Supergirl, Season 4, Episode 10: Suspicious Minds
Supergirl's fourth season seems to have a bit of a pattern of introducing a character as a morally ambiguous character, only to reveal that he/she is totally evil all along. With Benjamin Lockwood, it was deliberate and well done -- we're introduced to the villain first, and then we get a 'how did we get here' flashback origin episode that details how he was originally a tolerant, nice man who ended up being consumed by his hatred and racism. With Colonel Haley, we were originally presented with a pretty interesting and complex character, someone who's by all accounts reasonable and wants to protect the people, but just has an underlying streak of nonchalance about aliens -- they're tools, not people.
And where Lockwood's transformation from a racist to a full-blown cult leader made sense, Haley's... doesn't. Mind you, the actress does relatively good work with what she's given with, but the involved writing basically turns her from Alex's superior officer who butts heads with her over how much control she has to... to basically a Grade-A asshole who's just one step away from being Challenge of the Super-Friends era Lex Luthor. Honestly, it's a pretty huge disappointment, where this episode not only reveals that she has been partaking in the torture and weaponization of aliens for what's implied to be decades, but also isn't averse to using torture on her own soldiers just to find who Supergirl is, and then make her life a living hell.The way we reach this end-point is also pretty damn convoluted, even by CW superhero standards, and basically drops the ball on so many other interesting plot avenues... and it's not just the potential of Haley as... well, as basically a Quentin Lance style character. Instead she's just a full-blown villain, and at this point it's so much more black and white, which is, again, far less interesting than what it could've been. Again, I'm not sure if they're just rushing through things with Haley to get her over with for the cliffhanger to the next episode (ALEX HAS AMNESIA OH NOES CONVOLUTED DRAMA!), but there are definitely better ways to do it than this.
The Morai (Moray? Morae? Morey?) are a huge, huge wasted concept, too. The idea that these invisible aliens that a section of the US government basically raised as children and flat-out tortured to coerce them into basically becoming assassins is a very interesting concept. I'm not sure if or how this relates to the current political climate because I don't really give a shit, but the concept is a pretty solid, interesting sci-fi one. Hell, they even have the excuse to not have a lot of budget because everyone but Supergirl can't see more than a shimmer. The execution? Not so much. The aliens have a sympathetic reason, but they barely get enough screentime to be anything but the enemy, and for what's basically a bunch of brainwashed, traumatized people, the cast seem far more panicked about how to fool Haley instead of... I don't know, helping these scared alien kids that are so traumatized that they're willing to stab themselves in the neck at the prospect of being under Haley again. It's also implied early in the episode that she's the cause of the Navy SEAL soldier going missing in a cover-up, and at that point it's a bit bizarre that their course of action isn't "get her out of the DEO right now".
This whole detective run with J'onn and Supergirl is pretty neat as they piece together the conspiracy around the Morai, but, of course, this happens concurrently with Haley cracking down on the whole DEO and interrogating everyone one by one to get Supergirl's secret identity out. Of course. If you need any doubt that Haley is anything but reprehensible and a monster of a human being. Wouldn't it be so much more interesting to have Haley's bombastic hunt into Supergirl's secret identity (and the subsequent mind-wipe) actually be a dilemma because Haley's just someone doing her job, admittedly with a bit of a mean streak? Nope, she has to be this super-evil alien-baby-torturing mastermind too. Such a waste.
And then we get the plot contrivance that is the Locker Room Supergirl Secret Identity Club, which is... it's a sensible thing to have, actually, considering how flippantly casual Supergirl is in working with the DEO, but it's not something that's ever been brought up or implied, ever, that the no-name grunts at the DEO even has an inkling that Supergirl even has a secret identity. And if anything else, only five of them knows? Of course, while the Brainiac interrogation and compartmentalization bit is fun, the whole thing is just so someone we don't care about can break the news to Haley. And that someone immediately gets killed (or mauled) by the attacking Morai. Of course.
Anyway, the Morai attack, Brainiac has some fun plan involving paintball guns (which is adorable), Supergirl saves Haley who immediately goes into a villainous speech about how "your life belongs to the government now, if you so much as disobey we will RUIN your life and your friends" and gets socked by Alex. Shoehorn in a guns-are-bad-even-though-we-are-a-military-organization speech... and I get it. Guns are bad, gun control is good. But of all the things that gets Alex into a long, crying speech about how she wants to quit the DEO, it isn't Haley interrogating agents, or Haley focusing on Supergirl to the exclusion of everything else, or discovering that Haley has been basically enslaving aliens and using them as assassins. Nope, it's the usage of live rounds. I agree with Supergirl's sentiments most of the time, but the way they're executed in the story isn't particularly good this time around.
J'onn shows up and agrees to wipe Haley's mind, Identity Crisis style, but I really do feel that it happens very casually, with quite literally a single line of dialogue acknowledging J'onn feeling that it's a mistake with Manchester Black a while back. That's literally it. It feels awkward -- like it could've easily been an episode's worth of drama, especially in a show like Supergirl. But then it just happens... only so that Haley can come back with a random blobby Truth-Seeker alien to continue the identity hunt, causing a different sort of drama -- the fact that Alex's mind has to be wiped in order for the DEO to fool the Truth Seeker. And, don't get me wrong, Benoist and Leigh have great chemistry and that's a genuinely touching scene as Supergirl is very upset at being in a world where Alex doesn't know who she is. But the extremely convoluted way we reach this point, and the fact that, y'know, presumably J'onn can put Alex's memories back where they were (or, y'know, fucking quit the job, all this moral high ground isn't worth your sister), so the moment kind of partially fell flat for me.
The B-plots of this episode aren't particularly thrilling either. We've got a great cold open of "Red Daughter" Supergirl clone fighting against tanks and jets and shit, which is just this long, long looming thread that I really hope isn't going to be a major disappointment. We've got make-up date night with Lena and James which... my god, Lena Luthor gets exponentially less interesting when she's interacting with James, huh? And we've got Brainiac 5's pretty adorable attempt to recruit Nia Nal into the little Super-Friends club that he, J'onn and Supergirl are making, complete with a sitcom date misunderstanding and shit. The Brainiac stuff is pretty cute because it happens in small doses, but everything else is kind of a huge 'm'eh'.
Ultimately, it's an episode that has so much promise on the conceptual stage. And from acting and general execution, it's a pretty solid episode. But pick apart the actual story, and this is a pretty disappointing episode, honestly.
DC Easter Eggs Corner:
- Neither the Morai nor the Vertullarian are from the comics, as far as I can tell. Or if they are, they're pretty dang obscure.
- J'onn's original Silver Age career was indeed a PI, before writers decided to make him a full-time member of the Justice League.
No comments:
Post a Comment