Supergirl, Season 4, Episode 19: American Dreamer
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This episode, though, is... it's all right, I guess? I'm not the biggest fan of a lot of plotlines explored in this episode, because I've never really cared for James Olsen's PTSD, or Supergirl having to resort to Kara Danvers' reporting skills to basically progress the plot, or the whole "Supergirl's reputation is shit!" storyline. Unlike Game of Thrones' recent episodes, though, at least the show did the legwork to reach this point, so while I don't personally care for any of these developments, at least it's logical to see them play out.
I personally don't really care about a whole on of Supergirl's civilian status being put front and center, and I honestly feel it's nothing but story-mandated nonsense that she feels like she's unable to go out in her costume to help people, having to leave poor Nia Nal to solve everything in the city as Dreamer (with cool lightning-whips or whatever those are, and however those relate to dreaming powers). Both actresses playing Supergirl and Dreamer are earnest and definitely perform pretty well, delivering what could otherwise be a bland, cheesy and cringe-y interview to change the city's minds into something that's fairly inspirational. Again, it's not the most interesting storyline at this point, and I feel like the show's retreading some old ground it's explored earlier this season, but the episode itself is pretty solid, if not particularly special.
That said, though, some parts of the episode -- like Supergirl realizing that Kara as a person has been ignoring her BFF Lena because she spends the majority of her time with Lena as Supergirl -- felt silly and didn't work that well. James's PTSD flashback of how he was apparently shoved inside a coffin during his father's funeral, while neat from a visual standpoint, felt like it came literally out of nowhere and doesn't really have a whole ton to do with his gunshot-induced mental trauma and just there to pad out that whole storyline. Like, sure, it's a horrific scene that will traumatize anyone, but it's just sort of shoehorned into the midst of this storyline without much reason.
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Ultimately, though, while not spectacular, this is sort of a pretty solid episode. I just sort of feel that with all of the plotlines going on (Lex Luthor's plans, the Red Daughter, whatever Ben Lockwood's planning, the superhero serum) this episode focusing on Supergirl's popularity and Kara Danvers as a reporter felt particularly off and felt a bit more like a time-filler episode before we get to the bunch of episodes leading to the finale. It's entertaining, at least, so I don't mind it too much.
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