(Spoilers
for the end of season 3.)
When the
third season of Supergirl came to a
close, it brought with it some cast shakeups.
Mon-El returned to the future, and while I do enjoy him, he always felt
more like a temporary cast member to me, especially in season 3. More significantly, Winn also left the 21st
century and traveled to the future with
Mon-El, while the techno-organic AI Brainiac-5 stayed behind, becoming the
DEO’s new resident genius. Now, Winn was
a character I really liked, and I especially enjoyed the delightful
sibling-esque relationship he’d been developing with Alex since he first
started working at the DEO. Their banter
was always fun, and they were often a source of emotional support for one
another, a quality that maybe felt unexpected at first but came to be a
cornerstone of their dynamic. For me,
you could never really go wrong with Alex-Winn scenes, and I knew I was going
to miss them going forward.
Meanwhile,
Brainy’s most prominent relationship outside the Legion was probably also with
Winn – in the back half of season 3, the two had an amusing dynamic marked by
Brainy’s gradual (and slightly begrudging) respect for Winn’s intelligence, no
faint praise coming from a much-touted 12th Level Intellect who
regards the 21st century as hopelessly backward. So, with the rest of the Legion leaving
Brainy in our time and Winn going with them, I wasn’t sure what to expect when
it came to Brainy forming relationships with the other characters.
I don’t
know why I didn’t think of the possibility of an Alex-Brainy friendship. After all, Brainy fills a similar function to
Winn at the DEO, albeit in a different way, so it stands to reason that he’d
take up a similar place in Alex’s life as well.
That’s explicitly highlighted at the start of season 4, when
newly-appointed DEO director Alex finds herself clashing frequently with
Brainy, who, recalling her closeness to Winn, decides that the best way to resolve
their workplace issues is to grab some of the clothes and toys Winn left
behind, not-so-subtly attempting to draw connections between him and Winn in
Alex’s mind.
Naturally,
that’s the last thing Alex wants, but it has an unintended positive effect
anyway. It reminds Alex that it’s not
Brainy’s fault that he isn’t Winn and
shows her that Brainy is trying to connect with her, even if his methods
reflect a lot of fundamental misunderstandings about how humans operate. This clears the way for them to develop their
own friendship, and while there are similarities between it and Alex’s
relationship with Winn, they’re allowed to be different, which gives it room to
be successful in a way that simply trying to replicate the Alex-Winn friendship
wouldn’t (as Melissa Benoist learned on Glee,
shunting in new “replacement” characters for old favorites isn’t super
effective.)
While
Alex and Brainy’s friendship also gives off sibling vibes, Brainy is far more
the annoying little brother than Winn
ever was. His bluntness and difficulty
reading social cues gives Alex plenty to roll her eyes over, and when Col.
Haley shows up, Alex finds herself occasionally running interference between
the decidedly-non-human Brainy and the colonel, who’s not all that big on
aliens. As Brainy grows to trust Alex’s
judgment and respect her command, he proves very loyal to her (especially
against Haley,) although there are timess when the type of help he provides isn’t
exactly welcome – I crack up at the scene where Alex has to explain her subtle
insinuation that she wants him to disobey Haley’s orders and Brainy very loudly confirms his understanding.
As far as
emotional support goes, I don’t know how closely these two would ever resemble
Alex-Winn on that front (Brainy isn’t always the most emotionally-observant
friend,) but they’re coming along.
Dealing with the frustrations, stressors, and dangers of the 21st
century forces Brainy to confront his emotions more often than he probably ever
has before, and Alex sometimes helps him with that. One of my favorite scenes between them comes
after Brainy has a tense run-in with some anti-alien humans, which later
disrupts his concentration during a high-pressure situation. Alex is annoyed with him in the moment, but
later, as Brainy is beating himself up over the consequences his mental errors
may have had, Alex realizes where his distress stems from. She gets him to talk through his feelings
about what happened and promises to have his back against anyone who comes at
him for being an alien. Brainy, in turn,
starts to understand that people like Alex aren’t all that easy to come by, and
he develops a greater appreciation for her support and friendship.
My
favorite relationships in any given show are frequently friendships, and while
I don’t think we’ve seen enough of Alex and Brainy yet to put them at the top,
I like them a lot. They’re always
entertaining together, they challenge each other in neat ways, and as they grow
closer, their scenes provide both heart and humor. I’m excited to see more from them as the
season goes on.
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