Supergirl has been a welcome addition to the Arrowverse ever since it debuted in 2015. Fun and optimistic with a fantastic cast, the show got even better when it moved to The CW in season two. Supergirl delved into topics like what it meant to be alien on a planet far from home, using these topics as metaphors to explore real-world issues like immigration. The show also told the story of Kara’s adoptive sister, Alex, coming out sensitively and respectfully. While Supergirl had its flaws, overall it was a pleasure to spend time with the show each week.
Then during its third season Supergirl was put on hiatus for over two months to make time for Legends of Tomorrow to finish its season. When the show returned, things got a little weird. Characters were sidelined, villains were hyped and then quickly dispatched, whole story lines were abandoned, plot points that should have resonated emotionally were brushed past. The show became rushed and uneven. Some of this likely stemmed from behind the scenes drama. The firing of Andrew Kreisberg — one of the people who brought Supergirl to the small screen — during the season surely impacted the writers and producers who create the show’s story. Yet, while Supergirl went off the rails in several ways in the latter half of the season, there’s still room for hope that it can course correct and get back on track in season four. Here are 13 reasons Supergirl stopped making sense this season, and seven ways it’s still working.
20 OFF THE RAILS: SAM'S MOTHER'S PERSONALITY
When Odette Annable’s Samantha was introduced at the beginning of Supergirl’s third season, it became quickly apparent she was more than human. To figure out what was happening, Sam visited her adoptive mother, Patricia. The reunion was tense, to say the least. Patricia had kicked Sam out when she got pregnant as a teenager and they hadn’t seen each other since. Clearly these two had a lot to work out.
Yet, when Sam turned into the season’s villain, Reign, and went after Patricia several episodes later, Patricia’s personality went from brittle and defensive to open-hearted and supportive. When Reign arrived, Patricia was full of contrition for her failures as a mother and the desire to help Sam now, leading to her death at Reign’s hands.
19 OFF THE RAILS: WAIT, SUPERMAN'S WHERE, NOW?
Supergirl introduced Superman to much fanfare in its second season. He showed up in several episodes and was part of Supergirl’s big final battle. This made it clear that Superman was a part of the Supergirl universe and that he would be around to support his cousin when she needed him.
But this season he was nowhere to be found — even when Supergirl was fighting literal Worldkillers. Finally, we got a beat on where he was in the Season 3 finale. He went to save people from a horrific earthquake in Madagascar brought about by Reign’s terraforming of the Earth. Fine, great — but why he didn’t fly himself back to help stop Reign once and for all after the devastation in Madagascar ended is anyone’s guess.
18 ON TRACK: GUARDIAN'S UNMASKING
The amount of time devoted to James Olson and his alter ego Guardian this season was erratic. However, when the character was around, he added a valuable perspective to the mix, especially when it came to his thoughts about who superheroes are behind their masks.
One of James’ conflicts revolved around whether or not he should reveal that he is Guardian. Behind his mask his identity was protected. Yet, he was also aware that the mask took away some of his humanity in the eyes of the people he was helping. Finally in the season finale, he announced he was Guardian, setting up an interesting contrast with Supergirl, who believes it's safer to keep her identity as Kara a secret.
17 OFF THE RAILS: MON-EL AND KARA'S RELATIONSHIP
A lot of viewers weren’t fans of Mon-El when he was introduced in the second season. So when Supergirl had to make the planet uninhabitable to Daxamites in order to save it, many weren’t too sad to see him go. Afterwards, Supergirl had a nice emotional arc grieving the demise of the relationship.
Then Mon-El came back... from the future. He was married, but it was clear he still had feelings for Kara. Then he left again. Then he came back again. Then he and Kara almost kissed. Then by season’s end he decided to leave again to be a hero elsewhere. All the back and forth made the relationship a frustrating will they-won’t they tease.
16 OFF THE RAILS: ALEX IS RELEGATED TO BABYSITTING DUTY
When Alex called off her wedding to Maggie because Maggie didn’t want kids, it was a legitimate response to a situation where two people simply don’t want the same things. Later, Alex realized what she does for a living doesn’t exactly lend itself to family stability. For a while she fretted over what that meant, but when Sam’s daughter Ruby needed help, Alex suddenly dropped everything and took on the role of Ruby’s babysitter.
Alex had been a valuable part of Supergirl’s team, yet her life became totally consumed by caring for Ruby. While it was nice of her to want to help the girl, Ruby is far from a baby and didn’t really need the level of overbearing care Alex provided.
15 ON TRACK: THE HUMOR
Supergirl isn’t afraid to make fun of itself and often tempers its serious moments with touches of levity. For example, when duty calls, instead of tearing off her shirt to reveal her superhero suit, Kara carefully unbuttons her blouse to the confusion of her team. “What, I like this shirt?!” she exclaims by way of explanation.
Even during a big battle in National City, Supergirl manages to make a Star Wars reference. And when Brainy questions her about it she replies, “We never showed you Star Wars? Not a single Star War?” The show’s humor lets the characters be something more than broody heroes carrying the weight of the world on their shoulders.
14 OFF THE RAILS: KARA'S MOM IS ALIVE. WOO HOO?
One of the big revelations this season was that Kara’s mother, Alura, was alive and living on a meteoroid where Argo City had been moved before Krypton exploded. Regardless of the questionable physics of that, the fact that Alura was alive should have been a BIG DEAL. After all, despite her years on Earth and her positive relationships with her human family, Kara clearly still missed her Kryptonian family — especially her mother.
So when Kara and Alura see each other again for the first time in years, the emotional pay-off should have been huge. Instead, it was the opposite of that. The pair smiled and hugged as if it was something that happened all the time. Big emotional moment totally subverted.
13 OFF THE RAILS: CAPE TRICKS
When Supergirl fails to best Reign in battle, she needs to figure out another way to beat her. Enter Mon-El, who reveals that the cape on Supergirl’s suit doesn’t just help with flying and look super-cool, it can also be used to help her fight. These cape techniques give Mon-El an excuse to spend time with Kara as he trains her to use her cape as a sort of secondary appendage.
The whole thing is kind of hokey but pays off when the cape tricks help Supergirl and her team win a fight. After that though, we never see or hear another word about cape fighting. Instead Supergirl’s cape is relegated back to its original purpose, its one moment of glory a now-distant memory.
12 ON TRACK: TOUCHING MOMENTS THAT DELIVER
Although there were several emotional moments that failed to land in Supergirl's third season, typically when the show does touching, it does it very well. For example, when Winn falls prey to the Worldkiller, Pestilence, and gets very sick, he movingly reflects on his life. As he stares death in the face, his revelations about how baggage from his past have held him back and how he thinks he's now ready to achieve greatness become a tear-jerking moment.
In another episode, after James has a run-in with the police his reflections on the liberation that come with no one knowing he's black behind Guardian’s mask were poignant and heartbreaking. Moments like these resonated and put viewers inside the characters’ internal experiences.
11 OFF THE RAILS: PLOT HOLES ON PLOT HOLES
As Supergirl's third season went on, the storytelling got increasingly unconcerned with things like logic and explanations. Instead we were told something was happening because it just was. Solid reasoning isn’t the strong suit of many superhero stories, but things got especially confusing on Supergirl. Sam and Reign split into two people but they still impacted one another.
M’yrnn melded with the Earth to stop Reign from terraforming it, resulting in all the environmental catastrophes being triggered coming to an immediate stop. The Black Rock transported Supergirl and Sam into the Dark Valley on demand. Even the least attentive viewer couldn’t ignore the plot holes that resulted from event after event happening without any clear explanation.
10 OFF THE RAILS: SUPERGIRL GETS ALL SELF-RIGHTEOUS
One of the most puzzling recent developments on Supergirl was how self-righteous Supergirl became towards Lena Luthor who was doing everything in her power to help Sam, Supergirl and her team. When Supergirl learned Lena had figured out how to make Kryptonite she demanded Lena hand over all she had and lose the recipe. Never mind that Lena thought she could use the Kryptonite to help stop Reign.
Later, Supergirl’s distrust of Lena leads her to ask Guardian to infiltrate Lena’s vault to make sure she really got rid of the Kryptonite. Needless to say, Lena is put off by Supergirl’s attitude towards her. Supergirl’s distrust and self-righteousness undermined a previously productive partnership.
9 ON TRACK: METAPHORS AND THE HUMAN EXPERIENCE
Since it began, Supergirl has never let its more fantastic elements keep it from speaking to the human experience. Whether exploring what it was to reveal a hidden part of yourself to your friends or how siblings can learn to be friends, the show has always been grounded by relatable human moments.
This season was no different as Kara debated what it meant to be both Supergirl and Kara. If we’re different people in different situations are we ever really ourselves? It was an interesting meditation on identity that looks to continue into the show's fourth season.
8 OFF THE RAILS: THE BIG NO-KILLING DEBATE
When a superhero vows not to kill their enemies, a situation inevitably comes up where their moral commitment comes up against their mission to save the world. The Worldkillers catalyzed this debate on Supergirl. While Supergirl is strongly opposed to killing, the Worldkillers attempting to terraform the Earth were so strong, killing them seemed like the only option.
In one case, death seemed to work out to the heroes' advantage — when Pestilence dies (although not at Supergirl’s hand) the devastating blight that happens in the future is stopped. Yet, when Supergirl kills Reign, Reign kills Supergirl's friends and family before dying. Supergirl believes agreeing to kill Reign was a mistake in the end. The debate continues…
7 OFF THE RAILS: LENA VS. SUPERGIRL'S SECRET IDENTITY
Lena Luthor is one of the smartest people on Supergirl. Time and again she’s demonstrated her genius, and not just in the lab. Lena’s a savvy business woman, a smart problem-solver, and an observant friend. Given all this, how is it possible that Lena hasn’t figured out that Supergirl is her best friend Kara?
Even when CatCo sends Kara on a "long-term assignment" at the exact same time that Supergirl leaves Earth to live on Argo City with her mother, Lena doesn’t put two and two together. The fact that Kara can trick anyone about her identity simply by wearing glasses has always been silly, but with Lena it’s become especially ridiculous.
6 ON TRACK: INTERESTING, DIFFERENT PERSPECTIVES
Supergirl may be the star of the show, but she’s surrounded by diverse characters whose various perspectives add depth and texture to the show’s stories. The show lets these characters be several different things at once. Alex is a scrappy fighter and a supportive sister. J’onn is a father-figure and a son who longs to learn from his own father. When the characters come together, they build on each other’s strengths and challenge one another in equal measure.
This enables each character to propose perspectives that the others may not have considered. At one point, J’onn even questions Yoda’s wisdom. In order to encourage Kara to keep pursuing a tough fight, he tells her that sometimes trying is all we can do, despite the Jedi Master's claims.
5 OFF THE RAILS: TIME TRAVELING TO FIX PROBLEMS
In the season three finale, Supergirl uses time travel to rewind several minutes in order to undo the deaths of her friends and family. However, if there’s one thing viewers have learned by watching other Arrowverse shows, it’s that time travel is a delicate business. Barry creates a whole different reality on The Flash when he goes back in time to prevent his mother’s murder. And the Legends of Tomorrow are constantly fixing rifts in time that could create problems.
While of course Kara wants to bring her loved ones back, her cavalier attitude towards time travel seems foolhardy. Time travel has consequences. We’ll see what they are for Supergirl when the show resumes next season.
4 OFF THE RAILS: SIDELINED SECONDARY CHARACTERS
Supergirl has a strong ensemble of interesting characters, but many of the characters were sidelined in uninteresting plot lines during big chunks of the third season. J’onn was away from the DEO caring for his ailing father, Alex was away caring for Sam’s daughter Ruby, Lena was trapped in her lab, Winn and James were often nowhere to be found.
The show is at its best when the characters are working together, whether that’s J’onn and Supergirl having a heart-to-heart, Winn and Alex untangling a problem together, or the whole team assembling to figure out how to save the world — or just enjoy game night together. Keeping the characters separate makes the show feel less rich.
3 ON TRACK: FANTASTIC PERFORMANCES
From Melissa Benoist as Supergirl to Mehcad Brooks as James Olson to Chyler Leigh as Alex Danvers and David Harewood as J’onn J’onzz, Supergirl’s cast is full of talented actors. Benoist does a wonderful job embodying the heart of the show, conveying heartbreak and hope to make Supergirl a well-rounded character. The other actors also do a fantastic job creating characters that are complex and fully lived in.
The actors turn in great performances week after week, even when just delivering a line or two. They manage to make sure the essence of their characters remains intact no matter what situation they find themselves in.
2 OFF THE RAILS: PREACHY TOPICS OF THE WEEK
Last season, Supergirl included a heartfelt depiction of Alex’s coming-out story. It earned viewers’ emotional investment, evolving into a meaningful and rewarding plot line. While the show was successful with a real-world topic in this instance, when the show tackled subsequent issues it didn’t work out nearly as well.
In the latter half of season three, the show shoehorned an “important topic” into almost every episode to increasingly diminishing returns. Instead of letting these story lines breathe, they turned into preachy after-school-specials lacking any nuance. This reached its lowest point with Lena and James’ pandering, overly polite debate on gun control. The scene ends with them agreeing to listen to each other — it’s the most cringe-inducing argument for civil discourse ever.
1 ON TRACK: IT'S FUN, PHILOSOPHICAL AND RESONANT
As this list shows, Supergirl certainly has some things it can improve. However, when the show works, it’s well-worth a viewer’s time. Supergirl can be funny, serious, sad, and action-packed — sometimes all in one episode. It can be truly fun and entertaining, while also enabling audiences to consider challenging issues from different perspectives and walk in the shoes of characters that may be nothing like them.
Supergirl is at its best when the story lines build on each other and the ensemble comes together in various configurations. Hopefully we’ll see more of this when Supergirl returns for season four in the fall.