Supergirl Faces Tidal Waves On Next Week’s Show
by Erik Amaya
With it’s first storyline seemingly tackled, Supergirl appears to be headed to a villain-of-the-week plot next week. But as this preview for the episode reveals, disaster may still strike every coastal city in the world. Will a new villain unleash a rash of tsunamis the likes of which only Noah and his children lived through?
And, it seems, the first storyline of the year was also a way to phase Jimmy Olsen (Mehcad Brooks) out of the show. Close viewers have known since Comic-Con that the actor was leaving, but we’re pretty pleased with the way Jimmy was written out. Going home, becoming the publisher of the local paper, and trying to stamp out the prison-industrial complex feels very on brand for the character as depicted on Supergirl.
That said, the show always struggled to give both Brooks and Jimmy a proper spotlight. Originally intended as a love interest for Kara (Melissa Benoist) in the first season, he fell victim to the Arrowverse’s inability to write a love interest properly in a show’s debut year. He then pivoted to becoming a superhero in his own right, The Guardian, but that only really worked when he was paired with Winn (Jeremy Jordan) as his “man in the chair.” He was occasionally the champion of social justice as the publisher of CatCo Magazine, which should’ve been his proper role, but some seriously terribly writing at the end of the third season also made it an ill-fit for the character.
At the same time, James Olsen’s discomfort in any role on the show echoed Jimmy’s search for an identity back in the pages of the Superman’s Pal Jimmy Olsen. It’s just a shame the writing staff never consciously saw the connection or worked with that as a running theme.
Nevertheless, we are glad Jimmy avoided the heroic sacrifice and found his best destiny. Meanwhile, we wonder if Lena (Katie McGrath) and Malefic will inadvertently give Leviathan exactly what it wants. Also, why did The Monitor (LaMonica Garrett) release Malefic in the first place?
Supergirl airs Sundays on The CW.
