The family drama in this episode is a bit tiresome anyway, especially considering that the secrets shared around the Thanksgiving dinner table reveal that Kara’s and Alex’s family have a longer history with the Department of Extranormal Operations (DEO) and the completely unlikable Hank Henshaw (David Harewood) than had previously been revealed. We’re past the day when we need to speak about such things by metaphor alone. If the writers want to have Supergirl have something important to say about gay rights, give her a strong, intelligent, caring girlfriend and put them in a loving and kind relationship. I’m not saying that’s not possible, mind you, just that equating what Kara has done with “coming out” seems like something of a stretch. It all struck me as a little weird, as if the writers’ are trying too hard to make this bit of escapist entertainment have something relevant to say. But, on the other hand, Kara has worked hard to keep Supergirl’s real identity a secret indeed, she’s established the kind of dual identity that’s usually thought of as the opposite of “coming out”.
Granted, by doing so, Kara has taken a courageous step, one that puts her at risk of rejection by her family and friends, and one that potentially puts her life and safety in jeopardy. “Coming out” is a term that is thrown around pretty liberally in this episode, though it is hard for me to see exactly how Kara’s decision to don the cape and costume made famous by her cousin, Superman, bears much resemblance to what we usually think of as “coming out”. Alex (Chyler Leigh) was worried that her mother, Eliza (played by the original Supergirl, Helen Slater), would be angry that she let Kara “come out” as a super-powered alien. Instead of watching the now unsettling spectacle of Supergirl trying to stop bombs from blowing up National City, “Livewire” moved the action ahead a week so that we could watch Supergirl have Thanksgiving dinner with her family.
It also explains the sick feeling you might have noticed when you settled in to watch another hour of escapist television but found that you couldn’t stop thinking about Paris, politicians, warplanes, and refugees. That explains one cryptic comment from Winn (Jeremy Jordan) about bombs, and it explains the change in relationship dynamics between Kara (Melissa Benoist) and James (Mehcad Brooks). CBS wisely decided to pull the episode that was originally scheduled for air this week, the true fourth episode in the series, because the events depicted in the drama bore too close a resemblance to the horrific real-life events in Paris and Beirut.
If you felt like you were missing something when you watched this week’s episode of CBS’s Supergirl, you were right.
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