Fly Like a Girl: ‘Supergirl’ – Episode 4 ‘Livewire’

Supergirl is DC’s television adaptation of the comic book of the same name. It airs Monday nights at 8/7 Central on CBS. Our writer, Nicole Drum recaps the series each week updating you on the latest episode here in Fly Like a Girl.

Image Credit: CBS

Welcome back, everyone. In light of the tragedy in Paris late last week CBS changed the airing order of Supergirl episodes so this week we are getting the episode entitled “Livewire” so the story from last week will be delayed slightly. That’s okay, though, because this was a solid episode. Spoilers from this point on.

Our episode opens with some DEO guards escorting an alien. It’s humanoid, but has some freaky features. The guards have the alien in chains, which I’m not sure makes sense because every alien we’ve seen so far is crazy strong and oh look, said alien breaks out of the chains. It knocks out the guards and is in the control room when Supergirl comes to stop it. It’s kind of a big fight, though Supergirl gets a call during the fight from Alex who is complaining that Kara isn’t where she said she’d be. Awkward mid-fight call over, Supergirl finally manages to stop the alien and tells Henshaw that “he” (the alien” was tough. Um, alien’s a chick. Kara wants the rest of the day off.

With the alien handled we now see why Alex was complaining. At Alex’s apartment we find big sister kind of panicking. It seems she is really, really worried that their mom, Eliza, will be all kinds of upset that Kara is being Supergirl. I think both girls are surprised when Mama Danvers shows up and is not only happy to see Kara but is proud. Though that becomes awkward quickly because she’s apparently measuring Alex by the Kara yardstick and finds her biological daughter lacking.

Seemingly random scene of the night: some random person, Leslie Willis, broadcasting from a basement is complaining about Supergirl. James and Winn are annoyed. Cat isn’t down with it. The radio gets turned off. Speaking of Cat and Winn and company, at the office Kara and Winn chat about Thanksgiving plans. Winn has a great idea of going home and binge watching Orphan Black. I totally approve of this, but Kara does not. She invites him to her place.

In other parts of the office Cat calls Leslie into the office and tells her that she has to stop messing with Supergirl. Leslie doesn’t like this much and objects which promptly gets her transferred to the traffic helicopter (this sounds more fun to me than the basement) because Cat won’t buy out her contract so she can fire her. This turn of events clearly doesn’t make Leslie happy at all. She warns Cat and then storms out. As she does, the lights flicker.

Back in the holiday spirit, Kara is at a bar and she invites James to her Thanksgiving. Sadly James has plans out of town. With Lucy. I don’t like Lucy. At all. Kind of bummed, Kara is then joined by Alex who is worried about their mom. Despite the woman clearly valuing Kara over Alex. Kara, however, is kind, and tells her sister that maybe she should come clean with their mom about her job at the DEO. Alex vetoes this idea.

High in the skies above National City, Leslie in the Trafficopter hits some turbulence. Not little turbulence, serious turbulence. The pilot is smart enough to want to get out of there, but Leslie has a chip on her shoulder and refuses. This leads the things getting out of control and Supergirl showing up to save the day. However when Supergirl takes Leslie’s hands, they are both struck by a lightning bolt. Ouch. Since this lands Leslie in the hospital, Cat shows up. She’s feeling guilty about Leslie in the helicopter, but she doesn’t want to really admit it. She tells Leslie to get up, then leaves.

Back to the family drama. Eliza, at Alex’s apartment, tells her to turn off the television. She’s upset that Alex lets Kara be Supergirl. Mama Danvers is pretty disappointed in Alex, actually. She tells Alex that she thought she could count on her and Alex just leaves and goes back to work.

Now out of the hospital Leslie is waling around with lightning coming out of her hands. This is a rather new development (though admittedly poorly foreshadowed). It’s also pretty useful since a man accosts our newly-released-from-the-hospital lady and she blasts him with her bolts. And likes it.

Who’s not liking things? The folks at Thanksgiving. Alex is drunk and things are not exactly comfortable between her and Mama Danvers. In the midst of the tension Kara leaves the table because James calls. He’s had a lot to eat and he’s totally bored so he’s reaching out to Kara. Kara, in turn, tells him Happy Thanksgiving and have fun with Lucy. Back at the table, Winn is being chatty and asks Mama Danvers about work. This all leads to Alex telling her about her work with the DEO. Mama Danvers is not happy about this. She asks if she thinks that her dad, Jeremiah, would be proud. Dinner breaks up and Alex (and Winn) leave so Kara takes a moment to confront Mama Danvers as to why she has always been hard on Alex. Mama doesn’t get a chance to answer, though, because Cat calls.

Flashback time! Earlier we saw Kara take Alex on a flight. Now they are in serious trouble for that joyride. Jeremiah is yelling at them but is interrupted by a knock to the door. He sends the girls upstairs and opens said door…finding Hank Henshaw.

At the office Cat is trying to do a conference call to Beijing, but nothing works. Kara is trying to solve it but can’t so she suggests that they need Winn. Suddenly the lights cut out and Leslie is on Cat’s televisions in her office. Leslie, now calling herself Livewire, shows up in front of Cat and starts blasting away. Kara gets Cat into a corner for safety before Cat sends her to get security. This leaves Livewire to confront her, but Supergirl show sup and jumps in front of a blast. She offers to help Leslie, but they fight. Livewire is able to use Supergirl’s heat vision which allows her to attack the elevator Cat is in. Supergirl, however, flies down the elevator shaft to save Cat’s life.

I’m not exactly sure why Henshaw is at CatCo, but he is and now he and Kara are watching coverage of the blackouts that are related to Livewire. Henshaw figures out that it’s how the lightning passed through Kara that created Livewire. Huh. Interesting. Henshaw offers up a weapon from DEO to beat her since Kara has quite a challenge.

It’s been quite a day at the office. After Henshaw leaves, Cat tells Kara to leave as well. They end up chatting a bit, however, about mothers and daughters. It would seem that Cat didn’t have the best relationship with her mother. Mama Grant was very disapproving and that is what made Cat the way she is. Cat feels responsible for Leslie’s villain turn because she rewarded Leslie’s poor behavior in the name of ratings instead of holding Leslie to higher standards. In essence, she feels like she did the wrong thing much like her own mother did.

Back at home Alex is checking on Mama Danvers. Eliza offers Alex an apology and says that Alex always makes the hard choices. Of course Alex wants to know why her mother is always so hard on her, but not on Kara so Eliza explains that she just wants Alex to be better. She also said that the toughness didn’t mean there was a lack of love. She tells her daughter that Alex has always been her supergirl and Alex apologizes for lying about her job. Mama Danvers says that she needs to tell both girls something important, but the phone interrupts them. The poorly timed phone call is the MVP of this episode.

Drinking is also factoring into this episode. Cat is drinking at the office when Supergirl comes to check in on her. Cat, fueled either by genius our wine, says she will lure Livewire out if Supergirl will catch her. They have a deal and Supergirl gets a trap from the DEO to use. Now for the fun parts! At CatCo Plaza, Cat uses broadcast to call out Leslie. Cat tells her to come to where it all started and they end up meeting in the street. It appears this is where Cat discovered Leslie. As is customary in these situations Cat does try to reason with Livewire who is having none of it. She blasts her lightning at Cat which gets Supergirl to come in for the rescue. For a moment it looks like Livewire is going to get the best of our heroine and as a result Supergirl can’t use the trap, but she’s got this. Supergirl uses water from an underground pipe to knock Livewire out.

The next day, Kara brings Winn leftovers. Winn tells Kara that his father (who happens to be in prison) is a bad person so Winn is really happy that Kara invited him to her family holiday. He gives her a kiss on the cheek as James (with Lucy) show up. James asks after Kara, who tells him she is just glad he’s back. Lucy is pointless per the usual. With that out of the way, Kara goes into Cat’s office with their usual fare, but Cat wants to run a positive story about volunteers in soup kitchens. The holiday spirit is getting to Cat, it seems, who tells Kara that now that she has learned about Kara’s sad story of parent death and life with a foster family, she wants to know more about her.

Back at the Danvers house, Mama Danvers is finally able to tell the girls her important information: despite what they were told, Jeremiah didn’t die in a plane crash. We return to the flashback. Henshaw is there to take Kara away, but Jeremiah offers himself instead. He offers to work for the DEO because he knows everything about Superman and will turn over research if they leave Kara alone. Henshaw accepts. That’s when Eliza tells the girls that Jeremiah died working for Henshaw.

At the DEO, Henshaw congratulates Kara on her deft capture of Livewire. But things are weird now and both of the girls have some trust issues. Alex says that they need to find out what happened to their dad and Kara agrees.

All in all a good episode. Hopefully next week we will see the episode originally slated for tonight, but I do like that we have some intrigue regarding the DEO to work with now. What do you think? Let’s chat in the comments.