#sorry the. the show that doesn't queerbait but saves the world got me again it got me

[naivety]

GAY ARCHIE MUSICAL??

[buddha-in-disguise]

Weariness and cynicism is deadly.

When we were growing up, I remember my paternal grandfather once said to me: Weariness and cynicism is deadly.

At the time I didn't really understand the comment, but as I got older, it was something that I've kept in the back of my mind, in part because I would hate for me to become weary & cynical in life.

The last few episodes of Supergirl have had this line come roaring to the forefront with me.

Right now, weariness and cynicism within the Supergirl fandom (and not just a ship), has now shown in ratings.

You could argue as to why the ratings have dropped, and there are certainly going to be a few reasons for it. After all, in any season of a show you get peaks and troughs on the figures.

With Supergirl though, it has been a steep hit, then a steady decline afterwards. 

I've been writing this over a few days, and yesterday the synopsis for 5.19 dropped.

Now you can tell this was written before they planned on merging some of 5.20 into 5.19 and it became the finale, and this is given away by the 'penultimate episode,' wording. That is true, so knowing elements of 5.20 will be merged into it, means there is likely a divergence to this synopsis on some level. If there is, once again the marketing has failed to adapt with these changes. 

However, the synopsis also has people absolutely at the end of their tether over Kara and Lena. Why? The 1st segment:

'Supergirl (Melissa Benoist) realizes that in order to stop Lex (guest star Jon Cryer) and Leviathan she must work with the one person she never thought she’d trust again – Lena (Katie McGrath).' 

I have issue with this for more than one reason, but the biggest for me is simply this.

Honestly the situation should be sorted by now in far better ways. If this goes on through to S6 unresolved, then it is beyond a joke.

19 episodes of this is utterly unacceptable. Even if they'd carried on resolution into the 20th episode, that's still far too long. 

I can't speak for other fans, but personally I was hoping (& expecting) that once Crisis was over, Kara and Lena would actually begin to talk. If not Lena and Kara, Lena and Alex. Because remember how Lena spoke to Alex when Alex asked for her help during Crisis? Here are the lines most relevant (I'm including the clip for the whole interaction).

"I am sorry that I lied to you. And not just me. Not just Kara. J'onn, and Brainy, and Nia."

"You know, you actually had me believe that you hated Supergirl."

"I wasn't pretending about that, but that is a long story."

This was 10 episodes ago once 5.19 hits, & has never been broached again, nor looks likely to be. Why even bring it up if you're going to ignore it? Lena & Alex were friends by S4 end. If Kara couldn't talk to Lena, why hasn't Alex tried? Or Brainy? Nia. Even Kelly, who genuinely hadn't lied to Lena - although that could've been awkward if Lena said it was about Kara lying being Supergirl and Kelly didn't know. But you know, I would've loved to have seen it play out that way, because Kelly's surprise wouldn't be faked, and Lena, despite it all, would probably recognise that.

Have Lena working with Lex, but also using Kelly to help her with the lenses, to placate Lex, but to be actively working with the Superfriends (Kelly as the intermediary) to bring Lex down. That way, Kelly gets screen time she deserves, Lena slowly works through her issues, even if it isn't directly with Kara yet. Alex really uses the Tower to investigate and help Kelly and Lena. But we have had nothing of note.

Out of the two Winn episodes, we had one episode of Winn's own psychopathic father getting his redemption, (which sorry, was too far fetched for me). What was the purpose of this? It apparently serves none. This episode should've been a redemption arc starting for Lena in my opinion, even if Kara wasn't involved (so the 100th still could've gone ahead as planned). It could've been Brainy for example tentatively reaching out to Lena. Or as I say, Lena seeing how Lex was working, and reaching out to Kelly. It wouldn't have to be a noticable or big thing, but the beginnings of some reconciliation with someone. 

Yet Lena, who time and time again has tried to do the right thing, has been lied to, has been abused by her family since she was 4, has been left to her own devices for 19 episodes! By people who say they are her friends. This is more than about Kara. This is about a whole group of people who seemingly have washed their hands of Lena. That sure as hell isn't any kind of friendship I know, or agree with. 

This is why as a general audience people are now weary and cynical. When the hard core fans, not ship fans, but the ones who tune in religiously, are screaming enough, then a more general audience will simply drift away. Sadly the viewing figures suggest this is exactly what has happened. 

If they're suddenly best friends again from 5.19, then it will be as bad because nothing is talked about! Even if they carry on the redemption arc into S6, will the general audience - or even the main hard core group of fans - wait potentially 9 to 12 months before it starts again, not knowing if they plan to maintain the push and pull between Lena, Kara and the Superfriends, or actually are going to rebuild the friendships?

We also have the question of why did Kara find the tape that Mxyzptlk left? I'm including a screen capture for this.  

There were a couple of things at the time that I wondered about.

Why make it so obvious that was the video tape left? It then immediately led off to Kara confronting Lena, which while harsh wasn't really too OOC until that last line. No, she didn't call Lena a villain (ugh also continuity in 5.17, hello Kara, you didn't call her a villain). But Kara knows that Lena has always wanted to be seen as being different to her family, but especially Lex. Instead of going to Lena as Supergirl, go to her as Kara! Make her see the person not the cape. Of course being Supergirl is important to Kara, but knowing that Lena has always had a more volatile relationship with Supergirl, it seems utterly inconceivable to me that at some stage Kara wouldn't go to try and talk to her simply as Kara. Or was it Mxy as Supergirl, who hesitated moving from the balcony because he needed to be invited inside by Lena? Supergirl took a step forward, but doesn't appear to actually enter Lena's apartment. 

So yes. That whole scene has always bugged me.

I also always questioned why did Mxy hang around watching through Kara's loft window? What was it he needed to see? By all accounts his mission there was accomplished. Why hang around?

So it begs the question, are we seeing how the tape plays out? Is this the 'nothing is as it seems' and the 'Black mirror season,' they touted before the season began. If this refers to how Lex has played his part, then that is nowhere near good enough.

If it is because of Mxy, it is just an awful way to go about it. It has left most fans weary, jaded and honestly not trusting of how they will carry on writing for the show.

Let's not forget, Kara told the whole world her identity to save Lena. 

Lena tried to save Kara from the Kryptonite in the air, but failed because she was too far away in Metropolis. 

Lena took to heart the pleas from Kara not to use Kryptonite, and so devised another way to subdue Reign, only to die in Kara's arms (and remember Kara literally crumpled as Lena fell into her arms. This is a Kryptonian with Super human strength, but her knees gave way). 

The only time Lena did turn evil was when Supergirl didn't save her. But even then, watch her face carefully as she hits with Kara with the Kryptonite. That stotic mask falls just fractionally. 

However this plays out in the last two episodes, quite honestly I can't see how it is going to be enough to pacify the distrust and anger over vast aspects of the season. How a lot of what has gone on can only be called queerbaiting, and if (& it's a big if) they even lent into Supercorp (I highly doubt it), then it needed to come far quicker. When you lose the trust of a big part of your audience, it is extremely difficult to get that trust back. When you have to try and achieve that with only 2 episodes left? Pretty much impossible. 

When that weariness and cynicism has months to fester in a fandom, it is deadly.