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
Last night’s episode was a riff off of the classic Superman story “For the Man Who Has Everything.” It was an ambitious undertaking and ultimately felt as organic to Supergirl as true to the classic Alan Moore material. Spoilers beyond this point.
We open up the episode with Kara at home on Krypton. Yes, adult Kara on Krypton. Her mother tells her she has been sick with a fever, but that she’s getting better. Kara is very confused and aware that something seems wrong, but her mother plays it off as her recovering from her illness. Outside the window, Krypton thrives in all its splendor and glory. It’s absolutely beautiful and perfect.
Back on Earth, Cat wants to know where Kara is because she’s late and not answering her phone. Winn tries to explain that there is a really nasty solar storm going on that might be interrupting the signal. Winn and James both realize that something is wrong and alert Alex. The trio break into Kara’s apartment and find her unconscious with a strange plant seemingly attacking her. They get her to the DEO.
Alex and J’onn don’t know what is going on, but suspect Maxwell Lord is behind this. He doesn’t appear to know about it, though, even with Alex’s violent questioning. Who does know? Kara’s evil aunt and uncle. Uncle Non is behind the evil plant that he calls a Black Mercy. The plant won’t kill her outright but it isn’t helping her. Alex and J’onn discover this when they try to remove it, nearly killing Kara in the process.
At the office James and Winn have to cover for Kara. Winn is especially concerned because he and Kara weren’t on good terms. Despite this, Winn hilariously tries to cover for Kara when Cat comes calling, but Cat isn’t having it. She wants Kara back within the hour or she loses her job. At the DEO, J’onn is very worried which doesn’t improve when Alex informs him of Cat’s ultimatum. They realize that they have to do what they can to protect Kara’s job at CatCo because it is the one place she gets to be normal. To that end, J’onn gets drafted to pretend to be Kara. Watching J’onn as Kara and attempt to walk in heels is possibly the best few seconds of the show.
In the fantasy world, Kara is struggling. Kara tries to remind herself it’s not real but she is confronted by various members of her family. She also starts to forget about Earth. As she fights to remember Earth, she’s distracted by a now grade-school-aged Kal-El. The love Kara has for her little cousin is so strong you can feel it through the television screen and it is a beautiful moment of acting for Melissa Benoist.
Back at Kara’s apartment, Alex is presumably looking for clues and pauses a moment over a photograph of the two of them as children. Her moment is interrupted by Astra. Astra says she’s there to help, not hurt, because Kara saved her. Astra has information about Black Mercy and how to defeat it. The trick to saving Kara is that Kara has to reject the perfect dream world in which Black Mercy is feeding her. Astra tells Alex she needs to trust her.
In the Secret Supergirl Office, Winn and James now know J’onn (whom they still know as Henshaw) was impersonating Kara. They’re trying to figure out how to help Kara and Alex gets approval to have Winn and James at the DEO. J’onn goes back to his job as Kara while the others leave. Cat continues to see through J’onn’s terrible Kara impersonation, but it gets Kara off the hook for now.
With James and Winn in tow, they begin the plan to save Kara. Alex will sync her mind to Kara’s, joining her in the fantasy, and try to get her to come back. Alex privately tells James that if they try to pull her out before Kara is saved to stop them no matter what distress she personally is in. Alex is willing to die for Cara.
In the fantasy, Kara doesn’t recognize Alex and attacks her. The attack causes Alex’s body to struggle and James recognizes that J’onn sees Alex as family and pleads with him to let her continue. They need to trust Alex to get the job done. On Krypton, Alex gives an impassioned speech begging Kara to come back to Earth. The speech works. Kara remembers and they both wake up, though Kara is very startled by her experience.
Winn works with the DEO tech squad to figure out how to stop Non. He has found hidden transmissions on the Lord servers so the DEO and Supergirl head off. Kara immediately goes after Non for what he did and proceeds to beat the crap out of him for making her lose her whole world once again. Alex goes after Astra, calling her out for her heart not being in the war because of her love for Kara. It also provides great distraction for J’onn to show up. In the ensuing fight, Alex kills Astra with a Kryptonite blade. Kara arrives in time to make peace with Astra, but J’onn takes the blame for Astra’s death. Astra dies in Kara’s arms before she can give Kara any insight on Non’s plan, called Myriad, or how to stop it.
With things quiet again, Kara returns home to find James, Winn, and Alex cleaning up. Kara tells them that her fantasizing of the perfect life on Krypton wasn’t about not wanting to be with them, but that she had been feeling lost in the same way she had as a child. Kara tells them that they’re her family and Earth is home. She and Winn repair their friendship while James surprises Kara with her favorite foods. Alex fills her in on J’onn’s attempt to cover for her at work and the episode ends with Kara surrounded by the people she loves and who love her. For the first time in the series Kara seems truly happy.
This was by far the best episode of the season to date. There was a great emotional maturity to this episode and while it didn’t particularly do much to advance the plot, it definitely gets you right in the heart—I cried twice in this episode. I can’t wait to see where we go from here.
What did you think of last night’s episode? Share with us in the comments below.
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