Recap: SUPERGIRL Delivers an Afterschool Special on Tolerance

Episode 203 “Welcome to Earth”
Written by Jessica Queller & Derek Simon
Directed by Rachel Talalay

This week on Supergirl: National City gets a visit from an alien, an alien breaks out of the DEO, and an alien learns to be friends with an alien. It’s a special one-hour episode, coming up next on The CW.

In the interest of saving some time (because I’m behind and I write way too many of these…), here’s what happened:

1. President Wonder Woman (Lynda Carter) visits National City to sign the Alien Amnesty Act.
2. Alien Pretty Boy (Chris Wood) wakes up and becomes Kara’s New Best Frenemy.
3. Alex (Chlyer Leigh) meets Detective Maggie Sawyer (Floriana Lima) from the Science Division, and they make eyes.
4. Kara (Melissa Benoist) learns that Snapper Carr (Ian Gomez) actually thinks journalism involves objectivity.
5. Jimmy (Mehcad Brooks) learns how to stand up for himself.

Those are the high points. It’s basically a pretty preachy episode, and the social politics kept pushing me out of the story, because a lot of the dialogue felt like it was there to be part of Making a Point™ instead of entertaining an audience. And after everything that’s come out lately in the WikiLeaks dump, does Snapper Carr now seem to be an outlier when he calls Kara on the carpet for editorializing her story about Lena Luthor’s new Go-Go Gadget Alien Detector? “Keep your personal feelings to yourself.”

Has he met the Modern Media?

With the introduction of Maggie Sawyer, a lot of fans were hyped that maybe this would open the door for an appearance by Kate Kane, otherwise known as Batwoman. But it looks like Alex is going fill that space on Maggie’s dance card. At first meeting, they snarl. They circle. They make eyes. Then Alex gets a call to meet Maggie, who admires Alex’s motorcycle, takes her to an alien dive bar, and teaches her tolerance for the Other.

And Mount Pride Observatory? It’s not a randomly picked name, either.

Kara gets her own lesson in tolerance when she learns that Alien Pretty Boy is actually from Daxam, not Krypton. She just assumes he’s up to no good because he’s a Daxamite. Completely random and senseless for a character like Supergirl. But just like an episode of Seventh Heaven, all of the major cast has to have a storyline that follows the main theme: Afterschool Special On Tolerance.

So Kara just assumes the Daxamite attacked the President. But why would he do that? How would even know who the President was? She makes a big blanket statement about Daxamites, and he makes big blanket statements about Kryptonians. Mon-El just wants to go home. “You’ve already made up your mind about me…” he says. And that, ladies and gentlemen, is the Hand of the Writer.

Ultimately, Kara and Alex find Scorcher in an abandoned warehouse, where she has Maggie tied up. Scorcher is convinced that amnesty is just another word for “registration”, and she figures prejudice and fear will win the day and humans will show their true colors when aliens come out of hiding. And… they fight, ending with Supergirl snuffing out Scorcher’s fire with a tornado and Maggie delivering a hit with a lead pipe. “You guys are fun.”

Not the last we’ve seen of Maggie Sawyer.

In the end, the Alien Amnesty Act gets signed, and the President visits the DEO one last time. Everyone has learned their lesson in time for the end credits.

• Jimmy takes control of his news room at Catco.
• Maggie is super-impressed by the “James Bond bad guy hideout sick” facilities of the DEO, and she makes eyes at Alex again.
• Kara lets Mon-El out of his cage.
• The President is actually an Alien.

• J’onn J’onzz learns to let his hair down, going to the Dollywood Dive Bar in his true form.

This is where we get the last Fanboy Squee Moment™ of the night, with the introduction of M’gann M’orzz (Sharon Leal), the last daughter of Mars. Now, she looks like a Green Martian… but I’ve said too much already.

 

Preach, brother:

“We can look like them, blend in. A lot of aliens can’t. And people in this world don’t have much tolerance for others who look different. I say that as an alien and as someone who’s worn the face of a black man for fifteen years.”

“Growing up a non-white, non-straight girl in Blue Springs, Nebraska… might as well have been from Mars.”

 

Easter eggs:

“There is no K in diabolical.” ~ Winn’s Jimmy to Kara’s Lois in a clear shout-out to the Chris Reeve movies

The Wonder Woman spin ~ because that’s how you change clothes or put out fires, of course

“You ought to see my other jet.” ~ President Wonder Woman winking at the audience

 

Random questions:

When did heat vision look like fireballs?

Did the CW cut down the CGI budget on all the shows? Between Supergirl on fire and the superbad Captain Nazi on Legends of Tomorrow, it’s just starting to look like some money went somewhere…

Why is Lynda Carter’s delivery so slow and deliberate?

Will Kara and Lena become besties?

Why do aliens love Dolly Parton so much? Is that a metaphor for something?

How does Blue Springs, Nebraska feel about being pegged as a hotbed of intolerance?

 

Supergirl airs Monday nights at 8/7c on The CW.