Fly Like a Girl: ‘Supergirl’ – Episode 16 ‘Falling’

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

It’s good to be back! Last night’s episode opens with Cat being on The Talk (nice tie-in CBS). Cat looks kind of bored and annoyed as they talk to her about Supergirl and how fabulous she is. (Pretty sure this is supposed to come off as genuine, but it doesn’t.) Meanwhile, Kara is flying around and hears some girls bullying another girl, who is clearly a Supergirl fan—she’s dressed like her! Kara shows up and makes the girl look cool.

Back in the office, Kara is watching the show and appreciating Cat’s comments as Cat herself comes in. Cat needs Winn, which sends Kara looking for him as he’s nowhere to be found. Nowhere, that is, until Kara finds him in the storage closet with Siobhan. Yikes. Winn is embarrassed. Kara is horrified. They’re saved an awkward conversation by Cat calling for Kara.

Lucy quit. James tells Kara that Lucy broke up with him and Kara tries to solve why. James doesn’t really tell her, but he does admit that he didn’t love Lucy as much as he thought he did. Before that conversation can go anywhere, Alex needs her sister. At the DEO Alex tries to convince Kara to go for James, but Kara doesn’t want to be a rebound. Alex advises her to at least tell him how she feels.

They have a special visitor who tells them they have gotten more funding. I think our good Senator Crane has a little crush on “Martianshaw.” (I like it, but as a J’onn fan it also makes me uncomfortable.) The moment is interrupted by a fire downtown and it’s Supergirl off to save the day. She helps move a big piece metal off of a fireman and as she walks away she’s lit up with something red. She feels weird a moment then flies away and when the camera cuts back we see red kryptonite.

Next morning, Kara crushes her alarm clock and starts to get ready. When we next see her she shows up at work looking amazing. Everyone notices, almost to the point of doing double-takes. Cat comes to check on the task that she gave Cara and Siobhan to find a replacement for Lucy. Cara is super on it. She impresses Cat by having a completely thorough list and thus earns herself some tickets to see a DJ. This irks Siobhan, but Kara gets a snappy comment in.

At the DEO, Kara continues to not be herself. She is very snappy and sort of insubordinate. It’s pretty clear to me that she’s got the negative effects of that red kryptonite going. I hope this doesn’t mess with her newfound sense of style (but if it does, I want her shoes). At any rate our baddie of the week is K’Hund, an alien with some sort of weird eye. I think it’s an eye. Anyway, he’s messing things up for an armored car. The bad guy starts to make the standard comment about her mom and Kara is all blah blah blah and they fight. Our heroine’s fighting style has improved with the red kryptonite, but then she lets him go. The red kryptonite is impacting her in other ways, too. She has a confrontation with J’onn that has a lot of truth to it and walks out of the DEO pretty upset.

Back at CatCo, Kara takes Cat’s elevator into work. Cat starts to call her out on it, but Kara stands up to her. Cat? Is almost impressed. Siobhan tries to get a great scoop by showing Cat some footage of Supergirl letting the bad alien go, but Cat tells her to keep it quiet. Alex captures the alien Kara let go, but back at the office Siobhan is about to email a scoop to someone else. Kara catches on, sends Siobhan on a fake errand, prints out the email and gets her fired. Bye.

Kara decides to take James and Winn dancing with her after work. Kara shows up and is far sexier than she usually is. She goes straight for James and asks him to dance. She comes on way too strong, but Cat interrupts. James figures out something is horribly wrong.

Supergirl goes to Cat, who confronts her about the footage. Supergirl, despite her rage, make some solid points about Cat more or less stereotyping her. They sort of argue with each other a little before Supergirl throws Cat off a building. Mind you, Supergirl catches her at the very last second.

National City, we have a problem. James and Winn go to the DEO for help. They also know something is wrong so now it’s time to problem solve things. They do a scan of the fire Supergirl responded to and they find synthetic kryptonite. Maxwell Lord, our favorite evil scientist, shows up and turns out he is responsible for that red kryptonite. Turns out Lord was setting a trap for Non that went sideways of plan. By the way, he calls the stuff “Synthetic K.” (I like it.) Lord has been tracking Supergirl and he too knows something’s wrong so he thinks he can create an antidote.

Cat is about to denounce Supergirl. James and Winn try to convince her that they can fix Supergirl, but Cat doesn’t care. At that moment people are not safe from Supergirl so she has to speak out. She makes a live broadcast telling people not to trust Supergirl and across the city people do just that.

Alex goes to Kara’s apartment to check on her, finding Kara in a very different uniform.  Alex tries to tell Kara what is going on but Rage Kara isn’t hearing it. She belittles Alex. Melissa Benoist is killing it in this scene, and it’s obvious that Kara is now completely unhinged. Kara rips Alex apart by telling her that she has no life and essentially how pathetic she is before flying away.

Lord almost has an antidote, but in the meantime the DEO needs to take Kara down. Martianshaw assembles the troops and as he does, Kara goes on a spree of sorts around National City. Supergirl gleefully wreaks havoc. She gets Alex in a vulnerable position and it looks like Kara is going to kill her. As Alex begs, Kara tells her that nothing on Earth can stop her. She’s right. But something Martian can. This forces J’onn to show his true form and do battle with her. The battle is epic and it gives Alex a chance to use the antidote on Kara. The red kryptonite leaves her and sadly I think this means the end of her great eyeliner. Even more sad? J’onn, shifted back to Hank, is arrested.

Kara wakes up at the DEO and is devastated by everything she did while under the influence of the red kryptonite. She says that every bad thought she had ever had come to the surface and she was powerless to stop it. Alex forgives her, but acknowledges that some of what Kara said was true. They’ll need to work on things. Other things that will require work is the J’onn situation. He’s in a cell now, but he seems happy to be there because it means he was able to keep Kara and Alex safe.

Kara goes back to work. She goes to talk to James, but he isn’t really okay with her. Kara admits her jealousy and starts to tell James that she loves him, but he cuts her off. He says he needs time to think. That can’t possibly be good.

Supergirl then goes to talk to Cat. Supergirl talks about her love of the city and all the stories behind every window. She apologizes to Cat, who tells her it won’t be easy to make things better. But Cat also gives her a bit of a pep talk and lets her sit on her balcony for a while.

Next episode? Supergirl tries to make things right. See you next week!