Supergirl S04E12 Review: Symbiote

Supergirl, Season 4, Episode 12: Menagerie

I completely missed this episode of Supergirl back when I was catching up to TV shows! I thought it went on one of its many hiatuses already. Honestly, with the news that a lot of CW shows seem to be on the brink of conclusion or cancellation -- and apparently going to be replaced with more 'big' names -- it's going to be interesting to look at Supergirl's fourth season as a potential last season as opposed to just another season in the life of Supergirl.


This episode introduces us to a villain-of-the-week, sort of, in the form of a character who never actually got her time to shine in the comics, Menagerie. Jumping right ahead to the final part of the episode, Menagerie's actually introduced in the comics as part of Manchester Black's team of edgy anti-heroes, but we know scant little about her beyond the fact that she's bonded with alien parasites that she can control. Here, we get some shades of Venom as the woman who would become Menagerie, Pamela Ferrer, is established to be a jewel thief who ends up encountering a meteor that crash-lands and bonds with her.

And while I do kinda like the return to a fun villain-of-the-week episode, I think this particular episode is just kind of confused at what it wants to do. Kara, J'onn and Alex investigate the crashed alien separately in an attempt to also strike up a team-up between Kara and the amnesiac Alex, but we just jump around from random, disposable suspects and filler characters as we follow Menagerie's trail of bodies and it honestly feels both unnecessary and too convoluted for its own good. Menagerie as a villain works well with her CGI beaked snake alien, and we actually get some really Venom-esque moments as Pamela talks with the Menagerie alien. For the limited amount that we see it, the Menagerie symbiote is pretty creepy, basically a PG-13 version of a hypothetical love-child of Venom and the Xenomorphs.

This all ties in with a B-plot meant to bring Agent Liberty back as the main villain of the season, which... yeah, I guess is kinda interesting? Liberty does do some really shady shit by basically telling his son George to take up his mantle, and George, happy to please his dad, basically does so. And this ends up riling up the Children of Liberty to do their own personal manhunt for Menagerie, getting in the way of the DEO and George basically kill-stealing Menagerie and apparently killing the alien by slicing off the snake head. All of this ends up culminating in apparently good public opinion for the Children of Liberty (which I don't really buy, but okay) that leads to President Sheridan releasing Ben Lockwood from jail. It's... I kinda intellectually get how we got to that point, but at the same time, it also feels kind of handwaved.

Perhaps one of my biggest problems with Supergirl at this point is the insistence to drag on the dumb amnesia plot. As J'onn notes, it's destroyed their family and while the actors involved do their best in making me at least care for their plight, the fact that this is an easily reversible condition honestly makes the entire situation end up being a self-wrought mess that they're dragging on.... because? It's probably neat for a one episode outing, but the fact that we're apparently dragging this utterly unnecessary bullshit storyline irks me a lot. And then Alex apparently 'gets the courage' to basically start dating and adopt a kid and it just seems like such a bizarre non-sequitur and such a misplaced set of priorities for both the character and the writers. Like, it's probably adorable and all for some viewers and I'm not judging anyone who ships Alex and Random Girl From The Party or whatever, but god that really isn't what the story needs at this point. It just feels so shoehorned in.

Haley also is still kind of a flat card-carrying villain, although she's not as hilariously poorly-written as the previous episode, with her reasonings for not condemning the Children of Liberty being assholish but at least somewhat logical (the US Government doesn't want to credit Supergirl). Still basically don't really care about her character at this point, though.

We get a couple of B-plots, with the whole Ben Lockwood stuff tying into the main Menagerie stuff... but I do like the Brainy/Nia storyline. Brainiac really wants to try and make Nia Nal a superhero despite some insensitive timing, a Valentine's day party is involved, some romance flags are raised (and the Brainy/Nia stuff flows a lot better than Alex's), and Nia Nal finally suits up in her Dreamer costume and jumps into the fray to briefly help Supergirl against Menagerie.

The other B-plot involves James and Lena breaking up because of... ideological differences over Lena working with the government with the super-serum. And I really want to say that I care, but I really just don't give a shit about the James/Lena romance. Lena working with Haley and giving the super-human serum to the government, though... that's far, far more interesting, and, honestly, removing James out of the picture so we don't spend 5 minutes every episode with Lena and James repeating the same song and dance is probably for the best. I've always felt like Lena Luthor is so much less interesting whenever we focus on her romance, and so much more interesting when she's an independent figure with allegiances to no one.

Anyway, I do like some aspects of the episode. Menagerie is a fun villain of the week, Nia's rise to superheroism is well-executed, Lena's descent to morally ambiguous deals is also well-executed. Everything else is honestly either middling or actively irritating, though. Perhaps it's me just being in a bit of a funk with these superhero shows, but there's just not a lot I find super-interesting about the direction of the season. 

DC Easter Eggs Corner:

• Menagerie, a.k.a. Pamela, was originally introduced as the sometimes-antihero, sometimes-villainous super-people team, the Elite, led by Manchester Black (which is, of course, what the episode cliffhanger is building up to). While the specifics of her alien symbiote isn't fully fleshed out in the comics, she does have similar powers of manipulating as well as transforming into alien monsters.