Supergirl: Daddy’s Home

Some comic book humor
 from Instagram Search Meme

     In a brilliant casting turn, last year’s Supergirl pilot brought in former TV Superman Dean Cain playing Kara’s earth father, Dr.  Jeremiah Danvers. Of all the parents that face their grown children in this show, Dr. Danvers is by far the one with the most baggage (see comparison below). In a convenient plot twist, Dr. Danvers appeared in a few flashbacks because he died in an “accident.” Later in the first season, Kara (alias Supergirl, played by (Melissa Benoist) and her adoptive sister Alex (Chyler Leigh) discovered their dad was still alive, held captive for over 13 years by a top-secret organization called  Cadmius. I had to look it up, but Cadimus is a top-secret genetic engineering project, for those of us not up on our comic book lore.  The women also learned that their dad was part of the same alien protection agency (DEO for short) that the sisters joined to protect earth from bad aliens. Kara, recently kidnapped by Cadimus to drain her powers, was freed from the compound by dead old dad. It was only a matter of time before we saw him again. This week, Jeremiah escapes the organization's convoy and comes home.

     Dr. Danvers is eager to jump back into his family life. A family dinner was called with wife Eliza, the girls, and their beaus, Mon-El (Chris Woods for Kara) and Maggie (Floriana Lima for Alex), Mama Danvers makes things very clear to her estranged husband. He’s been missing for a decade and  half, and they can’t just pick up where they left off.  Dr. Danvers is also physically limited from his previous work. He is missing a hand, a punishment for helping Kara and Mon-El escape.  Dr. Danvers asks to come back to the DEO, and his old friend Director Henshaw (the delightful David Harewood)  invites him back with open arms. The two have a very interesting past.*

     The gentleman working at the DEO ( Mon-El and Kara's friend Winn) both are overly suspicious that Dr. Danvers is a spy. The sisters refuse to believe their dad would betray them, even though he was held captive and possibly brainwashed  for almost 15 years. For those of us that loosely understand the Superman folklore, Cadimus is evil. The group wants to rid earth of aliens and it's run by the mother of all baddies, (literally) Lillian Luthor. The big action is that Cadimus was supposed to be transporting a chemical bomb when Dr. Danvers escaped. The bomb used Kara's power from her captivity and it will blow up the whole city if the DEO can't stop it. Of course, Dr. Danvers was corrupted by Cadimus and is stealing information from the DEO to help Cadimus. Most importantly, he accesses the master list of all aliens on earth. I'm sure the same list could be put together just walking into the local alien bar (which reminds me of  Angel's demon karaoke bar Caritas). In the last minutes of the show, Kara stops a train from crashing, after the bomb blew up the train track over a ravine. (Back to the Future much?) Alex confronts her father for stealing from the DEO, but lets him escape because she cannot deal with bringing him in for punishment. It's heartbreaking, it's real, and it's not over yet. Tonight we should get more closure on the issue, but I cannot see how Dr. Danvers will ever be a good guy again.  Here is how Dr. Danvers fares against other parents on the show:

Kara’s real alien parents:

     Kara Zor-El’s mom and dad were wise rulers back on the planet of Krypton. Kara held them in high regard and would reach out to their holograms in season 1 when she found trouble on earth . Being sent away from her home as a pre-teen, Kara had issues opening up to people. She finally had the opportunity to get together with her pal James (Jimmy) Olsen (Mechad Brooks)  toward the end of last season, but she abruptly changed her mind and walked away. I’m going to chalk this departure up to psychological trauma and abandonment issues.  Despite her lovely earth family and the resilient Mrs. Doctor Danvers, Kara formed a close parental attachment to her boss, Cat Grant (Calista Flockhart). Ms. Grant called Kara by the wrong name, sent her on stupid assignments and chastised her for disappearing in the middle of the day. Secretly, I think she knew Kara was always a bit distracted because she was out saving the city. Ms. Grant took an abrupt sabbatical from her company at the beginning of this season, ruining everything. She promoted Kara from assistant to reporter and Supergirl has been super lost all season. 

     In other disturbing family news, Kara’s alien prison escapee Aunt Astra (Laura Berlanti) came to earth last season to bring eco-terrorism! Through many fights, Kara’s feeling about her parents got taken down a peg. Were they as perfect and just as they claimed to be back home? It also didn’t help that Astra was Kara’s mom’s identical twin. It gave me enough of the heebie jeebies, I imagine it was a head trip for Supergirl as well. In last season’s battle royale, Alex killed Astra, leaving her adopted sister with no other blood relatives. This messed with Kara’s head to the point that being trapped in delusion of being on her home planet sounded better than reality.  Astra’s creepy husband came earlier this season for revenge, and the group had to take him down as well. This left me with big questions: 

What is the Zor-El side of the family tree like? 

Will we ever see Supeman’s alien parents? Are they nice?

Is Kara's dad named Zor-El Zor-El? 

General Lane, Dad of Lucy and Lois:    
     General Lane is not a nice man, much like the real Hank Henshaw. He is an army general with a heart of steel. He made life for Supergirl very difficult, vehemently opposing aliens and refusing to accept her help in taking down some very bad creatures. We are left with the impression that he barely speaks to eldest daughter (and Superman's gal) Lois. His younger daughter Lucy (Jenna Dewan Tatum) joined the family practice, becoming a lawyer for the army. He forced Supergirl to fight an army-created android, and took over the DEO, torturing alien prisoners. When Lucy learned Kara was Supergirl, she wanted her dad to lighten up, but he could not change his thinking about aliens. These daddy issues made things between Lucy and James rough at a time when we were all rooting for them to break up and James to declare his love to Kara. By the time it happened, Kara's issues got in the way and Lucy left the gang.

Winslow Schott Sr., Winn's Dad    
     Winn's dad is a literal mad scientist. The brilliant Henry Czerny (Revenge) played the jailbird with ease. Also known as Toyman, Winn Sr. weaponized toys to make them do evil things. He tried to get Winn to help him, but he turned him down and helped capture him. 

Cat Grant, Adam's Mom
     Cat revealed to Kara that she is the mother of two sons. Kara gets stuck babysitting the precocious tween Carter while Cat goes out of town, but she later learns Cat has another son. Cat gave up Adam for adoption when she was about 20 and she has always felt bad about never reaching out to her son and building a relationship with him. Kara tracks down Adam and reunites the pair, and the begins dating Adam. It all ends badly, the pair break up and Cat goes back to being tough on Kara.

Lillian Luthor, Lena and Lex's Mom
     Two episodes ago, we got a deep dive into the backstory of the Luthor family. Off-screen Lex Luthor (a known nemesis of Superman) is criminally insane and rotting in jail. His younger sister Lena (new to the cast this season)  and has taken over the family business Lexcorp to try to rebuild and re-brand. It was revealed that Lena was an illegitimate child, taken in and raised as a proper Luthor. Lillian (Brenda Strong) was against the idea, and she always cared more for her biological son than her adopted daughter.  Lena was offered her mother's love once this season, but turned it down and helped put her in jail for her sketchy criminal activities. Remember, this woman is the head of Cadimus. Lena was recently framed for breaking her mother out of jail, but Supergirl helped prove her innocence because the two have developed a sweet friendship. Kara and Lena also have a lovely reporter/subject relationship that has developed, which may take the place of Lena's crappy family.  

The Henshaw/Danvers connection:
* Dr. Danvers and the real Hank Henshaw were members of the Department of Extra-Normal Operations. The pair went out to retrieve a martin as part of their DEO assignment. Henshaw, a cruel human that hated all aliens, died on the mission. The martian (J'onn J'onzz) assumed Henshaw's physical form, bringing about a friendlier DEO. From then on, the DEO set out not only to capture aliens, but to assist good aliens like Kara and her cousin Clark.

The X-Files Reboot: I Want to Believe But What Are We Believing? (SPOILERS!)

A.K.A.- Our Kid Is Out There

     To be honest, I wasn’t sure what to think of the new miniseries style season (number 10) of The X-Files. It took me watching this to realize how much Fox put into BONES, which picked up where X-Files left off in a way, but with a fuller story arc. They took it one step further- they fell in love, admitted it, had kids, got married, tried to leave the FBI behind, and came crawling back to solve crime (Booth and Bones, not Mulder and Scully).

      In its essence, I liked the new season, which ended last Monday. Still it lacked a district style of storytelling, almost like they had a group of writers throw some ideas at the wall, and then they used all of the ideas, and went home and realized they had to tie the initial story back together. Let it be known, I like the monster of the week concept of storytelling with a longer issue/villain at work (See Buffy, Charmed etc..), but it’s tough to do in a month+ of episodes. The overall (and barely legitimate) story tying things together is that first Scully and then Mulder realize they might have made a big mistake in giving up their son, William. Little William could have had a normal life with them (as normal as a kid of alien hunting FBI agents can do), but they were worried for his safety and they gave him up. He is a teenager now and they desperately need him to fill the hole in their hearts and (SPOILER ALERT!!) to save Mulder from dying of a weird apocalyptic disease.  Also, from the last scene setup, it is clear something else (another season or a third X-Files movie) is in the works with their son making his first real appearance since birth.

     Season 1’s opening episode My Struggle: Part 1 was truly Fox Mulder's (David Duchovny) story. The last 14 years have not been kind to him. It looks like he has struggled with drinking and got thrown out of any respect in the FBI, and he still lurks in a basement office.  He and ex-partner (in more ways than one) Dana Scully (Gillian Anderson) have not seen each other in a while, and they have not lived happily ever after as a couple like one might hope. Scully is doing what she does best, running a hospital lab. Joel McHale’s TV pundit Tad O'Malley brings a case to them: a possible government conspiracy and a woman who claims she was abducted by aliens.

     In today’s society, government cover-ups seem less like the idea of a sci-fi story and more like an everyday practice. What could it be this time?  This one's a doozy. People may have been abducted by UFOs (real alien technology borrowed by the government) and unwillingly become part of secret experiment s that gives them alien DNA. Now that we’re all caught up, Mulder and Scully get back to working for Agent Skinner and trying to make sense of this seemingly bogus threat. As Tad points out; the world has changed. All of our seemingly private conversations are listened to, everything is hacked, and biological warfare threatens the very existence of civilization.

EP 2: Founder’s Mutation

     A series of events lands the duo in trouble with the department of defense for investigating a creepy clinic where pregnant teen girls seek haven. It turns out their babies are being stolen from girls' wombs and experimented on by a doctor (Goldman, a.k.a "The Founder") who did the very same experiments on his own kids' genetics, keeping his daughter locked up for years in a facility and his wife convinced she's crazy.  This girl has Alex Mack style powers. She's just about the same age as William. Goldman's son ends up locating his daughter and they use their super powers to kill their dad and escape. Ah, the joys of parenting...

EP3: Mulder and Scully Meet The Were-Monster

     A dead boy is found in the woods. Maybe he was killed by a bear, a wolf, a vampire... or a were-monster?  Yes, there's a difference. This is one of the odder episodes and it veered way off course from even the alien mythology. Mulder and Scully meet the monster and Mulder gets his whole story: "Guy" was bitten by a human, changing his lizard-like appearance human for certain hours until he turns back into a flesh-eating monster. The only legitimate thing about this episode was Mulder getting some renewed faith in his wacky theories. This is barely a plot point. This episode was really frivolous. 

EP4: Home Again

     Scully's mom is ill and she rushes to be by her side. Mulder handles most of the investigating for the case, a murder of a city official bent on getting the homeless out of a particular area of town. "Trahman", a street artist made a creation of garbage and it came to life, murdering the city official and others. This is heavy on metaphor here- what you build may come back and destroy everything. Scully's mom was heavy on straight talk. She calls of for Scully's long-lost brother William, and tells Mulder, "I have a son named William. You do too." before her final breath. 

EP 5: Babylon

Mulder in "Babylon"- from Fox

     Mulder and Scully meet a pair of partners at the FBI (Still not Booth and Bones, although I see huge crossover potential) while trying to connect to an unconscious surviving bomber to find the rest of his crew.  Agent Miller is just like Mulder, diving into conspiracy theories, and Agent Einstein is a female doctor working with the FBI to bring logic and reasoning to the team. It's basically a blast from the past here. Scully and Miller team up, with Arabic expert Miller communicating and Scully checking the bomber for brain wave functioning.

     Mulder reluctantly gets Dr. Einstein to go with his plan, where she administers him a psychotropic drug and he dream walks into the bomber's subconscious. The reality of the situation is that Mulder thinks he takes 'shrooms and ends up having a fake trip (or was it somehow real?) in Texas, dancing in a honky tonk to the best of Billy Ray Cyrus. This scene was very amusing and I loved it, but it really did eat away at some valuable minutes of the show. Mulder gets in big trouble with Agent Skinner, but his trippy dream led him to the answer : a hotel name in Arabic and some much needed to closure to the bomber's mom that he was coerced into joining the group. Mulder may have seen God in his dreams, depending on how you interpret the white clouds and trippy sense of peace he found. Maybe he became more of Scully's believer, one of faith versus one of aliens and conspiracies.

EP6: My Struggle (Part 2) 

     Episode 6 is Scully's struggle. Gillian Anderson carries most of the episode, with Mulder kidnapped by the "Smoking Man" (who is his birth father, and still alive after all these years?!). Mulder is pretty beaten and bruised and according to his phone, somewhere in South Carolina. Agent Miller goes off to rescue him while Agent Einstein helps Scully try to make sense of the rapid illnesses taking control of the population. Deadly outbreaks of disease start spreading and Tad O'Malley finally has the courage to go on TV and announce all of his crazy theories about aliens and government cover-ups because everyone is probably dying. Everyone except Scully. Why? She was given alien D.N.A. when she was abducted years ago (in Season 6). Agent Reyes started helping the Cigarette Smoking Man  (his proper name) almost 14 years ago with this terrible plan to wipe all the crappy people off the earth, leaving only people with alien D.N.A. alive. Why? No reason, he's just evil.... How did people get alien D.N.A? Abductions like Scully. How did they get sick, vaccinations (score one for Jennie McCarthy here).
   
     CSM asks Mulder is he wants some alien D.N.A. to survive, and he says no. Mulder is rescued by Agent Miller and they drive back to D.C. Scully chases them through the beltway, which is stopped dead with traffic because so many people are ill. Scully has a plan, we'll find William, their long-lost son, who will have her same resistant alien D.N.A., and give some to his dad, Mulder. Then a space ship appears overhead and shines its lights on them. END SCENE....

THE END
     This is how they're leaving it... for now. All of these silly monsters and telekinetic kids and dancing to Honky Tonk Badonkadonk, and then a possible alien invasion and cute kids playing Mulder and Skully junior.  Now the pair want to go find their son, and Mulder is half-dead. Way to go Scully..... This brings an end to my rant. I can't believe where this trajectory landed. I'm also happy to report the advent of cell phones makes things so much easier in these police/emergency drama/ evil creature shows now. #TruthIsOutThere