written by Cara Russell

SPOILER WARNINGS ARE IN EFFECT

Our annual Thanksgiving episode rolls around again, and manages to make a politically divided, vaguely homophobic family dinner with “those” relatives you really dislike more appealing.

Kara takes James’ place in a televised counterpoint segment, while James meets with someone who claims to be Agent Liberty. During this segment, Ben Lockwood compares the plight of humans to those of the Wampanoag tribe, who supported the Pilgrims, celebrated the “First Thanksgiving” with them, and subsequently died as Pilgrims slaughtered them in subsequent years.

This is a tribe which still exists today, and spent this Thanksgiving protesting the U.S. government, who has decided they no longer fit the legal definition of “Indian” and is trying to steal their land out from under them. Today. In 2018.

If this were a smarter show, it’d be an excellent illustration of how the “anxiety” of white people is rooted in the fear that if we are faced with a stronger nation, we would be treated at least as horribly as we treat other peoples and nations, and therefore many of us go out of our way to make our fears reality. Unfortunately, it’s just Supergirl, so Ben is rewarded with his own talk show while James Olsen runs off into the night yelling “but boooooth siiiiiides” just before getting kidnapped.

I just…can’t.

Supergirl airs Sunday nights at 8 Eastern/7 Central on the CW. Cara can be found on Twitter @virtualcara.