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“O Brother, Where Art Thou?” brings the warm and touching reunion of the Luthor siblings, J’onn losing his ever loving mind, and James’ sister Kelly appearing from nowhere. “Sister, so you have a sissssster…” We introduce Jon Cryer as Lex Luthor and man o brother, did he bring it. Let’s dig in, shall we?
Miss Tessmacher!!
Let’s take this storyline through the lens of Eve, shall we? 4 years ago in Metropolis, Lex Luthor has his sister Lena zip tied to a chair while he makes her watch as he turns the skies red so that Superman will be unable to stop his nefariousness. I love this line: “I was supposed to be the Man of Tomorrow, not him!” Soooooooo good. He wants to convince the world that they are putting too much faith in the blue tights and one day, we will all thank him. The police come in and take custody of him and Lena is saved. Flash forward to the present where Lex is being delivered by helicopter to the Luthor mansion and Lena is there to greet her brother. It seems that all of his Kryptonite exposure has led to cancer and he is dying. Not that the Department of Corrections folk care, apparently he’s not that popular in prison. Lena stabilizes him and chides him that the irony is delicious that Kryptonite is what’s killing him. Lena is then alerted to James being shot and Alex leaning reeeeeeeeeeeeeeeally heavy on her to use her Super Serum to save him. Lena insists you can’t force a breakthrough and realizes she may be able to utilize Lex to get the Serum up to speed. The sibs work together and Lena is mad at the way Lex is degrading her as motivation but he explains he always pushed her this way and she has turned out amazing and that he truly is proud of her. They get the formula worked out so that the healing properties of the Harunel can be separated from the supernatural powers. A power drop at the hospital while James is in emergency services leaves Lena devastated because she thinks she is too late to help James. Lex tells her a story about his dog Ignacious and how as the dog was dying and he was dragged on a business trip with Father Luthor that the woman who was with them showed him such kindness that he was overwhelmed. That woman was Lena’s mother. While he came from poison she came from love and as dark as the rest of the family is she still stands out as light. Lena takes the serum to the hospital and injects it into James’ sternum. (AAAAAAAAAAHHHHHHHHHHHH) He is cured almost instantly. Lena goes home realizing that Lex has engineered the power drain that put James into imminent danger. She promises that she will never give the cure to Lex. He knows, which is why he brought OTIS GRAVES along with an image inducer that disguised him as a cop and got him to already give him the cure. Oh, and not only did he take care of the power drain, he also had Jimmy shot so that Lena would have to test the serum on him because Lex sure wasn’t going to be the guinea pig. Otis grabs Lena and ties her to the wheelchair and lo and behold, Miss Tessmacher comes out all evil like and tells Lena that her and Lex have been forever and that it isn’t personal. Otis knocks Lena out and Lex leaves Eve to look out for her. He then kills all of the law enforcement types that have been hanging around the whole time and gets on the helicopter with Otis. They meet Supergirl in the sky…
J’onn J’onzz, Man of the Skewer
James is found shot and J’onn believes it has to be Manchester Black making good on his promise to come after J’onn’s peoples. He senses that Black is at M’yrnn’s burial site and goes there along with Kara, which makes Alex a little bit miffed, since she doesn’t know Kara is Supergirl, get it? (Wink, wink, nudge, nudge) Black uses the Scepter of the Martian God of Wrath to figure out all kinds of things about Martian theology and tells J’onn to join him or the Punishments will come. Kara is nearby and hears their discussion. Back in J’onn’s office, Kara and J’onn try to use the Martian Bible to figure out what in the ^*(^&T%( Manchester is talking about. Alex calls Kara wondering where in the (*&^(*&^ Kara is since James is at the hospital DYING!! Kara explains that she is helping J’onn track down a lead and Alex wishes her well on her investigation. (And by “well,” she means something else entirely.) J’onn is disturbed to be confronted by zombie Kara and zombie Alex who explain that they are the ones who were not saved while he stood by doing nothing. Kara snaps him out of the zombie trip and says the only reason she and Alex are able to face danger is because they know he’s standing by with them. She suggests that they stop trying to confront Manchester and let him come to them. Sure enough, J’onn senses that Black is at the city dam and so he and Supergirl go to confront him. Black blows a couple of big holes in the dam and the water comes pouring out. She deals with the water and J’onn shows down with Black. Manchester tries one more time to get J’onn to join him on his righteous crusade pointing out that he couldn’t save his own children on Mars. J’onn loses it, takes the scepter thingy and skewers Black with it. Black simply says “you’re beautiful,” and is dissolved away. And by dissolved I mean, we’ll be seeing him again soon. Count on it. Brainy’s Legion ring is left in Black’s place. J’onn gives the ring back to Kara to deliver to Brainy and says that he doesn’t know who he is anymore, but he’s sure he’s not a man of peace.
Sisterly Love
The mysterious assassin of James knows that he has a Supergirl call button in his watch and summons her to rescue James. While at the hospital the doctor is not keen on sharing information with Alex, Nia, and Brainy as they are not kith and kin. Alex is politely arguing that she is FBI and knows more science than the doctor and at the last second James’ sister Kelly shows up and says that she will handle things and to give these folks access please. Nia and Brainy are blaming themselves to each other about how they should have been able to see this coming and not doing anything about it and Brainy is losing his ever loving mind over everything that has ever gone wrong in his life aaaaaanad how Mon-El is condescending when Nia snaps him out of it with a big ole wet one on the lips. Meanwhile, Kelly and Alex debate Lena helping James with her Super Solution and Kelly is a way bit wary about the Luthor’s and their solutions to problems. And she’s been to the hospital now 12 times to fix James and situations he’s running into to get away from their family problems. Although Alex is pushy eventually Kelly gives in and lets Lena do her thing. James is cured and has to talk to their mom. Oh, and the breakup of Lena and James was also manufactured by Lex so I guess I called that one too. Heh, heh, heh.
Closing Thoughts
I admit that I have never seen Smallville but I understand Michael Rosenbaum did an excellent Lex Luthor. That being said, from my other experiences Jon Cryer sold me on his Lex Luthor within the first three minutes of this episode. An amazing performance brought this episode a much higher grade than normal. Because if I grade the James storyline it is just meh, and the J’onn storyline was confusing and muddled, and had an unsatisfactory ending. Hopefully there will be more to come there. So, on the power of Lex alone this was a great episode. Eve turning was a non-surprise. This was a setup episode for the back end of the Season. Good deal, let’s get going on this, Red Kara, and hopefully Ben is dead and Manchester Black is not. Neither of those things are going to happen. It’s going to be OK, kids. I have to tell myself that all the time.
Cougar’s Comic Corner
βLuthorβ Kindle & comiXology
by BRIAN AZZARELLO (Author), LEE BERMEJO (Author, Illustrator)
Superman has been called many things, from the defender of truth, justice and the American way to the Big Blue Boy Scout. In LEX LUTHOR: MAN OF STEEL, he is called something he has never been called before: a threat to all humanity. Brian Azzarello and artist Lee Bermejo–the acclaimed team who brought you the best-selling JOKER–deliver a bold story in which readers get a glimpse into the mind of Superman’s longtime foe. MAN OF STEEL reveals why Luthor chooses to be the proverbial thorn in the Man of Steel’s side: to save humanity from an untrustworthy alien being.
Next time on Supergirl!
Season 4, Episode 16, “The House of L”
Supergirl must deal with the destructive aftermath of Lex’s nefarious plans. Shocked at what Lex has created, Supergirl faces her biggest challenge yet. (Written by Gabriel Llanas, Brooke Pohl, and Katie Rose Rogers, Directed by Ben Hernandez Bray)
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[sc:ms]
Hello Maid of Steel Podcasters; Followup Monty here…
Just wanted you to know that I was blotto when I typed that drivel and sent it to you.
Anyway, sober several days later, I have to say I will still stand behind it, which includes the Derek Simon type run-on sentence and double down on the Ten Plagues of Mars.
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Azai Tasfai did a couple of stinkers on NCIS Los Angeles as Dana king and a whole season of awful as Cherry Milton on Wicked Games. She’s going to be another Florianna Lima. I can feel that one coming on like a freight train in that dark tunnel you see in your nightmares.
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Using Lex Luthor as a bailout plot trapdoor on The Children of Liberty/Liberty (insert insurance commercial here) storyline is the kind of cheat one expects from this show’s writers’ bullpen. If you have written garbage (See above first comment.), no excuse, whether stoned on vodka (me), or Canadian “green bacon” (maybe these Supergirl writers?), allows one to run away from it. Own it and work with it to the bitter conclusion. Ben Lockwood should be numero dos for the Hironimir staff soul stone sendoff, but own up to that storyline and finish it out. Take the hit for the utter stupidity in its execution including the mess that better writers will have to clean up after you are fired for writing the Children of Liberty fascism, and the “Antifa” mirror-image fascist propaganda counter-story you cooked up in the first place.
Have some guts, there, and own your writer mistakes as you fill out your application for your next gig as a staff writer on “Fast Food”; a comedy about a burger joint set in Cleveland.
Monty
Some blog post comments…
“So, on the power of Lex alone this was a great episode.” – and Lena, don’t forget Katie supporting Jon and giving him good stuff to play back on!
“and hopefully Ben is dead and Manchester Black is not.” – agreed!
On to the podcast…
She lives!!!!! Welcome back Karen! *insert hug here*
You’re coming back with big words out of the gate I see Karen comparing Jon to Michael for the Lex performance but it’s a fair discussion.
“She comes from good stock so she’s going to stay good.” – HERE’S HOPING!
In four years James has never mentioned a sister; he has talked about his dad mainly a mentioned his mom a bit but never has he said the word sister and with how much the sisters are the series you’d think they could work in a line but no. Kelly is definitely doing double duty by being a love interest for Alex and giving James something to do as they sadly refuse to let him just be a newsman so now I guess he’ll hassle Alex over their relationship for screen time since they FINALLY AND THANKFULLY broke up Lames. I like Kelly so far but she is a yet another plot just to give James something to do outside of CatCo sadly while also being a love interest so it’s a two for one – or at least that’s how she feels currently; I really hope they use her psychology skills to help unlock Alex’s memories of Kara but also in other aspects with other characters because if she’s just a love interest/James screen time excuse that’s going to bring her down fast.
James better not get powers! If they give him powers I am rarely if ever going to give them a 10 again because seriously again there are other things you can do with him to keep him relevant on the series and if you don’t want to do those then please send him back to Metropolis as we have enough super powered individuals on this series, we do not need that ego also! Also no to Lex with powers because just no; if you want a Lex with powers give them to Maxwell Lord because at least he’s “Supergirl”‘s Lex from way back so it keeps more with the show instead of us fighting Clark’s big bad. Again Jon was great in this episode but I’m good with Lex not being recurring.
I see your dumbest break up ever Karen and raise you Lames were a dumb pairing to start with (they’re certainly in competition for worst ever on the show with Mon/Kara) because of how James trash talked her all of S2 and only started to date her because she’s hot essentially as she changed nothing about her personality yet now he’s into her even though just before she was the devil so unsurprisingly I’m all for them not getting back together. Be free Lena! If they want James in a romance again let it be with his desk at CatCo because yes to news James, that’s a pairing I’m fully behind! π
Awe to John’s dog whining a bit when Karen said they should have brought back Carl for a vision, it might not have been intentional on her part but that was good timing Dog Vox. π
“I’m not crazy about Alex not knowing who Kara is” – so say we all Karen!
Yay for the Chocos callback!
“Anything that keeps us away from Ben Lockwood I’m good” – totally fair John!!!
Alex better slow down on the proposing; at the least give us an episode where they talk about future plans and if they want the same big things or not! Also no rushing to adopt!
I have a feeling they’re going to say everything this season was Lex tinted by the end in some way which given he’s connected to Lena I get it to a point but we also have a Lex from S1 we could have used named Maxwell Lord so I do ask why couldn’t Max (even if you have to recast Peter) be the big bad with this great over arcing plot instead to keep it even more “Supergirl”? Surely he can dislike Lena as much as anyone. Again I liked Jon in this episodes and things were really well handled but it feels like a name grab with Lex more than he actually was the only one who could pull this off; we’ll see how it goes though, maybe just Lena’s torments will be connected to him and not the whole season will be Lex just being bored in prison so he mixed up this game.
I really liked the moment of Lex looking at the picture of Lillian at the manor and basically calling her creepy also. π
“I watch “Supergirl” for Supergirl and Kara’s relationship with Alex and to see Kara defeat bad guys” – EXACTLY Leslie; SO MUCH THIS!!!
Happy early birthday Karen! π
Woah Karen too far, we have two Lexs in Max and Lillian we don’t need Lex himself on okay…let’s slow down a bit; I say this because you know if he’s on the chances are high Clark will be in an episode and no because as Leslie said they always like to play with him more than Kara when he’s on and this is “Supergirl” not “Superman”.
Michael Rosenbaum is my favorite Flash. π
Just a brief note…
Mexwell Lord cannot operate the brother-sister dynamic found with Lex-Lena. Might not like importing a Super MAN villain on a Super GIRL show, but since the Kaznian plot line has picked up, we need Lex as the Macedonian “Philip” to make his “Alexandra” “Snowbird” work. See next episode review where I explain THAT COMMENT.
Monty