Supergirl Season 4 Episode 1 -- 'American Alien' Review
This season, it seems Kara will have to face threats much closer to home. And I mean that both figuratively and literally as the threats might just be an alternate version of her very own self, and the very ordinary people of Earth.
Unlike last season, everything starts out looking very rosy. For the first time, Kara seems absolutely in control. She has finally gotten over Mon El and after defeating Reign, has her duties as Supergirl and Catco reporter in perfect sync, even with Superman away from Earth. Accolades are pouring in from everywhere and the people are happy. Even the alien community is faring better with the new LCorp produced image inducers with which they can effectively cover up their non-human looking parts.
Or so it seems.
J'onn J'onzz, now living a decidedly non-violent life as part of the community begins to suspect something is amiss when one of the more outspoken aliens, the physicist Dr. Voz, in his aliens support group isattacked and mutilated during a robbery at his lab. Supergirl arrives on the scene but the robbers have some really high tech that work effectively against her and manage to escape. When J'onn goes to Kara with his suspicions that the fact that it was an alien who was attacked was not random but that Dr. Voz had been targeted in a hate crime, she shrugs it off as inane. Everyone is happy, right? J'onn argues that the climate towards the aliens is changing and not for the better, but this also falls on deaf ears.
The D.E.O begins investigation, and Braniac, who is still struggling to align his methods with Alex, the new director, manages to identify the attackers: Mercy and Otis Graves, brother and sister and former employees of Lena Luthor's mother, Lillian.
Supergirl pays Lillian a visit in her prison and is surprised to find Lena, who still hates Supergirl for breaking her trust, there. Lena is still angry at her mother too but seems ready to attempt to understand and forgive. She reveals that Mercy Graves had been Lex's head of security but had left him and then turned state evidence against him while in trial, helping to put him behind bars. When Supergirl tries to use this to manipulate Lillian to assist the investigation for revenge's sake, Lillian laughs it off and asserts she isn't vengeful anymore. But then, she claims she is indeed reformed for the sake that she didn't want to die alone, and tells them everything she knows.
Just then, there is an explosion at an alien-favorite bar where J'onn was hanging out, having just finished discussing with Fiona, the head of his support group. Fiona is an empath and could feel the hate rising, and having run for so long, was tried of running and wanted to bring the aliens together to protect themselves. Jónn, of course, in his new path of absolute non-violence, refused to join her. When Supergirl arrives at the scene, he once again tries to make her see that th explosion was a hate crime and this time, she agrees. However, she refuses to believe the attack on the bar and that on Dr. Voz's lab were connected. She believes the climate had changd for the better, especially with the 2nd anniversary of the Alien Amnesty Act approaching. When J'onn tries to make her see, she grows angry and storms away.
Braniac uses the info Kara had gotten from Lllian and tracks down Mercy and Otis, but when Supergirl arrives, they are both gone. And here she receives the biggest shock: there is an ongoing chat about aliens and how to take them out between people all over the country, and the participants are not clear extremists like Mercy and Otis, but ordinary people with children and families and day-to-day jobs. J'onn had been right.
This terrifies Kara. How could she fight something as big as this? These were the kind of people she saved everyday! How could they be the threat? She goes to J'onn for help but he refuses her too, just as he had refused Fiona. Angry nd downcast, she leaves him and goes with the D.E.O to defend the Graves' next threat: the presidential meeting at Camp David to celebrate the Alien Amnesty Act. When the Graves make an attempt on the President's lives, they are stopped, but not before they get a round off at the president. Otis is shot by his own sister so she can escape.
But then it turns out that was their plan all along. Otis had only been shot with a rubber pellet on his bulletproof vest. The president also had been shot with the rubber bullet, but the impact of the shot had mede her drop her human disguise for a split second which was captured by the cameras around. 'The fuse had been lit,' as Otis said. The whole world now knew an alien had been leading them. The number fo people on the anti-alien chat multiplied overnight. And now, kara realizes that the 'Earth-first' threat was only just beginning.
Meanwhile, Alex and Brainy finally begin to get along. Lean goes to see her mother again, and as they discuss, Lilian, led on by Lena, drops a harmless info about one of Lex's former money laundering partners. Lena turns this info over to the D.A. in exchange for all charges against James Olsen as Guardian being dropped, something the two lovers had discussed against. And when Lena doesn't show up for her third visit, Lillian realises with a grudging admiration that she had been played.
At Catco, a new reporter, the uncertain and strangely enigmatic begins work under Kara's care and guidiance. We find out that there's someone else working with ercy and Otis, someone with an iron mask over his face. And, just when we'd all but forgotten about her, we see the 2nd Kara (created when our Kara messed with time) training hard in a camp in Kasnia.
What do you think of the episode and its prospects for the season? Let's know in the comments!
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