Supergirl season 3 episode 1 review: ‘Girl of Steel’

Last night, Supergirl roared back into our lives with an emotional and (relatively) dark premiere that found Kara questioning her humanity.

Let’s be honest: season 2 of Supergirl was a little bit of a mess. Although glimmers of brilliance materialized (Alex coming out, J’onn and M’gann mind-melding), the show never quite managed to right the ship after its bumpy transition from CBS to The CW. It seemed unable to settle on a central plot until it was too late and buried its characters in unnecessary soapy contrivances.

Still, we held out hope that the show could get back on track. With last night’s premiere, season 3 got off to a promising start. Here are our thoughts on “Girl of Steel”:

New villains

It’s immediately obvious that Morgan Edge has no redeeming qualities. The real estate developer makes his first appearance at a shareholder meeting, standing at the head of a long table occupied by people in suits (among them: James Olsen and Lena Luthor). He literally looms large, filling the frame.

However, the longer he talks, waxing poetic about the merits of capitalism, the less intimidating he seems. Basically, he wants to gentrify National City’s waterfront. “It’s going to take a lot more than a pretty statue to bring people down to that… slum,” he declares. (Cue James reaction shot.) I don’t necessarily mind the lack of subtlety; as current events illustrate, sleaze isn’t subtle. But, despite actor Adrian Pasdar’s efforts, Edge fails to excite. He mostly just makes me miss Maxwell Lord.

At least Lena got to have some fun, flinging one-liners with Miranda Priestly-like nonchalance. I’m nervous about where her and Edge’s dynamic is headed, though. If there’s anything we don’t need right now, it’s another smug misogynist character who is somehow irresistible to women.

So far, Reign is more intriguing. In “Girl of Steel”, we only see her as a single mother named Samantha. Before the waterfront missile attack, she runs into Alex. “I’m just trying to enjoy the microsecond I have before [my daughter] turns into a teenager,” she says wryly. Her quip acquires a different meaning when she miraculously rescues Ruby from beneath a fallen support beam. Apparently, adolescents aren’t the only ones whose bodies can surprise them.

Like most superhero antagonists, Samantha/Reign acts as a foil. While Kara always knew about her history and powers, Samantha is clueless about hers. Her arc offers an opportunity to explore trauma from a different angle: what if forgetting is more painful than remembering?

New Kara

Stylistically, “Girl of Steel” was a departure for Supergirl. It opens with a dream sequence. Kara runs a hand through wheat like someone in a Terrence Malick movie. White light coming from something other than the sun bathes her and Mon-El, seemingly both illuminating and obscuring them. The crooning on the soundtrack teeters between mournful and serene. Then, we jolt back to reality. A wide shot reveals Kara hovering over National City. It’s nighttime, and the music has been replaced by the din of traffic.

Of course, it’s supposed to be jarring. Since Mon-El left, Kara hasn’t been herself, keeping her friends at a distance and throwing all her energy into her superhero duties. Not even pot stickers can rouse her. Frustratingly, we experience most of this secondhand, through conversations between the other characters. The main problem of season 2 — our heroine feels incidental to her own story — threatens to persist.

Yet, as the episode progresses, something clicks. If nothing else, it’s always a pleasure to watch Melissa Benoist and Chyler Leigh, who ground the show’s heightened conflicts in authentic emotion. Thanks to them, Kara and Alex’s argument is heartrending, despite not feeling entirely earned. And thanks to Benoist in particular, Kara’s angst doesn’t grate like, say, Barry’s does on The Flash. Simply by setting her face in a certain way, she conveys what the entirety of last season couldn’t: a person at war with the world, even as she strives to save it.

Fortunately, she isn’t alone here. Although director Jesse Warn does stellar work overall (murky underwater dive aside), his use of sound is especially striking. The moments when Kara focuses, the background noise fading until you can isolate a heartbeat, took my breath away. It efficiently and vividly captures her state of mind.

Our favorite couple

The B-plot follows Alex wrestling with a secret concern related to her upcoming wedding with Maggie. Yet again, they take a backseat to Kara and Mon-El, even though the latter pairing is no longer a pair anymore. On one hand, I understand: it’s the season premiere, and Kara is the main character. But it’s disappointing how cursory Alex and Maggie’s relationship feels now after the care that went into setting it up. “Girl of Steel” introduces and resolves their conflict in the space of two scenes.

Having them work things out via comms is cute, though. I’m a sucker for cinematography that uses physical distance to reflect emotional distance.

Bullet points:

• The song during Kara’s dream is “Daydreaming” by Rosa Pullman. The episode closes with “Good for Me” by Aimee Mann.
• Cat Grant is now the White House press secretary, providing not particularly subtle but still welcome topical digs. For example, when discussing the president’s stance on climate change: “I’m happy to report that the intellectual capacity of our president is not inferior to that of an eight-year-old.”
• Lena telling Kara that “I’m here if you still want that” doesn’t mean what it sounds like, does it?
• I wouldn’t be opposed to an episode centered on the National City/Metropolis baseball rivalry.
• There were a lot of good lines, but this one by Lena has to take the cake: “Edge, you have all the charisma of a Michael Douglas movie from the ‘90s.”

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Supergirl airs Mondays at 8 p.m. EST on The CW.