Kelly Olsen's Guardian Debut is Supergirl at Its Best

| September 21, 2021 |

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Supergirl Season 6 Blind Spots — *Photo: The CW*

The following contains Supergirl spoilers

Supergirl Season vi Episode 12

Out of all the Arrowverse shows, Supergirl has always been the most upfront and open about its politics. From explicitly positioning Kara Zor-El as a refugee in the expository narration that opens each episode to telling stories about immigration, constabulary brutality, and LGBTQ rights, this is a show that takes the hope of hope, assist, and pity for all very seriously.

Unafraid to tackle potentially difficult or uncomfortable topics head-on, Supergirl frequently challenges the hearts and minds of its viewers with thorny large-picture questions well-nigh what being a hero really means and what the concept of universal justice should look like. And while Kara's huge centre and hopeful, optimistic nature often make her a natural choice for a sort of in-universe moral compass, the evidence is as willing to ask what happens when the customs that virtually needs her help is 1 whose struggle she doesn't fifty-fifty entirely run across.

That is the question at the center of "Blind Spots," an splendid and emotional hour that finally sees Kelly Olsen officially take upward her brother'due south mantle equally Guardian – in a badass new suit – even as it wrestles with circuitous questions of empowerment, systemic injustice, and who heroes are really meant to serve.

As Guardian, Kelly has a adventure to stand upward for those she sees as virtually in need, and who too oft find themselves left backside and overlooked by those in power – even by mostly well-meaning heroes similar Kara, Alex, and Nia.

"[Kelly] just becomes a real hero and steps into her ability," Supergirl star Azie Tesfai tells Den of Geek . "To play a adult female who is so kind and smart and compassionate, and all of these attributes that she has as an individual and then be able to magnify all that by being a superhero, equally a Black gay adult female? It doesn't get whatever amend than that."

Supergirl has been building up to Kelly'southward Guardian debut in a deft and organic style throughout the by several episodes, using her interest with the case of two alien brothers and their struggles with the foster system and the prison house industrial complex as a framework to illustrate her shifting understanding of what heroes are meant to exist and do. And Tesfai herself has been a big part of spearheading that exploration.

She made Arrowverse history every bit the commencement CW actor to co-write an episode, only her work on Kelly's Season 6 story isn't but express to "Blind Spots." The actress spent over a month working in the serial' writers room, "break[ing] the arc, the whole of [Episode] 9 and 10 to her journey through this".

"Kelly and I went through this journey together of finding our place – finding our footing and then really finding our power. It was an interesting experience because nosotros truly as character and person and actor went through this emotional arc together," Tesfai says

She credits last summer'south Black Lives Matter protests and the ongoing inequalities highlighted past the coronavirus pandemic with influencing and "infusing" how she tried to structure Kelly'southward arc and the larger social justice issues she wanted to try and "unpack" within the story.

"It'due south very personal, to me," Tesfai says. "A lot of the things Kelly says in this episode are things that I've either said or wanted to say, merely didn't feel empowered to do so."

The episode sees the Ormfell building – the structure marked just last week for much-needed affordable housing in the low-income Heights neighborhood – implode, the latest slice of collateral damage in Supergirl's boxing confronting the villainous imp Nyxly. Kelly is furious and frustrated in the wake of its destruction, as the local hospital is overwhelmed, neighborhood residents are growing increasingly ill from a mysterious illness, and the very people who should intendance most about those with the least announced too busy to help.

"The nuance of all of those experiences are rarely explored, and I observe that interesting and important to tell considering you desire everyone to feel a version of [themselves is] seen in these stories," Tesfai says.

"It felt of import to not just tell my specific perspective as a Black adult female, merely try to infuse all of our perspectives as much as I possibly could," she continues. "It's nuanced and it's complicated and not every Black experience is the same and I recollect sadly that when you only have one graphic symbol representing a group, they have to cover everything."

To create a more well-rounded portrayal of the Blackness experience in National City and within the Supergirl universe as a whole, Tesfai wanted to make sure that "Blind Spots" was almost more than than simply Kelly'south journey.

"I felt like we needed to tell this from not just my perspective but Orlando and Joey and Diggle, and even J'onn, as a foreign conflicting and what that looks like," Tesfai says. "Just more outlets to tell this story."

To that end, she and former Arrow star David Ramsey, who plays Diggle and who both guest-starred in and directed this episode, would have regular dinners together to discuss his perspective on his character and how to contain various experiences into her storytelling.

Because while Kara is undoubtedly a hero and a symbol of hope, light, and positivity to almost everyone she comes in contact with, she isn't perfect. She has "blind spots" of her own, and tin can't – and probably shouldn't – be the solution to every problem for everyone. Yes, her absenteeism from the Heights is largely due to her focus on stopping Nyxly and saving the greatest number of people from harm at her hands. Just what about the parts of the city that are already experiencing harm, and whose struggles are often ignored?

"I think that a lot of superhero shows make the superhero the hero, and that was something that nosotros discussed with this where, at a sure point, if you just look at order, like it doesn't benefit for one person to be the respond. Information technology never works," Tesfai says. "And so it'southward about empowering other people – not saving people, just empowering other people to be their own heroes. That's ever felt actually of import to me as the lesson that we requite our fans."

Part of Kelly's determination to fully become Guardian, at last, is her desire to be that sort of hero, someone who offers the residents of the Heights a hand up fifty-fifty as she uses her shield to defend them. But it'southward also in response to a far more hard question – one that isn't something that tin can be answered in a unmarried episode. On a show whose very ethos is built on hope, what does that emotion expect like for a community that frequently has little reason to believe that anyone cares about them or even sees their struggles?

For Tesfai, one of the most important aspects of "Blind Spots'" story is that the episode doesn't wrap upwards the bug facing Kelly or the community she so desperately wants to help in a keen and tidy bow.

"The format of our show and all the superhero shows is: Problem is presented, you talk about it, y'all fight the large fight scenes, yous take a cogitating moment, it's solved," Tesfai says. "That just doesn't work with this, and to take the terminal scene exist something that feels totally open up-ended and uncomfortable, was really important."

All too often, we equally a society assume that just considering something is uncomfortable, that also means that it is bad, and Tesfai is quick to bespeak out that sort of discomfort is oft a part of growth.

"You want to make sure that the audience doesn't call up that this should be easy or that everyone should just feel okay," Tesfai says. "Because and then nosotros're non doing our justice and trying to fix an example for what these conversations hopefully should look like in their ain lives. "

The episode's last scene features a heartfelt "Dansen" chat virtually love, support, and allyship that feels warm and necessary in its own correct, but nonetheless leaves room for both characters to continue to evolve and grow beyond this moment.

"Function of the whole indicate of this is that you should feel a piddling bit uncomfortable," Tesfai says. "It'due south complicated – you think Kelly is going to feel slap-up after the [concluding] scene and you realize, oh no this is – it'south a continuous unpacking. It'south a continuing conversation. How do you hold space for someone when y'all don't fully empathise what they're going through – even in an intimate relationship, even when having understanding can be a luxury and sometimes more for you than the other person? What does that look similar?"

Withal, despite the heavy emotion of this installment, Tesfai says that Alex and Kelly's human relationship "just gets amend and better" in the series' final run of episodes.

"I am grateful that a lot of our conflict – which is rare [to brainstorm with] – comes from either our pasts or from external situations that we work through together. This conversation is something that's very much within their dynamic and it'due south a continuing [journey]. They have a lot of big life moments that are going to happen this season, [including] some neat Sentinel and Guardian fight scenes coming upward that fans are going to dear."