Supergirl S04E20 Review: Dreamer's Hammer Time

Supergirl, Season 4, Episode 20: Will The Real Miss Tessmacher Please Stand Up

This is an... interesting episode of Supergirl? A lot of my biggest problems about the season -- particularly the bizarre decision to allow two grating plotlines, namely Alex's amnesia and Kara keeping her double life a secret from Lena -- feel like they've been stretched out forever, but are also ignored or left in the background not only by the writers, but also by the characters themselves.

The Kara/Lena storyline is handled relatively well, with the business that both ladies have to deal on a week-to-week basis clearly overwhelming this one itty-bitty secret Kara is keeping from her BFF, while moments where it would probably be prudent for Kara to reveal her secret, it's punctuated with some sort of conflict, either Lena being on the warpath against Supergirl, or Lena being prissy at Kara, or, in this episode's case, Lena just giving a conveniently dramatic speech about how she can't stand another person being dishonest with her. Dragged out for more than what it's worth? For sure. But at least we get some reason why.

The Alex stuff... yeah, it's not justified at all, and considering how honestly detached Alex is from everything else in this season, I'm baffled as to why they thought this amnesia nonsense was a good idea. And then in this episode, they remember that the whole point that Alex and Maggie had their huge break-up was because Alex wanted a kid... but they sort of wait the entire season to return back to this plot point, and when they do... it's such a bizarrely artificial conflict between Alex and Kelly Olsen that honestly sticks out more like a sore thumb than anything to do with James's PTSD in the past two episodes. Like, the actresses do their best to make the scene work, but it just... it just sort of falls flat on its face particularly due to the resolution even being a dud. Which honestly makes me wonder just why we needed to devote so much screentime to this if we're not going to get anything out of it. Like, the only real progress of any sort is the buildup of the relationship with Kelly, which honestly IMO isn't even that well-done.

The better part of the episode is split into two parts, with Kara and Lena going off to Kaznia to uncover Lex Luthor's mystery secret alien torture lab. It's mostly fun stuff between the two actresses, with a continuation of Kara zipping off to do Supergirl stuff while, say, pretending to be passed out in a crashing airplane, or discovering the fact that Lex Luthor knows all about her secret identity and ends up zapping all the evidence with heat vision. We also get a bit of a fight scene with Eve Tessmacher showing up, apparently empowered with the DNA of the Kopy, the duplicating Multiple-Man-esque alien from a previous episode. Dumb Eve Tessmacher is kind of fun, even if I do wish they try to develop Tessmacher as a character a bit more. Regardless, they end up finding some evidence about the Red Daughter, how she's created, of Lex's plan to stage a Kaznian invasion of America, and of Lex's collaborator in the government (who I don't think we knew about prior). Also, Kara quickly jumps and goes "I need to redeem her" when it comes to the Red Daughter, which, honestly, is fair enough. Also fair is Lena's assessment of Sam-vs-Reign.

Also, what's up with that random lightning storm? Did I miss something, or does Lex just have a hidden lightning storm generator or some shit?

This leads to Kara Danvers, ace reporter, going up to President Baker to tell him all about the evil terrorist plan, but turns out Baker's evil all along (gasp, shock) and has Kara's face be bound and gagged with one of those government head-burlap sack things. Doesn't help that Kara's vulnerable because the president just happens to have Kryptonite in the Oval Office.

The Agent of Liberty stuff is... it's neat? Ben Lockwood's getting more and more deranged, charging right up to the DEO and ignoring all protocol, driven into a manic frenzy due to the death of his wife... so much that he even ignores said wife's funeral. It basically leads to an action scene as Brainiac takes a stand in the midst of an alien raid, putting himself between the DEO agents and his vigilante buddies. Predictable twist is predictable, and thanks to the DEO's absolutely shitty security, Ben Lockwood gets his hand on one of the superhero serum, and ends up using it to take on Guardian, Dreamer and Brainiac all at once.

It's basically J'onn J'onzz's badass return to Earth that ends up throwing silly old Ben Lockwood for a loop, manhandling him and throwing him into a tanker truck, but I honestly don't buy that the four heroes who outnumber and outgun Ben Lockwood just sort of ignore him and leave him behind. We do get little George Lockwood basically being utterly disgusted with his father's behaviour, and essentially disowning hateful old dad, but I don't think George has been huge enough of a presence in these episodes for me to really care about him.

Overall, while not spectacular and that Alex subplot was bizarre, it's a fun, neat episode. Particularly that attempt at testing out James's superpower earlier in the episode, with Brainiac and Dreamer just taking turns using flamethrowers and Nia being way to enthusiastic to bonk James in his face with a goddamn cosmic hammer or whatever that thing is.