REVIEW: SUPERGIRL - SEASON 5.18: "The Missing Link"
Welcome back to our next to final installment of the Girl of Steel for Season 5. It's been an interesting season for Kara Zor-El, as she navigated a new threat in Leviathan, and also dealt with Crisis on Infinite Earths, and the fallout from that, having to come to terms with a new Earth, as Earth 38 was destroyed, and now having to deal with this new reality---one where Lex Luthor is seen as the good guy. She also has had to endure the loss of her friendship with Lex's sister Lena, whom felt betrayed by Kara for not trusting her with her secret ID. Lena has been fueled by betrayal and lies that she decided that she needed to stop the human race from committing crime and corruption, by manipulating people's minds, and taking away free thought in order to make humanity more docile. Meanwhile, Lex has pulled his strings in order to take over this Earth, and he's using Leviathan has his strong arm to stop Supergirl and the Super Friends from dashing his master plan. What's in store for our Maid of Might? Let's see, shall we?
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Boy...Kara can't catch a break, can she? What can we say about what we just witnessed this week? Things are going to hell in a handbasket, and the Super Friends are up against the wall. Rama Khan reappeared, and attacked the DEO, causing it to collapse.Lex's full plan was revealed, and Lena finally caught on. On top of that, Kelly and William faced termination for trying to expose Eve Tessmacher to Andrea, and Alex and Kelly's friend Pete run afoul of Leviathan.
One of the things we find out this episode is that the Non Nocere program that Lena has been spending the better part of the season developing to re-program the human mind to wipe out all violent and other tendencies that promote bad behavior is not working like she had hoped. Her main guinea pig at the prison, Steve, has started some sort of meditating yoga type class, but once the class is over, and he and a couple of other prisoners are in an elevator, one starts freaking out, becomes claustrophobic, and attacks the other prisoner. The violent tendencies her and Lex discover is the human mind adapting to the treatment. It all goes bad as the other prisoners begin to adapt to the violent behavior, and put Steve, Lena, and Lex in danger. The prison breaks out into a full riot, and they give chase to the trio, as they try to head to Lena's lab in the prison to see if they can manipulate the Q-Waves to get the rioters docile again. Lex provides cover after rescuing Steve from a beating. Lena manages to get them under control, but further tests prove that the program is a bust. Something Lex had already known.
Lex once again used pawns in order to get Lena to his side, and he states that he wanted her to find out on her own...so he gave her a helping hand in that department. He wanted to show her that it takes a firm hand to control humanity. And HE is that firm hand. Lena finally realized that she got played, and calls him a monster. Lex lashes out at her, but Lena won't back down from him. But she feels the guilt of what she did, and relizes now that Kara was right about her becoming the villain. She also realizes that Lex is in bed with Leviathan, and has given them the push they need to wipe humanity off the planet.
We also see how Lex had played Brainy this whole time, and tells Brainy to NOT get involved in any attack that Leviathan takes upon the Super Friends, and tells him to also "trust the process". Lex STILL has his plan in play: to play Leviathan AND the Super Friends off each other...let them wipe each other out, and then HE looks the hero, and can rule from on high, with unlimited power. He tells Jemma that he has a gift for her, and in return, he gets a meeting with her friends. She says that if this gift is legit, he gets what he wants. She then sicks Rama Khan upon the Super Friends, causing an earthquake in Oregon, and ends up getting captured by Supergirl and Dreamer. Brainy, torn by his loyalty to his friends, and to Lex, whom his alternate versions told him that he needed to do to save the world, takes over the cleanup, and takes Rama into custody to interrogate him. This plays into the dream Dreamer has that shows a green skinned Briany playing cards that have Rama's face on it. It then comes to light that Rama only allowed himself to be captured in order to get the "gift" that Lex had given them: Kryptonite. In the process of a new battle, Supergirl is weakened, and the rest of the Super Friends are hurt, but Rama takes off with his prize, and causes the destruction of the DEO. In the aftermath, Brainy wants to know if they're okay, and Dreamer calls him out onto the carpet: reveal what Lex is up to and help them, or be considered the enemy. He says he can't, and she flat out tells him that if he can't choose a side, they'll choose it for him.
On the investigative front, Kelly refers Alex and Kara to her friend Pete (whom we saw earlier in the season, but it was really Malefic in disguise), and he's good at deciphering symbols at the library. They go to see if he can get information about Leviathan, and while Kara takes off to deal with the Rama Khan threat, Alex and Pete dig into the ivestigation, but hit a wall. They press on, and discover that when Pete asked about Leviathan, and wanted to get access into a room that would allow him to gain access to such information, he's rebuffed. When he and Alex try to sneak into the room, they're almost assassinated for their troubles. They get away, but they lost their chance to uncover the truth about Leviathan. Pete, who'd been in the military before, understands Alex's current feelings about being lost, and still playing the role of the soldier. It's hard to take the uniform off, and ditch the mentality when you no longer are what you used to be. It's something Alex has struggled with the 2nd half of this season...finding her identity now that the DEO is gone...something she cannot go back to.
Kelly and William's investigation into an empolyee with the ID number 387 hit a snag once they find out that it's Eve Tessmacher, who was hired by Jemma. Eve's record had been wiped clean,but they went to Andrea, who'd been pursuing her own agenda to get Obsidian off the ground and running, and Kelly warned her that the patch wasn't fixed, and Andrea said she herself said to have it fixed, and was informed as such. When they tried to tell her about Eve, Andrea said there's no proof, and that if they came to her again, they'd be fired. They strike out, and report their situations to Kara and J'Onn. Alex relates her issues to Kelly, and Kelly tells of her and William striking out to Alex. They both agree that they need to be better at hiding their covert operations. Kelly said maybe it's time for Alex to hide...and if she's going to be a vigilante, do it right.
It appears the M'Gann is going to be around for a little while, as she helped the Super Friends tremendously this episode, especially in rescuing Supergirl from her Kryptonite fate. Dreamer has really stepped it up lately, and now, if what Kelly's influencing is showing...we COULD see Alex take over the Guardian role left by James. It seems to be the route we're going. But before we discuss that further, we should also note that Lex gets a call from Jemma, and he's got his date with the rest of the group, for which he relays the message to Brainy. Brainy isn't thrilled with how Lex has handled everything, and again, Lex tells him to trust the process. Of course, Lex has every intention of killing Supergirl and her friends, and eventually, Brainy will be expendable as well.
William hasn't given up on finding Eve, and manages to actually spot her. She's trying to keep a low profile, but William picks up her tail, and eventually follows her down an alleyway. Eve is onto him, and he loses her, but not before she captures him by having a black hood cover his face. William is now in the hands of Leviathan, for which Tess still works for, much to her chagrin. Also, Supergirl is still determined to find Rama Khan, and won't rest until they put Leviathan down, but she's getting frustrated.
Again, with production halted, and the full slate of the season having to be cut short, it looks like the writers did SOME maneuvering to give us something close to a really good cliffhanger...the pieces ARE in place for the season finale next week. We were told at the beginning of this season this would be a fight for Lena's soul...it turns out it's a fight that only Lena could've battled...and she won. But the cost appears to be heavy, as now Lex will use Obsidian, the Kryptonite from Leviathan, and her work with Non Nocere to take over the world. Kara and Lena have A LOT of baggage to unload before ANY semblance of a friendship can be rekindled...but the first step was taken tonight.
It appears that from what Kelly's speech to Alex told us: Alex will become the new Guardian. That's cool, because it still puts Alex in the thick of the action, and she'll be able to still feel needed and have a purpose. We also got to have J'Onn and M'Gann FINALLY get closer after all this time. THAT was long overdue! The one on the outside, apparently, is Brainy, whose loyalty has been torn in half for the 2nd half of this season, and Nia finally drew the line in the sand for him. He's on the outside looking in, knowing Leviathan needs to be put down, but he's had to work with Lex, whom he KNOWS is playing him, and looking for his own power grab, but can't tell his friends. It's tearing him apart, but he won't just share. So, it's torture for him because it's costing him his friends...and moreso, Nia.
It will be interesting to see how Leviathan uses William as a bargaining chip, and where Eve will fit into all of this. Will she betray Leviathan to help the Super Friends, seeing as how she didn't want to work with them to begin with, but how she also got burned by Lex. So, Eve is the outlier here to keep an eye on. She can possibly tip the scales into th Super Friends' favor if she switches sides. But that's speculation for another day.
This was a good episode, with lots of moving parts, and some action scenes (not too extraneous...especially on Melissa Benoist's part, due to her pregnancy), but we got the story kicking into it's zenith, and we'll see what kind of a cliffhanger we get next week.
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That does it here for now. One to go for Season 5, then we break for what appears to be an extended period. Not sure when the show will be back, due to not only this Covid-19 Virus, but Melissa Benoist's pregnancy.
But nonetheless, if ya like this place, please subscribe, leave a comment, and lemme know what YOU think about this season.
Until next time....Up, Up and AWAY!
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