Supergirl, 2.03 - "Welcome to Earth"

Warning: SPOILERS IF YOU HAVE NOT WATCHED.

The long awaited review for Supergirl is finally here! This is for the 3rd episode only, but I've already watched the 4th one and hopefully a review will be up soon. Here we go!




This week Kara must protect the female president of the United States from Scorcher, an alien with fire powers. President Marsdin, revealed to be an alien herself in the finale, has traveled to National City to sign the Alien Amnesty Act, an attempt to encourage peaceful human-alien relations. Scorcher isn't so sure about this, believing it to be a disguise at registration - which is understandable. J'onn isn't, either - while he notes that the law has good intentions, his experiences as an alien and someone disguised as a black man for over a decade have shown that people tend to be discriminatory against people that are different from them. The comment about being black in America is so real and poignant, and I was genuinely shocked to realize it came from the CW of all networks. I appreciate and applaud it so much. I'm also a little surprised, given the current state of our elections, that a very progressive female candidate was so overwhelmingly elected into public office. I know it's a fictional TV show, but if only America was actually like that. Also, can Kara even vote?

Moving on - we're introduced to Maggie Sawyer, a SCPD detective working for their alien department. Maggie takes Alex to a secret alien bar, admitting that as a "nonwhite, nonstraight girl growing up in Nebraska", she can relate to them a lot. As a nonwhite, nonstraight girl myself, this scene made me very emotional and I almost burst into tears. Finally seeing some sort of on-screen representation who understands the struggle of being discriminated against things you can't change about yourself was such a relief, and immediately made Maggie more relatable and special to me. Thanks to Maggie, Alex realizes that not all aliens are bad. I don't understand why she ever thought that, though - her sister and her boss are both aliens, so how was she still prejudiced against them? Despite this, Maggie and Alex have instant chemistry, and I immediately fell in love with the pairing. (Bonus: they had matching outfits this episode.) It's also exciting to realize that they are a WLW ship that actually has a chance of being canon, with the producers' hints that one of their season 1 mains may not be straight.

Meanwhile, Kara continues to struggle to be looked at as an equal by her annoying boss. After discovering Lena Luthor's desire to create devices that reveal aliens' true selves to the public, Kara views it as an attack on alien rights and writes an emotionally charged article in response, which her boss rejects as being biased. "I don't know how to stay emotionally neutral when I'm writing something I'm passionate about," Kara later gripes in frustration. Me too, Kara, me too. James doesn't escape this horrible treatment either, despite being the boss of....well, everyone. The way Kara's boss (see, I can't even be bothered to look up his name, that's how much I don't care for him) talks back to James is, frankly, racist. Cat didn't get that treatment, so why should James? The only good thing that comes out of this is James finally stands up for himself and shows that douchebag what he deserves. Go James!

Now that I'm on the subject, the way Supergirl treats James Olsen is f**king ridiculous. He's your male lead!!! He should have the second most screentime, not disappear from episode to episode! I'm still angry that they moved Winn to the DEO so he could be more prominent while leaving James at Catco, appearing for a few minutes or so during episodes. Breaking up Kara and James was also a decision reeking suspiciously of antiblackness, especially if the writers decide to put Kara with a white man (Mon-El) in the future. So honestly? Supergirl fans bragging about how the show is more progressive than the rest of DCTV can take several steps back and reevaluate their own show's treatment of characters of color. The CW's track record of racism in general is appalling, which is why I was so surprised at J'onn's black man comment.

Scorcher isn't the only new alien Kara has to deal with - last episode, Mon-El fell to Earth in a Kryptonian spacecraft. Only, we find out he's from Daxam, a planet that didn't have the best of relations with Krypton. Kara's clear bias against him is ironically juxtaposed against her passion for better treatment of aliens. Kara's inherent dislike for Daxam causes her to wrongly judge him, which she apologizes for in the end. To be honest, the theme of discrimination based on looks and background would've been more effective if Mon-El had been played by a person of color, but oh well

Last but not least - J'onn finds out he's not the only Martian left. M'gann M'orzz, aka Megan, a bartender at the alien bar, reveals herself to be the last daughter of Mars. Interesting.

This episode, despite continuing its streak of mistreating James, was actually pretty interesting. I've never really been too invested in this show, as shown through my procrastination of writing this, but Alex and Maggie make me want to care. See, writers? If you want more views and buzz, all you have to do is include LGBT characters and ships - it isn't that hard. I can't wait to see where their journey goes. (Can I add that I still want Karolsen back together? I still stand by my opinion that their breakup was rushed, forced, had racist undertones, and was out of character.)

Rating: 8.2
Extras that didn't make it in: Lena is so cute and nice!! Also, we didn't get any updates from Cadmus this week. What are they planning? I also thought Superman was going to stay longer than two episodes, lol. ALSO HAPPY 10TH POST!

*My next review will probably be the the next episode of this show! See you then!