City of Lost Children – After women flees from him in fear James questions if he’s really making a difference as Guardian. Rhea inspires Lena into building their portal device with some unexpected consequences.
After a great recent run Supergirl takes a step back this week with a story that puts James Olsen in the spotlight. It’s a case of right episode wrong time. There are many points earlier in the season where both James and Guardian faded into obscurity so giving him such an episode then would have been ideal. Whereas now, at the tail end of the season, it feels like a frustrating distraction from the bigger more pressing events at hand. It’s a shame because there is good content here over James learning that being hero is about more than being good in a fight (again much better if positioned in the earlier stages of his Guardian endeavours). This is achieved nicely via his connection to the featured troubled child, Marcus. Indeed the scenes of James solely earning his trust are well paced and meaningful. The only problem is that this is such a well trodden subject within the genre that any quality is hampered by a lack of originality. The idea of the aliens (and particularly the child) being manipulated was also played well. The Pyscked up Marcus refurbishing looked fantastic.
The Lena Luthor and Rhea connection continues to impress as Rhea manipulates Lena by being the supporting mother figure she always craved. This builds well on the earlier season Cadmus events and the contrast to Lillian Luthor. There’s also a good emphasis on Lena embracing her own strengths rather than trying to imitate Lex. This compliments the James Olsen well as both characters aspire to be more by being themselves. Sadly Maggie is absent this week, taking the Alex/Maggie connection out of the picture.
The episode’s biggest saving grace was definitely its final 10 minutes. Not only did it give James a satisfying big plain clothed hero moment to cap off his episode story but also made some major moves in progressing the Mon-El and Rhea story as the season show’s it’s going big before going home this year. It might have been a little predictable considering how big the portal was but the resulting visual effects still looked awesome. Plus Terri Hatcher is great to watch in full villain mode. My only gripe was the cop out depowering Martian Manhunter. While this could be setup for a big Miss Martian return to save him, right now it feels like the season one finale’s oh so convenient depowering of Superman to keep the focus on Kara.
Although I had a number of misgivings over the timing and choices of this episode it ended strong and fulfilled all the required setup for an all out finale 2 episodes. It has some fun lighter moments too as fans would come to expect.