#my high jumbled and highly reactive response to this episode

[lena-in-a-red-dress]

My (jumbled) Thoughts on 5x18

I took a little bit to ruminate on the episode, because honestly for the majority of the episode I just couldn’t get emotionally involved. I just had no connection to it, and as much as I hate to say it, it serves as the perfect example of everything that’s wrong with this season.

They asked us to focus on not one, not two, but THREE competing plots. Four if you count Alex and Kara separately after they divide and conquer. Not only that, but they asked us to focus on the same three plots they’ve failed to meaningfully address since the start of the season. As a result, I was bored and resentful of these plots that mean nothing and yet are still taking up so much episode time, and STILL NOT GOING ANYWHERE.

The destruction of the DEO should have been a powerful and meaningful reset of our Supergirl-viewing foundation, but-- I couldn’t summon up anything more than a “huh. wonder if it’ll stick.” Because honestly? It came at the end of a season where the DEO has been a non-player. It’s no longer the base of operations, the superfriends were getting along just fine without it, and in recent eps it had slid slowly but surely into villain territory with Brainy being Lex’s little bitch dog. The DEO had become a non entity, and so its destruction feels like little more than the striking of a set. 

Now, there was one redeeming factor of the episode. Lena. But only one part of her change of heart. The scene where she confronted Lex had my heart in my throat. The way he got in her face, and she stood her ground and took it just long enough to get an opening to deliver the baddest one liner ever: “It doesn’t mean I have to be (a monster) too.”

The amount of strength that took. The fact she said it to the face of her abuser is the surest demonstration of her strength and emotional fortitude. 

Now. 

The scene between Kara and Lena left more to be desired, because it put Lena in the very position I did not want her: out in the cold, begging for Kara’s trust. Which Kara only provisionally provided: she’s not sold yet, which is the second character assassination this episode (which that deserves its own post). The scene might have brought them together, but it didn’t relieve the tension. It didn’t provide the reconciliation we’ve been waiting for all season. 

I agree that at some point, Lena would have needed to have this sort of confession scene, tear-filled and all but begging for a hug. But it was supposed to come AFTER Kara’s. After all, Kara was the one who hurt Lena first, and the best effort we got from her was international coffee and a couple of scones. Where was Lena’s chance to begrudgingly and wordlessly offer Kara a chair at her table, to plead her case? 

We didn’t get that, and while a nuanced story might be able to give us that in the future, it’s not the kind of writing you typically get out of a television show, and it’s not the kind of writing we get with THIS show.