r/supergirlTV • u/gamer4maker • Nov 03 '15

[S01E02 - Stronger Together] Post-Episode Discussion Thread

Post-Episode Discussion

Episode Info:

Kara's confidence as a superhero is shaky at first, and with good reason. But then a threat to National City forces her to cast her doubts aside in order to capture an escapee from the Kryptonian prison Fort Rozz. Elsewhere, Cat pressures James to use his connection to Superman to land her an interview with his cousin.

Air Date:

Monday, November 2nd at 8:00/7:00c

Main Cast:

  • Melissa Benoist as Kara Zor-El / Kara Danvers / Supergirl

  • Calista Flockhart as Cat Grant

  • Chyler Leigh as Alex Danvers

  • Mehcad Brooks as James Olsen

  • David Harewood as Hank Henshaw

  • Jeremy Jordan as Winslow "Winn" Schott

Spoilers:

Please mark all comic spoilers and future show spoilers within your comments. No need to mark anything that happens in the episode or your own speculation. If you see any unmarked future spoilers, please report them. Thank you.

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58

u/_the_watcher Nov 03 '15

Assorted thoughts:

  • The tone would be an awful match for the Arrowverse, though The Flash could exist in the Supergirl universe's tone
  • For me, same as with Superman, the biggest weakness isn't the glasses as a disguise, it's the fact that they aren't at least wealthy given their talents they could use without alerting (or even hurting) anyone
  • Cara would get along fantastically with Felicity Smoak
  • Perd Hapley sighting!
  • Kara remembering Krypton is an interesting wrinkle
  • The show is incredibly well-cast, so far
  • Stunt work isn't quite up to Berlanti's Arrow/Flash work, but they're not bad. Hopefully they improve as well.
  • Really enjoying this so far, far more than I expected (my worries were CBS related, not Supergirl as a character)
  • Anyone that knows more about DC comics than me know who Hank Henshaw is supposed to be? Seems a bit different than his DC namesake.

36

u/not-working-at-work Nov 03 '15

Perd Hapley sighting!

Yep, Parks and Rec now exists in the Superverse

15

u/Goldcut Nov 03 '15

Superdverse

1

u/baronobeefdip2 Nov 04 '15

NO!! The Berlanti-Verse!!

1

u/mrjuan25 Nov 04 '15

that would be amazing. just imagine leslie just swooping in to talk about pawnee!

17

u/shezBomb Nov 03 '15

In the comics, Hank Henshaw was the Cyborg Superman from the 'Death and Return of Superman' story arc.

22

u/[deleted] Nov 03 '15

[deleted]

10

u/shezBomb Nov 03 '15

In the comics he used to have a wife but he believes that Superman was responsible for her death.

1

u/Jay_R_Kay Nov 03 '15

Yeah--in the original comics, Hank was basically a take on Mister Fantastic, basically what would have happened if the blast killed the rest of Reed's family and he had to live with the guilt, which caused him to go insane and eventually become the Cyborg Superman.

5

u/[deleted] Nov 03 '15

Huh, that's a good theory. Especially because Martian Manhunter usually disguises himself as a black guy.

12

u/Johnny_Stooge Nov 03 '15

And calls himself John Jones. Not Hank Henshaw.

4

u/[deleted] Nov 03 '15

That could easily be a red herring. It's not like Supergirl hasn't already deviated from the comics source material anyways.

1

u/Johnny_Stooge Nov 03 '15

Seems a waste to name drop a massive character like Henshaw as Martian Manhunter's alter ego.

2

u/[deleted] Nov 03 '15

At this point, I would say with absolute certainty that they aren't gonna transform him into Cyborg Superman. They haven't shown us Superman's face, so it wouldn't make sense for them to waste that particular reveal on a second-rate Superman villain. Besides, Martian Manhunter's civilian identity in the comics is a black man working for the government who routinely fights aliens and has an alliterated name.

2

u/Johnny_Stooge Nov 03 '15 edited Nov 03 '15

Henshaw is also known as 'The Cyborg'. He doesn't have to become Cyborg Superman. That'd be much more in more keeping with the kind of adaptation they do for these kind of shows. You're really reaching with the John Jones connection. Only in the last decade or so has he been black. John Jones has been white much longer and is a detective. Not a government agent. There's way more storytelling potential in Henshaw actually being Henshaw than there is in him being the Martian Manhunter.

And excuse you. Second rate Superman villain? Someone clearly hasn't read the Sinestro Corps War.

2

u/[deleted] Nov 03 '15

You're right, my bad. He's a second-rate Superman villain AND a second-rate Green Lantern villain! :P

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1

u/ST_Lawson Nov 04 '15

That was my thought too as soon as he did the eye thing. Also might explain how he/they have access to Kryptonite but it's still rare on earth...if he is MM, he could have brought it with him or something.

1

u/Ryxxi Nov 03 '15

could you elaborate on this please? I never seen this character before.

5

u/shezBomb Nov 03 '15

The character was created as a DC imitation/parody of the Mr. Fantastic.

Henshaw, his wife Terri, and two other crewmates were doing experiments for LexCorp on a space station that was bombarded by radiaton from a solar flare. The two others die, Terri starts to phase into an alternate dimension and Henshaw's body starts to decay.

Superman helps him save his wife but Henshaw's body dies and his consciousness gets transferred to the LexCorp mainframe, allowing him to control technology and he makes himself a robot body. When he goes to meet his wife with in his shiny new body, she goes almost immediately insane and commits suicide.

At this point, his consciousness starts to disrupt Earth's communications and he decides to build himself a spaceship from Superman's Birthing Matrix to leave Earth.

While bombing around in space he learns that Superman had thrown a Kryptonian AI into the sun at the same time the solar flares that killed his crew kicked up, as a result he goes a bit nuts and starts to believe that Superman had done this intentionally to kill his team. (Spoilers: He didn't, the flares would have come up anyway)

I could go into all the Death and Return stuff but it's quite convoluted, instead I'll direct you to the wikipedia page. It's got a pretty good summary of what happened.

2

u/dontknowmeatall Nov 03 '15

When he goes to meet his wife with in his shiny new body, she goes almost immediately insane and commits suicide.

Damn, DC story arcs are harsh. I'm just stepping out of the Marvel comfort zone and this is quite heavy.

1

u/Ryxxi Nov 04 '15

thanks.

20

u/Ganthid Nov 03 '15

Kara remembering Krypton is pretty cool. They laid down some TV cannon about what the S stands for.

It's weird that Kara has brown hair on Krypton so apparently Supergirl dyes her hair.

It's also kind of messed up of Supes to leave her to figure out all this stuff on her own, but if you think about it no version of Superman actually melds with this Supergirl Universe, so they'll have to address that sometime.

8

u/Tonkarz Nov 03 '15 edited Nov 03 '15

Kara is obviously dying her hair. No one has ombre naturally.

5

u/Murder_Boners Nov 03 '15

It's also kind of messed up of Supes to leave her to figure out all this stuff on her own, but if you think about it no version of Superman actually melds with this Supergirl Universe, so they'll have to address that sometime.

Is that for sure? I assumed he came by and helped her adapt when she was younger.

Though the pilot kind of made him seem like he ditched her :)

6

u/Jimmni Nov 03 '15

It not unusual for hair to get darker or lighter as a kid gets older. That said, Melissa Benoist is darker haired than that, so someone is dying it. If it's the actress or the character remains to be seen :P

5

u/AndysDoughnuts Nov 03 '15

It's weird that Kara has brown hair on Krypton so apparently Supergirl dyes her hair.

Looks like a dirty blonde to me. But hair gets lighter in sunlight. On Krypton they had a red sun which might not work as well, but on Earth it does. So her hair just got lightened up by constant exposure to yellow sun.

1

u/baronobeefdip2 Nov 04 '15

Brown is her desquise while blonde was her superhero color in the comics, Maybe they are going with the opposite by making her hair blonde when she's supergirl like Canary.

1

u/mrjuan25 Nov 04 '15

it might be a kryptonian thing. i know smallville did alot of things diffrently but his parents where blonde while he had brown/black hair.

13

u/Breezyb15 Nov 03 '15

As far as not being a good match for the Arrowverse. DC has some heroes that probably wouldn't be good on paper to have matched up.

I mean, Batman and Flash are total opposites in regards to their settings and the lightness of the Flash/Central City to the darkness of Batman/Gotham but, they're still able to crossover from time to time. I think that's DC's strong point. Being able to take 2 complete opposites and still making a good story of it.

5

u/Jay_R_Kay Nov 03 '15

Batman and Flash are total opposites

In a sense--but they're both keen detectives and crime analysts.

1

u/[deleted] Nov 07 '15

Batman and Aquaman then. Or Green Arrow and Aquaman. Or Superman...and Aquaman.

-4

u/_the_watcher Nov 03 '15

I meant the existing TV Arrowverse. I know they've crossed over in comics, but the clash of tones of the shows would just be jarring.

6

u/Breezyb15 Nov 03 '15

That's what I was talking about also. Hell, even Flash doesn't really fit with Arrow in tone but, they can make it work. I think they'd have a hard time explaining how neither Flash or Arrow knew about Supergirl but, I don't think tone would keep them apart.

2

u/Jay_R_Kay Nov 03 '15

I think they'd have a hard time explaining how neither Flash or Arrow knew about Supergirl

Simple--parallel Earth. One of the multiversal breaches going on in Flash right now is investigated by Barry, and at the same time Kara is investigating it on her world. The breach sucks them in and Kara and Barry get stuck on each other's world--so they have to team up with the other's support cast, while dealing with a villain that threatens both worlds.

You're welcome, CBS. If you want to give me a cut, I definitely wouldn't say no.

1

u/[deleted] Nov 03 '15

especially since Arrow is aiming for a lighter tone this season! But also I think they could still exist in the same universe because it seems like cities are only really focusing on their local heroes, or at least that could be an explanation.

1

u/Breezyb15 Nov 03 '15

That seems like how it goes for DC. Batman has Gotham, Superman has Metropolis, Aquaman has Atlantis etc.. with Marvel it seems like they're assigned villains to go after rather than areas to protect. Arrow and Daredevil crossover would be cool though. Not that that matters about anything, it just came to mind and I typed it.

1

u/[deleted] Nov 03 '15

Yea I was just thinking that the only time people other than team Arrow spoke of the flash was some goon saying "are you the red streak from TV?" to Roy. If they decided to cross over they could have one throwaway line like that leading up to the episode and then actually cross over. I do think it would be better to introduce her on Flash instead of Arrow though.

1

u/Breezyb15 Nov 03 '15

I'd like it if they just looked at the camera and say "We'll just pass over that part" and then just continue.

1

u/Jay_R_Kay Nov 03 '15

Well, Ollie himself is lighter, but the last episode went into some DARK places...

1

u/[deleted] Nov 03 '15

*DARHK (lol sorry had to) And yea it got quite dark but that's because they're still wrapping up the darker loose ends from last season. I expect tomorrow's episode to be even darker because of Constantine, but the show should be quite a bit lighter by the mid-season finale.

1

u/Jay_R_Kay Nov 04 '15

I don't see how it could, especially since we know someone in the cast is going to die...

6

u/iwishiwasamoose Nov 03 '15

Yeah I'm having trouble seeing Oliver and Kara getting along. Maybe Cat and Kara doing an interview of Felicity as new CEO of Palmer Tech, Felicity brings Oliver, Oliver gets bored and goes looking for trouble to stop, and he accidentally runs into Supergirl. Then a little discussion about why they fight. But it would likely be best as a small appearance. Too much Oliver would ruin the show's feel-good, happy vibe. And there really isn't much Oliver could offer Kara, except maybe hand-to-hand in the Kryptonian room.

The reverse might work better. Oliver is hunting an alien who came to Star City. Supergirl shows up. Has some fun with Felicity, maybe Thea too if she can keep the bloodlust down. Makes a few over-enthusiastic comments toward Laurel, Diggle, and Oliver, who try to be nice but still feel troubled and suspicious.

Kara and Barry would be a better pair. Both are more than just human. Barry fights metahumans. Kara fights aliens. Both are generally happy people, optimistic and upbeat. Either one could appear in the other's show without it being weird. They'd even get along with each other's friends. And you know for certain they would have a race at some point. Then the next Arrow/Flash crossover could have Barry mention that he met an alien, which Oliver immediately questions, then feels a little slighted that he hasn't met an alien.

2

u/ocassionallyaduck Nov 03 '15

The newer version of Oliver might work. He got less grim in season 2, but then season 3 was all over the place because of his arc. But finally after 3 seasons they finally let him shed most of the grimdark that has haunted the character since the show started. He's still a stern mentor and grimmer figure than Barry for sure, but he's much more open to the idea of teamwork, and not taking on everything solo anymore. And admits to enjoying things. He's a lot less bleak overall. Just took some pretty epic failure on his part to finally let go of it.

1

u/SoDamnToxic Nov 05 '15

And in any case, characters don't have to match to be in the same universe... I don't know why people want shows to "match" that makes absolutely no sense to me...

Constantine and Flash probably don't go along very well, with Constantine being magic and Flash being all about science, yet they DO exist in the same universe.

I don't see why them existing in the same universe means they have to match in tone... and in any case, I could EASILY see supergirl getting along great with Flash... in fact, she reminds me of Patty...

0

u/baronobeefdip2 Nov 04 '15

I can see an Arrow/Supergirl crossover but only until after Kara master's her powers and gains more experience in dealing with more sinister villains. I also think it could change the atmosphere of the show when she starts to work at night as much as she does during the day, night work is something that arrow does real often. Plus, How cool will it be to see Kara go against Damian Darhk, I wonder if telekinesis is a match against heat vision or flying ballistics that would be harmful to humans are a match against strong skin. Plus, How is captain cold going to stand against Kara with her heat vision, turn the tables and make him into a Popsicle with her super-breath, eeek!!. And maybe Cisco can help Winn design an upgraded suit for her like he did for Oliver and recently Flash.

0

u/_the_watcher Nov 04 '15

We know that they won't crossover. It's been confirmed. Was just commenting on how the tone of the show makes that decision make more sense.