Supergirl Returns: Season 4 Begins

So the CW has moved Supergirl to Sundays at 8 PM. But since Doctor Who airs Sundays at 8 PM on BBC America, Supergirl gets DVRd. This week at least, in my household here at the Fortress of Ineptitude, Supergirl is still a Monday show.

We watched the season premiere, “American Alien”.  A few things to note.

We had a healthy balance of Supergirl and Kara Danvers. Too often last season, whole episodes would go by without Kara Danvers making an appearance. This time out, we got Kara chilling in her apartment with sister Alex over Chinese take out and actually doing reporter work for Catco.

We actually got scenes at Catco. Sorry, no Cat Grant but we did see a funny bit where James Olsens calls out Kara for channeling Cat.

That whole James Olsen as the Guardian mess got wrapped up. The National City District Attorney was looking to come after Olsen for his whole illegal vigilante deal. By the end of the episode, the DA’s office announce charges against Olsen were dropped but not to be Guardian again. I was never a big fan of this subplot and I’m glad to see it wrapped up in one episode instead of being dragged out. As to how it got wrapped up....

Lena Luthor is visiting her mom in jail and playing chess. Meanwhile, Lena is weedling intel out of her mom on a former cohort of brother Lex, intel that Lena drops in the DA’s lap in exchange for forgetting the whole James Olsen/Guardian matter. Lena’s mom is impressed when she realizes how well her daughter played her. It does underscore that Lena is not be trifled with or trusted. Yeah, she did it to help James Olsen (that relationship is still not working for me) but it reminds you, Lena is always working an angle. 

We do get a quick dialogue snippet that Sam Arias is still working for Lena in Metropolis, closing deals and living the good life with daughter Ruby.

We also hear that Superman is off world visiting the Kryptonians on Argo.

Alex has a new super short butch haircut. She is apparently still gay and dating women.

Vril Dox, aka Brainiac 5, is still trying to figure out life on 21st century Earth which isn’t easy as he keeps getting on he bad side of the new DEO commander, Alex Danvers. 

Also new in town is Nia Nal, a super nervous and super shy intern at Catco that Kara has taken to mentor, the way Cat Grant mentored Kara. Upon meeting the excitable and eager to please Nia on her first day, Kara realizes, “You’re me… from 4 years ago!”  The actor who plays Nia is transgender. I don’t know if that will come to play in Nia’s story or not. 

We get a return visit from Lynda Carter as President Marsdin. Too bad her press secretary Cat Grant could not come along for the ride. 

The main thrust of American Alien is a dichotomy of trust. Kara is confident that life is getting better for aliens in America with growing acceptance of these visitors from other worlds, citing herself as an example. But Supergirl is a blonde white girl so she might not be the best to judge.

Because as J’onn J’onzz tries to warn Kara, there is a strong and virulent undercurrent of anti-alien sentiment. Aliens have been attacked and violated in brutal ways that suggest hate crimes. Supergirl stumbles across a base for the anti-alien movement, seeing dozens of computers screens tracking text messages, social media posts and more where a whole hell of a lot of people are posting messages of hate and plotting actions to be taken against aliens. Supergirl is horrified; these people are the same people she works so hard every day to help and protect. 

An attack is staged on President Marsdin where, while under stress and under fire, she briefly drops her human guise, exposing her true alien nature. This is captured on video by the anti-alien attackers and given to the media. The president of the United States is exposed to the world as an extraterrestrial.  

The episode ends with the murder of a captured alien by the gold masked leader of the anti-alien movement, Agent Liberty.  

Oh and one more thing, we get a quick parting scene with the Russian army and a super powered blonde woman who looks like our Supergirl. You may recall the Supergirl duplicate that was created in last season when Reign was finally defeated.

So yeah, there is a lot going on. 

Any many ways, American Alien is overstuffed with too much going on.

And if the parallels to our real world relationship with immigrants in America were too subtle, gee, you really weren’t paying attention. Yeah, the political and social commentary is a bit heavy handed. 

But I feel that some of the missteps in season 3 are accounted for in this episode and hopefully with no behind the scenes drama to derail things, maybe Supergirl in season 4 has a better chance to deliver an improved take on the our favorite  Girl of Steel.