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“What’s So Funny About Truth, Justice, and the American Way” was an action filled romp that also brought out deep character growth. It drew the line in the sand between the good guys and bad guys and fairly deftly explored the grey area between the two.
The Elite
After considerable time in prison, Manchester Black reaches out to J’onn J’onzz to come and see him there. J’onn wants to help Manchester through the pain of his loss but Black and his new teammate Hat have other plans so Hat pulls a mobilizing gun out of his…wait for it…hat and zaps J’onn. Hat and Black escape prison, and are joined by Menagerie and a Morai (remember “Suspicious Minds”). The Elite are born! They face off against Supergirl but Hat also seems to have teleportation power so that face-off ends rather quickly. J’onn is ok and follows Supergirl back to base. Meanwhile, The Elite start going on a killing spree to take out the alien haters like the Children of Liberty; but, it’s not an exclusive hate by any means. Any anti-alien sentiment is enough to get whacked by this leadership group of the Intolerant Left (tm Manchester Black). They put out a video showing their mass killing mayhem and Manchester calls out Supergirl to face him through a message only she can see. She gets the message and meets them in…wait for it…Manchester, England. Black wants to assign duties between the two sides of the denominational divide. Supergirl can get the cats stuck in trees, raging fires, natural disasters, and the like while The Elite will take care of fascists of all varieties. Supergirl can’t abide by that deal so Black challenges her to take up the idea with President Baker who is planning a satellite that will blow away any incoming alien ship to Earth. It seems Black is correct and the showdown goes down at the launch site of the satellite in Wyoming. Hat with his 5th dimensional…hat…that can produce anything he wants and provide aforementioned teleportation provides Black with several weapons and is able to steal the Legion of Super Heroes ring from Brainy’s hand. Black takes the ring to fly after Supergirl but J’onn takes Black down and decides to set aside the oath that he gave his father to become a Martian of Peace. Supergirl succeeds in defeating The Elite’s plans to use the satellite against the White House and blow it away by destroying aforementioned, mentioned, satellite. The Elite get away this time but there’s certainly more to come.
Superfriends
Kara and Nia very awkwardly make their way from CatCo even though Alex has come to salvage lunch that she and Kara were supposed to have. Alex slips and mentions to James that Lena is moving into the DEO. James is quite cool and maybe even wants to explore McKenzie’s previous story about LCorp that he told her before had to be all wrong. Anywho, Kara, Nia, and Brainy make their way to the Fortress of Solitude to begin Nia’s training in earnest. We also get a rude exchange between Kel-Ex and Brainy who apparently do not appreciate one another. Nia wants to know about her planet and people but Brainy holds her back saying that knowing too much could paradoxically destroy the universe and such, blah, blah, timey-wimey, blah, blah. ANYwho, Nia goes directly to Kel-Ex to get the info she needs and starts astral projecting, which, of course, is months into the training regimen ahead of schedule. Duhhh. Brainy is ticked off but Nia explains that she’s always been like that, jumping in without thinking about it first. Brainy recognizes the hero inside of her because of that. In the midst of all of this J’onn is figuring out what it means to keep his oath and fight his inner Manhunter which Manchester Black is able to call out so easily because of the rage of losing his family on Mars. Supergirl invites him to take back up the sword, noting that even M’yrnn took on Reign at the end of his life. Supergirl recognizes that Black is calling her out because she is the symbol of hope. She wrestles with this, even going to Alex’s apartment all Super-suited up and tells her that no matter which way she turns her actions will either feed the alien haters or the human haters. She asks Alex to come and help with the satellite but Alex declines as technically, the DEO doesn’t know anything about it, and they really don’t. The showdown goes down and the Superfriends win the day, destroying the satellite with Alex bringing the Super Eco-Suit so Supergirl can fly to space and take care of things. Brainy’s ring is lost and Nia promises him they will find it.
Director “Schmuck” of Alien Affairs
Ben Lockwood is getting ready to meet with President Baker when the local DC Children of Liberty yahoo meets him in a bar. The yahoo says the Children are getting nervous about their leader’s behavior worried that he’s cuddling up to the President instead of lynching aliens properly. Ben leaves the bar and indeed meets the POTUS and asks him to deputize the Children of Liberty to keep up with The Elite who are taking all of the fun away from him. POTUS laughs in his face and tells him to smile for the cameras. Meanwhile, at the DEO Lena and Alex get all science-ey together and Alex realizes that Lena wasn’t speaking in hypotheticals at Thanksgiving. She really does want to super power the people. Lena says she will give the government the products of her research but never the methodology. When Alex later goes to confront Col Haley about the satellite, Col Haley assures her that the POTUS was operating outside of the proper boundaries and that neither she nor the DEO as an organization was brought in on the plan. Alex immediately goes back to Lena and off DEO CCTV camera pledges her undying loyalty to Lena, and Eve of course. After the POTUS loses his precious satellite he invites Ben back to the Oval Office to deputize him as the POTUS’ new Director of Alien Affairs. The local convening Children of Liberty yahoos are not convinced that Ben being a part of the government and not lynching is the best course of action. Ben summarily beats the DC head yahoo to death was a copy of his Agent Liberty mask. The other yahoos get in line. Quick-like.
Closing Thoughts
This was a solid episode that packed a ton of action into some character muddiness and the storytelling really came together nicely. While I have loathed the Children of Liberty storyline from the beginning I very much enjoyed the position of Ben Lockwood coming to grips with letting the genie out of the bottle and not being able to possibly control all of his passionate followers anymore. And I very much liked the theme of Supergirl using herself as the symbol of hope knowing that her actions give credence to either the Intolerant Left or the Alt-Right Children of Liberty types. I was totally on board with Alex ditching her government trust and turning to assist Lena any way that she can. The Superfriend team assembled in this episode really worked for me and I hope we get more of this dynamic and at the same time I feel like Manchester Black and his Elite are equally formidable because they recognize their limitations and still continue to spread havoc in any way that they can. As lackluster as the Supergirl episodes have been of late, this was a refreshing breath of fresh air and hopefully a springboard to what the latter half of Season 4 has in store. I really liked this one! What a concept.
Cougar’s Comic Corner
“Action Comics #775, What’s So Funny About Truth, Justice, And The American Way?”
A group of metahumans calling themselves the Elite – consisting of Manchester Black, a psychokinetic; Hat, who has a supremely powerful magic hat; Coldcast, with power over subatomic particles; and Menagerie, who is covered with symbiotic creatures – suddenly appear on the world scene and proclaim themselves “super-heroes”. They are able to stop a terrorist threat in Libya involving a giant genetically enhanced ape, but not without killing the perpetrators, and not without huge and unnecessary loss of civilian life. Upon learning about the Elite from reporter Jack Ryder, Superman heavily disapproves of the Elite’s lack of morals and their willingness to kill. However, much to his dismay, many people tend to agree with the Elite’s brutal methods, as they see it as the only way to deal with increasingly dangerous criminals and evil-doers. During a conversation he has with Steel after learning this, he wonders if the world has moved on without the need of Superman.
Look for it here on Amazon/Comixology!
Next time on Supergirl!
Season 4, Episode 14, “Stand and Deliver”
SUPERGIRL TAKES A STAND — Between Ben Lockwood’s (Sam Witwer) new push to stir up the anti-alien movement and the Elite’s desire to target Lockwood and his minions, Supergirl (Melissa Benoist) is concerned about the safety of the American people – both human and alien. When Lockwood organizes a rally, the aliens decide to peacefully protest. Brainiac (Jesse Rath) and J’onn (David Harewood) join the alien march while Supergirl and Dreamer (Nicole Maines) patrol to keep everyone safe. Meanwhile, James (Mehcad Brooks) picks up his camera again to cover the march for CatCo, and Hayley (April Parker Jones) assigns Alex (Chyler Leigh) a job that clashes with her beliefs. When The Elite and Ben Lockwood stir up trouble at the rally, Supergirl is forced to take a stand. Jonathan Bennett guest stars. Andi Armaganian directed the episode written by Rob Wright & Jess Kardos.
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Here is the info I shared about Brainiac 5 & Kelex https://twitter.com/kara_querl/status/1102018126231810048?fbclid=IwAR2RcOJArcYLadQEkD1PxjyHfRzekbWuklztFDCuOKw_XcE_q8_Yo4CFFIs
From the blog post…
“And I very much liked the theme of Supergirl using herself as the symbol of hope knowing that her actions give credence to either the Intolerant Left or the Alt-Right Children of Liberty types.” – I agree I thought this was really well done and smart on Kara’s part to recognize that while she would like to be able to speak and act freely she can’t always because of what she represents. It definitely sucks for Kara to have to be limited like that but it’s very wise to understand why she’s in this situation! It was a very organic moment and I love they had it in the episode.
On to the podcast…
I love Martin but I would rather the discussion about “Arrow” been in a separate round table podcast much like we saw the hosts doing with the crossover event because while there is the super friends tie in this is such a big announcement that doesn’t really tie to this episode plus it kind of excludes hearing others takes on it. If it was its own roundtable then fans/hosts could talk about it from a being just fans of “Arrow” point of view to talking about what it means to “Flash”,” Supergirl”, “Black Lightening”, and Legends fans that they have their show because of “Arrow” and it being such a success or even how they feel about it now if you didn’t watch “Arrow” and only jumped into the other shows when they started because maybe you’re just a X, Y, or Z fan instead of an Oliver one. There could also be fan feedback on it potentially; I’m definitely going to listen to what Martin has to say but I do wish this was its own event podcast more than in the middle of an episode recap that doesn’t really have any connecting tie ins.
“and I’m bitter about it.” – yes John; give us a full on flirty Alex screen time episode show! We need to know her flirt skills! You just know Melissa and Chyler would kill the comedy in that episode. 🙂
I look forward to your review of “Justice League”/”Justice League Unlimited” John!
I’ll do you one better John, I never saw a “Star Wars” movie nor did I care to until “The Force Awakens” came out. I’m assuming with this comment next week will be hosted by Geoff and Justina to which I look forward to the show guys! John we’ll see you when your brain starts working again. 😉
Shh Darryl, don’t question the Lames break up just enjoy it. 🙂
Given Stephen told the writers to write season seven like it was their last I’m not surprised “Arrow” is ending; I am a bit surprised at the 10 episode count as I thought it would be a full season but I’m not surprised with this news especially when you factor it in with the Crisis deal moment. I was never a fan of Oliver in this version really so I honestly never paid as much attention to Stephen as I did others when it came to the show, but I think you can’t deny he gave everything he had planned to dedicate to this project plus a bit to come back for another season to make sure it’s finished well and he was always 100% in his ambassador role for the series and universe so if he feels it is time to go and they have done all they can with Oliver really then I get him stepping away. He had a wonderful goodbye video essentially where he just fairly admits 10 years almost is enough for him and he’s out grown acting each day as a passion so it’s only fair he leave instead of going through the motions for whatever reason as it were; I know hardcore “Arrow” fans are going to be really upset but at least the show is getting to go out on its own terms with plenty of notice to finish the story the way they want which is certainly more than most shows can do so there’s that. We never want to see our favorite shows go especially when they’re in a good run story wise like this season has been for the most part but at least it’s not ending early simply because someone wanted to leave or it wasn’t fairly given a chance to showcase the great adventures, it’s sad but not horrible given the situation.
“Arrow” is only my second favorite show in the DCTV CW universe (“Supergirl” is always my number one) but I can thank it for helping to get my favorite. It’s certainly not out of character for Oliver to sacrifice himself in Crisis and organically it works as an exit but I still feel understandably there are going to be fans who hate Oliver dying because he didn’t get the long time happy ending they feel he deserves. Personally I can kind of get how where Oliver is is as happy as he’ll get because the dude has seen and done some dark stuff so arguably he’s never going to be as happy as a say Barry but for Oliver this is happiness with Felicity and his family so in a way you could say he’s been rewarded but death as an exit has a history of laziness to it for exits so I can again also understand fans who won’t be happy with the how if Oliver goes out like that even if they can accept the fact he’s leaving. “the hero who started it all saves it all.” – that’s fitting Justina and something I could see everyone deciding to nod to Oliver’s legacy.
“Flash” has time travel and alternate universes so even if they merge some Earths they don’t have to say it’s all Earths or maybe something happens even where story wise new Earths are created and so you could have an Oliver-98 if Stephen wanted to come back for a bit but Oliver Queen as most know he will be dead if that was the deal. I definitely Martin on the whole getting into podcasting because of a certain show, if not for Mike’s and Dave’s (see Sandbox here hosts) Liber8 podcast and them being so welcoming and engaging I wouldn’t know about GSM or other awesome shows so I get having a special thanks for something. Maybe it’s because I’m not as hardcore a fan as others, but I’d say my favorite “Arrow” memories are definitely Arrow Squad because even when an episode is bad I know the podcast will be good and it’s that camaraderie and civility with other fans discussing things that is fun and I very much love the factor of queer representation just exploding out of “Arrow” to where we have a queer member on every superhero show showing how different everyone can be but still sharing similarities to bond us just as they show each week there’s no difference in queer people and straight people beyond who they’re dating on these shows so the representation “Arrow” helped create is definitely a plus, yes that’s more a Greg Berlanti theme but he had to start somewhere and “Arrow” was the starting point for a lot of things we see in the roster. Show wise my favorite thing because of how memorable it is to me would be Felicity in season four specifically the Legends set up standing up to Oliver because I thought “Who is this girl?” and “Yes, you get him girl!” because while I didn’t know anything on the series I knew enough that Oliver had messed up lying to this person he loves even within just a few scenes, ha, and because that was kind of rare to see this secondary character yell at the main and him kind of take it because he knows he’s wrong was rare I just gravitated towards her before seeing some S3 stuff and really liking Nyssa and then they kind of just kept me going and now we have Dinah who’s awesome as Martin knows so show wise that’s probably my favorite thing. It’s definitely going to be an emotional episode for the next AS podcast I feel.
Per usual Alex is easily a highlight; I really love the sister moments this week – they are the heart of the show! Beyond them though I’d say Manchester Black and Menagerie teaming up because fun and we haven’t seen a team up like that arguably since Livewire (who’s not dead) and Silver Banshee.
Why do you have to put Lena with Ben John, just make a four discussion point for her and James called National Inquirer because he’s the news and they want Lena making things on a large scale. 🙂
YES Justina, I support you choosing to knock Ben out now because just ugh; even if they do like the comics and try to make him good I think the character at this point is just dead to me because of the way he’s been handled. It would take A LOT for me to care about Agent Liberty/Ben if they went redemption for him because I just dislike him so much. I feel bad for Sam because he’s giving her little heart out acting wise and it’s not necessarily the plot as I enjoyed Mercy being evil but I just don’t get excited when Liberty/Ben is on screen. Maybe it’s due to the clicheness of a lot of his actions and those around him or maybe it’s just dislike for how can someone be this naively mean to others but I just don’t get excited seeing this plot. What happened to Red Daughter? I rather she been the season only villain or was more prominent and an issue because she’s trying to turn Kara to the dark side because a Mercy lead Liberty smaller plot was going on adding to her case but as is I feel by the time we get to Red Daughter’s resolution we’re not going to care and instead of being excited by the outcome we’ll just be excited we’re there as her stuff has been so spaced out it’s hard to emotionally invest in the plot.
Sadly Lydia seems fine with George being violent because she took him to the prison to see his dad and left them alone and we saw her outside when he was arrested chanting so I’d love to see her realize how this is not okay but I think at this point it would seem strange unless they take the time to address the shift so I’m not holding my breath. I feel maybe she was just busy and couldn’t answer or maybe her phone was charging and she missed the call.
I agree with Justina it’s not revenge by James for the break up; for me it’s just James being anti Luthor and feeling he was right he can’t trust Lena so he’s back to how he was before but maybe not as aggressive in his dislike of her because they slept together.
I can agree Justina sometimes it’s nice to see the team as Kara is more team oriented than others but at the same time the frustrating part is when Kara can clearly beat whoever she’s against but they have some manufactured reason why she can’t take them out, that’s what annoys fans the most I think not that she loses as some of her coolest scenes come from loses like getting beat by and then beating Reign. It’s all about handling. Kara was getting sidelined when Mon was around so I get why you felt that way John; things work now because as you said it feels more balanced between people and who’s in each week and what are they doing, it feels more organic and less like filler.
I agree Justina re: J’onn moving forward!
I wasn’t a fan of Hat this episode as he felt very all powers no substance especially compared to Pamela and Manchester who have had their own episodes; I get he’s a rogue/new guy so of course he’s a mystery but we didn’t get anything on him this episode either so he felt very much there to me and more like a magic ring of Manchester’s own until he got Brainy’s. Had they given at least some tidbits on him I might have liked to him more but as is he was just a gloried magic ring for Manchester more than anything to me.
Agreed Manchester is awesome; “Supergirl” easily has the best villain roster!
Alex is a superhero, #NotAllHeroesWearCapes; Alex easily has the best stunt work on the show, her fights don’t disappoint even if sometimes she loses them like Manchester getting her in round two before going after Kara.
Nothing would make Guardian work I feel.
Same Darryl, I had no idea where the saying came from because it’s been forever since I saw “Hook”; I don’t mind little touches like that though but if they do seem too extreme in the moment I get it can take you out of the moment.
Agent Liberty might be the worst villain we’ve had due to clicheness.
Lol to Monty saying Manchester is a footballer; I’m going to assume it’s because of the name because attitude wise he seems more rugby to me or are they too considered footballers in Europe thus the reference still works? That’s actually fair to ask if maybe Alex is too drunk at times to make connections because otherwise how does she not know that’s her sister?! “I miss Claymore.” – ha!
I still give it to the writers it was an ambitious plot to block Alex’s memory of Kara as Supergirl and it does work to a point but long term it can’t continue because otherwise you change a core element of the series and that’s a very dangerous thing even if ends up going well it’s still really risky and I just can’t see it going well in this case as the sisters are such the heart of the show for most of us that to change that even if they create new memories and Alex finds out another way later who Kara is it’s too risky beyond this season as it still changes the relationship and we loved their relationship as is – there’s other ways to create angst with them as we saw when Maggie came in and personal time kind of divided them or when they just disagree with each other over a topic we don’t need this added to their dynamic. It works for this season still to a degree but yeah lets get Alex back her memories by season end please. You have to be extremely careful when messing with the sisters; I applaud the writers for taking this big swing and doing it well and again this works in the season for the situation with Haley they had but beyond that we’ll take them back like they were pre block than you.
I thought Brainy was just worried about future ramifications if someone else had his ring because what if they used it in a way that changed his time so it’s almost like he can never go back because while maybe Mon and Irma are still in the Legion in the future maybe they don’t trust Brainiacs anymore so no one is coming to rescue him because technically he never joined the group or maybe he’s afraid if someone like Lex gets it they’ll produce a version of it earlier than it was meant to be created and cause problems that way. Yes maybe some of it was loss on an emotional front but I think some of it again was definite worry over someone misusing it or changing time unknowingly in some form with it.
Wow Justina really, you’re going to phrase 2000 as old? Ha.
I really wish they would do more with Brainy and his future knowledge, it doesn’t have to be a whole episode or even something that comes up every week but I would love to know how he processes a situation where the argument is do you tell the person what’s coming or not and if you do/don’t how you know you aren’t changing history for you because maybe X happened because you did/didn’t tell them if that makes sense? Just going back to Alex flirting for a moment because we need more of that, what if Brainy made a comment to Alex accidentally because he’s feeling at ease with them that her current crush isn’t who she ends up with – he wouldn’t say it as clear as that of course but Alex would know that’s the meaning and how he’s in a situation where he’s stressing what is it going to mean and trying to push Alex to date the person anyways because what if she needed to date X in order to be the perfect match for her wife in the future because that relationship taught her something? Yes knowing that she doesn’t end up with the crush will affect any dates she would go on so does that effect how long Alex is married to her wife or even if they get married at all? It’s certainly a lot to process when you bring in someone from the future who has to stress about any little detail so I get why maybe they do ignore his future knowledge but at the same time I do wish they’d do more with it because if you’re the group how do you not question him about if X, Y, or Z turns out well? Are there moments where it’s ok to get involved for his own sanity because the choices don’t really effect big elements of characters future or is everything too much of a risk for him as he suggests? Nia is pushing him pretty hard about the future so I feel if he’s going to crack it’s going to be with her soon because maybe with her powers it’s a bit safer to tell her something than others because she can see the future herself in a sense, it just an interesting point with him which I’d like to see on or at least see people try only to have him say no and explain why again and how the future works for him when it comes to choices in the now.
Totally fair Blackhawkfan about Alex not knowing who Kara is despite her noted skills! Umm you got me in a jam here BF because I do hate Agent Liberty but I also REALLY dislike Superman plots on the show and Lex is the biggest of them all so…by a small margin I have to say in that case I will take the COL over Lex on the show. I am not looking forward to him. If Alex does get some of the serum I expect there will be side effects such as maybe they aren’t permeant so she and Kara only have a limited amount of time to beat up Red Daughter before Alex’s backup is gone for Kara; it also could be a repeat of Pestilence where Alex gets powers for a bit but it effects her system so they have to save her and maybe Lena realizes while a nice try idea wise this just isn’t something that should be available so it helps the story fade out instead of feeling like it was just dropped between seasons because we’re on to new stuff or you have to explain a horde of new powered people who somehow got the drug. If you say Eve is going to drop Lena for Lex for some reason than this plot could come back in season 7 or 8 but for the moment Lena puts it on ice. I know they know this as she is part of the heart of the series but I feel compelled to say it for all characters as safety in angst plots – no killing Alex! It would be a nice way to give Alex a look into Kara’s day to day on that front and may actually help her understand better in the future how to treat her at times or help her progress in power level if she had the powers for a temporary time and it would give Kara a moment to fan girl over Alex as a hero and of course remind her she doesn’t need super powers to be awesome because she’s always been awesome because let’s be real Kara gushing over Alex and being in awe of her never gets old and is always cute! 🙂 It would kind of be a nod to Alex saying she’s trying to keep up with Kara who can literally touch the sky and show Alex that powers aren’t all they’re cracked up to be so while she’s jealous some of the time because of stress she feels placed on her years previous by Eliza she really shouldn’t be. Just no James getting the serum as I don’t think we could handle the ego that may come from that.
Okay after all this talk I might have to raise my rating to a 7 because there was some great stuff in this, but again I can’t get too close to a 10 this week as I just don’t enjoy the handling of the Agent Liberty story. 🙂
I feel Lena will help Lex because deep down he was nice to her and she has hope still be can be better/she wants him to be a better person so I can see her helping unless he slips up and says something like she should use the formula which will push her to saying no as she feels he’s more into her work than her. This may be where Eve hooks up with him to set up that loss for Lena later although that shouldn’t turn her evil show just anti social and less trusting! We’ll see what happens though; finally we get to see Alex’s future girlfriend though and start pondering is she a season long girlfriend or a recurring potential love.