Supergirl Review: Wake Up (Season 3 Episode 7)

After the brief reprieve with “Midvale,” Supergirl is back to a mix of predictable yet confusing, and all together disappointing storytelling.

Supergirl Season 3 Episode 7, “Wake Up,” is kind of all over the place, (which is nothing new for Supergirl), all three storylines having approximately nothing to do with each other.

THE GOOD

I’ll give this episode one thing, we get to flesh out J’onn and his life outside the DEO for literally the first time in three years.

With the arrival of J’onn’s father, J’onn is confronted with the reality that he doesn’t really get out much. Most of the other characters on Supergirl have a personal life outside Kara/the DEO.

Myr’nn: I know I am not a prisoner of the DEO my son, you are.

Because this is the C-plot of the episode, we don’t get a lot of it, but hopefully it continues on for the rest of the season. With J’onn and his father getting an apartment together perhaps they’ll get more screen time too! I would watch a full hour of these two navigating Earth together.

THE BAD

The Mon-El storyline was probably the biggest downfall of Supergirl Season 2, and yet for some reason the show has chosen to not only continue it, but make it more convoluted than ever.

After being gone for seven months in Kara’s time, Mon-El has returned a bearded, married time traveler with a spaceship full of people trapped miles below the city.

Of course he doesn’t tell her any of that until he has no other choice.

Having Mon-El reveal his side of the story this way, sneaking around and avoiding telling the truth, manipulating Kara and Winn, it doesn’t make for a more dynamic or interesting story, it just reveals that he continues to be an extremely selfish person.

During their relationship Mon-El was selfish, controlling, and manipulative, and although it’s been 7 years and a whole new world for him since we’ve seen him, he clearly hasn’t changed all that much.

Time travel, wormholes, and other worlds aren’t outside the scope of Kara’s knowledge, had he chosen to be upfront with her she would have believed him. Sure it might have hurt her, but the news was going to hurt her either way, and Mon-El decided that deceiving her was the best course of action.

Kara: The truth never hurts as much as secrets.

Kara gives him opportunity after opportunity to tell her the truth about anything and everything that he’s been through, but he sails right past all of them and only admits fractions of the truth either in arguments with her or after he has no other choice.

This relationship was a poor and unhealthy choice to begin with, and now it’s being resurrected with the classic and terrible love triangle trope. I don’t see how Supergirl can go anywhere positive with this story, and I can only pray they prove me wrong somehow.

THE UGLY

I’ve been excited about Samantha’s origin as Reign and deeply interested in her discovering her powers while also being a mom and a brilliant businesswoman. But the turn of events on “Wake Up” have me more than a little concerned with the direction this story is taking.

Samantha wasn’t as lucky as Kara when she crashed to Earth. Sure, she was taken in by a somewhat kind woman who raised her as her own, but she didn’t have the support system that Kara had–neither on Earth or Krypton as it appears.

Aside from some of the unbelievable aspects of Samantha’s story on “Wake Up” (like the fact that she never once found the spaceship in her mother’s barn, or that she knows how to use an alien GPS) the real problem lies in the lack of agency this origin gives Samantha.

A lot of this plot is still a mystery that we’ll continue to discover as Supergirl Season 3 progresses, but as it stands this is a horrible origin story. Samantha has no say or choice in what she’s becoming; she’s lived a whole life without access to this knowledge and she’s robbed of control when she finally does learn the truth.

Samantha: I’m not a world killer, I have a life. I’m a good person, I have a daughter.

I hope that her arc will carry similarities to Lena Luthor’s in that we’ll get to see Samantha pushing against the role that’s been thrust upon her.

Samantha: You feel that?

Ruby: Your pulse?

Samantha: That’s you. You’re my heart.

Ruby wasn’t supposed to exist, but she’s the most important thing in Samantha’s life. I’d love to see Samantha overcome the “world killer” persona, and break through it because of the love she has for her daughter.

OTHER THOUGHTS:

• Winn is consistently a delight. I wish I remained as delighted about Supergirl as he does about doing new sci-fi/alien things.
• Will Mon-El explain why Kara would get hurt if they left his ship untouched? Or is that just a manipulation tactic he knows would work on WInn?
• Are Alex and James ever going to get good storylines again? Magic 8 Ball says, unclear.
• I adore Myr’nn and I hope we get a lot more of him and J’onn together.
• I hope Lena Luthor is having a good week.  
• I still miss Cat Grant.

What did you think of this episode of Supergirl? Share your thoughts with us in the comments below!

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Supergirl airs Mondays at 8/7c on The CW.

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