I guess I shouldn’t be too surprised at this. If I’m watching a science-fiction show, the first thing I should suspect is them peddling the greatest science-fiction of them all: global warming. Perhaps the CW’s Supergirl thinks I’ll swallow whatever they’re saying better than believing a man (or woman) can fly, but climate change remains just as nonsensical as if it were coming from Bill Nye the (fake) Science Guy.
In Monday’s episode “Changing,” Dr. Rudy Jones (William Mapother) is a climate change scientist who insists that “our planet is being destroyed. And not by any invader or army. By us. Just taking it for granted.”
After being infected by an alien parasite, he soon goes after his opponents who question and refute his research, leading him to be fired by his boss for his “erroneous obsession with climate catastrophes.”
Dr. Jones: The organism seems to be absorbing my red blood cells, rewriting my DNA into something new. We're not two distinct beings any longer. We've become one. One greater than the sum of its parts.
Boss: Jones! You should be at home, resting. After what you have been through.
Dr. Jones: What I've been through is extraordinary. It has energized me to continue my work with a new fervor.
Boss: The world's not going to end overnight. Not today.
Dr. Jones: But one day soon. I'm right about this. The world is changing, and not for the better.
Boss: (Scoffs) Perhaps you better take more than a day off, Dr. Jones. Your erroneous obsession with climate catastrophes might be better indulged at a different institution.
Dr. Jones: You're firing me?Boss: It's not the first time I've had cause.
Dr. Jones: No. No, we don't accept that.
Boss: "We"? You and who else?
Dr. Jones: We.
Eventually, Dr. Jones grows into a mutated creature and plans to attack a climate change skeptics conference until he is stopped by Supergirl (Melissa Benoist). Now, is an alien monster threatening innocent people simply for disagreeing with erroneous science justified? Nope. Yet various characters refer to skeptics as “climate-change deniers” with Winn (Jeremy Jordan) in particular calling them “lots of evildoers in expensive shoes.” Right, they’re the evildoers for questioning phony science even in the midst of being attacked by a monster. They’re really stretching the moral equivalence here.
For good measure, they later have the head of the skeptics conference saying, “The Earth is in peril – not from climate change, but from misguided scientists, and the liberal news media with its Chicken Little pronouncements of the end of the world,” but with this liberal media defending it, that concept may not be so far off from reality. It makes more sense than this show’s “science,” anyway.
Nevertheless, I will admit some schadenfreude in seeing the climate scientist becoming a literal power-hungry creature known as the Parasite. Remember, they said it, not me.
In another useless addition, Supergirl/Kara’s sister Alex (Chyler Leigh) soon discovers her newly developing attraction to police officer Maggie Sawyer (Floriana Lima) and finds that she might actually be a lesbian. Was this a concept in season one? Nope. Does it serve anything in the story? Nope. Is it a totally shoe-horned lesbian plot just for the sake of “tolerance” and “diversity”? Yep. And with that out of the bag, we can only expect it to get worse from here on out.
Kara: So, what's going on? Is something wrong?
Alex: No, no. I, um... (Clears throat) Just, uh... I wanted to talk to you about something. Something about me.
Kara: Alex, whatever it is, you can tell me.
Alex: It's about Maggie.
Kara: Your cop friend.
Alex: She and I started working on a couple of cases together. And, you know, we started hanging out after work. And you know, I... I started, um... Thinking about her. I don't know what that means. I mean... Um... (Clears throat) I started to... Develop feelings... For her.
Kara: Feelings? Like...
Alex: Yeah, those... Those feelings.
Kara: Oh.
Alex: So, Maggie thought that I should... Tell you. And so I did. I just... I just did.
Kara: So... So, she's gay?
Alex: Yeah.
Kara: And, are you saying, you're gay too?
Alex: (Sighs) I don't know. I'm just trying to make sense of it all. It's so complicated.
Kara: Alex, it kind of sounds like you're coming out to me. Have you felt like this before?
Alex: Not like this.
Kara: Have you ever been with a girl?
Alex: No. Never.
Kara: Okay, what's different? I know you haven't been dating much lately...
Alex: This isn't because I haven't found the right guy. I never said it was. I'm just... I'm just trying to understand, okay? You know, I'm up all night, just thinking about it. And if I'm being honest, you know, I realize that... Maybe I've had thoughts like this before. Do you remember my best friend in high school? -Vicki Donahue?
Kara: Yeah, I remember Vicki. You guys had a really bad falling out, right?
Alex: I used to love sleeping over at her house. In her room... In her bed. And I think, uh... I think I felt something then, and it scared me. You know, because... Because next thing I knew, I'm fighting with her over something so stupid. And we just... We just drifted apart. I... I shoved that memory down so deep inside, that... It's like it never happened. I'm remembering stuff like that now.
Kara: So, are you and Maggie like, um... -I mean, do you know if she likes you...
Alex: -I don't know. I... -I don't really want to talk about it anymore.
Kara: Alex.
Of course, Kara accepts the change like a good liberal should. Just like I'm sure the writers are patting themselves on the back with this totally unique and in no way biased storyline. What I’m not sure is how much longer I can take this kind of (social) justice on Supergirl.
