Supergirl Review: Blood Memory (Season 4 Episode 11)
Supergirl gives viewers another very strong episode with Supergirl Season 4 Episode 11, “Blood Memory.”
“Blood Memory” is primarily a Nia and Danvers sisters episode, but like last week’s Supergirl Season 4 Episode 10, “Suspicious Minds,” it opens with a Red Kara training scene. Only this time we get more than a tease.
This time after Red Kara finishes her training her nose starts to bleed and she passes out. The fact that this Kara is bleeding changes all my assumptions about who and what she is.
I had assumed that she was, in fact, a clone or some other exact equivalent of Kara. But, if she is vulnerable like that she is clearly something different. I was genuinely surprised by this development, and I’m delighted that I have no idea where this story is going now.
The other important development in this scene, as well as the final scene of the episode, is that as a result of the injuries she sustains. Red Kara’s world collides with Supergirl’s world for the first time in a meaningful way. Hopefully, this means we’ll be seeing a lot more of Red Kara and learning more about where she came from very soon.
As exciting as it is to see the Red Daughter storyline progress, “Blood Memory” is about sisters, specifically about Nia and her sister, and about the Danvers sisters.
On “Blood Memory” Kara accompanies Nia on a trip back to her idyllic home town where aliens and humans live in harmony. Nia tells Kara that she is Trans and that her family and most of her town have supported her from the beginning.
She also tells Kara that she has not told her family about her power to dream the future because everyone assumed it was going to be her older sister, Maeve, who inherited that ability.
After some encouragement from Kara, Nia tells her mother about her powers. Her mother is happy for her and supportive. Unfortunately, a dream that Nia had earlier in the episode, but didn’t quite understand, comes true and her mother dies during their conversation.
While her mother was supportive and never questioned how Nia inherited her powers, her sister isn’t as kind. When Nia uses her powers to save Maeve from a rampaging member of the Children of Liberty, Maeve realizes that it’s Nia and not her who inherited their family power and gets angry.
She gets so angry in fact that she questions how Nia could have inherited the powers, and says she’s not even a real woman.
The cruelty of those words feels like a punch in the gut. They sting even more because Maeve always supported Nia in the past. They are more than hurtful words said in anger, they are a breach of trust that reveal some ugly truths about how her sister really sees her.
It’s worth noting that one of the ways Supergirl clearly affirms that Trans women are women is by having Nia inherit powers that are passed down from mother to daughter. I especially loved the speech from Nia’s mother about all the challenges she had to go through to become the person she was meant to be.
Nia’s sister may have questioned the validity of Nia’s identify, but the perspective of the show never does and I appreciate the way they weave Nia’s whole identity into her story.
Paralleling the conflict between Nia and Maeve, “Blood Memory” also deals with the consequences of J’onn removing the knowledge that Kara is Supergirl from Alex’s mind.
Without her memories of Kara as Supergirl, Alex’s compassion has shifted. She isn’t as sympathetic to aliens, and in particular to Supergirl who she sees as invulnerable both physically and emotionally.
Alex isn’t suddenly an anti-alien bigot a la the Children of Liberty. Instead, she is showing signs of something just as dangerous but not as obvious.
Alex has lost some of her empathy for aliens. She may believe that they have rights and deserve protection but she is unable to see them with the same humanity she saw them with before, and thus makes assumptions and comes to conclusions that make them a threat to be neutralized even if that’s not the whole story.
It’s easy to see how this tracks to real-life instances of bias and inequity. Supergirl isn’t always known for its subtly when it comes to political themes, but they do a nice job with it on “Blood Memory” integrating those themes seamlessly with the narrative and ultimately making both the story and political implications more powerful.
It’s really hard to watch Alex show such indifference and even hostility to Supergirl, but I’m interested to see where the ripple effects lead and how Kara will deal with the emotional stress of this split in their relationship. As much as my heart hates seeing this divide between Alex and Kara, it has me looking forward next week’s episode in a way I haven’t for a long time.
Stray Thoughts
- Because it was related to Kara being from another world, Alex couldn’t remember that The Wizard of Oz was Kara’s favorite movie (Alex’s is Terminator 2 proving that both sisters have excellent, if very different, taste in movies). I’m curious to know how her other memories have changed too. How does she think she was saved from the plane crash on Supergirl’s pilot? Does she still know Kara was adopted? Does she remember world hopping and meeting Sara Lance last year? Inquiring minds want to know.
- I didn’t like self-righteous James from the first half of the season, but I can’t say I’m a fan of James burying a story from one of his reporters to protect Lena either. I’m especially not a fan of him not telling her he’s doing that. To be fair, that’s more or less what Lena did when she cut a deal to keep him out of jail, but this move by James has the potential to really blow up in both of their faces and Lena should at least know what’s going on. As they say, sometimes the cover-up is worse than the crime, and if anyone should know that it’s a journalist like James.
What did you think of this episode of Supergirl? Share your thoughts in the comments below!
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Supergirl airs Sundays at 8/7c on The CW
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Sarah Fields
Sarah is an obsessive geek who likes to get into the weeds and over think things. She is passionate about Sci-Fi and comics and is a giant classic film nerd. Sarah cares deeply about media representation and the power of telling diverse stories. When she's not writing or watching her favorite shows she spends her days working in the non-profit world trying to make life a little better for those that need some extra help.