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“Blood Memory” brings us the origin story of our newest heroine Dreamer as well as Nia’s family’s backstory. We also get a parallel story of a pair of sisters that are working through issues of one being powered and one not. Oh, and Alex really is broken. 🙁
Follow Your Dreams
Nia can’t get home due to cancelled flights so Kara volunteers to drive her there. On the way there Nia falls into a dream where she sees her mom Isabel drink a thick black liquid and turn to ash right in front of her. Nia also asks Kara not to share anything about her dream experiences to her family. In Parthas, Nia’s hometown, we meet all of the rest of the Nal’s. Maeve, Nia’s sister, is apprenticing with her mother and is waiting (not so) patiently for the dream powers to come to her as the powers pass from the mother is one daughter only – unless the girl is struck with “future blindness” and it skips to their daughter. Maeve has also studied extensively in dream interpretation to be prepared. Nia is not anxious to let Maeve know about her powers so she gets Kara to steal Maeve away for an “interview” for Catco while Nia goes to their mother to see if there is a way to transfer the powers to Maeve. Maeve tells Kara all about Parthas and how it’s an idyllic community built on tolerance where humans and aliens have lived together for years and how much she’s looking forward to becoming a hero just like her mother. Kara says being a hero might not be all it’s cracked up to be. Nia converses with Isabel and asks if there’s any way to refuse or transfer the dreamer powers and Isabel confirms that once destiny decides whom it is there is nothing to change it. Isabel then realizes that Nia is the dreamer, not Maeve and reassures Nia that she is perfect to take on the powers. And then she dies. From a spider bite. I guess Nal-torians are pretty susceptible to spider venom. The annual Harvest Fest is quickly turned into a makeshift memorial for Isabel. Before going Nia’s father tells her that he has also had a dream where Isabel came to him and told him to give a big white box to Nia. While Maeve is eulogizing her mother Nia sees that she will be attacked by the Children of Liberty idiots. Nia gets her out of the way just in time and Maeve comes to the realization that Nia is the dreamer. She is angry and storms away. As they are on their way back to National City Nia wants to talk to Maeve who’s having none of it. Maeve says Nia shouldn’t even have the powers because she’s not even a real woman. Ooooooooooofff. Nia cries on the ride home that Maeve used to be her biggest supporter of her transgender-ing and now she’s simply furious. Kara tries to tell her that she can relate but Nia rebuff’s her saying Kara couldn’t relate because Nia has powers and so the dynamics are not the same as Kara and Alex. Kara stops the car and indeed reveals that she knows all too well what it’s like to be the sister with powers. “I am Supergirl.” Kara reassures Nia that she does have family support moving forward. Back in National City Nia opens the box to find her new Dreamer costume.
The Tale of Two Sisters
It’s game night! Alex can’t remember Kara’s favorite movie and guilty looks are exchanged from Kara to Brainy to J’onn. Alex gets called to an alien brawl at NCU and Supergirl shows up to help as well. Alex summarily dismisses her and tells her not to call her Alex but “Director Danvers,” please. Ooooooofff. The next day Alex can’t break the two idiot Dude Bro’s that raged out on the pills they took. She swears something is off and asks J’onn to help her by scanning her again. J’onn and Brainy agree that lying to her and telling her she’s fine is indeed the best course of action. Oooooooffff. J’onn placebo’s her and tells her that everything is fine. They come up with a plan to dress up Brainy as a Dude Bro and get him to get the other idiots to give up their information. Which he does. In less than 45 seconds. This sends the DEO on the hunt for the drug suppliers who are traveling in an RV delivering their goods all over the place. Eventually this lands them in Parthas because the Children of Liberty waste’oids have bought a bunch of the rage pills to take care of the local roaches. Sighhhhhhhhhhhhhhh. Can’t we pleeeeeeeeeease be done with this nonsense? Anywho, Alex and crew get caught up in the brawl and Supergirl and Alex square off over an alien who is defending himself against one of the suppliers little sister who has taken one because…..well, we’re frankly not sure why. Alex has a gun trained on the alien. Supergirl laser visions her hand and they exchange a little heart to heart. Alex claims that Supergirl has no capacity to feel vulnerable because she is literally the “Girl of Steel, on the outside…and the inside.” OOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOoooooooooFFFFFFFFFFFfffffff. Back in National City Kara, Alex, and J’onn are spending the evening together and before Alex arrives J’onn explains that breaking Alex’s knowledge that she grew up with an alien in her room may have fundamentally changed her feelings toward aliens in general. Which makes no sense because Alex reached out to J’onn earlier for herself and she still trained under him and AAAAAAAAAAuuuuuuughgghghgh….
Co-Conspirators
It’s game night! Lena wants everyone to know how “of one mind” she and James are. Except that they’re not. “Oh, fail,” as Alex appropriately puts it. At Catco McKenzie comes to James with a potential story involving a Black Budget at LCorp that she has uncovered and would like to investigate. James says yes but to bring everything to him first. James tries to confront Lena about it but he walks in on her training for the next game night because she’s making sure that they are indeed of one mind. And she doesn’t like to lose. He drops the discussion. He later tells McKenzie that everything checks out and is all above board. Liar, liar, pants on fire!
BONUS! There’s something wrong with Red Daughter
Red Kara is training in the exact same way (shot-for-shot) as last episode when she lands and starts bleeding. By the time the medical types get to it her heart has stopped as well. They shock her to no result until they turn it up to maximum and purple strands of light and energy emanate from her to go all over the world including hitting the Dude Bro’s RV and turn their happy pills into rage inducing monster pills. I hate it when you can’t trust the labels on these things! At the end of the episode the Head Red is concerned about Red Daughter and calls someone unknown on the phone to say he needs help from someone in America.
Closing Thoughts
This was a truly frustrating episode. Largely because of the writing. I will say this, what could have turned out to be an after-school-special kind of episode truly did not. Nia’s coming out to Kara about being transgender was a mature and well executed scene. My frustration largely stems from the two big emotional moments when one sister turns on the other (although Alex not knowing that she did). The moments felt simply forced just for drama’s sake. Maeve is supposed to be an acolyte of her mother and her tolerant, peaceful environment who acts like a petulant child when she doesn’t have what she wants. I get that she is hurt but her reaction is less than enlightened. And then there’s Alex. Even if we take J’onn’s explanation that she may have a completely altered viewpoint on aliens then it also goes alongside that she has rejected everything that J’onn taught her and has bought in and sold out to the Haley train. I’m not buying it. It was rushed and both of these “shocking” moments were unearned. And there was the Children of Liberty so that’s an immediate burr in my backside. Yet again the writers are trying to maneuver through sticky issues with absolutely zero nuance (with an exception for Nia and Kara). Kara revealing herself was a very nice touch and one that we need to get done with Lena and eventually Alex again soon. I understand that we can’t have a broken Alex for an extended run of episodes but we sure needed it dripped a little slower for what we got in this mess of an episode.
Cougar’s Comic Corner
Supergirl and the Legion of Super-Heroes (2005-2009) Vol 3: Strange Visitor from Another Century
The 21st Century’s Girl of Steel wakes up 1,001 years later, convinced the whole reality is something that she just dreamed up. And maybe it is! Purchase it here on Amazon.
Next time on Supergirl!
Season 4, Episode 12, “Menagerie”
(From comicbook.com, December 4, 2018) Jessica Meraz has been cast as Pamela Ferrer/Menagerie. In the comics, the character is just Pamela with an unknown surname. She is Puerto Rican with metamorphosis powers so she has control over alien lifeforms known as “symbeasts” that she can command to take any shape she can think of. First appearing in Action Comics #775, Menagerie was recruited by Manchester Black for his Elite and while the origin of her powers is unclear, Manchester Black at one point mentions that the rogue Men in Black from the DEO plucked people from the dregs of society to turn them into weapons. As for the TV series Menagerie is a jewel thief who doesn’t mind hurting people and has connections to Manchester Black’s Elite.
See you on February 17!
Feedback
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A long one so doing this in two parts; part 1…
Most importantly – https://mobile.twitter.com/TheCWSupergirl/status/1091095050761646080 .
Ugh John again with the emotional photo choice! :'( Right in the feels again!
Some blog post comments…
“Oh, and Alex really is broken. :(” – that emoji is extremely accurate! Alex! I really hope J’onn just blocked her memories and didn’t erase them all together because an erase means an all new Alex and we know this show doesn’t have the best history with character changes (looking at you Jimmy) and Alex is pretty important to this series; yes she can remake memories with Kara knowing the truth but it’s not the same as the ones she had, as they hyped with Brainy in promotional talks there’s a difference in knowing the past (hearing stories of what they did together) and experiencing it. This is still an interesting plot but one the writers definitely have to balance well; it would keep in theme with J’onn to block instead of erase because it’s Alex and he will protect her so they could easily say with his skill set he told Kara it was erased so Kara wouldn’t be tempted to try and bring Alex back before Haley was gone but the moment she is they can have him bring back Alex to her self we love and admit he lied to protect them both…the memories were never gone they were just blocked much like Brainy can do with his memories so everyone wins – the writers get this epic plot and fans don’t lose the Alex we love. 🙂
“I guess Nal-torians are pretty susceptible to spider venom.” – that is the only thing that makes sense because wow lame otherwise.
I actually like the suit for Nia was a hand me down versus another built one, that was refreshing.
“against one of the suppliers little sister who has taken one because…..well, we’re frankly not sure why.” – I took it as she was mad the Children Of Liberty goons roughed up her brother to get the pills.
Alex’s reaction to Kara calling her the “girl of steel inside and out” makes me wonder does she not remember Supergirl saving her multiple times through the series and if not is it due to her making those moves thinking her powerful sister would hopefully save her before it went wrong so because it’s tied to Kara she can’t remember or did she say it because she was simply having a bad day? Again this is a really interesting plot in regards to where you can go with the plot discussing mentality and connections but one the writers need to do carefully because they don’t want to turn fans off and messing with a favorite like Alex could do that if done poorly like we’ve seen with James. I’m cautious with this plot.
“Which makes no sense because Alex reached out to J’onn earlier for herself and she still trained under him.” – exactly! I’m fine with S1 Alex coming back to an extent but not a Haley Alex, that doesn’t fit her.
“Red Kara is training in the exact same way (shot-for-shot) as last episode” – I get it saved money but it felt really lazy; I rather of had an off screen explosion and seen alt Kara land with the bloody nose than watch a repeat of the shot.
I can get your frustrations John but for me the Nia stuff was just so good I had to give it a positive. Also Chyler and Melissa doing the sisters because heart of the show!
Manchester Black – the only good thing about the Children Of Liberty plot!
On to the podcast…
-20 is bad but at least it wasn’t -80 like in some places Justina! Still -20 is definitely stay inside weather if you can. 🙂 I agree John it’s ridiculous.
“Oh fail!” – Alex summing up the fan take on Lames!
Why they don’t just let James run CatCo and do more plots like this, covering for people or questioning their choices, I will never know! CatCo is where he works best, it’s no different than Alex staying with the DEO even though Haley is giving her crap or J’onn doing detective work because that’s what he is…they’re not trying to make them go be a reporter or barista or something so why do they try and move James around so much? If you they can’t think of something to do with him then just send him to Metropolis for the time being so he could return if something gets thought of but in the meantime you’re not leaving fans groaning when they see him on screen because right now it feels like that’s where most are with James. He was good in S1 but since then it’s just been rough with him. The relationship with Lena is inorganic because of his actions from S2 so that doesn’t work and Guardian is just a giant mess because it feels so forced…again what is so wrong with just having him at CatCo using it to question characters and create organic drama that way?! It’s just such a fall from S1 quality and frustrating to watch.
Lena is good!
“…and then here comes the Children Of Liberty to ruin the party, boo!” – ha, fair John. Justina: “My 9 out of 10 is a Children Of Liberty problem.” – ha; they’re your James. 🙂
I hope it was just Maeve lashing out in anger and she doesn’t really mean what she said because if this has been underlying resentment then that would suck! We might see her again helping Nia with translations which would be a good bonding moment for them but I don’t think we’ll see her anytime soon; maybe before season end but probably not within the next 5 episodes just to give Nia space to come to terms with this part of herself and because there’s other plots that need addressing. It was definitely a hard moment to see even more harsh in my opinion than Alex saying Supergirl was steel on the inside too.
I love how with the exception of Winn Kara only outs herself now for Alex connected reasons – Nia talked about struggling with her sister which Kara gets so she shows her who she is, it reminded me of Kara outting herself to Lucy so she would help them with Alex and J’onn. Now if she would only out herself to Lena so we can get rid of that crap plot! Ha. I will take it as Kara just wants to stop lying to Lena, no Alex connection needed on that one. 🙂
Nice dream symbol stuff Justina.
Part 2…
Kara mentoring Nia as a reporter is a joke to me because I’m sorry but Kara is not a reporter, just because she questions things doesn’t make her one – you could just as easily say she’s a detective with that skill set and the need to help others. Now her helping Nia in her Dreamer situations I can get but the reporter side I feel Nia should be mentoring Kara more than the reverse. 🙂 It’s hard for me to buy Kara as a reporter in part because I just see it as a nod to Clark and again can we stop with the Superman stuff in “Supergirl”; Kara has her own comics to pull from too it doesn’t always have to be a take on his arcs.
I think it was just for Brainy/Nia time which is ok. 🙂
Haley threw out the “non lethal force” policy last episode John, even if she hadn’t Alex was still one to want to carry her gun after John made the policy because she’s not one they have to worry about crossing a line in that regard, if you go back and watch the scene where J’onn makes that policy Alex’s face is a bit conflicted. She went with it because it’s J’onn and she trusts him but she was one of the agents who hesitated hearing the policy which is fair; I get what J’onn was going for (don’t shoot people just to make it easy on yourself) but I still agree with agents who say that’s naive in thinking for their job to a point – true you can use non lethal gear to a point but they deal with species of such wise ranging DNA and aggression levels that sometimes lethal force may be needed when a “me or you” situation pops up. I always felt that was really naive for the DEO because while the idea of not rushing to use guns is smart you can’t deny again that sometimes they’re the only way to stop a bad situation and who’s going to decide what’s non lethal? Who’s to say while pepper spray isn’t lethal to A alien it’s not deadly to B alien, as we saw a spider took down Nia’s mom so what happens if an alien gets seriously hurt while in DEO encounters because they used a stabilizing mist or some gadget that was meant to freeze the possible baddie so they could easily take them in custody but because of the biology it starts shutting down their body because it thinks it’s being frozen? Had Alex shot the aliens who was defending himself in the leg it would be extreme force arguably but not as lethal as some agent who shot them in the chest or head because they’re reacting scared more than smart or because they didn’t get all the information. Again Alex is a good shot so I think her with a gun isn’t a bad thing but if she wasn’t as good a shot then I could get worrying, still it’s naive to say I think that they shouldn’t have them at all because again maybe bullets are the only thing that would work on some aliens; teach the agents shot placement to minimize damage versus going non lethal which could get agents hurt against someone charging at them and nothing is working. It’s like the kryptonite debate, yes it’s dangerous to Kara and that’s bad but without it they couldn’t have stopped Non in S1 or Reign in S3 so I feel ditching it is irresponsible; Kara and Clark can’t touch it so how is them holding it helping anyone? I get not just trusting anyone to watch it but J’onn and Alex aren’t going to use it in a ill manner so why not let them be the guardians? True you could argue Alex just as easily could have killed the innocent person but then that would be as John said character assassination because that’s too extreme; again Alex has always been more takedown first and question later so I lean toward she may have shot him but not killed him…if she did think she wounded him to that degree she would get him help because she’s not heartless like Haley seems to be. Back to John’s question though, we haven’t really seen the non lethal policy in effect beyond a few moments and it was J’onn’s policy not officially Alex’s so she could change it as director; Haley did veto it last week though so because Alex is director in name only currently it would be ignored anyways. I get not using extreme force unnecessarily but the non lethal policy always felt weird to me in terms of how are they going to execute it consistently because again what’s lethal to one may not be to another and arming just non lethal tech feels like trouble when things get close because sometimes the bad guys don’t just stop so you need something to stop them and not be their next victim; it’s a very complex debate I get it but I think there is a middle ground to it.
Spiritually Nia is a woman so as Justina said earlier once she came into her true body then the powers could activate; she was always a sister she just couldn’t get all the benefits until she became herself. As you say John we don’t know the biology of Nia’s race so it’s very easy for them to say that them changing comes with the benefits of the change; I think the bigger thing for me is now learning Nia’s dad is human how does that effect her powers, is that maybe why she had trouble seeing things in a dream beyond not studying dreamscapes – because her powers aren’t that of her mother’s level or do they respond the same no matter your DNA combination? Let’s be real it’s a lot easier to gloss over the workings of Nia’s ability than it is to explain “because glasses” for Kara ha. Also in the vein of powers and how they effect people, I’m just going to leave this here – #SamStillHasPowers! I know they tried to say Ruby edited her DNA but Reign is still inside her, locked away yes but still inside, and even if she wasn’t Sam wasn’t your average Kryptonian – she had been genetically engineered to be the strongest Krypton had to offer so I’m sorry but I’m not buying she’s just a human now…she might not be Reign level in power or even Kara level depending on how you factor in Ruby but she’d be Mon level at minimum.
I don’t think Maeve was evil just because she got mad at Nia, now if she’s being lying about her feelings of support then yeah that’s bad but as Justina said I took the scene as a sibling knowing which button to push and smashing it because she was mad she didn’t get something she spent her whole life wanting.
Someone’s dog has the itchies. 🙂
Nice one Monty, I’ve been waiting for someone to make a Morgan LaFay comment towards Lena. 🙂
Shh Blackhawkfan the less Guardian screentime the better. 🙂
“Hulk smash” – ha Justina! I took it as maybe the alien thought Bobbie was a COL member so he attacked her and Kara jumped into that fight versus Bobbie attacked him randomly (she was fighting back trying to get to the COL) or him attacking her just because; it was pretty hectic in that scene so it’s not hard to believe someone hit someone by mistake and then you have a baby fight without the big fight as it were.
Okay that’s fair Leslie, the gamma burst doesn’t make sense; we’ve seen Kara affect Leslie to make her Livewire by touching her when lightening hit so I get them getting powers but how t escaped at the start is weird.
The Danvers sisters are the heart of the show!!!
Thanks for filling in again Justina!
You’re both wrong in regards to the end, the correct answer is Alex Danvers or Helena Bertinelli. 😉