Supergirl season 5, episode 4 review: In Plain Sight
By Monita Mohan
On Supergirl, Kara attempts to uncover what her new colleague William Day is really up to, while J’onn J’onzz struggles with the truth about his brother.
Supergirl season five has introduced several new villains, including the mysterious William Day (Staz Nair), and J’onn J’onzz’s (David Harewood) brother, Ma’alefa’ak. But good and evil have begun to blur and the Super-friends could be imploding from the inside.
In episode four, Kara Danvers (Melissa Benoist) continues her investigation into William Day’s suspicious activities, and it leads her straight to yet another suspicious death.
At the DEO, Alex Danvers (Chyler Leigh) asks Lena Luthor (Katie McGrath) to help her and Brainy (Jesse Rath) fix their Phantom Zone projector. But despite their best efforts, Supergirl and her Super-friends keep falling prey to their emotions.
Ma’alefa’ak and J’onn
Ma’alefa’ak’s shapeshifting and mind-controlling abilities make him a particularly devious villain. But as we saw in the previous episode of the show, he wasn’t born that way. Ma’alefa’ak grouse is with how he was treated, especially by a young J’onn.
When Ma’alefa’ak infiltrates the DEO, the best and worst of the Super-friends surfaces. Or, at least, the perceived worst. More than the action-heavy plot, it was how the characters interacted during this difficult time that really stood out in this episode.
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J’onn’s reactions to Alex and Kara learning the truth, his own feelings about his former actions, combined with Harewood’s acting, make for some of the most outstanding writing in the whole series. J’onn’s guilt, when put into words, feels so real; when he says he believed that Alex thought the worst of him because that’s how he felt about himself, viewers understand J’onn. It’s human instinct to accept the hate you feel you deserve.
The best part of these emotional moments is that they lead to legitimate plot points that feel earned rather than thrown in for effect. We have said it several times, but Supergirl has always been at its best when the writers have relied on real human emotion rather than just melodrama.
Returning Home
After Ma’alefa’ak’s attack on Kelly Olsen (Azie Tesfai) in the previous episode of Supergirl, she and James (Mehcad Brooks) returned to their hometown. What they find is a town rundown by the emergence of a prison block in their backyard. Now the people live in poverty and escalating crime, while the prison system is rigged to keep even the most innocent of people inside.
Through the Calvintown scenes, the showrunners attempt to capture two ongoing issues making the news in America – continued attacks on the freedom of the press, and the systemic corruption of the justice system. Perhaps this episode could have pushed the boundaries further to examine the racial biases in the prison system. The writing felt too safe, as if the showrunners were too afraid to push the boundaries that they valiantly did in the previous season.
Unless the show continues to focus on events in Calvintown, this subplot feels more like a plot device to explain Brooks’ departure rather than a direct reflection of the real world.
Lena, the Newest Super-friend
Every scene with Lena is heartbreaking this season. She is completely blind to how far she has gone down the rabbit hole. Lena continues to act as her usual self, but where once her compliments and modesty were indications of her generous heart, now they are simply a cover for her duplicitous actions.
She insists on helping Brainy – with the Phantom Zone projector and his love life – ostensibly because Lena is his friend, but in reality, it’s so that Lena can get close to the technology and configure it for her own purposes. McGrath is perfect as this version of Lena and it’s eerie watching her change from smiling widely because she’s working with Supergirl, to stony-jawed determination because she needs to steal something from the DEO.
While we maintain that Lena deserved a better arc, there’s no denying that the showrunners are giving this new version of Lena their all. She accepts being a Super-friend with such gratitude and the showrunners rub in how cruel Lena’s actions are when they show how excited Kara is to have Lena by her side. Will Kara recover from Lena’s betrayal?
Super Sentiments
- Kelly and Ma’alefa’ak’s connection was becoming too much like Harry Potter, so it’s a good thing that storyline has ended. At least for now. Kelly needs to have an arc based on her skills as a scientist; she doesn’t need superpowers.
- Good to see Nia Nal (Nicole Maines) and Brainy working things out in their relationship. It seems like the showrunners have realized that Brainy was becoming too much of a caricature and are taking steps to address some of Brainy’s social communicative disorders.
- J’onn accepting Ma’alefa’ak’s ‘otherness’ is an important message for people to learn, but it wasn’t fleshed out enough. At least the writers engaged with the fact that young children with alternate abilities should not be ostracized; rather, they should be embraced and accepted by society.
- There is still a worry that the showrunners are pushing for Kara and William to get together, especially now that William has been revealed to be something other than a serial mansplainer. One really hopes the showrunners know better.
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The ability of the writers to maintain the momentum of these myriad storylines continues to astound. It’s easy to catch up with who has what mission, and we stay invested in everyone’s actions. The question remains, where is Leviathan? They were teased at the end of the previous season, and all signs pointed to William Day working with them. But that was a red herring. So, what are Leviathan waiting for?