Verdict: Better Angels is a flawed yet ultimately satisfying capper to season one, putting the focus more on emotion than CGI pyrotechnics and showing how far this show has come as a piece of drama.

Review

Season finales are an odd thing. For a certain type of prestige drama, a season finale follows on from the climatic events of the penultimate episode – it’s a quiet falling action instalment focused on setting up conflicts for the next season. Sometimes, it’s an opportunity to wipe the current status quo off the board in a flash, transforming the show irrevocably with a major event such as a big death or character departure. And sometimes it’s just an excuse to reset things perfectly back to where they were in order to secure a lucrative, syndication-friendly future. No matter what approach a season finale takes, however, it to build upon the relationships and character conflicts throughout the season, bringing them to a satisfying temporary end-point that’s a good distance away from where you started, as well as coalescing the jumble of the season’s themes into a coherent whole, making the climatic events of the finale feel like the natural point that the season has been building to all along.

Better Angels, by those parameters, is a successful season finale. It’s not a perfect one, nor does it exemplify the very best of Supergirl – there are a handful of creative choices made here that dampen the impact of an episode that could have been terrific. Nonetheless, it satisfyingly brings the themes and conflicts of the season to a close, as well as whetting our appetites for the future with plenty of changed circumstances and an intriguing cliffhanger. What surprised me about this episode, particularly given how talky and dialogue-driven last week’s episode was, is that it’s far more focused on examining the relationships between Kara and her support network of friends and family than the villains of the season and the threat that they pose, which is very much funnelled through a character-driven perspective. The villains play their part (although, as I’ll explore below, this could have been a tad bigger), but for better or for worse, Better Angels is far more interested in how Kara responds to the big season-ending threat than the threat itself.

Better Angels certainly starts strong, delivering one of the season’s best and most impactful scenes yet before the title card has even hit. Some may disagree with the decision to downplay the threat of the mind-controlling version of Myriad after how powerful it was shown to be last week, but the attitude taken here towards Myriad encapsulates Better Angels’ approach to its conflicts – emotion over logic, character over continuity, and it’s an approach that works well because it’s entirely in keeping with the clearly established tone of this show. Supergirl’s speech may not make much sense on a purely rational level as a way to defeat Myriad, but it sure as hell works on an emotional, character-driven level as a way to viscerally display the idea of Supergirl as a symbol in action. This has always been an idea present in Supergirl’s DNA from the start, emphasised in smaller-scale moments such as the convenience store robbery in Human for a Day, and it’s surprising to see how powerful it is when extrapolated out to a far larger scale and scope.

A big part of this first season has been Kara’s struggle to maintain Supergirl’s image as the squeaky-clean and kind-hearted guardian angel of National City, so seeing Kara’s friends and then the city as a whole woken from their brainwashed slumber by a symbol that reminds them that this indefatigable spirit and hope resides within them too is a deeply resonant way of bringing this element of season one to a satisfying conclusion. Given the arcs the show has explored such as the city’s brief loss of belief following the Red Kryptonite incident and Kara’s quest to regain that trust, Kara defeating Myriad by using her image as a beacon of hope to all of National City absolutely works on a thematic level, showing how Better Angels powers through moments unsupported by logic and exposition through raw emotion and still manages to be a powerful piece of drama nonetheless. I think what’s also vital here is the fact that not only does Supergirl use her own image and the way she symbolises hope to National City – she also appeals to the inner Supergirl inside of everyone as a way to defeat Myriad. That’s a really excellent creative choice as it grounds Supergirl in a very human, relatable area as a hero who is invested in and sympathises with the struggles and triumphs of everyday humans. This show’s incarnation of Supergirl works where others have failed in large part because, on a basic emotional level, she is a human, an ordinary young woman who feels the same pain and joy as the average Joe; a participator in humanity rather than an observer. I’ve written a lot about this big speech, but it’s worth the words because it’s such a great encapsulation of the refreshing appeal of this particular superhero universe and the way it puts the focus on hope and the ability of ordinary humans to rise above their conflicts through their own belief rather than through force. That’s a hugely important idea in today’s world, and certainly a compelling argument for the continuing presence of Supergirl as a major part of the DC TV pantheon on a creative level.

A great deal of the finale’s mid-section was focused on Kara’s potential goodbyes to her friends and family as she headed off on what seemed to be a suicide mission against Non and Indigo. This is a well-trodden idea, but it’s only well-trodden because of how great it is as a way to discern how Kara’s relationships with her support network have evolved throughout the season as well as definitively underlining each character’s place in the show by displaying, clearly or otherwise, what these people mean to Kara and why they’re an integral part of her life. It’s a smart storytelling device to bring a close to all of Kara’s shifting relationships throughout the season and examine their trajectory of evolution from the pilot to this instalment, and the shrewdness of this creative choice is compounded through the thoughtful way in which Better Angels constructs and paces these series of goodbyes; there’s a lot to be discovered about the complexity of these relationships and the importance of these characters by the order in which Kara visits people let alone her actual interactions, and there’s a clear sense of progression and building to something evident throughout as Kara works her way up towards Alex at the DEO.

Each of these little interactions builds in complexity and nuance as we go along, revealing vital insights about the role these characters play in Kara’s life – starting with Winn, whose role as friend and confidante is completely simple yet entirely intrinsic to Kara’s happiness, to Cat, who has developed into an inspiring mentor to Kara through the foundation of a mutually beneficial, somewhat symbiotic friendship, to James, whose romance with Kara is cast here as a torturously complicated thing that’s doomed to failure in an attempt to shield the potential blow of her death, to Hank who immediately snuffs out the meaning behind Kara’s goodbye tour and honestly questions her own her true intentions, and finally to Alex, who Kara simply can’t bring herself to say goodbye to. The path from A to Z is impeccably paced and gripping, creating a sense of momentum even as the episode’s story is, on paper at least, not actually progressing that much because the interactions become more substantial and insightful with every visit. Better Angels doesn’t undermine any of these characters’ importance to Kara and the show – it simply acknowledges that this group of friends and family is something of a network in which some links are more complicated than others, yet all are of vital importance to the network’s viability as a whole.

The final battle against Non and Indigo is an exciting and satisfying one, providing gloriously heightened comic-book spectacle in spades as these powerful figures square off against each other, so it’s entertaining as a well-constructed and tense action scene with a handful of really striking, memorable images such as Kara’s heat vision fight with Non framed against the backdrop of Fort Rozz. What really makes this final fight soar, however, is the way it never forgets the human element that’s at stake here. Supergirl has been held up in many reviews, including these ones, as an antidote to comic-book movies with a loaded reference to Batman v Superman, but it’s interesting to see that it gets right what another recent comic-book movie, the disastrous Fantastic Four reboot got badly wrong. The final fight in that movie was an ugly and poorly constructed action scene, but it mainly failed because it played out on a disconnected alien world with the threat to humanity left entirely up to the imagination with no shots of what the main cataclysm was doing to Earth. Better Angels recognises the danger of a big action scene where the threat to humanity is forgotten about with nothing to ground the CGI action in real, human stakes, so it keeps the threat of Myriad a constant by frequently cutting to shots of familiar characters recoiling from the pain as the evil plan escalates in strength and ferocity. It’s not only a good way to raise tension by putting all of the main characters in danger, it also emphasises the connection to humanity that made that early speech so resonant. Kara and J’onn aren’t human and neither are their adversaries, but Better Angels never forgets amidst the CGI fun and games that they’re fighting for humanity. That means there’s something distinctly investable in this very heightened final fight, because Better Angels never lets its heroes be detached observers merely fighting similarly powerful enemies in a bubble – what they’re fighting for is sharp and clear throughout, and that’s something to commend.

Kara’s big sacrifice as she lifts Fort Rozz into orbit is perhaps another example of those ‘emotion over logic’ moments that I mentioned at the start of this review. Could this clearly colossal structure be lifted into the sky rapidly and vertically by Supergirl given her established power levels? I’d imagine probably not, but once again, that doesn’t matter because this moment works as a satisfying culmination of Kara’s overall character journey this year. The symbolism of the moment as she takes the titanic burden on her shoulders isn’t subtle, but then this show has never really even tried to be subtle – it’s big, bright, and in-your-face, so the visuals here are inspiring and resonant rather than clunky and overly obvious. Once again, Better Angels doesn’t let us forget the power of Kara’s actions. Yes, she survives, but her sacrifice and willingness to give everything up to save humanity shows a huge development on the part of her character – not so much that she was willing, but that she was able to pull off the sacrifice entirely on her own in the view of the whole of Earth. It’s a fantastically impactful way to show the conclusion of this protracted origin story – there’s a real sense that this sacrifice has allowed Kara to earn her stripes as a fully-formed Supergirl, so the fact that she doesn’t die feels less like a cheat and more like a satisfying way to allow Kara to continue on with an entirely new journey in season two now that she’s learned to be a hero. Working in of itself as a powerful moment and as the beginning of a new stage of her development, this final moment hits a sweet spot as a moment of satisfying finality while preparing the wiped-clean slate for something new.

So, with all of the excellent and satisfying ways that Better Angels concludes the season in mind, it’s worth considering where it fell short and what elements here may need fixing in a potential second season. As I’ve said, this episode is clearly more focused on the effects of Non and Indigo’s actions than the actions themselves, and that’s, to some extent, fine – these character-centric conditions are clearly flagged up when the promised epic fight with Alex comes to a quick stop early on as Alex’s mother mentions her father. Nonetheless, these major villains do feel like afterthoughts devoid of any interesting thematic resonance or personality – as characters in of themselves rather than vessels for Kara’s character arc’s progression, they feel notably hollow here. It’s, in a way, manifestation of the concerns I and other viewers had after Astra’s death – for all the flaws in her portrayal, Astra had a compelling familial tie to Kara and fit snugly into the season’s thematic exploration of blood bonds and the importance of family; on a thematic level, she was the villain the season more or less needed. In Astra’s absence, we have two villains who only have tenuous personal links to Kara and have barely interacted with her ‘human’ self – in a finale that’s all about the personal, the two villains are only fighting Kara because she’s a nuisance and has foiled one of their plans already, which creates the sense that they’re at odds with the episode as a whole. This episode didn’t need a huge focus on villains, but the villains here simply don’t mesh with the personal and character-driven drama elsewhere, which means they badly fall short as compelling presences whenever they’re on screen.

And, though it’s not a huge issue, I have mixed feelings about how Better Angels leaves this show’s status quo for the season. Moments such as Cat’s promotion of Kara, even pronouncing her name correctly are really great little changes that show a small yet hugely impactful development, and I’m intrigued to see the search for Jeremiah brought to the front of the queue as an immediate and pressing issue for Alex. Nonetheless, the episode builds and builds a sense that something huge is going to happen with Kara’s goodbyes, and then more or less reverts to a very similar situation to where we started by the end, even down to the slightly tenuous reinstatement of J’onn to the position of the head of DEO. I’m not necessarily saying that this episode needed a big character death, because the way it put most of the supporting characters at risk from exactly the same thing wasn’t conducive towards an organic death that would have made sense for the story, but I would have liked a couple of things to have stayed irrevocably changed; perhaps J’onn’s place at the DEO, or Alex’s job or something along those lines. As it is, this finale works very well, but it could have benefited from being a little ballsier with tinkering with the show’s circumstances in order to pack just a little more of a punch.

Overall, Better Angels was a thoroughly satisfying way to wrap up this season – packed with powerful emotional exchanges that sum up this show’s admirably hopeful and optimistic outlook and filled with great character development that reveals the role of the supporting characters with a clarity we haven’t seen before. The villains are unfortunately out at sea, in a different version of the finale more focused on action and there’s a bit more of a reset at the end than I would have preferred, but this was a great way to end things for the time being.

Supergirl’s first season, on the whole, has been a good one. It started a little bumpy with choppy villain of the week episodes that offered very little satisfying development week on week and clunky writing that swallowed intriguing ideas in didactic and criminally unsubtle dialogue, but it found its stride roughly at the halfway point and has been on a pretty admirable run of good-to-great episodes ever since about episode thirteen as it’s kept the great action and refined the character drama. Amidst the ups and downs, however, the constantly optimistic and bright tone has kept this show an important part of the DC TV pantheon by offering a hopeful and inspiring take on superheroes that I hope influences some of its forebears, and as that tone has gradually been channelled with more and more finesse into powerful moments that convey that optimism in a way that’s dramatically satisfying, Supergirl has really found its place as a certain type of superhero show. There are definitely some issues to iron out before it reaches the heights of some of its comic-book TV brethren, but I’ve found Supergirl to be one of the most purely enjoyable superhero shows this season and absolutely worthy of continuation.

Let’s just hope that renewal comes around next month, then…

Odds & Ends

• Structurally, it’s interesting to see how much this finale mirrored the first season finale of The Flash. The two episodes feel very different, but they follow surprisingly similar paths right up until the big sacrifice. If Supergirl had followed that structure to the letter, the episode would have ended with Supergirl flying Fort Rozz into space…
• Of course, there’s the big cliffhanger moment in which a Kryptonian pod lands, and its mysterious contents come as a shock to Kara. It’s a perfectly intriguing cliffhanger for which there are several exciting answers, finishing the series on a note of intrigue while preserving its finality.
• J’onn ripped Indigo in half! I know she’s only a robot and all, but That’s gotta hurt in the morning.
• Will we see Non again? He was clearly shown to be alive for a reason, but I highly doubt he’ll be up to his best after burning out his eyes in that duel. Will he even be able to speak?
• I’m assuming that Cadmus will be a secondary conflict in season two with something more alien as the main conflict akin to the Maxwell Lord storyline playing second fiddle to Non, but who knows? That pod could always tie in with Cadmus.

That’s all for season one – thanks for reading my reviews this season! It’s been great to see this show evolve and improve even within this back half, and I can only hope that it’s allowed to continue that trajectory of improvement. As I write this, last night’s new series low just got adjusted up, so let’s just keep fingers crossed for the upfronts in May.