Sunday, May 12, 2019

Supergirl Episode Guide: Season 4, Episode 20 - Will The Real Miss Teschmacher Please Stand Up?

For a summary of the episode guide layout & categories, click here.




Plot

Kara and Lena travel to Kaznia, hoping to catch Lex. Unfortunately, Ms. Teschmacher has a trap set for them - one which may reveal Kara's secret identity to Lena! Meanwhile, Alex gets a long-awaited phone-call, as James learns to master his new superpowers and Ben Lockwood takes command of the DEO in a desperate bid to capture Dreamer and the woman who killed his wife.


Influences

Multiplicity (clones that get dumber with each repeating copy )


Performances

Melissa Beonist does some amazing silent acting as she looks around the Red Daughter's doom. Without saying a word, she perfectly captures Kara's horror at the realization that Lex Luthor knows who she is, that he has been spying on her for months and that she had no clue it was happening. That horror turns to rage, however, as Kara unleashes her heat vision to burn the room and everything in it and you see just how truly outraged she is just looking at her eyes.

We see this again later as Lena is detailing how much Eve Teschmacher's betrayal hurt her and how another friend betraying her would destroy her, just as Kara was about to reveal her secret identity to Lena. Just watch Melissa Beonist's face during that scene and marvel at the conflicting emotions she expresses without saying a word.


Artistry

The scene of Supergirl fighting multiple Miss Teschmachers is effectively blocked and shot to hide all the stunt-doubles in wigs.


Super Trivia

The mother of the baby Alex is given a chance to adopt is said to be in Portsmouth.In the DC Comucs Universe, Portsmouth City, Oregon was the hometown of the third Doctor Mid-Nite, Dr. Pieter Cross.

The alien who killed Lydia Lockwood is identified as a Brevakk. This species grow thorns from their forearms as a defense mechanism. Brevakks were introduced into the Arrowverse in 204.


Technobabble

Lena's jet is the fastest in the world and has military-grade stealth capabilities. It is also entirely automated, flying itself, making its own coffee and cleaning its own toilets.

Lex has an automated system protecting his base in Kaznia that generates purple lightning and sends it against unidentified aircraft approaching the base.

According to Braniac-5, Article 351 Section 6 of the DEO Code of Behavior does not make exceptions for the President's cabinet in regards to accessing classified DEO laboratories.

Kara explains that Kopy didn't truly have the power to clone himself. Instead, he could split his body in two, like a cell, which each new cell capable of doing the same thing. Each cell was more powerful than the one that spawned it, but the clones became increasingly dumb the longer they were separated. This is used to explain Eve Teschmacher's fluctuating intelligence in her various appearances over the course of the series. 

The Harun-El serum which gave James Olsen superpowers was a carefully calibrated, highly refined dose. The serum samples in the DEO lab are unrefined, raw and undiluted.

Lena has an expanding sword concealed in the heel of one of her shoes.


Dialogue Triumphs

(Lena is describing the features her self-designed plane contains.)
Kara: There's no pilot? 
Lena: Well, humans make mistakes. My technology doesn't. Speaking of mistakes, I should have told you about Lex from the beginning. Trust is still a learned skill for me. It doesn't come naturally.

Kara: Well, no matter what, we are always on the same side.

Alex: What I really need is to be able to talk to my sister and she's unreachable. She's in Kaznia.
Kelly: Okay. If Kara was here, what would she say? 
Alex: Okay. If Kara was here, she would tell me that this has always been my dream. And she would say that it's never gonna be the perfect time. And that despite villains on the loose and martial law, this is a gift and it would be sacrilege not to accept it. 
Kelly: Sounds like you have your answer.

Lena: Lex has created the very thing he fears the most - A Kryptonian weapon trained as a killer. And in Lex's hands, it's more dangerous than an atomic bomb. And he has it pointed right at America.
Kara: She is not an it. Lex may have molded her but there has to be some part of Supergirl still in her.

(Ben Lockwood orders the DEO agents he's leading to arrest Dreamer and James Olsen.)
Brainiac-5: No! Each one of us swore an oath to defend this country and its Constitution. The Secretary is asking you to compromise that oath! I urge you -follow your hearts. Not your orders!
(Most of the DEO agents nod and lower their weapons.)

J'onn: You think you have the weight of the world's pain on your shoulders. But you don't. You created this pain, this fear.
Ben Lockwood: You know nothing about me, alien.
J'onn: I am the Martian Manhunter. I know you. And you should know this The last man who stood against me met a downfall all of his own making. 
Ben Lockwood: There will be no downfall. I am the law.
J'onn: For now. But regimes change.

Lena: When I saw Eve, I just saw red. Shot me right back to the initial betrayal. I wasn't thinking clearly.
Kara: You don't have to explain anything to me. I know how much she hurt you.
Lena: Kara! Please! I'm trying to apologize to you.That explosion could have killed you!
Kara: It... it wouldn't have.
(Kara takes her glasses off and stands up. Lena's back is still to her.)
Kara: Lena...
Lena: I don't let my guard down ever. And I did with Eve and she betrayed me. I let her in and she lied to me. Every day. To my face. About who she was. And that's what hurts. I don't... I don't know if I'll ever recover from it. But I know there is no way I could ever trust anyone ever again if it wasn't for your friendship and your integrity. 
(A pained expression comes to Kara's face as she slides her glasses back on.)
Lena: It just...It means the world to me, Kara.
Kara: I'm always gonna be here for you.


Dialogue Disasters

Again, pretty much every line Sam Witwer says as Ben Lockwood, but especially his delivery on this line, in which he seems to be doing the world's worst impression of Al Pacino.

Ben Lockwood: I have an idea. Let's start with James Olsen because I would like to (suddenly shouting) know how the hell (gasping for air, suddenly quieter) he got superpowers.


Continuity


Kara and Lena travel to Kazina on a private jet Lena designed herself.

Kelly Olsen has a bum knee.

Alex gets a call from her adoption agency, informing her that a pregnant teen who is about to give birth has chosen Alex as her #1 pick to adopt her child.

When George Lockwood was nine, he chipped his front tooth just before he was supposed to star in his school play. His mother, Lydia, blacked out her front tooth as a sign of support.

Ben Lockwood leaves in the middle of his wife's funeral to take control of the DEO and put them to work on hunting down Dreamer and the alien woman who killed his wife.

Nia and Brainy test James' new powers at the Fortress of Solitude. He proves to be fireproof.

Nia wants to test James' invulnerability with the solar hammer from 409.

Brainy leaves after receiving word that Ben Lockwood is stomping around the DEO's National City office.

Brainy says that Colonel Haley is in Washington D.C., appealing directly to the President to get Ben Lockwood's security clearance revoked so he can no longer give orders to the DEO.

Lena's plane is attacked by purple lightning, which forces it to make an emergency landing.

Kara has to leave the plane to help it land safely.

Lena and Kara discover that Lex had been abducting aliens from the DEO desert base and experimenting on them in Kazina to isolate their respective superpowers.

Alex has 12 hours to decide if she wants to adopt this particular child or not.

Ben Lockwood discovers that Lena Luthor had been working with the DEO and had a lab assigned to her personal use. He shoots out the glass in the window to access it after Brainiac-5 seals the entrances to it.

Kara finds out that one of the aliens Lex experimented on was Kopy - an alien criminal with the power to split himself like a cell, who was captured by the DEO after he was mind-controlled into attacking a carnival in 404.

Kara and Lena find Eve Teschmacher hiding in a closet. She claims to still love them both but says she loves Lex more. She claims he loves her too, but Lena is skeptical.

Alex and Kelly go to Portsmouth, to be ready once the mother of the baby Alex might adopt gives birth.

Ben Lockwood is confronted by his son, George, who is upset his father left him alone at Lydia Lockwood's funeral. Ben apologizes, but says that catching the alien who killed his wife is more important.

The mother says she doesn't want to meet Alex until after the delivery is over.

Eve says that someone high up in the government authorized the transfer of DEO prisoners to Lex but she isn't sure who.

Eve leaves Lena and Kara to a lab which contains Harun-El samples and Kryptonite. They also discover a map showing the Kaznian military plan to invade the United States.

Kara also finds the video footage and computer data detailing Lex's work with the Red Daughter.

The mother apparently talked to a priest at the urging of her grandparents and decided to keep her baby, just as Alex had come to peace with the decision to have a child.

Eve Teschmacher is revealed to have been given Kopy's powers, allowing her to split off into multiple copies of herself.

Eve activates the self-destruct on the Kaznian base, giving Lena and Kara ten minutes to escape.

Ben Lockwood discovers the early Harun-El formula samples in Lena's lab at the DEO.

Lockwood pockets one sample, after Brainiac-5 warns him that those doses are raw, undiluted versions of the serum and that they will, in all likelihood, kill anyone injected with them.

While fleeing the Kaznian base, Kara discovers the Red Daughter's room and how it is decorated with photos of Kara and her friends. She also finds the Red Daughter's diary, which uses a picture of Kara and Alex as a bookmark.

Kara stops Lena before she can see the room. She then runs back and sets the room on fire with her heat vision, burning its contents.

Ben Lockwood leads the raid that captures his wife's killer. She is discovered hiding in a shelter for alien refugees. He orders everyone else in the shelter be detained for enhanced integration, despite none of them showing any sign they knew who she was or having committed any other crimes.

Lena discovers that the transfer orders for the alien criminals held at the DEO desert base were signed by Sarah Walker - the Chief of Staff for President Baker.

Brainiac-5 refuses to follow the order to arrest Dreamer and James Olsen. He gets several of the other DEO agents to stand down as well.

Ben Lockwood injects himself with the unrefined Harun-El after the DEO agents refuse to attack Dreamer on his order.

Ben Lockwood is about to stomp through James Olsen's chest, but is stopped by Martian Manhunter.

Lena is saved from being impaled by her own sword after Eve stabs through her jacket and hits Kara's tape recorder. 

J'onn throws Ben Lockwood into a tanker truck. This slows him down as they evacuate the alien refugees.

The Eve Teschmacher Lena fought in the plane disappears, indicating she wasn't the real Eve.

Kara is able to escape the exploding Kaznian base with papers proving what Lex was doing on behalf of the Kaznian government, with the aid of American politicians. 

Kara almost reveals her secret identity to Lena, but stops after Lena reveals how much Eve's betrayal hurt and how she isn't sure she could handle the idea that another close friend had lied to her.

Kelly Olsen was secretly engaged to her Sargent, but she died while serving overseas. 

George Lockwood tells off his father for putting hunting down his wife's killer over being ther to honor her memory and blames him and his war on aliens for getting her killed. He says that he hates him and will never forgive him.

Kara reports on what she discovered about Lex Luthor and the Red Daughter to James.

Kara says she fully intends to tell Lena the truth about her secret identity as soon as Lex Luthor is behind bars, even if it ends with Lena hating her.

Kara arranges a private meeting with President Baker to inform him of what she discovered about Lex Luthor manipulating his Chief of Staff and the DEO.

President Baker now has a piece of Kryptonite in his office to protect against Kryptonians. 

After Kara says that nobody else knows about what she's discovered, President Baker orders a bag to be thrown over her head. The episode ends with Kara apparently being imprisoned. 


Location

Fortress of Solitude
Kaznia - Lex Luthor's Secret Base
Portsmouth
Washington D.C.


The Kryptonite Factor

James, Dreamer and Brainiac-5 are wholly ineffective against an empowered Ben Lockwood, even though Brainiac-5 is an experienced Legionnaire and James is a vigilante who should know something of the tactics Superman and Kara use when utilizing their powers. This is done to give Martian Manhunter a more impressive entrance when he shows up to save everyone.


The Bottom Line


The parts with Kara and Lena together are pure magic. J'onn's return is well-handled even if the whole thing is a big deus ex machina. Alex's subplot, while feeling tacked on, at least doesn't feel like a distraction. Even Kelly Olsen's speech at the end about second chances isn't bad and it's the best bit of material she's gotten all season. Unfortunately, Ben Lockwood is an incredibly hammy villain who is given far too much credit by the script in order to establish him as a threat. Ultimately, he feels like the real distraction from the larger plot with Lex and President Baker. Thankfully, it looks like next week will bring things back to Lex and the Red Daughter.

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