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[sc:mstop]We’re a couple days late, but here nonetheless! Karen and I, Emilee, were excited to chat about Supergirl Season 1 Episode 14 “Truth, Justice and the American Way,” which originally aired on February 22, 2016. After two weeks off, myself, before the week off last week, it felt good to talk Supergirl again and start to see a lot of the pieces coming together that have been floating in their distinct realms since the series began.
This episode of Supergirl featured the DC Comics antagonist Master Jailer, Carl Draper, and his private mission on Earth to hunt down and execute the prisoners of Fort Razz for their various crimes. Large or small, the Master Jailer does not distinguish between severity of crimes nor sentence served nor post-release rehabilitation. The taking of justice into his own hands helps Kara to see the reality of how the DEO is handling their own prisoners, specifically Maxwell Lord.
Jailer, Judge & Jury
The well-known idiom is judge, jury and executioner, of course, which in fact Master Jailer was, but this phrase describes both sides of the coin this week. While the DEO is jailer, judge and jury for an all-purpose prison, the Master Jailer does the same for all the prisoners from Fort Razz. Where they differ is what they actually do with their prisoners; the DEO thinks they’re showing a little compassion by not executing their prisoners–and yes, they are–but being kept in cages is not an even exchange.
One factoid I found interesting was that Prisoner #2444 (the rotten flesh eater) reminds Draper that there is no death penalty on Krypton; and Draper responds, “We’re not on Krypton.” Later, the Professor begs for Draper to fulfill his last request (setting Kara free), to which Draper responds: “Last request. That’s a human concept.” He neither to identifies with Earth, nor Krypton, then praises Alura’s sense of justice. Kara tells him that he dishonors her mother’s memory with his actions, he says that what he’s done is save this city. “This world, humans,” he says, “understand little about justice. Justice must be absolute.”
He really just went ahead and developed his own moral paradigm. Borrowing from Krypton, rejecting human customs, and combining together a set of rules that he thought seemed just. And absolute. It was a fantastic reality check for Kara, seeing what happens when an ethics system is compiled without checks and balances. The system is in place for a reason, not because it works 100% of the time but because it follows a code…and from that code people understand that they’ve been treated fairly.
The Fighting
We had several feedbackers mention this week that they were fans of the action this week! I agree; of the many scenes in which Kara has gone head to head with a villain, the fight scenes in this episode were the best I’ve seen so far. Karen said it looked like a dance, and I totally agree. For once it didn’t look like Kara was flailing, but engaged in the fight.
Cougar’s Comic Corner
Lobo: Portrait Of A Bastich: Collects Lobo #1-4 and Lobo’s Back #1-4
Written by: Keith Giffen (JLA, Ambush Bug, Booster Gold, Blue Beetle) & Alan Grant (A Lot of Batman Series’);
Art by: Simon Bisley (Swamp Thing, Hellblazer)
Get [[[Lobo: Portrait Of A Bastich]]] from Amazon now!
Next Week
Season 1 Episode 15 “Solitude”
Watch Promo
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[sc:ms]
I’m excited about Livewire reappearing, but less so about Stephan Amell appearing; I do love him as Oliver Queen but it wouldn’t make sense for him to be on “Supergirl” given they said it was an alternate universe from “Arrow” and the only reason Barry was coming was because he could travel to the multiple universes. I also dislike it because can we not wait until at least late season two or season three to do the crossovers? I know most fans like them but again I want to see Kara having her own series before they do massive crossover stuff like Flarrow. If Stephan is coming to play an alternate version of Oliver Queen then that might be one thing, but if he’s playing “Arrow” Oliver it won’t make sense and would come off as a “bonus feature”/”stunt casting-rating getter because the series needs it”/”very special filler episode” to me if he shows up with Barry somehow. Again I love Stephan but unless he’s going to be Oliver Queen who’s dating Dinah, and her name has to be Dinah no Laurel so it’s like Dinah but not, Lance then stay on “Arrow”. Again I understand crossovers are fun and the gang wants to play but the push for crossovers this early makes me nervous because I worry it’ll become more about getting to them and seeing characters from other shows on more than it being about the show they’re guest staring in if that makes sense.
I think Cat does like Kara overall. The IMing-yelling scene between Siobhan and Kara was great. I TOTALLY agree about Astra being a great complex character who will be missed; I’m still not over her being dead because of all of the potential. I agree with Karen, I think it’s Donna in the grave on “Arrow”.
They showed Master Jailer activating his suit and blasting Kara before quickly cutting to black – that’s how he captured her in the shootout scene. I did not like James suddenly taking issue with Max being locked up, it came off as kind of speciesist to me. I’ll be disappointed in Jimmy if he faults Kara for his break-up with Lucy. When Jimmy and Lucy break up do you think Lucy will leave the series or will we see her staying to turn into Superwoman before exiting and recurring later?
It would have been hilarious to hear Kara say “I recommend “Twilight”.” to Max just to hear any response Peter may have ad-libbed given he played Carlisle Cullen in the series. Totally fair point about the DEO arsenal. Kara is definitely not a girl scout and again I love that about her.
Some blog post comments…
“The taking of justice into his own hands helps Kara to see the reality of how the DEO is handling their own prisoners, specifically Maxwell Lord.” – I have to say I didn’t come away with the feeling Kara questioned the DEO’s, and by extension her own, handling of prisoners in this episode; yes she released Max at the end with the built in self destruct button if you will but it felt to me like she was slightly more pressured by James to do that rather than she really came to that decision herself. Yes Max’s free, but they still have him confined in a way with the evidence gathered so is he free as compared to the person who helped Kara and taught at the university? I have to say I fully get wanting to keep Max locked because while I understand James call for a trial he is extremely guilty and they know it, a trial would just out Kara and how is that fair to her? It would be one thing if they couldn’t prove Max was behind certain things or it was more ambiguous the extent of his involvement, but everyone who arrested him and knows Kara’s secret knows Max did it so how would a trial change that?
I wonder if we’ll hear Kara telling James “I told you he was dangerous” if any of Max’s future attacks affect him either directly or indirectly? Speaking of Jimmy, I have to say he came off kind of speciesist to me in the discussion with Kara in the armory room; I don’t mind him questioning how people handle things, and I know he’s just now seeing a prisoner in DEO custody, but it wasn’t like Max was being mistreated in some General Lane-Astra type way and the fact he only focused on Max who’s human versus asking how is the DEO handling prisoners in general just didn’t sit well with me. Again it came off kind of speciesist to me and I didn’t like that; if he wants to call out the DEO then fine, but do it for every prisoner not just the human ones – being human doesn’t make Max less dangerous than anyone there and him saying Kara could crush him could apply to others there who are arguably less dangerous than Max due to his intellect. It was just a moment that made me go “No.” in the otherwise awesome scene.
The 1 versus 100 debate has always been a good topic I think regarding superheroes, I love the discussion between Huntress and Batman and later Huntress and Oracle debating was it better to kill a villain and save future people or allow them the chance to escape later leaving them in jail, and it’ll be interesting to see how they continue to handle it here; again will Jimmy be so quick to let Max out next time if Lucy for instance is hurt by him in some way? I understood why Kara in part let Max go, to be better than him, but I also understand any conflict she has about it because she knows he’s a dangerous person who’s not as innocent as some think. Intense topic.
“Where they differ is what they actually do with their prisoners; the DEO thinks they’re showing a little compassion by not executing their prisoners–and yes, they are–but being kept in cages is not an even exchange.” – a point for the DEO is that at least the DEO has cells they can move in, those Fort Rozz cells were like coffins.