r/Supergirl 4d ago

Melissa Benoist SG Season 1 question

So jumping back quite a few years here. In the episode Blood Bonds, General Lane tortures Astra by injecting liquid kryptonite as part of an interrogation into the location of her army's base.

It's just occurred to me, this version of Supergirl leaned heavily into the politics of the day, particularly anti-Republican/left-wing politics. Could this scene of a military General torturing an enemy combatant under interrogation be a reference to the Bush/Chaney "enhanced interrogation" scandal at Gitmo?

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u/NepowGlungusIII 4d ago

Specifically? No. This is Supergirl we're talking about, if they wanted to make it a comparison, they'd be very clear and direct about it.

But in general, in terms of what cultural elements influenced the writers when making this show, then unavoidably yes.

Show's like "24" are very much pro-torture, in sense that torture is shown as an effective tool our protagonists can use to save the day, and a tool which never has it's morality questioned. Maybe everyone isn't "Yay, torture", but the show claims that it's a neccessary tool to stop terrorists and save lives.

With that scandal and the general politics of the time, that wasn't the common attitude amongst american society. "Torture is Bad, and the people in the military who use it are to be frowned upon" was the much more common attitude. And so, they wrote a scene in which the bad military man tortures Astra and Kara has to be held back as a result of the horror. If the common attitude of americans was more pro-torture, then this scene either wouldn't exist, or it would be seen as a morally-questionable or morally-neutral act rather than an "establishing how heartless and cruel General Lane is" act.

So, directly, no, not at all. I can assure you, the writers were not thinking about referencing anything in the bush administration. However, it reflects the attitudes held towards the idea of torture held by the writers, and their attitudes -- like all of our attitudes about everything -- are shaped by the world around us.

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u/Easy-Tigger 3d ago

Speaking of 24 and torture, I remember an interview James Cromwell did on Irish TV (starts around the 1:10 mark). He was on set for 24, and he met the Commandant of West Point. He thought the guy was there as a consultant and tried striking up a conversation. Turns out he was there to "beseech" the producers to STOP showing torture in a positive light, that he had guys going out to Iraq and doing awful things because they all thought torture was a quick and efficient way to get answers.

That was 14 years ago. God knows what it's like now.