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Supergirl S2E16 “Star-Crossed” Gets Sidetracked by Quirky Subplots

Posted on March 20, 2017 by Logan Dalton

At times, this week’s episode of Supergirl “Star-Crossed” feels like a hybrid of the worst parts of two great genre shows. It’s the episodes of Buffy the Vampire Slayer Season 5 or so where Spike is trying to be a “good person” to win Buffy’s love combined with the early episodes of Angel that spent an entire episode on some monster of the week gimmick, like hip hop themed demon gangs or elaborate games of demon poker. In this case, writers Katie Rose Rogers and Jessica Kardos spend most of the episode’s running time on a B-plot featuring Winn’s girlfriend Lyra and an intergalactic art smuggling ring while putting the reveal of Mon-El as the prince of Daxam on the backburner. We do find out that his parents, Rhea (Teri Hatcher) and Lar Gand (Kevin Sorbo) definitely would have voted for Trump as they espouse the motto “Make Daxam great again.” and say that slavery helped other alien races “improve their station”.

Rogers and Kardos should be applauded for finding some way to connect the Mon-El reveal and alien art thief through the shared theme of lying in a relationship. The makeouts and “divine museum sex” that Winn and Lyra shared were just a cover for her being a con woman and trying to steal priceless works of art like Van Gogh’s Starry Night (So cliched.) to buy her brother back from a trailer park dwelling group of gangster aliens. Roger and Kardos invent a whole backstory for her from whole cloth and set up Lyra as a terrible person, who has been using Winn the whole time, but he stills likes her for kissing reasons, I guess. If the Mon-El/Kara romance is any barometer, people do terrible things for attractive people or aliens.

However, the fights between the alien art ring members and Winn’s friends lets first time director and veteran stunt coordinator John Medlen Jr. shoot some brutal close quarters action as Alex Danvers continues to fight dirty while still breaking off after beating the bad guys to kiss her girlfriend Maggie. Rogers and Kardos also reunites the “superfriends” of Guardian, Winn, and Supergirl as they get to the bottom of these alien art shenanigans even if Lyra gets off a little too easy.

But, for the most part, this plot feels like a cheesy diversion from the important reveal that Mon-El has been lying all along and is the spoiled prince of a country, who kept their subjects drunk and lazy to exploit them all the more. Medlen’s red tinged flashbacks are shot in stark, yet stylized documentary style with Mon-El’s selfishness on full display as he leaves his one night stand behind to flee Daxam in his pod. And to get to his pod, his bodyguard kills its Kryptonian diplomat owner and sacrifices himself while Mon-El jets off to safety. Yeah, Mon-El isn’t just a frat boy, but a murderer too in a neat deconstruction of the white male Chosen One trope. And his excuses for his behavior ring hollow even though Chris Wood uses his pretty face to wring every last bit of charm out of them.

Finally, Katie Rogers and Jessica Kardos realize that Kara and Mon-El aren’t a good match. Her motivation for being a superhero is her implicit goodness while his is to put it frankly, to get in her pants or spend time with her. The opening scene of “Star-Crossed” shows Mon-El’s selfishness as he enjoys “Netflix and chill” with Kara rather than teaming up with her to help people or listen about the articles and investigations she used to do for Catco. He’s at his happiest when Kara is at her weakest and most inactive and sits out during the action scenes except for the end when he declares his love for her in front of his disapproving parents, who spend most of the time extolling the virtues of Daxam and decrying the Kryptonians. They’re like your racist in-laws only played by Kevin Sorbo and Teri Hatcher with regal speaking patterns.

The ending of “Star-Crossed” seems to fall into a pattern of Mon-El being terrible and Kara forgiving him and taking him back, but Rogers and Kardos finally break with convention. Melissa Benoist puts on her tough, serious face and calls him out on lying about his entire past and personality and pretending to be another so she would like him. Ir’s a real moment of power for Supergirl in an episode that seems overly concerned with alien gang politics, and Jeremy Jordan’s shout-y dialogue delivery as he proves that he’s better at quick-witted comic relief than melodrama. She is single and free to be a hero, and so is Mon-El as he tells his parents to leave Earth. But their departure is a little too easy, and they’re sure to be back. Rhea is a master of a passive aggressive manipulation and uses Kara’s misgivings about Mon-El to break them up, and it would be a lot of fun to see her and Lillian Luthor match wits.

“Star-Crossed” meanders into a side character’s backstory a little too much kind of wastes Daxamites as potential antagonists. However, Kara finally sees the light about Mon-El, which means Melissa Benoist gets to exhibit some intense post-breakup emotions, and John Medlen is one hell of a fight choreographer for the Guardian vs. Trailer Park Alien Boys scenes so it’s not a half bad episode. Plus there’s a tease of Darren Criss’ Music Meister (and a Glee reunion) complete with CGI contact lens hypnosis at the very end.

Overall: 7.5

Supergirl Gets Sentimental in S2E13 “Mr. and Mrs. Mxyzpltk”

Posted on February 21, 2017 by Logan Dalton

A week after the fact Valentine’s themed episode, Supergirl kicks it Silver Age style when the 5th dimension imp and classic Superman villain, Mxyzptlk, rolls into town. In a meta-casting twist, he is played by Peter Gadiot, who played a genie in ABC’s Once Upon a Time in Wonderland, and wants to marry Supergirl because he thought she was beautiful while traveling between dimensions. Writers Sterling Gates and Jessica Queller definitely go for broke on the goofy side with Mxyzptlk’s havoc culminating in an homage to Hamilton, but the real meat of “Mr. and Mrs. Mxyzptlk” is in the romantic relationship depart where Maggie and Alex spend their first Valentine’s together, Winn takes a chance at love with the alien Lyra, and the ball is dropped yet again in the Mon-El/Kara department.

Mxyzptlk is a fantastic villain of the week, and Gadiot plays him with unbridled energy while director Stefan Pleszczynski shoots some inventive set pieces featuring him. However, the solution to beat him is pretty low budget and word for word faithful from the comics showing Mort Weisinger zaniness can co-exist with real human feelings. It’s a nice change to have a villain that is an intellectual challenge for Supergirl and not one that she can defeat by punching, using heat vision, or the DEO armory/MacGuffin closet. She defeats Mxyzptlk in a sly way not unlike the covers of the Weisinger-era Superman comics that involved him being more of a trickster than a Big Blue Boy Scout to drive sales. Kara also fights Mxyzptlk on her terms, her turf (The Fortress of Solitude.), and without Mon-El or anyone’s help driving home her agency as a character.

James gets the week off as both Guardian and in his day job at Catco, but Gates and Queller give Winn a solo subplot of his own and an adorable, yet sexy bond with Lyra, an alien whose martial arts skills help save him at the Alien Bar. In an episode where men are trying to do “rescuing” some way, Winn’s lack of toxic masculinity is refreshing. Winn is a fan of the literature of Lyra’s home planet, Starhaven, and he immediately falls for her forward approach to romance, including asking him out and kissing him first. Except their bond isn’t just physical, and they share a nice scene where Winn talks about the pain of heartbreak and getting hurt in a romantic relationship that is relatable to anyone in the dating scene. Their storyline didn’t have much to do with the main plot, but presented some nice counterprogramming to the machismo and posturing of Mxyzptlk and Mon-El, who fight over Kara like she’s not even in the room.

Exactly how I feel about Kara/Mon-El.

I think the writers of Supergirl, including Gates and Queller, are going for an aggressive bickering leads to romance kind of vibe, like Carrie Fisher and Harrison Ford in Empire Strikes Back or Billy Crystal and Meg Ryan in When Harry Met Sally… Except those couples had chemistry (Or at least great dialogue from Larry Kasdan and Nora Ephron respectively.), and Kara and Mon-El don’t have that even though Melissa Benoist are charming actors. Mon-El reaches new levels of ridiculousness in “Mr. and Mrs. Mxyzptlk” by treating Kara, who taught him to be a superhero, like a damsel in distress and being patronizing towards her. Also, he’s jealous of an imp from another dimension, who has major issues with boundaries and thinks that Mxyzptlk will “take” him away from her. Most of the episode is spent by Kara rescuing Mon-El from his own stupidity when he tries to go mano a mano with Mxyzptlk and lecturing him about forcing the issue in their relationship. But they still end up smooching at the end of the episode after Kara basically walks back everything she said over the past episode as not wanting to lose her “cover” when pretending to marry Mxyzptlk. It’s the silliest thing in an episode that features a teleporting, reality warping Aaron Burr cosplayer.

The message of “Mr. and Mrs. Mxyzptlk” is simple and true. Romantic relationships should be organic and selfless with both parties caring about each other instead of doing ridiculous things to impress the other person, like Mxyzptlk and to a lesser extent, Mon-El. Except Gates and Queller walk that idea back by having Kara instantly being okay with Mon-El as a romantic partner even after she has constantly said that they aren’t good for each other, and that she is tired of his rescues and stunts on her behalf. The extended make-out between Kara and Mon-El is tacked onto the verbal equivalent “I’m sorry” as the product of all the non-existent sexual tension between them. It will be interesting to see their relationship develop in a car running a red light on a busy intersection and getting majorly totaled kind of way.

But, on a happier note, Gates and Queller spend a little time with Maggie and Alex, who are celebrating their first Valentine’s together. There is a big, sad emotional beat when Maggie reveals that she was outed to her parents as a lesbian by a girl that she had a crush on in high school on Valentine’s Day. They didn’t respond well, and she had to live with relatives. From personal experience, being outed against your will is a painful, trust destroying, and agency removing experience. Maggie’s first reaction is to be alone, but she runs into Kara, who tells Maggie about how much Valentine’s means to her because this is her first one as a couple. And the ending is beautifully romantic and slightly cheesy as Maggie and Alex dance like they’re at prom together. Maggie and Alex’s relationship is pretty emotionally volatile, but through Floriana Lima and Chyler Leigh’s long glances and soft tones to each other, they truly care about each other and are Supergirl”s best romantic coupling so far in two seasons.

“Mr. and Mrs. Mxyzptlk” has a plot and villain that indulges in some true Silver Age silliness as Sterling Gates, Jessica Queller, and Stefan Plesczynski embraces Superman and Supergirl’s past canon with open arms while still having some insightful things to say about the nature of relationships. The Mon-El subplot continues to be an eyesore, but this episode of Supergirl is filled with romance, whimsy, and a touch of truth.

Rating: 8.0