Supergirl “Childish Things” Review By Kevin Morrison
Life is Not a Toy
A new villain and some surprising back story for Winn shows up this week on Supergirl! The Toyman has arrived, broken out of jail and has a plan to destroy the toy competition. He also so happens to be Winn’s father.
Winn has been a character that has sorely been lacking character other than the “geek secretly in love with Supergirl” type. This episode fixes all of that and does so in very smart ways. Winn reveals that his father was angry all the time and eventually became the villain the Toyman, thus getting himself arrested. Now that he has escaped, he tries to lure Winn to join him in his bad plans and Winn must stand up to his own dad.
The lessons Winn learns here make him more relatable and also a good parallel to Supergirl. While Kara is trying to figure out who she should be, that is being a hero, Winn is trying to figure out whether or not he will end up like his dad, that is being a villain. The relationship between Kara and Winn also becomes more interesting and their love for each other is tested, especially in an important, touching moment when Kara reassures Winn that she needs him.
The side-story here involves Maxwell Lord and Alex Danvers. Alex decides to try and get to know Lord a bit more by joining him for a candlelit dinner. It’s great to see Alex doing more and these scenes are effective but more in the over all story arc and not in the story in this episode, which is fine. I just hope I get to see Maxwell Lord as more than a 99 cent Lex Luthor by the end of the season (which, due to one of the reveals in this episode, is a good possibility).
Supergirl still provides great excitement and good action, as well as great characters that we can relate to easily despite the superpowers. There is a great exciting scene where Supergirl gets shot multiple times and the bullets reflect off her like bouncy balls, very fun and greatly effective. Not only are the characters pretty great, the special effects seem to be top notch for television and the whole environment is warm and feels much like a positive comic book. Now that Winn has become a good character, let’s see what other stories they have in store for us.
Fun Notes (SPOILERS!):
-It was fun to see Martian Manhunter flying with Supergirl in the beginning! I hope to see more of that.
-I am wondering what is up with Maxwell Lord. It would be neat to see him become another alien, that would add good tension and be a bit different from the typical Superman villain.
-Alex is great, I’m glad she is getting more to do.
-OH COME ON! We know Winn and Kara are gonna get together, especially since Lucy and Jimmy are together. We just have to wait…
