Podcast: Play in new window | Download (Duration: 1:58:56 — 69.2MB) | Embed
Supergirl and her team are consumed with finding Nyxly before she can cause more harm. This causes a lot of frustration for Kelly who is left to worry about the residents of The Heights. They were about to start a new chapter in the housing development. A new home would give some stability in their lives. Now they are left with a pile of rubble and debris that is leaving them all literally breathless.
The people in charge won’t help. Counselman Rankin is only seeking the best treatment for herself. Now that the building set aside for low-income housing is gone, she can build a more opulent building to attract more businesses to the area. The residents of this area will continue to struggle while Rankin gets richer.
When Nyxly destroyed the building, she inadvertently infused it with fifth dimensional energy. When Rankin is exposed to the energy, she begins to exhibit strange powers. When she thinks about something it magically materializes. Anything from a simple sandwich to a stack of money. This comes at a cost to the other victims of the building collapse. Every time the counsel woman conjures something out of thin air the other victims get weaker and sicker.
After Kelly calls James to vent, John Diggle appears in National City. He has been where Kelly is before, so James called him in to support Kelly. Sometimes our heroes are only looking at the big picture. Our team is not perfect, and it is their imperfection that makes these scenarios so real. I was proud of Kara and Alex for the conversations they had with Kelly in this episode. They both came from a humble place admitting that they can never understand fully what Kelly’s life experience has been. Conversely there are aspects of Kara and Alex’s life that Kelly will not be able to fully understand. We are all influenced by the experiences that build our life and make us who we are. We all have blind spots. It is what we do when the invisible becomes visible to us that defines what happens next.
Did you like this episode?
- I will never watch this episode again (60%, 3 Votes)
- It was OK (40%, 2 Votes)
- I liked it (0%, 0 Votes)
- I disliked it (0%, 0 Votes)
Total Voters: 5
Loading ...Oh, and K-Vox says if everyone is suiting up then she better get busy…
Cougar’s Comic Corner
Adventure Comics (2009-2011): Special #1
Written by James Robinson released November 5, 2008. SUPERMAN: THE COMPLETE NEW KRYPTON SAGA, Part 2 “New Krypton” part 3! At last! The true origin of the Guardian of Metropolis is revealed! Following directly on from last month’s SUPERMAN’S PAL, JIMMY OLSEN SPECIAL #1, we learn the fantastic and sometimes terrible past of one of DC’s most mysterious heroes. How did the first clone of the Golden Age Guardian come into existence at the hands of the Cadmus Project? We’ll also introduce a mysterious young girl the Guardian has sworn to protect–even at the expense of the Cadmus Project, and, if need be, his very life! $1.99 on Comixology! 
Next Time On Maid of Steel!
Supergirl Season 6 – Episode 13, “The Gauntlet” SUPERGIRL MUST PASS THE TEST OF COURAGE – Supergirl and team race Nyxly for control of a magical totem that controls courage. Supergirl and Nyxly battle and each get a piece of the totem but learn the first person to pass the test of courage will gain control of the entire thing. Meanwhile, Lena is still struggling to make sense of her newfound gift. The episode was directed by Tawnia McKiernan with story by Dana Horgan and teleplay by Jay Faerber & Brooke Pohl and will air on September 28, 2021. at 8:00E/7:00C on the CW.
Feedback
We want you to be part of the podcast! After a new episode airs, head over to our feedback site and drop us a quick line, or record a short voicemail, reacting to the events of the episode. What was interesting to you? What stood out? What did the episode do well or, perhaps, what did it not do well? We rely on your input to help round out our conversation and anticipate the opportunity to include your thoughts and theories!
Some blog post comments…
Ugh the banner photo…it just makes me think of how much of Kelly’s stuff now is recycled; she has her brother’s “superhero” plot (except she’ll probably do it better thankfully), she has her brother’s actual suit (yes it looks a million times better but still), and she has her brother’s romance for all purposes because Alex/Kelly is just a make up for James/Kara given fans were still upset by how it was handled in season four and when does Kelly show up – season four. Her original character introduction had such potential and how she’s just the most generic person arguably in the group and that’s sad. It’s going to be interesting to hear others’ thoughts on it all but yeah I did not enjoy this episode and I’m not looking forward to what’s to come for the rest of the episodes; granted I wasn’t happy with this season at the start but I have zero hope now for it ending even slightly well…maybe Nia has a good ending but I think she’ll be the only one who’s stuff makes sense.
K-Vox! ?❤️?
“How bad can overly courageous superheroes be?” – Alex would say that. Ha. Her ego gets the better of her at times. 🙂
On to the podcast…
Ha to John explaining the after show. ” That’s right kids, the after show is the same thing as a post show. Crazy right?!” 🙂
If you’re alive Monty press 1!
Might I submit Leslie “the magic of friendship”…you know they’re going to work together to defeat Nxy even though they should just send her home and let her rampage there. 🙂
“and you’re all too busy” – yeah chick trying to stop things from getting worse – you’re welcome; ugh that line makes me so mad because it’s not that they don’t care about the people on the street but they can only be in one place and right now they want to stop it from being worse because that could happen d they’re trying to plug smaller holes as it were. Again the overall message of helping everyone is an important one but the way they handle it was just not smart – it leads to possible feelings of resentment and that’s not good. They’re trying but they’re only one person against a literal villain they can’t beat until Lena agrees to get her Hermione Granger on. Sure you can maybe say Alex or Nia could have gone to help while the others worked on a plan with Nxy, but you need to get off Kara’s back for now because she has the magical being to take blows from, she’s busy cut her a break.
Did they get their alphabet confused because they say Guardian but I think they really pulled from the Hs because that suit looks way more Hawkgirl than Guardian at first glance. It’s cool the touches she put in but again the episode on the whole…it didn’t land the way I think she wanted it to; again it was just very heavy handed and I can’t as a fan unhear Kelly in season four saying Guardian was a dumb way to handle you’re feelings on things and there’s been NOTHING show to say she’s changed her mind beyond this episode because they essentially wanted another suit you know? It’s nice Azie was excited but for me a lot of what she says is acting like this is new or the first of something and the fact is it’s not at this point; is it still meaningful to see a black superhero – yes. Kelly didn’t want to be one so it feels weird it’s her doing it. Talking about every day civilians stepping up – you mean like the cops or firefighters or healthcare workers, again it feels like they’re ignoring some big elements in the name of this special to them thing and that doesn’t work to make others buy in. It’s kind of like when the new “Charmed” came out and the one black male actor acted like this was the first ever for the series when it’s not – Dorian Gregory played Darryl Morris for almost the whole series on the original and he was an important ally for the lead characters so it’s like nice try man but there is history here you’re excluding and that’s not cool.
I don’t begrudge Azie making the episode she writes for all about her character but it seemed like only Kelly got it because she was there on the ground when in reality Kara was busy stopping a connected thread, it’s not like she was ignoring her mission all together – they were connected and even if they weren’t Guardian can’t stop Nxy so Kara had to take those blows so to act like she doesn’t care was annoying.
“Because I want to start off on a higher note” – lol John.
“I found this to be my worst experience with SUPERGIRL…in all of it’s run.” – facts John. Even in seasons with Mon as a focus at least it still wasn’t trying to beat you over the head with things and characters still felt organic overall in choices. As you said this feels like it will test division more than heal anything; real world topic debates are best handled when they’re a point and counter-format, if you discuss things you’re more likely to get someone admit (even if it’s to themselves later) that maybe you have a point where as if you just say this is wrong or right then you’ll get push back. You don’t tell Supergirl she doesn’t care when she’s busy that’s not going to get you fans; yes people should care about others but if you demand they do they’re just going to push back. You want an example of debates done right watch “Stargirl” from this same week – they didn’t condemn Yolanda for killing on a group scale, you had agreements and disagreements and they didn’t say what she did was wrong either…they just asked “If God isn’t on Earth, isn’t it up to us to kill the Devil?” and left it at that for the debate to be discussed amongst audience and characters because there’s more going on then the simple fact she killed Brainwave. Heck go back to Alex killing Astra in season one and how that was wrong on one hand but she was going to kill J’onn on the other so that kind of made it okay and then it’s to the fans to decide is she a bad guy or not for that; no character calls her a villain or a hero for it she just was and did it – simple thing and let everyone debate.
You may have the mic but you aren’t alone John in your feelings this week!
3 times? Wow, I could barely watch once.
I don’t mind them having the books or Brenna’s shirt on the show but they made it this huge deal and it like okay but where was this before? You could have had Kelly wear the shirt at any point or hold the book at any point, why now? This isn’t new as she herself said so why is she making a big deal of it now to the point it’s so in your face as an audience member even though you’ve seen it for months now…it’s like trying to be relevant but the moment had past so you feel more like a parody than anything. Again it’s all in the handling and and this was very heavy handed which isn’t a good thing; tackling heavy subjects is fine but being heavy handed in discussing them is not.
Sounds like they could use a therapist John…to bad we don’t have one anymore.
“She had ravens bring it” – lol!
I’m with the kids Leslie, you’ve come to far to stop now…finish in pain with the rest of us. 🙂 Great feedback per usual!
Easy pick for the poll – “I’ll never watch this episode again”!
You have to laugh at the stupidity of the series now or you’ll be so depressed you can’t move. 🙂
Hey aftershow peeps! The poll was easy for me. I stopped watching 36 min. in. I could not go any further. I listened to the podcast. Thanks John for sharing your opinion.
I, for the first time ever in regards to “Supergirl”, too considered not watching part way through Geoff…like I know sometimes people say they’re going to stop because it’s a bad episode but really this time my finger hovered over the “Channel Up/Down” part of my remote multiple times before the midway point. It’s only out of force because it’s “Supergirl” and I didn’t want to give the CW the satisfaction of doing that because then they’d be right in their decision to cancel the series that I watched the whole thing. It was a tough action FOR SURE but I did it; as John said this might be the worst episode ever.
I’m with Geoff John, again thanks for sharing how you really feel because I too was like “What?!” reading some of these articles and wondering if we even watched the same episode. Is what the episode was trying to say important? Yes, but the way they handled it was just SO bad.
I’m glad MOS is honest in their opinions and allows fans the right to have different opinions on this instead of trying to push some idea that it’s all okay. Again important message but lousy said! It’s things like this that doesn’t give me hope for our series to end well. 🙁
Listening to last week’s Maid of Steel podcast was like listening to Tomorrow’s Legends. Martin is often more critical of the show under discussion often because he has expectations that he is less forgiving of the show for missing them. Meanwhile, Jess will more often than not enjoy the show by being seeing the good in the show.
Poor John. Last week’s episode really hit hard for him and Justina’s so empathetic. I know it was hard for her to hear his suffering and want to try to make things better. The catch is often when someone really hates an episode, do they even want to hear the bright side in the episode or do they only want company for their misery?
At least, that’s how I felt listening to the podcast. I had issues with the episode and the series, but then again, I’m not co-hosting a podcast dedicated to the series, which requires more time, attention, research, rewatches, thinking about said episode, which I imagine can make things feel worse. That all said, hopefully I might be able to shine a little light to at least ease some of the darkness.
First, yes, we all know SUPERGIRL’s true kryptonite is writing. When given good writing, we know the actors can knock it out of the park. We have seen that. That’s makes the letdowns feel worse. That’s doubly so when they try to do message episodes.
It’s one thing to do flawed, obvious, ham-fisted writing about an extra-terrestrial who is 13 years older than her newborn cousin and both are sent to Earth at the same time on separate ships but hers ended up in some kind of spacetime rift and she landed on Earth 24 years after her cousin. Yeah, cringey to say the least. But if you are talking about major topics that people have very strongly-felt emotions about and blunder through it then it’s going to feel several times worse–even if technically, it’s the same level of blundering.
So, I don’t think the showmakers were intentionally trying to tick off the audience, worse than usual, it’s just that’s what happened due to the writing and execution of the episode. Because of HOW the episode was made, a lot was lost. For example, what was the message of the episode? Simply put:
Why was Kelly mad at Supergirl & her Superfriends?
Kelly said she wanted them to listen to her, really listen. Yes, the Superfriends were focused on Nixly but did she tell them, “Hold on, that’s not what I’m talking about, I mean the patients are suffering now, not worrying about the threat from Nixly tomorrow”? The way the show was cut, it had the characters always deflect after Kelly talked to them–and then had Kelly say nothing so it have the character build up rage. Worse, the show edited the scenes so that Kelly easily had time to interrupt and correct them but instead she stayed silent, even with Alex and Brainy, neither of whom have travel powers so Kelly could have easily corrected them–but didn’t.
Also the phone call to Andrea. Yes, that’s actually based on reality. News reporters and editors deciding not to cover stories that their “demographic” wouldn’t be interested in because they want the sales, views, clicks. The way the show did it made it seem like everyday traffic was more interesting than a building collapse and sick patients, which would be really bad, except, we know the traffic jam was caused by a Giant Cat. I’m afraid, Catzilla is a bit more unusual that a collapsed building. By the way, did Kelly notify Andrea that building literally melted in seconds or did Andrea think it was more standard collapse? By being fuzzy on the issue, yes, it gives a way for Andrea not to look so bad, but then it makes Kelly critique at the end look overwrought.
The worst part of the episode though is timing. The basis of the episode, that the Superfriends don’t listen about concerns of the poor, the disenfranchised or the people that look like Kelly, comes right after said Superfriends fought against exploiting prisoners for prison labor to commit crimes, fought for low-cost housing for poor people–and excellently explaining the need for an address to get a job to pull themselves up, something often overlooked in regular news reports about low-cost housing–and also, fought for folks to eat their veggies. Okay, yes, the last bit was a little silly, although reports show in poor communities, fresh vegetables can be rare. They are called “food deserts”.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Food_desert
The point is the tv show had just shown the Superfriends doing the very things that undermined Kelly’s point that the Superfriends are so focused on major supervillains, citywide, nationwide, even planetwide threats that they overlook smaller threats to individual neighborhoods. Ironically, as often as we have complained for SUPERGIRL to “show not tell”, they finally did at a time to contradict the specific details of the message of an episode.
It’s like shows where in order for the writers to show someone is a super genius, they have the other characters act really dumb. Yes, Supergirl and her friends, and frankly pert near all the Arrowverse heroes and friends, have a habit of acting on impulse, not waiting for backup, not waiting until a study is complete, a warrant is authorized, wanting to act on their gut, wanting to act alone because they feel … (say it with me) … “It’s all my fault”. Yes, that impulsiveness can and does often lead them to rushing off half-cocked into a fight, but it’s not because they are being racist or even classist (favoring only the upper or middle class). The way the episode is structured though is so fuzzy one could very easily get that impression. For long-term fans of SUPERGIRL and its characters, that character assassination by fuzziness is what truly hurts.
Lastly, reaction to the reaction or critique of the critique. Yes, there is a debate tactic called “tone policing” where an argument is dismissed because of the tone that it’s delivered, too angry, too hostile, too emotional. The simple fact is I don’t think the message that people need to listen more to people who are not like themselves when they have problems is wrong. That’s true. Do I think Kara, Alex, Brainiac, Nia, Jonn overlook the problems of the disenfranchised because of their race or class–or because I think they tend to focus on bigger threats? I believe it’s the latter. That said, even then they can and did focus on a smaller, more grounded issues within the past month. However many of those issues can’t be solved by Supergirl, but Kara Danvers, Nobel-winning reporter, might be better suited to fight those issues.
Now if only the series had focused more on Kara’s job, they could’ve addressed many of these issues, organically, within the format of the show.
— Ken from Chicago
P.S. As much as I liked seeing Kelly wrapping up her hair (which many people don’t realize that’s how and why many African Americans with long hair take care of their hair), it would’ve been nice to have ended the episode for Kara do an interview with Kelly about those who had lost their home and gotten sick recently, and those who had been orphaned long-term. Sure, Kara would’ve made Andrea mad sneaking in the video on the CatCo website but it could get a number of favorable critical reviews and a lot of views. Not as much as a Giant Cat snarling traffic but respectable enough numbers that Andrea approves recurring column on the less fortunate.