05:18
Unknown
The Supergirl Season 5 finale aired this week and I will say it is going to be hard for me to know what to make of it.
Between the COVID-19 pandemic and the pregnancy of Melissa Benoist, 2 episodes (maybe 3) were shaved off the end of the season. Filming had to stop. As a result, this finale feels a bit rushed. There is one segment that is more unbelievable than an alien being able to process sunlight to give them the ability to fly. And, unfortunately, that very same scene is one that is almost a retread of several other season finales.
Do some plots come to an end? Yes. Are things left at an odd cliffhanger? Yes. Do the characters grow? Yes.
But it all seems like this was a 'let's do what we can with what we have' as opposed to 'let's bring this season to the conclusion we had in mind'? I hope that somewhere down the line, maybe on an extra in the season blu-ray collection, we have the writers spell out what they had hoped to do and how things were impacted.
Look, I liked this season a lot. I think I liked it more than many. I definitely feel like it was better than last season. But I wonder what might have been.
And I also think that all of that wondering is going to make me give this finale something of a critical pass as well.
We start out with Lex Luthor being finally taken to the Leviathan headquarters, deep below an abandoned warehouse.
Initially he is shocked to see the poker table we have seen the Leviathan elite playing around. After all, as someone who sees all the connections, knows all the angles, he didn't expect gods to live in a casino.
As always, Jon Cryer's Luthor is a delight. He has shown ... and he will show in this episode ... that he is a couple of steps ahead of everyone.
Led through a door, he is finally led onto the Levithan ship.
But then we have a little wrinkle. This ship is set up with some focused radiation defense so that humans/non-gods will die. Even Lex didn't see that coming!
But Gamemnae thinks of Lex as a partner. She gives him a device he can wear which will protect him. She says that he is one of Leviathan now.
And Rama Khan teams up with two other 'element bender' Leviathan elite. Juiced up on Kryptonite, they are ready to kill Supergirl.
As for Supergirl, she is alone with Lena in her apartment.
And, for once, Kara isn't pulling any punches. She doesn't want to hear Lena's apologies. She doesn't want to talk about the past. She is all about dealing with the problem at hand.
Nice initial take on this, the space between the two palpable.
Kara has called in the cavalry. The Super-friends arrive and initially think that Lena is attacking Supergirl. So Kara quickly closes that space and protects Lena.
Everyone needs to work together to stop Leviathan from using the Obsidian platform to do whatever they are planning. But with Rama Khan holding onto the DEO's Kryptonite, Supergirl is in danger.
Lena then says that given time she can make an anti-Kryptonite suit like she did in the prior continuity. Lena can do that from her lab! But with Rama Khan tied to the Earth, he will be able to find her should she use her powers.
And so we get this funny bit where J'onn and Miss Martian turn into Supergirl to act as decoys. It has been a while since we saw J'onn do this. It was funny to hear Melissa Benoist's body speak with David Harewood's voice.
I also like Nia saying it was like the beginning of Deathly Hallows. That is funny.
Before they go, Alex shows off her new super-hero gear. It is a blue and black hooded suit. It looks sort of Arrow-ish. She has wild eye make up, no mask, and little braids. It is quite the look.
What should her code name be?
I vote for Nightingale.
One character I feel has been mistreated this season has been Brainiac 5 who has been working for Lex and lying to his friends the whole season.
Brainy learns where the ship is but Lex won't give Brainy the protective gear so he can withstand the radiation field on Leviathan's ship. Not until Supergirl and the other heroes are dead.
Once that end of the equation is dealt with, Brainy will be able to get onto the ship and upload the kill code.
Basically Lex is asking Brainy to let Brainy's friends be killed for the greater good. You think at this point, Brainy would simply try and take the device from Lex. Or fight him.
But instead he falls in line.
Now this is the silliest moment.
While the heroes fight the Leviathan goons (and barely survive), Lena and Kara head across town on a bus.
Really??
Lena would ride a bus??
Did she take it to Kara's apartment? Doesn't she have a car?
Alex arrives to give an update, including the fact that J'onn was hurt in the battle.
Kara kicks herself for not being out there but Alex tells her that the right thing for Supergirl to do is be safe. The two hug.
I loved this moment, Lena seeing the two hug and lamenting that she doesn't have anyone like that in her life right now.
But there is no time to waste. Kelly calls and says William hasn't been seen since he tried to track Eve Tessmacher. Everyone has some history with Eve, even if it is history from another universe. So it is time to get into action.
Meanwhile, Brainy calls on the female Brainy one last time.
He has an idea. Instead of killing the Leviathan gods, he'll do what any self-respecting Brainuac would do ... he'll shrink them.
Unfortunately, that would mean exposing himself to the radiation field, in essence, killing himself.
He clearly has remorse for all he has done, isolating himself from his friends. He simply doesn't want to die alone. And this other relative being there is a comfort.
Poor Brainy. He isn't acting like the smartest guy in the universe.
Alex does some Mission Impossible wprk to sneak into Obsidian's mainframe so she and Kelly can find Eve Tessmacher's location. It is a nice way to show Alex's skills but seemed a little superfluous.
That said, Alex talks about how despite all her training, she felt helpless ... human ... against Leviathan. Let's face it, she is just a human. A well trained, well armed human but just a human.
She is punching a bit out of her weight class.
The two get some information about Eve but it is encrypted. So it is back to Lena for help.
Once more, Lena tries to get Kara to forgive her but once again Kara isn't budging.
In what might be the harshest scene I have seen Benoist play, she gives Lena a scolding.
Kara points out again how knowing a secret identity endangers people. She didn't tell Lena because she was protecting Lena. But instead, Lena did everything she could to hurt Kara once the truth was known.
Kara isn't ready to give absolution.
That is about as rough as you are going to see Kara be. It is borderline cold.
Lena is able to crack the code. They know where Eve is hiding. So even if it means endangering herself, Kara is off to save William. And Lena decides to join.
She can't let Lex kill her mother. He can't let William out her.
So she straight up shoots him.
Incredible!
Despite being shot through the chest (okay, upper right chest), he doesn't die immediately. After a painful cauterization by heat vision, he is stable enough to tell Supergirl that he knows he is on the right track. He got kidnapped. That's what Kara has told him.
Immediately, Lena helps keep up the pretense that Kara and Supergirl are different people. Now Lena is defending a secret identity.
Fascinating.
But Supergirl flying there does bring the Leviathan baddies.
And just when it seems like all is lost in a haze of Kryptonite green, Lena (who had taken off with Eve once the bad guys arrived) sends in the complete anti-K protection suit. Once again we see Kara look like something out of Tron.
And then, is that a Robocop reference by Dreamer? With her friends with her it feels like a more even fight.
And we start it out with a super-clap.
Very good special effects here.
The Leviathan trio shatter into rubble. But then they begin to reform.
Maybe it isn't as even a fight as we thought.
The heroes retreat.
In a show of compassion, Kara approaches Eve and forgives her taking a shot at William.
Kara teases out that Lex is threatening Eve's mother. When Kara promises she will do all she can to protect the Tessmachers, Eve spills the beans.
Gemma is Gamemnae, the head of Leviathan. And she is going to pull the plug on the billions on Obsidian when things go live.
Throughout the show, Nia keeps getting images of Brainy dying.
It is clear that she still cares for Brainy and wants to know what these dreams mean.
With the plot revealed, Kara shifts gears. The right thing to do is try and save the people not fight Leviathan.
And it isn't like she can just turn off the power. As we learned in an earlier episode, the power source is a LexCorp engine which cannot be unplugged without exploding taking out National City.
It isn't easy in this world.
Nia then asks what we all have been thinking.
Is it really time for another 'classic hope speech'??
It turns out the answer is yes.
Interestingly, both Alex and Lena say at the same time that if anyone can convince the world to unplug from virtual reality it is Kara.
It shows how much Lena has changed in a short time. She seems to have complete faith in Kara's capabilities.
J'onn and the others again coax out Rama Khan and his friends for a throwdown while Supergirl uploads herself into the Obsidian VR to try and get people to end the simulation.
With everyone off the Leviathan premises, Brainy sneaks in. Fighting the toxic radiation field, he begins downloading the shrink code into the Leviathan mainframe.
But it is clear he is in agony. He is dying.
Gamemnae senses that Supergirl is in the Obsidian VR. Panicked, she thinks of activating the kill switch, ending the lives of 2 billion people rather than 4 billion.
But Lex cautions her to not be hasty. They have slowly unfurled this plot. Why rush when Gemma could send another assassin out to kill Supergirl's body while it is helpless in the virtual reality.
You have to love Lex. I don't even think killing 2 billion people is standard of his plans. But if he wants to kill Supergirl and eliminate Leviathan, he has to break a few eggs.
The assassin Gemma chooses?
Andrea.
Remember, Andrea has shadow powers but in this universe she hasn't used them before.
No time like the present. Gamemnae gives Andrea a K-dagger and says she has to end Supergirl's life or Andrea's father will be killed.
I am glad that Andrea's powers are again brought into the plot and not forgotten. But it seems to me that it would make more sense for Gemma to call back the three big guns she has rather than sending out an untested agent for murder.
In the VR, Supergirl's persona is able to be multiplied so it seems like she is talking to each person individually.
Everyone seems to be in VR to avoid some personal pain rather than just have some fun. Kara explains that pain helps us evolve and overcome. They all need to shut down and leave.
They do.
Hmmm ...
Another hope speech to the masses?
And aren't most people in the VR for escapism and fun? Not just to avoid emotional pain? I think if I was in VR so I could fly like a superhero, a speech that says we need emotional pain to evolve might fall on deaf ears.
But this is Kara. It works. Everyone ... EVERYONE ... logs off.
In a nice resonance though, Kara's speech where she says she believes in people is echoed by two people.
One, the female Brainy tells our Brainy she believes in him and that he can last the ten minutes in pain.
And more importantly, Lena steps in between Andrea and Supergirl. Lena talks about the dark path she has been on and how she also can help Andrea. But she isn't moving. If Andrea is going to kill Supergirl, she'll have to kill Lena first.
And that snaps Andrea out of her killing mode.
Just at that time, Brainy's code is activated.
The three Leviathan Element Benders, who were having their way with our heroes, are called back to the ship and shrunk, stuffed into Brainy's jar!!!
Dying in the ship, Brainy clutches the Shrinking Jar.
But who should come in? Lex.
He anticipated that Brainy wouldn't kill anyone and would shrink them. That is just what Lex wanted. Although he hoped that all that would happen after Supergirl was killed and 2 billion people snuffed.
Still, Brainy is helpless as Lex grabs the tube and makes off with it.
Nothing left but the wrap up.
After all this, Kara is ready to forgive Lena. The two shake hands vowing to take out the last bad guy!
After a season of sniping and backstabbing and yelling, it is good to see the two friends united again.
Gemma, not caught in the shrink trap, goes mad. We see her true form, a sort of alien metal with tentacle like hair.
I wonder why she wasn't taken into the bottle with the others?
And then Lex hands over the shrink receptacle to his mother. It is time the Luthors went to work. And he needs to prepare to kill Supergirl himself.
Now that is once cliffhanger. And we will be on that cliff for a while! This is the finale!
Okay, what do I think.
The Obsidian plot seemed to be too easily thwarted. I am glad Brainy finally realized he is/was being played. But how will he get out of that killing room? But most of all, I am thrilled that the Lena/Kara feud is over.
Still, this didn't feel like finale. And the fact we have to wait so long for the resolution is maddening.
So what did you think?
Posted in: Reviews
0 comments:
Post a Comment