find some ground there with all the superhero shows, but nothing less! 🙂 Karen you make nostalgic with the talk of 22 being the normal at the least for series; I do feel there’s cases for shows having a variety of lengths as some seemingly forget you can have consistent reveals all season without giving away your ending – it doesn’t have to be half filler but as Karen said some shows do need more than 13 just by nature of their premise so things have more room to breath fully as it were. If they did the pod format like AOS did season 4 then I’d agree to that as “Agents Of S.H.I.E.L.D.” season 4 was awesome! Minus the Fitzsimmons romance of course! 🙂 It would fit with the “issue arc” vibe of comics too so it could be a nice nod to that…I’d be interested in seeing a season testing it out at least. A great opening debate hosts!
“Kara uses the Legion ring to pull some BS” – ha! That ring did get annoying I have to say as it was kind of a “fix it all” – can’t breath in space? Ring! Can’t fly on a planet? Ring! Need to reverse time? Ring! Beacon? Ring! I didn’t mind it doing some of the tricks but I found it annoying fast personally due to the range of powers it had conveniently for every situation…it’s not a Lantern Corp ring writers calm down or at least establish before hand what it can do so it doesn’t feel so “instant fix”. “Anyway.” – lol!
Don’t apologize for the snark Karen!
Treating Kara like Clark is definitely an issue with the last two seasons I’ve had; I miss S1 when Kara would fight and kill if it came to that – again I get it’s not her go to move but she also wasn’t as naive it felt and that’s one of the differences between the cousins and it shouldn’t be stripped away. Just because they share DNA doesn’t make Kara Clark just as it doesn’t make Lena Lex so let’s stop with “is Lena evil” plots too please! Lena can do some shady stuff but it doesn’t mean she’s evil; just because Kara kills as a last resort it doesn’t make her a villain.
I agree, there’s no way Sam is fully human; she totally needs to be their “in case of emergency” button. I would love to see Odette back! I agree John, there was definitely more to do to with both Sam and Ruby. I don’t fully agree they had too many episodes Karen, I can see you’re point but you could also say they chose to ignore it “Why?” because they could have used those episodes just as easily to enhance the story and how would that have affected things? It’s not how much they had to write but what they chose to write in the space if you will I feel.
“The smoke monster from “Lost”” – ha!
I took Brainy’s “you look happy” line as Irma was going to divorce Mon and that’s what the nod was too given the balcony speech but she didn’t say divorce so for me they’re still married but I didn’t read it necessarily as about Brainy when he said that line. The balcony scene was okay but I did find it crap that Mon didn’t apologize for stalking Kara and making Irma feel like second place because he totally did that so the idea of her apologizing to him but him not her was sadly not surprising the writers went there but still crap. The whole Irma/Mon/Kara thing was easily the worst part of the season to me.
Nothing against Chris as I think he did the best he could with the material he was given but I am so happy I don’t have to worry about Mon interrupting something next season, it’s definitely a relief to me and has me more excited for next season.
“I’m glad he’s back, let’s hope the makeup isn’t.” – lol! I do wonder what the blue to not blue ratio will be for Brainy. Do we think just to make her look shady again and to kind of tie to things that Lena will have some hand in creating Brainics in a future episode just so they can continue the “is she evil” plot? I know comic wise she has no hand in them but for the show might they go there?
Alex was always behind J’onn for director because in S1 she was listed as Director should anything happen to him so it makes sense to me he would give it to her. Like many I just hope this doesn’t mean she’s going to stay at the base most of the season like he was known to do. J’onn doesn’t look that bad CGI wise to me. Alex hasn’t stopped drinking she’s just slowed down; I’m all for them pumping the breaks on the baby train because Alex needs to find Mrs. Right first.
Plot writing inconsistency is nothing new sadly, see S2 and how they did amazing with Sanvers yet Karamel didn’t feel the same even they got double the screen time arguably. It is frustrating when you see one plot being done so well and another not even half the quality. J’onn-M’yrnn was one of the highlights of the season.
Chyler is a HUGE reason for me watching if not the reason I am still watching honestly; her plus the writers when they’re on point is just TV golden magic, a treat to watch definitely. I love her more with this group because she feels used more than on “Grey’s Anatomy” where to me they just wrote her character as a love interest or sister and she only got a solo plot the season they wrote the character off so GA did not use her well in my opinion but I’m definitely enjoying how “Supergirl” maximizes her talents! I hope we see more humor with J’onn in the coming seasons. Embrace James at CatCo writers and ditch Guardian!
“This was appointment TV!” – I love how you talk about S1 John – *content sigh*; it was amazing. To be fair Karen Alex’s stuff as poor as the baby stuff was is still more interesting than Kara’s stuff sadly because if she’s not complaining about an imbalance between Kara and Supergirl which she herself created then she was Mon’s object of desire or being inconsistently written this season with Lena – nothing she did was really grabbing to watch…why that was I can’t say but for some reason the writers just didn’t really write to her outside of her powers.
Part 3 of 3
Agreed Darryl – dump Guardian and embrace James as the newsman he is!
Powergirl or Galatia would be cool to see in a season! I’d also personally love to see Jessica De Gouw as Huntress as a guest to nod to the Kara-Helena friendship of the comics; I think it would be hilarious if Alex had an issue with the friendship because of how dark Helena can be but really she’s just as dark so it would amuse Kara to hear that. 🙂
Fair point Geoff about how this episode could encapsulate the season. I agree – stop trying to make Lena Lex!
I will fully agree that Odette has been the best part of this season; she’s definitely my season MVP and I’d love to see her back! I disagree with Montifesque on the memorable villain point though because how can you not love Livewire on this series?! 🙂 I don’t know if Alex is full on Amanda Waller but that’s an interesting take; still no to Lena being female Lex! Chyler looks good as a blonde but she’s Alex too much, we need more redheads on rosters, for me to want to see her as the girl of steel now; I think Melissa did a great job in S1 as Kara…again for me it’s the stuff she’s given in 2 and 3 that bring the character down thus possible lead to Melissa not fully buying in to them. I can’t fault her too much though so I’m fine with her as Kara.
I am totally in for Vasquez coming back to help run the DEO! I disagree Moonlight, Alex has leadership skills for sure – does she have the level head to run the whole thing, that’s a fair question. I hope we don’t see too much of Alura.
I agree with John, I think they messed up bringing Clark in long term for all the reasons pointed out. I get you can argue where was he still even just with the texts but it’s easier to handwave that than we’ve seen him now so where is he; I don’t know Tyler’s appeal so I’m not sure how easy he is to get but as Amanda said could you not get a stock shot or something? Overall I do wish they hadn’t brought Clark in unless they can always be guaranteed to get the actor who plays him; even then though you do risk over shadowing Kara so I’m fine with him never appearing again.
Realistically after hearing this podcast the episode is probably more of an 8 range episode but emotionally I’m still giving it a 10. 🙂
They do give this shifting cells comment near the end of the season about Sam’s DNA but still it doesn’t make a lot of sense; I guess changing DNA is the only way they could explain her holding back Reign and the dual personalities of “good side”/”bad side” but I agree with everyone she should still be Kryptonian and powered and by extension Ruby should have them. Maybe the human DNA of Ruby did create a shift in Sam that caused the transformation between she and Reign to be more extreme thus we get them more flipping in and out but it shouldn’t completely erase her Kryptonian cells.
Well said John regarding the series quality score over the seasons; we know how great it can be and we just want that for it every year.
I agree with Karen, thank you John for coming on so we could continue to have this podcast! And thank you to all the guest hosts who have come on this season so we don’t miss an episode recap!
“Why are we rebooting “Charmed”?” – I also agree with this Karen but for more reasons than just reboot versus original content, there is that but also it’s just too early it feels; the original did so well (for the first four years anyways) why remake it basically?
Again if you haven’t read it yet I can’t recommend “Batman-Huntress: Cry For Blood” enough!
Aaron, sad to say, I have to stand by everything I submitted. I have too much evidence now to reach any other conclusions about Odette, Chyler and Melissa.
SC and SV; I looked at that flag scene again. Check shirt buttons, watch and mole on cheek. That scene was not flipped.
Monty
Thanks for replying back Monty!
I just have a lot of emotional attachment to Livewire because it was the episode “Livewire” that cemented my love for this series, I felt if they could be even half as good as the episode was then the series would be good to great each week and season 1 was pretty good I thought; I also enjoy Leslie is the anti hero you don’t see much on series – often X is either the good guy or they’re seen as a bad guy, there’s not a lot of anti hero characters in the CW superhero world. I can personally only name Nyssa and Leslie, maybe Huntress but she’s often labeled more bad than middle ground by fans, and sadly everyone else is labeled good or bad. I feel Alex could be a good antihero if they go there but I don’t know if they ever will given she’s Kara’s sister so she’s seen more as good by association.
I will certainly give you a case for Reign being the best bad guy; my issue with the plot is it had gaps due to filler episodes, had they done more on Reign throughout the season then I could see the point more easily. She’s definitely still one of my favorites even with the gaps, but I can’t rate her over Leslie yet. 🙂
Chyler just does Alex SO well I have to stand by my point on that so we’ll have to agree to disagree there. 🙂
I look forward to your recaps in all the seasons to come which hopefully there will be many!