Supergirl S01:E10

Posted on by Rodney Twelftree

Episode Title: Childish Things

Original Airdate: 18-1-2015

Family ties. Supergirl has spent the majority of its first season dealing primarily with the subject of family: Kara’s relationship with her Kryptonian lineage, via mother Alura and aunt Astra, as well as her Earthly bonds in adopted sister Alex, mother Eliza (Helen Slater) and father (Dean Cain). Some time has also been spent with Kara’s boss, Cat Grant (Calista Flockhart), with hints of her sad emotional history bubbling away just below the superficial surface. Among those we really haven’t spent time with particularly include Kara’s CatCo ally Winn Schott (Jeremy Jordan), who comes into focus this episode when his father, the murderous “Toyman”, Winslow Schott Snr (Henry Czerny), escapes from maximum security and comes after his progeny.

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Supergirl S:01 E:08

Posted on by Rodney Twelftree

Episode Title: “Hostile Takeover”

Original Airdate: 12-14-2015

Hackery and deception. Supergirl tackles two deceptive sub-plots in this episode; the first, a corporate hack into CatCo releases a load of damning information about Cat Grant as a conniving lawyer decides to remove her as CEO, and the return of Kara’s Aunt Astra provides the young heroine with new information about her mother that makes her, and us, question everything we’ve thought to this point. Of all the episodes in the show’s run thus far, “Hostile Takeover” deals with the sense of abandonment for Kara (Melissa Benoist) with as emotional a wallop as we’ve seen thus far. It also drops several bombshells; the most pressing of which is one of the show’s core cast discovering Kara’s secret identity.

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Supergirl S:01 E:05

Posted on by Rodney Twelftree

Episode Title: Livewire*

Original Airdate: 11-16-15

*Author’s note: Due to a major terrorist attack in Paris on November 13, the original episode due to be broadcast, “How Does She Do It?”, was pulled from airing by CBS due to similarities between the plot and the tragic events in France. “Livewire” was intended to be the 5th episode of the season. “How Does She Do It?” will be transmitted on November 23rd.

Family. You can’t choose it, and it’s something that defines us. “Livewire” sees the arrival of Kara’s adopted mother, Eliza Danvers, for more than the début episode’s cameo, which gives us the always awesome Helen Slater. Eliza’s fractured relationship with Alex brings with it a nice little plot twist in Hank Henshaw’s involvement with Supergirl. The show’s always really been about family, and “Livewire” has a focus on this aspect of the franchise (due mainly to its Thanksgiving setting) that is rather touching. Even the episode’s villain, the titular Livewire, finds herself brought into the framework of family in a way that actually gives the normally fractious Cat Grant a moment of melancholy. Okay, it’s not all warm-fuzzies here, but thus far in the show’s run it hasn’t taken this much time out of its breakneck pacing to actually deliver character moments that work as well as they do here.

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