Supergirl: Season 6

That was a bit of a mess. But I'm not going to lie. I didn't actually hate it. The last act of wrap-up was tedious, as was the opening scene. But the rest of the episode had some surprisingly interesting elements. A lot of it was also unsurprisingly greatly flawed. Let's talk a bit about the good and the bad.

The cutesy opening scene with the package told me two things immediately: The package is clearly a cake, and that I am sick of the episode already. Not all of the episode was as bad as that. But lord, they lost me right from the get-go with that bit.

I think it's very interesting and cool to have a superhero, particularly a literal "Super" one, suffer from PTSD. I know Melissa Benoist has gone through some bad stuff, and it's interesting to see that particular character in that light. It's also one of the few times in the season I wasn't frustrated or annoyed with Kara. I can't say I empathize entirely with what she's going through, but it's interesting she's going through it.

I am very glad Lex was not in the episode. I have a sneaking suspicion I will be giving any episode without Jon Cryer in it an unduly high grade because the character sucks so much. I'll need to watch out for that.

So it turns out Kara's father is an okay guy, which surprises me. Him learning his lesson was a nice touch, as I was getting serious megalomaniacal vibes off him. The experience humbling him instead was unexpected and welcome.

William has nothing to do. I cannot give the show enough crap from creating a tertiary character that has gone nowhere fast. Even James Olson by the end had more credible ways to interact with the other characters. It's a damn shame. In drama, characters should come first. The Berlantiverse doesn't believe this and is all the worse for it.

I'm not deluded enough to believe the series is going to turn itself around and deliver a satisfying finale. But perhaps the long hiatus did it some good for the first episode back. 3 1/2 stars.

It's the little things in this show that drive me nuts. Put enough little annoying things together and you get a bad episode. Call it suck by a thousand cuts.

Kelly is a bad social worker. Full stop. Promising a kid everything is going to be all right is a rookie mistake. It's appalling she was able to keep that specific promise, but the show is badly written.

Speaking of which, her knowledge of prisoners' general moods is faulty. She says that for a program designed to help prisoners get a second chance, Orlando seems unhappy. EVERYBODY is unhappy in prison, genius. That's why it sucks and why nobody wants to go there. Acting like THAT is the red flag instead of the abusive guard is ridiculous.

Kelly and Alex's scene at the end was beyond cloying and obnoxious.

You know, Nia, I might have taken the Imp's deal too. But did you really have to kill the dream owl? Who was that for? Sheesh.

If one of these problems were the only problem, I'd look past it. They ARE all little problems when you get right down to it, after all. But they are unending, so the episode (and the show) suck instead. 1 1/2 stars.

Mxy is back next week! Good.

You know the building being destroyed made me feel like the entire episode was pointless. Hopefully Mxy can fix that too.

One of the reasons I like Superman & Lois is the good writing. They are smart enough to say that both Superman and Clark are media savvy. But Kara is a reporter. And as Supergirl she sucks in every interview she gives. It makes no sense until you realize the actual problem is that the show is simply badly written.

For some reason I care even less about Kelly's superhero career and insipid and untrue life lessons about it than I do Alex's. Which is saying something.

I'll tell you what I liked. The witchy councilwoman didn't actually changed her tune. That's realistic. The episode would be worse written if someone that nasty actually learned a lesson from everything that happened to her. That's not how sociopathic politicians work.

Good to see Nia's struggles with her sister won't be forgotten. If the series had ended before getting back to it it would be a very unsatisfying loose end.

Part of me was all right with some of it, but the truth is I'm annoyed the show isn't better than it is and that Supergirl is entirely as naive and dumb in season 6 as she was in season 1. It gets a little tiresome seasons later. Of course the same complaint could be said of Barry Allen on The Flash. 3 stars.

This is going to be a negative review but I need to do a mea culpa before I start slamming it. In all honesty, if I liked the show, even a little bit, I would give that specific episode the benefit of the doubt. I would not give it an amazing review (for obvious reasons) but I don't think I'd cynically think it completely missed the marked. I'd accept it and move on. Since I've come to the point where I hate the series now, I need to readjust my expectations for what is and isn't an acceptable story here.

Lena's stuff. Absolutely unacceptable. Even if I liked the show, this is the one plot element I would hate unreservedly. Why? "It's Always Something With Lena." And it's always something stupid. And she is a very annoying character for that reason.

Mxy's musical number is something Thomas Lennon seems game for, and he did his best. It still doesn't work. Supergirl is NOT the show that can pull that moment off. It doesn't commit to it, it doesn't make me believe in the reality of it. It feels entirely cringe instead.

This goes for the giant cat defeated by the laser pointer too. Ordinarily that would be a hilarious idea. But for some reason there is nothing humorous about it when the show does it. Again, if this were a show I liked, I would be excusing those two things, if not delusionally claiming I liked them. It just doesn't work instead. This is not the show that can make those things work. And it never was.

12 Monkeys has done similarly crazy stuff with Jennifer Goines and always rocked it. Because it committed to the crazy. Here the cast themselves can barely keep a straight face. I get the appeal of Jimmy Fallon on SNL with his mugging and cracking up during sketches. I don't personally find him all that funny for it.

If this was good show I would accept that. I might even be crazy enough to defend it. Because the show sucks I recognize that failure for what it actually was instead. 2 stars.

I really, REALLY liked that. So much so I'm amending my previous pledge about grades for this week only. I used to grade things on a curve. I graded episodes of various shows only against other episodes from that specific show. After Riverdale and Transformer Rescue Bots hit, that no longer made sense. Basically at that point I realized a hypothetical five-star episode of Riverdale would be worth maybe two stars for a great show like 12 Monkeys or The Orville. And that makes Riverdale sound much better than it is, and The Orville much WORSE than it is. I basically said after awhile "If an episode totally sucks, I'm giving it zero stars, even if I have to wind up doing that for every episode for a given show." There don't really need to be different gradiations on me thinking something sucks.

This specific episode, if a show I loved did it, would probably get a healthy three stars. But I'm back to grading it on a curve for this week only because I felt it was long overdue for this specific show. I'm giving it an almost perfect four and a half stars instead. And the episode WAS far from perfect for my standards. But by Supergirl's standards I was like saying, "Finally!" over and over again.

I have spent the last, I'm guessing two or three seasons (possibly four) thinking Team Supergirl utterly sucked and was annoying, and missed the point of what being heroes meant and what it involved. All of them. Kara herself was so dumb and obnoxious with her naivete that it pissed me off that it didn't turn out to simply be growing pains and the learning curve for her becoming a hero from the first season. Her character simply never outgrew it or got wiser as the seasons passed. Like Barry Allen on The Flash, she was always going to be that dumb and never stop. And I like this episode because a character got fed up with her being dumb. And as the character was Kelly it felt especially right that she got fed up because Kara was being a clueless white woman and a terrible supposed ally. I like the idea that Kara is being called on being a subpar hero and friend for that specific reason. There are a ton of reasons I think Kara sucks compared to her wise and charismatic cousin, but I liked that one because even Kara was like "Oh, snap! I do suck!" And she does. And the reason the episode is getting four and a half stars is that, even though it's a Berlanti show, Kelly wasn't forced to apologize to either Kara or Alex for her tone at the end. Berlanti shows have a sickening knack for both parties being forced to apologize, even if one of them was innocent and genuinely hurt, and the other one was a thoughtless butthole. This is not JUST a problem with Berlanti stuff by the way, (I've complained about it elsewhere) but you can find the "Everybody Gets An Apology Trophy" trope most readily in The Arrowverse. But Supergirl (the series, not the character) met the moment by not policing Kelly's tone, or putting her in the position where she had to comfort the other white characters into believing they personally weren't racists or were offending her. Because they were. They had no right to that specific comfort. In every conversation between a black person with a white person about race, the white person demands to be put at ease. The writers were cool this episode because not only did Kelly not have to do that, but the characters who failed her were shown to understand that wasn't owed them. Was that remotely realistic? Not in the least, even among allies. But it's good because it shows people watching who WANT to be allies (and I include myself in this by the way) it's not about them. Potential allies need to see the proper way to have these conversations and realize they don't have to the power to snap their fingers and make it better.

I am guilty of this too by the way. I was annoyed when Nyxly destroyed the building after all we had gone through two weeks ago. And then Mxy showed up and I was like, "Oh, he'll just fix it next week." But the next week he was captured, and as annoyed as I was two weeks ago with Nyxly doing that, I totally forgot about it too. And good for the show for calling me on it. Supergirl's entire dismissal of Kelly involved "When we get Mxy back things will go back to normal." And she gets a phone call right before Kelly can either tell her people are suffering NOW, and can't wait for Mxy to be rescued, or maybe even that the status quo isn't actually acceptable. Or maybe both things. And me thinking Mxy could fix that building falling two weeks ago and then forgetting about it shows how clueless Matt Zimmer is too.

I didn't get what the World's Collide reference meant at the end (a hint at next season's crossover perhaps) but it seems pretty clear to me that John Diggle refused the Green Lantern ring. He all but said as much. You know what? I'm cool with that. Because for some crazy reason I don't think it would be feasible to show him as a Green Lantern on the CW's budget. I'm skeptical HBO Max will be able to convincingly pull that franchise off. But I assume if he became a Green Lantern, the Arrowverse would simply be done with John Diggle because it would be prohibitively expensive to bring him back as that specific superhero. But if he definitely turned it down, it means Dig can still do guest spots on the other shows like he did this year. I'd rather Dig wasn't Green Lantern and present than was Green Lantern and gone for good.

I'll tell you why that Councilwoman was such a frustrating and underwhelming villain. I recognized the show taking a dig at Trump for bullying his way into getting experimental Covid treatments in the fall he had no business being allowed. But it's not just that she's clearly modeled after him and a clear racist. It's that once she gets the 5th dimensional powers, all she can think to do with them is gentrifying the neighborhood. What an embarrassing utter lack of imagination does this broken woman have when she is given Godlike powers and the only thing she can think to do it be an ahole landlord to her black tenants. And again, that specific dig seemed more at Trump than anyone else, which is another reason I liked it.

Real world irony: I was feeling pretty good about the message of the episode. And during the last commercial break, the local news briefing on the CW station this aired on did a "tragic update" about the missing white woman everybody has been fretting over this past week. It was incredibly tone-deaf to air at the end of this specific episode, and my response was "This crap never ends or gets better." Brainy all but said as much.

I imagine fans of the Legion of Superheroes will object to that notion. And I get that. But after Trump I don't believe in Gene Roddenberry's message anymore either. When Discovery and Picard hit, some adjustments HAD to be made for modern audiences. I don't exactly LIKE it. But it's necessary. Humans will NEVER be perfect and not racist, and it's better to understand Roddenberry was full of crap about that right now. There is no potential perfection for humanity in the future. We can get better, but believing perfection is possible might be why so many of us are messed up to begin with. Roddenberry's message, as well-intentioned as it was, probably did more harm than good.

I think the head-scarf at the end was an interesting commentary on straightened hair, but I'll reserve final judgment for it next week depending on if Kelly's look has actually changed. We'll see. She could be getting a Viola Davis moment or they could just hit the reset button instead. We don't know yet.

When the little girl raised the shield and said, "I'm Guardian!" my response was to raise my eyebrow and say under breath, "C'mon, Supergirl. You had a good week. Don't push your luck." And it's because of stuff like that this episode would get three stars if the show were amazing in general. But I want to recognize this episode being great for this show, so I'll let crap like that slide in the final grading.

But yeah, I hate this show, but I love this week because it allowed me to properly hate the characters. I am not crazy for being underwhelmed by this group of heroes and their messed up hollow philosophies. It turns out it wasn't just me. And I love that they took on social justice and racial inequality to talk about it. I was very pleased. 4 1/2 stars.

And we're right back to sucking this week. I knew we would be but I don't have to be happy about it or act like it's acceptable.

Lena's stuff was lame. Alex's stuff was lame. And everyone is walking around on eggshells with Kelly. It's good they didn't undo last week's moral but there was a dramatic cost to it. And I believe I mentioned in a review for an earlier episode that I think Jesse Rath is an underwhelming actor unable to stretch. My opinion of him about that stands.

Interestingly, the only part of the episode I found relatable was (shocker!) Will's stuff (of all things), and it only lasted for about two scenes. They finally find a way to make that character not boring, and spent the entire episode focusing on dumb stuff instead.

I am unsurprised I hated it. 1 1/2 stars.

To be honest, I didn't see much of anything in the episode to complain about. And yet, I didn't see anything I liked either. And that's the real dealbreaker. It's not fair to the many good and great shows and movies I review to give this a positive grade simply because it didn't actually offend me like most weeks do. My standards need to be higher than that.

As an episode I didn't feel strongly about either way, this review will be brief (because it doesn't NEED to be in-depth). I wanted to mention two things, both surprisingly involving William: It's ridiculous William can't tell Supergirl is Kara when he's talked to both up close. Also, I think it's cool he's gotten out from under Andrea's thumb. I think Andrea is a particularly sucky character, and I find that I'm annoyed she is STILL on the show. Anything that gives her less future relevance is a good thing.

But this episode was only okay. 2 1/2 stars.

Acceptable as far as these things go, but I want to address two things, one bad, one good. We'll talk about the bad thing first. In-depth. The good thing will not need NEARLY as many paragraphs.

When Esme yells at Alex "You're horrible!" I couldn't agree more. And this goes to a lesser extent for Kelly too. What bugs the crap out of me is that even though they talk about the problem and smoothed things over with Esme, I don't think they are quite understanding how they are messing up. And while they don't get it, things can't get better.

It's not just that Alex is pushing Esme with her powers. That would be problematic in the first place. What's really messed up is it's clear Esme is embarrassed of the powers, due to the trauma they've created in that every time they've come out somebody has abandoned her. And Alex and Kelly are literal strangers. And they are making their entire relationship about the powers. Even after using the truth squid to let Esme know they aren't going to leave her, that's still true. She's a kid. She shouldn't have to worry about these powers if she doesn't want to. After they've known each other awhile and she trusts them, then it's fine to teach her how to control them better. While Esme considers it a private, embarrassing thing, neither Kelly nor Alex have any right intruding on that. She hasn't actually put anyone in danger. And they mentioned they're superheroes. If she does, they can handle it. What I don't like is that the second Esme got into their home she became a pet project and something to fix, rather than just a child who needed love and acceptance. It's good she'll be getting the second thing. But the second thing would be a LOT easier for all of them to achieve if they weren't making the powers the biggest part of their relationship. If they let her come to them on her own time after seeing how they work with the Superfriends, she'd learn and want to trust them on her own.

I appreciate Alex did the whole "I suck" mea culpa, and I even agree that maybe in hindsight Alex might be being too hard on herself. But the problem is that despite the emotional agony Alex is feeling for how badly she messed up, neither she or Kelly have actually discovered what the root of the problem of their parenting style actually is. For Esme, the powers means she has to leave. And all they are focusing are the powers. It's handy they have the truth squid, but what if they didn't? No real parents have a truth squid. They have to get the kid to trust them on their own. In fact, I think the truth squid might be harmful. It's a short-cut that means that Alex and Kelly don't have to put in the long, hard, grueling work most adoptive parents have to put in to get an older child to trust them. And while I realize it makes the audience feel good, why is making the audience feel good paramount? I think Alex and Kelly showing the kid empathy and patience on their own is the thing that would make ME feel good.

The good thing: I amused that William sort of got tired and embarrassed of being treated as the bargaining chip and the damsel in distress, and practically got himself out of that fix. I very much wish fiction did that more often with female damsels. They do sometimes, and The Arrowverse has done it a ton too (mostly with Felicity Smoak). But William being frustrated that his lot in the episode is that of a chit is demonstrated most effectively by how far he went to make that no longer true. I very much enjoyed that.

For some reason, I'm digging William this season in a way I wasn't in any previous season.

Again, that was acceptable. And I like that the problem with Esme was talked about and explored. But I am a little uncomfortable that I don't think they got to or understand the actual root of it yet. That concerns me very much. 3 1/2 stars.

I have to say, that majorly pissed me off.

I'll talk briefly about the one thing I liked first. I liked the stuff with Nia and her sister. I had been worried for a couple of seasons that her sister would just be forgotten, but her rejection in her first episode is one of the defining moments of Nia's life. I also thought it was an adult perspective that Nia refuses to forgive her sister for how much she's hurt her, but she's willing to give her a second chance.

Now to talk about what I hated. The first thing annoys me to no end, and the second thing is so bad I want to wash my hands of the series entirely.

I am pissed off at how badly Kara AND Supergirl always mishandle both their interviews and their media responsibities. It's gotten to be a sick joke in my mind. When a character as irresponsible and sucky as Andrea is calling her on being terrible at her job, that means something. I appreciate that Kara quit at the end, but the truth was, she could have done both if she were remotely competent. Supergirl's incompetence after six damn seasons reminds me how damn stupid Barry Allen still is after seven seasons on The Flash. Remember how dumb these characters were in the first couple of seasons? I remember I was annoyed even back then. It turns out this wasn't some sort of early learning curve for either of those characters. They simply were and remain stupid and bad at their jobs as superheroes. And it's pissing me the hell off because Superman & Lois rightly has it so that Superman is confident, charismatic, and smooth during his TV interviews. Considering her job and the fact that she's been a reporter for all this time makes Kara sucking at this inexcusable. I don't root for heroes this dumb. I don't care about them remotely. And when all is said and done, when I look back at Supergirl, The Series I'll be glad it's over, and consider it a bad series because Kara remained exactly as stupid as she was in the fifth to last episode as she was in the first. I am absolutely sick to death of this crap.

And we finally get to the ACTUAL thing that tells me the series is worthless, and that I am also going to hate the last four episodes: The "surprise" return of Lex Luthor, maybe one of the worst characters ever in the Earth-1 Arrowverse, and certainly the worst screen adaptation of Lex, live-action or animated. The series was never supposed to be about Lex, and they've suddenly turned this turd into the Final Big Bad. And ultimately this means this series is awful if it thinks a character this sucky is worthy of being Kara's ultimate foe. What especially pisses me off is that just based on how crappy Kara is at both of her jobs, they might not actually be exactly wrong there either.

This is the episode that made me give up the idea that the series could possibly have a decent finale. Good riddance, Supergirl. You will not be missed. 1 star.

This is interesting, and you might be shocked by this: That was not as bad as I feared it would be. In fact, it was not bad at all. I am going to reserve judgment as to whether or not the series can actually pull off a decent finale, but things aren't quite as hopeless as I thought they were last week.

Couple of things to note:

1. The love spiel of the Superfriends at the end is insufferable.

2. The Lex Luthor stuff is interesting for the first time ever. I don't like this version of the character. But he's not as useless as Cryer and the writers previously made him. We'll see what happens.

I can't give that a super high grade because it was sappy, but I will surprisingly give it a passing one. 3 1/2 stars.

The ending was a mixed bag. Lex was back to being insufferable as usual but I found both good and bad things in William's death.

I loved and appreciated him reaming Andrea at the beginning and saying every disgusted thought that ever crossed my mind about that phony sell-out. And if the message didn't stick then, it did once he emailed her footage of his murder by Lex for something SHE did. There is spunk in William that he uses his death as a teaching moment for the most hopeless character on the show. That's chutzpah. Also Andrea is a moron if she ever thought it would end any other way.

The one thing I don't like about the death is that after all this, I believe William was a character who proved trustworthy enough to be let in on Supergirl's secret identity. Since he was killed before that happened, it feels like the most unsatisfying of loose ends.

The second most hopeless character on the show continues to be Kara. Kara is exactly as stupid and obnoxious in the second to last episode of the final season as she was in the first episode of the first. She has learned absolutely NOTHING over the course of six seasons. She actually thinks she gets a say in how Esme is raised. But what pisses me off the most is that the episode had Alex apologize to her about her tone during the fight afterwards. If anything, Alex wasn't harsh enough. But In the Berlantiverse apologies are like participation trophies. Everybody gets one, and the one given to the person who didn't remotely deserve it is given as much weight as the one from the person who messed up. It infuriates me, especially because while it is especially endemic to Berlanti shows, he is not the only fictional producer suffering from this idiotic idea. It bums me the frak out. Fiction is broken.

I am taking a wait and see approach about Brainy and Dreamer but the idea is irresistible to me so far. I think either scenario posited would be interesting and work like gangbusters. And I think the producers understand that too, so they are milking it (as they should). But Brainy being ripped apart from Dreamer forever to save his people by essentially sacrificing his life so they can survive would be a good ending. It would be the appropriate, self-sacrificing heroic one as well. And here's the great thing: The ending where Brainy beats the calculated odds and manages to save the future while keeping Dreamer and the memories of his family is an even better one. But the cool thing is, because both endings are great, you have no idea which one the producers are going to choose. You hope it's the second one, but you simply don't know for sure because the first would be great and appropriate too. Few villains set themselves up with a true Xanatos Gambit "Can't Lose" scenario. I think the writers just built one into Brainiac 5's ultimate fate. Well done. Of THAT, I approve.

But that's putting the cart before the horse. For this week, I liked the William stuff and found myself especially annoyed with Kara being this stupid, naive, and childish this late in the game. Call it a push or merely a wash. The mediocrity all comes out the same. 3 stars.

That was bad.

I mean, really, REALLY bad. What disturbs me is that my problems have more to do with the subtext of the things that happened, rather than real tangible story flaws. To be sure, those flaws exist. But I don't think they exist at the level that many (if any) fans will object to. I suppose many people tired of my reviews will read the first sentence of this one and think it's ridiculous. My response to a fan who liked that and believes I'm a stick in the mud, and can't enjoy anything: You actually deserve better. You may think that was fine (and on the surface it sure seems that way) but you DO deserve better even if you don't think so, and think this did right by you. It IS okay to demand more from television. It's ironic I'm telling you that, because for a LOT of stuff I think fans can demand too much. But when it comes to CW DC shows, I think they let far too much slide.

The surface reasons the episode was shaky are probably not something I'll get a huge argument about. The melodrama was overwrought, frankly, badly-acted, and not very well-written. But people tolerate worse stuff all the time so maybe I'm being too sensitive there.

No, really, my objection is down to both Lex and Nxly's stuff and Supergirl's plot. Both of these things were handled extremely poorly. For Lex's stuff in particular I was Annie Wilkes standing up in that theater screaming "That's not what happened last time!" The problem with the specific supernatural gimmicks on this show is that they are SO freaking convenient and unlikely, that the characters have to literally forget they exist for the show to be able to function. But Lex used the truth squid to tell Nxly he loved her a couple of weeks ago and that he would never betray her. I can understand her washing her hands of him for breaking his promise not to hurt Esme. I can. What doesn't track and why the episode is REALLY bad and the show is REALLY badly written is that she goes on to claim he doesn't love anybody but himself, and is just trying to get the totems for himself. Like Emma Swan's "lie detector" superpower, I knew the truth squids were trouble at the time. I also knew this show was written by incompetent writers. So of course they are going to badly botch the idea and pretend they don't exist. That's how bad writing and worse Maguffins work. I can't believe I'm surprised at how badly the writers failed us there but I still kind of am. I mean the truth squid thing was made SUCH a huge deal of a few episodes ago. The show can't now pretend it never happened.

The other major objection is Supergirl's last minute change of heart about getting superpowered by the sun. I was about as disturbed as she was over how frightened the situation was making civilians, but that's the precise reason she shouldn't have changed her mind. It was a HUGE deal, and betrayal of humanity, and it's not something a good leader would walk back and be fickle about. If humanity was going to lose faith in her and the team, she was obligated to make sure that that specific loss of capital and goodwill was not entirely in vain. And if she wasn't prepared to do that, she shouldn't have agreed to make the attempt at all. Changing her mind at the last minute shows an embarrassing amount of public weakness. She's wishy-washy and foolish for it. I am shocked and dismayed the show believes it is in its best interest to publicly shame and humiliate Kara like that in the second-to-last damn episode. But what I said last week goes for this week too. Kara Danvers is just as stupid and naive in the second to last episode as she was in the Pilot. There has been absolutely zero character growth for six years for the main protagonist of this series. And I'm a little angered that the producers expect me (and you) to either not notice that, or be fine with it.

Maybe my critics are right. Maybe I am being too hard on the show and I am a genre show gadfly rather than a serious critic. I'll consider that (especially since I took a break after the episode ended to write this review and haven't seen the finale yet). Could you also maybe consider that you deserve better and that you always did? 1 star.

After seeing that, I stand by everything I said in that last review. It's easy to show real growth for Kara in the series finale when there isn't an episode to walk it all back the next week. But the truth is the last episode itself was good. Not great. But I'll take good and like it.

There are caveats to this positive review. With me there always seem to be. I must confess right off the bat that none of the touching and moving scenes moved me, save the last scene of Cat Grant introducing Kara as Supergirl on national television. But.. But... I responded well to the episode because it was properly structured as a series finale should be. The major climax was ended in the first fifteen minutes, and the last half-hour was used for character wrap-up rather than superheroics. I'll talk a bit about what I liked about the last episode, and just to keep things positive I'll talk about some of the positive things I appreciated about the series. Because the finale was fine, I feel perfectly fine with not rehashing all my old gripes, and trying to leave things off on a good place for once. Will I remember Supergirl as a good series? Maybe not. But there's no reason I can't remember the last episode itself was pretty good.

I'm curious what Kara's reveal will mean for Clark on Superman & Lois. Will it be referenced there? I kind of hope so.

I'm glad Lex was gone so quick, but one thing I wish the series had explored more in the last two episodes after Nxly rejected him and killed his mother, is him regretting going back in time to save her life. Instead of cherishing the time he had with the woman he loved, he destroyed it so that it never happened. I would have liked to have explored the idea that Lex would have preferred Nxly dead in the future if it meant the memory of her love could have been preserved. Perhaps that was too complex an idea to explore in the last two episodes, especially for a character like Lex. But I will always wonder about it.

I like that Jeremy Jordan and Melissa Benoist were permitted to sing. They both have amazing voices, and they clearly love singing.

I hate Jimmy Olsen's beard.

I appreciate that we actually got an answer as to why Kara failed the courage Gauntlet. Better yet, the answer made sense.

I like that Kara didn't head off to the 24th Century with Mon-El. That would have been as inappropriate a series finale as Sam and Diane running off together in the Cheers finale.

Brainy and Nia getting the happy ending means I was right that the series set up a Xanatos Gambit with Brainiac 5's destiny. Whatever they chose would land great. I'm glad they chose the happy ending.

If they couldn't get back Thomas Lennon I am glad there was a throwaway line from Winn that Mxy's fine and not trapped anymore.

Learning J'onn has a son with M'Gann however squicks me out. For obvious reasons.

Sort of wish we had seen Winn use some toys in the final fight.

Do you know what's funny? The bit where Helen Slater claims that she was a Kryptonian in another reality and Alex quips, "Only in the movies," does not actually make sense for either of those characters to say in that moment from a story perspective. But as a viewer? It was delightful and rewarding. And maybe since it was, I'll let the fact that it's truly nonsensical fly. I'm not made of stone.

Let's talk a little bit about what I value about this show. And it's ultimately down to two things. And I couldn't actually compliment the show for sure about these things until it was over and settled for good.

I love that Winslow Schott and Lena Luthor are good guys in this continuity.

For people familiar with my reviews, I have made my disgust for Lena's turn from Kara last season known loudly and often. But I like that the series pulled back from that this year and decided to actually bring her back into the fold.

For Winn the compliment is even higher. Clearly, he was envisioned in the Pilot to become a villain (Toyman), and the producers realized from both his chemistry with Kara and the "Aw, shucks" way Jordan played him that that would actually be entirely inappropriate. I see value in the fact that the series course-corrected there. Berlanti did the same thing by expanding Felicity Smoak's role on Arrow, and turning Frost into a superhero on The Flash. But for some reason, the show keeping Winn's integrity the entire way through without really jerking us around that he could potentially switch sides is the far greater selling point. I want to acknowledge that as little growth as I believe the characters were allowed over 6 seasons, the show allowed Jordan's winning performance to make a better story choice for Winn than they had initially planned. I don't believe fan feedback is something that a producer should ever take into consideration when it comes to deciding how a series plays out. But a producer also has the ability and responsibility to see what is and isn't working for themselves. The producers didn't need the fans to love Winn to do right by him. They just needed to love himself themselves. And with Jordan's performance, how could they not?

I'm very glad the final episode was a positive experience for me, and even gladder that Jon Cryer's awful Lex Luthor was a very small part of it. Even gladder that him being sent in the Phantom Zone makes a potential reappearance on the actual GREAT Arrowverse show Superman & Lois all that much harder. But I think that was a good place to end things for Supergirl. 4 stars.