Relationship Spotlight: Alex Danvers & Brainiac-5 (Supergirl)

(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 21^st 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 12^th Level Intellect who regards the 21^st 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 21^st 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.