Season One, Episode Eight – “Hostile Takeover”
©2015 CBS Broadcasting, Inc. All Rights Reserved.
By Molly Jane Kremer and Jarrod Jones. Just so you know, just to give you a fair head’s up, you won’t find a “Cat’s out of the bag” joke here. (Just where do you think you are, anyhow?)
But hey! You have to give Supergirl the proper kudos for giving Cat Grant far more journalistic wherewithal than her former Editor-in-Chief over at The Daily Planet. All it took was one Super-slipup, an evening in which to ruminate over a tall glass of bourbon, and now bam — Cat Grant doesn’t have to offer Kara health insurance anymore.
But staring the CEO of CatCo in the eyes without a pair of spectacles on her face is far from the only dilemma Kara has to deal with this week: now her sister seems to be palling up with the man who may be responsible for her father’s death, and her murderous auntie from Krypton is back to start somethin’. For all the appropriate melodrama that occurred this week — and whoo, was there a bit of it — there was that much more jaw-dropping fisticuffs. Kara Zor-El just showed the world that you do not, under any circumstances, mess with the ‘S’. Now there’s no doubt in anyone’s mind that Melissa Benoist’s right jab would crack every perfect incisor inside Henry Cavill’s mouth. That’s how you wrap up the first half of a damn fine season of television.
WHAT WORKED: Kara and Astra become embroiled in a very Man of Steel-esque fight scene in the skies above National City—in fact, a couple shots looked nearly identical—but on this show, when the two tumble through a building and send debris hurtling towards bystanders, SUPERGIRL ACTUALLY FLIES DOWN AND GRABS THE FALLING RUBBLE TO SAVE THEM. Was that so goddamned hard to do, Zack Snyder?!?
The big reveal (to be honest, it was more Cat’s discovery) of Kara’s identity to Cat was suspenseful and joyous and great – avoiding the now cliché, hard-to-sustain (and explain) cluelessness from every single person around both Kara and Supergirl is a good move, and it brought out an intensely gratifying (and actually sweet—whodathunk?) thank you from Cat. As for what the ramifications will be for Kara in her worklife, well, that’s gonna have to wait until next month.
Laura Benanti’s performances as Alura, Astra, and Alura’s robo-double at the DEO was surprisingly watchable this week. She hasn’t been in many episodes, and I’m not necessarily a fan of eliciting sympathy for the villain in the viewer (which yes, of course they do), but her dialogue was vastly improved upon this week.
WHAT DIDN’T: There’s so little that didn’t work this week. Even the tiny things that have typically made me roll my eyes in past episodes, including Benanti’s aforementioned performance as Astra/Alura, were improved upon, up to the point of me enjoying them. Even Winn’s (Jeremy Jordan) often aggravatingly passive-aggressive crush on Kara is finally directly addressed, by Jimmy Olsen no less, making the possibility of a Kara/Winn relationship reachable—and maybe even not one that would make my stomach hurt. (But I’m still Team Karimmy all the way.)
BEST LINE(s):
“In the last hour alone the Daily Planet has published my real age, the fact that I have three personal shoppers on call at Barney’s, and that I asked out Idris Elba on a date and he said no. His loss.” – Cat. Good gods, no one gets better lines on this show than Cat Grant.
“That handsome little hobbit who has more cardigans than you do.” – Cat, aptly describing about Winn. Although I’d say his hair’s neither long nor curly enough to be that of a Halfling.
“If I wanted to have sex with a beach boy I’d still be sleeping with John Stamos.” – Cat.
“No, I mean, yeah, of course I like her. Like as a friend and colleague, and my all-time favorite superhero.” – Winn.
“Kryptonans are impervious to my telepathy, which Superman finds hilarious.” – J’onn.
BEST MOMENT: Supergirl has never been lacking in incredible fight scenes, and tonight’s—as usual—thrilled. The final fight scene, a fitting way to send off the first half of the season, was appropriately massive, and included almost every introduced superpowered character they could possibly include. Uniformed Kryptonian criminals battled next to various Fort Rozz prisoners against the DEO, Maxwell Lord, a disguised J’onn J’onzz, and of course, Kara Zor-El, who makes a mighty entrance towards the end. She looks and acts sincerely threatening, upping the already huge stakes in the scene, truly living up to the “Maid of Steel” nickname. An absolutely jaw-dropping experience.
EPISODE’S MVP: Supergirl. At the risk of sounding like a broken record, Melissa Benoist’s performance as Kara Zor-El has only grown stronger as the series has progressed. And the stronger she becomes, the stronger her supporting cast becomes. If every show had a leader — even in a character-juggling drama like Supergirl — than Melissa Benoist is the shining example of strength and vision every other superhero show should follow.
©2015 CBS Broadcasting, Inc. All Rights Reserved.
HEAT VISIONS:
– Astra’s “pity me, my niece” ruse would have been clever, had we not already seen this bait-and-switch from The Dark Knight, Star Trek Into Darkness, Skyfall, etc etc etc. All it was missing was that moment when Kara realized, “She wanted to lose… she wanted to get locked up in the DEO.” *cut to Astra hanging out of the window of a stolen speeding cop car*
– So Cat has a son named Adam after all. What this portends for the future of Ms. Grant, and what ties her son may have with Winn’s felonious father, remain to be seen. But considering that Cat disclosed Adam’s age (he can, at least, drink on an airplane), it’s likely Supergirl won’t be revisiting that one time Dan Jurgens really, really, freaked us out.
– Astra has a husband, and… it’s Non. (No, not him.) From what we can glean from his introductory episode, Non’s a Zod-level extremist (who sits a few ranks below his equally fanatical wife), instead of being a callous, dim-witted brute like he was depicted in Richard Donner’s Superman films, or the former scientist who used to be looked up to by non other than Jor-El himself. (Non made his first comic book appearance in Action Comics #845.)
– Speaking of extremists, looks like Astra has a Kryptonian running crew, all sporting spiffy, military-grade outfits from Superman: World of New Krypton. We are not complaining.
– Rao name drop. Though was Astra talking about the red sun of Krypton, or the Kryptonian God?
– Dirk Armstrong, noted chump, was first introduced in Superman: The Man of Steel #61.
– Opal City? Opal City?! That reference is not only awesome because of the Starman implications, it’s incredible because Opal City has been featured in The Flash and Arrow too. Can you say, “crossover”? (Because we refuse to say “coincidence”.)
– No more Supergirl until January 4, people. We’ll miss you. Until then, let this tide you over, the craziest scene from this part of the season:
