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“Suspicious Minds” brings us back to National City where Colonel Haley is all about figuring out Supergirl’s secret identity, Alex is all about hiding it, and Brainy is all about getting Supergirl a support system, especially a beautiful one. We’re excited to be back after the holiday break especially with only one small mention of the Children of Liberty. We got some real stuff going on and that means a welcome return of our “Supergirl!” Let’s break it all down, shall we? Our storylines this week are all song titles so let’s hit it!
Suspicious Look In Your Eyes [The Hollies]
Kara is hanging out with Lena at a spin class when she overhears a distress call from a Colonel McAlister. Supergirl finds a cargo ship with a Navy Seal team on board, all of them killed except for one whom she saves from drowning. There is also a bomb on board so in the process of getting rid of it she notices a shimmer of light that pulls McAlister overboard. When Col Haley, Alex, and Brainy show up Col Haley quickly dismisses Supergirl as mucking up the situation and is basically quite rude. Supergirl promises DEO or not (by the way, they took the DEO out of the opening monologue) she’s not stopping being a hero. Nyahhhh! Kara then finds out that the Coast Guard has no record of the cargo ship and the Seal that Supergirl saved has “disappeared,” according to Brainy. Col Haley has tasked Alex with finding the shimmering alien so after she and Kara compare notes they decide to get official Private Investigator J’onn J’onzz on the case. His new business office is swanky! And he happens to have all of his files from the time he was at the DEO. Really? They just let him have them?! Anywho, Kara and J’onn go back through the files to figure out that the aliens are the Morai and that they have cloaking ability that apparently shows up to Supergirl’s x-ray vision as a shimmer. It also seems that McAlister, a Colonel Tam, and a certain Col Lauren Haley were in on experimenting on the Morai. Hmmmmmmmm. Supergirl, J’onn, and Alex show up at Tam’s house and confront him. The evil Musketeers weapon-ized the aliens to be assassins and as soon as President Baker put the hammer down on alien interactions the Morai were to be taken out. They didn’t appreciate that so they took out McAlister, and they’re here now to take out Tam. J’onn tries to save Tam but he’s dead. Alex stuns one of them and when they suggest taking it back to the DEO it decides suicide is a better option. Haley admits to Alex her involvement but says it’s been years since she was a part of it and yes while it’s wrong to subject young aliens to traumatic tactics to get their loyalty as a soldier Alex should understand that unpopular choices have to be made to save the country. Alex gets the DEO ready for a Morai assault since they’re going to be coming for Haley. Sure enough they come and wreak Morai havoc; but, Supergirl comes at the last second to save Haley and capture a live Morai.
Gonna Be More Susupicious [Robin Trower]
On the agenda of Col Haley is to interrogate all of the DEO staff to find out who knows who Supergirl is. Seriously, interrogate them. Alex holds a quick pow-wow for Brainy and the five nameless agents who know her real identity and they swear allegiance to go down with their secret intact. Brainy tells Alex that he can compartmentalize his knowledge and suppress it for a certain time so that he won’t be able to reveal anything. Sure enough Haley takes him in for questioning. As Alex debriefs him and he laughs at the suggestion that Kara and Supergirl are the same person until it does hit him. It was the highlight of the episode, frankly. Sure enough the one who spoke the allegiance of the nameless five is the one to break and spill everything. Haley is positively ecstatic that she knows the truth and can spit it in Alex’s face that she’s been keeping the information from the light of day. After Supergirl saves her from the Morai, Haley immediately starts spewing her evil plan to conscript Supergirl back into service to do exactly what Haley wants or she’ll be more than happy to let the secret out and find out what happens to anyone close to Kara used as targets. Alex standing there taking all of this in immediately decks Haley. All God’s children said “Amen!” Alex and Supergirl call J’onn to come and wipe Haley’s mind of her newfound knowledge. J’onn isn’t happy about the violence of it but agrees to do it. The next day Haley is “reset” so she turns to using a truth-seeker alien on all of the DEO staff to get to Supergirl’s real identity. A hard choice must be made to mind wipe the five nameless agents of their knowledge. Oh, and Alex too. Kara is devastated. She only became Supergirl to save Alex and having to lie to her every day is going to be horrible. Alex being the big sister assures her that it’s all going to be fine. In a heart-wrenching final shot, J’onn reaches out to erase Alex’s knowledge of Kara being Supergirl.
Suspicious Minds [Elvis Pressley]
Brainy goes by to see J’onn at his new P.I. digs and tries to awkwardly pay him to be part of Supergirl’s support system, saying she’s going to need a “Girl Friday.” J’onn assures him that Brainy didn’t need to ask, that he’s already on team Supergirl. Later on Brainy reaches out to Nia Nal to set up an eating. Of food. If she likes food. At an establishment that serves food. Nia agrees thinking that he has asked her out on a date. When they get together Brainy explains that it is a meeting because he never thought anyone as beautiful as her would be interested in someone like him. She agrees she’s not sure she’s interested but she’ll hear him out either way. He explains that he would like her to join Supergirl’s team with her newfound abilities. She’s hesitant to even talk about it but she does take his binder full of costume and even name ideas for her hero persona. And our other happy couple, James and Lena, have not made up since their fallout at Thanksgiving. Lena finally takes Kara’s advice that James might be more open-minded than she thinks and goes to him to make amends. James realizes that sitting on his high horse did not help anything and indeed amends are made. Easy peasy come and squeeze me. Ummmmmm, what?! Anywho, Lena later explains that she is working on Steve Rogers super serum and she asks for James’ support because there are going to be philosophical questions and other things that come up as this keeps going. He smiles, “yeah baby, I got you.” Key the image of James as Captain America in his mind. Yes, I’m crossing the streams but you get it. Don’t even go there with me. 🙂
Closing Thoughts
What a fantastic coming back from the holiday break! We got emphasis on our core group of characters, we got a fundamental question of treatment of aliens at the expense of our own souls, and we got one heckuva spin on the overall narrative of our story with the mind wipe of Alex now not knowing that Kara is Supergirl. What a twist that I for one did not see coming. I know that the Children of Liberty will rear their ugly head again but the further off the better as far as I’m concerned. This episode gave me everything I could ask. Yes, it’s a little disappointing that Haley went from questionable to mustache-twirling villain and yes, it makes no sense that J’onn could walk out of the DEO with all of his files; but, overall I was entertained and moved to tears watching Kara lose it over the perceived loss of her sister. That will go down as one of Benoist’s finest scenes I am sure. If we can keep this kind of quality up for the back half of this season I’m going to be one happy podcaster!
Next time on Supergirl!
Season 4, Episode 11, “Blood Memory”
Kara joins Nia on a trip to Nia’s hometown to visit her family during the town’s annual Harvest Festival. While home, Nia’s mother (guest star Kate Burton) encourages her daughter to embrace her destiny. Meanwhile, Alex deals with a street drug that is turning people violent and giving them temporary superpowers.
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First off, aaahhh why John why?! Okay I know it is the best photo for the episode but still feelings!
Secondly some blog post comments…
“And he happens to have all of his files from the time he was at the DEO. Really? They just let him have them?!” – this was weird but I guess you could say he copied his notes all those years so they’re his notes not actual DEO files…or they’re illegal photo copies of DEO files he made because otherwise again yes weird he would have that information unless it’s all declassified which I can’t see the DEO doing as he just left.
“Haley immediately starts spewing her evil plan to conscript Supergirl back into service to do exactly what Haley wants” – I guess the theme is to make Haley look hypocritical by telling Kara she’s has to work for her after not advising Baker she can be useful last week but I do wish that was more clear if it’s the case and if it’s not just what changed Haley’s mind? Was it always her plan to out to make her and Baker work together again or did Haley have a plan of her own the whole time to ignore Baker on that front because of her weaponizing the morai? I do get on a theme level it was also meant to tie back into the Red Daughter opening with them discussing controlling their Kara but still it just felt weird with Haley and thus caused me to dock a point from the episode along with a few other nitpicks. I can appreciate Haley being “I owe you nothing” in attitude so she wants to bring the sisters to task for the lies as she sees them but I just feel it would have been more in character for Haley to use that information to say Kara has to stay away from the DEO or else it’s going to be hard on Alex and just reserve that information for later threats…I was just expecting more gray like an Amanda Waller not for Haley to seem so extreme still. Again I appreciate her not just letting Kara go like some would because she saved her life so that was refreshing but the rest of it felt weird.
Alex punching Haley was the best part of the episode outside of the sister stuff at the end of course!
“Key the image of James as Captain America in his mind.” – here’s hoping not as it’s bad enough we have to deal with Guardian as much as we do!!!
On paper the idea of Alex not knowing Kara is Supergirl is really interesting and I look forward to seeing Chyler showcase her talents in a portrayal of that but writing wise I do wonder if they can pull it off long term if they go multiple episodes because they’re already feeling with fans when it comes to making the idea work with Lena so can they really make it seem like two people don’t know especially when they’re as close to Kara as Alex and Lena are? We’ll see. I’m certainly interested in seeing their take but I am cautious if it goes all season because that’s how long it takes for Haley to be taken down; will it factor into S5 before they undo the block to get the original sister dynamic back also is a question – again intriguing but you have to be cautious with the writers.
On to the podcast…
Justina is starting to give Geoff a run for his money in the sub host category. Ha. Nice of you as always to fill in Justina so we can keep the party train going. 🙂
I’m definitely loving Nia and Nicole this season; I’m less excited about Lex because I really dislike “Supergirl” doing Superman stuff, Kara has plots that are her own too you can use – not everything has to be about Clark as nods!
The highlight of the series will always be the sisters! 🙂 For this episode though it was Alex punching Haley in the face.
I’m fine with Red Daughter going rogue.
Pass on the Lames romance John; you make it sound better than it is on screen but for me I just can’t dismiss how negative James was towards Lena simply because of her name in S2 so them getting together still doesn’t feel organic to me from his character progression so for me this will never be a natural romance unlike Brainy/Nia who do feel realistic because of how they’ve wrote them so far.
Ooh great catch regarding the intro John!
Oh Darryl so much to agree with you, Lena does have other friends and is WAY more than just James’s girlfriend. I certainly agree with you in regards to not trusting James when it comes to not getting on a high horse, he is enjoyable in this episode more than he has been for most of the series but it’s also James so I don’t put it past time to fault Lena for something or lapse back into his ego if he doesn’t get his way; they have just tainted the character so much since S1 it’s hard to get excited when he is good. Also again no super powered James as his ego is enough with just Guardian; just let James be the head of CatCo show what is so wrong with that?!
Oh you know the Lex appearance will be more about him than Lena.
I’m fine with the alien bar going as we know it exist now, much like Noonan’s coffee shop, so we don’t have to see it as much; again they clearly spent some money and time on J’onn’s office so they’re going to want to explore that to get the benefits back. Might it become the new DEO for characters if Brainy and Alex leave and need jobs? The DEO is such a part of Alex as it does give her a place to shine outside of Kara so it would be weird if they cut it but if Alex does leave for a few episodes for some reason I’m sure J’onn would let her fill in until she went back.
I’m going to try and call it now: Eve is in part behind the drugs, she’s been doing projects while Lena is out with James and this is a test in one of her phases; is she doing it to progress Lena’s project or is she secretly in league with Lex will be the question. If Eve is involved I REALLY hope they don’t say Lena is going evil because of a betrayal because just no to evil Lena number one and two at most she would lock herself away for solo research and question ever having a partner again but it should be a jump into evil just because she’s disappointed as she still has good friends she can trust. True this will probably be when she learns Kara is Supergirl (even though realistically she should already know) and so it compounds it but she still has Sam and Alex to a point and Brainy so again don’t jump her to evil if Eve is involved and using the project to by way create the drug in episode 11!
“This Is Us” is really good!
Get well Karen! Thanks for filling in Justina!
Aaron, you are amazing to leave this feedback on a weekly basis. I honestly use it to try and make the podcast better each time. You are amazing!
You hosts work hard for us listeners each week, it’s the least I can do! 🙂
Sorry about the nattering nabob of negativity, but the things I mentioned about this episode really bugged me and took me out of the episode. For example; I am with Aaron that J’onn was allowed to walk out of the DEO with case files? Hard copy no less? That alone is worth a O on the writing.
Monty.
Monty –
No need to apologize. You need to feel free to share what’s on your mind. While I don’t always follow all of the negativity I do know that you’re equally qualified positive when the episode warrants it in your estimation. That’s all I can ask. Thank you for all of the time and energy that you contribute to the community.