We don’t need a Wonder Woman movie. Yeah, I said it.

I can scarcely imagine a worse waste of digital celluloid: flying spears thrown from thin, gangly limbs, a star-spangled miniskirt threatening wardrobe malfunctions for two and a quarter hours, unblemished ivory skin strained under gold and platinum body armor, practicality be damned. Wonder Woman the movie — fangirl nirvana, fanboy nightmare. Whenever people discuss the needless parade of White Anglo-Saxon Protestants who populate superhero movies’ starring roles, part of me appreciates their boredom with the obnoxious identity politics at play; what was The Avengers but a classic fraternity bro-down with human growth hormone, outdated mythology and colorful titanium tossed in for kicks?

The problem is that my stunted imagination cannot anticipate a Wonder Woman movie that would rise above such over-budgeted B-movie camp. For many, it shouldn’t — some progressives argue that corporate movie studios owe their female fans a film that highlights feminine superheroics, a movie that proves that women can helm action films and generate revenue with amoral vengeance as violent as any man’s. I find this argument wanting. Corporate movie studios are not public charities, and the thought of spending one-hundred-fifty million dollars to offer American little girls a superheroine to idolize appears to my mind an obnoxious misuse of movie funding. (That’s like nine Fruitvale Stations). Superhero comics involve White male power fantasies — when creators and fans support properties that challenge this monochrome status quo, we can applaud and demand more.

In contrast, Princess Diana of Themyscira never challenges White male comic hegemony; she is their avatar of control as much as her Trinity pals Batman and Superman. Even Wonder Woman’s visual design only benefits the male gaze: no one’s ever been able to explain why a busty superheroine would fight crime in a shiny metal halter-top. Batman’s functionality-meets-fear-factor cowl and utility belt is an A-type personality’s triumph over personal dread; Spider-Man’s webbed mask offers total anonymity amid effective brand management, a constant reminder of the street-level capitalist greed that overcame Peter Parker before his brush with great responsibility. In contrast, Wonder Woman still resembles a World War II showgirl, a classic Hollywood pinup, an adorable brunette whose smoky eyes and chubby cheeks were plastered on some archaic B-52 before terror bombing runs over the Rhineland. Wonder Woman screams for generations at our daughters that their only Kryptonite is long pants.

I know, I know – feminists the world over owe a debt to this character, an avatar of female physical ability and thoughtful feminine cooperation since the 1940’s. Still, a live-action movie for this character appears at best superfluous. Sexism alone will prevent the obvious casting of a fitness model under the tiara, a woman who can rival not only Superman’s power set, but his physique as well. Instead, we’d receive more of the Joss Whedon conceit — another ninety-two pound five-foot-one-inch lily-white waif who practices tai chi and knocks out six-foot-two-inch men twice her size and age with slow roundhouse kicks. The goons’ brawny, broken masculinity will fly across movie screens, launched from determined but weak punches by tiny, dainty fists, and all the men in the theater will pretend that the bad comedy on-screen makes sense, so they don’t screw up their chances at date-night sex. (I watched Firefly, loved Serenity, but let’s be clear — Summer Glau can’t kick my ass.) Women today lift exceptional weight, run ultra-marathons, and go hard in the paint — to cast Wonder Woman, Warner Brothers would need to channel Nike and reflect the active woman’s sweat and sacrifice. This the male gaze will not allow.

Please note: I do not oppose the idea of a superheroine movie — I’m just not convinced that Wonder Woman deserves IMAX immortality. Wonder Woman isn’t really what people care about; the idea of her is. The actual written character is a jumble of feminist virtue, humanitarian military interventionism, and ancient Greek-themed fantasy. She justifies murder with military necessity, yet promotes diplomacy among nations. She’s governed by moral precepts developed when infanticide was common and literacy was rare, yet modern women raise her as a champion for their interests. Outside of this confusion, none of us care much for her villains; what exactly do the Wonder Woman movie proponents believe Diana will accomplish for two hours? She offers new viewers precious little: no childhood trauma, no technological advances, just boring invulnerability and gravity defying breasts.

In place of workable plot, some Wonder Woman movie boosters suggest that her Themysciran homeland can be depicted in detail, using Thor’s lengthy excursion into Asgard as template. They forget: no one confused Thor with a good movie. The updated Norse pantheon rendered cross-culturally with noticeably computer-generated visuals gave viewers the sense that Asgardian magic was no more than science advanced beyond human comprehension; this assertion allowed a certain modernism to permeate Thor. Wonder Woman’s ancient Greek creation myth is just too old world for a summer blockbuster, unless the studio is willing to infuse Zack Snyder big-budget grindhouse into the film. Even then, I don’t think it would work: the successful fantasy franchises of the last decade like Lord of the Rings and Game of Thrones borrow liberally from the Middle Ages for cultural roots. In so doing, they play on the modern Western conceit that Western Europe’s total disconnect from Roman civilization, African mathematics and Asian trade did not retard Western advancement. In contrast, the Amazons of Themyscira reek of age, not wistful nostalgia. Apologies to Shawn Taylor, but it strains credibility to watch Minotaurs stampede down Pennsylvania Avenue. It’s just silly: we haven’t seen a Wonder Woman movie in part because her civilization never progressed past the Bronze Age. Send Amazons to invade America with agile feet and swift spears. We’d carpet bomb the phalanxes and mow down any survivors with M-240’s. Shock and awe.

The point? We don’t need a Wonder Woman movie. A superhuman feminist avatar is not a person. A magically invulnerable persona for antiquated philosophy is not a person. Movies have to revolve around people to work, and no one molds people from clay. Given the licensing, Diana’s unusable on-screen, the comic industry answer to Hilary Clinton. The Golden Fleece of upper-income liberal circles is the idea of a female American President, and no other single figure commands the pressured fanaticism of that feminist dream like the former Secretary of State. Her domestic centrism, her Iraq War support, her emotive haranguing of rival Senator Barack Obama – all these lapses from leftist orthodoxy prove secondary concerns to those who want the highest glass ceiling in America to finally shatter after eighteen million cracks in 2008. Perhaps one day, these liberal feminists will realize the dream and elect Mrs. Clinton President. I don’t know. But I’m sure their gender tribalist drive for a woman President does not ask whether a third Clinton Administration would improve America.

The fabled Wonder Woman movie strikes a particular ambivalence. I doubt it would be any good, and I’m not sure making such a film accomplishes much outside of soothing the bruised egos of women who watched The Avengers and found Scarlett Johansson no more than leather-clad eye-candy who watched with awe while a Norse god rode lightning. Like Mrs. Clinton, Diana of Themyscira works best as a torchbearer, the figure who keeps the dream alive until a successive generation realizes its promise. We don’t get to a President Barack Obama without the storied campaigns of Rep. Shirley Chisholm and Rev. Jesse Jackson. We don’t get to the box office records of Tobey Maguire’s Spider-Man without the unforeseen profit margins of Wesley Snipes’ Blade. Maybe we need a solo live-action superheroine movie to focus on Kara Zor-El or Cassandra Cain or Carol Danvers or Amanda Waller or Jessica Drew or Martha Washington or Barbara Gordon or Ororo Munroe to meet today’s clamor for a female superhero movie. Because when that movie is made, chances are it will cost less and inspire more. And we’ll still have Princess Diana of Themyscira to thank for carrying the torch in the dark.

Related articles

• What a Wonder Woman Movie Could and Should Look Like (comicvine.com)
• WB CEO Says We Need a ‘Wonder Woman’ Movie or TV Show (screenrant.com)

It looks like Greg Berlanti is trying to own all of superhero broadcast television. He’s involved in two of the five current DC Comics TV shows (ahem, his shows are doing the best too — is Constantine still on the air? Sorry Constantine fans.) with a few other shows on other networks (like Mysteries of Laura on NBC). His latest venture will be Supergirl over on CBS, co-produced with Ali Adler (Chuck, The New Normal, No Ordinary Family).

Melissa Benoist (Glee) will be playing Supergirl, but as much interest as I already had in the show (knowing it’s a part of the Flarrow universe), I became about 1000% more excited when I learned that Jimmy Olsen will be played by Mehcad Brooks. A lot of people know him from Necessary Roughness or Desperate Housewives, but I am just excited that they’re casting a person of color in a lead role. A lead romantic role, if The Hollywood Reporter’s description reigns true (though I have a bone to pick with a part of it — more on that later).

I will admit, most of what I know about Superman comes from Lois and Clark the New Adventures of Superman (sorry?) and a few Superman cartoon moments, but Jimmy Olsen isn’t exactly the coolest character in the Superman universe. So will this Jimmy Olsen be a black nerd? Only time will tell. Why is he in National City and not Metropolis? The Hollywood Reporter describes him as “salt of the earth.” I have so many questions and so much more interest in seeing this show do well. As much as I wish that the lead in a live-action superhero show were given the chance to be a person of color (a woman of color, can we please?!), I am glad that they’ve taken a chance on “nontraditional” casting. As we’ve been proving this entire TV season, a diverse cast really will get you the ratings you want (cough How to Get Away with Murder, Black-ish, Empire coughcough).

Unfortunately, this means that there will be tons of fans up in arms about how Jimmy Olsen isn’t black (he’s traditionally a redhead, like another comic character who’s been racebent in recent months) and how that’s somehow a problem? (Don’t look in the #Supergirl tag on Twitter. I accidentally did and now my head hurts. I’m sure it’s worse on forums.)

They’d better get used to this. Johnny Storm, Captain America, Ms. Marvel, Thor, and Annie all no longer look like they used to. The cities that Berlanti’s shows populate are filled with people of color (hmm, well, Arrow needs to still work on this some more), like real cities across America. They’ve just cast one black person as the supporting lead of the show, and people are already upset — when really, it’s not even enough. It’s a shame that every time there is a race or gender switch in a character, there needs to be articles like this one that show their support for those choices, just to drown out the idiots who have a problem with it.

Well Mehcad, I and a lot of other nerds of color are excited to see what you bring to the Supergirl Universe. I would love for him to be the Felicity of the show, the character everyone falls in love with and can’t be a hero without. There are so many awesome possibilities and I am Super excited for all of them (that was on purpose, DRINK). Now we just need someone to get a black superhero as the lead (how long until Luke Cage debuts on Netflix)?

And if I may for a moment, I have a bone to pick with whoever wrote the Supergirl description on The Hollywood Reporter.

“Now 24, Kara feels un-empowered, a slave to having repressed her innate abilities. She’s still pretty, but with her face hidden behind glasses and her hair pulled back, she doesn’t know it herself.”

Ugh, really? A “she doesn’t know she’s beautiful” thing? I really want to trust Berlanti and his team more than that — if I can go with how they’ve treated glasses and ponytail wearing Felicity, then I can’t see them pulling a One Direction on Supergirl. Felicity is desired and feels beautiful both in her glasses and without. She has three superheroes vying for her attention for goodness sakes! So let’s stop with the “takes her hair down and suddenly she’s a babe” thing.

I know that the glasses are an important part of the Superman mythos, but Clark Kent was never ugly or felt insecure once he had the glasses on. It was a disguise (a magic, paper thin disguise). So let’s not pretend that girls in glasses aren’t attractive and can’t feel attractive — unless this is a key character learning point. But somehow I blame this line on bad PR. Again, time will tell, but I had to express my annoyance at that description, because it’s a tired, sexist move and I’m hoping we’re past that.

Supergirl won’t hit our screens for a while, but let’s show Mehcad Brooks some support, he seems earnest and thankful for the opportunity.

Lastly, I’ve been singing this song from The Princess Diaries soundtrack all day.

Last night, CBS and Warner Brothers television released a six-and-a-half minute sizzle reel for Supergirl, this fall’s hotly anticipated entry into Greg Berlanti’s DC television dominance universe. Starring Glee alum Melissa Benoist as the eponymous hero, the preview exuded a sense of fun, joy, and lightness often missing from DC’s live action comic adaptations — not including CW’s The Flash, of course, coincidentally a show also starring another Glee alum.

But how did the internet respond?

Most of the chatter from those, let’s say, less than pleased with the trailer consists of issues with its tone. More specifically, its similarities with a recent Saturday Night Live sketch skewering Marvel’s lack of a solo Black Widow movie by turning it into a romantic comedy.

I have a few thoughts about this. While I understand why some folks feel like the Supergirl preview gave off a rom-com vibe — particularly from the music cues in its first half — I don’t know why that’s necessarily a bad thing. This is coming from someone who actually enjoys the genre when it’s done well. When Harry Met Sally, Singles, and Annie Hall are some of my favorite films of all time. Hell, I even wrote a whole post on this site about Love Actually for crying out loud! Besides, if anyone read the series description when Supergirl was initially announced, the tone of the preview shouldn’t have come as a surprise.

“Now 24, Kara feels un-empowered, a slave to having repressed her innate abilities. She’s still pretty, but with her face hidden behind glasses and her hair pulled back, she doesn’t know it herself. But an unexpected disaster forces her to use her powers in public. Energized by her heroic deed, for the first time in her life Kara begins embracing her extraordinary abilities. She begins helping the people of her city, and they soon take notice. She’s even given a new moniker: Supergirl.”

Christelle even predicted the Devil Wears Prada vibe when Calista Flockhart’s casting was first announced as well.

The fact that the show is fully embracing a more light-hearted tone doesn’t mean it’s automatically being dumbed down. Sometimes comic book superheroes can be light-hearted. Hell, the dumbest comic book show on television is probably Gotham, and that show is the total opposite of light and sunny. For what it’s worth, it’s also going to be direct timeslot competition to Supergirl in the fall. 

Also, Kara’s mannerisms in the first “rom-com-y” half of the preview were more of an echo of her famous cousin’s secret identity than anything else.

Moreover, some of the best Clark and Lois scenes in all forms — whether the Donner films or Lois & Clark or Smallville — owe more to classic romantic comedies than to the romantic melodrama you might find on a “dark and gritty” show like Arrow (you are officially on notice, Olicity). Look, your mileage may vary when it comes to watching Supergirl this fall. I, for one, am excited for it even if most fanboys chafe over how “girly” they perceive it to be. And that seems like the most damning of all the critiques, as if the fact that it is emphasizing what is traditionally considered “feminine” is inherently bad.

A similar complaint swept the internet last month when Warner Brothers and Mattel teamed up to announce a new multi-platform brand of action figures, DVDs, books, and digital content called DC Super Hero Girls. 

Purposefully aimed at an audience of young, pre-tween girls — think the (non-adult) crowd who obsesses over Disney Princesses and My Little Pony — the brand was launched to much fanfare in April. The internet reaction, though, was less than ideal. Most were offended that DC would “pander” to girls by giving them their own brand instead of just better integrating them into existing DC products. But here’s the thing, who says we can’t simultaneously have both?

While I understand the importance of including girls in “boy-centric” toy lines and media, it doesn’t mean that those boy-centered things have to be the default. But the implicit critique of some of the knee-jerk reactions to things like DC Super Hero Girls or the Supergirl show on CBS seemingly dismiss those properties simply because they are aimed at girls and/or women.

I argued the same point about LEGO Friends a while back. Just because something is aimed at young girls does not automatically make it bad. Because to be honest, that’s the icky vibe I get whenever I hear people (mostly dudes) complain about content that is directed at girls instead of them. And why shouldn’t girls have content that is aimed at them? After all, aren’t they the ones who run the world?

While 40-year old fanboys might moan and complain about DC Super Hero Girls or the new Supergirl show, you know who is super excited about both things? My nearly eight-year-old daughter. And ultimately, that’s what is most important.

You know what, I’ll just let Calista Flockhart as Cat Grant have the last word:

It feels like we’ve been riding the Supergirl hype train for more than a year now. Now that the show has finally arrived — behind a massive marketing campaign that made it the most watched new show of the season! — the rest of the general public is finally beginning to see what we’ve been saying since from jump: Supergirl, the show, is legit and the best thing to happen to live action superhero adaptations since The Flash debuted — which also stars a Glee alum and is produced by the same folks, coincidentally.

I won’t get into why super producer Greg Berlanti needs to find a way to crossover Supergirl with his other DC properties Arrow and Flash in this post — that would be over here. Instead, we’re going to be recapping the highs and lows of the Pilot and what we can expect from the future adventures of Melissa Benoist as Kara Zor-El.

Like most superhero shows in the Berlanti-verse, Supergirl will likely employs flashbacks. This time, though, the past is prologue as the episode opens with an adolescent Kara with her parents, Zor-El (Robert Gant) and Alura (Laura Benanti), on Krypton before it explodes. As most comic fans may know, Kara was also sent away from the doomed planet and was meant to watch over her younger cousin. Unfortunately, Kara’s ship accidentally gets sucked into the Phantom Zone, where she’s stranded for two decades — presumably in suspended animation — before she lands on Earth.

When she finally arrives, Kara is still a little girl, but her infant cousin is now Superman.

Rather than bonding with the only other Kryptonian he’s ever met and not murdered, Kal-El decides to leave Kara to be raised by kindly scientists who dress like farmers and happen to also look like Superman and Supergirl because the Danvers are played by Dean Cain and Helen Slater.

In a voiceover, Kara explains that because the world already had a Superman, she would rather “fit in” and have a normal life than use her superpowers for good. Fast-forward to the present and Kara Danvers¹ is “fitting in” as a low-level employee at CatCo, a media conglomerate run by Cat Grant and played by Calista Flockhart. We also meet Jeremy Jordan’s Winn (Don’t Call Me Toyman) Schott, who is being set up as the Felicity/Caitlin of the show, and his less than subtle attempts at flirting with Kara.

After a series of Devil Wears Prada-esque one-liners, Grant sends Kara to meet with CatCo’s newest art director: none other than Superman’s Pal, Jimmy James Olsen. But this is a take on Jimmy Olsen that you’ve never seen before, and not because this version is a Black man. As played by Mehcad Brooks, Olsen is tall, muscular, and suave. Anyone who tweeted along with the show last night (using the incredible #SupGirl tag, natch) might have noticed the collective salivating that occurred anytime Brooks was on screen.

Here’s the thing, I’m not sure I can process sexy Jimmy Olsen. I think Mehcad Brooks is fantastic on the show, and there is an undeniable chemistry with Melissa Benoist. But my man is built like a superhero already! Jimmy needs to represent for the nerds. Can you imagine if Berlanti swapped actors and cast Echo Kellum — Arrow’s Curtis Holt — as Jimmy and had Mehcad Brooks play Mister Terrific instead?

Later, Kara’s sister Alex (played by Chyler Leigh from Grey’s Anatomy) helps our heroine get ready for a blind date, the two siblings continue dropping exposition talking about how unfulfilled her life is as a Super Intern. Meanwhile, Alex is a doctor who flies all over the world attending conferences. In fact, Alex has a plane to Geneva that she needs to catch. And if you know anything about the Super mythos — or even Grey’s Anatomy mythos — plane rides never end well.

While on her less than super date, Kara sees a news report about a plane to Geneva that is having engine trouble. She ditches her asshole date and after a few attempts — she’s rusty, after all — takes off up, up, and away to save the plane and her sister.

Mind you, we’re still basically in the first act. If there’s one thing the producers have learned from Arrow and especially Flash, there is no reason to tread water when establishing your superhero franchise. It may have taken my beloved Smallville ten years for Clark to fly (well, technically four since Clark flew in the season four premiere), the Supergirl writers are not holding anything back, and we get a really thrilling plane rescue in the first half of the pilot.

This is kind of a blessing and a curse. While it’s great that they aren’t wasting time to get to the good stuff, the Pilot definitely felt equal parts expository and rushed. Hopefully with the origins out of the way, the rest of the season can be a little better paced.

Afterwards, Kara is justifiably giddy at the fact that the news is covering her superheroism. Unfortunately, her sister shows up and rains on her parade, scolding Kara for showing herself to the world. It seems that Alex may have preferred not having a superhero in the family.

At work the next day, everyone is buzzing about the mysterious “guardian angel.” Cat wants her to be to CatCo what Superman is to the Planet. Jimmy James and Kara have some more flirty banter disguised as talk about her cousin, and Winn is about to have his world rocked when Kara invites him up to the roof. Instead of revealing her feelings for him, she instead lets him in on the biggest secret in National City. She’s the hero who saved the plane!

To be honest, I’m not sure how likable Winn is yet. I think they need to dial down the creepiness of his crush on Kara a touch. Either way, the two decide to lean in to the whole superhero thing and start building her super persona as a team.

In a montage, we see Kara and Winn fighting crime and trying on new costumes — which satirizes how ridiculous many of Supergirl’s comic book costumes have been.

Eventually, they find the right outfit combination, and Kara slaps on a cape and the crest of the House of El, and a superheroine is born.

Her first mission after donning her family’s coat of arms is to respond to a fire at the corner of Gates and Igle — a nice nod to long time Supergirl creative team Spencer Gates and Jamal Igle. Instead of a fire, Kara gets a Kryptonite dart to the shoulder. When she comes to, she’s strapped down in an underground bunker of the Department of ExpositoryExtranormal Operations, run by future Cyborg Superman — and former CIA director — Hank Henshaw (Homeland’s David Harewood).

It seems that the government has been tracking Kara for some time. And that she and her cousin are the reason their department even exists. She also learns that her escape from the Phantom Zone also brought forth all of the detainees from Fort Rozz, the maximum security prison where all of Krypton’s deadliest criminals are housed — not, as Man of Steel would have you believe, a series of flying space dildos.

The scene that follows was at the crux of the extended promo that debuted in the spring and is the writers way of landing a preemptive strike against those who would criticize the show’s “girlness.” I elaborated more on this back in May. Basically, Cat has dubbed National City’s new hero “Supergirl,” and Kara is worried about the message it might send to call her “girl” and not “woman.”

In a scene straight out of Richard Donner’s original Superman movie, Vartox, the episode’s FOTW, calls out to Kara via a frequency only she can hear. And 40 minutes into the episode, we get our first shirt-rip/S-reveal! Mind you, it took Smallville, ten seasons and 200+ episodes to get to the same point².

Her first supervillain fight doesn’t go so well, but luckily Alex and the DEO come to her rescue. When Kara realizes that crimefighting requires fighting more than bank robbers, she starts to doubt herself and needs a pep talk from her big sister to realize she is super after all.

Alex then gives Kara a Kryptonian artifact — with “Kryptonese” writing on it, for some reason — that projects a hologram of Alura. Kara realizes she must forge her own destiny, separate from Kal-El’s.

With renewed confidence, Supergirl goes after Vartox and tells the DEO they can either help or get out of her way. On a desolate highway, she confronts the supervillain one last time, only this time, she’s ready for him. After some impressive visual effects, including an exploding semi-truck, Kara with her sister in her ear and heat vision in her eyes, finally defeats the bad guy and flies away victorious.

Later, Kara meets James on the roof of CatCo where he has a surprise for her. He wasn’t just sent to National City to work for CatCo. Superman actually sent him there to look after Kara, and she’s shocked that Jimmy was in on her secret this entire time.  (I mean, he’s Superman’s Pal, after all. Why wouldn’t he know?) I’m guessing this means Jimmy is aware that Supes and Clark are one in the same, too. He gives her Kal-El’s baby blanket — which looks an awfully lot like a cape — and Kara triumphantly flies away, confident in her identity as Earth’s newest protector.

In the episode stinger, we see the big bad who had been pulling the strings the entire time. Referred to as “general” throughout the episode, the villain is revealed and she’s also played by Laura Benanti?

Apparently, Alura has a twin sister, and that twin sister is evil.

And that’s that! Apart from some weird pacing and overly expository dialogue, — and my own issues reconciling a sexy Jimmy Olsen — Supergirl is the real deal. I’m more than excited to come back next week and see where the series goes from here.

How about you? What were your thoughts from the Pilot of Supergirl? Also, how cool was it to see a Flash promo on CBS? Maybe we’ll get that musical crossover sooner than later?

After a strong debut last week, the second episode of Supergirl’s inaugural season took a bit of a ratings hit, losing 30% of the audience that tuned in for the premiere. And that’s too bad because those people who decided not to come back missed a really strong follow-up episode and a better indication of what kind of show Supergirl will be. Still, nine million viewers is nothing to sneeze at. To put those numbers in perspective, The Flash and Arrow get a total of about six million viewers a week. Combined.

Granted, ratings on a smaller network like The CW are different relative to what a Big Four network like CBS expects. But after being the most watched new show of the season, I think the show was bound to come back to Earth a little bit.

Since episode two doesn’t have to worry about retelling the origin (that’s what the “previously on” is for), “Stronger Together” kicks off with Supergirl in mid-flight. What seems like a peaceful jaunt through the desert turns out to be a training exercise for the DEO.

I’m really starting to think the DEO is my least favorite aspect of the show. Using the Flarrowverse template, Supergirl is trying, desperately, to turn these scenes into their equivalent to S.T.A.R. Labs or the Arrow Cave. The thing is, I don’t think Alex and Henshaw are that compelling, and they clearly lack chemistry with their superhero, especially when compared to Cisco/Caitlin and Felicity on their respective shows.

Also, why is Alex so concerned with Kara keeping her identity secret when there are at least two dozen DEO agents — and probably more — who are well aware that Kara Danvers and Supergirl are one in the same? But I digress.

After dodging cruise missiles for a few hours, Kara decides to head back to National City and rescue an oil liner. Apparently, she hasn’t done much superhero-ing since taking down Vartox — maybe the DEO’s been “testing” her all this time? — so she isn’t quite as good at her superjob yet. When she arrives on the scene, Overacting Extra #1 chides her for not being her cousin (and they actually said “Superman” this time!) and putting out the fire fast enough.

After her freeze breath fails to do the trick, Kara decides to bring the oil tanker away from the fire on the port. At first, it seems to be working. That is until her strength rips the tanker in half and tons of crude oil pours into the Bay.

And like that, Supergirl goes from hero to terrorist “in a single bound.” The residents of National City are a fickle bunch. A week after falling head over heels for their own superhero, the public turns on her as soon as she makes a mistake. Cat Grant isn’t helping since she’s continually publishing headlines insulting the Maid of Might, which is weird since she was just as gung ho about branding and claiming Supergirl as her own creation. We even see our first shot of Maxwell Lord, who’s also pushing the narrative of Supergirl as a menace to society.

Quick aside, one of the things I love about Superman stories is when they show Clark using his powers to do mundane, ordinary activities. Like Dean Cain’s Clark flying off to China to bring dim sum back to Lois or Tom Welling’s Clark using his super strength to help Jonathan fix a fence. So the shot of Kara using her laser eyes to heat Cat’s latte was extra cool.

Anyway, Cat tasks her reporters to secure an exclusive interview with Supergirl lest they get scooped by the Daily Planet. And once again, folks from Metropolis get named-dropped, including Clark, Lois, and Perry White. Also, Cat’s time at the Planet is also canon on the show since she tells Kara about being Perry’s assistant before writing her own gossip column for the paper.

Of course, Kara understands that the second Cat interviews her in her supersuit, she’s going to see right through her (not so) secret identity. Kara and James have a back-and-forth about Clark Kent’s glasses that’s a little on the nose for me, but is probably necessary to sell the general public on the fiction. After a quick pep talk from James, Kara is still unconvinced about sitting down with Cat for an interview.

Meanwhile, an alien insect/humanoid hybrid — played by an actor named Justice Leak, by the way¹ — is stealing chemicals all over the city and takes out Overacting Extras #2 and #3. The DEO is on the case, and so is Supergirl, much to Henshaw’s disapproval. Fortunately, her presence at the scene leads to a memory that helps them ID the perp. In a flashback to her time on Krypton, kid Kara and Alura have a conversation about the bad guys she puts away as Krypton’s lead adjudicator.

I hope we get more flashbacks to Krypton. Not only is it nice to see Laura Benanti as Alura (though not using conjunctions in her speech is weird. Maybe it’s a Kryptonian thing?), but I’m digging the producers’ take on Krypton. It’s always appreciated to see a version that isn’t so beholden to Donner’s ice planet.

Anyway, via Kara’s flashback we find out the perp of the week is part of an alien species called Helgrammites — which is also the name of a Superman villain, though he’s not an alien in the comics. Kara wants to take him out, but Henshaw prevents her from doing so until she learns how to fight. Coincidentally, the DEO just so happens to have an octagon ring equipped with Kryptonite emitters. After a not-so-well-choreographed sparring sequence between the two sisters, Kara begins to doubt herself again.

Ironically, a Cat Grant scolding inspires Kara to get the National citizens back on her side by doing smaller heroic feats with less collateral damage. To do so, she employs the two men in her life — James and Winn — to be her eyes and ears on the ground and Team Supergirl is born.

This leads us into my favorite part of the episode. James and Winn display a ton of chemistry together, and I’d much prefer the bulk of the show to be about these three fighting crime than Kara + the DEO fighting aliens. Not only are Mehcad Brooks and Jeremy Jordan infinitely more entertaining than Chyler Leigh and David Harewood, their scenes are also less heavy-handed and clunky than any DEO-related ones. Also, I’m not sure Leigh and Harewood have figured out how to play their parts yet. Maybe it’s because they’re the ones who have all of the dialogue about aliens and such, but it’s just hard to take them seriously. The only thing the DEO has that James/Winn don’t is a secret lair with hi-tech equipment. But maybe that’s on the way?

Anyway, Team Supergirl sends Kara on a montage of heroism that’s straight out of the first Donner movie. Kara stops a bank robbery, rescues an ambulance, and helps a little girl get her kitten boa constrictor down from a tree. Extra points to Melissa Benoist for her reaction upon learning “Fluffy” wasn’t referring to a cat.

After many celebratory pizzas, our trio of do-gooders are relieved that Supergirl’s heroic deeds are not only helping the good citizens of National City, but are rehabilitating Supergirl’s public image as well. The news even travels all the way to Pawnee, Indiana.

Their celebration is cut short, however, when Sister Buzzkill shows up at the apartment and chides Kara for doing non-sanctioned superhero-ing. Sorry, but I think Alex is my least favorite character so far. Not sure what it is, but I get a bad vibe from her, and Leigh’s acting is definitely the clunkiest of the main cast. Who knows? Maybe this is all intentional because they’re setting her up for a heel turn?

After a quick heart-to-heart, Alex is summoned back to the DEO because they have a lead on the Hellgrammite. It seems that the alien is attacking chemical plants because he is actually feeding off of DDT. We know this because Overacting Extra #4 tells us so.

Henshaw decides to use this fact to lure the Hellgrammite out of hiding, but forbids Alex from letting Kara know they’re doing this without any Super help. Little do they know but Hellgrammite isn’t working alone and is actually in league with a trio of Kryptonian baddies led by General Astra. While the DEO is trying to bait the Hellgrammite, the insect flips the script and captures Alex to bait Supergirl instead.

Back at the not-Daily Planet, Cat is getting impatient with James’ inability to land an interview with Kara. But he’s a photographer/art director. Why should it be his job to arrange interviews? Because Kara’s S-shield implies a connection to Big Blue — sister? girlfriend? — and Cat wants James to call Superman — on his watch maybe? — to get the scoop on Supergirl. Unfortunately for Cat, James refuses to exploit friends to get ahead and is given a 24-hour ultimatum to get Supergirl to agree to the interview or be fired.

Kara overhears all of this — of course — and flips the script on James. This time, she’s the one who has to give James the pep talk. You see, he didn’t move to National City just because Supes asked him to. He wanted to get out from under the shadow of Superman’s cape and be his own man. Despite what we learned in the pilot, he never intended to hitch himself to another cape. James has a great line about being a scared kid with a camera when he first met the Big Guy — though it’s hard to believe Mehcad Brooks was ever a “scared kid” since we was obviously just carved out of granite, but whatevs.

Kara tells him that the “S” that she shares with Kal-El doesn’t just stand for the House of El. It also stands for their family motto, a Kryptonian saying that means “hope” “stronger together.”

Kara then learns about her sister’s capture and speeds directly to the DEO cave (why exactly are they inside a cave again?) and scolds the director for not trusting her. Henshaw admits that even with all of their satellites and fancy tech, they can’t find Alex, but Supergirl can. She takes to the skies and uses her super hearing to locate her sister. When she finds Alex in an abandoned warehouse, she’s ambushed by her Crazy Aunt.

Kara is shocked. Not just because her aunt is alive but because she’s evil. Apparently, Kara was unaware that her aunt was a bad guy. What follows is a pretty impressive Kryptonian super fight that makes the Alex/Kara match up from earlier in the ep look even worse by comparison.

I mean, there’s even dueling heat vision!

Just as Astra is about to get the upper hand, Kara remembers her sister’s training lesson and basically uses her enemy’s own momentum to defeat her. With Supergirl and The Walking Dead back to back, what’s with the sudden infatuation with aikido in our live action comic book properties?

Henshaw and a DEO task force show up just in time to subdue Astra with a kryptonite dagger to the arm. She speeds away before the agents can get to her though. Later, Astra and another alien scientist — who I’m guessing isn’t Kryptonian because he seems perfectly fine around the green stuff — analyze the weapon and realize they aren’t as invincible as they thought on Earth.

So I guess this means Superman has been operating for the last dozen or so years without Kryptonite around? That’s weird.

Back underground, Alex and Kara have a heart to heart about the importance of family and how weird it must be to know that she still has blood relatives who survived the destruction of Krypton. Alex then shows Kara a special room in the DEO’s underground bunker that has been designed just for her. And I have to cry foul a little bit. Like, I’m glad Kara gets her own Fortress and what not, but why did the DEO have to build it? Also, how the hell did they build it? Like, did that artifact from the Pilot create this room? So many questions here.

Anyway, the room houses a special A.I. hologram of Alura that can interact with Kara in every way. Though it can’t give Kara a hug, it can tell her everything it knows about Astra.

We also learn why Henshaw is always a dick to Kara. Most comic fans probably figured a potentially cybernetic turn was coming sooner or later. Just probably not this soon. At the tag of the DEO scenes, Henshaw turns to camera with a pair of glowing red eyes. So, there’s that.

The episode ends with Cat Grant on the phone with James, prepared to fire him since Supergirl never agreed to the interview. As Cat’s driver pulls away from her building, though, James tells her that he actually got the interview set up after all. In fact, she’s headed there now. Cat looks out her window and sees her car flying away from the ground.

Kara takes Cat to a remote location far away from National City. Either they’re going to do an interview or Kara is going to murder Cat and toss the body off a cliff. Guess we’ll have to tune in next week to find out.

With each passing week, I’m becoming more and more impressed with Supergirl as a series. Sure, the pilot was already strong, but last week’s episode definitely raised the bar. Now with episode three in the can, the sky’s the limit for Supergirl to blaze its own trail. It’s just too bad the ratings are not keeping pace with the quality of the series. Come on, America! Tune in because this show could use your eyeballs!

The episode, “Fight or Flight,” picks up right after the events of last week. Kara has taken Cat to a secluded area (in Los Angeles, apparently) to do her interview. Immediately, Cat is bored with the proceedings because Kara’s story is basically a carbon copy of Superman’s: Krypton, flying, yadda yadda.

The interview goes from bad to worse because Cat has figured out how to push Supergirl’s buttons. In addition to comparing her to Superman, she asks Kara why she hasn’t started a family. Offended by the sexist question, Kara cuts the interview short and flies away, but not before letting it slip that she and Superman are not only Kryptonians, but they’re family.

The next day, Kara and Alex are having coffee and cinnamon buns at a local coffee shop when James comes in. Alex can immediately see that Kara is crushing on him. She then chides her sister again about her not-so-secret identity. And I keep asking myself why Alex isn’t concerned about the 50 or so DEO agents WHO ALL KNOW KARA IS SUPERGIRL.

Of course, it doesn’t help that Cat has gone public with her news about Kara’s family ties. The news is so big that Cat is writing an exclusive expose and tasks Kara with organizing a launch party for the new Supergirl-centric magazine. The show continues its anti-ginger prejudice when Cat gets poor Dave removed from the premises because she finds his hair “distracting.”

Meanwhile, this episode’s Alien Threat of the Week is introduced, and we eventually learn he’s not an alien at all. In fact, Kara is actually forbidden from involving herself from non-alien threats. Or at least that’s what Henshaw and the DEO think.

This time the DC villain Reactron is up to bat and interestingly, he was originally conceived as a Supergirl/Power Girl villain. So it’s nice that the show is featuring someone from Kara’s rogues gallery and doesn’t have to crib from someone else — like coughArrowcough.

He makes himself known after Supergirl rescues a driver from a fatal bus crash. Even though Reactron is not an alien, his power level is high enough to go toe to toe with a Kryptonian. He’s even battled Superman himself to a number of standstills, so this bad guy’s no joke.

Though Kara gets roughed up a great deal in their initial encounter, she is able to damage Reactron’s containment suit before the villain flees.

Because Reactron isn’t an alien, Henshaw recommends that Kara call in her cousin to take care of the threat, and we realize that the episode’s running theme will be that people keep unfairly contrasting Kara to Superman.

Back at CatCo, Winn — adorably — shows James and Kara a secret office in the building that the #SuperFriends will use for their Superhero Sleuthing going forward.

The three of them use Winn’s tech to track Reactron, and James spends the whole time humblebragging about his Best Pal Superman while also telling Kara to stand down since this bad guy might be too much for her. As James and Kara argue, James lets slip that Clark is Superman, and Winn’s reaction is magic. Seriously, Jeremy Jordan’s performance in this scene — hell, this whole episode — has made me officially Team Winn.

Meanwhile, Kara is tired of being in the shadow of Superman’s cape — something Jimmy should be familiar with based on what he said last episode. And the first cracks in their relationship — Kammy? Jara? Portmanteaus are dumb — begin to show.

Elsewhere, at Lord Technologies, we get our first real taste of Peter Facinelli’s Maxwell Lord. He plays the part with just enough dickishness that you don’t quite want him to have his neck snapped by Wonder Woman, just yet. Besides, I can totally see Maxwell Lord palling around with Micheal Rosenbaum’s Lex Luthor (BECAUSE SMALLVILLE IS CANON!).

After droning on about a new maglev train (and firing one of his engineers), Reactron shows up and kidnaps the CEO because he needs his suit fixed. Who built the original, I wonder?

Supergirl investigates, without DEO approval, but her sister offers unsanctioned help to the Superfriends by figuring out Reactron’s origin story. Turns out Reactron is really a nuclear engineer named Benjamin Krull who gained his powers when terrorists tried to hijack the facility where he worked with his wife.

Though Superman saved the day, the ensuing radiation blast killed Krull’s wife and transformed him into a vengeance-seeking killing machine. That’s why he’s got a hard on to kill Superman and everything he loves. So since Superman took away someone he loved, Reactron feels that turnabout is fair play and will take out the only person who has a connection to Superman: Supergirl.

Armed with this knowledge, Kara wants to seek out Reactron and reason with him to give up Lord and come away peacefully. James doesn’t think she should go after Reactron, but she ignores the advice and finds the bad guy in an abandoned junk yard.

After freeing Lord from his shackles, she tells him to run away before a nuclear blast sends her backwards. After some more (poorly choreographed) fisticuffs — seriously, they need to get the Arrow or Flash folks on here for fight choreo — Reactron gets the upper hand and Kara’s down for the count. Just as he’s about to go for the finisher on her…

OHMYGODITSFUCKINGSUPERMANSAVINGTHEDAY!!!!!!!!

Sadly, Supes isn’t sporting the red trunks (boo!) and we may never know who’s playing the Man of Steel.

I know the whole point of the episode is to quell our expectations and to accept Supergirl for Supergirl, but seeing Superman actually on the show was still thrilling. And really, it’s kind of smart of the writers to address the Superman question in this way. I know one of the things that’s been swirling around the show’s premise is how weird it is that Superman isn’t around. Now we know, but we’ll get to that later.

After the commercials, Kara wakes up in her apartment with Alex and James. She’s been out for hours and Superman has flown off to save the day elsewhere. When she asks how Clark knew to rescue her, James confesses that he signaled the Big Guy because HE HAS A SIGNAL WATCH Y’ALL!!!

On TV, Maxwell Lord thanks Superman for saving his ass, and Kara is pissed. First Jimmy, now this? Fucking men.

James leaves the apartment knowing he might have just screwed things up for their relationship. Kara realizes she’s late for Cat’s party and doesn’t have anything to wear. Fortunately, Alex borrowed a party dress from the DEO’s closets.

Also, why the hell does the DEO keep party dresses in the closet?

At the party, Cat and Maxwell have some flirty banter on the dance floor. Kara arrives solo and is chided by Cat before Winn (in a bowtie!) makes the save. The two longtime friends share a dance clearly designed to manufacture Winn/Kara shippers (is there such a thing?) and activate my musical Berlanti-verse crossover dream.

Then James — not in a bowtie, but wearing a suit three sizes too small — cuts in and apologizes for not believing in Kara.

Before the two of them kiss, Reactron crashes through the ceiling, looking for Supergirl. Kara sneaks out of the party and “secretly” changes into her Supersuit (guess she had to speed back to the apartment first because it clearly wasn’t under her dress) and saves Maxwell Lord from Reactron again.

Kara has to break away from her battle with the villain when a column is about to fall on top of Winn. Seizing the moment, James taunts Reactron to come after him. Alex — who has convinced Cyborg Homeland to help her — feeds Kara instructions on how to defeat Reactron once and for all. She needs to remove the Arc Reactor from his Iron Man suit. The problem is that doing so will cause a nuclear meltdown that will turn National into a mushroom cloud unless she coats the core in lead. Fortunately, the museum has a lead sculpture on display that Kara proceeds to meltdown. Hope CatCo has a good insurance policy!

Now that James has led Reactron outside and get the danger away from the people — what a good idea, Zack Snyder — Kara is able to come in and finish off the villain. With her right hand encased in lead, she rips out the reactor and saves Jimmy and the city!

I bet they hug when the camera cuts away. Though, I’m a little worried for James being so close to the NUCLEAR REACTOR IN KARA’S HAND. After the authorities cart Reactron away, Kara thanks Henshaw and her sister for the assist. Alex convinces Kara to ask Jimmy out, and she agrees. The problem is that when Kara shows up at Jimmy’s door, he has a visitor from Metropolis. Lucy Lane has shown up in National City, and apparently, she’s James’ ex. Awkward.

A dejected Kara goes back to her desk to sulk. She even dismisses Winn’s suggestion to do some superheroing when an IM ding pops up on her laptop. And the most important text messages sequence in superhero cinema happens. And it’s brilliant.

BTW, in my head, this is what the other end of the chat looks like:

Seriously though, can every episode end in Kara and Clark texting each other? Though I hope they’re chatting on, like, a Wayne Technologies platform. Because if they’re using LexCorp or LordTech software, Clark totally just revealed their secret identities to the whole world.

After the horrific attacks in Paris and Beirut over the weekend, CBS decided to postpone the already scheduled episode of Supergirl — which apparently centered around a terrorist attack in National City — and instead aired the Thanksgiving episode that was slated for next week. This shuffle in the schedule could have led to some continuity gaps, but apart from a weirdly resurrected Jimmy/Lucy relationship, it didn’t feel too out of place. So what did we think of the latest incarnation of Livewire’s origins?

Well, before we get to the Villain of the Week, we cold open to a gnarly looking alien breaking free of “his” chains and rampaging through the DEO’s underground bunker. Fortunately, Kara was onsite to subdue the beast — and also learn that the “he” is a “she,” to which Kara gives the best line reading of the night.

While Supergirl was taking care of business at the DEO, Alex — who had the day off, I guess? — was frantically bugging her sister over her earpiece. What’s got Alex so riled up? Well, it’s Thanksgiving (a week early) and their mother, Eliza Danvers, is coming to town for the holiday. Kara is thrilled about it, but Alex is the opposite. Apparently, Supergirl isn’t the only secret identity in the family since Alex is a closeted DEO agent. She also has some unresolved mommy issues that stem from the jealousy that comes with having an alien sister who can fly, and shoot laser beams from her eyes to help cook dinner.

Kara flies back just in time to welcome their mother to her apartment. She doesn’t even change into civilian clothes and greets her at the door in full Supergirl regalia. Of course, she’s super psyched to show her mother she’s a superhero and is totally adorable about it.

Meanwhile, shock jock Leslie Willis is on the air and spouting off about how much she detests Supergirl. It feels like the writers are using Leslie to represent haters of the show since many of her criticisms mimic the ones that abounded when the show was announced. Also, she’s “live and wired,” natch.

Apparently, she didn’t get the memo from a few episodes back. The media is supposed to love Supergirl now. It turns out that Willis’ show is on air owned by CatCo, and the boss doesn’t appreciate the hero she practically trademarked to get strewn through the mud. So she demotes Leslie to traffic chopper duty. That’s going to be important later.

Kara is going around the office inviting her #Superfriends to her place for Turkey Day. Winn is the first invite because he’s her bestie (is there a fanbase for this ship yet?) and because he doesn’t have a family to go home to. We learn that Winn Schott is actually a Junior and that his father is serving time in prison. Though he doesn’t mention it, I’m pretty sure Winslow Sr. also has a thing for toys.

Winn is on cloud nine at the prospect of spending Friendsgiving with Kara and her family, but is soon brought back down to Earth when she also extends the invite to JimmyJames.

Unfortunately, James and Lucy Lane have rekindled their romance (in Offscreen City — or the original Episode 4. Guess we’ll find out next week) and are having a couples getaway over the holiday. So now Winn and Kara are sad about their crushes.

When Leslie’s chopper hits some turbulence, it starts going down. Because if you know anything about Super mythos, helicopters are never a good idea — especially if you’re named Lois Lane. Of course, Leslie isn’t Lois, so instead of getting rescued, she gets electrocuted by a bolt of lightning with Supergirl caught in the middle. Instead of being killed by the bolt, Leslie is imbued with special abilities. It’s basically an origin straight out of Superman: The Animated Series.

Back at Kara’s apartment, Alex was right to be wary of her mother visiting. While Eliza is indeed proud of Kara’s ascension to superhero status, she also scolds Alex for letting her secret out (and now her mommy issues make sense). We then flashback to life in the Danvers home when Kara and Alex were little kids — and honestly, these scenes are way better than the action in the present.

After bedtime, the two sisters sneak out of the house and Kara shows Alex a whole new world by flying around the city. After their magic Krypton ride, the Danvers are furious and scold them — but mostly Alex — for being irresponsible. This is also when the parents make like the King and Queen of Arendelle and forbid Elsa Kara from using her powers again. Right on cue, agents from the DEO come knocking, led by none other than Director Estes Henshaw. They’ve finally come for Kara and plan to use her for nefarious reasons since Superman has refused to cooperate.

Rather than give up his newly adopted daughter, Pa Danvers offers himself up to the DEO. After all…

So it seems that Alex wasn’t the first Danvers to work for Henshaw. In fact, their father’s death is somehow linked to Pa Danvers’ time at the DEO under Henshaw. When the sisters learn this, they realize it’s up to them to uncover the mystery of how their father died. And for the first time this season, I actually give a shit about the DEO plotline.

Back in the present, the newly christened Livewire is wreaking havoc all across National City. She zeroes in on one of the people she blames for her current predicament, Cat Grant. One evening when Cat and Kara are working late, Livewire materializes from the electricity in the building.

She goes toe to toe with Kara and eventually escapes. The next day, DEO agents posed as the FBI investigate the scene. Though Livewire isn’t alien in nature, they still help Kara devise a way to trap her using a machine straight out of Ghostbusters. In fact, Kara even calls them out on it.

Of course, the second big boss fight doesn’t go according to plan, even with the Ghostbusters doo-hickey in tow. So Kara does the next best thing and finds a firehose because water is Livewire’s Kryptonite in any version of the story.

Overall, it was another strong episode of Supergirl — which despite strong numbers for its debut, is actually on the bubble at CBS for renewal, which is a shame. The twist about Kara and Alex’s father is a really strong one and provides more opportunities for Dean Cain to be on the show. Hopefully, the ratings will stabilize enough for CBS to give them a full season to play out.

In the meantime, we’ll wait for next week to fill in the gaps regarding Lucy and James’ budding romance since it looks like the one that was supposed to be this week’s episode will be airing then.

The fifth episode of Supergirl on CBS finally aired last night, and now we know how the continuity glitches from last week’s episode would be resolved. In case you didn’t know, the episode “How Does She Do It” was scheduled to air last week, but was postponed after terrorists attacked several sites in Paris and Beirut. Instead, they aired the Thanksgiving episode that introduced Livewire, but also picked up a couple story threads that weren’t woven until last night. So was the delay worth it?

It depends. Of the five episodes that have aired already, this one was probably my least favorite. While there were some nice bits — particularly, Kara’s battles with a mysterious drone and a sequence in which she prevents a building from collapsing after a bomb is detonated — the episode felt really flat to me.

Maybe it was the scheduling switcheroo, but I didn’t find myself caring for many of the subplots. The main plot revolved around a series of bombings around National City — which is why this episode was postponed in the first place — that seemingly targeted billionaire tech magnate Maxwell Lord. The continuity glitches from last week were even more apparent last night. References to Reactron, the Jimmy/Lucy deal, and “good guy” Henshaw made it obvious this episode was out of order.

The lesser plots focused on Kara’s attempts to babysit Cat’s young son while she was away beating Lois Lane for an award and a will-they-or-won’t-they between Lois’ sister Lucy and the man formerly known as Superman’s Best Pal Jimmy. The latter plot was even more distracting since we saw they had already reconciled by Thanksgiving. I guess foiled terrorists attacks work wonders for strained relationships.

I will say that the character of Maxwell Lord is actually growing on me. He’s being played very much in the Lex Luthor vein, and Peter Facinelli’s portrayal is very reminiscent of Michael Rosenbaum’s Lex on seven seasons of Smallville. Except Maxwell is pretty much leaning in to his evil.

Turns out that the bombings and the drone strikes were all orchestrated by Lord, not to murder anyone, but to test Supergirl’s abilities. Her speed, strength, stamina, and morality were all bagged and tagged by various pieces of Lord Tech. Moreover, several scenes between Lord and Alex set off a dozen new ships to sea as the internet began fawning over potential #AlMax pairings.

The plots all come to a head when Kara is forced to choose between saving a train full of a hundred passengers and a bomb at an airport which could take out thousands more. Because Winn and Cat’s son are on the train, Kara decides to go for the train and sends the DEO to the airport — where James, unbeknownst to Kara, has gone to find Lucy who might be in danger.

On the train, Supergirl tries to reason with the bomber, who is a disgruntled former Lord Tech employee, but is unable to convince him to disarm. The perp flips the detonator, and Kara has to sever the car from the rest of the train. She watches the bomber’s car travel several more yards before blowing up.

She also realizes that the bomber may have been operating against his own interests and finds out that he was merely a pawn in a larger game. Later, Lord indirectly reveals that he was behind the whole plot and was particularly interested in the fact that Supergirl saved the train rather than the plane. This turn of events leads Lord to believe that Supergirl’s secret identity is tied to one of the passengers on the train, pretty much telegraphing a future episode in which Lord kidnaps Winn — thinking he’s Kara’s sweetheart.

The end of the episode mirrors a pretty classic Supes/Lex tête-à-tête as Supergirl confronts Lord in the window of his high-rise office, promising that Maxwell Lord will be Supergirl’s arch nemesis for the duration of the series.

After a couple of weeks of out-of-order continuity, we finally got back on track with “Red Faced,” the latest episode of Supergirl. In addition to the live action debut of Red Tornado — and despite the internet’s jokes when the look was revealed earlier, the Red Tornado actually looked pretty good in action. Still wish they kept his blue cape, though — the episode probably delivered the strongest storyline of the season so far.

The story kicks off with Kara peacefully soaring above National City when a road rage incident gets her attention. Supergirl swoops in and saves a group of school children from being run over by a couple of jerks in souped up BMWs. Rather than apologizing for almost committing vehicular homicide, the driver decides to pick a fight with Supergirl! He swings at her, and Supergirl sends the idiot flying. Of course, the media plays this up as a story of Supergirl losing her cool. So much for all the goodwill she’s engendered over the past couple weeks.

Kara isn’t the only one who is losing her temper in National City. James is upset that Lucy’s father — that would be General Sam Lane — is coming to town for a visit. Also, Cat Grant’s mother — who was mentioned but not seen last episode — is also in town from Metropolis, much to the dismay of the Queen of All Media. So clearly, the show’s theme is about how all of the main characters have to deal with their anger issues. Because things are boiling over for everyone.

It turns out that General Lane isn’t just in town for a daddy/daughter day. At least not in the traditional sense. Instead, the general’s reason for being in National City is to pay a visit to the DEO and show off the Army’s latest acquisition, an android known as Project Retweet RT. It seems that the military wants to test out its new toy by having it go toe to toe with Supergirl. Henshaw and Alex scoff at the idea, but when Lucy shows up — see, it was a daddy/daughter day after all — with an executive order from the president, Supergirl agrees. Mainly, so she can pretend Red Tornado is Lucy Lane and punch it in its face.

At Game Night, Lucy and James prove that they are an annoyingly perfect couple together, while Winn and Kara prove that they are adorable together. I know they’re setting up Kara/Jimmy as the big romance on the show, so is it wrong that I kind of prefer Winn for her instead?

After Winn almost gives away Kara’s secret identity, Lucy reveals that she met Supergirl earlier in the day and proceeds to trash her in front of the SuperFriends. Not a good look, Lucy.

The next day, Kara arrives at DEO’s desert HQ and preps for her match up with Red Tornado. She’s probably still fuming from being with Lucy the night before and is itching to go all Holly Holm on the android. Tornado’s creator, Dr. T.O. Morrow is also on hand to control the robot’s movements in the what has got to be the world’s best video game simulator. The battle is probably the best super fight on the series so far, with Supergirl coming out on top after going all Bugs Bunny on the android before ultimately defeating him.

In fact, Supergirl beats Tornado so badly, she activates his emergency self-preservation protocols and flies off. Basically, Red Tornado flips a switch and can no longer be controlled by Morrow or the Army. Pissed that Supergirl has incapacitated their weapon (and likely wasted billions of dollars), the general chides Henshaw and fires Morrow on the spot.

Meanwhile, Cat is dealing with her mother’s not-so-passive aggressiveness by taking out her anger issues on Kara, who for the first time in forever, has had enough and finally gives Cat a piece of her mind!

Instead of firing her assistant, Cat is actually impressed by the outburst and decides to take Kara out for some good old fashioned day drinking. Believe it or not, the two actually begin to bond, and it’s great.

That evening, James is out to dinner with the Lanes, and the air is thick with tension. When Lucy excuses herself to go to the powder room, General Lane lays his cards out on the table. His problem with Jimmy isn’t his relationship with Superman (that’s likely his problem with Lois, though) it’s that he doesn’t think Jimmy is good enough for his little girl. It’s a dick move, but it resonates because deep down, James kind of agrees. Remember, he moved to National in the first place so he could be his own man.

When the three leave the restaurant, the Red Tornado shows up and intends to seek revenge by taking out the general. James stealthily flips the switch on his signal watch, but instead of calling on his best pal, it alerts Kara. Guess they reconfigured the watch after the text from Clark. Supergirl shows up just in time to stop the Tornado from killing the general, but not before it creates a cyclone to destroy an entire city block. Supergirl chooses to stop the cyclone instead of apprehending the android and he gets away.

In a nice scene between James and Kara, the two decide to channel their anger in more productive ways. James with a punching bag and Kara with a chained up automobile. And I am in awe that a superhero show on CBS went there in exposing the double standard that exists in society for how women and black men are allowed to show their anger.

Later, Alex has enlisted the help of Maxwell Lord in tracking the robot. And he deus ex machinas a way for the DEO to locate Dr. Morrow who had been manipulating the Tornado all this time. The DEO decides to set a trap for the Tornado while Alex locates Morrow and takes out the mad scientist while Supergirl takes out the android. However, when Alex kills Morrow, Red Tornado continues to function. It seems the android has gained sentience and is no longer linked to its creator. After learning that the android is sentient, Supergirl still kills it dead anyway. Has Kara never seen the Star Trek: TNG episode “Measure of a Man?”

I mean, the effect of seeing Supergirl’s hyper heat vision cross cut with memories of her leaving Krypton (which was the source of the “anger behind the anger”) was affecting, but I was disappointed to see her destroy Red Tornado so unequivocally.

Who knows? Maybe the android survived somehow? It did mysteriously regrow the hand that Kara had freeze-breathed off earlier in the episode, after all. Maybe Tornado can return and be a mentor figure to the SuperFriends Young Justice style?

At the end of the episode, Winn meets up with Alex and Kara to share some intel he’s dug up on the death of Daddy Danvers. Basically, Henshaw was the last person to see Danvers alive on a mission in South America and deleted any evidence that would explain how he died. And if it weren’t clear enough that Henshaw is bad news, his eyes get all red and glowy back at DEO HQ — he should be a little more discreet about that, btw.

If that weren’t all, Kara has somehow lost her powers. When Cat drops a glass in her office, Kara cuts herself and starts bleeding.

Was the glass made out of green meteor rock? Is there a red sun no one know about? Guess we’ll have to find out next week.

Full disclosure: I wasn’t really looking forward to last night’s Supergirl. After the big cliffhanger in last week’s excellent entry into the season — in which Kara cuts herself on a piece of glass, demonstrating her loss of powers — I was disappointed the show was already going the no powers route so soon. This trope gets explored in nearly every iteration of the Superman/Supergirl story. But boy was I wrong! “Human For a Day” might be my favorite episode so far!

Before we get to the big reveal at the end — and why this ep is tops in my book — let’s start at the beginning. And by beginning, I mean the end of last week’s episode. If you recall, Supergirl channeled all of her rage and fury into her final battle with Red Tornado. Letting out the biggest heat vision blast she’d ever unleashed to straight blow the (ahem, now sentient) android to smithereens.

In doing so, Kara completely drained her solar battery, and will require several days to recharge. She learns this is the case after a series of DEO tests and an exposition dump from her hologram mother. Basically, the writers have incorporated the New 52 Superman’s “Solar Flare” abilities into the show. Jimmy/James even name-checks the ability in a conversation with Kara. You see, Clark loves naming his powers the way Cisco loves to name metahumans.

Because she’s no longer blessed with godlike powers, Kara gets a day off from superheroing. Because she’s no longer invincible, she is now susceptible to the common cold and also gets the day off from CatCo too! But instead of getting the chance to Ferris Beuller around town, National City gets struck by one of the worst earthquakes in history (did Malcolm Merlyn have anything to do with it?)

It really is super bad timing for an earthquake of that magnitude because the DEO is in the middle of interrogating another Fort Rozz detainee. This one, though, is probably the most recognizable inmate to appear on the show. In rather impressive creature makeup, the Saturnian Jemm is being questioned by Henshaw and crew.

If you’re unfamiliar, Jemm has played a key role in several DC Comics stories, but is probably best known as a character most associated with Martian Manhunter. This will be significant later. In the comics, Jemm is usually portrayed as a good guy, but similar to Red Tornado before him, he’s a straight up villain on Supergirl. Like the Justice League’s resident Martian, Jemm has telepathic abilities, so the DEO has to neuter them by placing him in a giant glass tube. Of course, the earthquake knocks out the power at the DEO — you’d think they’d have back up generators considering who’ve they have locked up — and Jemm escapes.

Henshaw sends a task force equipped with inhibitors to counteract Jemm’s psychic powers and capture the alien. Alex wants to go but is ordered to stay behind and monitor the situation. The main reason Alex wants to lead the search party is because last time Hank led an expedition to hunt an alien, everybody but him ended up dead. I’m saying she has trust issues.

Back above ground, Kara and Jimmy are dodging flying debris and runaway cars, and just general chaos a midst the earthquake aftermath. Kara even breaks her arm after Jimmy saves her from getting hit by a car. Honestly, I think it’s just an excuse for Jimmy to take off his shirt.

With the city in chaos — and Supergirl nowhere in sight — Maxwell Lord uses the opportunity to sow more seeds of doubt in the public’s opinion of their superhero. How very Luthor of you, Max.

Kara and Jimmy confront Maxwell about his PR stunt, and he reveals that he knows about Supergirl’s solar flare. He even intimates that she’s taking longer than Superman to recharge and that she might be permanently powerless. Kara doesn’t respond well to being a damsel in distress and decides to be proactive, even without powers. When Jimmy notices looters taking advantage of a convenience store, Kara changes into her Supergirl outfit (how, I don’t know?) to stop the bad guys.

Back at the DEO, Alex is fed up with staying back in the control room, especially when she sees that the agents that accompanied Hank on the search for Jemm are now dead. So she recruits another agent to join her track down Jemm on their own. They find him, but not before the alien is able to mind control the other agent. She’s about to be shot when Henshaw tackles her into another room, saving her life.

Alex, though, is none too grateful about the save and begins berating Henshaw. She unloads on him and even admits the source of her distrust: she thinks Henshaw had something to do with her father’s death. She handcuffs Hank to a pipe in the wall and tells him she’s going after Jemm, but Hank implores that she needs his help and that he isn’t the enemy. When Alex finds Jemm, she’s able to dislodge the Mind Stone from his forehead, but the alien is undeterred. Just as he’s about to deliver the killing blow,  scaffolding crushes him and we see Hank is not only free of his handcuffs, but he’s still saving Alex’s life.

At CatCo, Kara and Jimmy are bonding over abandonment issues when Winn walks in and gets his heart broken.

But there’s no time for soap operatics because there’s a gas leak on a higher floor of their building and CatCo employees can’t get out. Kara’s powers still haven’t returned so Jimmy plays the hero and climbs a ladder in the elevator shaft to help his co-workers. When he falls, though, Kara’s powers instantly return and she swooshes down to save him. All she needed was an adrenaline surge to reinstate her powers, and Jimmy’s near-death experience was the catalyst.

With Supergirl returned, she’s able to help all of the  National citizens trapped in the earthquake, and prove Maxwell Lord wrong once again. But really, all we care about is how Hank Henshaw got out of those handcuffs, and what’s the deal with his glowing eyes?

Well, because the Supergirl writers have no intention of slowing down, we get the reveal of the season. Henshaw and Alex have a heart to heart about the day her father died. She was right about the mysterious circumstances. Henshaw and Danvers were indeed hunting an alien in the jungles of South America. When the two finally came upon their prey, Jeremiah had a change of heart because he knew that the alien wasn’t a threat, and ultimately gave his life to protect said alien. That said, Henshaw didn’t survive the encounter either. The only survivor was the alien and he only looks like Henshaw because he’s a shapeshifter.

And if you haven’t guessed, that alien isn’t Hank Henshaw, but J’onn J’onzz!

Let’s watch that again (and again), but in gif form.

Holy shit. Not since Smallville have we seen live action Martian Manhunter action! And once again, he’s played by a Black man! But what do we have to do to get a cape on these characters? They forgot Tornado’s last week, and J’onn doesn’t have his this week!

Remember when we called on WBTV to give Martian Manhunter his own show? Well, they kinda just did! And just like that David Harewood’s character went from being my least favorite to the one I can’t wait to see more of going forward! And according to this interview, they’ll be exploring J’onn’s background even more later this season!

You won’t see how he ended up on Earth, but you will see flashbacks to his family, to how they died, which was a very emotional episode for me. It was around the same time as those terrible attacks in Paris. It was just emotional, the idea that people want to kill others. In our story, and it’s in the comic books, there are two Martian races — there are the Green Martians, which J’onn is a member of, and there are the White Martians. The White Martians exist purely to kill Green Martians. They burn them. They literally put them in furnaces. Playing that on the day was really emotional for me to think that we live on a planet where we kill each other. It was wonderful playing that with Chyler. Hopefully that will be another great episode. J’onn feels deeply that he’s the last Martian. He’s the last of his kind, the only Green Martian left in history.

You guys, we’re getting live action White Martians!

Welp. We’re down seven episodes on CBS’ new Supergirl series, and I can now definitively say that not only does it suck, but it’s also a drag.

Let me clarify: TV shows can suck and still be worth watching. They can feature horrible dialogue, break characterization for cheap plotlines, deploy so many reversals that situations and relationships become meaningless, flub the acting, swell the dime-store music, and commit any number of fundamental visual storytelling sins… while still being hella fun to watch.

Take Supergirl’s DC TV older brother Arrow, for example. In its first two seasons, Arrow committed every one of the above-named TV crimes — and more — but still delivered solid entertainment in the form of: 1.) consistent mood, 2.) consistent naked man abs, 3.) consistently competent-to-good fight choreography and, 4.) consistently fun/dangerous villains. They knew their audience, provided the four basic food groups, and gave themselves three and a half seasons to catch up on the other elements (many of which have been improving, sometimes dramatically.)

In other words, Arrow has always prioritized fun, even over good storytelling.

Middle child The Flash has benefited from Arrow’s learning curve. The Flash’s mood is also consistent — if different from Arrow’s — and it provides consistently good fight scenes and villains, like Arrow (with the deep exception of Grodd — what were they thinking there?). But instead of the dark-mood/man-candy vibe, The Flash serves its audience by orienting its plotlines around the central relationships in the show, rather than the other way around, which naturally results in better, more consistent characterization. So The Flash is equally fun, and better written.

I’d also put in here that The Flash is closer to the “chick flick” end of the entertainment spectrum, in the sense of focusing more on romantic relationships. One of Barry’s central conflicts in the first season was his unrequited love for Iris, and the stakes in the season finale were carefully built around layers of this relationship and others. Arrow, on the other hand, hasn’t prioritized romantic relationships at all until this season — in the sense that the flow of plotlines doesn’t distort around them — so it really exists on the other, more “masculinized” end of the spectrum, where chop-socky, musculature, and moral posing are the magnets that turn the narrative arcs.

I mention chick flicks because everyone noticed how the extended Supergirl trailer positioned Supergirl as a chick flick-esque character with superpowers, and that was one of the concerns going in to the show. Sadly, Supergirl does not hew to that model of storytelling: “sadly” because it’s a model that might work for Supergirl in the same way that it worked for the first season of The Flash. But instead of a chick flick with muscles, or a Flashian world that centers relationships, or an Arrowesque dark-toned-muscley Nolan-fest, or even a traditional cartoony television superhero show, we’re getting a mash-up of half-baked tropes and visual storytelling failures — all the sins tallied above — with none of the virtues of pure, simple entertainment.

In short: Supergirl doesn’t bring the fun.

First, Supergirl/Kara Danvers, as a character, is a drag. She is relentlessly bland, and not in Arrow Steven Amell’s moderately attractive, half-naked, oh-I-was-tortured way. (A friend-of-a-friend called it “blangst” in an FB thread). Supergirl’s angst has essentially only one source: the disdain and disrespect with which she is treated by everyone around her: her family, her supporting team, her detractors, every single villain, and even her media supporters. As such sad-Supergirl has all the emotional power of a tween failing to get a baking powder volcano to overflow. The actress, Melissa Benoist, has only two expressions: puzzled and golden retriever; her lack of actual personality overcomes her physical beauty at every turn. Ironically, Benoist has a certain charisma that could turn into gravitas if they stopped stymieing her character; but for now, it’s only expressed in occasional dazzling smiles.

Second, Supergirl’s adopted sister Alex Danvers is a drag. Chyler Leigh is a wretched choice for the badass, disapproving older sister: she’s cast against type, and is prettier, girlier, and more individual than Wonder Bre– I mean Supergirl. She would have been great as Kara Danvers’ flaky, boy-crazy best friend, and the show would have been a thousand times more entertaining — if also cringe-inducing. But even if they’d cast a more appropriate Alex Danvers, the character would still be a drag. Who wants a superhero story in which a frowny, disapproving older relative who cockblocks the superhero shows up in half the action scenes? Who thought this was a good idea?

The DEO is a drag. How could an overly serious, quasi-governmental organization to control alien/superpowered populations be anything but a drag? Neither of the other DC heroes is saddled with government interference, and Marvel’s S.H.I.E.L.D.-focused TV show was focused on the organization, not the superheroes it was controlling. And that only worked once they had S.H.I.E.L.D. thoroughly compromised by the bad guys. (Remember how draggy it was until Ward went all Darth Vader?) In fact, the Marvel individual hero movies mostly relegated S.H.I.E.L.D. to the sidelines because it was too much of a drag to have them front and center in an individual hero’s journey.

I suppose there could have been ways to make the DEO more interesting — and perhaps they’ll be explored later in the show, but as of now, the organization is a big, fat echo of Alex Danvers: dour, dark, forbidding, disapproving, and endlessly cockblocking. Where’s the joy in that? 95% of the fun in a superhero’s origin story is the hero exploring their powers on their own, breaking up criminal acts in dark alleyways, experimenting with movement and strength, building instant relationships with the people they save. Mediating Kara’s entire experience through an ugly (design-wise — polo shirts, people?) organization with a buzzkill attitude saps all the joy out of her self-discovery.

And why is it the first standalone female superhero who gets a chaperone? Superman told the government to go fuck itself (politely). Flash and Arrow work in the shadows parallel to, and often against, officialdom. Why does Supergirl have to be controlled? The Flash and Arrow got their own backup teams, dedicated to them, and not to some broader purpose they were expected to assist in. Why is it Supergirl who is just another — albeit more powerful — adjunct in the DEO’s not-Supergirl-oriented worldview?

Supergirl does, in fact, put together her own team, made up of Winn and Jimmy Olsen. But they don’t get to do anything (because DEO) and they’re also a drag. Winn’s entire character is unrequited hots for Kara. I don’t know how “friendzone” is a character arc. And Jimmy’s (I refuse to call him “James”) whole raison d’etre is trying to separate himself from Superman so he can have his own identity and accomplishments. So how is joining Kara’s team gonna do that for him, exactly? Kara’s relationship with Jimmy is Blandy McBlanderson because Jimmy’s merely a good-looking exterior with a negative drive: he only knows what he doesn’t want.

I appreciate the complete failure to objectify Benoit’s body, but did they have to do it at the expense of her entire sex appeal? She could be made “sexy” (as in: edgily appealing) through her fighting style, but they inexplicably left her character with no fighting skills whatsoever. So the fight choreography is non-existent, and the fight scenes are terribly awkward and dull, which is a huge drag. I’m squirmily ambivalent about the values displayed by fetishizing and stylizing violence in all of our hero stories, but the solution to that is not to make the fights boring, ferchrissake. Supergirl is clearly not struggling with this issue as a moral one; it’s obviously an intersection of poor conceptualization and poor direction.

Which brings us back to the question of what kind of story Supergirl is supposed to be telling. The show currently has no fucking clue. The Flash and Arrow are both very clear on what kinds of shows they’re supposed to be, which is why all the good times. But Supergirl seems to be operating on the spaghetti test principle: throwing in rapid succession rom-com, coming-of-age, family dysfunction drama, spy thriller, comic book, sci-fi, and, strangely enough, teen sit-com at the wall until something sticks. And, although I objected at the time to a super-chick-flick Supergirl, that seems to be the only way to save this mess.

The chick flick model could work well for the sole reason that Cat Grant, as a modified Devil in Prada, is hands down the most complex and interesting — not to mention fun — character in the show. In fact, to me, she’s the breakout character of all three DC comics shows — and even has one over Meryl Streep’s Miranda Priestly, who is a stereotype of frigid female power only rescued by Streep’s performance.

Cat Grant — expertly embodied in a Calista Flockhart ravaged by decades of Hollywood dieting — is a deeply self-absorbed, media-manipulative, borderline abusive boss, who genuinely cares for her sensitive son, is genuinely hurt by the disdain of her intellectually powerful mother, and turns out to be a great mentor and supporter of both Supergirl and her downtrodden, personal assistant alter-ego. Flockhart deserves an Emmy for realizing that she has to play Grant’s flaws cartoonishly, but her human traits realistically (if broadly). Grant thereby acts as the sole effective bridge between the comic-book aspects of the show, and real-world characterization and relationship-building.

Committing to the virtues of the best chick-flicks doesn’t mean losing the virtues of a superhero tale. It just means that women’s concerns and relationships — women’s approaches to danger, power, life, and love — are centered and drive the plot; not men’s. Reversing the most absurd and damaging aspect of Supergirl, Superman’s failure to appear, could save the whole show. Superman’s bizarre absence maintains him as an invisible patriarchal standard that Supergirl can never live up to. The show’s premise — that Kara is the elder cousin sent to Earth to raise Kal-El, who through an accident finds herself the younger dependent — opens up a world of interesting issues, if they would only allow Superman to be an actual character on the show, rather than a looming god/measuring-stick.

I have a fantasy of Supergirl calling Superman by a childhood nickname she made up when she was babysitting him; Kara explaining the origin of his one scar, something he couldn’t have gotten on Earth; Kara noticing that he has his father’s hand gesture, his mother’s smile, their grandfather’s air; Supergirl flying alongside him, telling him naughty stories about their alcoholic great-aunt, etc.

I have a fantasy of Supergirl being a character with the knowledge, authority, and love to hold her own against the incredible weight of Superman and all the male superheroes out there. I have a fantasy of Supergirl being more than a whiny drag. But I’m not holding my breath.

Still playing catch up on our recaps, but I didn’t want to go into the holiday break without talking about what was easily the best episode of Supergirl to date. And that’s saying a lot considering how much I enjoyed the last episode. But the mid-season finale — called “Hostile Takeover” — took things to a whole new level and I can’t wait to see what they have in store once 2016 rolls around! Not to mention the fact that NOC-favorite Lexi Alexander will be helming an ep in the new year.

The finale kicks off mere moments after the events of the previous episode. If you recall, Supergirl encounters her Aunt Astra and her Kryptonian goons on a rooftop in National City. This time, her evil aunt is brandishing the Kryptonite blade she took off Henshaw way back in Episode II: Attack of the Helgrammite. The baddies are able to do this because they’ve fashioned anti-Kryptonite devices to wear on their suits. Supergirl is able to eventually break free but not before Astra gives here a Darth Vader-esque “join me and together we shall rule the galaxy” type speech.

Homicidal alien aunties isn’t the only thing Kara has to worry about. At work the next morning, CatCo is in crisis (on infinite computers) mode after Cat’s personal emails have been hacked and released to the media including the Daily Planet. Cat has a team of lawyers on it, but eventually turns to the Super Friends (Kara, Winn, James) to handle it.

But to be honest, the computer hacking scandal is the least interesting aspect of the episode. Even though “Hostile Takeover” likely references the smarmy board members trying to take Cat’s company away from her, the real hostile takeover that matters is Astra’s plan for Earth. And she isn’t alone. Along the way we learn that Astra is actually married to Non. Though he isn’t the mute brute we remember from Superman II.

Speaking of Alura, Kara has a flashback to Krypton where we learn that she and Astra were actually very close. In fact, they had a secret decoder ring that they used to communicate with one another. Astra tells tween Kara that “Krypton is dying” and that she isn’t a bad person for doing what she’s done. Apparently, Astra was an eco-terrorist on Krypton. Why she didn’t just consult with Jor-El (who was similarly outcast for telling everyone Krypton was doomed) is a question to be asked later, I suppose.

Back at CatCo, the Super Friends are still trying to get to the bottom of the hacking scandal when news reports show a woman hovering over the skies of National City. Auntie Astra is calling out Supergirl!

Remember that this is a television show. Even though they’re on a major network like CBS, to expect a super powered flight in mid-air would be overdoing it. But guess what? They deliver!

Seriously, this is some movie level shit. Back in the days of Smallville, just seeing Clark take to the skies or do anything remotely Superman was not only a rarity, but a once-per-season type deal. Now, they’re giving us effects that are on par with Man of Steel. Just look.

Eventually, Kara gets the upper hand and subdues Astra. She pummels her while she’s down and comes thisclose to pulling a General Zod on her but finally backs off, and the DEO bring Astra into custody. While there, we learn that Astra basically allowed herself to be captured, and the DEO can’t figure out why. Even Hank is unable to get answers because Kryptonians are immune to Martian telepathy. And it’s still awesome that Hank is J’onn.

When Kara confronts Astra in her cell, her aunt tells her that Alura is the one to blame for everything that has gone wrong. She even blames her sister for using Kara to catch her while on Krypton. Kara is interrogating the hologram of her mother and is furious that she was being used. When the computer program is unable to answer her questions, Kara unleashes the full power of her heat vision at it in what is probably the most emotional moment of the series thus far.

This revelation destroys Kara and she is unable to focus when she’s around her “normal” friends. Though the Super Friends finally find evidence to finger one of Cat’s board rivals for the hacking, the victory is little comfort to Kara. Later, Cat invites Kara on to the balcony because she has some questions. The biggest one: is Kara Supergirl?

It’s a perfect scene and sends Cat and Kara’s relationship into some awesomely uncharted waters. Frankly, I’m glad Cat was not only let in on the secret, but that she actively figured it out on her own. Once an investigative journalist…

Sadly, Kara has little time to process this because at that moment, Astra and the Kryptonians’ plans are revealed. They attack Lord Technologies because Max has developed an anti-Supergirl, aka anti-Kryptonian, weapon. The DEO arrive on scene and battle with the evil Kryptonians. Henshaw gets to unleash a little Manhunter too.

Supergirl finally arrives but too much damage has been done. Still, she sees her evil uncle in the battle and the two fly headfirst into fisticuffs. What happens next? We’ll have to find out in the new year.

Am I the only one who thinks Supergirl came back sooner than expected? Don’t get me wrong, I’m happy that one of my favorite shows is back on the air, but since the other DC shows — namely Flash, Arrow, and Legends — don’t return until the week of January 19 I assumed Supergirl would be joining them then. Also doesn’t help that there isn’t a new episode next week either. Still, Supergirl is back — for this week, at least — and they pick up right where they left off before Christmas.

In the aftermath of their super fight above Lord Technologies, Non takes Hank hostage and speeds away. Maxwell Lord retrieves his anti-Supergirl gun and gives Alex the cold shoulder. Looks like Lord doesn’t want the DEO’s help in trying to understand why a band of Kryptonians just destroyed one of his laboratories.

Back in the DEO Cave, Alex has been named interim director, and Kara questions her aunt on the whereabouts of the Evil Kryptonian lair. Over the video feed, Non contacts Alex and proposes a prisoner exchange: Hank for Astra. Alex considers it, to the shock of Supergirl who still isn’t aware of Hank’s alien roots. Before they can agree to any exchange, General Lane enters the picture and takes over the operation on orders from the president.

Because Kara wouldn’t torture her aunt to get answers earlier in the episode, we get a scene of the sadistic General Lane going Gitmo on Astra and injecting her with some sort of Kryptonian liquid, and Laura Benanti sells it with the most blood-curdling scream.

Of course, the information they Krypto-waterboarded out of her leads Lane’s men into a trap that nearly gets everyone killed. Instead of giving up Hank’s whereabouts, Astra gives them the address of an empty warehouse. Hanks’s “bio” signature is found inside a shipping container, but instead of the real Hank, it’s just a hologram concealing a bomb. Luckily, Supergirl was there with her bomb-proof cape(?) and saves Alex and a rando Army guy.

At CatCo, James is watching Maxwell Lord on television cover up the alien encounter at his company as an act of corporate espionage. James thinks something is fishy and pays Lord a visit. When he doesn’t get any answers, he and Winn team up to break into Lord’s office and find evidence of wrong doing. Pretty sure nothing bad will come out of that. Not at all.

Also, Kara tells Winn and James that Cat has figured out her secret identity. Rather than letting Cat in on the secret, the writers have decided to keep her in the dark, which in my opinion is the wrong move. I really enjoyed the scene between Melissa Benoist and Calista Flockhart last episode, and thought it had a lot of potential storywise. Not sure how good idea it is to throw that development away, no matter how cool a gimmick it generates for the viewer (but more on that later).

Eventually, Cat gives Kara and ultimatum: either she admits she’s Supergirl or she’s fired. All of this despite the fact that Kara basically already admitted she was Supergirl last week, but whatevs. When Kara returns to the Super Friends office, she finds a bloodied and beaten James. Turns out he got caught snooping around Lord Tech after all. Kara is about to go Bad Supergirl on Maxwell Lord when her Super Friends remind her that isn’t who she is.

Instead of burning down Lord Tech, she goes back to the DEO and confronts her aunt one more time. We then flashback to Astra’s sentencing on Krypton. We learn that she and her men were sent to Fort Rozz because of unspeakable crimes they committed as eco-terrorists. Alura believed Astra’s claims about Krypton’s doomed future but didn’t approve of her methods. And I can’t help but wonder how Jor-El fits into this. Will they reveal Jor-El was in league with these radicals? Could be an interesting twist. Anyway, Astra, Non, and company get sentenced and transported to the Phantom Zone and nary a phallic symbol was in sight.

Armed with this new info about her aunt and mother, Kara has a renewed belief that there is still good in Astra and agrees to the prisoner exchange (against General Lane’s wishes). When the exchange goes down, Non — as expected — plans an ambush and dozens of Evil Kryptonians fly in ready to attack. But Astra, true to her word, calls them off and everyone lives to fight another day.

Now that Hank is back, they let Kara in on his Martian secret. Mostly because Supergirl overheard Alex tell Hank to “transform” forgetting about her sister’s superhearing. Her reaction to Hank’s origins is priceless.

Of course, now that she knows she has a shapeshifter in her midst, we now have a resolution to the Cat Grant issue. And this is the moment they were building up to.

Kara’s moment of truth arrives and she goes to Cat’s office to tell her once and for all that she is not Supergirl. Of course, Cat doesn’t believe her and is about to fire her when in the window flies in Supergirl?

Seeing Kara standing side by side with Supergirl convinces Cat that she was actually wrong about her assistant. And the status quo is maintained.

Again, I know why they’re going this route, but I’m still disappointed. I thought it was ballsy to have Cat figure out Kara’s secret on her own, and I wish the writers would stick with that. But the gag was too good to ignore, I suppose. Oh, what gag?

I guess I’ll forgive Cat’s character development regression if we get more scenes of J’onn in action.

Hi Guys! Supreme Chief Keith is out for the week, so I’m covering Supergirl! After I watched this week’s episode, I was glad I was recapping this one and not last week’s, which kinda bored me. This week was better and included some great acting, but some of the writing left me wanting… Let’s dive in!

Toy Story 4: Andy’s Toys Try to Murder Him

Let me get this out of the way: I do not ship Winn and Kara. His crush has been more annoying than sweet and because of it, he’s been one of the characters I’ve cared the least about. And yet, in this episode that was somehow the most and least about Winn’s crush on Kara (I’ll explain why in a minute), I cared the most for Winn. Part of that is due to Jeremy Jordan’s really strong performance this week.

I say that this episode is both the most and least about the crush because usually Winn’s scenes all play on the fact that he has feelings for Kara. His puppy dog looks, his eagerness to help her, his jealousy over Kara’s affection for James… With Toy Man’s introduction, most of his scenes were about that instead, which made for a stronger character. I cared more about Winn because it wasn’t about Kara. His angst over being scared that he will turn into his father was very compelling. His conflict over helping the FBI kill his father versus not actually wanting him to die was very well done.

This of course led to this episode being the MOST about Winn’s crush, because he finally acts on his feelings (in completely the wrong moment) and kisses Kara in his moment of vulnerability.

Winn gets another emotional hit after an already tough day.

Winn tells Kara he can’t hang out with her socially anymore right now, because bottling up the pain of her rejection could lead him to exploding like his father. While I’ve been over Winn’s crush, I think this was the episode it bothered me the least because it had more depth, it had emotional consequences, and will lead to interesting things down the road with Kara and Winn’s separation.

Now Kara doesn’t have the sole affection of either of her guys. “If you weren’t in my life, I’d be lost too.” Clearly this will bother her, but perhaps she needs to become a little more self sufficient.

Getting Away from The J’onzz’s

While I used to hate scenes at the DEO, now that they’ve fleshed out Hank/J’onn’s character — and made it less about the military aspect of the group — they’ve become more tolerable. (Except when General Lane is around.) Now that Kara knows Hank’s identity, they’re allowing us more insight into his powers and his emotions. Alex tries to convince Hank to use his Martian powers to spy on Maxwell Lord while she… ahem — distracts him. When Hank finally agrees, we see the extent of his shifting, his phasing, and even his memory wipes. That last one, used on a clever security guard, didn’t just erase the night, but his whole life.

Hank is very torn up about this. Every time he transforms back into J’onn J’onzz, he becomes more and more like the monster people would see him as. There seems to be a lack of control he experiences as J’onn that makes his powers go too far? But also there is the metaphor here. They were a bit heavy handed about the “coming out of the closet” aspect of it, but it’s important to note that J’onn feels less ostracized as a black man than he does as a monstrous alien. The show doesn’t touch on race often — only one scene was really of note (James and Kara punching out their anger) — but there could be potential for them to discuss it here.

What J’onn feels as an alien, the reaction he fears from humans, is what many black men feel in the real world. They are seen as dangerous and unworthy of a second chance (see the police “defense” on nearly any of the recent police shootings). Hank/J’onn, as the leader of a super secret organization, might not spend a lot of time in the regular world, but it makes me wonder if he’s experienced the racial prejudice that can often match his fears of coming out as Martian Manhunter. It would be bold for the show to explore this, but the layers are there… But they did mention that Kara coming out as Supergirl was very different from Hank coming out as J’onn because Kara is a “pretty, blonde (read: white) who looks like a cheerleader.”

In Which I Hate Maxwell Lord Even More Than Before

Maxwell Lord has a face you just don’t like. Douche-face if you will (and that’s a clear choice, because I found his face much less douchey, more open, when J’onn shapeshifted into him). So I’ve never liked him and I’ve always slightly tuned out during his storylines. Now that he’s stepping up as the big bad of this arc, he’s even worse.

He threatens Supergirl (and his hate for her grows every moment it comes into contact with her), he kidnaps and attacks James, and bugs Alex with a recording device — telling him all he needs to know about Alex’s subterfuge, Supergirl’s identity, and even some of her weaknesses. Plus we still don’t know why there is a girl, clearly a metahuman (or whatever we call mutants/inhumans on this show), in the bowels of his company. I cannot wait for Supergirl to punch him in his douchey face.

Things That Didn’t Make Sense

• Toy Man’s glass projection. There was NO explanation of how he accomplished this tech 1.) With only his toy/bomb making skills. 2.) Two days out of prison. 3.) Where you can’t tell at ALL that it was glass? Seriously, how did he make that thing look so human?
• WHY DIDN’T WINN TELL KARA THAT THERE WERE 10 BOMBS THERE BEFORE HE WENT? He’s a tech guy who’s friends with Supergirl. He couldn’t have gotten a message to her SOMEHOW?
• SPEAKING OF WINN BEING THE TECH GUY: WHY DOESN’T HE KNOW NOT TO SPEAK INTO THE WIRE? That felt so cheap to me. He literally does this as a side job for a superhero. He knows better. Don’t make Winn dumb just because he’s distracted.
• The FBI kept SHOOTING AT TOY MAN WHILE WINN WAS IN THE WAY. That cannot be how firing on a suspect works when there are civilians around. Also, stop being a douche Emma Caulfield.
• How exactly does ice protect civilians from 10 bombs!??! Once again, I needed an explanation as to how Kara saved the day.

Oh, I forgot to talk about James/Lucy. Mostly because I don’t care. While I’d love for Kara/James to get together, I don’t need a Kara longing stare in every episode. Just like Winn’s crush was annoying, the needless reminders of Kara’s are getting to be so as well. Because we know how they both feel. I preferred Cat calling out the Kara/James work flirt. That moment was more nuanced than Kara’s longing stare. Also, Lucy and James’ fight early in the episode annoyed me because she begged him for his opinion and then got mad when he offered a diplomatic answer. “I don’t need your permission!” You asked for his opinion!

This was good though:

I shall call my favorite moments section Rays of Sunshine, because they are what make Kryptonians so strong on earth (yay puns!):

• J’onn and Kara flying together was a delightful way to begin the episode.

• Like I said earlier, Jeremy Jordan really impressed me this episode. I think he took some really non-nuanced writing and added to it. While I don’t need an angst storm every time he’s around now, he showed he could bring some gravitas to Winn.
• “Well hey, you have a homicidal maniac in the family too, so you know where I’m coming from.”
• “I don’t normally inhale.”
• “He seems like a sensitive boy. Think he can cry on cue?”

• Sisterly bonding!

So I’ve been out for a few weeks and am still catching up on all the TV I missed, but I wanted to get this Supergirl recap out ahead of tonight’s all new episode. This won’t be a full on recap, however. Basically just a series of OMG gifs because I’m still reeling from the fact that we actually have a live action Martian Manhunter show on television, you guys! Also shout out to Connie for holding down the recap fort on Supes last week!

“Strange Visitor from Another Planet” kicks off with Kara at the coffee shop getting hit on by her real life husband and former Glee co-star, Blake Jenner. (And I have one more actor to add to the list for the eventual Arrow/Flash/Supergirl musical crossover!)

Turns out the guy is not Kara’s (McKinley) high school  sweetheart but Cat’s long lost son and is only in town because Kara forged a letter Cat never sent to him. When Cat finds out, she’s livid and fires Kara on the spot. Before she fires Kara, though, she sends Jimmy James to cover an anti-immigrant alien rally held by Donald Trump Senator Miranda Crane.

At the rally, a strange blur starts attacking the attendees and James captures it all on film. He signal watches Kara, and Supergirl arrives just in time to find the alien attacker.

It’s just as well too because when Hank sees the alien, he uncharacteristically freezes in the field. What could have spooked our favorite Martian? How about a white one?

Who knew when Supergirl first started that we’d be getting such a deep dive into another iconic Justice Leaguer in J’onn J’onzz? But yo, Berlanti, Kreisberg, and Adler just gave us the Martian Manhunter origin story in prime time on CBS! And it was dope.

Senator Crane is taken back to DEO HQ, but it isn’t the senator at all. Lest we forget, Martians (green and white ones) can shapeshift and it seems that the White Martian attacker has assumed the visage of its victim to get close to the Martian Manhunter. While in custody, the senator reveals herself and Hank freezes once again.

Also, I have to give all the props to David Harewood for a bravura performance this episode! I wasn’t always the biggest fan of the DEO earlier this season, but the Martian Manhunter reveal us me breathlessly anticipating future Hank scenes. 

Anyway, J’onn/Hank blames himself for all of the damage the White Martian is causing, but Alex helps him deal. 

The two plan to take on the White Martian together, but when the plan goes south (and Alex gets abducted), Hank decides once and for all he’s going to go on a suicide mission to kill the White Martian himself.  Suffice it to say, Kara is not on board with this mission.

Hank shows up to surrender to the White Martian, but Supergirl also arrives, and the three have an alien v alien v alien showdown that is ten times more engaging than anything I’ve seen from Batman v Superman.

The second J’onn gets the upper hand, he puts Krypto-cuffs on Kara and proceeds to slit the White Martian’s throat. Kara appeals to his better angels, and convinces J’onn that killing their enemies is not what superheroes do (unless you’re her cousin).

Hank/J’onn agrees and they lock up the White Martian at the DEO. Hank thanks Alex and Kara and tells them they are like daughters to him.

Meanwhile, Ryder Adam starts to patch up his relationship with his mother, thanks to Kara’s intervention which also saves her job. They also continue their flirty banter (it’s like they should get married or something) so it’s a good sign that he’ll probably be back on the show to make James and/or Winn insanely jealous.

The episode ends with Kara and Alex watching television together and seeing a news report of another Supergirl in National City.

This time it isn’t Martian Manhunter in disguise either but our first look at Bizarro Supergirl.

One of the problems with having so many television options is that if you fall behind, the shows can start to pile up. Unfortunately, I fell behind recapping Supergirl, so in order to catch up in time for Lexi Alexander’s directorial debut in National City tonight, I made sure I plowed through the last two episodes and will be covering both today.

One thing that both “Bizarro” and “For the Girl Who Has Everything” have in common is that each takes beloved aspects of Superman lore and graphs it seamlessly onto Kara’s story. In the case of “Bizarro,” the writers have taken one of Superman’s iconic villain concepts and re-purposed it for Supergirl. Instead of being an imperfect clone of Superman, the Bizarro of National City is an imperfect clone of Supergirl.

Granted, there have been a version of Bizarro Supergirl (or, simply, just Bizarro-Girl) in the comics, but in the context of the show, this is the first appearance of this type of villain. There’s no mention of Bizarro #1 ever terrorizing Metropolis, and in fact, Cat is the one who gives her the moniker. This also isn’t the first time writers have played loose with the Bizarro concept. He’s been everything from an alien from htraE to a Luhor-invented clone to a Phantom Zone wraith.

Also unlike the comics, this iteration of Bizarro-Girl is not a resident of Bizarro World but was created by Maxwell Lord. Remember the Jane Doe J’onn found a few eps back? Turns out Lord has been finding comatose young women who match Kara’s description and sciencing them with Krypto-powers. How Lord is able to do this, we’ll never know. (Something about pumping Supergirl’s DNA into Red Tornado’s severed arm).

Aside from the Bizarro-Girl stuff, the episode wraps up the storyline between Kara and Adam (played by Melissa Benoist’s real-life husband Blake Jenner) by ending the relationship. Since Bizarro targets Kara (because Maxwell knows her secret identity), Kara — in typical superhero fashion — tells her would-be love interest that they can’t be together. When Cat finds out that Kara has broken it off with her son, she takes the news worse than Adam.

Bizarro’s attack on Kara also confirms for her and the DEO that Lord is aware of Supergirl’s identity, so Alex heads to Lord Tech to arrest him. I can’t understand how this isn’t a bigger deal in the universe of the show. Can you imagine the kind of media circus that would erupt if a smarmy billionaire had to do a perp walk in front of the world?

Eventually, Kara is able to defeat Bizarro Girl (after she kidnaps James) using Blue Kryptonite and brings her into DEO custody. Before Hank puts Bizarro back into a coma (while DEO agents look for a way to reverse engineer what Lord did), Supergirl comforts her one-time enemy at her bedside.

Once everything is back to normal, Kara flies home to find that someone has left her the grossest plant ever in her apartment. If anyone has ever read “For the Man Who Has Everything,” the classic Superman story by Alan Moore and Dave Gibbons — or seen the similarly classic Justice League Unlimited episode of the same name — they would have instantly recognized Kara’s plant.

The next episode picks up exactly where “Bizarro” leaves off except we’re on Krypton and Kara is being woken by a robot named Kelex(!). Before we go any further, here is more proof that the Berlanti-verse is way more faithful to Superman mythos than anything the features side of WB is putting out. To wit, here is Kelex in the comics:

This is Zack Snyder’s take on Kelex in Man of Steel:

Now, here’s Kelex on Supergirl:

Mind you, Supergirl has a TV budget. Anyway…

When Kara awakens in her Kryptonian bedroom, she instantly thinks she’s hallucinating. Not even reassuring words from her mother are able to calm her down. This is a major difference from the original Superman story because I believe Clark fell for the illusion rather immediately — which made it all the more difficult to break free once he realized it was all a dream, reading Word Up magazine.

Anyway, Kara is less gullible than her cousin, so it takes a while for the Black Mercy fantasy to really kick in. But when little prepubescent Kal-El shows up, “Earth” starts becoming a distant memory.

Meanwhile, back in the real world, James and Winn start getting worried that Kara hasn’t shown up for work. They, with Alex, go to her apartment and find Kara comatose and wrapped in the grip of the Black Mercy.

The three of them rush her to the DEO — much to Hank’s dismay — but no one can figure out how to help her. Everything they try only makes the problem worse. Then Alex gets the brilliant idea to have Maxwell Lord — whom she suspects is behind it all — to devise a way to free Kara.

Aside: but how long has Lord been in DEO custody, again? Shouldn’t the news be all over the fact that a government organization just straight up kidnapped a billionaire CEO? Like, there are literally hundreds of articles about Tim Cook not helping the FBI, shouldn’t CatCo or some one be reporting on the disappearance of Lord?

Anyway, Max proves he had nothing to do with it but figures out a way to send Alex into Kara’s dream Inception style to convince her sister to abandon the fantasy on her own free will. You see, the Mercy will only give up its victim if she willingly rejects the hallucination. Alex learned this after being confronted by Astra, who she also suspects.

Astra, it turns out, also had nothing to do with sending the Black Mercy. We’ve seen throughout the series that despite being Kara’s enemy on Earth, she still holds a soft spot for her niece. Instead, Astra’s lover/second-in-command Non is the one who sent the world’s worst flower arrangement to Kara. He figured since he wasn’t allowed to kill her, he could at least make her comatose for an indefinite amount of time while the Kryptonian baddies put their plan in motion.

Back at CatCo, Hank/J’onn must once again don the guise of Kara — this time in her civilian identity and not in her superhero one. While it was an awesome gag, I did think it was a little out of character for J’onn. We’ve seen him mimic Supergirl flawlessly in the past. Maybe it’s the heels?

Once Lord is finished making his Inception contraption, Alex is sent into Kara’s mind, aka Krypton. While there, we find a Kara that has completely given in to the illusion, and she seems happy. Which is why it is all the more heartwrenching for Alex to pull her from this happiness and tell her there is no spoon. Unfortunately, Alex is sentenced to space dildos the Phantom Zone for her troubles.

Alex’s sisterly love breaks through to Kara, though, and she finally wakes up from her dream.

She’s just in time too because Astra and company are in phase one of their plan to destroy the world (via Dish TV apparently). Supergirl speeds to a rooftop to confront her uncle in law while Alex and a fully decked out Martian Manhunter take on Astra. Remember, we’re watching television on a Monday, but this fight is better than every superhero movie pre-2008.

Alex ends up killing Astra with her Krypto-blade, but J’onn takes the blame when Kara finds her dying aunt. We’ll see how these secrets and lies will affect our heroes going forward. In the meantime, Kara is back with her friends (including Winn) and they all reconvene at her apartment over potstickers and ice cream.

And all is well in National City. That is, until Master Jailer and Lexi Alexander show up!

It would be an understatement to say last week’s Supergirl was the most anticipated episode of the season. Not only did it follow what was arguably the series’ best ep to date, episode 14 — titled “Truth, Justice, and the American Way” — was directed by the NOC’s favorite director Lexi Alexander.

Needless to say, the internet was quite excited about her take on Supergirl.

If you want to hear more about the behind-the-scenes on Supergirl, check out the most recent Hard N.O.C. Life with Lexi!

The episode kicks off with Kara and Alex doing some sisterly bonding when Non shows up out of nowhere. Instead of seeking to avenge the death of his beloved Astra, Non requests Kara’s presence at her funeral. In the sky. Because Krypton was a matriarchal society(!), it is Kara’s duty to lead the rites.

Non and Kara agree to a two-week ceasefire out of respect for Astra’s passing. But after that, it will be all out war between the Kryptonians and Earth (you’d think this would be a good time for Clark to get involved, no?)

At the DEO, Kara tips Hank off about the mourning period, but is clear she’s still pissed at him for killing her aunt. Alex wants to tell the truth, but Hank prevents her. He’s fine with Kara hating him but knows it would destroy her to learn Alex was really the one responsible.

Kara heads to Maxwell Lord’s cell to blow off some steam by talking trash to her favorite billionaire bad guy. Lord was hoping he’d get early release for saving her life last week, but no dice. Pay attention, this notion of illegally detaining people will be important later.

At CatCo, they finally start addressing the thing I’ve been talking about for weeks: Maxwell Lord’s disappearance! Jimmy is in an awkward spot because he knows exactly where the billionaire is being held but can’t tell Cat without outing Kara (and the government’s top secret alien hunting op). So he takes Kara aside and they have a pretty substantive conversation about the ethics of holding people without due process in secret prisons like Lian Yu S.T.A.R. Labs the DEO.

Kara doesn’t have time for any of it, though. She’s too busy tracking down a serial killer who’s taking out Fort Rozz escapees executioner style. Hank and Alex think they may be dealing with an intergalactic bounty hunter and THEY’RE TOTALLY REFERENCING FRAGGIN’ LOBO!

Though this guy they’re tracking isn’t actually the Main Man. He’s a dude in a Boba Fett costume who calls himself Master Jailer and is executing his prisoners with a space guillotine. When Hank and Alex figure out how he’s identifying his victims, Supergirl shows up to stop him. The fight scene that ensues is the reason why you hire Lexi Alexander to come direct your superhero show.

Unfortunately, Jailer gets away with his victim. Fuming, Kara returns to the DEO and bites J’onn/Hank’s head off before she’s confronted again by Jimmy. Earlier, he had a heart to heart with Cat about journalism ethics and he realized that it was his duty to shine a light on what was happening underground. (Not to mention the fact that he let his DEO-association slip with Lucy, which only made her more paranoid about his closeness to Supergirl. You’d think James would be a better liar than this).

By the way, Lexi’s framing of the whole scene between James and Kara was amazing.

Before their argument can be settled, Supergirl joins Alex in confronting the Master Jailer, who they’ve identified as a National City police detective in disguise. In the process, Alex gets shot (though she had a vest on) and Kara gets kidnapped.’

Hank and Alex finally figure out that their serial killer was not a Rozz escapee but a prison guard who has decided to dole out his own kind of justice. In his lair, Jailer has Supergirl in a Red Sunlight-enfused cage and is about to execute his latest when Alex shows up to save the day.

When they return to base, Kara and the DEO agree to let Maxwell free. Apparently, James’ ethics lectures resonated with her (and by extension Hank and Alex). And for what it’s worth, the DEO isn’t the only branch of government that was inspired by James Olsen. The very next day (after Supergirl aired), President Obama announced his intention to finally close Guantanimo Bay.

Kara ends the episode visiting her mother’s hologram and passingly mentions the Myriad program that Non and company were setting up. The hologram proceeds to start freaking the fuck out.

Wonder if this has anything to do with Brainiac 8? (Who will be coming to Smallville Supergirl next week in the form of a previous Earth’s Kara Zor-El, Laura Vandervoort!

After taking a week off, Supergirl returns with an all-new episode on CBS tonight. The episode that aired two weeks ago — simply named “Solitude” — was probably the most easter egg-packed episode of the season. Rather than a traditional recap of the events, I’m just going to geek out over all the cool nods to past Super-lore, including and especially call backs to Smallville since former Supergirl Laura Vandervoort was guest starring. Which is basically what I did while live-tweeting anyway.

Gotta say, as psyched as I am to see #Supergirl honor its heritage with @Vandiekins22 #Smallville season 7 was my least favorite. #SupGirl

—
The Nerds of Color (@TheNerdsofColor) March 01, 2016

First geek out moment: the episode starts with a flashback to when Kara’s pod was stuck in the Phantom Zone. Kara is in stasis when a console on her ship lights up with the logo of Brainiac!

I’m glad Supergirl is unafraid to utilize classic Superman villains. We’ve had six (going on seven) live action Superman movies in the last 40 years and he only ever battles Lex and Zod on the big screen. It seems television is the only place to get the other members of the Super family’s rogues gallery.

Hank reverts to his Martian form when sparring with Alex. We need more episodes with J’onn in his Manhunter glory. Coincidentally, an upcoming episode will dive into how J’onn became Hank, so definitely looking forward to that.

You see, Kara has left her post at the DEO, and Alex continues to blame herself because she hasn’t come clean about Astra’s death (Kara still blames J’onn). But you know, it wouldn’t be an homage to Smallville if “secrets and lies” weren’t a big part of the show.

Speaking of which, James wants to spill Kara’s Super-secret to Lucy because they’re having relationship problems. And yes, Kara thinks that’s a stupid reason to reveal her secret identity too. Lying and cheating is a theme to tonight’s episode because this week’s MacGuffin is a thumb drive that contains the identities of cheating spouses when an Ashley Madison-like website gets hacked. The hacker? None other than the last person to play Kara Zor-El:

It was a nice touch to have Laura appear on the episode looking like her regular self — since she would spend the rest of the ep in Mystique cosplay — if for no other reason than to remind folks of what she looked like on Smallville when she was Supergirl.

Later, Winn attempts to hack the hacker but is stopped when a being materializes out of his laptop. Instead of the blonde who bore a striking resemblance to Supergirl, he is confronted by woman in blue who calls herself “Indigo.” In actuality, she is an artificial intelligence created on Krypton called Brainiac-8.

When the DEO shows up, Kara is pissed and wants to go somewhere to cool off? What better place than the North Pole? James suggests they take a visit to Superman’s Fortress of Solitude to get some answers, and this is where the producers throw in every Super Easter Egg they can think of!

The first one? None other than a giant “key” to Fortress that’s straight out of a comic book!

YES! They have a gigantic ass golden key to get into the Fortress of Solitude! #Supergirl #SupGirl https://t.co/GTzyo5ZiL1

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The Nerds of Color (@TheNerdsofColor) March 01, 2016

Upon close inspection, the key also kinda sorta resembles the Kryptonian Command Key from Man of Steel except it’s gold instead of grimdark.

Once inside the Fortress, we’re shown all of the wonders and amazing things from the giant Jor-El and Lara statues to a return visit from Kelex! Also, there are trophy cases with things like a Legion ring. This isn’t the first time a Legion ring has been depicted in live action. Back when Barry and friends dimension-jumped to Earth-2, a ring could be spotted in tunnel between the worlds.

But even before the Legion was teased on The Flash, we met actual Legionnaires on the eighth season of Smallville. Back then, Clark was visited by Cosmic Boy, Lightning Lad, and Saturn Girl. If the Legion ever make an appearance on Supergirl, here’s hoping they invite those actors back.

After Kara learns everything she needs to know about Indigo/Brainiac-8, she heads back to face her without the DEO’s help. This will probably be a mistake. Especially because Indigo ain’t playing around.

By the way, another geek out moment for me was seeing that the Supergirl producers reinstated the original Kryptonian alphabet.

I'm legit happy that the #Supergirl producers reinstated the original Krypto-alphabet! Thanks @AJKreisberg #SupGirl twitter.com/mehcadbrooks/s…

—
The Nerds of Color (@TheNerdsofColor) March 01, 2016

Though it was created for the comics, Smallville used this text all the time. But Man of Steel decided it was going to create its own version of the language.

Anyway, Indigo materializes out of the cell phone of a general and hacks into the city’s nuclear missile outpost. Supergirl arrives but not before the missiles have been launched.

Kara superspeeds up to the missile to disable it — with help, in her ear, from Hank. This is another scene that echoes a classic Smallville moment.

This whole ep's like a #Smallville homage. I mean, they basically recreated this scene: @christellexoxo #Supergirl https://t.co/UyEF7aph1v

—
The Nerds of Color (@TheNerdsofColor) March 01, 2016

Fortunately, the missiles get disarmed and Indigo gets dispatched. Unfortunately, Non is able to reconstitute the android using the Omegahedron, which is a direct call back to the Supergirl movie from 1984.

In an episode full of call backs and Easter eggs, this was definitely a deep cut. But the Smallville references don’t stop since the newest Supergirl will be dabbling in Red Kryptonite, which was a staple of that show as well. Be sure to tune in while we live tweet!

Sixteen episodes in to the first season of Supergirl and I should probably learn not to underestimate the show. You see, prior to the airing of last week’s Red Kryptonite-influenced episode, titled “Falling,” I assumed we would be getting filler between stronger episodes. Boy, was I wrong! Seeing Melissa Benoist channel Bad Supergirl might be some of my favorite moments all season. It also doesn’t hurt that after the previous episode’s many homages to Smallville and other past Super history, the show kicked it up a notch this week.

Before we dive into that, though, Supergirl has to engage in some light corporate network synergy and have Cat Grant appear on The Talk, the real life CBS daytime talk show.

Cat Grant on The Talk. Corporate synergy at work. #Supergirl #SupGirl

—
The Nerds of Color (@TheNerdsofColor) March 15, 2016

We listen to Cat talk about all the good Supergirl has done for National City over a montage of her good deeds. The best part is when Kara finds a prepubescent admirer getting picked on by bullies.

Seeing Supergirl helping a small child stand up to bullies is the kind of superheroing stuff will likely never see in the movie universe, so it’s great that the more aspirational version of the DC heroes get to live on in television. Of course, showing Supergirl in this light is all prelude to the real gist of the episode: her exposure to Red Kryptonite.

Forgot this was the RedK episode. No wonder they spent the first 10m playing up how nice #Supergirl is. That's gonna change fast. #SupGirl

—
The Nerds of Color (@TheNerdsofColor) March 15, 2016

For those unfamiliar, Red Kryptonite is a variation that affects Kryptonians differently than the green stuff. Instead of making them sick, it changes their personalities, usually by unleashing their inhibitions and bringing out their dark side. Red K has had different incarnations and effects in the comics, but its introduction on Smallville is, arguably, the most mainstream interpretation of it.

While Red-K was just a naturally occurring strain of kryptonite on Smallville, its origin on Supergirl is quite different. Their Red-K is an artificially engineered substance created by Maxwell Lord. Also different from Smallville, this Red-K’s radiation is absorbed during initial contact and needs an antidote to be removed. On Smallville, Clark is only under its influence when he is in physical contact with the substance.

When Kara is exposed, the effects start to take over rather quickly. She comes to work the next day in a whole new wardrobe. And a new attitude. With her DEO co-workers, she’s dismissive and cocky. In fact, when they’re in pursuit of an alien baddie, she ends up letting him go because she’s bored. Senator Crane, who has come 180 from her previous stance on aliens, is at DEO HQ and is not pleased by Supergirl’s new attitude. Supergirl doesn’t care.

And if you had any doubt that Supergirl was drawing a lot of influence from how Smallville dealt with Red Kryptonite, this gifset kind of sets the record straight:

There was one huge difference though.

Throwing Cat off a building def trumps stealing a bunch of high end electronics. Red Kara > Red Clark #Supergirl #Smallville

—
The Nerds of Color (@TheNerdsofColor) March 15, 2016

After coming so close to death, Cat goes on television and denounces Supergirl, who has coincidentally adopted a new look that, appropriately, resembles the military tunics worn by Astra and the evil Kryptonians.

This leads to my favorite moment of the entire series. You see, Smallville isn’t the only Superman story being alluded to on the show. When Kara flies off in to the night, she ends up at her favorite cafe, flicking peanuts at the bar… just like Bad Superman from Superman III.

When the DEO shows up to take down Evil Kara, Hank has to reveal his secret identity as the Martian Manhunter in order to finally bring her down. Of course, this also means he can no longer be head of the organization since he’s outed as not Hank Henshaw. But it’s a sacrifice he had to make for Kara’s safety.

Later, in a DEO cell, J’onn reveals who he is to Senator Crane — earlier in the episode, they hinted at some possible romantic sparks between the two, but it’s unlikely she’ll reciprocate now that she knows he’s a Martian like the one who abducted her. Now that the Hank Henshaw guise is exposed, we’re perfectly set up for a retelling of how J’onn came to earth and will be reminded about why Martian Manhunter needs his own show already.

Last week’s Supergirl was the Martian Manhunter origin story we’ve been waiting for all season, and it didn’t disappoint. From a guest appearance by former Superman Dean Cain — no longer the world’s only Asian Superman — to David Harewood giving an excellent performance as Evil Hank (in a silly wig), the episode had everything we could hope for. Unfortunately, with all eyes on tonight’s crossover with The Flash, I don’t have time to do a proper recap, so I’ll leave you with Christelle’s live tweets from the night.

"Martian Madness" #Supergirl #SupGirl

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The Nerds of Color (@TheNerdsofColor) March 22, 2016

Hello, @meagantandy. RT @ravenwing263 now who are we fan casting for Miss Martian? https://t.co/YsHio4SH0P

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The Nerds of Color (@TheNerdsofColor) March 21, 2016

I'm getting crazy Lois & Clark feelings. I haven't listened to Dean Cain talk about different planets in a looong time. #SupGirl #Supergirl

—
Christelle (@christellexoxo) March 22, 2016

I'm very invested in Lex's and Hank/J'onn's relationship. They're so sweet. She's that father figure she lost. #SupGirl #Supergirl

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Christelle (@christellexoxo) March 22, 2016

Best #Supergirl egg tonight is J'onn's love of Chocos (the DCU's Oreos). #SupGirl #MartianManhunter @DavidHarewood https://t.co/TTHHqucFP0

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Keith Chow (@the_real_chow) March 22, 2016

Asshole!Hank. Alright. #SupGirl #Supergirl #MartianManhunter

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The Nerds of Color (@TheNerdsofColor) March 22, 2016

Holy shit, Jeremiah Danvers threw Hank off a cliff!?? #SupGirl #Supergirl #MartianManhunter

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The Nerds of Color (@TheNerdsofColor) March 22, 2016

So taking care of Alex and Kara was Jeremiah's literal dying wish. A blood debt. #SupGirl #Supergirl #MartianManhunter

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The Nerds of Color (@TheNerdsofColor) March 22, 2016

Party Rock Alex. No way. #SupGirl #Supergirl #MartianManhunter

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The Nerds of Color (@TheNerdsofColor) March 22, 2016

Project Cadmus: Very different from Project Katniss where they stick prisoners in a Hunger Games arena. #SupGirl #Supergirl

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The Nerds of Color (@TheNerdsofColor) March 22, 2016

Baby Kara adjusting to her powers! And listening to Kelly Clarkson! #SupGirl #Supergirl #MartianManhunter

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The Nerds of Color (@TheNerdsofColor) March 22, 2016

Dean Cain said, "Superman". I'm not freaking out, you are. #SupGirl #Supergirl #MartianManhunter

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The Nerds of Color (@TheNerdsofColor) March 22, 2016

"I just want to be useful to somebody. I want to be worthwhile." -Kara #SupGirl #Supergirl #MartianManhunter

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The Nerds of Color (@TheNerdsofColor) March 22, 2016

HE'S ALIVE. #SupGirl #Supergirl #MartianManhunter

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The Nerds of Color (@TheNerdsofColor) March 22, 2016

More than anything, tonight's #Supergirl proved #MartianManhunter needs his own show. #SupGirl @DavidHarewood thenerdsofcolor.org/2015/09/14/mar…

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The Nerds of Color (@TheNerdsofColor) March 22, 2016