Supergirl Returns With Its Mid-Season Premiere Tonight On The CW
Supergirl returns from its first major break of the season (the other scheduled to occur between February and April) tonight on The CW. If you’ve forgotten where the series left Kara and crew, have no fear. We’re here to get you caught up before new episodes arrive for 2018.
The first half of season three of Supergirl has been all about people being all sad and mopey. I know. What a compelling way to spend an hour every Monday evening, right? Kara has been moping about because Mon-El had to go away in the finale of season two. Alex has been sad because she and Maggie were at odds about having kids, which led to the two separating right before their wedding. James and Winn have been whining over lack of screen time this season. Okay, I can’t confirm the latter, but on this show, I’m sure it’s true.
And, get this… now Kara is upset because Mon-El is back.
Did I mention that he’s brought his fiance with him?
I know these shows are little more than primetime soap operas about people in capes and masks, but just when The Flash has embraced the property’s lighter side, Supergirl goes and repeats the mistakes of the previous two seasons of The Flash by being overly moody and gloomy. Comparing the various series, the season four premiere of The Flash and season two premiere of Legends of Tomorrow, both tonally lighter and more humorous this season, maintained their audience numbers from their respective prior seasons, while “Sad Supergirl” saw a drop of around 40% in total viewers compared to its season two premiere.
I’m all for giving our heroes problems that flying, punching, running really fast, and firing an arrow won’t fix, but at the end of the day–or at least at the end of the hour–I want to see these over-the-top characters inspiring hope. Comparing Supergirl (this season, certainly) and, to an extent, Arrow, to The Flash and Legends of Tomorrow this season is a little like comparing DC Comic films to Marvel films. Give us stakes, sure, but give us fun and we’ll give you our time.
But I digress.
Where We Left Our Heroes (And Villains)
When we left our hero, Supergirl had been knocked out by Reign, a woman of dubious Kryptonian heritage who has had the dormant villain inside of her awakened by… something. I’m not really clear on why Reign has surfaced now, other than that’s the way the writers and producers needed it to happen so that she could be the big-bad of season three. I get that being pregnant and having a baby suppressed the Reign seed inside of Samantha, but if it was explained exactly why Sam’s having her multiple personality moment now, then I missed it in all the moping about by the rest of the characters.
We can assume that Reign is continuing her one-woman mission as “the Worldkiller” by bursting through walls and beating down individuals, which seems to me to be taking the slow lane to the whole world killing thing. With Kara knocked out, it’s a good thing that Mon-El, Saturn Girl, and Brainiac 5–the frakkin’ Legion of Superheroes!–are around to protect National City, once again ignoring the fact that you have the most powerful alien on earth running the DEO, and now you have his dad on earth to boot.
I like the juxtaposition of Supergirl/Kara struggling with her humanity versus her Kryptonian heritage and “calling” to be a hero against Sam’s same struggle to retain her humanity/motherhood now that Reign is awake and all Kryptonian ragey. My early guess is that Kara will be successful in retaining her humanity while Sam will lose hers, or possibly Sam’s humanity makes one last desperate appearance that allows her to sacrifice herself. I mean, of all the things for Alex and Maggie to fight over, it just had to be about having a kid at the same time that Alex has bonded with Sam’s daughter Ruby. No way this season ends without Alex adopting Ruby because Sam/Reign is lost/gone, right?
In other news, Lena bought Catco out from Adrian Pasdar (channeling John Barrowman) and then hooked up with James during the two minutes of screen time James had in the mid-season finale.
We get four new episodes of Supergirl before the show goes on break again and Legends of Tomorrow takes the time slot to finish out its season starting February 12. Let’s all hope these four episodes are used to course-correct the season, tonally, and set us up for a big finish when Supergirl returns again in April. Let us know what you think in the comments here, and share your thoughts as you watch the episode on the GeekDad Facebook page.
