"O Brother, Where Art Thou? gives us Jon Cryer as Lex Luthor. That has been the main focus of the promos, showing Cryer (who played Lex's nephew Lenny in Superman IV: The Quest for Peace) as Lex. And that's all I'm going to say about Superman IV.
On Supergirl Cryer is good as Lex. Then again, Lex Luthor is one of those parts that is pretty much actor-proof. I suppose a horrible actor could make a hash out of the role. But any competent actor can pull it off. Arrogant, intellectual, considers himself superior to everyone. Show occasional moments of compassion but end up being a jerk. An actor does that and they're home free.
It looks like Cryer is going to be on the show for at least two more episodes, and combining forces with Red Supergirl. So if you don't like Cryer as Lex, you'd better at least get used to him being on the show.
The episode starts with a four-years-ago flashback. Lex has somehow engineered turning sunlight red and is forcing Lena to watch. It's all another of the modern Lex's "Let's show the people Superman isn't a god so the people will revere me as the Man of Tomorrow" schemes. It's ended when the police bust in and arrest him, because they don't need yellow sunlight to make their guns work. It also means the network doesn't have to pay Tyler Hoechlin to make an appearance.
Cut to the present. James' shooter triggers his signal watch, which summons Supergirl. She flies him to the hospital, and Brainiac-5 and Nia are there for some reason. Have Brainiac-5 and James exchanged more than two sentences to each other this season? And if Nia is there, why aren't any of the other CatCo employees there? I guess a vase of flowers from "The People at the Office" is all he can expect. Should've have sprung for that Employee Week lunch, James.
Meanwhile, either Lena pulls a few strings to have Lex brought to the Luthor Manor, or Lex gets a mercy furlough. He's dying of cancer from Kryptonite exposure, and Lena wants him to help her discover the Harun-El serum to save James. They banter back and forth while Lex coughs up blood. He talks about how Lena's mother was a saint and his family are jerks.
On the J'onn subplot front, Manchester has recovered the Staff of H'ronmeer from J'onn's father's grave. He uses it to enact the punishments of H'ronmeer, and lets J'onn know about it via J'onn's telepathic search for him. He also makes J'onn telepathically "see" zombie Kara and Alex, who blame J'onn for letting them die. Once Kara helps J'onn break out of the telepathic spell, we discover the first punishment is apparently... destroying the National City dam. J'onn and Supergirl fly there, and while Supergirl patches the dam with her freeze breath, J'onn fights Manchester. J'onn eventually uses the Staff to kill Manchester and realizes he's wandered from the path of peace. Which apparently is what Manchester has been trying to make him do all along. I'm not sure how this does anything to perpetuate Manchester's plans to dispose of all of the alien-haters. So either he'll be back (he just dissolves in a burst of energy), or J'onn is going to go all rogue Martian.
This ties in with the James plot because his sister, Kelly (Azie Tesfai) shows up for the first time since season 1. She tells the doctors to operate on James to stop his internal bleeding, even though Alex tries to convince her Lena will come through with the serum. Kelly doesn't trust someone named Luthor and ignores her. The power goes out, and Lena, who has developed the serum with Lex's help, barges in, injects James with the serum, and saves his life.
After the rest of it wraps up, we go back to Luthor Manor and Lex reveals he set the whole thing up. He hired the shooter so Lena would be forced to try the serum on James before Lex took it to cure his cancer. The shooter is Otis (Robert Baker), and Eve (Andrea Brooks) has been working for Lex all along. The trio take Lena prisoner, and Lex and Otis leave using the manor's defenses to kill the government agents watching Lex. Then Lex uses a remote to activate a cloaking device around his manor, which makes no sense. The government knows where he lives because they took him there. Are they just going to arrive at an empty field, say, "There's no manor here!" and leave. What's the point? Supergirl flies up and Lex looks happy to see her.
It's a good performance by Cryer, or it's a good role. As I noted earlier, I'm not sure which. The bit at the end where Lex saunters out and casually takes out the agents, set to classical music, is an excellent scene. Why he's working with relative boobs like Eve and Otis seems more like a contrivance to mix the Superman movies, the comic book Lex, and Supergirl's mythology.
Nia kisses Brainiac-5 when he moans about all of the difficulties in his life. At the end, he says it was brought on by intense stress and Nia agrees they won't talk about it anymore. That doesn't seem to go anywhere, either, other than more "will they or won't they?" after this episode gave us a brief "yep, they will".
There's also a brief bit where Alex is unhappy Kara has left the hospital. But Kara apologizes, they hug, and everything is better. And presumably Alex is one step closer to figuring out Kara is Supergirl.
The J'onn subplot is past its expiration date, and ends (if it is over) on an unsatisfactory note. Manchester is dead, or isn't he? J'onn may turn from the path of peace, but it seems out of character for him to start killing alien hunters. So I'm not sure where the creative team goes from here.
The previews show Red Supergirl teaming up with Lex, or Lex finding her, and using her as a weapon. Or something. So finally they'll do something with her. Hopefully. She's been sitting on the bleachers for 14 episodes now and it's been way too long.
There's no sign of Haley or Lockwood.
James may or may not have superpowers now because of the serum. Maybe he'll turn into Elastic Lad and compare notes with Elongated Man over on The Flash.
Overall, "O Brother" was a decent episode for introducing Lex into the shows greater mythology. It's about time they showed him, given we've had the Luthors and Otis and Miss Teschmacher on the show for a few years. Having Cryer play him is okay: it gets that Easter egg that the creative team seem to enjoy, and as performances go it's not bad. Again, it's the kind of role no decent actor can screw up. And a few things happen.
It feels like some of the main storylines were put on hold. There's nothing about the DEO monitoring Lena's experiments, or the Children of Liberty or the Alien Amnesty Act. "O Brother" seemed like an effort to bring Red Supergirl back into the picture and give her a reason to get involved by bringing Lex in as well. How that works out, we'll see. The episode basically went into a holding pattern on the current storylines to bring another storyline out of its holding pattern.
But that's just my opinion, I could be wrong. What do you think?
Written by Gislef on Mar 18, 2019
I thought this was a good episode, mainly for 2 reasons: 1: No Lockwood, and 2: Eve working with Lex and betraying Lena was actually an interesting plot twist. Other than that, I agree with you about everything else.