Tuesday 7 March 2017

Supergirl S02E14 Review: Jeremiah Returns

Supergirl, Season 2, Episode 14: Homecoming


Oh, right, Jeremiah Danvers is a thing. I honestly completely forgot about her -- neither Kara nor Alex really have brought him up at all in the past few episodes, being far more concerned about their new lovers, so, um, yeah. Supergirl and J'onn rescue Jeremiah Danvers from Cadmus in a very obviously red-flag-y moment that no one but Mon-El bothers to point out. Everyone else involved in Jeremiah's return are either family (Kara, Alex) or might as well be (J'onn) and only Mon-El points out just how fucking stupid they're all are for just letting him run around with his old Cadmus credentials and not at least being a bit more suspicious.

Yes, Mon-El was being too much of a dick about it, though honestly when it's family that's involved I can't hardly fault Alex and Kara for being overjoyed. Really silly that none of them even suggests letting J'onn scan Jeremiah's mind until the inevitable treachery happens, though. Perhaps if I hadn't been so suspicious about Jeremiah ever since his recent return in season two, I would've been more surprised, but it's something that really felt never in question, unlike, say, Lena Luthor's true motives. It's only a matter of whether Jeremiah is voluntary, mind-controlled or blackmailed into being a Cadmus agent.

Overall the premise of the episode is decent, with the DEO team split apart by their differing stances regarding Jeremiah's mysterious return, but the episode has way too much focus on Kara and Mon-El's relationship being the bridge that's being burnt in my opinion, something that we didn't really need after last episode basically covering the same ground. Thankfully, the cast is charismatic enough to really sell their joy and blindness over Jeremiah's return, and Alex being angry that Kara even considered taking Mon-El's side of the argument is very palpable.

Jeremiah Danvers might be the show's most charismatic villain, which is definitely nice because Mama Luthor is a bit inconsistent, and Cyborg Superman is a one-dimensional thug, and this likable father figure that threw his lot in with the bad guys is definitely interesting. Very, very stupid for Alex to not just shoot Jeremiah in the kneecap instead of crying and doing nothing and letting him go, though again, it's her father. So.

Jeremiah also reveals he knows who Mon-El is, which I bet is related to the whole thing with the Dominators during the slave planet episode. So either Mon-El is really the prince in that story he told Kara, or there's something even more interesting than that obvious reveal?

The conflict of the episode after Jeremiah reveals himself to be evil is pretty standard, and the J'onn-Jeremiah fight isn't really super-impressive, and Kara stopping a train from crashing is cool but nothing the show hasn't done before. Clearly the intent is to wow the audience with the conflict between the more paranoid Mon-El and the blinded-by-love Danvers family, but it honestly didn't fully stick as well as it should. A bit more underwhelmed by this episode that I probably should, I think -- the performances of the actors are great, but it's not really enough to save the rather weak plot, scripting and dialogue.

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