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Season 2 x 08 Spoilers & Discussions Medusa

22 Nov 2016 11:19 #51353 by five_red
Spoilertv.com

A NIGHT OF CONFESSIONS; THE EPIC SUPERHERO CROSSOVER KICKS OFF TONIGHT — Eliza (guest star Helen Slater) comes to town to celebrate Thanksgiving with her daughters. Alex (Chyler Leigh) decides it’s time to come out to her mother; Kara (Melisa Benoist) is shocked when Eliza suggests Mon-El (Chris Wood) has feelings for her, and Winn (Jeremy Jordan) and James (Mehcad Brooks) consider telling Kara the truth about the Guardian. Meanwhile, CADMUS unleashes a virus that instantly kills any alien in the vicinity so Kara enlists an unexpected ally – Lena Luthor (Katie McGrath). The epic superhero crossover kicks off tonight when Barry Allen (guest star Grant Gustin) and Cisco Ramon (guest star Carlos Valdes) seek Kara’s help with an alien invasion on their Earth. Stefan Pleszczynski directed the episode written by Jessica Queller & Derek Simon (#208). Original airdate 11/28/2016.
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29 Nov 2016 02:45 #51450 by thedoc9
Replied by thedoc9 on topic Season 2 x 08 Spoilers & Discussions Medusa
Quick reactions...
The good: The relationship between Kara and Mon-El. Playing Monopoly was a bit cheesy, but I liked it. Kara'/ mom gets to actually get involved, yes! The will-she/won't-she bit with Lena Luthor... they got me good with that one. The aliens are coming for Mon-El? Yeah, he's definitely a prince. J'Onn embracing his new "white Martian" identity, scaring the daylights out of Hank.

The bad: J'Onn's too-quick cure, Mom's too quick figuring out Alex's secret, and her lack of even surprise, and does Vibe REALLY not consider Barry his friend? Yeah, the whole my-brother-is-alive-in-another-timeline bit, but come on...

The indifferent: Saving the big crossover stuff for the last five minutes (those warps were cute, but did so little with our main story), and why doesn't the Kryptonian virus kill humans, exactly? That's right up there with a Kryptonian ship doing all the work of creating Doomsday for Lex Luthor in a matter of hours, including incorporating Alex's blood for no apparent reason. I mean... did Cadmus modify the virus that quickly and easily? I guess they had help from someone as brilliant as Kara's mom, since she was able to do so.

Ah well. Sometimes writers get painted in a corner and need to just walk away and leave a few messy prints behind. Looking forward to more Barry/Kara fun tomorrow.

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29 Nov 2016 11:34 #51452 by Markiehoe
Replied by Markiehoe on topic Season 2 x 08 Spoilers & Discussions Medusa
As a stand alone episode I thought it was pretty good.

As the Part One of an EPIC four part crossover event i thought it was really weak.
They just shoe horned in a couple scenes.
Could have done it to any episode this season.

thedoc9......I am pretty sure Mom knew Alex's secret already. Moms have a way of knowing things.

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30 Nov 2016 15:47 #51468 by TwiceOnThursdays
Replied by TwiceOnThursdays on topic Season 2 x 08 Spoilers & Discussions Medusa
There were a bunch of "comic book logic" moments in the last two episodes.

A super advanced security system that is circumvented by splashing blood on it? It doesn't even send a message to Clark and Kara that something dubious is going on? For that matter, if I were Clark, I'd have the thing send me a text message every time the door is opened or someone was sensed inside.

A virus that kills everything but X (but this is so typical comic book, that I'll take it as a given for the episode).

Getting data on the virus and being able to easily create it.

I'm going to assume that in the Kryptonian Tech that the DEO and Cadmus has, there is a bioprinter of some sort.
The Medusa design has a few fail-safes: a central part of the design that it ignores Kryptonians (else cadmus would have removed that). Medusa is really a compiler to generate the virus that a standard Kryptonian bioprinter can spit out. The design has spots to add "friendly alien", or "only target this alien species". Otherwise, it'd kill humans. It would also explain how Eliza Danvers targeted it to White Martians so quickly.

If so, this makes Kara's father less of an asshat, as he made something that he ensured couldn't kill Kryptonians, could easily not kill certain aliens, and could be tailored to just one kind of alien.

Still, the show is painting Kryptonians as more than a little xenophobic.

The most common use for this (in defense) would be to target an invading alien species and _just kill them_ (instead of all the visitors to Krypton). Despite the Xenophobic tendencies, there do seem to be enough aliens on Krypton that killing ALL of them should be problematic in an invasion. Without the "target only alien X", I'm not really buying it as a defensive weapon. This is either a weapon of conquest or a "Mutally ensured destruction" weapon (you fire a missile off to the enemy home planet and kill everyone).

It's also a bit of a silly design that the alien race most likely to invade Krypton is the one that is most immune to it (Daxamites).

OTH, I'm not sure HOW this is in the Fortress of Solitude. I mean Jor-El just takes the most top secret weapons of Krypton and sticks them into a pod with a baby? Medusa and Myriad are weapons that aliens would destroy planets to get to. If there was even a HINT that it was on Earth, some species would destroy the planet just to ensure it didn't get out! Others would rip the planet apart to get to it. There should be repercussions from letting this tech be known. (Word will get out from the attack on the bar, and some aliens HAVE to be able to leave planet or communicate offworld.) Cadmus is really full of teh stupid on this one, blinded by their hate, they don't realize that even if they succeeded, they've probably doomed Earth. Sooner or later aliens would find out, and they'd respond by destroying the planet from space. At best, if they killed ALL the aliens before any got a chance to get word out, they'd have a few years before another alien stopped by and figured it out. But since they attacked _one city_, and not the entire planet, the other aliens would hear about all the aliens dropping dead in National City while the humans were ok ... that would start the countdown clock for the end of the world.

The Fortress of Solitude is broken into, and a deadly weapon is created from the tech inside. Kara doesn't swing by Metropolis and ask for Superman's help? For all she knows he has a file called Perseus. It wouldn't be part of the Medusa data, because Clark created it as the countermeasure. She wouldn't even know to ASK about it, and the computer might not even know the files are linked.

Not sure I like Supergirl always loosing her fights -- this entire episode she really didn't do anything. Missile: fail. Cyborg Superman beat her up several times. Etc.

The scene with Eliza and Alex was so 90's Lifetime movie it was cringeworthy.

On the plus side:

Mon-el and Kara. I didn't want to like these two together, but they're laying the ground work. Yes Monopoly was cheezy, but that's what these things are built on. Kara never did anything like that with Jimmy or Winn. Also, that seemed like a pretty good kiss. (OTH, Alex/Maggie was awkward, but given Alex's past, I expected it to be so, and give them props for it. I do like these two as a couple.)

I agree: Mon-el is totally the prince.

Negative: the entirely predictable "I don't remember doing that" scene. *sigh*. If you are going to make it a thing, MAKE IT A THING. If you aren't MOVE ON. I don't think Supergirl needs a boyfriend. Maybe she can travel to the future and hang out with the legion and have a part-time bf. I always loved Supergirl and Brainy, mostly because he's such a jerk to everyone else, and it's also "smart guy gets super powered hot chick", kinda on the nose for the fantasy land there.

J'onn: He's a tragic figure, it just leaks out of him in this episode. He's not chasing death, but he's also not afraid of it. (OTH the fight, I guess turning into a white martian means he can't phase easily?)

Lena Luthor: While I wasn't surprised, I think she was handled very well in this episode. Comic Book logic: where did she hear of Medusa? HOW did she know that the element was needed to make it weaponized? How did she know enough about the virus to do what she did? I wish Supergirl had left her with all the Medusa data and told her "this is what your mother is planning.." It would have shown a sign of trust, and explained how Lena knew what to do.

Crossover: mostly a bust as it happens at the end. BUT, kudos for setting it up right. At the start of the episode there is a ZERO chance Kara would leave. By the end, Cadmus is in disarray and their newest plot foiled. So prime time for her to help out a friend. (Also I agree, Cisco saying he's not barry's friend? IT came off all wrong when they were just chatting back and forth like buddies a moment before.)

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