Season 1 x 10 Spoilers and Discussions Childish Things

There's three great new trailers over at supergirl.tv (especially the first one).

An interesting take on Hank Henshaw in the Jane Doe clip. He can shape-shift into anyone, which means the show writers can do literally anything with the characters and pull it off as being 'viable'.

ETA Sorry Red, I didn't see you'd already posted the trailers above.

Just watched the episode.

To answer the question above, they put two limitations on J'onn in this episode. One is the obvious limitation on being able to erase memories from a person's mind. The other is his vague hint to Alex that the more he shapeshifts into other forms, the more likely he is to get stuck. Conveniently vague, but it means he can't just shapeshift all over the place to do anything he wants.

As for the rest of the episode, I thought the Lucy/James storyline was well handled. Winn's new attitude and revelation to Kara at the end were well handled, and I'm curious to see where it goes. Winn's father was fairly well handled from a personality perspective, though I thought the action scenes were mostly either dumb (I knew the "child" in the box was fake long before Kara - why didn't she use her x-ray vision to check?) or confusing (how she stopped the bombs in the toy convention).

And the bombshell revelation at the end was interesting, and moves things in an interesting new direction, but how it happened fails the fridge logic test.

I enjoyed the episode although I was confused about a few things:

- How could a top DEO agent let her purse get bugged? Wouldn't the DEO have some sort of scan for that?

- Kara thought it was wrong to listen in on the conversation between Cat and Lucy but has no problem listening in on Wynn's conversation. Huh?

- Apparently Henshaw/MM wiped someone's mind in the past and really didn't want to do it again. I wonder whose it was?

- I'm a little confused how Kara saved the people from the bombs. Ice shield? Don't know how that worked...

- Didn't think it should have been that hard for Kara (or any Kryptonian) to get out of quicksand. Also, why didn't she use her x-ray vision to see into the box to see that it wasn't a real child in there? I could tell right away by the voice that it wasn't a normal little girl's voice.

- Wish they would have actually shown SG catching Toyman and hauling him off to jail...

All in all, I thought it was a good episode. The character of Wynn especially got a lot of development. Curious to see where they go from here.

five_red wrote: EDIT: How Supergirl stopped the bombs. She set off the water sprinklers, then froze the water into a solid block of ice. (At least, that's what it looked like to me.)

Well yeah, but that doesn't make any sense.

How did she make sure nobody was standing right next to a bomb when it went off? Or carrying one, since they were inside of toys?

And how exactly does surrounding them with ice actually protect people? It seems to me that all that would do is add icicles to the shrapnel. Unless she surrounded them with such a solid block of ice that the blast couldn't get through them, in which case they'd have to be pretty weak bombs, or else her ice would have to take up most of the convention center and not allow room for all the people who were shown to still be there when the bombs went off.

It sounds like we've all got pretty much the same complaints about the episode. Which again just shows how obvious and dumb the errors in this show are. I keep hoping this show will improve, but it just hasn't happened yet. If I wasn't such a fan of the ubergirl genre, and Supergirl specifically, I would have given up on this series long ago. I like the main characters and actors, but the plots and action are mediocre at best, with logical holes everywhere.

Edit: One other surprising detail about this episode (but not a complaint). If I hadn't caught Emma Caulfield's name in the credits at the beginning, I never would have recognized her playing Cameron Chase. I haven't seen her in anything since Buffy the Vampire Slayer ended, and she looks and sounds completely different now. I didn't even recognize her voice, let alone her face. I had to pause the playback on the DVR to look and be sure it was her. That was weird. As a huge Buffy fan, it was just shocking to see one of those actors again and completely not recognize her, because she's changed so much.

Seems to me things are moving along quite quickly in the SG Universe.
Were the producers worried they would only get 13 episodes for season one?

I am so glad Winn stole that kiss and took his shot.
I'd rather go down in flames than slowly smoulder to death.
I love the character of Winn and I hope he "wins" out in the end.
Now that it is out in the open and he has resolved not to hold in his feelings........
I hope he stays strong and doesn't back off.

jdrock24 wrote: I enjoyed the episode although I was confused about a few things:

- How could a top DEO agent let her purse get bugged? Wouldn't the DEO have some sort of scan for that?

- Kara thought it was wrong to listen in on the conversation between Cat and Lucy but has no problem listening in on Wynn's conversation. Huh?

- Apparently Henshaw/MM wiped someone's mind in the past and really didn't want to do it again. I wonder whose it was?

- I'm a little confused how Kara saved the people from the bombs. Ice shield? Don't know how that worked...

- Didn't think it should have been that hard for Kara (or any Kryptonian) to get out of quicksand. Also, why didn't she use her x-ray vision to see into the box to see that it wasn't a real child in there? I could tell right away by the voice that it wasn't a normal little girl's voice.

- Wish they would have actually shown SG catching Toyman and hauling him off to jail...

All in all, I thought it was a good episode. The character of Wynn especially got a lot of development. Curious to see where they go from here.

I agree with all your points. I thought this was perhaps the weakest of all the episodes.

I also don't like the idea that J'onzz is gradually becoming an active superhero. I think it crowds Kara and her role, and gives her an amazing number of outs to otherwise dramatic situations. That weakens the show.

Given that I believe this was the first of the back nine episodes, I'm concerned the writers have gone soft on us.

- How could a top DEO agent let her purse get bugged? Wouldn't the DEO have some sort of scan for that?

Alcoholic beverage plus his disarming conversation. She was more focused on keeping him occupied. You wouldn't scan for bugs every single day everywhere you went. If he showed up at HQ unannounced, yeah, you'd scan for stuff he left behind. But this was her going to visit him to distract him.

From a writing standpoint - and this is something people miss a lot - your heroes need to be flawed. It gets them in trouble, which is the basis for drama.

- Kara thought it was wrong to listen in on the conversation between Cat and Lucy but has no problem listening in on Wynn's conversation. Huh?

Lucy is someone she is competing with for Jimmy's attention, not her friend. Kara doesn't want to pry. But Wynn is her best buddy. She cares deeply for him, and maybe by listening she can help.

- Apparently Henshaw/MM wiped someone's mind in the past...

More importantly, this will establish that we can't just have Hank easily mind wipe people who learn things we don't want them to erase t becomes a "why ddn't he mind wipe them" every single episode.

- I'm a little confused how Kara saved the people from the bombs. Ice shield? Don't know how that worked...

Probably just the writer being encouraged to come up with new/creative ways for Kara to save the day. Exact same thing with the quicksand... They've probably been told not to lean on Kryptonite too much, and to be creative with the traps and such.

- Didn't think it should have been that hard for Kara (or any Kryptonian) to get out of quicksand. Also, why didn't she use her x-ray vision to see into the box to see that it wasn't a real child in there? I could tell right away by the voice that it wasn't a normal little girl's voice.

That was probably intentional. It's fun to let the audience be a step ahead of the hero to create that "don't go into the basement" moment. Plus, a major theme of the season has been Kara being new at this stuff.

Anyway, that's how I see it.

As far as the mindwipe goes, the worst thing is that it was totally unnecessary. There was plenty of video surveillance which Hank didn't bother taking out. Surely any competent agent would have expected that and dealt with it. Lord could watch it all on screen.

Equally bizarre that it didn't bother him that he failed to scan into the room. Once again, any reasonable protocol would have set off alarms after a couple of failures at the highest security room.

A lot of lazy writing and production in this episode, but perhaps the crew it just getting back into the groove on the back nine.
Give them the benefit of the doubt.

shadar wrote: As far as the mindwipe goes, the worst thing is that it was totally unnecessary. There was plenty of video surveillance which Hank didn't bother taking out. Surely any competent agent would have expected that and dealt with it. Lord could watch it all on screen.

Hank did erase it, Lord just happened to have a secret copy elsewhere.

pansardum wrote:

shadar wrote: As far as the mindwipe goes, the worst thing is that it was totally unnecessary. There was plenty of video surveillance which Hank didn't bother taking out. Surely any competent agent would have expected that and dealt with it. Lord could watch it all on screen.

Hank did erase it, Lord just happened to have a secret copy elsewhere.

But if Hank was covering all his bases as a secret agent, not to mention as J'onzz, he'd have anticipated that. They know Lord's capabilities. They would have to expect layers of surveillance and monitoring at a Lord installation -- and redundancies.

I just think it was bad writing to let Hank burn out that guy's brain yet have Lord watching it all on TV, including his phasing through the door.

Whatever the case, Lord now knows about Hank, and he knows about Kara. That puts him in a very powerful position. I think this is the point where we start to see him go into full-on villain mode as he becomes the Lex Luthor of the show.

The only way to stop him would be for Hank to erase his memories. But they won't do that. Too easy.

shadar wrote:
Whatever the case, Lord now knows about Hank, and he knows about Kara. That puts him in a very powerful position. I think this is the point where we start to see him go into full-on villain mode as he becomes the Lex Luthor of the show.

The only way to stop him would be for Hank to erase his memories. But they won't do that. Too easy.

They didn't show any surveillance footage from inside the room if I remember correctly, so even though Lord knows there is someone out there that can look like him and phase through walls It isn't sure they don't know it is Hank. I also think there will be some time before next memory wipe, feels like it was used on a henchman to just have it as a discussion point in future episodes.

It will be interesting to see where they end up with him knowing Kara's alter ego. A second dinner between Lord and Alex could be interesting.

pansardum wrote:

shadar wrote:
Whatever the case, Lord now knows about Hank, and he knows about Kara. That puts him in a very powerful position. I think this is the point where we start to see him go into full-on villain mode as he becomes the Lex Luthor of the show.

The only way to stop him would be for Hank to erase his memories. But they won't do that. Too easy.

They didn't show any surveillance footage from inside the room if I remember correctly, so even though Lord knows there is someone out there that can look like him and phase through walls It isn't sure they don't know it is Hank. I also think there will be some time before next memory wipe, feels like it was used on a henchman to just have it as a discussion point in future episodes.

It will be interesting to see where they end up with him knowing Kara's alter ego. A second dinner between Lord and Alex could be interesting.

It would be very interesting if the writers developed some sort of ongoing romantic relationship between Alex and Lord, yet not one that involves much trust. They are both trying to penetrate the secrets and exploit the opportunities of their relationship toward their different goals. It would be a neat subplot... kind of spy versus spy.

Shadar

If (yes, it was a big if) I could get past the holes in logical thinking (other than the flying girl form another planet that looks human) this was a really fun episode for me. I managed to get past it all and had fun with it.

The stand out moment for me: Reverse super breath and the poison cloud. That was great fun.
The stand out silly moment: The flying ice shard bomb protection wall.
The stand out FX moment: Panning razor yo-yo to chest shot. Haha!
The stand out Drama moment: Winn rejection/commentary about expressing emotions/worry about being like dad. I guess I'm semi team Winn - but mostly just team Kara and she just doesn't seem to have a clue what she wants.