Listener Email: Nature vs. Nurture
26 Apr. 2019

Listener Email: Nature vs. Nurture


Leslie wrote in with some thoughts about the Supergirl season four episode titled “Crime and Punishment” and how this season compares to previous seasons of the show!

I like your idea of exploring nature vs. nurture by the Supergirl writers juxtapositioning young Lex and Lena’s childhoods vs. young Kara and Alex’s childhoods. I think such a storyline would be interesting. I really liked seeing the young Lex and Lena flashback. I also think that Lena is going to go ballistic when she finds out that Lex abused and manipulated Red Daughter into being evil. If Red Daughter finds out that she’s been horribly manipulated, Lex is going to have three strong women (Lena, Supergirl and Red Daughter) exceedingly upset with him.

I know some fans say that the fourth Season of Supergirl is the best ever. I’m not one of them, but Supergirl remains my favorite superhero TV show. My favorite seasons are the first, second, and third seasons in that order.

Despite the many problems I had with the third season, my opinion of that season has gone up because of the storylines in the fourth season. I did not like how the second half of the third season prominently featured Reign and Ruby. I felt that Supergirl was being sidelined on her own show for these other characters. I also felt Supergirl would go for episodes not being particularly successful. Then there was the unnecessary Lena and Supergirl kerfuffle over kryptonite. Compounding the problem in the third season was the fact that Supergirl was beaten to a pulp in part because Alex ill-advisedly told Kara to be “cold,” “Kryptonian,” and “alien.”  Regrettable lines, for sure.

Then, Mon-El, who I mostly liked, returned from the future as a married man. I personally didn’t believe that Supergirl, as a female role model, should have come anywhere close to having an affair with a married man.  Winn was even kind of suggesting that Mon-El pursue this relationship in the episode “Make It Reign.” Thank goodness nothing came of that situation.

Despite these problems for me in the third season, I now enjoy re-watching these third season episodes because, at least, I can count on the episodes making sense. The storylines in the fourth season are problematic – Ben Lockwood and the Children of Liberty and the Alex mindwipe.  Enough already with these two storylines. I don’t know how the presence of aliens and human xenophobic hatred of aliens in the U.S. can be successfully resolved now that the Alien Amnesty Act has been [sic] “repealed,” which the show forgot was a mere Presidential Executive Order. Aliens now have no rights and Lockwood may seek to remove them. But, where are these aliens going to be removed to? The actors’ character portrayals have been tremendous and Melissa Benoist was phenomenal as Red Daughter in “The House of L”, my favorite episode of this season. I also liked the dragon episode, “Call to Action”, “Suspicious Minds”, and “What’s So Funny About Truth, Justice, And The American Way?”. I hope the Supergirl writers can give us some well-crafted and emotionally satisfying final four episodes.

– Leslie

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