Supergirl S4 Premiere Thoughts & Easter Eggs

"American Alien"

After what many fans including myself considered a pretty mixed season of Supergirl previously, we open up the series' fourth installment with a solid introduction into the new world. One of the strongest elements of the show even going back to its shaky roots has always been the manner in which it parallels our reality. Whether its superhero/alien politics mirroring our current state of affairs or some of the more social conflicts that people tackle in the real world, Supergirl has never shied away from implementing these ideas into its storytelling and characters. This is where Season 4 kicks things off on a promising note in my opinion as it utilizes our current and very unfortunate issues regarding hate crime around the world and adapts it to the heavy sci-fi component of the show's cosmic corner of the Arrowverse.

Still pretty cool to see Wonder Woman as our president on a DC Comics based TV series

By taking the idea of aliens living among us struggling to make a living and be accepted as citizens, the series brings forth the harsh reality of the existence of racism and the paranoia fueled political situations that births from it all. What's also been interesting about this is the idea that Supergirl has finally come to peace with her place on Earth especially given her ever expanding fan base in addition to the president's attempts to bring everyone together. Kara has somehow become ignorant to what other extraterrestrials are experiencing in other areas of the world. The episode tackles this in a mostly successful manner during her conversations with a now peacekeeping civilian J'onn J'onzz (who continues to be the best part of this series) as he tries to open up her eyes to the grittier ground level perspective of the world's reaction to aliens living amongst them.

One of the riskier things that you can do with your spotlight hero is make them completely ignorant to the very obvious truth surrounding them as it can potentially present them as being annoyingly uneducated or misguided. Thankfully, the writers counter this early on in the season by having her discover the dark web email exchanges involving 100s of civilians attempting to "handle" the alien citizens. It's nice to see the writers avoiding the temptation to stretch Kara's obviousness out pass this episode just for the sake of drama which would've been the typical CW thing to do. What this creates is an interesting new tension building dynamic to the series that feels much more impactful due to its realistic nature as oppose to yet another world ending or conquering alien invasion. How the series handles this as a season long psychological threat to some extent will be interesting to see.

Speaking of threats, let's talk about the two major threats teased during the premiere with the main highlight of this particular episode being Sam Witwer's character, Agent Liberty. I've always loved the idea of a villain being born out of the consequential actions of the heroes or some shift within the world in which the hero(s) watches over. There's something fascinating and dramatically deep about an antagonistic force being created solely as an understandably inevitable counter against our protagonist whether or not they're specifically at fault. A world smothered in paranoia against a foreign species they don't understand births an individual or group who'd capitalize on said fear and put the fight into their own hands by extreme and sometimes shadowy means. This is where Agent Liberty comes into the picture by stealthily outing the president as an alien on the news while also taking out alien citizens of some importance on the side.

The two goons that he utilizes to get the job done were definitely the weaker links of the episode feeling better suited as cheesy villains in some straight to DVD action movie. Sam Witwer himself isn't really given a whole lot to do here but mostly stand around speaking ominously through a Sons of Harpy mask from Game of Thrones and stabbing a character that we hardly knew. As a season villain tease however, his scenes do respectfully fit the bill. I'm actually really interested to see what he does in the role considering his iconic Star Wars villain background as well as how much of a presence his character will actually have being in the same season where a villainous Supergirl doppelgänger exists.

What if these two versions of Kara met during the crossover?

This brings me to that hype worthy ending shot of our previously teased clone of Kara showing up in Russia now seeming to be training underground for a future mission. As much as I hated how initially forced in this legendary story arc from the comics felt implimented into the show, I'd be lying if I said I wasn't the least bit excited seeing this version of Kara under a different regime. It's honestly the most promising element of the episode giving me something to get excited about for the season as a whole but also extremely nervous. We've already seen a villainous "what if" clone of Supergirl courtesy of the Earth-X crossover event, so how exactly will this version stand out? Also, I'm not 100% sold that the production team is able to take on the heft of showing two Supergirls duke it out in a satisfying manner as proven by several of the fight scenes of seasons past.

However, speaking of the season premiere as a sample tray giving fans a little taste of the story direction moving forward, I will say that this was a pretty solid opener overall. The writers have introduced us to a whole new world of possibilities given the political climate and rising tension for alien citizens which places many of our characters in interesting new situations. Our heroes have all progressed profoundly from their previous season counterparts such as Alex's position as the DEO director, Kara as an established reporter having her own pupil mirroring her old relationship with Cat Grant, J'onn as a civilian laying low fighting for aliens as a peacekeeping advocate, and Brainy finding his place at the DEO. I can't say that I'm over the moon with excitement for Season 4, but I will say that it's nice to see the series actually feel like it's progressing forward into new territory.

If there's anything good to take from this is that at least we aren't watching Supergirl having to learn new cape tricks to defeat her enemies with. Please....please writers....please don't ever do that again. I beg of you.

Bonus Content

Easter Eggs

1. Superman Is Off-World

It's hard to make out what the actual article details, but it is interesting that the writers made sure to highlight the idea that Superman is elsewhere in the cosmos at the moment. This puts more of the planet saving pressure on our titular hero which can be pretty interesting if it leads to us seeing Kara explore international and foreign territory to the show's traditional settings. Also, gotta love the "Girl of Tomorrow" title which is a nice nod to the Superman: The Man of Tomorrow comics of the 90's. So, where exactly is the man of steel? Warworld perhaps? How about that planet that Kara discovered housing Kryptonian refugees? Guess we'll learn sooner or later.

2. Guardian's Dilemma

Following his courageous outing as Guardian during the Season 3 finale, we see poor old James being put through the vigilante ringer yet again as Lena's attempts to secretely clear his record with the authorities comes with a caveat. The idea that he won't be penalized for his past actions but by donning the suit again will be immediately arrested is an intriguing concept for any hero. What this does is places said character into the moral code conflict of whether or not it's worth the hassle of suiting up when you've finally reached a good place with the people who were originally trying to catch you. I'll be curious to see where this story leads especially given Lena's actions behind his back. Unfortunately, this might also be the return of Supergirl's and the CW's typical idea of relationship drama within its superhero properties which mostly centers around characters trying to look out for each other but never actually talking about their plans to do so which leads to arguments. ...Yay?

3. The Potential Tragic Loss of Marcus

For anyone who remembers Season 2's brief story arc to where James is placed in a situation to look over and protect a young alien child may remember the alien species known as Phorians. The child in question goes by the name of Marcus who was part of said telekinetic race of aliens in disguise but was never seen or heard from later in the series. The fact that one of the dark web message boards references a concerned parent talking about her son going to school with a Phorian and considering one of the next messages questions how to kill one is pretty troubling if this is indeed a reference to Marcus. Considering how significant that story was for James at the time, it'd be bizarre for them to indirectly confirm killing off an alien child who had a strong bond to one of our heroes.

4. No Alien Is Safe...From Namedropping Easter Eggs

As Kara witnesses the dark web's message boards regarding the many alien species on Earth being targeted, we get several name drops such as Hellgramites (Season 1 villain of the week), Daxamites (Mon-El's race), Valerians (Winn's previous love interest who was also an art thief), Kryptonians, Martians, and others that I may have missed. There are also a few interesting phrases or titles such as "HateBugs" and "Red Patriots". It'd be interesting to see if any characters from previous seasons make a return due to the alien hate crime climate of the world now. Speaking of possible returning characters, Sam and Ruby are briefly mentioned to be happily living in Metropolis. Just figured I'd drop that in here as well.

Episode Rating: 8/10