2 Responses

1. Courtney says:

   March 7, 2019 at 11:17 pm

   Great podcast, Rebecca, Morgan and Andy!
   Lots of thoughts on your thoughts and the episode 😉

   I was under the impression that this satellite had no communication capabilities. I assumed they had other satellites out there that allows for communication and observation of incoming spacecraft. I thought it was just a giant laser in space. Like how the DEO had that giant gun on top during the Daxamite invasion. I do understand that he’s trying to protect the people of Earth but since it involves all of Earth, did he talk with the UN about this or even the citizens. Was it built with tax dollars? I don’t care that Kara destroyed the satellite because it’s a giant gun that can be redirected by any skilled hacker to shoot at any country on earth. It’s Global Thermalnuclear Warfare times infinity. Where’s Matthew Broderick? Besides Baker doesn’t speak for the whole world but I guess he does agree with Marsdin in that respect since she kinda spoke for the whole world when she addressed Queen Rhea.

   The hackable satellite leads me to what Andy said about “A satellite that’s corruptible.” I agree with him but couldn’t the same be said about a super powered alien? Which goes with Kara’s hubris when she tells Baker “That’s why you have me”. I cringed at that. We hope that Kara won’t be corrupted and she probably isn’t going to be since that goes against her character but the ordinary citizen would worry about that. She’s already shown she can be affected by Red K.

   But back to the satellite, it’s already been shown that someone can come in and hack it and redirect the laser so it’s probably a bad idea to have this. The thing that interests me is that did no one see this giant beam of light go shooting into, what, the reflection pool by the Washington Monument? I mean, people made a big fuss over some transformer blowing in NY causing a blue light in the sky and the launch of Space X causes a ruckus. I’m pretty sure someone noticed a large beam coming from the sky.

   I’m confused with Baker’s stance with Lockwood. First, he wanted him to go away so his [Baker’s] polls go up. So he lets him out of jail because of a loophole. I thought, “Ok maybe he’ll just disappear.” That seemed to be what I thought Baker was hoping for. But he still KILLED aliens! Did they not connect his role with the aliens in the carnival or did they think that was all the Graves siblings? Because that would be considered INCITING TERROR on humans. Unless they’re just putting that plot into the magic hat. Despite that, you still have evidence of him killing aliens. They might not consider that an act or terrorism under the Patriot Act but it’s a case of “Cool story, but still murder.” They haven’t passed any legislature denying aliens any rights as sentient beings, have they?

   Then suddenly Baker is having a photo op with Lockwood…for what purpose? Even Lockwood seemed confused and possibly annoyed. Next Baker just ramps up the confusion by appointing Lockwood as Director of Alien Affairs. What does the Director of Alien Affairs do? Since when did they even have this department? Is this in lieu of the DEO? Is the DEO being replaced? Is it For or Against Aliens? Is he an ambassador between humans and aliens? Clearly, that’s not really how Lockwood works so what exactly is its purpose???

   We already know Baker is shady and a bad politician but you’d think he’d be a bit more neutral and not pick sides so fast especially since he ran on the Marsdin ticket. Whatevs. 🤷🏻‍♀️

   I have to disagree with Rebecca saying how the Children of Liberty are also targets. They wouldn’t be targets if they weren’t out there killing aliens without prejudice. Yes, there are some bad aliens but there are also a bunch of good aliens but they are ALL being targeted just for being an alien. The Children of Liberty are only targets because they make themselves out to be, not because they were born on another planet.

   About the Daft Punk suit and Alex’s memories…let’s just chalk it up to being in the Hat. This is what bothered me about Alex’s initial mind wipe and her intense negative opinion of Supergirl because she went from I’m assuming her mind wipe revised memory of “OMG Not Kara-Supergirl is dying! We must save her.” to “We don’t just take your word anymore Supergirl.” (From the Nia episode). This is why it doesn’t make any sense. At least it’s sort of calming down with her interactions with Supergirl and Alex’s attitude toward her, like when she told Haley Supergirl isn’t the enemy or when she’s willing to listen to her in this episode. It seems like a more natural progression of Alex and Supergirl having a professional relationship without the knowledge of her being Kara. Basically it’s how the Supergirl show would’ve been from the beginning of she didn’t know her sister was the hero and they just grew to having a working partnership through the years. As long as we just forget any of the pivotal moments they’ve had together BECAUSE Supergirl was Kara and Alex was worried for her sister. Forget all of that and everything makes sense minus the “we don’t take your word anymore Supergirl.” I can’t get over that because they act like Supergirl hadn’t been saving the city for the past 3 seasons—that never changed whether we know she and Kara are the same or not. Either you appreciate a hero or not. RIP common sense.

   You guys didn’t bring up the regional Children of Liberty leaders and I thought that was a little interesting. Only because it looked like there was displeasure between them and Lockwood. Though the whole bit with them was a little confusing. Before we knew Lockwood was going to be the Director of Alien Affairs, I thought the whole odd interaction he had with Baker followed by the Children of Liberty, that Lockwood would become disillusioned with them and become more like his comic counterpart which would include getting his JETPACK! But alas, he, I think, may have killed that guy with his mask and is now back to leading the Children of Liberty. How does that jive with him being Director of Alien Affairs though?

   And did you guys noticed when he called his wife, he was actually talking to her voicemail? He seemed really disappointed as if he hasn’t spoken with her for a long time during his trip to DC. I would think she would pick up his call right away. Is she avoiding his calls? Or am I reading too much into this?

2. Rebecca Johnson says:

   March 9, 2019 at 8:37 am

   Hi, Courtney!

   Good point about whether or not the satellite would have had communication capabilities. I would assume that if you spent all that money to build something to shoot out into space, you’d want to have some kind of communication technology designed inside it. But, who knows? That thing was put together pretty quickly! I still maintain that a satellite to monitor incoming interstellar visitors is a good idea (shoot, the Justice League do it with the Watchtower!), but if it was only there to shoot down ships? There’s a lot to debate about that because theoretically, not all aliens would come with the express purpose to invade and take over Earth (these have happened offscreen and out of continuity with how the show developed aliens in Season 1). But, then again, the only aliens we’ve actually seen arrive on Earth never came in peace.

   I actually wish that if the show was going to dive into these topical storylines, that they’d at least, explore that debate with more detail. It’s one of the reasons I love Batman v. Superman: Dawn of Justice so much. It takes the existence of an alien seriously and gives humanity the chance to hash that out.

   I had totally forgotten about the DEO’s giant gun. Seems like that should have been mentioned at some point, huh?

   If the show was consistent and structured this season (sadly, I would argue that it’s all over the place), it would have tried to play on the idea that Supergirl COULD be corruptible (which is a great point to bring up) through Red Daughter. She could be the example of possibly seeing a Supergirl who is trained with different values.

   As much as I hate to remember the punk way Mercy Graves was killed off this show, I do think it’s worth pointing out that Mercy and Otis were killed by an alien. If I am to believe this was the same Hellgrammite from Season 1, wasn’t he a criminal from Fort Rozz? One could argue that Mercy got what was coming to her for going after aliens, but at the same time, she was only going after them because she considered them to be a threat to the world (which could also be argued given that a lot of them are violent and don’t abide by Earth’s laws and rules).

   That’s why I argued that the Children of Liberty were also being targeted. Manchester Black and The Elite have gathered together to hunt people like The Children of Liberty down. They think it’s a righteous cause to kill people who don’t like aliens, but aren’t they still murdering people and breaking the laws of the land? I’d say yes. Just because you think someone is hateful and you don’t like that they have also killed people (which The Children of Liberty want to do to aliens), that doesn’t give you the right to go around killin’ people. The Children of Liberty have done hateful, awful things and they should be punished for them. But, in my view, those things need to be handled in the right way. Let the DEO catch them and let the state prosecute them.

   If Lockwood working for the government and President Baker leads to Agent Liberty getting a jetpack, maybe this whole storyline would be worth it.

   I don’t know if we can read too much about Ben Lockwood’s voicemail. Lydia, his wife, seems dedicated to the cause now and fully backs her husband so I imagine she just couldn’t answer her phone at the time.

   The mindwipe never made sense. It doesn’t currently make sense. And it will never make sense. If we put it in Hat’s hat, I think we would all sleep a little better, our skin would clear up, and our stress levels would go down. 🙂

   Thanks for listening and leaving such a thorough comment! You raised a lot of great points!