SUPERGIRL 4.06 Review “Call To Action”
This post contains spoilers for Supergirl.
Check out last week's review here.
This week’s Supergirl takes a look at how far people are willing to go to protect the ones they love, and how different motivators can still result in the same extremes. The Children of Liberty are a hate group, but their driving factor is the need to protect their family. Lena Luthor’s far from a domestic terrorist, but can easily look James in the eye and tell him that there’s no line she wouldn’t cross to keep him safe.
James’ response to that is important. While Lena believes she’s acting out of love, he notes that if that’s her version of love, he wants no part of it. We’re all biologically coded to protect our families and our mates, but at what point does that go too far? Arguably, it’s as soon as other people start getting hurt. Lena Luthor may not have crossed that line yet, but you can’t imagine she’s too far behind should James’ life be threatened. Since he’s playing things so fast and loose with the Children of Liberty, that threat isn’t likely to be far behind.
While James and Lena fight, Kara tries to battle the Children of Liberty on both fronts. She spends some time on a talk show as Kara Danvers attempting to calm the hate that the pamphlets from the Children has spread, and is keeping busy as Supergirl trying to keep her fellow aliens safe. Colonel Haley isn’t too keen on the idea of the DEO stepping in on the issue since the Children are human. Haley’s currently a weird wild card, and “Call to Action” only solidified that. She seems to have a chip on her shoulder about aliens but can’t help but respect Alex’s moxie (despite remaining constantly annoyed by it). Regardless of which side of the fence the Colonel ultimately lands on, she made Alex threaten to go “full Weasley twin”, and that justifies her presence for the time being.
Brainiac and Nia came into play a little bit more this week. Though it’d be nice to get a little more focus on their respective characters, each was given a solid scene or two. We’re finally taking steps toward learning about Nia’s abilities now that her “illness” has come into play. Perhaps by the crossover? Meanwhile, Brainy gets some in the field action, showing off what he can do when he’s not caught off guard by a bigoted pizzeria owner. He’s been a welcome addition to the season, but has been mostly squandered while being shoehorned into a comedic relief replacement for Winn Schott. The awkwardness is fun, but more smart and capable Brainy too, please!
“Call to Action” also acknowledges the difference between “nice” and “good”. The two can be synonyms, but they’re worlds apart when describing people. Nice people made the best Nazis, and it seems the same can be said for anti-alien terrorists. Manchester Black calls out this difference in the opening scene while dealing with some of the Children of Liberty (with Supergirl’s help). It’s unlikely that he would call himself “good” either, but at least he understands the distinction.
This week’s episode seems to have marked a boiling point for this season. Agent of Liberty’s followers feel vindicated, while the man behind the mask will be given his own talk show. Lena looks to be close to doing something real stupid after discovering that she can make a heart invulnerable while attempting to cure cancer, and Alex is just trying to do what’s right without being court-martialed. Everyone’s doing their best, but those “bests” look like they’re about to cause all of our protagonists a world of hurt. First up on the ouch list will be one James Olson, who finishes up the episode kidnapped by the Children of Liberty.
Based on the next episode’s preview, Supergirl’s kidnapping by the Children isn’t far behind. Unfortunately, that doesn’t look to be the worst that’s to come. The Children want James to blow up a landmark. We’re not sure which one, and we’re not sure what drives him to agree to do so, but we do know that we’re excited to see what’s next.
Shout out in the comments if you had a favorite moment from this week’s Supergirl!
