What could have been an emotionally thrilling episode fell flat without adequate culminations, although it did succeed in setting up a few future storylines. Here is a recap, followed by a review of the Supergirl episode “Wake Up.”
RECAP:
When an exploratory submarine discovers a spaceship embedded in the city’s bedrock, Supergirl investigates to find Mon-El locked inside with several other passengers. She brings Mon-el to the DEO, only for him to escape back onto the ship to “save everyone” from an unknown threat and also to rescue his wife from drowning in her pod. Taking a day off from the DEO, J’onn walks his father, M’yrnn, through the park and shows him their new apartment. Meanwhile, Sam journeys to the middle of the desert where her Fortress of Sanctuary emerges and transforms her into Reign.
REVIEW:
Taking an atypical approach to crafting an episode of Supergirl, “Wake Up” forewent the standard villain of the week and the city being in imminent danger for a more personal approach to drama. Centered around reconnecting – with lovers/friends, family, yourself – this episode attempted to create heartwrenching and heartwarming tales for our heroes; however, none of the three main storylines built to a satisfying pinnacle that made the journey worthwhile. The lack of stakes meant a lack of tension, which created further problems for the plot. Without a clear antagonist and without stakes, the conflict revolved around withholding or acquiring information that either didn’t need to be withheld or was too easily retrieved.
First, it was what is Mon-El hiding? A time difference and a wife. The wife, admittedly, was something understandably difficult to reveal to his former girlfriend, but the fact that he’s been gone for seven years instead of Kara’s seven months was pointless to hide.
Second, what if Sam doesn’t find the answer to what’s happening to her? She’ll keep looking and eventually find them.
Third, what if J’onn doesn’t reconnect with his father? It’s sad, sure, but the world is still safe and J’onn goes back to living the life he used to.
Perhaps Mon-El lost his personality in the seven years he spent in the future or he was just hungover from the cryo-sleep, but his moodiness and sadness were unexpected. Despite saying it was good to see Kara again, he seemed almost annoyed at having run into her. He didn’t tell her he’s become the hero she believed he could be. He didn’t reassure her that they did the right thing by sending him into space. He didn’t trust her to help him rescue his friends, but rather kept multiple pieces of information from her, which wasn’t unexpected given his past actions. What reason does he have to hide his allegiance with the Legion if they’re heroes? Why hide the fact that he’s been gone for seven years and living in the future? Why dismiss the identity of the passengers if they needed to be rescued? His decisions seemed to exist for the sole purpose of creating an emotional flare for Kara instead of stemming from his own character’s motivation and story logic.
Turning Sam into Reign resulted from an obstacle-light journey, but it still provided some quality scenes with Odette Annable, who continues to prove herself as a stellar addition to the cast. Driven by a combination of bravery and desperation, Sam pays a visit to her mother, the second parent to kick out a child on this series for old-fashioned reasons. While those scenes were laden with exposition, they were also emotionally poignant and further cemented Sam’s vulnerability and humanity before revealing she’s not human at all.
Sam’s emergence as a worldkiller came about in a surprising way, in that an outside force made this transition for her rather than it happening as a result of something Sam chose to do herself or some tragedy causing her dark side to shine through. On the one hand, this creates an interesting discussion about fate. Sam’s first reaction when learning of her heritage was joy at the possibility of being like Supergirl, but according to the hologram, there’s no hope of that. She is a worldkiller. But since Ruby was a mistake, maybe Ruby can provide the hope Sam needs to break her fate and create her own destiny. If not, it’ll be devastating watching Sam lose her memories and love of Ruby after telling Ruby she was her heart, and equally as difficult watching her struggle with her newfound role. On the other hand, this created an anticlimactic antagonist origin story. An antagonist’s origin should give the audience an instant snapshot of who they are as a person and explain everything you need to know about their character’s motivation. All this indicates is that Sam isn’t human.
As lovely as it was to see a father-son bonding storyline between J’onn and M’yrnn, there wasn’t enough conflict to sustain these scenes, which is surprising given that most CW shows are overwrought with personal conflict. M’yrnn was completely understanding and supportive of J’onn’s job when he could have been hurt by his son’s lack of attention to their bonding session or not understood why this job mattered to much to his son. The attempt to show the emotional distance and reconnecting between father and son was so underdeveloped that J’onn’s suggestion that they make a home together did not feel like it was a solution to a rift between them or built from a desire to get to know his father better, but from a place of “I don’t really know what else to do, so let’s do this…”
In addition, M’yrnn’s story holds so much untapped potential. Having been a prisoner for three hundred years must have created lasting side effects, fears, and trauma beyond seeking permission to use the restroom. What is M’yrnn’s equivalent to Kara’s claustrophobia in “Triggers”? Has he been stockpiling (food, weapons) because he doesn’t trust the DEO? What life goals does he hold that he’s hesitant to share? Would he rather be back on Mars? Given that M’yrnn has been around since episode three and barely utilized since his return to Earth, I wouldn’t be surprised if SpaceGrandad returned to space without his purpose on Earth being fully realized.
In conclusion, although “Wake Up” answered a few lingering questions – What happened to Mon-El? What’s going on with Sam? – the episode feels out of place in the season. The catalysts for the events in “Wake Up” did not emerge from last week’s flashback episode, but from Sam’s story in episode five and the main story in episode one. While not every storyline needs to be followed up on during the succeeding episode, it seems as if the writers were picking up threads when they felt like filling an hour and not allowing the story find its natural flow. Considering the big crossover event is this week, I doubt the show will follow up thoroughly enough on Mon-El’s friends in the ship and Reign’s transformation, so we’ll have to wait another week to watch the relevance play out.
ODDS AND ENDS:
– What has James been doing with his life? Has his shoulder healed? Is he still Guardian? How’s co-running CatCo with Lena going?
– Why does Supergirl call Superman “Clark” in the middle of the street with pedestrians all around?
– Why did L Corp create an antidote to the atmospheric lead poisoning? Remember how poorly it went the last time Daxamites landed on Earth?
– The Executive Producers have said they’re doing something with Reign that they’ve never done on a Legends of SuperFlarrow show before, and that’s showing the villain become the villain… and now I’m really confused what the point of Arrow’s season two flashbacks were, because I’m pretty sure they were about Slade Wilson becoming Deathstroke.
– Winn: Leave us in charge, and by us, I mean Alex, because I should not be in charge of anything.
– Winn: We only have your best interests are heart.
Supergirl: Which of you two is deciding what my best interests are?