Everything We Know About the Arrowverse Crisis of Infinite Earths Crossover [Contributor: Araceli Aviles]

The excitement for the Arrowverse’s massive, movie-style crossover might be the most highly anticipated event in network television in recent years. That being said, if you’re as dedicated and detail-oriented a fan as I am, you’re probably massively overwhelmed, and confused, as to how all of this is going to play out. For every new nugget of information we’ve received, there are equal scores of questions fans need answered. Therefore, I have compiled a list of confirmed guest stars as well as the biggest questions fans want to know about how Crisis, and Arrow’s subsequent end, will affect this universe of heroes.

ALL THE PLAYERS

Count on the regular players on Arrow, The Flash, Supergirl, Legends of Tomorrow, and Batwoman, to suit up, not all of whom will be donning their usual garb. It has been confirmed that Brandon Routh will be retaking his original superhero mantle as Superman for this crisis, which he originated in 2006’s Superman Returns. Only this time he will be known as Kingdom Come Superman.

Additionally, Arrow’s Audrey Marie Anderson will trade her power suit for her first supersuit, taking on the role of Harbinger. Not that we ever thought Lyla Michaels needed a costume to be amazing, but it’s still a treat!

Also reporting for Crisis duty:

• Tyler Hoechlin as Clark Kent/Superman
• Elizabeth Tulloch as Lois Lane
• Tom Welling as Clark Kent/Superman
• Erica Durance as Lois Lane
• LaMonica Garrett as the Monitor/Anti-Monitor
• Jon Cryer as Lex Luthor
• Cress Williams as Black Lightning
• Tom Cavanagh as Pariah, a scientist with a direct connection to the Anti-Monitor.
• Osric Chau as Ryan Choi, a new version of the The Atom
• Kevin Conroy as Future Bruce Wayne/Rumored Kingdom Come Batman
• Burt Ward in a yet undisclosed role/cameo

THE BIGGEST HANGING SWORDS

Both Arrow and The Flash have done an excellent job of setting up Crisis of Infinite Earths. This is particularly important because, more than anyone, both Oliver Queen and Barry Allen are under the impression that neither one of them will survive. But... do any of us really believe that? In addition to that hanging sword, here are a few other lingering questions that deserve answers by the end of Crisis:

1. Can the effects of Crisis, such as the destruction of Earth-2 (and, as revealed in recent sneak peeks, Kryptonian refuge Argo) be reversed?
2. How are Arrow’s 2040 characters involved in protecting their parents’ past, and how will the present-day ensemble react to their involvement?
3. Can Nora Allen still be born/revived?
4. Will the remaining Earths be merged, thus combining universes allowing for more cohesive crossovers post-Arrow?
5. Will Black Lighting come on board for future crossovers upon Arrow’s end?
6. Why was Supergirl, specifically, given no prior warning as to the crisis, given how the destruction of Argo kicks off her own personal devastation?
7. How does the Monitor expect Lex Luthor to be the “hero” of this story?
8. Was it always going to be Oliver’s choice to be the sacrificial lamb, or is there a larger cosmic destiny behind his impending death? Was this always his fate?

The most crucial detail to remember for the Crisis of Infinite Earths crossover? When it’s airing! Mark your calendars now. Crisis premieres in each Arrowverse starting tonight, and in the weeks to come as follows:

• Sunday, December 8: Supergirl
• Monday, December 9: Batwoman
• Tuesday, December 10: The Flash
• Tuesday, January 14: Arrow and Legends of Tomorrow

One piece of good news that we know for sure will come out of this crossover is that, by the end, we will have answers to almost every question we have, at least regarding Arrow. The end is nigh, my friends. And if we want some hope of light at the end of this tunnel, let us look to Marc Guggenheim’s final script pages for Arrow’s series finale: “Of possibility...”

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Supergirl 2x18 Review: "Ace Reporter" (Nano Trouble) [Contributor: Deborah MacArthur]

"Ace Reporter"

Original Airdate: April 24, 2017

It’s been three weeks since we last checked in with our favorite alien superhero and her helpful pals, so I’m predicting that most of my time writing this review will be spent looking up all the stuff that happened in previous reviews because my memory? Not so great. I’ve got the basics down, though: Kara Danvers is Supergirl. She saves people and is kind of a reporter? Even though her identity isn’t tied up in being a reporter at all and that’s just the typical occupation writers like to give superheroes? Anyway, she lost that job as a reporter an eternity ago (“eternity” in this sentence means “a month”), but I’m going to take a hint from the episode title and assume she’s going to get her job back.

Hey, here’s an exciting aspect of this week’s episode: Lena Luthor is part of the A-plot!

A LITTLE BIT OF LENA LUTHOR

Even though Kara was calling her unemployment “funemployment” before the hiatus, she’s grown bored of being jobless and it doesn’t help that National City appears to be completely without crime. Alex explains that “It’s like someone slipped law-abiding serum into the reservoir,” and no amount of offering to stop this law-breaking literal lawmaker gets Kara anything to do. And I know that the show is just trying to frame Kara’s life as moving rather slow so that she gets all pumped for the action of the episode, but hey, Kara? You have super speed and you can fly. Go help New York. Detroit. Chicago. Literally anywhere else. Hey, come to my city — we could probably use you. Get out of your National City bubble a bit more, is what I’m trying to say here.

Kara turns to baking to kill all her boring free time, and I do have to admit to being charmed by the fact that she doesn’t wear oven mitts to take her baked goods out of the oven. It’s the little things in life we have to find joy in, people. Anyway, Kara’s baking is interrupted by everyone’s favorite future probably-villain: Lena Luthor! She wants Kara as a sort of emotional bodyguard for meeting up with her ex-boyfriend, Jack Spheer (played by iZombie’s Rahul Kohli). Lena calls Jack her “kryptonite,” which I feel raises some questions about how that word entered the common lexicon in a universe with actual Superman and Supergirl. Wouldn’t literally anyone who wanted to keep the Kryptonians safe — or personally destroy them — want to keep that a secret?

Lena and Kara go to Jack’s presentation and, to my dismay, Kara runs into Snapper Carr. I can’t be the only one who abhors Snapper Carr, right? He basically just serves to belittle Kara at every opportunity, and in the same “tough love” way that Cat Grant utilized. I don’t know if it’s the way he’s written or the way he’s played, but Snapper genuinely seems to hate Kara whenever he has to talk to her. His cutting remarks have too much genuine dislike behind them for me to laugh them off as part of a grumpy, well-meaning character. He isn’t well-meaning. He’s just mean.

After the presentation — which is on Jack’s invention of nanobots that can heal people and how he’s launching the program in National City — Jack catches up with Lena and, by association, Kara outside the theater. Since Kara’s no fan of being the third wheel, she scampers away to let Lena and Jack make googly eyes at each other and discuss the past.

But what’s this? Intrigue! A bespectacled man claiming to “know Jack Spheer” asks to meet Kara in the parking lot later on. It’s like that man doesn’t know he’s in a TV show and planning secret meetings in parking lots is the number one cause of death for unknown, nervous characters. Poor fella. Anyway, he definitely dies and it’s nanobots that kill him, with the help of a big, fiery explosion. Later on, another source bites the dust due to nanobots and there is really no hiding the dots that are lining up for Kara to connect, here. The combination of cause of death and the fact that both sources had secrets to share about Jack’s company sets Jack up as the most likely villain.

Because this episode is trying to be about Kara getting back into being an investigative reporter, we get some sleuthing from Kara and Mon-El (“Mike”). They discover footage of Jack injecting himself with the nanobots during what should have been a legal testing phase of the project, which means that the only test subject for the project is Jack himself and there’s plenty in that fact worth killing people over. Kara saves the footage, which triggers some security breach in nanobot-Jack that causes him to walk out on his impromptu date with Lena, who is displeased and confused — and doubly displeased and confused when Kara shows her the footage, explaining that Jack very likely killed some people.

But turns out that Jack is not the villain of the week — he’s the weapon of the week. His business partner has been controlling him the entire time, though I’m not sure if it’s made clear that he had zero free will and getting close to Lena was part of the evil-doer’s plan or if the control only occurred occasionally, like when she was using him to murder. In the episode, Jack seems legitimately confused by the killer nanobots and doesn’t seem to think he’s suffering from blackouts or anything — so I guess everything about his life was controlled by his partner from the point when he injected himself with nanobots onward?

Jack’s fusion with the nanobots means that shutting them down equals shutting him down, and — because the show is very cruel to her — it’s Lena who has to press the button to kill her ex. An ex, by the way, she still had really strong feelings for. Jeez, Supergirl. Harsh. And the fact that we don’t really know if she actually reconnected with this guy she seriously cared about before being forced to kill him to save Supergirl, who was being threatened by the nanobots, doesn’t help matters.

After Jack is gone and the evil business partner is captured by Supergirl, Lena has to deal with the aftermath. In an incredibly well done scene, Kara tries her best to comfort Lena, who is starting to feel numb to the constant source of misery that is her life. I’m not certain if the scene is meant to sow the seeds of evil in Lena (I mean, she does say that the only thought that makes her feel anything is the thought of people who have wronged her rotting in jail, which is... morally questionable) or if it’s meant to make us think she’s going to be evil and it’s actually just adding character layers. Regardless, the scene is well acted by both Katie McGrath and Melissa Benoist and I like that the show took the time to have a quiet, emotional little scene toward the end of the episode.

It’s not the very last scene of the episode, though! Nope, that belongs to the sudden appearance of Mon-El’s mom, who will doubtlessly be doing evil very soon.

Other Things:

• “I am here to kick some ass, take some names, and do it all with an endearing smile on my face.” Why isn’t that the tagline for this show?
• So Kara lives in the “rent-controlled side of town”? Is that the show’s way of explaining why she could shrug off losing her job even though she lives in a beautiful, massive apartment?
• I think Katie McGrath might have chemistry with most people. Her run on Merlin certainly reinforces this theory.
• Katie McGrath’s accent slipped more frequently into her natural Irish throughout this episode than in previous episodes. I wonder if being around Rahul Kohli’s London accent tripped her up?
• Speaking of Rahul Kohli: he was really great in this. He’s a terrific comedic actor, but between this and the drama he’s been given (and handled perfectly) on this season’s iZombie, I really wouldn’t mind seeing him in more serious stuff. I kinda wish they hadn’t killed his character off on Supergirl, because it would’ve been nice to have him pop up again in the future.

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Supergirl 2x17 Review: "Distant Sun" (Darn Daxam Drama) [Contributor: Deborah MacArthur]

"Distant Sun"

Original Airdate: March 27, 2017

Did you think you saw the last of the King and Queen of Daxam last episode, when Mon-El told them to go home to their questionably-destroyed planet and leave him on Earth with Kara? Because I sure did! And I was wrong! Miserably, miserably wrong.

Note: the fact that Mon-El grew up to be reasonably well-adjusted and willing to change (while, granted, still lacking in altruism) with sai-wielding Queen Eeeeevil as a mother is actually remarkable. Credit to you, Mon-El. Clearly, your more reasonable father’s nature overpowered your mother’s poisonous nurture and turned you into the almost-good person you are today.

MON-EL’S MOM IS THE WORST

All right, first issue: the Daxam king and queen have yet to return to the planet I’m still not really sure exists anymore or not because no one has been very clear on that matter. They’re just hovering around Earth, and I would think that’d be a serious political issue — especially for the countries around the globe that have no idea who Mon-El is, what a Daxam is, or why the United States is just letting a great big spaceship chill up in orbit for days — but nah. It’s all cool. I mean, President Wonder Woman is rather concerned, but it’s really no big deal.

Well, other than the fact that Queen Daxam (okay, fine, her name is Rhea — but I’m not bothering with King Hercules’s real name, since he’s gonna die) has put a hit out on Kara. A really, really expensive hit that rewards enough space currency to buy a whole planet, by the way. How does the queen of a destroyed or almost-destroyed planet afford such a reward? Not really sure. Frankly, the whole Daxam continuity is full of enough holes to make a coral reef feel inadequate.

But a hit is out, indeed, and some aliens try attacking Kara in order to cash in. Everyone decides that keeping Kara in hiding might be the best plan, since the high bounty means a huge number of aliens might be coming after her and Kara’s fully capable of defending herself, but probably not on the scale of “lots of people after ‘buy a planet’ levels of money.” Team Supergirl tries keeping Kara out of harm’s way by distracting her with Settlers of Catan, but it lasts about as long as you’d think and she's off. Aw, Settlers of Catan is a fun board game, though. Think about your grain supplies, Kara! One more brick and you could build a settlement! Kara, no — what about your sheep, Kara!

Sorry. Board Game Night flashbacks. Anyway. One of the aliens after Kara is a mind control telepath who uses the phrase “Come at me, bro” unironically, so even if he hadn’t been trying to kill our favorite sunshine puppy, he’s an awful person and deserves DEO jail. I don’t make the rules, kids. Telepath tries getting Mon-El to do his dirty work for him via psychic puppeteering, which leads to a Kara/Mon-El fistfight that had the anti-shippers applauding and giggling. I was applauding and giggling as well, but that was because Mon-El actually told Kara to flee from his wicked, mind-control punches and Kara is freaking Supergirl. Dude, she can handle you. She can handle nearly anything. The “super” in her name is not there as an inside joke, it’s there because she could literally rip off your arm and beat you to death with it. But she wouldn’t do that because, as previously mentioned, she is a sunshine puppy.

After the whole team learns Mon-El’s mother is responsible for the bounty, Mon-El suggests that he and Kara run away together and live a romantic life away from Earth, like space-travelling Romeo and Juliet. Uh... buddy, no. Not only because Romeo and Juliet is not happy, but also because (and I realize I’m starting to get repetitive, here) Kara is Supergirl. She does not run away from threats.

Not even when those threats come in the form of Queen Rhea wielding kryptonite sai and threatening Kara’s life. Which, naturally, happens. And Kara is in so much danger from the kryptonite exposure that Mon-El actually agrees to go with them. AND he tries convincing his father to be a better ruler, give their people civil rights, stop dealing in slavery, etc. (Yaaaay!) but then the DEO storms the ship to rescue Mon-El and everything goes to crap. Also, Mon-El breaks a spaceship window in space and nearly dooms everyone to death within the sucking void between stars. He’s not the brightest. Or the nicest.

Back on planet Earth, Mon-El and Kara enjoy not being separated by lightyears. J’onn is getting a talking-to from President Wonder Woman because he took action against the Daxamites even though she expressly forbade it. Up in the Daxam ship, Queen Rhea is committing regicide and ramping up to be a long-term villain. Her motivation? Kara represents Krypton’s habit of taking everything from Daxam, right down to Kara taking away Rhea’s son. Yeah, sure, lady — completely ignore the fact that you tried murdering your son’s girlfriend and stealing him away against his will to be a dictator-in-training. Your pain is totally Kara’s fault.

MEANWHILE, IN THE ONLY HEALTHY RELATIONSHIP IN THIS GENRE

I just want to talk about Alex and Maggie, not because their story had any amount of weight in the A-plot, but because a healthy, adult relationship on shows of Supergirl’s ilk is so rare that theirs deserves some spotlighting. I have no idea what ghostwriter they’ve pulled in to exclusively write the Alex/Maggie stuff, but I hope they give that person a raise because seriously, I cannot believe that the same writers who wrote Kara/James and write Kara/Mon-El also write Alex/Maggie.

Here’s the summary for their story in this episode: Alex and Maggie are walking back from a yoga class and they run into Maggie’s long-term ex-girlfriend. Alex, because she’s very cool, is polite to Maggie’s ex and even gets her invited out to dinner so everyone can get to know each other. That’s a little weird, granted — most people don’t want to eat dinner with their ex and their current significant other, no matter how very cool the people involved are. It’s all for nothing, though, since the ex doesn’t show for dinner and it turns out that Maggie got really hurt in her last relationship... then it turns out that Maggie had actually cheated on her ex-girlfriend, and that’s why they broke up.

And you know what happens in order to unravel this tangle of romantic lies and personal issues? Alex and Maggie talk to each other. Alex recognizes that a lot of Maggie’s issues come from a fear of getting hurt by the people closest to her and she promises that Maggie won’t have to worry about that with her, but she implores Maggie to be honest. Maggie discusses their past and their breakup with her ex, and they part on friendlier terms. It’d probably still be weird if she were to third-wheel on one of Maggie’s dates with Alex, but they seem to clear the air overall and both of them are better for it.

Kudos to Supergirl for subverting just about every romantic drama trope it could: not making Alex a jealous girlfriend (and not using the “awkwardly cool because she’s trying to hide her jealousy” sub-trope), not having Maggie lie to Alex about her break-up throughout the whole episode, not having Alex nose-dive into an inferiority complex over the idea of Maggie possibly cheating on her, and even having Alex fix the relationship between Maggie and her ex rather than reveling in its failure.

Guess what the secret ingredient to all this fantastic, amazing relationship non-drama was? Communication! It’s a beautiful thing, you know. Take note, every other television show ever (but particularly the ones involving lying superheroes).

Other Things:

• I think the title of this episode is a pun. Distant Sun. Distant Son. Get it.
• Kara going “Hey, that’s me!” at her little hologram-self was the actual cutest thing.
• James’s non-role on the show this season would be comical if I didn’t like him as much as I do.
• I don’t really understand how the Daxam King and Queen have any power, money, or political sway. Their planet/society is, at worst, smoking rubble or, at best, a post-apocalyptic wasteland.
• The President of the United States is possibly an evil alien. On the show, I mean. Yeah... totally just the show where that’s true.

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Supergirl 2x16 Review: "Star-Crossed" (Ssssseeecrets) [Contributor: Deborah MacArthur]

"Star-Crossed"

Original Airdate: March 20, 2017

This week, Supergirl sends us Teri Hatcher and Kevin Sorbo as Mon-El’s parents, sends me into a fit of confused rage over Mon-El’s morality, and makes me realize that the key to me liking Winn is to just give him a girlfriend. I don’t even really have to like the girlfriend; he’s just less annoying when he’s in a relationship. Also, Mon-El and Kara break up and we get a few seconds’ worth of introduction to this week’s magical musical crossover with The Flash at the end of everything.

ART THEFT AND DAXAM ROYALTY

We all knew that Mon-El was the Daxam prince, right? I’m pretty sure we all knew that. So it’s no real surprise when the Daxamite King and Queen show up and reveal that, yep, Mon-El is the Daxam prince. At least, it’s not a surprise to us — it’s definitely a surprise to Kara, since Mon-El outright lied to her and never made any attempt (no matter what he says in the episode) to tell her the truth. Not since he met her, became friends with her, or started dating her. Whoops!

Kara is, understandably, quite upset by this news. As in most cases, the B-plot of the episode feeds into the A-plot’s morals or lessons: this time, the whole theme is about secrets and lies (jeez, when is it not with these shows?) and forgiveness. All because Winn’s new alien girlfriend is actually an art thief and, it seems, was just using Winn to get him to open up National City’s museum and steal the most famous Van Gogh painting from inside. Hey, uh, who allowed them to keep freaking “Starry Night” in a National City museum? That city is a hub for alien spacecraft crashes, monster battles, mass hypnotism, and general destruction — there is no way that any precious work of art should be allowed within a thirty-mile radius of National City.

Anyway, it turns out that Lyra — Winn’s girlfriend — was just stealing the painting because he brother is being held hostage by an alien... art smuggling ring? Alien gang? Whatever. She’s actually good, even though she genuinely is an art thief, and she does care about Winn. Winn, in a bit of a twist on the whole “comic book shows and secrets” plot, uses half-truths and secrets to take down the smuggling ring, rescue Lyra and Lyra’s brother, and save the day. Then he and Lyra vaguely talk about still liking each other, and I assume they’re still together.

When she witnesses the amicable parting of Lyra and Winn, Kara questions his ability to forgive her for lying and the show tries to equate what Lyra did (lying to save someone she loves from a terrible fate) to what Mon-El did (lying because the truth is inconvenient for him and what he wants out of his life on Earth). Haha, nope. Nope, nope, nope. Trying to draw direct parallels to completely unrelated situations doesn’t work when your audience isn’t stupid, Supergirl.

Blessedly, Kara doesn’t fall for this false-parallel technique and actually breaks up with Mon-El. I mean, I’m sad that she’s sad and I wish she’d broken up with him because he’s unbelievably selfish and a cute smile should not blind someone like Kara as much as his cute smile evidently has… but I’ll take it. Lie breakups are just old hat on these shows. A “finally seeing the light” break-up would be a nice change.

NOT REALLY "STAR-CROSSED"

“Star-crossed” (as in “star-crossed lovers,” a la Romeo and Juliet) is usually defined as people or plans that are thwarted by bad luck or outside forces, but I’m pretty sure the episode is just named this for the space references (aliens!) and because Van Gogh’s “Starry Night” acts as a plot device for the B-plot involving Winn. Because there’s nothing that’s really thwarted by bad luck or outside forces in this episode: the plan involving Winn actually goes swimmingly, and he gets back together with his girlfriend in the end (probably?) — the storyline involving Mon-El and Kara, while definitely thwarted, is thwarted by Mon-El’s inability to tell the truth and be a decent person. Not by bad luck or outside forces.

Look, I’m just as sick of dedicating huge chunks of my review to Mon-El as I’m sure you all are sick of reading them, but no other character on this show has inspired such bafflement from me. I genuinely don’t know what this show wants me to think about Mon-El. On the surface, it seems like they want him to be a hero — a selfish prince on the path to redemption, making the right steps in the right direction, but... no? Definitely not?

In this episode, they really hammer home how awful Daxam is and how the people are suffering, not just because Krypton exploded and took a huge chunk of Daxam with it (I guess?) but also because the royal family has a history of being terrible and is still currently terrible. Logically, this would be Mon-El’s shining moment of heroism: the music would swell, he would give a great speech and bid Kara a teary good-bye. He would sacrifice the happy, care-free life he established on Earth with the woman he loves for the exhausting duty of building Daxam back up, better than before and more fair to its non-royal citizens. It would be the culmination of all Mon-El had learned while on Earth, a fitting turnabout on his persistent selfishness and a satisfying, if abrupt, resolution of his character arc.

Except that doesn’t happen. Not even a little bit. Oh, sure, we get the music and the rousing speech about doing the right thing and Mon-El tells off his parents — but he tells them to go back to Daxam without him, because being around Kara makes him feel good about himself and he doesn’t want to be the prince anymore. He’s sick of being spoiled and royal and it apparently doesn’t occur to him that being royal puts him in a place of power and he could apply his newfound empathy to making his home planet a better place. Mon-El just basically tells his parents to go back to what they were doing before but, you know, don’t let him know all that negative Daxam stuff’s happening because, ugh, guilt or whatever.

And this is the most puzzling thing: I think we were supposed to cheer for Mon-El in moment at the end of the episode, when he tells his parents to leave him on Earth. I don’t think it was supposed to occur to us that he’s choosing the better self-esteem he has on Earth with Kara over an opportunity to help a half-destroyed planet full of his suffering people. Mon-El telling off his parents is — if the way the scene was acted, scored, and shot is anything to go by — supposed to be the victorious peak of his character development and I just can’t figure out how the writers could write this and the actors could act this, and no one during the whole process went, “Wait... Mon-El’s being a jerk, isn’t he?”

Because he is. He definitely, definitely is. More so than he has been in the past, because before it’s always just been Kara’s feelings and the occasional crowd of civilians that were victims of his selfishness. Now, it’s a whole freaking planet of people on the line and he’s giving that a hard pass just to chill on Earth some more as... what? He’s not a hero and he’s barely a part of the DEO team. Supergirl has all the bases covered; Mon-El is superfluous and probably more likely to get in the way than he is to actually help, but on Daxam he actually could have made a difference. He probably could have gotten his parents to listen to his reasoning behind not acting like the Daxam currency is Jell-O shots and space heroin.

The difference Mon-El could have made would have been a political difference, rather than a fun, face-punch-the-aliens difference, yes — and Kara would not have been there to be all impressed by him, of course. But that’s kind of the point, isn’t it? Doing good for the sake of doing good, and not because it wins him points with the ladies? Saving a planet’s worth of people from freaking slavery. Which is legal on Daxam. And Mon-El’s parents have no intention of stopping. But he could stop it! And won’t!

Okay, well, I guess Mon-El is going to be on Earth for the foreseeable future. Don’t know what he’ll be doing or why he’s sticking around but I’m clinging to some faith in the writers of this show that he’ll be a worthwhile, decent character before the season is through.

Other Things:

• Only in TV universes is unemployment “fun.”
• Secondary confusion for this episode: I was under the impression that Daxam had been destroyed, or at least left a lifeless husk, but it’s actually okay and ready to be rebuilt! Just, you know, not rebuilt by the one member of the royal family who grew some empathy.
• Yet another Hamilton mention on the show in this episode! Also, on Supergirl’s Earth, the king is played by an alien.
• I really loved the Maggie/Alex/Winn interactions during this episode. Especially Maggie vs. Winn. Winn is terrified of the Sanvers power couple.
• James got to do something in this episode! ... But he wasn’t great at it.

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Supergirl 2x15 Review: "Exodus" (Trying to Stay Grounded) [Contributor: Deborah MacArthur]

"Exodus"

Original Airdate: March 6, 2017

Last week’s episode perfectly leads into this week’s as Team Supergirl deals with the fallout of Cadmus getting its anti-alien hands on the country’s alien registry. “Exodus” not only works to push the season’s story even further forward, but is also another strong episode on an emotional level — especially for Alex, her relationship with Jeremiah, and her relationship with Kara. This is very much a Danvers episode at the heart of it, with interesting peripheral events rounding it out. Bonus: both Lena Luthor and James actually have lines this week! How exciting!

THE ‘C’ IN CADMUS STANDS FOR ‘CRAZYTOWN BANANAPANTS’

Cadmus has already started rounding up the aliens in America, as the episode opens up with a traveling alien family getting swiped from their minivan and loaded into a truck. I’m pretty sure that this scene, like all the scenes dealing with the xenophobia-ruling Lillian Luthor and her Cadmus cohorts, is meant to be a parallel to real life xenophobia and the potential outcome of allowing such illogical fears to rule society. Supergirl tends to be heavy-handed with its moral lessons, but I think “Exodus” handled its subjects remarkably well, even considering the outright references to real-world political subjects. It helped that much of the episode’s message was shown, rather than told. The audience sees things like a whole family getting kidnapped or Winn’s alien girlfriend getting locked up, and it carries much more emotional weight than if the characters were to simply preach about the wrongness of Cadmus’s mission statement.

Kara wants to write an article to warn the aliens Cadmus hasn’t caught wind of yet, but Snapper Carr says she can’t write the article without concrete proof. Apparently, Snapper Carr’s adherence to the strict rules of journalism is directly influenced by whether or not he feels like being a jerk to Kara, because he wasn’t so dedicated to absolute proof back when he made (innocent) Lena Luthor into a negative cover story for the magazine just to sell more copies. Now, the fate of thousands of aliens hangs in the balance and he can’t allow a couple anonymous sources through so Kara can warn them? What a douche. After getting some encouragement from Lena and Mon-El, Kara decides to publish her warning as a blog post even though it could cost her her career.

In the meantime, Alex is handling Jeremiah’s betrayal very poorly. J’onn questions her ability to act as a DEO agent first and Jeremiah Danvers’s daughter second, but she assured him that she’s fully capable of compartmentalizing her emotions and dealing with Jeremiah as an enemy. This proves to be a lie (whether Alex knew it was a lie or not remains to be seen) when J’onn shapeshifts into Jeremiah and pretends to need Alex’s help, and Alex only takes a few moments before she agrees to help him. After she makes that agreement, J’onn transforms back into himself and tells Alex she’s suspended until the Cadmus case is over. Then Alex turns around and ropes Maggie into going rogue and dealing with Cadmus on their own anyway. Well, I mean, I say she “roped” Maggie in, but Maggie is very much the enabler of Alex’s dangerous ideas in this episode.

The plot involving Alex and Maggie teaming up to fight Cadmus as a kick-butt duo had me on the fence regarding positive or negative feelings toward it. On the one hand, Alex and Maggie are a great pair and Chyler Leigh’s acting throughout the story (and the whole episode) it absolutely top-notch. On the other hand, Alex is definitely in the wrong and Maggie should not be encouraging her behavior, especially since most of Chyler Leigh’s marvelous acting is Alex teetering on the edge of an emotional breakdown. On a third, mutant hand, Alex and Maggie’s scheming does get them into Cadmus headquarters and leads to the rescue of all the kidnapped aliens, who were about five minutes away from being shot across the galaxy in a spaceship.

After proving that Lillian Luthor would seriously suck at poker (the woman tries calling Alex’s “I have explosions everywhere and I will totally blow this place up” bluff twice, and is wrong both times — note to villains everywhere: Alex will definitely explode all the things) Alex manages to get the kidnapped aliens out of their cages, but not off the ship, which is scheduled for launch. Jeremiah offers to hold down Cadmus’s headquarters and try to shut down the launch from the ground while Alex boards the ship (in a really, really cool shot of Alex running onboard, by the way).

The ship launches, because yeah. That was never not going to happen. It’s a matter of being able to stop the ship from hitting actual outer space and then sliding into lightspeed, now. Side note: I think it’s clever of the show to give us multiple fake-out fixes to the whole ship launch problem: first with the initial shut-down that fails and leads to Alex boarding, then with Jeremiah’s attempt to stop it, and again when Alex calls Winn at the DEO and gets a “fix” from him that also doesn’t work. Just a couple clever touches to keep the audience guessing.

Supergirl is the one to save the day, because her name is the title of the show. And also because she’s awesome. In my opinion, this is the best section of the whole episode: Kara trying to stop the ship from reaching orbit while Alex encourages her from inside. There’s very little dialogue in the majority of the sequence and few shots other than close-ups on Kara and Alex’s faces — but it’s an absolutely wonderful scene, with a moving musical score, beautiful lighting, and incredible acting. Overall, the moment works to really underline how much strength and support Kara and Alex get from each other. It’s a much better depiction of their relationship than last week’s uncharacteristic harshness and anger from Alex. Also, as a Star Trek fan, I’m a sucker for any time people have to put their hands up to transparent surfaces as a form of pseudo-contact.

When the dust settles and all the aliens are back on planet Earth, it’s time for the characters to deal with the aftermath. Lillian Luthor has escaped despite Alex’s numerous explosive devices, J’onn apologizes to Alex for tricking her into revealing her compromised state and she gets her job back, and Jeremiah did make the right decision to fight against Cadmus when Alex implored him to do so, but his fight with Hank Henshaw left him in trouble and still in Cadmus’s clutches. Happily, Winn reunites with his alien girlfriend, Lyra, and we can probably assume that the other aliens who were kidnapped got to go back to their regular lives. They’re probably all still terrified, but at least they haven’t been deported back into space.

Kara loses her job, thanks to that blog post she made. She’s really sad about it, since she says being a reporter was basically a way for her to be “Kara” — i.e., a path for her to be her own person with her own strengths and abilities separate from her role as Supergirl. Then when Mon-El comforts her, Kara muses, “Maybe being Supergirl and having [Mon-El] is enough” and, uh, no? Like, what the heck are the writers thinking, having Kara say something like that right after establishing that her job at CatCo and being a reporter gave her a sense of self apart from being a superhero? They’ve basically just stated that all Kara needs is a boyfriend to be happy, and I don’t even know how to break down how terrible that concept is. It’s terrible for Kara to think that way and it’s terrible for the show to write it and have her say it as, essentially, her closing thoughts for the episode.

Maybe it was a throwaway line to end the emotional episode on a happier note. Maybe it’s laying some groundwork for Kara to grow in some way (after all, I’m pretty sure her relationship with Mon-El is her first serious relationship, ever, so that has to be doing a number on her emotionally and mentally). Or, maybe, it’s a way for the show to set up Happy Kara/Mon-El in order to better contrast the relationship with the implosion that might happen next week, when Kara learns what all the viewers have been fairly certain about for at least six episodes: Mon-El is the Daxam prince.

Other Things:

• Yeah, Winn is winning (no pun intended) the “How long will I like them?” game right now. His alien girlfriend really makes him shine. Meanwhile, Mon-El still hasn’t figured out tact.
• That said, Mon-El did make me laugh a couple times in this episode.
• Does Kara losing her job mean I don’t have to deal with Snapper Carr on my screen anymore? Because that’d be great.
• I’m very disappointed in how little James has been given to do all season. I thought they’d start making him his own character, considering his new role as a hero. Instead, he just sits around and smiles while everyone else does stuff.

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Supergirl 2x14 Review: "Homecoming" (Broken Hearts) [Contributor: Deborah MacArthur]

"Homecoming"

Original Airdate: February 27, 2017

All right, we have a lot to unpack this week, so let's just dive right in. Although it works to move the season arc along, this is definitely a “character” episode. Action and villains of the week take a backseat to the emotions, relationships, and growth of the Supergirl characters — something I am all for, especially since it meant some really great work from some of the actors.

HELLO JEREMIAH; GOODBYE JEREMIAH

The big, pivotal event of “Homecoming” is the return of Jeremiah Danvers, an event that was self-spoiled by the “previously on” segment before the episode. Jeremiah is rescued from a Cadmus transport by Kara and J’onn, who bring him back to DEO headquarters and everyone welcomes him home with open arms. No one is more thrilled by the return of Jeremiah than Alex, who goes into “dedicated daughter” mode immediately. Mon-El, however, is more suspicious: the appearance of Jeremiah seems too coincidental, his rescue too easy, and his open access to the DEO too potentially useful to the brainwashing Cadmus folks who had kept him captive.

Mon-El is right, we all learn, but he’s right in the worst way. Tact is not something that enters Mon-El’s mind, probably because he has zero experience putting the feelings of other people before his own. While Team Supergirl celebrates the return of the Danvers patriarch, Mon-El and Kara get into a huge fight because Kara’s boyfriend is a tactless douche and brought his suspicions up during family dinner. Alex is the angriest, however, and I think she’s about ten seconds away from punching Mon-El in the face (broken metacarpals be darned) before Kara manages to defuse the situation.

Uuuuntil Mon-El screws up again, with the help of Winn, and the two of them convince Kara to confront Jeremiah over him secretly accessing DEO files while no one was around to see him. Jeremiah has a ready excuse that computer details back up, which leaves Alex furious at Mon-El, Winn, AND Kara. She even tells Kara that she needs to pick a side or, essentially, stop considering herself part of the Danvers family. I feel like this part of the episode, while well-acted by Chyler Leigh, was a bit extreme for Alex’s character. From past situations and her near-unconditional love of Kara, I think “desperate confusion” would be more fitting than the hurtful rage that she throws at Kara in “Homecoming.”

Anyway, Jeremiah does turn out to be working for Cadmus in the end. Because of course he is. They gave him a cybernetic body and, I assume, a pretty extensive brainwashing procedure and he gives them all the DEO’s information on the aliens currently living on Earth. You know, I keep forgetting Cadmus’s anti-alien mission statement? It’s just always a bit overshadowed by Lillian Luthor’s singular craziness. In the back of my mind, I assume she’s just trying to take over the world, like your average evil cliche.

The action of the episode involves Martian-punching cyborgs and blowing up train bridges, the threat of nuclear explosions, and some gunfire. But as I said, this episode is more about the characters than the action. The fact that it’s Jeremiah who turns against the DEO and his family, the tension between Kara and Alex, and the tension between Mon-El and Kara — all of this is more important and more intriguing than Cadmus’s nefarious schemes (for now). When the truth comes out, it looks like no one gets away unscathed.

Alex’s storyline — from her joy at seeing her father again, to her anger over what she sees as Kara’s betrayal of their family, to Jeremiah’s actual betrayal of their family — is absolutely the emotional weight of the episode, even though so much of “Homecoming” actually revolves around Mon-El and Kara’s relationship. Alex gained the most and lost the most in this episode. Even her mother couldn’t quite accept Jeremiah’s return, nor promise to simply wipe away the fourteen years he’d been gone. But Alex was on board immediately, and she was burned for that instant forgiveness. The fact that she’s the one who let Jeremiah get away in the end, because she couldn’t bear to shoot him even though she knew he’d be taking critical information back to Cadmus, adds another layer of awful onto this very awful series of events.

It’s no wonder she’s drinking at the end of the episode, when Maggie pops up to ask her how the reunion with her father went. And it’s no wonder that that question turns Alex into a sobbing mess in her girlfriend’s arms. Uhg, poor Alex.

HOLY CRAP I GET TO DO MORE THAN JUST CALL MON-EL BORING

Wow, what a surprise — Supergirl stopped treating Mon-El like he’s some charming rogue whose mistakes are instantly forgiven because of a rakish smile and a peppy attitude, and I like him a bit more than I did before! My issue with this character has always been that he’s boring. He’s predictable. He’s a handsome, extroverted and care-free former hedonist with (allegedly) a heart of gold and his arc is practically set in stone: Kara will teach him how to be a hero through faith and love, Mon-El will end up the True Hero that he’s always had the potential to be, and everything is magical and as bland as unsalted soda crackers. I’ve seen this character a million times before and I’ll see this character a million more times.

More than just being boring, though, Mon-El has remained confusingly selfish and sort of terrible while the show itself seems to insist that he's still a future hero and we should all be charmed by his actions. Mon-El didn’t really learn anything after “We Can Be Heroes” (arguably the episode in which his problems are most clearly underlined by Kara) and he continued not learning things in subsequent episodes, but his careless and quippy attitude — and budding romance with Kara — meant that it was fine. No probs here, folks! Mon-El’s still putting himself and his own desires before morality and the safety of the people around him (not to mention before the feelings of the woman he probably cares for more than other other person on the planet) but haha, he’s so rascally! Ain’t he a stinker?

Finally, blessedly, Mon-El’s selfishness and inability to listen to Kara backfires on him in this episode. Usually, these big revelations in characters of Mon-El’s type would come via his own stupid actions and have huge, life-altering losses attached to them, over which our soon-to-be-hero would brood for ages. I suppose Supergirl pulled a semi-interesting twist on this sort of karmic retribution tale by invoking some Boy Who Cried Wolf attributes. Mon-El has spent so much time not taking anything seriously and being selfish that, when he actually turns out right about something, he’s the one who can’t get anyone to listen.

Mon-El’s turning point isn’t a dramatic loss in the heat of battle, but the growth of some self-awareness. Brought about by Winn, of all people. Apparently Winn’s alien girlfriend makes him a wise, wise man — or maybe it’s because Winn’s history of angsting about Kara has actually evolved into some character growth. He even offers up the most perfect bit of advice regarding Mon-El’s relationship: "[Kara] doesn't need a protector or someone to show her off. She does that all by herself."

For the first time since the character has shown up, we actually see Mon-El absorbing the advice and lessons he’s supposed to have learned throughout the episode and putting them to use. Unlike previous times when he’s supposedly “learned” things, he doesn’t just shrug everything off with a grin. When Kara is curled up and crying, rightfully devastated by the events surrounding Jeremiah’s betrayal, Mon-El carefully and deliberately asks her what she needs from him and then follows through with her request, without comment.

Basically, Mon-El learns to shut up and listen in this episode. Hallelujah. I don’t really know what this means for his future as a hero, or if the writers are going to — as I kind of hope they do — just arrive at the conclusion that some people aren’t meant to be heroes. Non-heroes aren’t necessarily bad people. They’re just... more centralized people. As amazing as it would be, not everyone in the world can be Supergirl... but the lack of Supergirl-like attributes in an otherwise good person doesn’t automatically put that person in the realm of villainy, either.

Other Things:

• I can’t figure out where the “Mon-El doesn’t understand Earth culture” joke ends and the “Mon-El is just a jerk” character trait begins.
• "And you're right, Alex does deserve the best." Maggie’s pretty fantastic.
• Mon-El’s secret is probably that he’s actually the Daxam prince, but I can’t figure out why Kara would hate him for that. My favorite theory is that he’s actually evil and being around Supergirl has made a way more significant change in his morality than the show has let us believe.
• Wonder how long my uneasy truce with both Winn and Mon-El will last. Winn’s probably safe for a while, but frankly, I give Mon-El until the next episode.

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Supergirl 2x11 Review: "The Martian Chronicles" (Life on Mars?) [Contributor: Deborah MacArthur]

"The Martian Chronicles"

Original Airdate: February 6, 2017

This week on Supergirl: White Martians have come to Earth, and they’re very unfriendly! Like, downright rude, I would say. Also, it’s Kara’s Earth birthday (Earth-day?) and she’s feeling a bit forgotten by Alex. J’onn J’onzz confesses... romantic feelings (?) to M’Gann M’orzz, but it’s very poorly timed, and James is Sir Not Appearing in This Episode. Also, I got to slip some David Bowie references into two Supergirl reviews in row, so I’m rather pleased.

HAPPY EARTH BIRTHDAY, KARA.

It’s the anniversary of when Kara fell to Earth, and she wants to celebrate it in style: with line dancing! Yeah, I’m not so sure that Kara’s version of celebration has quite gelled with our Earth version of celebration, but hey. I bet she’d be aces at line dancing. You line dance to your heart’s content, my superpowered sunbeam.

Unfortunately, Kara’s elaborate birthday plans have been interrupted by Alex’s blossoming romance, as Maggie is taking her to see the Barenaked Ladies in concert (well, I mean, they are the most celebrated Canadian alt-rock band of the mid-90s) and can’t participate in any line dancing. While Kara accepts this from her sister and encourages her to have fun at the concert, it’s very clear that she’s not entirely okay with it.

Her Earth Birthday is a real bummer, actually. Not only does she get rejected by her sister, but she also has to do some rejecting of Mon-El, since he admitted to having feelings for her last episode. By all accounts, hearing Kara say that her problem with Mon-El is "not your job, it's the way you are," makes me so giddy that it might as well be Supergirl’s late birthday gift to me, but it’s pretty awkward for Kara. Basically, things aren’t going well. And they get worse.

MARS ATTACKS!

As we learned last week, White Martians figured out the M’gann M’orzz was alive on Earth and, since she left Mars under very dismal circumstances (i.e., she killed a lot of her fellow guards and set fire to everything) they are definitely not swinging by for a nice chat and a cup of coffee. We aren’t dealing with an “Invasion!”-level invasion or anything, but the White Martians who do show up cause some The Thing-inspired trouble for Team Supergirl when they start stealing everyone’s faces and calling all the good guys stupid. Which — hey, White Martians, calling the good guys stupid is my job!

First, though, is the build-up: M’gann confronts J’onn about his protectiveness, since J’onn has been following her around and shape-shifting into various disguises while waiting for the White Martians to appear. When that actually happens, I’m more than a little surprised by the White Martian’s strength. Not only does Armek the White Martian (and… M’gann’s ex? What?) hold his own against both J’onn and M’gann, but even Supergirl can’t completely defeat him when an alleyway confrontation happens. Not sure if this is plot-convenience strength or if Armek is just a particularly tough brand of White Martian.

It’s not all brute strength, though. One of the key aspects of Martians — both Green and White — is that they’re shape-shifters, even able to swipe a target’s thoughts along with their physical appearance. Does that mean that J’onn was full of James-focused angst back when he turned into early-season one Kara? How troubling that must have been for him. But anyway, after J’onn successfully convinces M’gann that she needs the DEO’s help and protection, he takes her back to headquarters... only for a second M’gann to show up after them, seeking the DEO’s help and protection. Oops! Shapeshifting hijinks!

The episode turns into one of those “spy among us” stories, right down to the panicky, paranoid person who messes stuff up and makes everyone shout at each other. Armek reveals himself to be the first M’gann and, once again, manages to fight off the present DEO agents, J’onn, M’gann, and Supergirl. How, though? Like, just... how? Logically, M’gann should be about as strong as him. Any lack of experience she might have should be countered by J’onn helping out, and any of their combined weaknesses shouldn’t matter because freaking Supergirl is there. How does Armek keep winning?

In the chaos of the fight, the team loses track of who the White Martian is pretending to be. J’onn orders the DEO on lockdown (we’re doing a bottle episode!) and has to use fire — a weakness for all Martians — to reveal him. Surprise! It’s Winn! Secondary surprise: I actually kind of like Evil Winn? Can Winn become evil, please? And Mon-El, too. They can be evil together. It’d certainly make the both of them more interesting.

Armek-Winn escapes (of course) and an alarm goes off, alerting everyone in the DEO that the whole place is scheduled to explode, taking ten blocks’ worth of the city with it. As previously mentioned, White Martians swipe thoughts and memories along with faces, so Armek used Winn’s genius to make the countdown impossible to stop without the real Winn. So, the search for the real, less fun Winn takes up the bulk of the plot and everyone splits up to hunt him down, knowing that Armek is still lurking around.

But not just Armek! A second, previously unknown Martian has taken the shape of Alex, just in time for her to have a little heart-to-heart with Kara about Kara’s fear of abandonment. That touches on something interesting that I noticed about this episode, actually, which is the running bit where two characters have a heart-to-heart and one of them turns out to be a disguised White Martian. First it’s with J’onn, who thinks he’s imploring M’gann M’orzz to trust him and the DEO and let them help her, and then it’s with Kara, when she admits she’s been feeling like Alex has drifted away from her ever since the relationship with Maggie started. I’m not sure if it was trying for something deeper or I’m reading too much into it, but the idea that these very — for lack of a better term — “human” moments between characters held an undercurrent of threat was interestingly unsettling. They were also very well done, since I’ve grown so used to those pauses in comic book action where two characters have a discussion about their feelings that I kept getting blindsided by the twist.

Another fight against a White Martian breaks out and our heroes seem to have the upper hand this time around, mostly thanks to Alex getting to use that alien gun she swiped from that planet Kara and Mon-El got stuck on a couple episodes ago. Go, Alex!

GOODBYE M’GANN

It’s not a happy ending for everyone on the side of good, however. Poor J’onn J’onzz put his heart on the line earlier on in the episode when he told M’gann that she’d become incredibly important to him — in another very good scene with J’onn, which just adds evidence to my argument that this show needs more J’onn J’onzz — and he couldn’t imagine life on Earth without her, only to have M’gann leave the planet at the end of the whole thing. Despite the fact that I felt like the romantic element (if that’s what it was?) came out of nowhere, I still couldn’t help being very disappointed by the departure of M’gann.

At least M’gann is going back to Mars for a very good reason: she wants to inspire her kind to be good and a lot less... uh... genocide-y? Which is an excellent plan. And anyway, it might not be forever. Characters come and go on this show, after all.

And as a prime example of that: Lena Luthor is back next week, everybody! Hurray!

Other Things:

• Here’s a fun game: spot the Community references in this review.
• Uuuuuuugh, why did Alex convince Kara that she’s interested in Mon-El? I was so impressed by the writers for having Kara reject him outright, and then they went and ruined it.
• J’onn: “How long until you disable the reactor?” Computer: “Core breach in four minutes.” Winn: “About four minutes?” J'onn: “Good answer.” Probably the best bit of dialogue in the episode. The absolute best bit in the episode, however, was Kara’s cupcake grabby-hands.

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Supergirl 2x10 Review: "We Can Be Heroes" (Just for One Day) [Contributor: Deborah MacArthur]

"We Can Be Heroes"

Original Airdate: January 30, 2017

Even though this week’s episode features more Mon-El than my patience can generally handle, I found it a lot more enjoyable than last week’s episode. Maybe it was the straightforward plot, or maybe it was the really fantastic J’onn J’onzz stuff, or maybe it’s because the title borrows from one of my favorite David Bowie songs and I sway easily with my pro-Bowie bias. No matter what, though, “We Can Be Heroes” was a fun bit of superhero TV, and I hope more of this sort is in store for the rest of Supergirl’s second season.

WE CAN BEAT THEM, FOREVER AND EVER

First up on the list of people who think they can be heroes: Mon-El, who has been training with Kara since the last episode, I guess. I’m sure Kara is pleased, since she was excited about having a superpowered buddy back when Mon-El was more obviously selfish, rather than stealthy-selfish (we’ll talk more on that later). Things seem to be going well, too, since Mon-El graduates from training and gets the all-clear from Kara to costume up and get to savin’ people.

Of course, then news that Livewire — the electric-powered villain and Supergirl-hater who definitely does not want to be a hero — has escaped her prison cell reaches Kara and they have to deal with that. When Livewire attacks some NCPD officers, Mon-El proves that he’s not ready to fight by Kara’s side when he ignore Kara’s order to protect the normal people (who were trained police, granted, but still significantly more killable than either Kara or Mon-El) at all costs. Also, Mon-El’s costume is a complete disaster. How can Kara team up with someone who decides a hero costume is a black coat and ugly, yellow-tinted sunglasses? Disgraceful.

And here’s another wannabe-hero of the episode: James, whose identity as Guardian is revealed during the Livewire/NCPD kerfuffle. Kara is, of course, angry that James kept his superhero alter-ego a secret from her. She’s doubly angry when she learns that Winn and Alex both knew about his hero hobby, and that Winn even helped James regularly and made his suit.

The team learns through security footage that Livewire hadn’t escaped prison — she’d been kidnapped out of it, to be used as an energy source for some mad scientist dude’s evil schemes. Winn keeps yet another secret (such a good idea, Winn! Totally not making things worse!) about being able to track the villain down so that he and James can go alone, in order to prove that Guardian can be a useful ally. Mon-El tags along and, because they’re idiots, all of them get captured by Mad Scientist and have to be rescued by Kara. Of course. Kara needs smarter friends.

The big finale has Kara imploring Livewire not to kill Mad Scientist despite all the evil things he did, and then letting Livewire go when she doesn’t choose to murder. I... guess that’s cool? It’s very obvious that Livewire isn’t going to turn to the side of good, but Kara’s an optimist to the core, so I guess she still has hope. Good for her.

And the last could-be hero of the hour (yes, there’s three!) is my favorite and the highlight of the episode, in my opinion: J’onn J’onzz. M'gann M'orzz, the imprisoned White Martian, starts the episode by shouting things about blood and death and “beautiful war,” then falls into a coma that seems to be slowly killing her. There’s a chance that J’onn could save her with a Martian Mind Meld (you know, like a Vulcan one, but with less Spock) but he has to put aside his deep-seated hatred of White Martians first. He has to accept the idea that melding with her means sharing his memories of his family with someone he can’t help but see as an enemy.

In this situation, J’onn is a reluctant hero — but he is (more than the others of the episode, perhaps) most certainly a hero. He saves M’gann’s life with the meld, going into her mind and seeing one of her last memories of their home planet. She confesses to him that she killed the other White Martian guards after they ordered her to kill a Green Martian child, and that she was certain she’d never make it out alive. J’onn tells her that she makes it out, that she gets to Earth, and that the two of them can work on being friends.

Then she tells him that her whole scream-induced coma deal was because the White Martians had found her and are on their way to Earth, so that puts a bit of a damper on things. Whatever, it was still a wonderful plot and I want a significant increase of J’onn J’onzz on this show, pronto.

MAYBE WE’RE LYING, THEN YOU BETTER NOT STAY

Bring on the lies and deception! What’s a superhero show without some lies and deception, right? (Answer: a better superhero show, but let’s just sigh and get on with it.) This week, it’s James and — to a lesser extent — Mon-El who are caught up in some tangled webs.

James, as we all know, has been keeping his role as Guardian a secret from Kara since the beginning. We learn that it’s been months since James got found out by Alex and he hasn’t made any effort to confess to Kara outside of his faltered attempts during Thanksgiving dinner. He makes a halfhearted effort in this episode, but gets all mopey when Kara starts going on about Mon-El’s hero training. Look, show: is Kara/James still going to be a thing? Credit to you for giving James a little jealousy, here, since the abrupt end to their romance and zero hints at lingering feelings has made no sense, but... I just don’t know.

So anyway, James never tells Kara the truth and when she does find out, it’s an accident — he gets unmasked during a fight. That’s a point against James. Personally speaking, I think James makes up for it (just a tiny bit, mind you, since I am endlessly frustrated with people lying to each other on these kinds of shows) when he tells Kara why he wants to be Guardian: James doesn’t want to be a hero for glory, or for feeling powerful, or to even out the moral playing field between himself and his superhero BFFs. He wants to be a hero to help people, period. He knows that he’ll be putting himself on the line, but he wants to do it anyway because he feels like he should do his part to keep people safe and help where he can.

It’s the purest hero-motivation a character could possibly have, but Kara doesn’t accept it. No powers, no training, no Supergirl ally. She doesn’t want to stand by and watch someone she cares about get hurt, and the fact that he’d kept it from her is a pretty strong indication that he knew what she would say about it. Now, I’m not sure how differently things might have played out if James had been honest with Kara about what he was doing, but I suspect the truth would have softened her at least a little.

And finally, Mon-El. Hey, you know who doesn’t have pure motivations for being a hero? Mon-El. His incentives are a stark contrast to James’s, as it finally becomes clear to Kara that her new superhero buddy is a lot more interested in spending time with the pretty Kryptonian than he is in actually keeping people safe.

I kind of like the contrasts of James and Mon-El in this episode, actually: Mon-El’s lie about not remembering kissing Kara, about having feelings for her, is a pretty innocent one, while James’s lie is a lot bigger but a lot more sympathetic. Mon-El’s motivations are selfish, while James is propelled by a selfless desire to do good. Kara supports the selfish Mon-El’s heroism because he has powers, while she denounces the more pure intentions of James because he doesn’t have powers.

In the end, though, Kara seems pretty fed up with the both of them. And they have a White Martian invasion to worry about now, so...

Other Things:

• Nervous Kara was a lot nerdier in her mannerisms than Regular Kara, which I enjoyed a lot.
• "What is that, a toy?" "No, it's expensive." The simple delivery of that very simple line was absolutely hilarious. It doesn’t even really sound like a punchline, but it was so good.
• James Olsen: Professionally Handsome Desk Person.
• Oh, yeah, and Kara/Mon-El stuff happened. But Kara seemed unhappy with it, so I thought it was safe to ignore.
• I miss Lena Luthor.

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Supergirl 2x09 Review: "Supergirl Lives" (Under a Red Sun) [Contributor: Deborah MacArthur]

“Supergirl Lives”

Original Airdate: January 23, 2017

Ah, it feels like it’s been an age and a half since we last visited National City! Slightly less time since we last saw Kara, on account of her her being involved in the CW’s DC crossover event. Well, I say “involved.” They didn’t actually let her do anything, which was absolutely ridiculous since she’s — without a doubt — the most powerful DC character on television right now. But that’s a rant for another time, perhaps. For now: “Supergirl Lives.”

SUPERGIRL DOES INDEED LIVE

Although we open up with Supergirl foiling a robbery, that’s really just a way to introduce the fact that Kara feels like she’s in a rut. Without any really big bads attacking her city, and with the appearance of Guardian to pick off most of the little guys, Kara hasn’t had a whole lot to do as Supergirl in the time since she defeated a bunch of aliens on Barry Allen’s Earth. Apparently going off to other planets is a great way for Kara to restore some pep in her step, though, because that’s what happens in this episode and she seems pretty refreshed at the end of it. Is that why the episode gets this title?

The main plot for “Supergirl Lives” begins with a woman seeking help from CatCo reporters (namely, Kara and — to a far lesser extent, since he’s useless — Snapper Carr) to find her missing teenage daughter. The police won’t help because the girl has a history of running away, so the distraught mother skipped straight to... a news agency? Um, I don’t really get what logic she was working with, there, but she lucked out and accidentally got to plea for help to a bored Supergirl, so hooray!

During her investigation for the missing girl (Izzy), Kara learns that a number of people have gone missing and the thing they all have in common is that each one of them had bloodwork done at a particular clinic. Did Izzy’s mother not know her daughter was getting bloodwork done at some clinic somewhere? Furthermore, the portal that sends Earthlings to another planet is kept on location at the clinic, which means that these kidnapped people probably never left the premises. But the administrator of the “clinical trial” (who was working with aliens to gather humans as off-world slave labor) still documented their arrival well enough for Winn to use a computer and find the bloodwork connection in the first place? I just have too many questions.

Anyway, Kara and Mon-El (who works as a bartender now but took the day off because he has the work ethic of an absent-minded sloth) are the ones investigating the multiple missing persons cases and they show up at the clinic, only to be presented with that aforementioned portal to another world. Although Kara tells Mon-El to go get Alex — who is busy enjoying her giddy new relationship with Maggie — the moron follows her through the portal and they both get trapped. Also: the planet has a red sun, which means that both Kara and Mon-El are powerless as well as trapped, plus no one on Earth knows where they are because Mon-El can’t follow basic directions.

The good news is that Kara and Mon-El find the missing people from Earth! The bad news is that the whole lot of them are going to be sold as slaves to one of the Dominator race we all remember from the big CW DC crossover. Without actual superpowers, the only thing Kara has going for her is unyielding optimism in the probability that someone back on Earth will realize she’s missing and start retracing her steps.

Which they do! Unfortunately, a missing Kara sends Alex into a tizzy and she sorta breaks up with Maggie because she thinks her happiness is cursed? I’m not sure. Feels like fabricated drama, and it’s swept away by the end of the episode so it doesn’t even really matter. What does matter is that Alex and the DEO teams up with Winn in order to mount a rescue of Kara. And Mon-El, too, I guess. Even though he’s terrible.

Turns out, though, that Mon-El is the only one they didn’t need to rescue. Not only does the Dominator stop one of the guards from shooting Mon-El during what would have been a totally great heroic sacrifice that I swear I would not have gleefully applauded at if he were to die, but also he bows? As wary as I am of the idea that significant portions of future plots might revolve around the human-shaped lump of beige that is Mon-El, I’m pretty curious about what all of that really means. I’m thinking that everyone who guessed Mon-El to be the actual Daxam prince is right, but I don’t really get the Dominator connection or why anyone would care to honor the prince of a destroyed planet.

So Alex and the DEO (and Winn) use a portable yellow sun device to re-power Kara and Mon-El long enough to get all the humans through the portal and put a serious dent in the slaver planet’s industry. Once they’re all through the portal again, Kara destroys the control panel and, presumably, makes it inoperable.

WINN-ING OR WHINING?

A minor plot in this episode was Winn’s arc, in which he goes from fearful of getting hurt while helping James be Guardian to being more confident after traveling through the faux-Stargate and hitting an alien with a rock. Now, I don’t really care about Winn Schott’s crisis of heroism. Him whining about how hard it is to be a hero instead of just a wisecracking lackey had me rolling my eyes so hard I probably sprained something.

But what’s worse is that the writers constantly hijack James’s story (which is pretty minor to begin with, this season, since it basically just amounts to “James is a vigilante now” and little else) with Winn’s boring antics, thereby taking a character that I genuinely liked last season — James — and making him absolutely worthless this season. Mehcad Brooks is a really good actor and Supergirl’s twist on James Olsen is an interesting one: not a youthful sidekick clinging to the capes of the more powerful, more interesting heroes, but an adult with significant standing in his career field, the likability that leads to him befriending not one, but two Kryptonian superheroes, and — with the emergence of the Guardian plot — potential for a lot of really good stories. Instead, we get James either punching people or grinning at them, with very little plot tethering him to this show.

I don’t want to say that the romantic interest between James and Kara was the bulk of James’s reason for existing (especially since the James/Kara romance subplot was terribly handled when it was going on) but it really feels like they have nothing to fall back on for him this season. They had to get him out of the way in order to make the horrendous pairing of Mon-El and Kara happen, but didn’t put a whole lot of effort into giving him something else to do.

James being Guardian, like I said, is an interesting development — however, the writers know that we’re not here to watch some other vigilante punch people; we’re here to watch Supergirl punch people. Therefore, they can’t devote too much screen time to James growing as a hero. If he paired up with Kara, maybe they could develop the idea more — but James’s vigilantism is being kept secret from Kara, which shuts that possibility down and keeps the whole James/Guardian idea as more of a distraction than a genuine vessel for character growth.

And yes, I do know that I titled this section of the review like I was going to talk about Winn, only to spend three paragraphs talking about James. It was an intentional inversion of what the show always does. Also, to reiterate: I don’t care about Winn.

Other Things:

• Roulette was the person orchestrating the whole human slave labor thing, by the way. This role could have been played by literally anyone, so I ignored her return in my review.
• Also missed in the review: Maggie knows Kara is Supergirl and she figured it out all on her own because she’s the only person in this universe with a brain.
• Less ignored in the review, but still deserves a spotlight mention: Alex and Maggie are freaking adorable and Alex’s happiness makes me happy, but also terrified that the writers will destroy her.
• Thanagarian Snare Beast mention! Unfortunately, Supergirl does not get to fight a giant spider at any point in this episode.
• "You want a medal?" asks Snapper Carr to the reporter who presented him with an interesting, well-documented, important article that he was willing to let slip by because he has zero investigative instincts and just wanted to eat a danish. I dislike this character immensely.
• Oh yeah, and Mon-El wants to be a hero now. Yawn.

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Supergirl 2x08 Review: "Medusa" (The Plot Thinnens) [Contributor: Deborah MacArthur]

“Medusa”

Original Airdate: November 28, 2016

This is it! The start of the big, four-part crossover event to end all crossover events! They’ve been delivering the epic promos, teasing the massive team-up of all our heroes, and now it begins: Heroes Vs. Aliens! It’s a plot so grand in scale that Earth-1’s heroes had to call on the might of Supergirl on Earth-3, so that the terrifying hostile alien takeover of the planet could be halted, and the day saved!

... but you have to get through almost a full hour of regular Supergirl plot, first, on account of the fact that the “crossover” doesn’t actually happen until the last seconds of the episode. And what a doozy of a plot for any poor, confused first-time Supergirl viewers, huh? J’onn J’onzz is changing alien species like I change t-shirts, Alex is still dealing with her recent coming out, Kara finds out her birth parents may have possibly been terrorists (?) and Mon-El is boring. And in love with Kara, which is boring. While probably entertaining for regular viewers, “Medusa” is a pretty convoluted episode for anyone who’s just trying to participate in the four-night crossover event that CW promised.

I have to wonder if, maybe, the folks at the network would have won over more new viewers over if they had used this episode to spotlight Supergirl’s fun cast of characters and hopeful tone in a one-off crossover episode, then saved the regular season plot for next week. Instead, the show probably alienated (ha!) potential newbies by promising the start of an epic crossover and only delivering a few moments of Barry and Cisco before the credits.

WHAT’S WITH ALL THESE GREEK CODE NAMES?

The episode opens with Thanksgiving at Kara’s apartment, where the whole team (and Mama Danvers) has gathered together to eat turkey and drink a lot of alcohol, if my family’s Thanksgiving is anything to go by. In addition to those traditional activities, James wants to confess that he’s Guardian against Alex’s wishes, and Alex wants to make her coming out official. The “Get Sloshed and Announce It at the Table” level of official. But before anyone can get their confessions in, a very Flash-y portal opens up over the eyebeam-roasted turkey. It only sticks around long enough to make viewers antsy about getting to the DC Week plot they were promised, then the portal is promptly forgotten about while “Medusa” proceeds to play out like any other episode of Supergirl.

Regular viewers who did not turn the channel to Supergirl just for the promoted crossover will remember the titular Medusa as that top-secret project Hank “Cyborg Superman” Henshaw used Kara’s blood to access information on in the previous episode, via the Fortress of Solitude A.I. Non-regular viewers are probably too confused by the events described in my previous sentence and have already tuned out. We shall sally forth without them, and I wish them well.

Our heroes take some time at the DEO to contemplate Cadmus’s unfurling plan, but when a mysterious virus kills all the aliens in that secret alien bar they introduced this season, the stakes are raised and the pressure is on. After all, a virus that attacks only aliens could mean very bad things for a couple of the members of the team. And I say “a couple” quite deliberately, because Mon-El? Meh. Of course, he is the one who eventually does get hit with the virus and knocked out of commission, but it’s only long enough for Kara to get sympathy-attracted to him. Then he wakes up and deliriously makes out with her. The less said about Mon-El’s role in this episode (and the series as a whole), the better.

Since Cadmus is run by Lillian Luthor. And since Lillian Luthor is the mother of Kara’s newest BFF, Kara goes to Lena to see if she knows anything about her mother’s nefarious schemes. Lena tells Kara that the Luthor ladies don’t exactly see eye to eye, and this is only reinforced when Lillian shows up at Lena’s office. And tells Lena that Lex was always her favorite. Oh, also, Lillian says all parents have a favorite. Try and figure out which of your siblings is your parents’ favorite during the next family get-together, kids! I swear it won’t end in heartache and bloodshed.

After some help from Eliza Danvers’ sciencing skills, Team Supergirl learns that the virus that killed all those aliens has Kryptonian origins. Kara puts two and two together to equal “Hank Henshaw broke into the Fortress of Solitude with my blood and stole information on a Kryptonion bioweapon.” Kara is good at plot math. One visit to the Fortress later and Kara has learned two things: red lights on Fortress-guarding robots are always bad, and her parents might have been involved in some shady stuff back on Krypton. Also, apparently Clark never freaking checks on his Fortress of Solitude because he had (and presumably still has) no idea any of this happened.

I probably missed something at some point, but I don’t know how Lillian Luthor knew about Medusa when even Kara had no idea what it was. It’s not clarified in the rest of the episode — it just seems like, through the sheer willpower of Evil, Lillian Luthor gained all the knowledge necessary to make Project Cadmus successful in its quest to destroy non-humans. Which she can do, once she uses Lena’s need for parental affection against her and convinces her to hand over an isotope that will allow Medusa to be launched on a city-wide scale.

A combination of expecting Lena to turn evil eventually and Lena just being clever worked together to convince me she really did choose her mother over Kara/Supergirl’s impassioned plea to do good instead of evil. Lena delivers the isotope to Lillian and even launches the rocket that would cause Medusa to cascade over National City, killing every alien resident in a suffocating shower of pretty doom flakes. But when the aliens fail to fall, Lillian realizes that her daughter changed the isotope out and that the Medusa rocket was harmless at launch. Also, Lena called the police on her and basically, Lena’s the best. I still have hope that she’ll stay a good person, because I don’t want the potential I see in Lena Luthor to go to waste for a one-off supervillain character we all know Supergirl will defeat eventually.

Anyway, the heroes save the day from Project Medusa. Does anyone else think it’s odd that both Myriad and Medusa are Kryptonian doomsday weapons named in Greek? Was that just translated from Classic Kryptonian for our benefit? Like, Cadmus at least has the excuse of being a terrestrial organization, so its highfalutin naming conventions could be expected. I’m very confused by the Greek names for the Kryptonian things.

In the end, “Medusa” cleared out some of the plots that had built up over this first half of the season while leaving opportunities for more to spring up later. J’onn no longer has to worry about turning into a White Martian, since Eliza Danvers cleared that up for him with Science! and Alex/Maggie is no longer full of angst. Although the Medusa threat is officially over, I don’t think Cadmus or Lillian Luthor are gone for good — but “Medusa” closes a chapter on them, at least. This was a decent episode, however confusing it might have been for DC Week first-timers, and it left the story at a good point for Kara to go gallivanting off to Barry Allen’s Earth and save it from extraterrestrial invaders.

Other Things:

• I get that Kara’s heat vision might be a convenient way to roast a turkey, but I don’t believe for a second that bird is properly seasoned or evenly cooked.
• Mon-El’s “I don’t get Earth culture, duh doy!” schtick is wearing so thin. It’s called Google, dude. Get acquainted.
• Alex in the background sneaking out a bottle of whiskey might be my favorite part of the episode that isn’t Barry going “Heeeeey!”
• Also cute: Alex clearly trying to give J’onn some Thanksgiving leftovers, but he’s too all-business to notice.
• “You mean when I changed it from its ‘murdering, world domination’ direction?” Hee. Lena’s lovely.
• Clark’s going to be super mad when he finds out Kara killed his robot.
• “You were always gonna be different, Alex. Because you were always exceptional. And I love you, however you are.”
• I appreciate the show paralleling Kara’s parents with the Luthors. Making sure that the audience knows that it’s the actions of heroes that make them heroes, not their parents or family or anything as simple as biology, is important.
• “Your parents’ legacy is not death and destruction, Kara Zor-El. It’s you.” All the uplifting parent speeches, please.
• I was really amused by the alien Instagramming the beautiful almost-doom flakes falling from the sky.
• Speaking of the almost-doom flakes: those scenes were very well shot and nice to look at.
• Is it just a weird coincidence that the Supergirl crossovers with other DC shows coincide with the advent of massively destructive Kryptonian superweapons? First it was Myriad and The Flash crossover, and now it’s Medusa and DC Week.

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Supergirl 2x07 Review: "The Darkest Place" (The Plot Thickens) [Contributor: Deborah MacArthur]

“The Darkest Place”

Original Airdate: November 21, 2016

The title of this episode sure is foreboding, huh? And pretty accurate, I guess. I don’t think it’s the darkest episode of the show or anything (I don’t even know if this show can go truly dark?) but Kara does get captured by Project Cadmus, J’onn J’onzz goes crazy and beats up on M’Gann, and Snapper Carr makes another appearance. All pretty dismal things, in my opinion! Despite the low points for all the characters, “The Darkest Place” makes for an entertaining episode, with great acting moments and surprise appearances that should mean interesting things to come.

PROJECT CADMUS IS AT IT AGAIN

A bulk of the Supergirl-related plot for this episode is loaded up on Kara paying a visit to Project Cadmus in order to rescue Mon-El, who — if you all recall — was captured by a lackey pretending to be an ill homeless man during Mon-El’s conveniently timed moral breakthrough. Mon-El is mostly doing fine in the Cadmus labs, if his constant snarking is anything to go by, but Lillian Luthor really isn’t playing around with her anti-alien xenophobia schtick.

I can’t tell how I feel about Lillian Luthor yet. She seems to have adopted the megalomaniacal, anti-alien role that Maxwell Lord failed to really fill out last season. I definitely like her better than Max Lord, but Max Lord is essentially at the bottom of my Favorite Characters list, so that’s not a huge accomplishment for Lillian. She’s pretty bonkers and her backstory for hating aliens is razor-thin, but she does have some things going for her. In my opinion, she’s the likable kind of over-the-top evil instead of the nauseating, annoying evil of Maxwell Lord. I hate everything she says and I don’t actually buy the reason for her anti-alien philosophy as a decent motivation for starting a shady organization equipped with an underground laboratory and the technology to turn people into kryptonite-powered death machines or cyborgs, but she’s better at being a terrible human being than Maxwell Lord ever was.

And what is her reason for hating aliens, exactly? Well, apparently she really resents what Superman did to Lex — namely, putting him in jail when he tried taking over the world a bunch of times — and now Lillian hates all aliens, all the time, always. That’s some overkill, there, Mrs. L. During her explanation, I think it’s implied that Lex and Superman were friends to start with and then slowly grew into enemies. If that’s not the story, I don’t care — I like the Smallville version of the Superman/Lex relationship too much and I enjoy the idea of it transferring over to the Supergirl canon, even a little bit. Either way, the core of Lillian Luthor’s hatred is because one alien was mean to her supervillain kid while he tried ruling the universe or whatever.

So she kidnaps Mon-El because, I assume, she wants to lure Kara to her — which is successful. Once Kara is within Cadmus headquarters, Lillian shoots Mon-El in the leg (he has a lead allergy, apparently) and dangles his medical treatment over Kara until she agrees to wear this helmet that mimics a solar flare and zaps her powers. Once Kara — of course — agrees to wearing the helmet in order to save Mon-El’s life, Lillian Luthor has Kara’s blood drawn.

A lot of plot breadcrumbs are laid out in this episode, mostly revolving around the Cadmus scenes. Not only do we get Lillian Luthor’s justification for Project Cadmus, but we also get a return of Jeremiah Danvers, who helps Kara and Mon-El escape from the labs. Since he’s only in the episode for a few minutes, I don’t think it’s too much of a stretch to think he’ll be coming back to play a larger role later this season. Other stuff that happens within Cadmus: the original Hank Henshaw is turned into “Cyborg Superman” and uses the blood drawn from Kara while she was powerless to get access to the Fortress’s AI system to ask about a “Project Medusa.”

MEANWHILE

As the real Hank Henshaw robot-fights his way to the Fortress of Solitude, the guy who’s been wearing his face for years is dealing with some aftereffects of his illness. M’gann’s donated blood appears to be causing J’onn all sorts of problems, from shaky hands to hallucinations, but I think his raging battle against M’gann when he finds out she’s really a White Martian is all on him. I could have sworn we had already gone through J’onn forgiving the past acts of White Martians last season? And this White Martian clearly wants nothing to do with her past life as an oppressor, so I’m a bit confused about why J’onn is so incredibly angry this time around.

Although, M’gann probably should have been a bit more insistent when she told Alex she couldn’t give J’onn her blood. Because now that she has, J’onn is going to turn into a White Martian and the Green Martian race will die with him. That’s a real bummer, and — once he learns about it — a pretty good reason for J’onn to be angry.

And in what is probably the main villain-of-the-week plot, some vigilante murders (what is this? Arrow?) are happening in National City. It would be a clear-cut situation of “find the culprit and throw him behind bars” but Guardian -- James’s new superhero alter-ego -- is getting blamed for them. Which means that the National City police as well as the DEO are after James, and he can’t tell anyone that he’s definitely not a murderous vigilante since he’s pretty sure they’ll make him stop being a non-murderous vigilante.

Winn proves that, despite his current role as James/Guardian’s tech-sidekick, he’s still capable of caving faster than a house of cards in a wind tunnel when Alex realizes he knows who Guardian is. After some threats (which, granted, coming from Alex are pretty solid) he tells her that James is Guardian and, of course, James is not a murderer.

You know who is a murderer, though? The murderer. Yeah, I don’t remember his name, but he started killing people because the man who killed his wife got off the charge on a technicality. So he’s taking out other criminals who have had charges dropped on technicalities, too. He’s stopped before the end of the episode, but I don’t know if Guardian’s image is cleared or not.

Other Things:

• Chyler Leigh is still A+ in this episode, with Alex dealing with the aftermath of Maggie’s rejection. While not a big enough plot to warrant a section of the review, I just wanted to make sure to acknowledge how great she was.
• "How do you know that's chicken?" and then Winn gags because he’s afraid of alien chicken, I guess? She wasn’t implying that it was human or anything, Winn. Calm down.
• Raise your hand if the opening spinning-around-the-table scene made you dizzy?
• I don’t know where Snapper Carr got the idea that everyone else could be biased, but not him. He uses the video of the vigilante murder as evidence against James’s insistence that it wasn’t Guardian, but the video is just as unclear from Snapper’s point of view. Snapper’s just a jerk.
• Kara defending Lena to Lillian Luthor was cute.
• Ugh, Mon-El clearly has a thing for Kara and I am 100% Not Here For That.

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