When anything opens with William Mapother (basically in everything, but genre fans may know him best as Dr Ethan Rom from Lost) you can be fairly certain he’s going to be the bad guy. He starts off as a climate change scientist who, with his team , unleash a parasite onto the world, which takes control of him, and there’s some super creepy ‘we’s going on. The part where he coughs up some gross is particularly grim.
Parasite, as he is famously known in the world of Supes, attacks and drains Kara (Melissa Benoist) of her powers and leaves Martian Manhunter (Davis Harewood) in a bit of a pickle and in need of some blood – enter M’Gann (Sharon Leal) who came to save the Martian day. Once Kara recovers, she goes to kick some ass and ends up being helped by the ‘mysterious’ Guardian.
As the audience we know, of course, that this is in fact James (Mehcad Brooks) who – with the help of Winn (Jeremy Jordan), who continues to be the absolutely worst – steps in with his new suit to help Kara save the day. Like with all superhero shows, Kara fails to recognise her ex-boyfriend through his lead visor (which at least she tried to x-ray vision her way through) and James gets to keep his identity secret for another day.
He’s not the only break-out hero this week though, and, quite frankly, Chris Wood’s Mon-El (though we still prefer Matt Of The Interns) is the better of the two. He’s hedonistic, he takes Kara out and manages to get her drunk in the alien bar, and he really, really, really doesn’t want to become a stand up citizen. In revenge for getting her drunk, Kara takes it out on Mon-El in training, throwing him about and kicking some butt, and a really cool slow mo wall-flip thing that we don’t know the name of. It’s brilliant.
It’s Mon-El making the choice to start fighting, and become a hero that has us cheering more than James (who we just want to see being bad-ass photo reporter and knocking down the mean journalist, Snapper). Just as we’re about to get really into him making his choice, he gets kidnapped by Cadmus and now we’re worried for his future (but equally excited, too!)
That’s all well and good and enjoyable, but the stand-out scene from this week’s episode hands down goes to Alex and Kara on the waterfront. Alex has been struggling with herself of late, and her coming out to Kara is one of the most beautifully penned scenes we have seen in a long time. It felt realistic, and true to life, and genuinely brought a tear to our eye. It’s not just that scene either, it’s later on when Kara tells Alex that she could never be disappointed in her that we genuinely wept. The sister-ship between Alex and Kara is one of the most honest, beautiful and true representations of female relationships on TV.
Alex’s coming out had to be something that they handled with care, but The CW have proven that they can take a storyline that many other shows would use as clickbait and pandering and turned it into the most endearing part of a show already so full of life. Like Kara, we adore Alex, and like Kara we love her for who she is, who she love does not matter.
Accepting herself has been a rocky road for Alex, but knowing she has Kara’s acceptance and that she told her, she finds Maggie (Floriana Lima) and does exactly what she has always wanted only to be knocked back. But Maggie’s reasons aren’t bad. She does like Alex, but she is an experienced woman in a world that Alex is only just entering and we have to respect her for that.
Like all of the Berlanti-verse, Supergirl is always at its strongest when it is showcasing the personal sides of its characters, and this episode was no different. More of the same, please!
