Supergirl is back! After taking a quick break (quicker than I though, actually), it’s time to return to National City and resume the adventures of Kara Zor-El. When we left off Non was leading a band of Fort Roz prisoners to attack Lord Technologies and Supergirl had arrived just in time to stop them.
Let’s see how she fared, shall we? As always, this review is going to contain spoilers, so be prepared for that.
1. Blood Bonds Us All
First things first: this episode was astounding. While the show has had it’s ups and downs in the past, it stayed at a fairly regular level of quality which meant it had really solid character writing and performances, but the plots sometimes suffered from stretching itself across three different plotlines (whatever was going on with Kara at CatCo, whatever was happening with the DEO and the villain of the week plot), but this episode did a really great job of taking three disparate storylines and feeding them into Kara’s emotional state throughout the episode.
This allowed us to see Kara get a little worked up and a little desperate in this episode as it continually felt like the desk was being stacked against her. While I’ve said in the past that I really want an episode where Kara wins clean for once, I appreciated that this episode acknowledged the toll that losing so much has taken on Kara and the performance it brought out of Melissa Benoist. This was a strong ass return for this show.
2. Director Danvers? I like the sound of that.
I’m kind of disappointed in the fact that this was almost immediately upended by the return of General Lane. I mean, sure, I like the fact that General Lane came back just to be the overbearing asshole he was before, but I was kind of hoping to see Alex get a bigger push what with the whole acting Director thing. Sadly, all that really came of it was a couple of scenes where Alex got act a bit like Hank. I hope the show smartens up and gives Alex a bit more groundswell in the future instead of giving her a promotion only to undercut it with the Biggest Asshole In The World’s returning cameo.
3. Interrogation, Cat Grant Style
This is perhaps my favourite aspect of the episode and it’s mostly because I still have major heart eyes for Cat Grant. Her whole mission to prove that Kara is Supergirl, especially her using her first grade report card to try and trick her into admitting she wasn’t born on Earth, was a perfect moment of levity in an otherwise pretty dark and dire episode and made for some great banter between Kara and Cat. Sure, it’s a plot point that’s pretty much wrapped up this episode, but it was fun while it lasted.
Bonus Thought: Kara and Supergirl standing next to each other to convince Cat they’re not the same person is the dumbest, schmaltziest comic book shit I’ve ever seen and I love it so much.
4. General Lane Does Not Mess Around
Liquid Kryptonite? Jesus, man. Why not just waterboard her while you’re at it?
This is probably the darkest, most intense moment of the entire show to date and really showed that this show isn’t going to be messing around this half of the season. The stakes are being raised, battle lines are being drawn and characters are beginning to take sides. While the Kryptonians and the prisoners of Fort Roz have been a slow burn threat for the first half of the season, often being overshadowed by more immediate threats, I can feel this half of the season really ramping up the Kryptonians as the more immediate threat in the way The Flash Season 1 started pushing Reverse Flash in the second half of its season.
If this episode is any indication, I think things are going to get a lot more intense really quickly and it’s going to be really interesting to see if the show can balance that with the more hopeful feeling it’s been praised for.
5. Max Lord Getting In On That Interrogation Action
Continued belowMan, this guy just really wants to be Lex Luthor. Like so hard. Max Lord wants to be Lex Luthor in the way Kylo Ren wanted to be Darth Vader. I bet you there’s a trophy room in Lord Technologies with one of Gene Hackman’s wigs from Superman: The Movie in it.
All joking aside, this episode also really pushed Max Lord as a bit more of an immediate threat to Supergirl as opposed to the smarmy, insidious douchebag he’s been thus far. He’s still smarmy and insidious, mind you, but we’re getting a look at someone who’s becoming more and more convinced that he’s the Only Sane Man and that the hero everyone has been praising is actually the true threat. It’s a very similar origin for why Lex Luthor hates Superman in many incarnations (because, guess what, did you guys notice that Max Lord is basically Lex Luthor?) and it’s something that really works here.
I also can’t wait to see what comes of that final scene with the comatose girl and the Red Tornado arm.
