Supergirl S3 E5 "Damaged": Discussion and Review

I am pretty sure Lena will find out at the end of this season and the next season will be about the fall out (among other things). At least, I hope for that. (And yes, I can see on rewatch how Lena-James thing is about starting at the opposite ends and getting to know each other and then, liking each other thing that people tend to do with couples. I don't know how I feel about that yet. But, you know, if they were going to give Lena/James a love interest, better another secondary character than a tertiary character whom we would never see and would take away from the season arc.)

I like the season tone so far because it delves deeper into who Kara is as a person. Not just this noble being who always sees the best in everyone, and wants to do her best for everyone, but also the person who has suffered a lot of loss, loss unimaginable to most people; a loss she has never completely dealt with. We know that Kara's cheerful nature always informs her decisions and actions, but may be it is also her sense of loss that makes her ensure that others don't go through the same thing (and also why Mon El's loss affects her so deeply and her greatest fear is that she killed him).

I personally like seeing Kara exploring and understanding herself more and in the process, us getting to know her better.

It also gives so much for the others to do; especially, J'onn and Alex (and Eliza).

And I really like Kara and Alex supporting each other and knowing and understanding each other better thus deepening their relationship.

I just realized something. You know how in real life you have a friend that wears glasses and at a certain point you want to see them without glasses. Well what if Lena is just like, "I haven`t seen Kara without glasses, ever, and she is my best friend and I have known her for over a year." How is Kara gonna get out of that one?

Yeah, it is little things like that that I think the writers need to come to terms with.....I know that Katie doesn't want Lena to find out, but Katie is clueless when it comes to the fans that have been following these comic based shows and know the ins and outs of everything. Lena needs to find out this season or fans are going to start calling BS, which many already have.

Kiwi- I appreciate Kara's optimism, too. I love that she is one who almost always focuses on the good in people and I believe that because that is a core trait of hers, she will always find her way back to it. Like you, I don't want the show to hang out in drearyland for an extended amount of time. But, seeing her occasionally struggle through events or emotions makes her feel more real to me and I think that is important also.

Brierrose - Good point on distinguishing between Kara suffering through depression rather than just grief. They are two different emotions and Kara has had so much grief that it's not at all surprising that she should find herself thrown into the hole of depression.

While what Alex said in S3E1 wasn't kind it was what Kara need to hear, similar to how it wasn't nice when Alex suckerpunched Kara in season one to make Kara understand that she needed to learn fighting techniques. Both were ultimately for Kara's own good even if she didn't think so at the time and hurt Alex too.

This is what sisters do, right? It's their job to give us pep talks when we're down, gain 5 lbs helping us eat comfort ice cream and kicking our butts when we need it.

I just realized something. You know how in real life you have a friend that wears glasses and at a certain point you want to see them without glasses. Well what if Lena is just like, "I haven`t seen Kara without glasses, ever, and she is my best friend and I have known her for over a year." How is Kara gonna get out of that one?

Great comments by all. The reality, as we all know it, is the ying and yang. With joy can come sadness, and with these come growth. Perhaps this is part of Kara and Alex’s journey this season.

Argo

Yes, the \ S / does keep getting brighter doesn't it....

Last note: characterizing women as one-dimensional, flat, cheery personas has long been a problem in the entertainment world, especially in the action/superhero genre, think Lynda Carter's WW and Charlie's Angles. As a result, those characters and shows are not taken seriously. I'm of the opinion that many women want to see other women in these types of roles more like the Gal Gadot WW than the Pollyanna SG (and so do some men). I'm so happy that we have a show for women like SG but, let's let her have some grit along with her optimism.

You are so right Sully. I certainly do want to see real emotions on from both male and female TV characters and am glad that seems to be becoming more acceptable.

I have always been one to believe, it was how my mother raised me.....that in order to see the true light within people there has to be darkness. We have to go through bad times in order to truly appreciate the good times. IMO, it would be a boring show, cute....but a boring show if Kara was always like this...... https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kDDmiIMTESA

ALSO, there are several iterations of this character, and right now they are simply pulling from the New 52 period. We are already seeing glimpses of Kara coming back, but we are also seeing glimpses of a strong, independent woman that she is becoming. So, I'm fine with this season, in fact, I'm enjoying it immensely.

They haven't said it but IMO Kara is going through depression as well as grief, they often go together. J'onn did mention grief but we haven't heard the word depression. In S3E2 when Kara told Alex she was trying to live her life but the things that use to make her happy weren't working, that's exactly what I've heard depression described as. It's possible that Eliza could be the one to say it in "Midvale". I actually think it would be a positive thing for mental health awareness for Kara to say she's depressed and for her to admit it's hard but that doesn't mean she's broken.

Looking back on the first two episodes of the season brings back memories of when my friend who at the time was also my roommate was going through a period of depression. I wanted to help her feel better but was at a loss as to what to do, the only thing I did know was she wasn't going to just get out of bed one day and be back to "normal". It's a fine line between just being sitting on the couch next to someone and trying to keep them from making bad choices. Sometimes it's a good thing to gently push someone to get their butt of the couch, it's just really hard to tell if that push will help or make things worse. It was terrifying when I decided to insist that if my friend wanted the Chunky Monkey ice cream she was going to have to get up, get dressed and come with me to the grocery store to get it but thankfully that gentle push was a help. What Alex said in S3E1 pushed Kara to feel something, anything even anger at her. While what Alex said in S3E1 wasn't kind it was what Kara need to hear, similar to how it wasn't nice when Alex suckerpunched Kara in season one to make Kara understand that she needed to learn fighting techniques. Both were ultimately for Kara's own good even if she didn't think so at the time and hurt Alex too.

I'm thinking "Midvale" will be a healing episode for both sisters. Kara is getting some alone time with two people she doesn't have to pretend to be strong for and some time off from the responsibilities of being Supergirl. I really hope the first thing that happens when Kara and Mon-El meet again, before even a word is spoken, is he places Alura's neckless around her neck. No matter what happens between them it's going to be a balm to Kara's soul to find out Mon-El is alive and has kept his promise to be the man she thinks he can.

I have HOPE it's going to be ok folks, Kara is moving forward and slowly finding her joy again, The \S/ keeps getting brighter.

In any kind of action/superhero show, I like some darker tones in with the light. I think that to be able to appreciate any tone in a show, some time has to be shown in the contrasting tone.

I also agree with what Kelly stated, that Supergirl would be boring after awhile. I actually had a conversation not long ago with my sister who started watching SG in the first season but, dropped it. Her biggest complaint was that it was too cheesy, too Pollyanna in its approach. It was also one of the hurdles that I had to overcome to get hooked in Season 1. That's probably why I like "Falling" so much. There's been discussion about other factors that have turned away viewers but, I can't help but believe that the unequal balance in tone hasn't had an effect.

Last note: characterizing women as one-dimensional, flat, cheery personas has long been a problem in the entertainment world, especially in the action/superhero genre, think Lynda Carter's WW and Charlie's Angles. As a result, those characters and shows are not taken seriously. I'm of the opinion that many women want to see other women in these types of roles more like the Gal Gadot WW than the Pollyanna SG (and so do some men). I'm so happy that we have a show for women like SG but, let's let her have some grit along with her optimism.

I'm always interested to read different opinions on Supergirl and in the attached article the author is not too keen on the darker tone of this Season believing it doesn't fit the show.

5 episodes in and where are people at with the darker tone of the season?.

I have always been one to believe, it was how my mother raised me.....that in order to see the true light within people there has to be darkness. We have to go through bad times in order to truly appreciate the good times. IMO, it would be a boring show, cute....but a boring show if Kara was always like this...... https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kDDmiIMTESA

ALSO, there are several iterations of this character, and right now they are simply pulling from the New 52 period. We are already seeing glimpses of Kara coming back, but we are also seeing glimpses of a strong, independent woman that she is becoming. So, I'm fine with this season, in fact, I'm enjoying it immensely.

Just rewatched "Damaged." Man, I've really come to love Blake's "Lena's Theme." No worries, Super Buddies...If Lena's gonna go bad, Blake will warn us a few seconds ahead of time to prepare us

the Supergirl rescue of the C-130 and Lena, now that was totally awesome to watch with the perfect Blake Neely music to go with it, Melissa is now an expert at selling the Superheroics, fantastic work Melissa and the Encore VFX team. Has now found a slot in my Top 5 of Superheroics from the series so far.

Something I thought they could have done towards the end of the episode was have Supergirl go and visit the children at the Luthor hospital, only needs to be a 30 to 60 second scene but would be nice to see on the show sometime.

I'm always gonna have your six on this Kiwi. Like every time.

Yeah, I find the neglect of Supergirl's 'Good Samaritan' achievements to be a great source of frustration for me on this show. After all, Helping people, lifting their spirits and saving the world is what Superman, and by extension, Supergirl does. You're absolutely right about spending a mere 30 seconds on these little uplifting scenes. And its not like you need special fx for that.

Well, it seems to me that we are down to an ensemble that seems to revolve around Kara more this season, so maybe we will be getting these now and again. I'm thinking once Mon-el comes back, and we get past the initial shock of that, and she realizes she is much better off without someone in her life like that at this time she will begin to move back into more of the happy Kara. However, this is very much the New 52 Kara, I'm thinking the writers must be reading some of them....haha

the Supergirl rescue of the C-130 and Lena, now that was totally awesome to watch with the perfect Blake Neely music to go with it, Melissa is now an expert at selling the Superheroics, fantastic work Melissa and the Encore VFX team. Has now found a slot in my Top 5 of Superheroics from the series so far.

Something I thought they could have done towards the end of the episode was have Supergirl go and visit the children at the Luthor hospital, only needs to be a 30 to 60 second scene but would be nice to see on the show sometime.

I'm always gonna have your six on this Kiwi. Like every time.

Yeah, I find the neglect of Supergirl's 'Good Samaritan' achievements to be a great source of frustration for me on this show. After all, Helping people, lifting their spirits and saving the world is what Superman, and by extension, Supergirl does. You're absolutely right about spending a mere 30 seconds on these little uplifting scenes. And its not like you need special fx for that.

Eric

What do you think we change Amazing Episode to Excellent. My thoughts are that Best in 20 is amazing. I think excellent conveys more the thought you want. I would raise Very Good to a B+. I might have rated this one Excellent if given that option. I also agree that 7 options are enough.

Thoughts?

Argo

I'm looking into stars possibly, something without so much nomenclature that can be confusing

Being Kelly and I are both teachers, I'm sure we could create a very awesome RUBRIC for ya, Eric

I say we use "care bear" emojis....... 5 "care bears" is Excellent 4 is Great 3 is Average 2 is below Average and 1 is sucks..... hehe

O geez. What if people confuse it with Cancellation Bears. !?!

IMO, Lena is on a massive learning curve when it comes to relationships that are truly self giving, working with other people that are more knowledgeable than her on something, as well as coming into her own as a Luthor....

We have only known her character for less than a year....her coming to grips with her Luthor name was barely getting started last season, as was her having someone in her life as self giving as Kara. NOW THIS SEASON, you throw in her having been a CEO of a company she ran pretty much on her own, to a company that she knows nothing about running and has someone (a man) that knows far more than she does about it, and answering to him, or asking advice, or comparing notes, or anything where someone else was involved at or near the same level as her is almost unheard of for her. She is still on a massive learning curve for all of those things. I think in this last episode she was spot on in her reaction to all of those things.

1. What little bit of separation she had from the Luthor name was wiped out in one press conference.
2. Her guilt over Mon-el having to leave was very much still in play with Kara.
3. She is now working with someone that she knows absolutely hates her brother and the Luthor name as a whole, and yet here they are needing to collaborate, as she learns a whole new set of skills.

Anyone would be off center if not on their face in these circumstances when they all hit you at once.

Oh, I realise that. I would not have a problem with it if the show and the viewers actually acknowledged that fact instead of behaving as if James is wrong all the time (just because they didn't like the guardian arc).

Even Kara supports Lena over James (though she sometimes does that; it's her tendency to believe the best in people). It'd be nice if James and Kara had a talk where she acknowledged that Lena is treating James rather badly.

Also, to be honest, being on a learning curve is never an excuse for treating your employees badly.

And... the other thing is... Kara-Lena relationship continues to be one-sided. I kind of understand why Lena is so dependent on Kara, but other than a generic concern for her well being that Kara really has for everybody (and esp. Lena because she does bring out the protective spirit in people), I have not seen a mutually rewarding/rich friendship between the two. There is no similar imbalance when it comes to Winn and Kara, or James and Kara. (I am not even bringing the Kara-Alex and Kara-J'onn relationships here because they are on a completely another level).

I'd appreciate all of this if the show actually acknowledged it. However, they are not doing it. Sometimes, fanoning it gets tiresome.

I am having flashbacks of Mon El. (And, this is not a jab at people who like Mon El-Kara romance. Just my opinion. I think the powers that be were not pushing Kara's side of the story in either of these arcs.)

Anyways... May be things will improve as we go on. As you said, learning curve.

I'm not seeing this. James is almost always written to be right and even perfect to such a degree that some has said he is a Gary Stu, which is how I personally perceive him. Even as an antagonist against the protagonist much of last season, he is written to be on the right side of the equation.

Or maybe it's simply because he is a bit of a Gary Stu that it has the opposite effect and viewers just don't root for such a character.

Also, I'm of the mind that Lena and James are currently written that way for the sake of introducing them as a future couple. They are just trying to create sexual tension that's all. It's not working for me because I don't see any chemistry between the 2, just like I didn't see any between Lena and Winn when they tried it on early with them, but to each their own.

Whether people like the Guardian arc or not, you can't ignore his character development over the course of an entire season. And since he was so negatively perceived, it carries over. The writers are obviously responding to last season and giving us a Jimmy Olsen Version 3.0. And for a show in its third season, that's a problem. Lets hope they get it right this time around, because, other than forcing another couple onto us, I like his interaction with Kara this season.

I would say that having a relationship with someone doesn't necessarily mean that both parties should have an equal contribution to that relationship. Sometimes, just the love between the two will balance out everything. Lena was there for Kara in a year where she wasn't a part of Jimmy and Winn's partnership and Alex was in her own world with Maggie. People she turned to before. And Katie McGrath is right in that not knowing Kara is Supergirl, allows Kara to be 'just a normal girl'.

I would argue that Lena buying Catco for $650,000,000 just because Kara asked for help is fr beyond a fair contribution. Does anyone think that Jimmy and Kara would have a job there had Edge not announced his intent to buy Catco. He would have cleaned house for sure. His own hubris was his mistake there and Lena saved every job at Catco.

There is also the little matter of re engineering Lex' Kryptonite bomb to save the world. Ironically, it was all three Luthors that saved the world. Supergirl really didn't need to be the one to push the button, anymore than Winn needing to be there to hang out with Lena as she re engineered it. I love this irony.and I wish Olsen had pointed that out. It would have made his dialogue way more interesting.

Lena is a cerebral character, not a physical one. I actually love this and I don't ever want her to become some kind of physical bad ass. She is emotionally and cerebrally courageous. Takes intellectual risks that is unique in this show. It takes an awful lot of courage to stand in front of a hateful crowd and cop to your shortcomings.

She is an interesting character for me. I like that she is continually struggling in the grey area. That said, I don't want Morganna 2.0. I still haven't gotten over the first one.

Adding fuel to the fire on the shipping roles; might James and Lena become an eventual item?

It certainly seemed like they were hinting at that at the end of the episode.

I didn't see the bus scene as Supergirl, NOT taking down the bad guy. I see it as, she did the hard, dirty stuff.....let sista clean it up. BECAUSE, had Supergirl not stopped the bus, Alex would have never been able to do what she did.

As far as the plane and toxic stuff, the plane was going to dump the stuff into the main water system of National City screwing the entire population, not just the children, i, and Lena or whatever was left of her after it crashed would be found onboard, blamed...ooooooor, she would be saved by Supergirl after the stuff was dumped and Lena could still be blamed.

I meant: I should not let my frustrations with fandom detract from my enjoyment of the show. We all have our biases, and our favorite characters and things we want to see and things we don't want to see. And each of us is right. The show is right in how they write and the focus they want to use too.

So. Yeah. Sorry about that. And will try not to do that from now on.

You are right Kiwi about Lena doing the rescuing. I was just frustrated about other things (mostly, how the fandom wants Lena to be the hero when Kara is it (not in a physical "I will rescue way" way but in a character development way), how James is blamed for stuff when he is not in the wrong and so on). It's not really the character's fault. She just had this one episode focused on her.

I am sorry about it; and bringing my frustrations and unwanted negativity here.

Anyways, about Supergirl not using Superspeed in the beginning; from their conversation after, she was clearly allowing Alex to vent out her frustrations. After all, Alex usually doesn't accompany her in these things. But, she did this time because she needed a distraction. Kara allowed it because she wanted to support her sister. It was clearly about the sisters rather than about the crime in question.

In this, I am with the writers. It was a great way for Kara to show support.

Also, Sully, yes, the Cobra Effect is a real thing (apologies for not answering this earlier). I had heard of a legend like this before. (The wikipedia says it is true with links).

Basically, what I got out of it was the cultural differences that should figure into account when you do (heh!) sociological research and propose theories. I had also read an article in Psych Today (may be?, I don't remember) about how most of the sociological/economical and similar theories and hypothesis, considered universal, are west-centred (mostly US centred) and have been seen to break down in other cultures.

Research is not easy and your biases--ones that you even don't know about--can change the outcome.

Grading: Eric/All,

House of El's seem like a great grading criteria; but may be we could have 6-7 instead of 5? With one for I don't want to vote but I enjoyed it for Kelly (and any others who feel like it).

Eric

What do you think we change Amazing Episode to Excellent. My thoughts are that Best in 20 is amazing. I think excellent conveys more the thought you want. I would raise Very Good to a B+. I might have rated this one Excellent if given that option. I also agree that 7 options are enough.

Thoughts?

Argo

I'm looking into stars possibly, something without so much nomenclature that can be confusing

Being Kelly and I are both teachers, I'm sure we could create a very awesome RUBRIC for ya, Eric

I say we use "care bear" emojis....... 5 "care bears" is Excellent 4 is Great 3 is Average 2 is below Average and 1 is sucks..... hehe

*GASP* What about using....*drum roll please*....the House of El symbol?? 5 "S's" is Excellent, 4 is Great, 3 is Average, 2 is Below Average, 1 is (to quote Dustin from Stranger Things) "Well Hell!" and 0 for D*mn that was Just Plain Bad, Y'all or even "You can't unsee that, y'all."

Eric

What do you think we change Amazing Episode to Excellent. My thoughts are that Best in 20 is amazing. I think excellent conveys more the thought you want. I would raise Very Good to a B+. I might have rated this one Excellent if given that option. I also agree that 7 options are enough.

Thoughts?

Argo

I'm looking into stars possibly, something without so much nomenclature that can be confusing

Being Kelly and I are both teachers, I'm sure we could create a very awesome RUBRIC for ya, Eric

I say we use "care bear" emojis....... 5 "care bears" is Excellent 4 is Great 3 is Average 2 is below Average and 1 is sucks..... hehe