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Dr. Pestilence is brought to the party in this week’s episode “Of Two Minds” and Kara has a much different approach to confronting her than Imra does. Who’s right? Who’s wrong? This episode gives a solid presentation of two approaches that work for different reasons; and, the coming together of strategies that don’t work yet, but likely will by the end of the season. Oh, and we have a very special guest co-host this week who wears green wings.
This episode really felt like a morality play so I went with classic quotes from notable authors for our story titles…
Power, like a desolating Pestilence, pollutes whate’er it touches. Percy Bysshe Shelley (Queen Mab, 1813)
While the mayor laughs about the end of the pigeons in National City we follow an office worker handing out cookies to everyone at City Hall. Then the mayor gets a major nose bleed and a sick nasty scratch across his right hand. He, the Police Chief, and several staff members are sick! Meanwhile Alex at the DEO has examined one the aforementioned dead pigeons and has found nothing that could lead to identifying the source of the illness. Right from the start Imra and Kara go at it about how to stop Pestilence. Imra’s all… KILL, KILL, KILL. And Kara’s all…Save the girl, keep the Worldkiller out. KILL, SAVE, KILL, SAVE, KILL, SAVE. Oy, ve everybody. Once the team goes to City Hall Kara speaks with cookie lady and Alex speaks to the Doctor on the scene along with Winn. Since they can’t find the immediate cause on the scene as well the Doc calls for the end of the called quarantine and that’s all well and good until Imra force fields the entire city block. Kara is not amused and orders Imra to take it down. The team heads back to the DEO and after misidentifying the cookie lady as Pestilence it’s back to the drawing board. And then Winn gets the sick nasty scratch and he’s down. And then Alex goes down. And then they correctly identify the good Doc as Pestilence. Kara thinks because Dr. Grace Parker is a trained physician she can appeal to her better humanity and save her. And Imra’s all…KILL, KILL, KILL. The confrontation finally comes, Kara, Imra, and Mon-El are not able to stop Pestilence and Kara’s attempts to appeal to Dr. Grace’s humanity are rebuffed. They do get the DNA they need from Pestilence to create a cure for Winn, Alex, and the rest of those she’s affected. Yay, team! Pestilence gets away. Boo, team! More on that as we go to…
The brightest flame casts the longest shadow. George R.R. Martin (Clash of Kings)
Lena is still working on Sam and now wants to zap her starting at stupid levels of voltage to bring Reign to the forefront. She thinks she can find the enzyme in Sam that’s causing the transmutation to Reign. Every time Sam gets zapped she goes back to the ethereal plane that we were introduced to last episode, except this time Reign is there and talking to Sam. And taunting her, and generally being mean. Bad Reign! There is a key line during these sequences that I think we need to hold on to as the season closes. Reign tells Sam that [Sam] is strong – stronger than she should be, and she ties it back to Ruby, even though she tells Sam that Ruby is basically an obstacle to being what she can be. The other interesting point in this is that Sam never gives in to Reign. Hmmmmm. Well, the end comes and just like Reign tells Sam, they are coming. Purity rescues and strengthens Pestilence then the two of them go pick up Reign and the triumvirate of evil is consummated. Yeeeeeesh. Oh, also, Supergirl and the team come to L-Corp just in time for Supergirl to realize that Lena’s been all mad-science-ing on Sam, and that Sam is Reign. And Lena knew that, of course. And didn’t tell Supergirl. And…
Oh, boy.
For the Win(n). Wheel of Fortune, (Pat Sajak) What?!
While Winn messes with the new and improved looking Brainy about Freddy Kruger being Pestilence (much to Alex’s satisfaction) the truth of the situation is that he’s infected with something that, at that point, is terminal. James comes to see Winn and Winn breaks down saying that he’d just gotten to the point where he is reconnected to his mother, he felt like he was ready to take off and do extraordinary things and now it was all getting cut short but he’s also grateful for the best friend he has. James, moved to tears, calls Lena and begs her to figure out a cure, and she says she’s already working on it. ZAP, ZAP, ZAP! Yeeeeeeesh.
Closing Thoughts
This was quite simply a fantastic episode. Of Two Minds is one of the best episode titles of the season, which as we mentioned have been somewhat out of left field lately. The matter of perspective on how to deal with Pestilence is the key factor. From Kara’s point of view she’s seeing Dr. Grace Parker long before she ever became Pestilence, and forever until she eventually becomes Blight. Imra’s point of view is from the other side where Blight has caused mass destruction on a galaxy wide basis – including, and most importantly, her own sister who fell victim. And in fleshing out that part of Imra’s backstory all of the weird deception about the Legion’s mission and her KILL, KILL, KILL attitude is understandable and, dare I say, justified. Imra at the end of the episode says she admire’s Supergirl and her beliefs on how to save these women and Supergirl acknowledges that she would feel the urge to take Pestilence out if Alex were the fallen victim. And they didn’t talk about Mon-El at all!! The choices that these heroes have to make come from different motivations and the ends sometimes do justify the means. These are BIG concepts that our writers took on with keeping each side balanced and honest. This is the kind of Berlanti-ism preaching that I can get behind every time.
News:
Episode 17 “Trinity,” airs on Monday, May 7 at 8:00E/7:00C
Still reeling after learning about Lena’s secret, Supergirl asks Guardian (Mehcad Brooks) for a favor that could alter his relationship with Lena forever. Meanwhile, with all three Worldkillers united, Supergirl and the team brace for an epic battle.
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I love when point-counter point is done well and I agree Vox the Kara-Irma stuff was good because you definitely understood where Irma was coming from but you could understand Kara’s reservations also; I still don’t buy the “I don’t kill” line from Kara as she’s totally killed before (it’s one of the differences between she and Clark so they aren’t carbon copies) but as a whole it was a well done aspect of the episode.
“And they didn’t talk about Mon-El at all!!” – WHICH WAS AWESOME!!!
It’s definitely a perspective thing at the point with Kara and Irma because again Kara has killed so to suggest she doesn’t is laughable but still even had Irma seen the women first I still think she would have wanted to kill Grace because of Blight as it effected her sister and others.
Based off a one episode appearance, I liked Grace/Pestilence; she was smart and a good physical challenge for the group, she also had a kick butt suit! It’s also neat that she’s too far gone because it adds drama to the whole “can the women be saved” plot so I personally liked her in this episode. Saving Sam is my top priority but I still thought Pestilence was done well. While we have seen more of Reign, I think Pestilence could challenge her on the scare front; Purity they kind of killed her fear factor by giving her the scream and if you watch “Arrow” that power has been played so much you’re kind of desensitized to it.
Save Sam and give her a kick butt redemption story; there’s so much they can do with her it would be a complete waste to just kill her off!
Had it been another agency beyond the DEO I could get Lena’s reservations but the fact Alex is there and Supergirl isn’t about just dismissing bad guys the first chance she gets I just didn’t like the way they handled some of the Lena stuff this week.
I get what you’re saying Justina about killing not being the first option, but they could have had a line of dialogue in there to say killing isn’t their go to move so Irma needed to calm down and even sited Julia as an example instead of having Kara say she doesn’t kill because I’m with Vox that line was just annoying in my opinion especially as it makes Kara seem like Clark and while they’re similar they aren’t the same – she will do things he won’t in the name of saving others and that’s ok because if she just did what he did what’s the point of her being the lead given they have Superman products out there where you can watch him if that’s the story they want to tell. It’s like Lena and Lex, just because she’s a Luthor doesn’t mean she has to be the bad guy on the series.
S3 Mon is better than S2 Mon for sure but they still have issues I feel with his handling.
It’s bull crap Lena doesn’t know Kara is Supergirl but figured out Reign is Sam. I’m fine with them having a disagreement over things but I don’t want to see them use this to make Lena the villain next season because SHE’S NOT LEX WRITERS! If she goes evil again it should be mandatory Winn is evil also because family connections too.
I agree with Darryl that is always an issue with main characters in that it’s hard to feel really scared for them at times despite the scenes being well acted because you know if anything happened to them show would be over or at least over for some fans depending on which characters you like; title characters especially it’s hard to feel the emotions sometimes versus other characters. This show definitely has some great actors but it’s definitely hard at times on any show to really be scared for certain characters.
I don’t agree with your team Blackhawkfan but I agree with your feedback! 🙂
If they’re doing game night I need a scene of Kara stuffing her face with chicken wings and Alex getting a big grumpy if her group starts to lose a game; that would be a fun hour though Vox I agree. 🙂
Good job co-hosting this week Justina!