Posted in: Movies, TV | Tagged: cw, entertainment, guardian, parasite, supergirl, television

Climate Change, Super Suits And Lifestyle Choices

This article contains spoilers for the Supergirl episode Changing.

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Last night's Supergirl was very interesting for a wide range of reasons.But the thing that stood out the most to me is the shows continued pushing of current political issues. We've had episodes that have addressed immigration, gun control, nuclear arms, and the disenfranchised. Last night they added climate change as the Parasite was introduced and upgraded. Rudy Jones gets a doctorate and believes in inevitable climate disasters sooner rather than later. He's studying in the Antarctic when he gets infected by an alien parasite. He then wants to go after the man he thinks is one of the worst offenders destroying the Earth. Rudy gains the power to drain the lifeforce / energy from people and grows very powerful after draining Supergirl. But he doesn't get his comic book big purple form until draining J'onn J'onzz.

The episode also addressed the idea of using you gifts / powers for good versus using it to make money. This is a standard comic book argument since as back in Spider-Man #1 when Peter Parker tries to win a wrestling contest with his new powers and doesn't stop the bad guy who went on to kill Uncle Ben. Mon-El wants to use his abilities as an enforcer for a bookie. I can see the illegal aspect of that being a problem. But using his abilities to make money as a stunt man, daredevil, cop, dock worker… I don't see anything wrong with that. The idea that he would have to take a mundane job and just use his powers for good seems a bit much.

The Alex Danvers storyline was one of the better parts of the episode. Though I would've liked to seen this take place over a little more time, I think it was well thought out and really well acted. I was a little surprised by Maggie Sawyer's response to Alex having kissed her after coming out to Kara. She encouraged Alex to come out, she should've seen that Alex liked her and maybe had the conversation about not getting involved before suggesting Alex tell Kara.

The big surprise for me of the episode was just how cool the Guardian armor and James Olsen in the armor were. It worked better visually than I thought it would and the gadgets were cool. It still could use a splash of color… maybe some blue and gold… but it was a good debut.

Now to the part that will likely become something big later on. M'gann gave blood to J'onn which is bound to affect him in some way, probably what we see in the trailer below… and will likely lead to the reveal that she is a White Martian. I have a problem with this having been done. Not all humans are blood compatible, so why would anyone assume that all Martians are? But that was never addressed and glossed over in an effort to save J'onn. Seems like a forced plot point.

Now I got a note from one of our new staff writers… who wanted to remain anonymous for a less than exciting reason.

Hey, Dan, it's your anonymous staff member person offering another take on last night's Supergirl, or maybe the same, who knows.

I just wanted to say that I found this to be probably *the* most important episode of the show to date for various reasons, but mostly emotional. It's obviously highly unfortunate that the stuff that Alex is processing is being done at ridiculous soap pace, but that's also the beauty of DCTV, marrying The Bold And The Beautiful with parasitic space eco-warriors. My god, the sheer metaphorical representation on show here (not least the CIS-white that perhaps Kara has to shoulder – very well, I might add) is huge and comparatively phenomenally affecting. This episode floored me, and I'm hyper glad that they're doing what they're doing here. So many happy tears in this episode, and not just the relational stuff, the nostalgic emotion is high with silly tears for the super-good screen Parasite! What, I can't love cancerous alien characters, too?

Next week, Guardian is a wanted man and Mon-El is being held by Cadmus… what else could go wrong?

https://youtu.be/TCFp8C7pFjY

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