Final Season of Supergirl Lands on Blu-ray

The Supergirl series is one that will be remembered as beginning with an entertaining, if light, introductory season, before spiralling uncontrollably into overworked, overwrought, identity-driven episodes. And, like most CW shows, once the series migrated from NBC to the CW, it was yet another opportunity for a lead character to take a back seat to a team of lesser heroes loosely based on other DC Comics trademarks.

The sixth season opens with what would have been the final episodes of the fifth season, cut short for Covid precautions. Kara (Melissa Benoist) must face down a now god-level Lex Luthor (Jon Cryer), sacrificing herself to the Phantom Zone, where she remains for a few episodes until her friends get her out.

But Supergirl isn't the only one to escape the Phantom Zone. A 5th-dimensional imp princess, Nxylgsptinz (Pete Sergeant) also makes it out, and she's got a revenge plan for the patriarchical decisions that placed her in the zone. This plan first involves capturing Mr. Mxyzptlk, and then beginning a quest for a collection of totems of power that, when brought together, form the "AllStone" which grants the holder omnipotence. If you're thinking you've seen this already in Crisis on Infinite Earths or Avengers: Infinity War, you're pretty much correct. The race is on the rest of the season to see who can collect the most and prevent Nyxlie and, it turns out, Lex from getting the stone for themselves.

What's distracting in this whole season is the blunt delivery of messages. Once again witches are 'misunderstood' as an allegory for feminism. Lena Luthor (Katie McGrath), a woman of science, discovers she is descended from witches and with a few Cliff Notes from Hogwarts finds herself weilding magical powers alongside the rest of the super heroes.

Dreamer, aka Nia Nal (Nicole Maines), the reason behind Nyxlie's initial escape, takes on the task of finding the Dream Totem, putting her in conflict once again with her sister, Maeve (Hannah James), who still feels slighted that she didn't get the family dreaming power, as it is passed down matriarchally (Nia is transgender). They wander a dreamscape for the stone, lost in a forest of dream spires with yonic-shaped entrances until they find it.

In the background, the super team is facing a public relations battle because their actions have been removing personal liberties of civilians, such as placing a protective dome over a part of the city in order to trap a dream monster until they can figure out how to send it back. Learning that they are making fascist decisions with good intent is part of the story, but they never really face any repercussions for any of their actions -- they just mutter an apology and fly off to the next thing.

Kara's sister, Alex (Chyler Leigh), takes on a costumed identity of her own this season, carrying a device that allows her to pull weapons out of thin air. J'onn J'onzz (David Harewood) christens her Sentinel, and shows her a symbol of warrior of Old Mars who used that name. The symbol is crudely engraved on a bar of metal that he then places in a ready-made slot where other bars are placed, each engraved with the symbol of one of the Super Friends, officially inducting Sentinel as a team member. (The symbols would have looked a lot better if they'd printed them in color, maybe on some die-cut custom stickers.)

The final battle pits heroes and villains, present and past, in a fight that -- are you ready for this? -- is ultimately won by a speech Supergirl makes to the civilian population. Yep, the same tactic that won the day against the Obsidian tech threat gets used again here. It's almost like the writers didn't really have a new idea. The dialogue is completely ham-fisted. Parasite takes a swipe at Sentinel, who retorts, "No touching without consent." Kara and Alex's mother (Helen Slater) shows up with an automatic weapon, and quips something about how it's almost like she was a Kryptonian herself in another life.

Good triumphs. Evil loses. Alex marries her girlfriend and their car flies off in an ending ripped right out of Grease. And yet Kara feels unfulfilled. But one call from Cat Grant (Callista Flockhart) and she knows what to do: take off the glasses and reveal her identity to the whole world. Finis. The End. And not soon enough.