Supergirl Season 4: 8 Ups & 2 Downs From 'O Brother, Where Art Thou?'

Downs...

2. Manchester The Martian Expert

While almost everything about Supergirl's portrayal of Manchester Black has been solid, there was one little thing that felt a little off about the most recent episode.

Playing mind games with J'onn due to his recent possession of the Staff of Kolar, Manchester revealed that he now knew all there was to know about the Martian Manhunter's origin story, claiming that J'onn's recent attempt to infiltrate his mind opened a two-way gateway between them and, as a result, he was able to access his memories and play with his emotions.

Not only did the whole interest in J'onn's Martian background feel a little out-of-character for the impulsive and gritty assassin, his reasoning for being able to do so felt somewhat contrived. J'onn, an experienced Martian and expert telepath couldn't figure out why Manchester was able to read his thoughts and yet, Manchester himself, an inexperienced human with no telepathic abilities, was able to tell him exactly why?

On top of that, something just didn't feel right about the whole Manchester Black possessing an ancient Martian staff to destroy things. It made the character feel, for lack of a better word, Super, when his charm always lay in the fact that he was the complete opposite. He was a more grounded, grittier character that wasn't afraid to dirty his hands to get the job done - and he loved doing it. This episode portrayed him as some larger-than-life supervillain and stripped him of his humanity to make it happen.