What I saw: October 6th, 2016

Even though The Flash has been out for a few days now, I still haven't managed to watch it. I got distracted doing other things, plus I usually watch it with my mom who has also been busy (mom, if you're reading this, I think I'ma have to watch it without you tomorrow. Love you!). I did watch a couple episodes of some other stuff, so here we go!

What I watched:

Supergirl S1.E14 - "Truth, Justice, and the American Way"
Longmire S5.E3 - "Chrysalis"

What I saw:

Really quick we got Supergirl.
I have watched a couple more Supergirl episodes, but still find it difficult to stay engaged. This episode fared a little better because it asked the question of what type of hero Kara wants to be. When Cat asks Jimmy to get to the bottom of Maxwell Lord's disappearance, he is conflicted in reporting the story he knows to be true about the DEO holding him indefinitely, or keeping the classified information he was entrusted with a secret.

Cat is hand's down the strongest character of this show, and she definitely held that title again with the story she told Jimmy Olsen about a story of domestic violence committed by a well liked celebrity. She kept it to herself and then the celebrity killed his wife, and she is left wondering if she had written the story would the wife still be alive today. Jimmy then has a talk with Kara about how keeping Maxwell locked up forever goes against the type of hero she is trying to be, since she is reacting on what he might do instead of having proof on what he has actually done. She reluctantly agrees to let him go, on the premise of, you guessed it, Truth, Justice, (and the American way, although they never said that part in the episode). It was an okay episode with the message that a hero has to be better than the enemies they fight, otherwise they are no longer a hero.


Now on to the good stuff with Longmire.
The case started off simple enough, a girl left alone as her father went missing, and mother who was addicted to painkillers and unable to really care for her daughter. The father is found dead, like he was run over by a car. Then the case took a huge turn as more of the facts started to be revealed. The mother was on painkillers due to the domestic violence being inflicted upon her by her husband, and she had kept it hidden for the sake of her daughter. That is where she was mistaken, however. Her daughter knew what was happening to her mother, how miserable it was making her, and how it had caused her mother to become addicted. So in order to protect her mother, she had killed her father by running him over with the car and pretending to be lost.

Domestic violence does a lot of damage to a family, not just for the person being abused, but for the rest of the family who lives in the home. The daughter was suffering watching her mother's suffering. So even though the mother thought she was being good by staying as a family, she was actually causing more harm than good. Its good for every parent to know that kids are more aware of what is going on more than parent's think, and just because it is not happening directly to them, doesn't mean they are okay.

Cady is attempting to do some good for the people on the reservation by reaching out to them directly for free legal assistance. However, the resistance she faces from the residents was difficult for her to understand because she is not a member of the reservation. I like how they included the reality that Native Americans have been screwed over by "helpful" white people in the past and are reluctant to accept. The show does an amazing job of highlighting that level of distrust with the government and for white people in general.

Then comes the discussion between Jacob Nighthorse (is it just me or do they always call him by his full name?) and Henry. Jacob uses the metaphor of Refeeding Syndrome as the reason he has withheld the larger casino paychecks from the rest of the tribe. Jacobe states that he is doing the tribe a favor by not giving them large checks in the outset because the people have been starved of wealth for so long, they will not use it wisely and would only cause havoc. Henry counters that the last set of people who made decisions that were the best of the whole tribe was the United States Government.

It is true that the government has long made sweeping decisions that affected Native American's without any of their input. But it could also be true that with an influx of cash, people who have resorted to drug/alcohol use to cope with the lack of opportunity on the reservation would probably just buy more drugs and alcohol. But the biggest flaw in that logic is that it assumes everyone is in that position, and that there are not people who simply could use the money to better themselves. It is a scary thing when a single person or group starts to make these types of decisions, because whatever decisions are made they are done using the beliefs of the person making them. And Jacob Nighthorse does not believe that his people can thrive without him.

Do you guys think Jacob Nighthorse was right to withhold the sudden influx of cash form his people? Or do you think it's better to make their own decisions, even if it will lead to more harm? Let me know in the comments below!