​ "Stranger Beside Me" – Supergirl S05E02 Review

That was nice while it lasted.

After last week's "Event Horizon" showed promise,"Stranger Beside Me" dropped the ball. I wouldn't say it was a bad episode, because Supergirl is good at being slightly above average. There's a lot of muddling around, primarily because the episode features a shapeshifter. So there's the requisite amount of "Is she or isn't she?" as the shapeshifter jumps from one form to another. There's also a White Martian in the mix, so we've got people fighting a Green Martian, and a White Martian, and versions of their loved ones.

Why is there a Green Martian and a White Martian involved? John is still reeling from Malefic's psychic attack from last week. Although it turns out that Malefic is suffering from the same mental pain. This is where things get confusing, because Malefic is sometimes shapeshifted as a human girl, Mallory (Ellexis Wejr). He calls the White Martian "old friend", and it's basically two CGi characters talking to each other. It's hard to care about CGI characters, or even tell which one is speaking when there are two in the same scene. The fact that the White Martian is (so far) unnamed doesn't help.

Kelly helps John probe his memories using the Obsidian VR lenses. We get the overused "mind palace" trope, as John selects his office as a mental environment to feel comfortable. John probes his memories and finds a missing memory of Malefic taking memories from Green Martians. And again, we have CGI characters doing things to other CGI characters. It's all very uninvolving.

Malefic eventually shapeshifts into a helmeted motorcyclist and follows Alex home, after Supergirl, Alex, and Querl track the White Martian to a sewer. The Martian takes on the form of Kelly, but Alex isn't fooled. When Supergirl arrives, Malefic takes on the form of Alex after knocking the real Alex out. Supergirl isn't fooled, and we get a fight between Supergirl and Alex. John and Guardian show up to do... not much. The real Kelly finds the real Alex and they get to the roof of their apartment. Malefic slams down on the roof and takes on Kelly's form, and we get one of those "which one is which?" scenes. Alex picks the real Kelly, shoots Malefic, and Malefic shoves Kelly off the roof and flies off. Supergirl saves her and everyone is reunited.

In the end, Malefic goes to a cruddy restroom somewhere. His reflection talks to him, reminding him that he overheard Kelly say the VR tech with too much power could wipe a Martian's mind. Malefic seizes on that as good news.

If the main plot is confusing, what about the subplots? One is that Lena is revealed as Eve's captor from last week. Lena makes Eve admit that she likes having power over Lena, so I'm not sure how much Leviathan is a thing. It's not one right now, but Season 5 needs a big bad and Malefic just ain't cutting it. At the end, Lena has her AI, Hope, take over Eve's brain. Lena plans to use the VR tech to "program" humanity not to do any harm.

When Kara misses an assignment, fellow reporter William steps in. William goes back and forth, having a NSA contact help him track Kara. Which puts William in the line of fire when he tracks down Kara, and gets caught in the aforementioned White Martian sewer fight. William mentions his wife but there are vague hints that he's lying. And at the end we see him going to a homeless shelter to dish out food.

Following some advice from John, Kara tells William she's going to do her job with integrity and he can waste his time trying to undermine her.

Alex serves Kelly blueberry pancakes, and Kelly reveals that she's allergic to blueberries. For the rest of the episode, Alex worries that she doesn't know Kelly well enough. But she sees through Malefic's Kelly-impersonation, and at the end they hug and awwww together.

Querl continues pursuing his relationship with Nia, sending her tons of all the food that she likes until she sick of it. Nia explains what he's doing wrong, but Querl takes away the wrong lesson. Have I mentioned how much I like Jesse Rath as Querl? I have? Good. Nicole Amber Maines is likable as well. It's a piffle of a subplot, but it's a fun one with Rath being endlessly superior as Querl yet still remaining likable.

James reveals that he's had offers of support to become a senator, and a job offer to be the director of the Smithsonian. I wish these subplots would actually arrive and they'd do something with them. Instead, James just hangs around in the background, provides some emotional support, and is apparently contractually obliged to show up as Guardian once an episode. The creative team still doesn't know what to do with James, and if they had to dump anyone from the current 11-member main cast, Mehcad Brooks would get my vote. Sorry, Mehcad: you're a decent performer but the creative team doesn't know what to do with you. James Olsen seems to be there primarily to give Supergirl some Superman cred.

That's why it's hard to hate on Supergirl. None of the actors are bad, it's just that the plots so far are mediocre. Last year Supergirl went full-on socially conscious with its "aliens = alien immigrants" That was so blatant that it was annoying at the least, painful at worst. But at least it was something. This season so far it's been a few half-hearted stabs at social consciousness but mostly just the show coasting. For instance, we get a lot of the Alex/Kelly lesbian romance. But... so what? It's just as annoying and trope-filled as the Querl/Nia romance. At least Batwoman is doing something with the Kate/Sophie romance or lack thereof. I wouldn't call it average, but that's what Supergirl dishes out.

So far, the Supergirl creative team seems to want to focus on John and his Martian background. I like David Harewood, and the whole Malefic/Martian plot gives Mr. Harewood something to do. But it's a bit too reliant on CGI and shapeshifting for my druthers. Phil LaMarr does a good job with Malefic, but at the end of the day he's voicing another animated/CGI character. Give Malefic a human form stat and let LaMarr do something.

Right now it feels like we're in a holding pattern on Supergirl. Leviathan is out there, Lena's "good" plan to brainwash humanity is slowly coming together. The much-vaunted friendship between Kara and Lena is so eh that we don't even see them together this week.

It's hard to see where the John/Malefic thing goes. Malefic doesn't care about humanity. If he killed John, or wiped his brain, or whatever he plans to do, Malefic would then go on his merry way. He isn't fond of John's human friends, but even if he kills them, so what? Malefic doesn't want to wipe out humanity, he doesn't want to unleash an army of White Martians on Earth. Maybe the White Martian helping him does, but that character is even less-defined than Malefic so far.

So here's hoping that Supergirl pulls its thumb out and gives us something threatening. Right now it all seems very personal for Team Supergirl. Maybe down the road it will all turn into some major threat to Supergirl. But that's down the road: right now it just feels kind of eh. Kara's problems with her boss seem a lot like her problems with Cat Grant in season 1. Do we need to relive that all again?

But that's just my opinion, I could be wrong. What do you think?