Supergirl S02E20 Review: Purposeless James

Supergirl, Season 2, Episode 20: City of Lost Children

Okay, yeah, after a very weak episode previously, we cut to an episode focusing all about James Olsen, undoubtedly the character that season two of Supergirl had no idea what to do with. I mean, the first season had no idea what to do with him either beyond making him a boring handsome love interest, but at least James didn't take up huge chunks of screentime trying to be a superhero -- and honestly, it's like every episode needs to have a couple of minutes dedicated to a stuntman in an ugly costume beating up random mooks on the street. It would be something if the show explored just why National City needed the Guardian when it has Supergirl (and Martian Manhunter, and the DEO...).

And, well, devoting an entire episode to James bonding with a random alien kid with explosive psychic powers? Yeah, that... that didn't work out as well as they hoped it should be. The thing about James is that, unlike, say, Winn and his desire for approval and his baggage of daddy-is-a-supervillain issues, nothing that James does really makes sense organically. Beyond some brief "man, all my buddies are kryptonian superheroes" sentiment, he doesn't really have much justification for running around whacking people with a sad-looking gray shield. Arrow's third season explored it with Laurel trying to play superhero without any real training or reason, and that backfired on her spectacularly. Which is hilarious.

And honestly, I think even the show-writers are acknowledging how they literally have nothing good to do with the Guardian concept, because even James himself is second-guessing his own career. Honestly I really wished while watching this episode that it's going to be an excuse for James to be more civilian-friendly and paint his armour yellow and blue instead of this dreadful, drab gray, and exchange that horrendous mask for a proper helmet.

And just as we're starting to get less and less Guardian screentime, like a itch on your butt that never goes away, he comes back. And god, it makes even less sense for him to go from crimefighter to "man, am I making a difference?" to "I am totally this alien kid's surrogate daddy slash best buddy!" The show (and James' actor) tries its best to pretend there's a deep bond between James and Marcus that neither of the show's other characters are able to replicate (despite Alex apparently spending a couple of hours worth of time talking to Marcus compared to James just meeting him the first time).

And honestly, it's just the writers trying to shove a very James-heavy episode, and none of the scenes really felt like it worked. The new scenes seemed to hinge on James' own daddy issues, except those aren't issues we've ever seen before. So yeah, it's a bit irritatingly built up, and while the conclusion of the plot arc has James reach out to Marcus (naturally) and stop all the Phorians from creating a psychic apocalypse, the journey there could've really used some work. Hopefully with everything that's going down James will not have as huge a role in the finale two-parter.

So yeah, all that James stuff is padding, because clearly the main plot is about the Daxamites. And while the buildup for the main plot isn't anywhere as horrible as the Savitar plotline over in Flash, both Rhea and Lena are far, far more well-realized than Savitar ever was. Again, I really wished both this episode and the previous one devoted just a bit more screentime to Rhea and Lena, if only so that I can buy the idea that Lena, previously built up to be the smartest human being on Earth, gets duped and absolutely sucked in by Rhea.

Though honestly, I think one of the biggest mark of damning the James storyline is that it gets the main billing as far as screentime goes, but the bond between Rhea and Lena felt far more believable than the James-Marcus bond. Still absolutely pissed that Lena ends up being kind of made a fool out of, because, jeez, you were so paranoid before! Why the hell would you build the huge alien portal and not have actual precautions for any of these happening? Plot, I know, but still.

Oh well, whatever the case, the inevitable betrayal happens. Rhea double-crosses Lena and apparently the portal is used to bring in her invasion fleet, instead of returning her home. Honestly, Lena, for someone who literally built the fucking machine, how did you not even consider that? It's still pretty awesome, though, because Rhea quickly takes off three pieces (two of them being pretty heavy hitters) from Supergirl's side of the board. Lena gets knocked out in the scuffle and kidnapped, J'onn gets his mind mentally shut down with some white martian technology, and Mon-El can't bring himself to kill his mother. (Rhea tells Mon-El the very believable story that his father took his own life out of grief, which would totally mess with Mon-El's mind).

Yes, the finale seems to be shaping up to mimic the first season's finale, but the setup is so, so much better, Rhea's threat of a good old-fashioned ships raining death upon mankind is so much more satisfying than Myriad, Rhea herself is a far more fleshed-out villain than... Non? Was his name Non? And all the pieces involved -- be it the DEO, Cadmus possibly coming into play, Superman possibly coming into play and all that jazz makes it so much more compelling to watch. So long as you keep James on the sidelines and not at the forefront like this episode.

Oh, and we totally got a Batman reference. That was unexpected, and awesome.

DC Easter Eggs Corner: 

• Winn and James compares the not-child-friendly Guardian costume and more brutal vigilantism with "Clark's friend", which is a reference to Batman. Winn even makes a pointy-ears gesture with his head, making us know damn well which friend of Clark's they are talking about.
• The Phorians seem to be based on the Euphorians, a race of telekinetic and telepathic aliens that are honestly quite minor. The superhero Primus of the Omega Men, a group of intergalactic guardians, hails from that race.