Supergirl S04E17 Review: I Come Offering Donuts And Help

Supergirl, Season 4, Episode 17: All About Eve

Yeah, real life's been kind of very oddly-scheduled that I really didn't have time to catch up with as many TV shows or whatever as I would've liked to. Anyway, have a Supergirl episode... I'm not sure how regularly I'll have the energy to both watch and review the superhero TV shows regularly. I think I watched this episode when it aired, took notes, but just never got the time to review it until just now.

Anyway, this episode was... great! Mostly because of the J'onn J'onzz stuff. J'onn is a character that the show sometimes has trouble handling, becuase they really do want to save the budget on the expensive CGI (or is it a costume?) Martian Manhunter, and one that has been pretty disappointingly handled at several parts of the show, but between David Harewood's powerful performance and great focus episodes like this, J'onn will always remain one of the most memorable characters from this show for me.

After nearly falling from the sky due to some vague loss sense of purpose, Kara basically tells J'onn that it's okay for him to take care of himself, at which point we get some really trippy maybe-hallucination maybe-real-ghosts (it's the former) as J'onn's meditation due to his loss of self ended up summoning a specter of M'yrnn, giving us the very welcome return of Carl Lumbly. Despite M'yrnn's fun, kooky attitude, he very cheerily gives the admission that he's here to take the Sacred Symbols back (so the martians' bible are... telepathic or some shit?), although he will deign to stick around for a pot of c'off'ee.

The argument between J'onn and M'yrnn recalls some previous arguments in the past, with J'onn being angry -- M'yrnn asks him how he can still be a pacifist if he's a killer (oh, right, Manchester is "dead"), but J'onn then starts ranting about how he would not have let everything burn like Mars, and if martian religion should die then SO BE IT. We get an amazing delivery as J'onn declares loudly that "AT LEAST I KNOW WHO I AM! I'M THE MARTIAN MANHUNTER!" God that was an amazingly delivered line, and it's clear that M'yrnn is just playing the antagonistic role to get J'onn to basically admit that, yes, his biggest desire now is to be a protector of Earth, and that M'yrnn never wanted J'onn to be exactly the sort of pacifist that he is, and J'onn must be true to himself. And, of course, we get the revelation that M'yrnn is totally just a psychic extension of J'onn's memory of his father.

An amazingly written scene, honestly, which... don't get me wrong, the rest of the episode is still kinda decent, but they're sort of just there, y'know?

As for the main plot, Supergirl comes "offering donuts and help" for the DEO, because the dumb amnesia plot is still ongoing for some goddamn reason, and Haley accepts the help and the donuts. Oh, and despite the whole "All About Eve" title, while we do a bit of investigation to Eve Tessmacher's backstory... I really don't feel there's much to talk about? There's a terminally ill aunt that got healed with the Harun-El cure. Supergirl and Lena finally admit that they're both myopic and too quick to jump at each other's throats and make up -- I am indifferent to this storyline, but I do appreciate the quiet and mature resolution.

Oh yeah, apparently Luthor has an army of Metallos and has brought Otis back to life -- I completely forgot he was supposed to be dead. We get a team-up and blow up Metallo, but while all this is going on, Luthor's pulling strings to repeal the alien amnesty act, while simultaneously using a holographic Eve to trick Supergirl and traps her in a Luthorsuit while Linda "Red Daughter" Lee zips in, pretending to Supergirl, and does some superhero terrorism in the White House. Sort of a dumb move by Kara, but still a great plot development.

We've got a bunch of plot twists, too -- Lena meets her mother, who mocks her, but later on it turns out that Lex apparently intended to assassinate their mother as well because mustache-twirling villainy, I guess? There's the very bland Ben Lockwood take-your-son-to-work-day subplot, although we get some hilarious expression from Sam Witwer as he deals with a completely unimpressed senator... and when said senator later proves cooperative, I guess Lockwood realizes that his accomplishments are being pulled by some other manipulator? There's also a boring subplot with James and his sister with James admitting that he's scared shitless of Luthor. I appreciate the acknowledgement of PTSD and mental trauma and all, but this feels so detached from everything and so much more inferior to the J'onn J'onzz scene playing concurrently.

Anyway, the episode ends with president Boxleitner declaring martial law for protection, Lockwood slightly unnerved at the thought that he's a pawn, Supergirl managing to get Alex and General Haley on her side, and, uh... J'onn goes back to Mars for some reason? The main storyline is still pretty neat, even if I'm still pretty frustrated at the stupid amnesia plot that's just ratcheting up in an artificially-prolonged drama.