[0:00] Supergirl's ending sets up the arrival
[0:01] of Brainiac and a mystery threat who I
[0:03] believe is the big bad of the DCU. And
[0:05] there is one moment of this ending that
[0:07] is a huge departure from the comics that
[0:10] I think is going to piss a lot of people
[0:11] off. Welcome back, Screen Crush. I'm
[0:13] Ryan Ari, and let's talk about the
[0:14] ending of Supergirl. Now, we're going to
[0:16] go over what actually happens in the
[0:17] third act of the film, the themes of the
[0:19] movie, and how it resolves the arcs of
[0:21] Cara and Ruthie. But then we're going to
[0:23] talk about how this movie sets up
[0:24] Superman: Man of Tomorrow, where
[0:26] Superman Lex and Supergirl will team up
[0:28] to fight Brainiac. So before our full
[0:30] Easter egg video releases tomorrow,
[0:31] first let's talk about the final act of
[0:33] the film and the climactic fight. It's
[0:35] not just a big action scene for the sake
[0:37] of action. Everything that happens
[0:38] serves the characters and the themes of
[0:40] the film, which is not just a battle for
[0:42] Ruthy's life, but also for Ruthy's
[0:44] innocence. The movie centers around the
[0:46] growing friendship between Ruthie and
[0:47] Cara, two weavered women who have
[0:49] survived the destruction of their
[0:50] families and are trying to escape their
[0:52] traumatic past. For Cara, this involves
[0:54] clinging to her old life through her
[0:56] love of crypto and her rejection of
[0:58] Earth. But for Ruthie, her reason to
[1:00] hang on to her past is more
[1:01] straightforward. She wants revenge. In
[1:03] the comic Woman of Tomorrow, which this
[1:05] film is based on, only her father was
[1:07] killed while her mother and six brothers
[1:09] lived. I think the film makes a wise
[1:11] decision to completely slaughter her
[1:13] family. So, the only way she has to
[1:15] remember them is through her vengeance.
[1:17] But throughout the film, we see this
[1:18] quest destroy the people around her. For
[1:20] instance, an entire family dies because
[1:22] she tries to kill Creme herself. And
[1:25] like I'll talk about in a second, Cara
[1:26] then tries to save her from this cycle
[1:28] of pain. And don't get me wrong, Cara
[1:30] also wants revenge in her own way. Creme
[1:33] harmed Krypto, her only friend and her
[1:35] only connection to home. Like she tells
[1:37] him,
[1:37] >> "Home is wherever you are, buddy."
[1:39] >> And this actually reminded me of a great
[1:40] line in Action Comics 500 by Marty Pasco
[1:43] and Kurt Swan, where Superman talks
[1:45] about how lonely he was before Krypto
[1:47] arrived on Earth. But suddenly, he had a
[1:49] friend who knows the sound of bullets
[1:51] bouncing off of your skin. But see,
[1:52] Cara's connection to her dog, as we see,
[1:54] runs even deeper. She keeps Krypto in
[1:57] the pocket watch that her father gave
[1:58] her. And I suspect this watch is always
[2:01] set to Kryptonian time, which is a way
[2:03] for Cara to pretend that time still
[2:05] moves on in a world that no longer
[2:07] exists. This is the connection she
[2:09] shares with Ruthie. Neither of them can
[2:11] accept that their families are gone.
[2:12] Now, throughout most of the movie, these
[2:14] two are at odds because they are so much
[2:16] alike. But the turning point comes when
[2:18] Ruthie is forced to care for Cara when
[2:20] she's dying. This is the first time in
[2:22] the movie where Cara is at a lower
[2:24] status than Ruthie. So, it forces the
[2:26] girl to finally put aside her anger and
[2:28] show compassion for others. And it's the
[2:30] first step to Ruthie learning how she
[2:32] can let go and live her life without
[2:34] vengeance. So, she soothes Cara by
[2:36] saying, "You're not always nice, but you
[2:38] are kind." Which is similar to Cara's
[2:40] dying words from the film and the comic
[2:42] when she asks her to be good. Now, what
[2:44] makes Supergirl stand apart from her
[2:46] cousin is that Cara has every reason to
[2:49] break bad. She personally buried almost
[2:52] everyone she ever loved and she watched
[2:54] firsthand while her civilization died.
[2:57] As our friend Lee Masio likes to put it,
[2:59] Clark is an immigrant story, but Cara is
[3:02] a refugee story. This is the origin
[3:04] story of a super villain. She has every
[3:06] right to turn into Superman's evil
[3:08] cousin, and yet she chooses goodness
[3:10] mostly. She's very different from Clark
[3:12] in ways we'll talk about in just a bit.
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[4:46] what I was saying. So, in the final act
[4:48] of the movie, Cara is trapped on a
[4:50] binary star system with two suns, one
[4:52] yellow, one green. And something similar
[4:54] happens in the comics where she is
[4:55] trapped on a green sun world that was
[4:57] actually created to kill Superman. In
[4:58] the comic, this gives Ruthie a chance to
[5:00] defend Supergirl from dinosaurs. But in
[5:03] the movie, it gives a dying Cara a
[5:05] chance to look back and reflect on her
[5:07] life. She remembers the words of her
[5:08] father telling her to move on and live
[5:10] her life. She remembers her mother
[5:11] telling her to be good. And most
[5:13] importantly, I think she remembers her
[5:14] cousin when he first showed her the
[5:16] super suit. I personally love this scene
[5:19] where Clark acknowledges that the
[5:20] Superman suit is kind of goofy. Like
[5:22] Cara says when she lands on Earth,
[5:24] >> it's green. See, when James Gun was
[5:27] designing the super suit for Superman,
[5:29] he reasoned that Superman needed those
[5:31] trunks so that people would know that he
[5:33] was there to help. He wanted to look a
[5:35] little ridiculous, like a wrestler's
[5:37] costume. Otherwise, people might be
[5:39] scared of an immortal god from outer
[5:40] space. But then again, what kind of
[5:42] threatening person would possibly dress
[5:44] in his underoos? Now, it's significant
[5:46] that Cara does not wear this suit while
[5:48] she is out partying. This is her time to
[5:51] indulge and be free of the attachments
[5:53] of superhero life. But when she chooses
[5:55] to wear the suit, it is her way of
[5:57] finally embracing Earth, which means
[5:59] letting go of her family and her past
[6:00] trauma. Now, we are going to break down
[6:02] the full fight in our Easter egg video.
[6:04] But toward the end, as the freed girls
[6:06] take care of the last Brigund, Ruthie
[6:08] stalks in on Crim. No matter how much
[6:10] Cara has protested against killing him,
[6:12] Ruthie still believes that this
[6:13] vengeance will set her free from her
[6:16] pain. But Cara doesn't let her do this.
[6:18] In fact, it's almost a reversal of their
[6:20] comic interaction. In the final issue,
[6:22] Ruthie backs down from killing Crim, but
[6:24] Supergirl nearly goats her on, trying to
[6:26] get her to understand the lesson of this
[6:28] whole journey. Now, in the comic, this
[6:29] was Cara's main goal. She brings Ruthie
[6:32] with her specifically to teach her over
[6:34] a few weeks that the quest for vengeance
[6:36] will destroy her soul. Like I said,
[6:37] she's not just trying to save the girl's
[6:39] life, she's trying to save her
[6:40] innocence. And this core theme stays
[6:42] throughout this film. For instance, in
[6:44] the comic, the sword belonged to Creme
[6:46] and was not made by Ruthie's father. But
[6:48] in the movie and the comic, the sword
[6:50] retains the same meaning. It is a symbol
[6:52] of vengeance. But because Ruthiey's
[6:54] father made the sword, it also becomes a
[6:56] symbol of her healing. So I actually
[6:58] think this sets up a key part of Man of
[6:59] Tomorrow that I'll talk about in just a
[7:01] bit. So let's talk about Ruthie's final
[7:03] decision not to kill Crim. Like I said,
[7:05] this is a major part of the comic book
[7:07] where it turns out that Krypto had been
[7:09] fine for weeks and that Cara only asked
[7:11] Ruthie to come along so she could help
[7:12] her overcome her thirst for vengeance.
[7:14] But the Cara in the comics is very
[7:16] inspirational. But in the movie, she's a
[7:18] wreck. However, she recognizes enough of
[7:21] herself and her own pain in Ruthie to
[7:23] know that she can't let her go over to
[7:26] the dark side. So, when Ruthie is about
[7:27] to kill Creme, Cara says that she can't
[7:29] let her do this. Now, earlier in the
[7:31] movie, Lobo had this debate with Cara,
[7:33] saying that Ruthie deserves her revenge.
[7:35] And this calls back to the earlier scene
[7:36] in the movie where Lobo basically
[7:38] encouraged her to take revenge to set
[7:40] right the wrongs in her life. So, Lobo
[7:43] and Cara end up being the devil and
[7:44] angel on Ruthy's little shoulders. So,
[7:46] back to the moment where Ruthie makes
[7:48] her decision. So, because Cara told
[7:50] Ruthie about her past, the girl knows
[7:52] that Cara is speaking from experience
[7:54] when she tells her that revenge will not
[7:56] make her pain go away. Cara never had to
[7:58] seek revenge for the death of Krypton,
[8:00] but she did try to numb her pain in
[8:02] other ways through alcohol and, let's
[8:04] face it, probably a lot of space drugs.
[8:06] So Cara tells Ruthie that killing Crim
[8:08] will not take away her pain and that
[8:10] living her life will be revenge enough,
[8:12] which is similar to how Zorel consoled
[8:14] her about her own life. When Cara felt
[8:17] like she was meaningless and not worth
[8:18] being sent off and saved, Zorel reminded
[8:21] her that her life is not just her own.
[8:24] The lesson is that Cara had to go on.
[8:26] She had to live so Krypton would live
[8:28] with her. And now she's imparted the
[8:30] same lesson onto Ruthie. If Ruthie kills
[8:33] Crim, then her soul will be corrupted.
[8:35] But if she goes on and lives a pure good
[8:37] life, then she is living that life for
[8:39] her family. In the same way, Cara
[8:41] finally learns the lesson that the best
[8:42] way to honor her dead is to be a hero to
[8:45] the people of Earth. And guys, to
[8:46] celebrate the DCU, the team and I had a
[8:48] blast designing these new parody shirts
[8:50] like this absolutely kick-ass Lobo biker
[8:53] tea in the style of a biker vest. We
[8:55] also have Krypto as Snoopy destroying
[8:57] his own dog house. Supergirl as Rosie
[8:59] the Riveter saying, "Don't [ __ ] with my
[9:01] dog." And Cara reimagined as a Barbie
[9:03] redesign. This is along with some of our
[9:05] old favorites like GI Robot in the style
[9:07] of G.I. Joe, the bird blindness PSA,
[9:09] give a hoot about bird blindness, and
[9:11] where's the dog? As well as Peacemakers,
[9:13] Charlie Brown, and the peace cycle as
[9:15] the Akira cycle. Remember, store members
[9:16] at our $5 tier get an additional 15% off
[9:19] at our merch store sitewide. And
[9:21] shopping our store really does help out
[9:23] our channel. Thank you for helping us
[9:24] and the links are below. So, after
[9:26] inviting Ruthie to the last leg of her
[9:28] pub crawl, Cara finally returns to Earth
[9:30] to the same apartment that Clark had in
[9:32] Superman. It's even in the same room
[9:33] where he and Lois watch the Justice gang
[9:35] defeat an imp from another dimension.
[9:37] The two of them talk about birthdays and
[9:39] what home means to them. And this is
[9:40] when Cara finally accepts that she is
[9:42] going to stay in Metropolis. She is
[9:44] taking her own advice to live her life,
[9:47] which in turn is a way of continuing to
[9:48] live the lives of her loved ones. And
[9:50] Clark also tells her, "I could have used
[9:52] your help against the last guy." And I
[9:54] kind of wonder who that last guy could
[9:55] be. Is he referring to the events of the
[9:57] first Superman movie? Or is this another
[9:59] Superman foe like Metallow or Parasite?
[10:01] I mean, after all, Matallo was the
[10:03] villain in the Superman prequel Junior
[10:05] novel, so he could still return to this
[10:07] universe. Now, then the film ends with
[10:09] Krypto getting into some chocolate,
[10:10] creating the perfect bookend. We started
[10:12] with Krypto knocking over a bottle and
[10:14] peeing on a newspaper. So, it's only
[10:16] fair that he creates a little more chaos
[10:18] before the end. But, I don't think
[10:19] chocolate would affect him because he's
[10:20] on a yellow sun planet. Although, it is
[10:22] hilarious that they spent the whole
[10:23] movie trying to keep him away from
[10:24] poison when he just dives into eating
[10:26] poison at the very end. So, now let's
[10:28] talk about how this movie sets up
[10:29] Brainiac and what's next for the DCU. We
[10:32] know that the next Superman film titled
[10:33] The Man of Tomorrow will feature the Man
[10:35] of Steel working with Lex Luthther and
[10:37] that Lex will build a version of his war
[10:39] suit from the comics. Supergirl is also
[10:41] confirmed to be in that movie, but most
[10:42] importantly, the villain will be
[10:44] Brainiac. Next to Lex Luthther, Brainiac
[10:46] is the Superman villain, but he's never
[10:49] actually been on the big screen. Now,
[10:51] there are several iterations of the
[10:52] character from the comics and animation,
[10:54] but he is always an artificial
[10:56] intelligence that collects life and
[10:58] information throughout the universe. In
[10:59] the Superman animated series, I loved
[11:01] the added twist that Brainiac was a
[11:03] supercomput built on Krypton. When it
[11:06] discovered Krypton's imminent doom, it
[11:08] lied to everybody and didn't tell them
[11:10] that the planet was going to explode.
[11:12] And Brainiac did this in order to escape
[11:14] the planet in pursuit of knowledge. So,
[11:16] in a way, Brainiac was responsible for
[11:18] the deaths of billions of people because
[11:21] he could have helped them prevent the
[11:22] planet's implosion or at least helped
[11:24] everyone escape. Also, in the comics,
[11:26] Brainiac miniaturizes an entire
[11:28] Kryptonian city called Canandor and kept
[11:30] it in a sealed bottle. So, Superman
[11:32] worked for years to enlarge Canandor and
[11:34] restore its people. And this is just the
[11:36] kind of goofy story I think James Gun is
[11:38] going to adapt into the DCU. See, I
[11:40] think it's very interesting that Cara
[11:41] will be in Man of Tomorrow. And I think
[11:43] this explains certain changes they made
[11:45] in the movie altered from the comic book
[11:47] Supergirl Woman of Tomorrow that the
[11:49] movie is based on. The big change in the
[11:51] movie is that Cara actually kills Crim.
[11:53] And we'll get into that in just a
[11:54] second. But here's the thing. If the
[11:56] movie adapts Brainiac's origin, that he
[11:58] was a Kryptonian supercomputer that was
[12:00] responsible for destroying Cara's home
[12:02] world. Well, I think this explains why
[12:04] the movie chose to have Cara kill at the
[12:06] end. See, Ruthie may have let go of her
[12:08] quest for vengeance, but Cara has not.
[12:10] She killed a man for messing with her
[12:12] dog. So, imagine what she would do to a
[12:14] computer that destroyed her entire
[12:16] civilization. And I think this points to
[12:18] her arc in Man of Tomorrow. Now, another
[12:20] change for the movie is that Ruthiey's
[12:21] father is a swordsmith. In the comics,
[12:23] he's a rock farmer. Wait, what does that
[12:25] mean? Wouldn't that just make him a
[12:26] minor? I don't know. Maybe on his
[12:27] planet, like rocks grow in the field and
[12:29] he farms them. I I don't know. Okay, so
[12:32] why make her dad a swordsmith instead of
[12:34] a rock farmer? I mean, in the comic, the
[12:36] sword actually belonged to Creme. So,
[12:38] there was like added symbolism that
[12:40] Ruthie wanted to use the same evil
[12:42] object that killed her father to kill
[12:44] the sword's owner. Why would the movie
[12:46] ditch that symbolism? And why would the
[12:48] movie end with Ruthie becoming a
[12:49] swordsmith like her dad? Well, I have a
[12:51] theory. So, she says that her dad made
[12:53] his weapons from the strongest metals.
[12:54] And in the DC universe, one of the
[12:56] strongest metals in existence is called
[12:58] nth metal. For instance, Hawk Girl's
[13:00] mace is made out of the metal in the
[13:02] comics. Now, Brainiac, like Ultron, is
[13:04] constantly upgrading himself. In the
[13:06] 80s, he even sported this badass robot
[13:08] look that I still think of as the
[13:10] definitive Brainiac. And get this, the
[13:12] hexagonal pattern on that version of
[13:14] Brainiac's head is the same pattern as
[13:16] the ship that brought Cara to Earth,
[13:17] making it look like they are both made
[13:19] from Kryptonian technology. So, if he's
[13:21] upgrading himself, then it would make
[13:23] sense if he made his new form from the
[13:25] strongest metal he could find, Enth
[13:26] Metal. So, in the movie, if Cara and
[13:28] Superman can't make a dent in him, Cara
[13:30] can be like,
[13:31] >> "I know a guy." and then bring Clark to
[13:33] shop Ruthiey's collection of nth metal
[13:35] swords. Nth Metal is also used to
[13:37] disrupt magic, which could come in handy
[13:39] against the real big bad of the DCU,
[13:41] dark side. Dark side's the big bad of
[13:43] the DCU. Look, James Gun came on this
[13:46] channel and he claimed that Dark Side
[13:47] was not his overall plan.
[13:49] >> Using Dark Side as the big bad right now
[13:51] is not necessarily the thing.
[13:53] >> And I do not believe him. Not totally.
[13:56] Something is going on here. Peacemaker
[13:57] set up the Salvation Arc from the comics
[13:59] where villains are stranded on a planet
[14:01] that is actually a training ground for
[14:03] Dark Side's armies. I just think there's
[14:04] no bigger bad in the DC comics than Jack
[14:07] Kirby's Dark Side, and I'm convinced he
[14:09] has a role to play in the saga.
[14:10] Furthermore, this movie established a
[14:12] piece of lore that is even more crucial
[14:14] to the next Superman film. We have more
[14:16] kryptonite. In the Superman Jr. novel,
[14:18] Metallow's core is powered by
[14:19] kryptonite, and when it's destroyed,
[14:21] there is none left on Earth, which is
[14:23] why Luther had to have Metamorpho
[14:25] created. Now, traditionally in the
[14:26] comics, kryptonite was created when
[14:28] chunks of the planet followed the
[14:29] gravity of Clark's rocket and were
[14:31] irradiated by the yellow sun. This is
[14:33] the same kryptonite poisoning that
[14:34] killed Car's people in Argo City. But
[14:36] the movie changes this. Now, kryptonite
[14:38] was already a deadly mineral in the
[14:40] boughels of Krypton's core, which means
[14:42] that it is a lot more plentiful in the
[14:45] universe. Creme even has designer
[14:47] weapons made from it, which actually
[14:48] happens in the comics, too. Now, as I
[14:50] mentioned earlier, Lex's warsuit will be
[14:52] featured in Man of Tomorrow. And in the
[14:54] show Peacemaker, we saw Lex was released
[14:56] from prison and he's working for Argus.
[14:58] Maybe he's using the portal tech that we
[15:00] saw in that show to find alien
[15:01] technology in order to build his
[15:03] warsuit. And in the comics, he often
[15:05] uses kryptonite as part of its weaponry.
[15:07] So, if Lex, Superman, and Supergirl go
[15:10] to space to fight Brainiac, that means
[15:12] that Lex will suddenly have near
[15:14] unlimited access to a weapon that can
[15:16] kill his worst enemy. And in the
[15:17] landmark comic, Whatever Happened to the
[15:19] Man of Tomorrow, Lex and Brainiac team
[15:21] up to become one entity that actually
[15:23] kills Superman. I would actually not be
[15:25] surprised if the same thing happens in
[15:27] this film. Brainiac offers Lex what he
[15:29] always wanted, unlimited knowledge and
[15:31] the ability to kill Superman. And then
[15:33] in the final battle, Superman and his
[15:35] cousin have to use these in metal swords
[15:37] against this combined villain. And so
[15:39] Cara, seething with rage that Brainiac
[15:41] let their home world die, is ready to
[15:43] kill him just like she killed Crim. But
[15:45] instead, Clark is there to stay her hand
[15:47] and help her to take the last step in
[15:49] her grieving process, which would be
[15:51] forgiveness. Still, it is a very
[15:53] controversial decision to have Cara kill
[15:55] Creme. In the comic, Cara is a
[15:57] pure-hearted person, but in the movie,
[15:59] she's a [ __ ] mess. She's still
[16:00] clinging to her old baggage, and she has
[16:02] not been a superhero for that long. And
[16:04] she even says,
[16:04] >> "You sees the good in everyone, and I
[16:06] see the truth." So for this version of
[16:08] Supergirl, I think it would make sense
[16:10] that she would choose to kill just like
[16:12] it makes sense for a Solen Randian loner
[16:14] like Henry Caval Superman to kill Zod.
[16:16] But I have to think that they made this
[16:18] decision for a reason and not just for
[16:20] the sake of having Creme die. In the
[16:22] comic, she actually lies about killing
[16:24] Crim to spare Ruthie the vengeance of
[16:25] the Briggins and instead they send him
[16:27] to the Phantom Zone for 300 years where
[16:29] he is eventually reformed. But the comic
[16:31] ending itself is also very vague. So
[16:34] maybe the movie is too. I mean, after
[16:36] all, Creme's death is filled from a
[16:37] distance, and the only person who really
[16:39] knows what happened is Lobo, who is
[16:41] watching all of this happen from a
[16:42] distance. But what did you guys think
[16:43] about Car's decision to kill Creme at
[16:45] the end? And what did you think of
[16:46] Supergirl? Is it better than its
[16:47] reviews? Let me know your thoughts down
[16:48] in the comments below or on our free to
[16:50] join Discord server. And if it's your
[16:51] first time here, please subscribe. Smash
[16:53] that bell for alerts for Screen Crush.
[16:55] I'm Ryan Ery.