Supergirl #2.16 “Star-Crossed” Review

Verdict: A good episode with some thought-provoking insights on the morality of Supergirl’s central characters is marred by an uneven structure and some undercooked new villains.

Review:

Mon-El of Daxam has been Supergirl season two’s most divisive element. Some see him as a likeable, charming character despite his myriad flaws and therefore as a perfect match for Kara, while others see him as immature and irredeemably selfish, with the controversy recently exacerbated by how much focus 2017’s episodes have put upon his character development and growing relationship with Kara. Supergirl seemed to have a conflicted view on the character from the start, providing ample evidence for both sides of the argument, but it eventually came to the conclusion that he’s a good person at heart who deserves to be redeemed. As far as the show’s own perspective went, that seemed to be decided.

Except Mon-El hasn’t always been telling the truth. After a season’s worth of hints that about ninety per cent of the audience seems to have picked up, Star-Crossed reveals that he was in fact the prince of Daxam as opposed to a lowly royal guard, with the majority of the episode picking up from the fallout of this revelation. Truth be told, it’s easy to feel frustrated at the general intent here to place a rift between Kara and Mon-El that eventually separates them (for the time being), because their relationship came after a long, circuitous build-up, and we’ve barely had time to see them as a happy couple. A frequent flaw of the CW’s DC shows has been a seeming allergy to any kind of stasis, wherein the instinctive reaction to a relationship that’s become healthy and functional is to break it apart as quickly as possible, and it’s easy to box Kara and Mon-El’s conflict into that trend. It’s a matter of timing, rather than any critical storytelling flaws, but Supergirl has a 22-episode season to play with. On paper, it has enough time to pace itself and spend ample time in each stage of its conflicts, but the sheer amount of time spent on the build-up to their pairing has required Supergirl to floor the accelerator regardless of whether it feels satisfying or not.

While it’s frustrating on a surface level to see Kara and Mon-El return to conflict so quickly, Star-Crossed makes a good case for the necessity of this particular dispute. It does this by meaningfully accounting for the character development they’ve both experienced this season, which means we’re exploring Kara and Mon-El coming in from very distinctive mind-sets. Mon-El, in particular, comes off far better than usual in this dispute. Too frequently, he’s been painted as an impetuous child no matter how many breakthroughs he makes, but Star-Crossed manages to encapsulate the fundamental transformation of his personality as his past and present collide. There’s glimpses of the old Mon-El here, such as his glib joke that Kara should forgive him like in a rom-com, but for the most part there’s a tangible sense of Kara’s influence in Mon-El’s sincere, regretful attitude, reflected in Chris Wood’s more emotionally honest performance that incisively digs into what lies below Mon-El’s flippant surface. That’s seen both in his nakedly emotional confession to Kara of his own shortcomings, and in his firm condemnation of his old life in Daxam to his parents, illustrating his newfound moral rigidity and desire to work for a good life instead of having it come to him. We finally get the true story of Mon-El’s escape from Daxam this week, in which he cowers behind a loyalist guard to escape while his people burn below, and it’s uncomfortable to watch in the callous attitude to the value of individual life it represents. Yet as a result of Star-Crossed’s strong summation of how far Mon-El’s come, it really does feel like there’s a gulf between the prince who left Daxam and the character we see in the present day.

Kara’s arc is a touch more diffuse, and illustrates the episode working more at cross-purposes than it perhaps should have as it explores two aspects of her character that aren’t mutually exclusive, but do slightly contradict one another. Taken separately, however, there’s some rewarding development to be found here. On one side, we have Kara’s well-established prejudice towards Daxam which boils over upon learning Mon-El’s true nature. This instinctive prejudice has always been thematically sound, as it serves as a way to explore Kara’s own hypocrisies and biases, though not supported particularly well by anything that we’ve actually seen because Daxam is a place that’s mostly been talked about in broad platitudes. Star-Crossed improves that by providing a mirror to Kara’s suspicions with Mon-El’s parents, who leap to the same generalising presumptions upon seeing a Kryptonian. It also manages to flesh out the specificities of Daxam’s cruelty a little more, with the disturbing idea of the subjects whose desire to rebel is suppressed medically by a constant supply of alcohol, and the deeply elitist attitudes shown in Mon-El’s flashback where the prince is put before dozens of civilians.

On the other side, Star-Crossed continues last episode’s thread of exploring Kara’s moral rigidity when applied to situations that invite her to bend her own worldview, this time in terms of her relationship with Mon-El. As a symbolic figure intended to serve as the embodiment of compassion and virtue, Kara has always been a moral absolutist, unwilling to compromise her own beliefs, and it was genuinely thought-provoking to see this absolutism applied to such a personal problem. It’s an insightful, and ultimately convincing, statement of Kara’s character that she weighs up Mon-El’s rationalisations against her own stubborn belief in total honesty and finds them to come up short. While break-ups can often be a recipe for tedious, soapy drama, Star-Crossed makes Kara and Mon-El’s split work by introducing these themes of morality and forgiveness into the equation, with the choices these characters make summing up how far they’ve come, and in some cases, how they have always stated the same. Melissa Benoist makes Kara’s inner conflict tangible and investable, as we see her desperately divided on the choice she’s required to make and gutted by her eventual decision. The problem here is that Star-Crossed makes a far more contradictory closing statement than it initially seems due to its exploration of both Kara’s prejudice and moral rigidity. She doesn’t learn to cast off her own prejudices regarding Daxam by the end of the episode – they’re actively supported by the dismissive attitude of Mon-El’s parents towards her, but the episode doesn’t acknowledge this and how it could have factored into her final decision, which just exacerbates the messiness of the storytelling. Star-Crossed has a lot of fascinating things to say as Kara, but it struggles to sum them up in a way that’s coherent and complex.

On the other side of the episode, Winn received his very own storyline. His dispute with Lyra is actually the more conventionally structured of the two stories, especially with its action climax, and while it’s not revelatory, it’s an enjoyable diversion. Lyra’s painting theft and the manhunt that ensues manages to inject a much-needed burst of levity and zippiness to an episode that can become quite sombre when it’s dealing with Kara’s feelings of betrayal, and it allows Jeremy Jordan to finally show off the extent of his acting talents. This season has established Winn as a reliable source of amusing comic-relief to leaven even the heaviest situation, and Jordan’s comic timing is a great source of humour that allows this plotline to ride over some of its logical rough patches. Yet he’s also able to play the more emotional side of Winn as his own feelings of betrayal over Lyra are examined, and Jordan brings a sympathetic openness to his performance that establishes just how much this emotional attachment means to him, and how much the revelation of its artificiality stings. In one of the episode’s best scenes, Star-Crossed clarifies Winn’s character development by placing him in direct contrast to Kara. They’re both hurting from their partners’ deception, but while Kara is rigid in her ways to a fault, Winn is desperate for an emotional connection and is willing to see the moral value of Lyra’s actions, despite their harm to him, in order to patch up their relationship. It’s a nice way to firm up Winn’s place as perhaps the most human of Supergirl’s supporting cast – he’s a fallible and vulnerable perspective on the themes that Supergirl explores from a moralistic viewpoint with Kara. The ins and outs of this B-plot are mostly just window dressing. Lyra as a character could be fascinating, but she confers to familiar tropes at every turn – her attachment to Winn despite her deception, the blackmail that informs her actions, and there’s not a genuine chance to explore her more idiosyncratic attitudes in a story that’s already densely packed and competing for room with Kara and Mon-El’s conflict.

Star-Crossed’s main flaw isn’t in either of its central storyline, but instead in its structure. The CW superhero shows have developed a storytelling structure that may be formulaic, but allows for a good balance of stories and solid pacing in which there is an action scene in each of the three acts which deal with the main storyline, followed, at the end, by a denouement that wraps up everything and suggests a premise for the next instalment. Star-Crossed doesn’t really do that, as it juxtaposes a structurally unusual A-plot that climaxes not with a major set-piece, but with a conversation in Kara’s apartment, with a more conventional B-plot that the episode increasingly focuses on to provide Supergirl’s typical sense of propulsion and drive. Winn’s story has to end early to make way for Kara’s storyline to conclude the episode, and the shift between those two plotlines is awkward. As a consequence, it’s an episode pulled between plotlines, unable to structure them in a way that allows them to complement one another all the way through, as if it’s jammed two premises that could support an episode each into one. Star-Crossed is entertaining and emotional on a scene-by-scene basis, but when looked at as a cohesive whole, it’s oddly shapeless.

Star-Crossed is a thoroughly flawed instalment that often finds itself caught between impulses both in its juxtaposition of character drama and case-of-the-week material and the competing focus on Kara’s shortcomings and moral virtues. Yet despite all that, it still works. The excellent performances, resulting from a script that allows the cast to dive into more emotionally complex material, help to alleviate some of the episode’s plotting flaws, and the character development found with Winn and Mon-El is a reminder of Supergirl’s improved ability to deliver strong storylines for its extended supporting cast. As the show heads into the final six episodes of the season, this was a stirring reminder of its ability to tell rewarding, slow-burning stories that deliver original perspectives on some of the most well-worn tropes of superhero fiction. And for all the mistakes this episode makes, that reminder may be its lasting impression.

Odds & Ends

• Teri Hatcher and Kevin Sorbo debut as new villains in Mon-El’s parents, but the fact that I’m only talking about them down here indicates how little impact they make. They serve a purpose, but as characters, I can barely distinguish the two, and there’s certainly no attempt yet to test the strength of the actors.
• James has a few outings at Guardian here, yet manages to contribute nothing of worth to any of the conflicts he dives into. I’m rooting for you, buddy. Also, what happened to his day job at CatCo? Is that now, somehow, part-time?
• Kara is enjoying her ‘fun-employment’ by marathoning Game of Thrones. Keep up the good taste, Kara!
• The cliffhanger here is a tad abrupt, but when it includes the Music Meister and a tease for the musical crossover with The Flash, I’m not complaining. Kara’s finally getting that inter-dimensional vacation she wanted!
• Next episode: Kevin Smith directs again with Distant Sun, where Kara faces a bounty on her head and Alex faces Maggie’s ex-girlfriend!