Supergirl 4x12 "Menagarie" Episode Review
Major Spoilers are included in this episode review.
Valentine’s Day themed episode with loves forming and others breaking, but the family dynamic between Kara, Alex, and J’onn is the one that ultimately breaks our hearts. I’m not understanding the approach the writers are going for with Alex Danvers. Is she going to turn against Supergirl and alien life? Or is this more about how Alex never really developed this season?
I hadn’t noticed until she kept pointing it out, and adding her fierce protection of Kara ties the situation quite nicely. It always goes back to Alex putting her life on hold for the sake of Kara’s alien secret. J’onn also opened up his private detective business, but we are only left with a cliffhanger involving one of his clients.
James Olsen and Lena Luthor were incredibly distracting. I’m not invested in Lena’s research because that requires me to care about their romance. The creepy “Twilight” vibe with the picture of her sleeping, and how we knew the relationship was doomed because James cannot accept her work in making humans super. There’s nothing here. Remove this, and add Red Daughter scenes instead.
The show missed with Red Daughter and the overall season-long goal. Although this current season is light years better than season 3’s Reign storyline… I just don’t know what they’re going for anymore. The politics going on might be taking precedence over the writing, and I hope the show handles this situation better next season. Children of Liberty, President of the United States, DEO and mind-wiped Alex working with Colonel Haley… throw in Red Daughter, and we officially got ourselves a mess.
The Venom-inspired alien and human host combo will need to get addressed at some point. A willing human and alien working together might have impacts on the political agenda of this show. Yeah, I’m thinking more politics than plot right now. I hate it, but it’s somewhat easier to view Supergirl that way based on what I talked about in the last paragraph.
Brainy and Nia’s interactions are great. I do actually want more Brainy screentime because how he’s comprehending human emotions and flawed data analysis makes for great character development. However, the Nia / Kara scenes were fantastic, just misplaced in this episode. I also found Yvette, Nia’s awesome roommate, interesting, but she doesn’t really serve a purpose yet. I’d also like to know how close they are…
The Children of Liberty shouldn’t have been in the episode. Ben corrupting his son to the dark side (muhaha) was brilliant, and his release from prison is going to cause major trouble because he is an exposed activist / alien hater, similar to Lex Luthor, who is slated to appear in this season. I think his actions will make Kara consider outing herself as an alien.
Manchester Black recruits the villain of the week to his group, The Elite. Not going to comment until we get more information.
Overall, I mostly had fun with it. The problem was I had no idea where any of this was going.