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Supergirl #4.04 “Ahimsa” Review

Review of the Supergirl TV series episode “Ahimsa”

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With Supergirl quarantined in her protective suit, J’onn teams up with Manchester Black to find the missing Fiona. Alex navigates the struggles of being director while Lena and Brainy work to clear the atmosphere of Kryptonite. Here is a review of the Supergirl episode “Ahimsa.”

REVIEW:

Although “Ahimsa” included several wonderful character moments for the supporting players, it did not match the level of excitement, investment, and quality messaging created by the first two episodes of this season. Without a fully realized threat and with expedited solutions, this episode breezed by instead of cementing the extent of Agent Liberty’s power and influence. The storylines explored here would have been more impactful and engaging had they been expanded over the course of two hours in lieu of last episode’s dive into Ben Lockwood’s backstory.

Like last year, the main characters don’t know Agent Liberty’s true identity when the audience already does, but I wish they would have held off on giving us this information and instead used the screentime to display Agent Liberty as a devious leader. His platform is terrifying, but his own actions are less so. Agent Liberty’s plan this episode fell flat. His attempt to use Fiona to spread his fear of aliens was not nearly as well-developed, understandable, or effective as any of the Graves’ plans, which makes me wonder if the writers have chosen the wrong antagonists to put at the head of this anti-alien movement. And by focusing more on the Graves, Agent Liberty seems slightly irrelevant. I have a feeling we’ll be seeing the twins again because no one on this show actually dies and/or stays dead.

Given that Reign didn’t emerge until episode nine of last season, this season feels like it’s microfocusing on one story and burning through its big bad’s plan at a surprising rate. We already have his full backstory and understand his motives by episode three. That’s not to say it’s a bad thing. Agent Liberty hasn’t created a whole lot of panic yet despite his best efforts, so there’s enough story to keep his arc churning out problems for a least a little while longer. And it seems like Ben will have means of creating problems without the mask in the near future. Then there’s still the whole Russian Kara situation to explore later in the year, so even if Lockwood’s threat is wrapped up by midseason, there’s still plenty of drama left in place. After last year’s overabundance of major storylines crammed into a short span of episodes, it’s nice to see them take one major point at a time.

This episode, we finally got to see Alex adjusting to her duties as director, giving Chyler Leigh several wonderful moments of vulnerability and anger. I love the scene of Alex taking a moment in the locker room to let herself feel – feel that insecurity that makes her heroism all the more strong. She’s a badass, but she’s also human. It was such a relatable moment for anyone who’s ever had to find those itty bitty boxes while at work and keep pushing forward through the madness. The beautiful scene of J’onn having faith in Alex and the fact that we’ve seen two Danvers sisters couch scenes in four episodes give me hope that the show is refocusing on the relationships that made the series a success. I just hope that Kara bought those pies because grief baking did not end well for her.

Why has it taken until season four to explore J’onn at his full Martian potential? If he can locate people with his mind, what else can he do? Why couldn’t he do this when Alex was kidnapped in season two? Anyways, it’s wonderful to see J’onn honoring his father’s wishes and learning to fight without lifting a sword. It’s given him a chance to be more emotionally invested in his actions than when he had to remain the stoic leader of the DEO. I’m all for more J’onn and Manchester Black team ups. I wasn’t sure what to expect with Manchester, but I thoroughly enjoyed the smooth fighter and loving fiancé. Although murdering a woman for the sake of driving a man’s story seems to be one of the oldest and most senseless tropes in the book, I’m interested to see what turns his character will now take. He brings a rogue and unpredictable energy to the series that could be a breath of fresh air when Alex is getting a by-the-books supervisor.

The Lena and Brainy storyline this episode further established the potential that these characters have when they team up. These two science geniuses who are trying to make a name for themselves outside of their evil relatives who’ve caused harm have so many interesting similarities. Like Lena, Brainy started out as someone we thought we knew: a socially awkward brainiac, but over the course of the past couple of episodes, he has exhibited a depth of personality. Jesse Rath has imbued Brainy with such an innocence and sweetness that makes the character shine.

I wish we could have actually seen Lena and Brainy doing science together, seen them bounce off one another’s ideas and finally reach that moment where they realize they can use Jack Spheer’s company as a force for good like he would have wanted. By skipping the middle section of this story, the episode failed to create and maintain a sense of urgency and suspense. Sure, we all knew Kara would get out of the suit eventually, but with a threat such as the entire atmosphere being irradiated with kryptonite, it should have had us worried for a least a little bit. Expanding the timeline could have also provided us with more of an emotional punch because other than Brainy, no one seemed all that concerned about Kara’s potential death. I would have liked to have seen Alex grappling with her sister’s mortality when she’s so used to Supergirl being made of steel, and seen Lena rifling through her itty bitty boxes to unpack emotions over a character whose friendship she lost, and seen J’onn comforting his space daughter after having just lost his own father.

It’s becoming clearer that Nia’s naps are premonitions, but how much does Nia know about her abilities? And how much can she control them? I’m certainly looking forward to this storyline taking off and hope it does so sooner rather than later.

ODDS AND ENDS:

– Brainy: If you’re in your mind palace, tell Streaky I said, “Hi.”

– Brainy: Do humans feel like this all the time? It’s intense and disruptive. How do you get anything done?
Lena: My solution… boxes.
Brainy: Boxes, yes. What variety? Cardboard? Wooden? Lucite?
Lena: Imaginary. I want you to imagine that you’re full of tiny itty bitty boxes. And then I want you to take your feelings, and I want you to shove them into those itty bitty boxes. And then I want you to take those and shove them way deep down until you forget you even had feelings in the first place. Then you and I are going to do science and get this air clean. Understand?

– Brainy: None of the nanites have eaten Kryptonite before, and they’re understandably very nervous. I don’t want to ask too much of them. They’re just nanites.

Come talk about “Ahimsa” on our Supergirl forum!

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Supergirl

About the Supergirl Toxic Discourse…

KryptonSite discusses the online discourse around the new Supergirl film.

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The latest film from the “DCU” movie universe, Supergirl, launches in less than a week, with Milly Alcock taking on the role of Kara, cousin of Kal-El. She was first introduced in a very fun scene in last year’s Superman film, and there are many people looking forward to seeing it.

However, in some of the more toxic areas of the Internet, people aren’t so enthusiastic. In fact, take a look in certain online social media places and there are a ton of sexist and misogynistic comments about Milly Alcock, the movie, and even Milly’s appearance. “She doesn’t smile!” they say. Some have even compared her appearance to a character from Mad Max. None of those things are true, by the way.

This bad behavior was made even worse when former Superman actor Dean Cain admitted he “laughed,” and then went on to follow one of the main misogynist grifters one could find on X. Why is it necessary for an actor to insult another actor like that? Would Dean like it if people called him names? Probably not. (And be the better person – don’t do it.) I know some complained about the media coverage — but the point was that what Dean Cain said about her was bad and it should be discussed. That is news.

Some of the people and outlets posting rage bait and doom and gloom repeatedly have their reasons: If you pay for a blue check on X and get engagement, you can get paid for what you post, so if someone posts something infuriating that gets a lot of replies, they get a lot of money for it. Some are angry that the Zack Snyder “Snyderverse” films are dead, and blame James Gunn and anything peripheral to him for it… even though Gunn is not director of the movie, so that does about as much good as attacking James Wan and Aquaman for how awful Batman v Superman was. Some of these people will complain about any social commentary that they don’t agree with; there’s a throughline between the Supergirl haters and those who’d complain that someone ate their comm badge on Starfleet Academy, for example. And finally, there are the folks who took issue with Milly Alcock’s “Dad of four; Christian” comment, that the haters of the film usually have profiles that say things like that. She’s not wrong. One of the most toxic online posters about Supergirl literally says “I became a #1 bestselling author by standing for Christian values” in his profile. His “Christian values,” by the way, are not Christian at all, if one looked around this profile. He spews racism, homophobia, hate, and misogyny like there’s nothing else in the world. Milly Alcock was not attacking Christians with her post.

Just today, there have been completely fabricated “online reactions to a Supergirl screening” from people with only 120 social media followers that have no basis in reality. Or, those who did post positive reviews are getting attacked by the opposition, claiming they are “shills” and lying. Sometimes a movie is a movie, and people have different opinions. I mentioned earlier that I didn’t like Batman v Superman; for others, it’s their favorite film. So, differences of opinion happen. I do still resent it, though, that even back then there was a group of fans insisting that every negative review of BvS was “paid for by Marvel.” If that’s the case, where is my check?

The Internet has also been a place for hit pieces about how Supergirl will “flop.” Maybe it will. We’ll know in a week or so. But, the reasons for posting such things are mostly, again, wishful thinking from the crowd still butthurt that Starfleet Academy had a gay Klingon in it. They’ll find something new to grift their hate on in a few weeks, anyway.

I have not seen Supergirl yet, and I won’t see it until opening night like almost everyone else in the world can. Who knows, maybe I won’t even like it. But I think it deserves a fair shot going in next week. A friend told me his teenage daughter is looking forward to it. Honestly, her opinion matters more than mine or any random neckbeard on the Internet’s opinion would. I do worry that the negativity surrounding the film has killed some of my excitement, and worry that others have had that same feeling, but hopefully, we can fly above and just enjoy the film. Supergirl hits theaters June 26.

Disclaimer, but necessary to mention: Those who have followed KryptonSite for 25 years know that in my younger days, I posted some things that I saw as “jokes,” primarily age-related, that might have read as pretty awful. I apologize for that, and I have apologized for that. It isn’t funny to look back at, and it wasn’t funny then.

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Smallville

Supergirl & Smallville Writers Have A New Comic Book-Inspired Series

Eric Carrasco, Alfredo Septien, and Turi Meyer will be showrunners for El Gato starring Diego Boneta.

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Prime Video, which recently has been the home of some of the best comic book-inspired series with shows like Invincible and The Boys, is currently casting a live-action adaptation of the comic book series El Gato Negro by Richard Dominguez. (El Gato Negro translates to “The Black Cat,” so we wouldn’t be surprised if there is a title change to avoid Marvel’s Black Cat.) With the working title El Gato, the showrunners include veterans from Supergirl and Smallville.

Eric Carrasco wrote several memorable episodes of Supergirl between Seasons 2 and 4 and eventually served as a story editor on the series. He wrote the Justice League vs. the Fatal Five animated feature and is a producer for Zack Snyder’s upcoming Twilight of the Gods. He’s also been an Uber — err Ride Me Now driver for two stoners from New Jersey in their reboot movie. What’s also very cool about Eric is that one of his earliest industry jobs was working on a TV series called Smallville. Perhaps you’ve heard of it.

The other two showrunners need no introduction when it comes to SmallvilleAlfredo Septien & Turi Meyer were among the most prolific writers for the show, on the team for six seasons with episodes including “Vengeance,” “Labyrinth,” “Bride,” “Salvation,” and “Finale Part 1.” Turi Meyer also directed two episodes of Smallville, and the two of them returned to the DC Universe with DC’s Stargirl on The CW in recent years.

The series will star Diego Boneta as the main character, Frank Guerrero, who returns home to Mexico after the death of his father and finds himself neck-deep in a nest of vipers – his estranged family – who are vying for control of his father’s business empire. But Frank’s grief is interrupted when he learns his only inheritance, a seemingly worthless parcel of land on the border, sits atop the lair of a famous costumed vigilante — his father, “El Gato.” Now, Frank is in the crosshairs. To survive, he’ll have to solve mysteries decades in the making and unravel the truth about his father’s connections to a modern-day terror plot.

“This is a pulp thriller,” Eric Carrasco said in a quote posted by Variety earlier this year. “It’s a family drama, it’s everything I love about spies and masks and secret identities. A lot of us on this team – Diego, and Andrew Mittman, and Steve Stark, and Carla Gonzalez Vargas, and I – have been at this for a long time now, and it’s a genuine thrill to finally make the show with MGM Television and Prime Video.”

El Gato will be produced by MGM Television which is part of Amazon MGM Studios. Hopefully we’ll learn more about this project as development progresses! For now, though, congratulations to Eric, Al, and Turi!

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Supergirl

Supergirl: Woman of Tomorrow Release Date Announced

The Supergirl: Woman of Tomorrow film is currently scheduled for a 2026 release.

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The Supergirl: Woman of Tomorrow film has had a release date announced — and it’s less than a year after James Gunn’s Superman.

Warner Bros. announced Tuesday that the new film for the Maid of Might — based on the comic by Tom King and Bilquis Evely — is on the schedule for June 26, 2026. Of course, plans can and often do change, but that’s where it’s set for now. The film is said to “depart from the earnest take on the character” that was seen on The CW’s Supergirl TV series.

Milly Alcock will play Supergirl, and it is expected that we will see her before this movie — in Superman, perhaps? Craig Gillespie (Cruella) is the director.

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