Supergirl: Final Season Premiere Review

The latest game news from IGN - one of my fave channels ever - check it out Warning: this review contains full spoilers for the Season 6 premiere of Supergirl, which kicks off the final season of the Arrowverse series. [poilib element="accentDivider"] The pandemic continues to do a real number on the Arrowverse in 2021. Not only was Supergirl among the many shows forced to end its 2020 season early, now Season 6 is premiering earlier than planned because of Superman & Lois' own COVID-19 production woes. "Rebirth" has the unfortunate burden of both wrapping up Season 5's loose ends and kicking off the show's final year. It's just as well the focus is mostly on the former. Season premiere or not, "Rebirth" definitely plays like the definitive Season 5 finale we were meant to get in 2020. In fact, some of the episode was filmed last year, making it a mostly cohesive fusion of old and new scenes. Lex Luthor has reached the endgame of his plan to make the world love him and become a literal god in the process. Billions of lives hang in the balance, and the odds are badly stacked against Team Supergirl. Not a bad setup for a final good vs. evil showdown. [widget path="global/article/imagegallery" parameters="albumSlug=supergirl-rebirth-gallery&captions=true"] Few would argue that Jon Cryer's Lex isn't one of the best additions to the series in its entire run. The Arrowverse has never had the greatest track record with nuanced villains in the first place, and that's always been a particular weak point with Supergirl. Season 5's Leviathan storyline was no exception, sadly. It's hard to say what it is about Supergirl specifically that encourages such campy, pointlessly over-the-top performances from the actors in these villain roles. That's why it's a relief to see Leviathan and characters like Gamemnae take a back-seat in favor of Lex in his grand moment of triumph. Not that Cryer doesn't chew some scenery himself in this episode. That silly montage showing Lex reveling in his apparent victory definitely ranks as the most enjoyable moment in the premiere. But with Lex, that silliness is balanced out by a real sense of menace and downright malice. In many ways, this is the most comic book-faithful take on Lex we've ever seen in live-action. He's a larger than life evil genius, but he has just enough humanity that you understand why he does what he does and why he ultimately fails. Lex's Achilles heel is the fact that he assumes he's too smart to be outwitted or outflanked. That's something this episode plays with nicely. It also delivers a firm cap to Lex's entire Season 5 arc. He may have helped save the multiverse in Crisis, but purely out of self-interest. And here at the end, we see him come perilously close to making himself into a new Anti-Monitor. This episode also successfully ties up a number of other loose ends from 2020. Alex is finally given a proper superhero name to go along with her power and costume. CatCo is back to being a respected journalistic outlet rather than a cog in a corporate conglomerate. And Brainy, despite that very Wrath of Khan quality to that opening scene, is saved from death and given the chance to repair his relationship with Nia. That latter subplot dovetails nicely with the long-awaited Kara/Lena reconciliation and the idea that secrets are necessary, but so are honesty and transparency. It'll be interesting to see how the all-important Kara/Lena dynamic plays out in Season 6 now that Kara will no longer have to play the flighty reporter to her best friend. Are they still friends at this point? As neatly as everything is tied up in this episode, there is a nagging sense that it's all resolved a little too quickly and too easily. With Leviathan defeated and Lex back to being public enemy number one, there is a certain feeling of "back to the status quo" with the ending. It would have been nice to see Lex's master plan play out for more than one episode before the series veered into true Season 6 territory, with one episode focusing on the race to destroy his satellites and the next expanding on the final confrontation between Lex and Kara. For one thing, with Lex so fixated on remaking the world into one where he's beloved by all, it's a real missed opportunity to not turn the tables and have him see firsthand how the world views him now. [ignvideo url="https://www.ign.com/videos/every-cancelled-and-ending-tv-show-announced-in-2020"] It's hard not to wonder if the decision to shorten Season 5's scope by two episodes (which happened pre-COVID, mind you) might have played a role in making the finale feel more rushed than it might have been otherwise. There's also the question of whether Cryer participated in the second round of filming for this episode, or if director Jesse Warn was forced to make do with existing Lex footage from last year. That may be another hurdle working against "Rebirth." Still, as much this episode seems geared toward resetting the status quo and shuffling Lex off the stage, it does give us one significant plot twist heading into Season 6 proper. Kara is now trapped with the other lost souls inside the Phantom Zone, leaving only some incomplete recording of herself behind. An intriguing development, and one that could theoretically play out for a while. Whatever is coming up in the weeks ahead, the series is going to face an uphill battle topping the past two seasons' worth of Lex Luthor stories.

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