Supergirl (Seasons 4)

CW

Season Air Date:

  • Season 4: October 14th 2018 – May 19th 2019

Reviewed by: Joshua Andre

Supergirl (Season 4)

Starring: Melissa Benoist, Chyler Leigh, Mehcad Brooks, Katie McGrath, Jesse Rath, Sam Witwer, Nicole Maines, April Parker Jones, David Harewood, Jon Cryer, Bruce Boxleitner, David Ajala, Andrea Brooks, Azie Tesfai

If you’re like me and are a part of running a relatively successful business (any sort, not just limited to café work!), you’d definitely would agree with me that any free time one would have at the end of the day (any time remaining after working, eating, sleeping, doing admin work at home!) is considered luxury. Maybe it’s 1-2 hours a week. Or maybe it’s a whole entire day. Whatever the case may be, any time left over is probably reserved for yourself and is probably spent curling up in bed, or on the couch, binging through your saved TV shows on Netflix. But what if you’re the adventuring kind. What if you’re the person who gets a rush from adrenaline activities, like camping in the woods or rock-climbing or skiing or snowboarding or abseiling or canoeing or fishing in the middle of the ocean or competing on Ninja Warrior? Well never fear guys, because if you’re time poor and can’t physically do any of these activities then I reckon the next best thing to do is to watch the latest season of Supergirl. Because in Kara Danvers’ spare time from working as a reporter, she definitely undertakes a hefty adrenaline activity- fighting crime across National City as Supergirl!

If any of you guys are unfamiliar with the CW’s resident female superhero and Kryptonian; you can check out the synopses of Supergirl seasons previous, on Wikipedia, while you can also read my recap of Supergirl seasons 1-3 here, and the review of the Season 4 premiere here. Or you could google ‘supergirl recap’ or ‘supergirl review’ or just ‘supergirl’ and read one or many of the thousands of articles online about one of the most popular TV shows right now. Any article online probably will suffice, and quite possibly would be much more in detail and comprehensive than anything I could write about. Most of the writers on other sites are much more professional than I am, and do writing as a job for a living; however if you are feeling a bit lazy and don’t want to actively search for other reviews, then read on about how myself as a fan views the show and the most recent season 4.

Supergirl essentially is a show about Kara Zor-El (Melissa Benoist) who’s sent to Earth from Krypton just before the planet explodes- with the intention of looking after her younger cousin Kal-El. However her pod- the vehicle she’s sent in- is knocked off course, and as a consequence arrives at earth 24 years too late. Kal-El, also known as Clark Kent (Tyler Hoechlin) is now grown up, and Kara is sent to live with the Danvers. Thus begins the backstory of Supergirl, as Kara learns to live as a normal human being on Earth without the burden of protecting her cousin. Fast-forward to the beginning of season 1, and you see Kara working at CatCo, and then working as Supergirl after she inadvertedly used her powers out in the open, as she saved the plane her sister Alex (Chyler Leigh) was on, from crashing. All throughout the rest of the series, we see Kara balance her superhero duties with her regular human interactions with friends and family who are unaware of the secret she possesses- that she is an alien and a superhero!- but mind you that secret is becoming smaller and smaller by the minute. By the end of season 3, which in my opinion was the most cohesive season yet, with everyone banding together to defeat Kryptonian worldkiller Reign (Odette Annabelle) but also save human host Sam Arias (Odette Annabelle); the stakes were never higher, with Winn (Jeremy Jordan) opting to travel to the future to work with the Legion, and 12th-level intellect human/robot hybrid Brainy (Jesse Rath) staying behind and taking Winn’s place.

Yet as we approached Season 4 cautiously (as Chris Wood, who played Mon-El, left the show too!), I for one found myself to be pretty intrigued and excited. After all, you had Agent Liberty (Sam Witver) aka Ben Lockwood who had been burned by aliens in his younger days- rallying a team and becoming a leader to a group of anti-alien terrorists, who were a thorn in the side of Team Supergirl for the first half of the season. You also had Manchester Black (David Ajala), fiancé of Fiona- an alien whom Lockwood took hostage and later on killed; and he was on a revengeful vendetta to kill Lockwood- and this put him on a warpath with Team Supergirl also, due to Kara’s somewhat naive no-kill rule. Yet for all of the theatrics and flair of these two villains; none could compare to the pure shrewd mastery of Lex Luthor (Jon Cryer) and his unexpected puppets- Kasnian clone of Supergirl Linda Lee (Melissa Benoist), President Baker (Bruce Boxleitner) and Lena Luthor’s former assistant Eve Tessmacher (Andrea Brooks), of which this particular reveal that Eve was on Lex’s side all along, was out of the blue and quite surprising to say the least. For me the season was a bit of a hop-scotch all-over-the-place, as both Lockwood and Manchester were deeply underutilised and hardly fleshed out at all. But Jon’s superb portrayal of one of the most iconic villains in DC comic book history elevated a good season to an excellent season- and his devious planning and cunning manipulation of Linda was both fun and heartbreaking to see at the same time.

Are there any other highlights of Season 4 that stand out to me, you ask? Well, aside from Lex manipulating essentially everyone he interacts with, especially his sister Lena (Katie McGrath) and Linda; let me list a few more of the momentous occasions we’ve seen over the past year which make season 4 overall the season where these characters we’ve grown to love, grow as people the most. This season was the season where Kara was single for the first time- and in terms of the idea of female empowerment, this fact was brilliantly conveyed, that women don’t need men to feel needed and loved. Alex on the other hand, wrestled with her identity. In between losing her memory of Kara being Supergirl, and trying for an adoption which fell through in the end, to trying to get over her breakup with Maggie Sawyer; she fell in love and started a relationship with James’ sister Kelly (Azie Tesfai), and is overall in a good place this season. While Brainy has provided comic relief in the past, given how little he knows of Earth customs and traditions; he grew in leaps and bounds this season too, and entered into a relationship with trans woman and superhero Nia Nal (Nicole Maines). Nia in turn developed quite strongly too, seamlessly fitting into the role of Dreamer, and becoming a skilful asset to both Catco and the DEO. And as for J’onn J’onnz (David Harewood), the Martian father figure to both Alex and Kara, who was previously very active at the DEO, and most of the time the voice of reason; he wrestled with identity as well. Being apart from the DEO, J’onn started up his own consulting business, trying to walk a way of peace as demonstrated by his late father M’yrrn. Yet his cat and mouse game with Manchester proved too much, and J’onn killed his adversary midway through the season. Ultimately accepting that he needs to be his own person rather than trying to emulate his father, J’onn seemed to be freer and unburdened by season’s end.

Yet it was Lena’s state of mind of which I am the most intrigued by come season 5 in just under a week’s time. You see Lena killed Lex in cold blood at the end of the season but not before he unveiled one of the worst kept secrets ever- that Kara is Supergirl. But Lena didn’t know this before (which I still find hard to believe), so I’d imagine season 5 will be full of juicy, dramatic moments between two former best friends. Is Lena going to become a villain for season 5? I’m not sure, but I sure hope not. Especially since The Monitor (LaMonica Garrett) needs everyone’s help (and I mean everyone!) in defeating the Anti-Monitor (LaMonica Garrett) in this year’s upcoming crossover Crisis On Infinite Earths. But as far as the rest of season 5 plays out, I am oblivious. And that’s exactly how I would like it to be leading up to one of the most major shake-ups in TV history. As far as cohesiveness, season 4 wasn’t the greatest- in my opinion Season 3 with Reign was the best. But in terms of character development, season 4 wins hands down. What more can we all ask for?

Did all 87 episodes of the Supergirl leave a lasting impression on you? Did any themes in the episodes speak to you, and which was it? What elements of the show are you enjoying- Kara and Lena’s frosty relationship which will inevitably change, Brainy’s semi-successful adaption to Earth, J’onn’s newfound confidence in his identity as a Martian, or our own hopes and dreams for Crisis on Infinite Earths? Will you be tuning in for Season 5 next Sunday? Let us know in the comments.

RIYL: Smallville, Agents Of Shield, Arrow, Daredevil, Marvels The Runaways, Believe, Heroes, The Gifted, Alphas, The Cape

Rating: 4.5/5 (based on 4 seasons aka 87 episodes)

Supergirl airs every Sunday at 8/7c on CW. You can now buy the DVD/Blu Ray of the 4th season at digital and physical retailers everywhere! Season 5 airs in just under a week- at the same time slot as season 4 (every Sunday at 8/7c).

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