Is Supergirl giving up on Kara Danvers?
Warning: Full spoilers for the episode below.
Of the four current Arrowverse shows, Supergirl is the one whose return fills me with the least amount of enthusiasm this season. For all that Season 2 did to improve on the formula, it still fell well short when it came to crafting compelling villains or delivering proper payoff to a season-long conflict. The good news is that Supergirl's Season 2 finale hit a lot of strong emotional notes as Kara found herself forced to sacrifice her relationship with Mon-El for the sake of her city. The series is still leaning heavily on the fallout of that big sacrifice as it begins its third season. The bad news is that it’s unclear how much the show will be able to improve on its problem areas this year.
“Girl of Steel” reminded me more than a little of The Flash’s Season 2 premiere, “The Man Who Saved Central City.” In both cases, you have a hero who saved their city at great personal cost and who now has troubled connecting with their friends and family. Not necessarily the most groundbreaking way to kick off the new season, but it worked. And that mostly boils down to the strength of Melissa Benoist’s performance.
There’s a stark contrast between Benoist’s normally chipper, happy-go-lucky portrayal of Kara Danvers and the approach taken in this episode. This is a character who’s been beaten down by life one too many times and retreating into the easy life of being a superhero while neglecting her ordinary, day-to-day responsibilities. Benoist achieved a nice balance here. Her anger and frustration were believable, but not so extreme that Kara became obnoxious or petulant in the process. It was easy to sympathize with both sides in this episode - Kara for wanting to be left alone and grieve, and Alex and the others for trying to finally drag her out of her months-long funk.
It would probably be a mistake to keep Kara’s trapped in her depressed funk on a long-term basis. The show doesn’t need to lose touch with its lighthearted side and repeat the mistakes of The Flash: Season 3. But that doesn’t appear to be an issue. Kara’s triumphant victory and her Herculean feat in lifting the submarine felt all the more significant because of the emotional journey involved in getting to that point. And while she seems to be mostly back to her old self now, there remains some fallout from the Season 2 finale worth exploring. I hope the writers continue to address the lingering tension between Kara and Lena and the notion that Kara may blame her best friend for her role in what happened to Mon-El.
It helped that “Girl of Steel” was able to balance out the grim, depressing quality of Kara’s journey with lighter moments in other areas. For one thing, it was a real treat seeing Calista Flockhart’s Cat Grant return in her new role as Press Secretary. That’s a clever way of keeping Cat in the picture without the need for Flockhart to actually be on set with the rest of the cast.
Also welcome was the brief subplot involving Alex and Maggie’s pre-wedding tensions. Like many Supergirl fans, I was incredibly disappointed to learn that Floriana Lima isn’t a series regular this season. It seems all but a given that the writers are going to bring a swift end to this romance, either by killing off Maggie or giving her some reason to break things off and return to Metropolis. I’m not looking forward to either possibility, but at least their romance remains one of the more endearing elements of the series. And the tender scene between Alex and J’onn was a great testament to their father/daughter bond and the notion of people choosing their families rather than settling for the ones they’re born into.
Basically, Supergirl continues to thrive as it always has - on the strength of its lead heroine and strong supporting cast. The big question is whether Season 3 can finally give us the great villains the previous two seasons have mostly lacked. “Girl of Steel” wasn’t terribly encouraging in that regard. This episode introduced crooked real estate tycoon Morgan Edge (Heroes’ Adrian Pasdar), the latest in an apparently never-ending line of sinister businessman villains. While there’s only so much room to judge the character after one episode, I’m not thrilled by what we saw here. Edge comes across like a generic replacement for Maxwell Lord, but with even less nuance. The fact that he hatched a plan to nuke a low-income section of National City in order to put up high-rises is pointless goofy and over-the-top.
More intriguing, though, is the debut of Samantha Arias (House’s Odette Anabele), the woman fated to become the villain Reign over the course of this season. The decision to introduce Samantha as a mother and innocent bystander before morphing her into a villain has a lot of potential. With any luck, her gradual evolution will give Reign the nuance and pathos she needs and finally make up for two seasons’ worth of wasted potential. But given how poorly Morgan Edge is faring after just one episode, I’m going to take a “wait and see” approach here.
The Verdict
Supergirl opens its third season by largely focusing on what's worked best for the show in the past - emphasizing Kara Danvers' never-ending struggle to balance her personal and superhero lives and the inspirational symbol Supergirl has become to National City. This episode includes some strong character drama and just enough moments of levity to break up the relatively darker tone. However, the lackluster debut of new villain Morgan Edge does little to suggest the series will improve on its perpetual villain woes.
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