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

5. Real Stakes

It's well-documented by now that the Arrowverse shows rely heavily on maintaining their status quos. Though they do bend from time-to-time they, more often than not, tend to remain the same and this often leaves some of the more compelling storylines feeling, well, not that compelling. After all, what's the point in investing in a character's potential death when you know they're never going to die, right? Thankfully, there was absolutely none of that here.

Lex Luthor dying? James Olsen dying? The timeline of Lena's cure being dramatically shifted? All important events that were undoubtedly treated as such.

Lex's previous unimportance to the show made us fear for his life the most because, well, he could die and it wouldn't affect Supergirl. However, it's Lex freakin' Luthor and because of that, as well as some darn fine storytelling from the writers, we wanted him to pull through - meaning that, for a moment at least, we were worried about him.

James' near-death experience was also carried off very well as, thanks in no small part to the introduction of his sister Kelly, it too was treated like the major event that it should have been. Moreover, the fact that Lena had to resort to using her never-before-tested drug in an attempt to save his life also suggested that we should have been worried about James' well-being.

All of this was responsible for adding some real drama to the show as it ensured that the episode itself was full of stakes. But these weren't just episodic stakes, they were real stakes that threatened to turn the show on its head and change it forever. It was all believable and, as a result, it was utterly compelling.