EPISODE 16: STAR-CROSSED
SYNOPSIS: A new villain in National City puts Supergirl on high alert; Winn’s girlfriend gets him in trouble with the law; Maggie tries unsuccessfully to help Winn; the Music Meister attacks Supergirl.
REVIEW:
Seeing as this is the lead-in episode to THE FLASH & SUPERGIRL musical cross-over event, I think I’ll kick this review off by singing a little tune. * Clears throat * I’d like to dedicate this next number to Prince Mon-El of Daxam, if I may. “If I could turn the page, in time then I’d rearrange – Just a day or two – Close my, close my, close my eyes,” and then the chorus kicks into high gear “Tell me lies, tell me sweet little lies (Tell me lies, tell me, tell me lies)! Oh, no, no you can’t disguise . (You can’t disguise, no you can’t disguise) Tell me lies, tell me sweet little lies.” Oh, Fleetwood Mac, you can whisper sweet little lies into my ear anytime you’d like.
Alright, it’s time to get serious here, folks. Personally, I thought tonight’s episode of SUPERGIRL was decent, but by no means was it a series (or even a season) stand-out. Look, in the immortal words of Les Claypool of the band Primus (and like, thousands of other musical projects that run the gamut of amazing to meh), they can’t all be zingers. Perhaps I should explain myself before I lead us down a dark rabbit hole? “Star-Crossed” was all about the truth coming back to haunt a select few of our core cast members. On one end of the spectrum, Mon-El’s parents show up and totally let the cat out of the bag about him being a spoiled Prince.
As you can imagine, this sends Kara off on an emotional tailspin. After all, she’s warned Mon-El several times already about his propensity to embellish or tell lies. On the other side of the narrative coin, Winn’s girlfriend, Lyra, frames our government-level Geek Squad technician for the theft of Vincent van Gogh’s “The Starry Night” – with the aim of selling the world-famous painting as a form of ransom to secure the safe return of her brother from the clutches of an angry alien art dealer. Both situations are tied to a list of untruths, which I will now sort through as you read on.
First off, let’s talk about Rhea (Teri Hatcher) and Lar Gand (Kevin Sorbo) blowing up Mon-El’s spot, shall we? I think we can all agree that Mon-El should have been honest with Kara from the very beginning of their relationship about his past, but as viewers who have witnessed this dude bungle his way through a series of opportunities to shoot straight with Supergirl, I think it’s pretty clear as to why he screwed this up too. The way I see it, Mon-El’s former-years as royalty have left him with a douche-level sense of entitlement, and as such, the Daxamite often feels like he doesn’t need to take responsibility for his actions (or inaction). I realize that he’s been making a concentrated effort to listen and learn about Kara’s needs and desires in recent episodes, but sometimes a situation is what we call “too little too late”. Oh yeah, and the part about lying to your girlfriend (and everyone else, too) about who you really are? Not cool guy. It’s certainly not alright to do that on this planet, or any other for that matter.
Okay, I’m just going to come out and say it, Rhea, Mon-El’s mother, is a real jerk. She’s like that racist aunt that you’re embarrassed to have people meet (let alone have a conversation with). Kudos to Teri Hatchet for dialing up the cold-factor, though. For real, I could practically see the icy mist swirling off her Daxamite active wear. Kevin Sorbo on the other hand? Was it just me or did he not have a lot to do this episode beyond fulfilling the role of the “friend first, father second” Dad? I’m confident that we’ll see more from him in the episodes to come, but if you were to request that I repeat a single line of his dialogue from this episode, well … let’s just say you’d be disappointed. It’s okay though, because about a third of the way through the episode, Mon-El’s surprise visit from his parents becomes secondary to a Winn and Lyra sub-plot that in its own way acts as a mirror for Kara’s frustrations with the truth about Mon-El.
Here’s the dirt regarding that little situation. You’re familiar with Winn’s new alien girlfriend Lyra, right? You’re also aware of how she and Winn have been going pretty hot and heavy for the past few weeks, yes? I’m sorry to thwo you, but it turns out that Lyra is something of a con artist. Yeah, I know, I’m not thrilled about it either. In addition to Mon-El keeping a dark secret from everyone, it turns out that Lyra is a lying liar, too! Would anyone else who’s a part of the cast of SUPERGIRL like to step forward and confess anything more while we’re getting all of this nasty business out in the open? Good grief. Anyway, I’ll cop to my thinking that this part of the show felt very much like filler (after all, we’re all just waiting for the moment in which Kara is transported to magical, musical world with Grant Gustin’s THE FLASH), but that’s not to say that it didn’t serve the story quite well. Do you remember in the last paragraph when I said that the Winn/Lyra stuff acted as something of a mirror to the Kara/Mon-El uproar? You do? Nice, because we’ll be getting to that in just a few moments.
At one point in tonight’s program, Kara and Mon-El sit down to a rather awkward meal with the wayward prince’s Daxamite parents. Just before dinner was served, Kara learned the truth about Mon-El’s royal heritage, and was understandably upset. In between mouthfuls of what was no doubt some bizarre alien delicacy, Mon-El recants the story of his escape from a crumbling planet Daxim. As we watch the tale unfold through the magic of a flashback sequence, we come to discover that Mon-El is nothing more than an entitled, spineless tool of a would-be ruler. I’m not kidding. This guy would sooner step over his own, bleeding subjects than help escort them to safety. Understandably, Kara becomes so disgusted by what she learns that she leaves the table in a huff. The whole thing is rather distressing because, just like clockwork, Kara reverts back into being someone who’s not willing to listen before reacting in a way that is wholly unproductive to the situation.
One of the things that frustrates me about Kara is her tendency to shut down in the face of situations that call for her to take a step back, and listen to what other people have to say for themselves before she writes them off (even if it’s just temporary). Obviously, Kara isn’t perfect, and that’s okay. Hell, I’ve been told by my wife (Hi sweetheart!) that I can sometimes be a react-first/climb down from the ceiling later kind of guy – and I completely cop to that opinion. What kills me is that Kara expects so much from everyone at all times, but when given the opportunity to learn about the value of patience and understanding, has a tendency to fail on all fronts. No one likes being lied to, and there’s a large part of me that is proud of her for standing her groung and calling things off with Mon-El. However, there’s also something to be said for judging Mon-El for who he was, and not for who he has become since he crash-landed on Earth.
A lie is a lie is a lie, though. Even after his gaggingly sincere apology to Kara (which I felt was absurdly genuine), she brought the ax down on their union. Oh, I should probably note that Alex delivered some killer advice in regard to how she felt Kara should approach the subject, only our hot-headed blonde bombshell completely ignored it. That’s her prerogative, sure, but it was still rather vexing to see such sound advice fall on deaf, super-powered ears. What does make Kara think twice though, is the manner in which Winn reacts to Lyra’s deceitful actions, and how he chose to forgive and transmute the scenario into quite the heroic moment for himself. In a way, Winn’s refusal to give up on Lyra acts like mirror for Kara, and the reflection staring back at her belongs to a part of herself that she doesn’t like. It’s in moments such as this when Kara’s more human and vulnerable side comes seeping out of that symbol she wears on her chest. She might be made of steel just like her cousin, but make no mistake, her heartstrings are just as pliable as any other human who’s felt the scorn of betrayal.
I feel like things are getting a bit too emotional in here. Let’s work our way toward a few final talking points and then wrap this sucker up, yeah? One thing I’d like to point out is that James Olsen had me in stitches earlier this evening (and that guy never makes me laugh). That moment when he shows up to aid Winn and Lyra in their shady art exchange, and comes flying in with that failed corkscrew sheild bash and says, “That usually works, run!” I lost it. Thanks for the laugh, dude, that was a great way to break up the tension of tonight’s events for sure. Furthermore, let’s give a shout out to Alex and her efficient ass-kickery this evening. I’ll tell you, Chyler Leigh must be doing some admirable fight training during her off-camera hours because that woman can throw down! My man Mechad Brooks is no slouch, either. While I enjoy the finesse of Alex’s skill set a bit more, I won’t deny that Olsen can throw a good punch (in addition to knowing how to take them).
Finally, we arrive at tonight’s bizarre ending which serves as our lead-in to the musical cross-over event. Get your jazz hands ready, folks, because the Music Meister has found Kara, and he’s ready to manipulate her into singing us a song or two. How does he do it, you ask? The Meister’s main power is his singing voice, which creates a pitch so high that it hypnotizes people. In their state of hypnosis, it causes his victims to sing and dance too. He has a rod (roughly shaped like a conductor’s baton) that can fire energy blasts shaped like music scores, but I didn’t see him carrying that thing around, at least not yet. With a flash of his eyes the Music Meister places Kara in a trance, which then transports her to a magical world in which she becomes a beautiful lounge singer. Eh, that doesn’t seem too nefarious, right? M’yeah, I should probably mention that things tend to go terribly wrong in the Meister’s world, and that if you die while solving the riddles of his false fantasy, you die in the real world as well. Dun-dun-dunnnnnnnnnnn!
There you have it. Like I’d said earlier, I thought it was a decent episode but there’s a part of me that felt as if we were just killing time before the big event. I like that the show continues to draw parallels between its sub-plots as a way for the writer’s to impart a larger lesson unto their audience, I just wish that both scenarios were a tad more engaging than what they’d amounted to by the time the credits started rolling. Still, a decent episode of SUPEREGIRL is still way better than lots of other comic book-related experiences on television, and it’s okay for the program to enter into cruise control, if only to take a breath before stepping out onto the stage for a really big show that’s just behind the curtain.
Don’t forget to catch the follow-up to tonight’s events when THE FLASH airs on the CW tomorrow night at 8 pm.
SCORE:
STINGER: “Distant Sun” A large bounty is put out on Supergirl and aliens from far and near attack National City intent on taking out the woman of steel; Alex and Maggie run into Maggie’s ex-girlfriend, Emily, who is in town for a week; Hank gets an interesting order from President Marsdin.