TV Review: Supergirl Season 5 Episode 1

Supergirl Season 5 Episode 1 “Event Horizon”

Director: Jesse Warn

Starring: Melissa Benoist, Mehcad Brooks, Chyler Leigh, Katie McGrath, Jesse Rath, Nicole Maines, Azie Tesfai, Andrea Brooks, Julie Gonzalo, Staz Nair, David Harewood, Jennifer Cheon Garcia

Rating: TV-PG

Runtime: 42 minutes

Supergirl is back and she’s got pants now, a fact that seems to delight Kara Danvers the character and Melissa Benoist the actress equally.  But aside from her new, more conservative (and warmer) nanotech costume (courtesy of Jesse Rath’s Brainiac 5), the Girl of Steel also has a whole host of new problems as the fifth season begins.  On the crime-fighting front, there’s the threat of J’zonn J’onzz’s (David Harewood) until now unknown brother, who unlike the Martian Manhunter himself has not come to Earth in peace.  Meanwhile, intrepid reporter Kara Danvers is dealing with the erosion of thorough journalism and meaningful political discourse brought on by advancements in personal technology and the rise of clickbait media.  Kara’s new boss, Andrea Rojas (Julie Gonzalo), is a big proponent of the latter, and as soon as she arrives Kara, James Olsen (Mehcad Brooks), and Nia Nal (Nicole Maines) know they’re going to have a fight on their hands if they want CatCo to keep publishing comprehensive journalism.  Andrea is able to take over because the one person who poses a threat to both Kara and Supergirl, Lena Luthor (Katie McGrath), sold the paper.

Supergirl is coming off easily its strongest season so far and “Event Horizon” knows it, moving along at a confident, assured pace.  This is very much a table-setting episode, that spends most of its time establishing people’s new situations both in the plot and emotionally.  But it does so in a way that gives the sense that the show knows exactly what it’s doing.

The emotional centers of the episode are the relationship between Kara and Lena and the latter’s toeing of the line between hero and villain.  Heartbroken by the revelation that Kara, and pretty much everyone else in her life, have been keeping her superhero identity secret Lena has set out on a well-meaning but clearly dangerous quest to ensure human beings stop hurting one another.  She’s also determined to make Supergirl experience “the same hurt she inflicted on me,” although she’s adamant that she doesn’t actually want to kill her.  Her plan to expose Kara’s secret identity to the public at the ceremony at which she is set to receive a Pulitzer is upended, however, when a guilt-ridden Kara comes clean and tells Lena her secret.  This gives Lena enough pause to hold off on exposing her former friend but it’s later made clear her need for payback has been in no way satiated.  Benoist and McGrath are on fire throughout the episode but the ceremony sequences are electrifying.  Benoist especially stuns in the confession as Kara’s conflicting emotions (including guilt, compassion, fear, and many others) explode out in a realistically messy burst.

It’s a good thing that the Kara/Lena storyline sets the season upon such a firm emotional foundation because I’m not sure the new political focuses are up to the task of doing so.  Don’t get me wrong, the ways in which technology is offering people more and more ways to tune out of reality, and especially the threats being made against honest journalism are both immensely important issues but they don’t necessarily generate the same emotional investment last season’s storyline about alien rights (clearly an allegory for immigration and other issues related to xenophobia) did.  Simply put, Season 5’s politics look to make the viewer think, not feel, while Season 4 was often able to encourage both.  But, who knows? The show is in something of a creative renaissance right now so maybe it will manage to wring some heartfelt material out of the tech and journalism storylines as well.  It’s taken a while but Supergirl is finally in a place where I have a lot of faith in where the creators are taking it, even if that path isn’t immediately obvious.

Notes:

•  The one character who doesn’t feel like they have a clearly defined role in the new run just yet is Alex, which is unfortunate.  Chyler Leigh is essentially the show’s co-lead but here Alex is mostly presented as Kelly’s (Azie Tesfai) girlfriend who just happens to also be Kara’s sister, which should never be the case.
•  James responding to Rojas’ threat to invoke a clause in the contract of any CatCo employee barring them from working at another publication for three years by just accepting it and leaving anyway is an appropriately random choice for his character.
•  The one follow-up to the Leviathan tease from last season’s finale seems to come in the final seconds of the episode, when Eve Teschmacher (Andrea Brooks), who’s been laying low working at a diner, is kidnapped by parties unknown.

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