Supergirl Episode Guide: Season 2, Episode 2 - The Last Children Of Krypton

For a summary of the episode guide layout & categories, click here.




Plot

Kara's first day as a reporter doesn't go nearly as smoothly as she'd hoped, when her new boss, Snapper Carr, refuses to acknowledge her hiring. And when mercenary John Corben returns with a Kryptonite heart and nearly kills Supergirl, Superman is quick to blame J'onn and the DEO. It turns out the true culprits are Cadmus - the group that abducted Kara's foster-father - which has now publicly threatened every alien on Earth and anyone who would help them!


Influences

John Bryne's run on Superman (the design and origin for Metallo, the presence of Kelex - the Fotress of Solitude robot), the Adventures of Superman show (the sequence of the robbers shooting Superman and then trying to punch him), Crisis On Infinite Earths #7 (the shot of Superman holding a fatally injured Kara mirrors the cover art) and the Superman comics of Jack Kirby (Project Cadmus).


Goofs

Alex says she hasn't been on a date in two years.  Apparently her date with Maxwell Lord last year didn't count.

With all due respect to Winn's technical genius in reverse-engineering Kryptonian technology on a day's notice, you'd think he might have come up with a design that didn't obscure the S-shield on Superman and Supergirl's chests with a rather obvious panel.


Performances

Credit where credit is due - Calista Flockhart does turn in a fantastic performance her as Cat Grant lets her mask slide away and proves there is a heart under all the bluster in both her farewells to both Kara and Supergirl.

That performance, however, is edged out by Jeremy Jordan as Winn. Thrown into his element as a techie for the DEO, Winn's wit and wisdom is given a chance to shine throughout the episode. Too often, Winn is reduced to being simple comic relief. Here, we see the hidden depths of his character in a way rarely seen since the episodes based around his infamous father from Season One from his pointing out Alex's pettiness in being upset over Clark and Kara bonding to his sheer fanboyish joy at Superman praising his work.


Artistry

The direction and special effects work in the open sequence of Kara and Clark fighting crime together are impressive.

Kelex is brought to life wonderfully through the CGI.

The chase scene in which Alex flees from the Cadmus soldiers is one of the better action sequences in the show's history.

J'onn's disguise of a little girl in a home-made Supergirl costume as he's watching Clark's back is a nice comedic touch.


Super Trivia

This episode opened with another new voice-over, reflecting Kara's new job as a reporter.

The posters advertising this episode featured an injured Supergirl being held up by an anguished Superman. This was a direct visual tribute to the cover of Crisis on Infinite Earths #7 and the death of Supergirl. We later see Superman holding this pose as he picks up the injured Kara.

In the opening sequence, two robbers empty their guns trying to shoot Superman and Supergirl before one of them tries to punch Superman and breaks his hand. Criminals unloading their guns into Superman and then either throwing the guns at him or punching him used to be a staple of the 1950's Adventures of Superman show. The impracticality of this action has been a joke in fandom circles for years and long-time Superman fan Jerry Seinfeld had a routine based around it.

J'onn sends Superman and Supergirl after a rogue Kigori.  In the DC Comics Universe, The Kigori are a race of Martian spider-men, who first appeared in Flash Comics #23 (November 1941).  The Kigori had large black spider bodies with hairless faces, green skin, large fangs and prehensile green-skinned hands on their forelegs. Any relationship to the Green Martian race that J'onn J'onzz is part of is unknown.

Lucas "Snapper" Carr first appeared in the comics in Brave And The Bold #28 (February 1960) - the same issue which introduced The Justice League of America. An ordinary teenager, Snapper was nevertheless inducted into the Justice League as an honorary member after providing the critical clue that allowed the superheroes who formed the Justice League to resist the mental powers of the alien conqueror Starro.

Snapper's nickname came from his habit of snapping his fingers when excited or emphasizing a point. This trait - as well as much of his personality - was taken from the character of "Kookie" Kookson from the then-popular show 77 Sunset Strip.

Since then, Snapper Carr has shown up around the DC Universe and in various media adaptations. He gained his own super-powers for a time and was brainwashed into becoming a super-villain. He's been shown as a STAR Labs worker, a member of Checkmate and acted as a mentor to the teen superheroes in Young Justice. A teacher named Lucas Carr served a similar function in the Young Justice animated series. And he appeared working as a television reporter in the DC Animated Universe.

The DCTVU version of Snapper Carr has nothing in common with any of his counterparts from the comics or cartoons, apart from the one version who was a reporter. Even then, he was a broadcast journalist rather than a magazine writer. Personality wise, he's basically Perry White with the serial numbers filed off.

As noted last week, The DCTVU version of John Corben is an assassin for hire apparently employed by Lex Luthor to do various dirty deeds "off the books". This is similar to the version of John Corben seen in the DC Animated Universe, who was a mercenary working for Lex Luthor before he had the surgery that transformed him into Metallo. The only real difference here is that Corben is changed by scientists working for Cadmus rather than Lex Corp. He has his comic book counterpart's abilities of enhanced durability, super-strength and the ability to shoot focused blasts of Kryptonite-laced energy from his chest.

Cadmus or Project Cadmus is the name of several independent scientific organizations in the DC Comics Universe. It is named for Cadmus - the first king of Thebes in Greek Legend, who was said to have created warriors by sowing the teeth of a dragon. In keeping with this idea, the various versions of Cadmus have created warriors through genetic engineering and advanced science. The first version of Project Cadmus was created by the legendary Jack Kirby in Superman's Pal Jimmy Olsen #133 (October 1970).

The version of Cadmus we see in the DCTVU greatly resembles the version of Cadmus seen in the DC Animated Universe. That version of Cadmus was described as a collection of "power brokers, politicians, criminals and mercenaries with one thing in common - they're humanity's best hope against metahumans." The DCTVU version is focused on aliens rather than metahumans but otherwise the xenophobia and methods used are precisely the same.

Winn identifies Promethium as having Atomic Number 61. While there is a real-world element called Promethium with that atomic number, it is far from the strongest metal known to man. Indeed, Promethium is notable for its instability. All of its isotopes are radioactive and it is quite rare in the natural world.

The DC Comics version of Promethium is regarded as the strongest metal known to Earthlings. There are two forms of Promethium - Depleted and Volatile.

Depleted Promethium is made through a combination of titanium and vanadium. The bionic portions of Cyborg are made of Depleted Promethium.

Volatile Promethium is capable of generating and absorbing near limitless amounts of energy and has been used as a mutagene to trigger super-powers. Deathstroke wears armor made of Volatile Promethium and his sword and staff are made of the same substance. It is believed that Deathstroke's healing powers protect him from the effects of the metal.


Technobabble

The strange visitor in the Kryptonian pod repairs himself at a cellular level in a process not unlike photosynthesis. His body absorbs the electrical energy of the DEO building and transforms it into chemical energy.

Cadmus gave Metallo a metal endoskeleton made of an alloy capable of resisting the blunt force trauma of a Kryptonian's punch.

The metal of Metallo's endoskeelton has a film of radiation commonly associated with contact to Promethium.


Dialogue Triumphs

Kara (voice-over): When I was a child, my planet Krypton was dying. I was sent to Earth to protect my cousin. But my pod got knocked off-course and by the time I got here my cousin had already grown up and become Superman. I hid who I really was until one day, when an accident forced to reveal myself to the world. To most people I'm a reporter at CatCo Worldwide Media but in secret I work with my adopted sister for the DEO, to protect my city from alien life and anyone else that means to cause it harm. I am Supergirl.

(Having just put out a fire together.)
Supergirl: Does this ever get old?
Superman: If it does, I'll let you know.

(After a robber tries punching him and hurts his hand after emptying a gun.)
Superman: See, now... if the bullets don't work, right... why the punching? I've never understood that.

Alex: You promised Kara that you'd be nicer when her cousin was around.
J'onn: I said I would try.
Winn: (Yoda voice) Do or do not, there is no try.
J'onn: Exactly how badly do you want this job, Mr. Schott?

J'onn: Agent Schott? Get Non and Astra's anti-Kryptonite technology out of storage. See if you can improve upon it for our two friends here.
Winn: I- I get to make Superman's new suit?
Superman: No pressure.

(Entering into the Fortress of Solitude, J'onn sees the large statues of Superman's parents.)
J'onn: Your parents?
Superman: Yes.
J'onn: (speaking Kryptonian) They have not left you, even in the face of death.
Superman: You speak Kryptonian?
J'onn: We're both men without a home, Kal. If we don't preserve each others' history, who will?
Superman: (smiling softly) You can't have it both ways, J'onn. You can't offer friendship with one hand and Kryponite with the other.
J'onn: I have to.
Superman: Why?
J'onn: Because Mars is a crypt! Because angry gods burned our young and we were helpless to stop them. Because I will not be caught unprepared again. Hate me if you want. It is what it is.
Superman: I don't hate you, J'onn. I just don't trust you. Because you don't trust me. We should have been allies. Is Kryptonite really worth us being alone in this fight?


Continuity

Veep is Clark Kent and Alex Danvers' favorite show.

Snapper Carr is in charge of the investigative reporting team m for CatCo Magazine. Cat Grant says he's one of the best journalists she's ever known and he won a Pulitzer for investigating corruption in the National City mayor's office.

Clark does not drink alcohol, despite it not affecting Kryptonians.

A shipment of Kryptonite was stolen from the DEO four months before the events of this episode.

J'onn refers to Non and Astra's plot to launch Myriad, from the first Season of Supergirl. He then suggests that Winn try and take the anti-Kryptonite armor they used and modify it so that Superman and Supergirl can use it.

Promethium is the strongest metal known to man.

James Olsen takes over running CatCo when Cat takes an extended lave of absence.

J'onn encases all of the Kryptonite the DEO has in lead and gives it to Superman to dispose of.

Khao-Shuh is a Kryptonian phrase with no direct English translation, meaning roughly "to be continued."

The episode ends with the strange visitor from the Kryptonian pod trying to strangle Kara.


Location

The Fortress of Solitude, somewhere in the Arctic circle.

Krypton Park in Metropolis



The Fridge Factor

The usually excitable Kara suddenly develops a fear of the unknown and abandonment issues regarding the cousin she hardly ever saw. This is nearly as vexing as Alex's sudden resentment of Kara's bonding with Clark.


The Bottom Line

A major step-down from last week's premiere. This episode is badly paced and tries to do far too much. Cat Grant is given a fair send-off and Winn proves a far better fit with the DEO team than he ever was at CatCo. But James' presence in the story is almost an afterthought and Snapper Carr barely makes an impression. Alex's sudden jealousy is incredibly forced and the twin Metallos barely register as threats.

What sells this episode - apart from Jeremy Jordan and Calisa Flockhart stealing every scene they're in - is the interaction between Kara and Clark and the subplot involving the animosity between Clark and J'onn. Melissa Benoist does a lot to sell her scenes on pure charisma but even she struggles to make her interactions with Snapper Carr work on the most basic level. It's not a bad episode but it sure seems like it after the great episode we got last week.

Supergirl Episode Guide: Season 1, Episode 20 - Better Angels

For a summary of the episode guide layout & categories, click here.



Plot

Non has revealed his secret weapon - a mind-controlled Alex Danvers, empowered by Kryptonite-powrered armor and the sword that killed Astra. Even if Kara can defeat her sister without killing her, can she still save the world from her uncle's invasion?


Influences

Grant Morrison's JLA: New World Order (Superman gives an inspiring speech to break the control of alien invaders) and Superman: New Krypton (the central plot of evil Kryptonians attempting to take over then destroy Earth), Superman 2 (The Champagne Trick), Supergirl: The Movie (reference is made to The Omegahedron) and William Shakespeare's Macbeth (Indigo's relationship to Non mirrors that of Lady Macbeth to her husband.)


Goofs

Apart from giving Helen Slater a chance to be the hero talking Alex down from killing Kara, is there any logical reason a dying J'onn would fly to Midvale to retrieve Dr. Danvers and fly back to National City, shielding her mind, rather than using his dwindling time and powers to break through the control on Alex's mind directly?

For that matter, how the heck did J'onn know Non was going to pit Kara and Alex against each other so that he could go get Dr. Danvers in the first place?

How can General Lane order J'onn to be arrested over Lucy's objections? Previous episodes established the US Army has no authority over the DEO - hence why Lane had to take it over through an executive order.

Why isn't Alex arrested along with J'onn? Isn't she still facing whatever charges were going to see her sent to Cadmus along with J'onn?

Shouldn't somebody besides Maxwell Lord have thought to keep monitoring the same broadcast bands used by Myriad after the fact?  Maybe a certain paranoid general whose equally paranoid daughter is now running the DEO?

Non isn't much better than General Lane, having his entire army of super-powered aliens put themselves into their sleeping pods. Granting he's an arrogant ass, you'd think he'd have a few more minions on-hand so he and Indigo aren't doing all the work launching Fort Rozz back into orbit. But then we wouldn't have had a marginally more fair two-on-two fight between Non and Indigo vs. J'onn and Kara.

The scenes of people suffering from the insane headaches generated by Myriad are painfully hammy.

The CGI for the fight between J'onn/Indigo and Non/Kara is not up to the usual standard.


Performances

I defy you to watch  Melissa Benoist's speech tot he people of National City and not be inspired. That is Supergirl, in one scene. Actually, all of Benoist's scenes as she says her goodbyes to the rest of the cast are great moments for her as an actress. But that opening speech says everything that needs to be said.


Artistry

The montage of people waking up as Supergirl gives her speech is well edited and directed.


Super Trivia

At one point, Maxwell Lord says that he usually loves a good Countdown "but this is bad."  This may be a nod to Countdown To Infinite Crisis - the story-line in the comics which turned Maxwell Lord into a card-carrying villain. It is not well regarded by most fans of the character.

Kara identifies the device being used to power The Myriad Wave as an Omegahedron. She says they were used as power sources on Krypton. Just one is capable of providing the energy to run an entire city.

The idea of Omegahedrons and Alphahedrons were first introduced in Supergirl: The Movie, where the Omegahedron was the Macguffin that Kara Zor-El traveled to Earth to recover.

Writer Sterling Gates introduced Alphahedron power sources into the comic-book lore during his run on the Supergirl comic.

The question of whether or not Kryptonians can survive in space is an open one.  Before Crisis On Infinite Earths, they could.  Afterward, they could manage short trips between planets but still had to make arrangements for breathing. At one point Superman learned a technique of recycling the air inside of his body from another alien, and from that point on he was able to survive indefinitely in a vacuum, so long as he remained conscious.

The general consensus in the modern age is that Kryptonians can survive the cold and pressure of a vacuum just fine but are unable to breathe. This is why you'll see Superman wearing a breathing mask without a space-suit or see Supergirl take a deep breath before flying into space.

It appears that, in the DCTVU reality, Kryptonians have no special protection from the dangers of outer space.


Technobabble

Myriad works by shutting down the connection between the amygdala and rostral anterior cingulate cortex - the parts of the brain that give rise to optimism and hope.

The frequency of Myriad penetrates neural tissue.

With the Kryptonian mind-control plot thwarted, the Myriad Wave is amplified ten-fold and is increasing exponentially by "terahertz jumps". Once the wave reaches its full potential after the frequency is increased, the electromagnetic energy will create enough pressure to make the heads of every person on Earth explode. Max Lord likens this to using an Uzi to kill a mosquito.

 The Omegahedron is a Kryptonian power source, capable of producing the energy to power a whole city.


Dialogue Triumphs

Supergirl: People of National City. This is Supergirl, and uh - I hope you can hear me. We have been attacked. Mothers and fathers, friends and neighbors, children, everyone. Suddenly stopped by a force of evil as great as this world has ever known. Your attacker has sought to take your free will. Your individuality. Your spirit. Everything that makes you who you are. When facing an attack like this, it's easy to feel hopeless. We retreat. We lose our strength. We lose ourselves. I know. I lost... everything when I was young. When I first landed on this planet, I was sad and alone. But I found out... that there is so much love in this world, out there for taking. And you - the people of National City - you helped me. You let me be who I'm mean to be.
(Cut to Winn, at the CatCo offices, who snaps awake as he has visions of helping Kara become Supergirl. He gets up and begins walking to James' office.)
Supergirl: You gave me back to myself. You made me stronger than I ever thought possible. And I love you for that.
(Cut to James, in his office, as he begins to wake up and remember his being with Kara. He looks up and sees Winn standing in his doorway.)
Supergirl: Now, in each and every one of you, there is a light - a spirit - that can't be snuffed out. That won't give up!
(Cut to Lucy Lane at the DEO HQ, just starting to wake up.)
Supergirl: I need your help again. I need you... to hope. Hope. That you can remember that you can all be heroes. Hope. That when faced with an enemy determined to destroy your spirit, you will fight back and thrive! Hope. That those who once may have shunned you will, in a moment of crisis, come to your aid. Hope. That you will see again the faces of those you love. And perhaps even those you have lost.
(Supergirl thinks of her mother and the necklace she was given the last time she saw her.)

Max Lord: Finding them will be the easy part. Defeating them with only you? That's our problem.
Supergirl: And to think I'd thought you'd learned by now - I can handle anything!
Max Lord: I'm not trying to be an ass. I know you can handle anything. But I'm actually worried. And if the others were thinking straight, they'd be worried too. You have no back-up. Your sidekick, J'onn J'onzz, is injured. The DEO's resources have been depleted from the prison break.And even if they weren't, no human can go out there! Their heads would explode if they got too close to the source. If you go out there and fight, you might win. But chances are this is a suicide mission.
Supergirl: You know I'll never stop trying.
Max Lord: Believe me - no one's rooting for you more than I am. I just want you to know what you're facing. So that you're prepared.
Supergirl: I WILL stop Non and Indigo.
Max Lord: Good.

J'onn: If there's one thing I've learned in my lifetimes, it's that leaders are stronger working together. From now on we're all on the same team. No more secrets.
(Cut to General Lane giving a briefcase to Maxwell Lord. Lord opens it to find The Omegahedron.)
J'onn: Secrets protect no one. They only undermine what we're striving to accomplish. Peace. And even though we have defeated Non and Myriad, evil still persists.And there are ever more dangers that we face. Our enemies remain at home, abroad and in the skies beyond our world.


Continuity

The montage of Winn helping Kara shows numerous scenes from The Pilot.

James refers to his and Kara kissing back in 118.

Fort Rozz crashed some 500 miles northeast of National City in the Nevada desert. This would place National City somewhere in southern California, approximately where Los Angeles is in our world. The US Army concealed it from the world using the space-station's own stealth technology.

J'onn rips Indigo in half. This seems to kill her, but not before she locks Fort Rozz's computers so it cannot be made to fly nor can The Myriad Wave be shut off.

Kara seems to blind Non with her heat-vision.

Kara tells Alex to tell Jeremiah that she never stopped wearing the glasses, in reference to 117.

Kara is able to lift Fort Rozz away from Earth. Alex is able to save her using her pod.

J'onn is given a full pardon by The President and made head of the DEO.  He decides to share the duties of running the DEO with Lucy Lane.

General Lane is seen giving the burned-out Omegahedron to Max Lord.

Cat Grant promotes Kara to a position to be named later, with a private office.

Kara and James kiss again, romance apparently on the table between them again.

Kara and J'onn find a crashing space-vehicle exactly like Kara's pod. The episode ends as Kara opens the pod and looks inside, astonished at what she sees.


Location

Fort Rozz - Somewhere in the Nevada desert.


The Kryptonite Factor

Granting that the show has played fast and loose with J'onn J'onzz's power levels on this show relative to what he's capable of in the comics (despite Superman apparently saying that J'onn is the most powerful being on the planet!), J'onn seems severely nerfed in this episode... even granting that he's walking-wounded and not at his best helping Kara fight Non and Indigo.

Again, Kara being unable to survive outside of Earth's atmosphere seems a rather drastic cut in her power levels, given what Kryptonians are normally capable of surviving in 95% of their portrayals across most media.


The Bottom Line

A pretty sad conclusion to the season, all things considered. You can tell the special effects budget ran out during the final fight. The script is full of logic holes and redundancies (Max Lord has to explain how their heads are going to blow up twice!) and most of the supporting cast has nothing to d for most of the episode. The only reason any of it works at all is because of the charisma of Melissa Benoist, who - like Supergirl carrying Fort Rozz - carries the episode single-handed.  Here's hoping we see a second season and that things get better from here.

Supergirl Episode Guide: Season 1, Episode 19 - Myriad

For a summary of the episode guide layout & categories, click here.


Plot

Myriad has been revealed and activated. With the assistance of Indigo, Non has telepathically taken control of the people of National City. With J'onn and Alex missing and the DEO and Superman under Non's control, Kara will have to form an uneasy alliance with Cat Grant and Maxwell Lord to save the world!


Influences

The Superman comics of Roger Stern (presence of Maxima), Superman 2 (Non makes reference to the infamous "Kneel before me, son of Jor-El" line), Hamlet (Like Hamlet, Kara is torn between indecision regarding action and inaction), Macbeth (Indigo plays Lady Macbeth to Non's Macbeth, encouraging his ambition and pushing him to greater depravity), the Doctor Who episode School Reunion (aliens using humans linked together through an electronic hive-mind to calculate solutions to major problems) and numerous Superman stories where a telepathic villain uses the masses to limit the hero's ability to act directly.


Goofs

Given that Myriad is dependent on a global satellite system for operation, why is it limited to affecting National City when it was originally designed to act on a global level - apart from Non/Indigo wanting to make Kara suffer?

For that matter, since Myriad was originally designed to work on Kryptonians, why does it only affect humans now?

Apart from the need for an early action sequence to make up for all the talkie-bits in this episode, why is Maxima released from her cell manually by Lucy and the other DEO Agents two minutes before all of them will be released at once?

So smashing a console in the DEO command center automatically cancels the "release all prisoners" command. Good to know!

Has The Fortress of Solitude had a hologram of Allura all this time?

Kara reaches for her phone before we hear the sound effect that she got a text. She also changes positions between her reaching for her phone and the cut where we see her holding it.

For that matter, where does Kara keep her phone in her Supergirl costume? It doesn't have pockets!

The sacrifice of Kelly really doesn't work too well, since I'm almost certain we've never seen the redhead office employee before this episode (Actually, a check if IMDB confirms we've seen the actress as "Editor", "Woman" and "Employee #1", so we may have seen her in the background even if she was never named.) Even so, her death is nowhere near as traumatic as Winn or James dying would have been.

It's been a major part of Maxwell Lord's character that he doesn't trust the government. So why doe she contact General Lane to get permission to try and use his Kryptonite bomb?  This is particularly vexing since Max says, not two minutes later, that he does what he does the way he does so that he can help people without having to ask permission!


Performances

Former WWE Diva Eve Torres has a brief role as Maxima but she brings the character from the comics to life effectively. A shame the DCTVU version seems to be an outright villain rather than a misguided but noble warrior. What we see here offers hope that Torres might play the character well as an ally of Supergirl, akin to the relationship between the two in the New 52 Supergirl series.

Helen Slater and David Harewood have a touching scene together, as Eliza Danvers first tries to learn of her husband's death from the one other person who was there... and then the scientist in her begins asking questions about Martian physiology.

As utterly campy as Laura Vandervoort is as Indigo, it fits the larger-than-life tone this story should have. At the very least, her scenery-chewing is more entertaining than Chris Vance's understated performance as Non.

The same goes for Peter Facinelli, as Maxwell Lord opposite Calista Flochart's cool facade Cat Grant. Facinelli's animated performance distracts away from the fact that most of this episode is people standing around talking yet he still manages some honest pathos when Max talks about tragic past.

The bit in which Cat describes how Supergirl changed her is perhaps the best bit of acting Calista Flockhart has ever done in anything.


Artistry

The fight scene with Maxima is well-staged.


Super Trivia

The name Myriad has been used in connection to the Superman mythos before. Superman Annual #5 introduced a new character called Myriad. The annual was part of the Bloodlines event, which was meant to introduce several new heroes in the DC Comics Universe. It was something of a flop and most of the characters introduced never appeared again. Myriad was no exception to this.

Myriad was a woman named Sasha Green, who had been employed as Lex Luthor's physical trainer. He had her killed after she "showed him up" in public and her body was hidden in a garbage dump. It was found years later by an alien parasite, whose bite brought Green back to life and activated her metagene.

Myriad had the powers of shape-shifting and telepathy, able to read minds, control them and even absorb them into herself. This gave her the ability to become anyone she touched and retain their skills, becoming a "myriad" of people. When she did this, however, it caused great pain which could only be eased by telepathically ordering the person she connected to to kill themselves. She also gained amnesia every time she killed someone in this way.

The only connection between the DC Comics Myriad and the Myriad of the DCTVU seem to be the mind-control aspect. There is no single person known as Myriad.

In the original DC Comics, Maxima was the warrior queen of the planet Almerac. She came to Earth seeking Superman as a consort, needing a worthy male to produce an heir to her throne. She would become both friend and foe to Superman, occasionally turning upon him when he rebuffed her advances but also acting as a noble ally against Brainiac and Doomsday. She even joined The Justice League for a time and sacrificed herself to save Earth during The Imperix Invasion.

In the comics, Maxima was not quite as powerful as Superman though she had a wider variety of super powers. In addition to super-strength, super-speed, invulnerability and flight, she had telepathic and telekinetic abilities that allowed her to control minds and generate force-fields.

The DCTVU version of Maxima apparently never gained the chance at redemption that the comics version did, being a prisoner of the DEO. Unlike the other DEO prisoners we've seen so far, Maxima is not a Fort Rozz escapee and was apparently imprisoned by Superman following her violent attempts to woo him.

The disguised Alex and J'onn are stopped 30 miles outside of Midvale. In the DC Comics Universe, Midvale is a small suburb just outside of Metropolis. In the Silver Age, Midvale was the town Kara Zor-El settled in upon her arrival on Earth, where she lived in the Midvale Orphanage until she was adopted by The Danvers.  Most of the Supergirl movie was set in Midvale as well, where Kara Zor-El attended the Midvale Boarding School.

Cat Grant makes reference to getting a call from Harrison Ford, asking Kara to tell him that she doesn't date older men - particularly ones that are married.  Calista Flockhart, who plays Cat Grant, has been married to Harrison Ford since 2010 and is somewhat younger than him.

At one point, Max sarcastically mocks the idea of mind control being the solution to global warming. This is a bit of a riff on the comics, where Maxwell Lord did have mind control powers and did attempt to use them to bring about a more organized world.

Non name-drops Metropolis, Opal City and Central City as his next targets. In the comics, these are the homes of Superman, Starman and The Flash respectively. Of course we know there's no Flash on whatever Earth Supergirl is set on.

J'onn is showing phasing through Indigo to attack her from behind. Intangibility is another power Martians have in the comics.


Technobabble

Maxwell Lord is able to protect himself and Cat Grant from Myriad through the use of ion blockers. In Max's case, he installed it into a Bluetooth headset. In Cat's case, Max worked the ion blockers into the diamonds in a set of earrings he sent her as a gift.

Non is using Lord Technologies' LTE interface system and satellites to power Myriad, using the satellites to send neural signals directly into the minds of everyone in National City.

Max theorizes that the reason Myriad works on Superman but not Supergirl comes down to nature versus nurture. Having been raised by humans, Superman thinks more like a human and thus is susceptible to Myriad's influence.

Eliza Danvers asks J'onn if his shape-shifting is due to an enzyme or some other chemical catalyst his body secrets in order to reorganize his DNA. She also asks how he adjusts for the change in body density and how his respiratory system is able to process the increased oxygen and nitrogen present in Earth's atmosphere.

Max devises a Kryptonite dust bomb that will kill every Kryptonian in National City as well as 8% of the 4 million humans living in the city, due to the concussive force needed to scatter the dust. This will also make the city uninhabitable to Superman and Supergirl for fifty years.

Maxwell Lord figures that they cannot stop Myriad's signal but they can piggyback off of it.  Using the broadcast technology at an old UHF station Cat Grant owns, they can transmit a signal that calibrates with the frequency of Myriad without leaving any on-line fingerprints since the signal is analog rather than digital. Their signal will ride the wave without leaving anything that can be tracked by Indigo.


Dialogue Triumphs

(Having just been told by Kelex that he's forbidden to speak of Myriad)
Kara: You were designed to obey the members of the honorable House of El. And to preserve the memory of Krypton wherever it went. If you don't override your orders, Myriad will destroy the House of El! And the memory of Krypton will be lost forever! You will have failed in your prime directive! Please!
(Kelex flies off, his head dipped in apparent sadness.)
Kara: Please! (turning around and shouting to the ceiling) I just need someone to help me!
Voice: Hello, Kara.
(Kara turns around to see a hologram of Alura - her mother.)

(Cat Grant walks into work, seemingly unaffected by Myriad.)
Supergirl: You're not a mindless drone!
Cat: Uh, no. I learned that lesson when Demi Moore and I wore the same dress to the premiere of Ghosts. Never again.
Supergirl: Miss Grant, listen to me. Everyone in the city is affected by this alien signal. They're acting like automatons. Haven't you noticed?!
Cat: (looking up from her phone for the first time since entering the room) Hmm. Well, yes, they ARE a bit more quiet than usual. Maybe my reign of terror has finally reached its peaked effectiveness?
(There is a soft ting noise as Kara reaches for her phone.)
Cat: Ah. You do have a cell phone. Can I get that number, please?
Supergirl: It's Superman!
Cat: Oh? Can I get his number as well?

(Indigo walks in on Non admiring a hologram of National City)
Indigo: When Alexander saw the breadth of his domain, he wept for there were no more worlds to conquer. (pauses) Need a tissue?

Non: The human race finally has a chance to live. Or it would suffer the same fate as Krypton. And the same thing is happening on Earth, with a populace more interested in reality stars and political circuses than working together to solve the world problems.
Max: So mind-control is the answer to global warming? (clicking his tongue) Why didn't I think of that?!

Eliza: So... Mars. I have to ask. Underneath it all are you a little green man?
J'onn: (chuckling) I'm a big green man, actually.

General Sam Lane: May God have mercy on our souls.
Max: If there was a god, General, I'm sure she wouldn't have put us in this mess in the first place.

(Max has just told Supergirl about his parent's death and how it inspired him.)
Max: I swore from that moment on that if I could protect people, if I could save them, I wouldn't wait for permission. I would act. Just like you do every time you jump out a window and save the day. We act, you and I. We're more alike than you think.
Supergirl: I hope not.

Non: I am the Lord of Earth.
Indigo: You could be the Lord of the Universe! Don't you realize what you have? You've created a force that could take over the galaxy! A vast army that exists only to do your bidding! You want to take one planet and turn it into your fiefdom, when you have an entire universe crying out to be ruled by you! To worship you as I do.

Supergirl: My mother was faced with this decision on Krypton. To act or do nothing. And she chose wrong. I love her but she didn't save Krypton like she promised. And my planet died. My culture. My home. My parents. Everything was just wiped from the stars. How can I let that happen again?

Cat: I know you're scared. I am too. But so is Max. And so is Non, for that matter. All of you are letting your fear guide you but somebody has to find the courage to stand up even though they're afraid. You know the worst decisions I've ever made in my life were based on fear? But you showed me that there was another way to be strong. By having faith in people. By believing that goodness will prevail. And because of you, I started letting people in. (laughs) I even opened myself up to my assistant Kiera, who helped me to have a relationship with my son again. Now, I can't tell you what to do Supergirl, but if you have taught me anything, you have taught me that hope is stronger than fear. (laughs) And that is what I think of every time I look at that (points to the House of El symbol on Supergirl's chest)  You changed me. And I am not easy to change. And I believe that you can change everyone out there. Not with violence. Not with fear. Just be Supergirl. That's all anyone's ever needed from you.

Indigo: There was only a 25.6% chance that you would turn up. Once again defying the odds! Just like that time your people perished and you alone survived. Impressive. But the humans might call that lucky.
(Suddenly, J'onn phases through Indigo and punches her in the back, knocking her to the ground.)
J'onn: It has nothing to do with luck!

(Supergirl and Cat confront Max as he finished up his Kryptonite bomb)
Supergirl You hated me for months because you thought I'd use my power indiscriminately, kill people with no regard for their lives. That is exactly the choice you're making with this bomb.
Cat: Please tell me you've had enough analysis to know that she's right?  
Supergirl: You were afraid of me. Then afraid of Non. I understand that fear but we cannot let it drive our actions. Make another choice that honors your parents. And mine.
Max: (sighs) I'm listening.

Cat: I have one question for you, Max.
Max: Shoot.
Cat: The earrings. How did you know that I would wear them?
Max: I didn't. (he pauses and smiles) I guess... I just had hope.


Dialogue Disasters

Max: Didn't seem right for the world to lose Cat Grant's mind.

Non: The son of Jor-El has already knelt before me. Soon you will too.


Continuity

The Khund bank-robber from 116 is seen among the alien prisoners in the DEO base.

The Fortress of Solitude is seen for the first time since 115, as is Indigo.

Myriad was designed by Astra Zor-El in response to the inaction of Kryptonian politicians regarding the imminent destruction of Krypton. It's purpose was to force everyone to her way of thinking through the use of advanced technology.

Astra's attempt to activate it was what resulted in her and Non being sentenced to exile in The Phantom Zone. This was because Myriad, once activated, could not be stopped and The High Council feared what might happen if knowledge of such technology existing were made available to the galaxy at large. This is revealed through a flashback to the flashback showing the conversation between Astra and Allura from 109.

General Sam Lane is seen for the first time since 109.

Maxwell Lord refers to the Kryptonians burglarizing his lab in 108.

Max Lord is an atheist.

Kara refers to Maxwell Lord telling Alex about how his parents died in 105. He further reveals that he tried to warn his parents and the CDC about the faulty HAZMAT suits that killed them but that they didn't believe him. This spurred Maxwell Lord to try and use his fortune to help people independently as well as his distrust of people in general and the government in particular.

J'onn is able to use his telepathy to protect Alex from Myriad.

J'onn is seemingly killed by Indigo.

The episode ends with Alex, decked out in Kryptonite power armor and wielding the same Kryponite sword that killed Astra, fully under Myriad's control and ready to kill Supergirl.


Location

The Fortress of Solitude.
30 miles outside of Midvale.
The Danvers house in Midvale


The Bottom Line

It's cheesy as all get out, the plot makes no logical sense and the overacting and underacting war with each other in a way not seen since Thora Birch acted opposite Jeremy Irons in the Dungeons and Dragons movie. And yet, somehow, this episode works in spite of it all.

Supergirl Episode Guide: Season 1, Episode 17 - Manhunter

For a summary of the episode guide layout & categories, click here.




Plot

His identity as an alien revealed along with his masquerading as Hank Henshaw, J'onn J'onzz tells the tale of how he saved the life of Jeremiah Danvers and came to become director of the DEO.  At the same time, Kara tries to cope with most of the people of National City fearing her and considers revealing her secret as a gesture of good will, as Siobhan begins to plot against Kara for getting her fired.


Influences

Predator (the jungle sequences with the DEO team tracking J'onn through the jungle) Enemy Mine (the interaction between J'onn and Jeremiah Danvers), Men In Black (the scene of J'onn introducing Alex to the DEO HQ) and Man of Steel (the sequence of a teenage Kara losing control of her super-hearing and x-ray vision mirrors a similar sequence involving a young Clark Kent in this movie, the scene where Jeremiah Danvers talks to Kara about hiding who she is after she saves someone in a visibly flashy way mirrors a similar scene with Pa Kent and a young Clark after he saves a bus full of children from drowning)


Goofs

Granting that her father's rank probably helped expedite matters, it still seems incredible that Lucy Lane was able to reenlist in the Army (much less regain her old position) so quickly after quitting her job at CatCo.

Kara and Alex talk about not implicating themselves within a few feet of the Marines that are watching everyone in the building for suspicious behavior

CatCo has a shocking lack of security - both in how there is no one to stop Siobhan from sneaking into the building in the early evening and in how Kara's work computer is open to her e-mail when she was out sick the whole day.

Then again, Siobhan is kind of an idiot to think she can do what she does without being seen on the interior security cameras.

How are lead-lined frames supposed to prevent Kara from using her x-ray vision? The glass would need to be lead-lined as well.


Performances

There's one great scene early on in which Mehcad Brooks and Calista Flockhart have a conversation without a word being said as Cat's phone starts ringing and there is nobody else to answer it. The non-verbal acting in this moment is fantastic.

David Harewood is fantastic throughout. He plays three different characters in this episode - the original Hank Henshaw, the version of Hank played by J'onn J'onzz and J'onn himself - and this hour is a fine showcase for how versatile he is at playing different levels. It's reminiscent of Stephen Amell's work on Arrow, playing different versions of Oliver Queen at different points in time and around different people.


Artistry

Though the dialogue is rather sexist, with Jeremiah Danvers basically saying "You don't need to save people - there's already a man to do that!", the scene in which Kara's foster dad talks with her people's reactions to a young girl doing impossible things is a great improvement on the similar scene between Pa Kent and a young Clark Kent from the movie Man of Steel.


Super Trivia

J'onn is seen eating Chocos cookies in his cell at the DEO - a gift from Alex, who deduced they were his favorite. This is a nod to the comics, where Chocos were Martian Manhunter's favorite snack.

At one point it was revealed that the affect of Chocos on Martian physiology mirrored that of addictive narcotics in humans. J'onn was able to cure himself of his addiction by using his shapeshifting powers to expel the mass of cells responsible for causing the addiction.

In the comics, James Harper was the real name of a masked superhero called The Guardian. A Metropolis police officer in his day job, Harper created the identity of The Guardian to go after the criminals who couldn't be prosecuted legally. He was aided in his protection of the Suicide Slum neighborhood of Metropolis by a group of orphaned newspaper boys he adopted, who became known as The Newsboy Legion. The newsboys later grew up to become scientists, who started the comics book version of The Cadmus Project.

The DCTVU version of James Harper is a Colonel in the United States Marine Corps.

J'onn is seen to be visibly uncomfortable around the fire Jeremiah Danvers makes to keep himself warm at night. In the original comics, fire weakened Martians and made them unable to use their powers in the same way that Kryptonite depowers Kryptonians.

The reasons for the Martian weakness to fire have changed several times over the years. Most frequently, it was a physiological weakness akin to Kryptonite. One story said that it was a psychological effect, as the Martian god of chaos took the form of a wild fire. Another said that it was a genetic flaw programmed into their race by The Guardians of the Universe in order to prevent The Martians from becoming an unstoppable race of conquerors.

The DCTVU version of J'onn is uncomfortable around fire due to it reminding him of the fiery death of his race during the war between the White and Green Martians. This is also the reason for J'onn's weakness to fire in the New 52 DC Comics reality.

Col. Harper says J'onn and Alex are both being taken to Project Cadmus. In the comics, The Cadmus Project was a genetics lab that devoted itself toward the creation of heroic alien/human hybrids. They also created a younger clone body for Jim Harper, allowing The Guardian to continue fighting crime with the vigor of his original youth.

In the Justice League Unlimited TV Series, Project Cadmus was an initiative sponsored by the United States government to monitor metahumans and develop plans to neutralize the threat they posed. This version of Cadmus combined elements of the comics version of Project Cadmus, Task Force X (aka The Suicide Squad) and the covert organization Checkmate.

James Olsen describes the DCTVU version of Project Cadmus as the reason why Superman won't work for the American government.  He says that if the DEO is a prison, than Project Cadmus is a dissection lab. It's a genetic engineering facility that treats aliens like lab rats, weaponizing alien abilities for military purposes and using humans as guinea pigs.

As in the comics, Kara cannot use her x-ray vision to see through lead.

The DEO alerts Kara to a bank robbery on the corner of 10th and Shukert. This is likely a tribute to Supergirl staff writer Rachel Shukert,


Technobabble

Col. James Harper's team developed a stasis field that prevents J'onn from using his powers. It generates a smell like burning rubber. It also seems to generate some kind of static that prevents Supergirl from hearing anything within the field

The DEO has Remote Outpost Probes that allow them to detect the presence of aliens on Earth.

Henshaw uses a thermal tracker, which indicates that J'onn was active within a two mile radius of their current position.

Jeremiah Danvers made Kara a pair of glasses with lead-lined frames to help her suppress her vision powers.

Winn analyzed the typing speed and patterns on the hard drive of Kara's computer and determined it didn't match Kara but it did match Sibohan.


Dialogue Triumphs

(J'onn sits in his cell, ripping open a package of Chocos as Alex enters.)
Alex: You don't look so dangerous shoving Chocos in your face.
J'onn: (smacking his lips as he eats) How did you know they were my favorite?
Alex: You eat them at 3 am. Only your favorite will do at 3 am.
J'onn: You have to stop these visits.
Alex: I like taking care of you, for once.
J'onn: My mission as Hank Henshaw was to protect you.
Alex: Missions change.
J'onn: Not this one. Which is why I'm telling you, you have to distance yourself. Don't check in on me. Stop bringing me cookies. Just say you never knew about me. Say I betrayed you.
Alex: I would never do that! J'onn: There has to be a reckoning, Alex. An alien lied and took command of a government organization. This doesn't end with people getting fired or even going to jail. People get disappeared for this sort of thing. They're going to tear this place apart looking for whoever helped me.
Alex: I'll lie. I'll convince. I will do everything that you taught me to do. But I am not abandoning you! This is rock bottom. And I know what kind of person I'm going to be.

J'onn: I've dedicated my life to protecting this world and if you want to take me down for being different, so be it.

Lucy: Why would I help you? You and Hank? Why do you all lie?
Kara: When you're an alien and you've lost your world and you're dropped into a new one? You don't have a choice.

(To Lucy Lane)
Kara: I know you're feeling betrayed and alone. But if you go along with Jim Harper, just to feel like you fit in?  To feel like you belong somewhere? Ultimately, the only person you're betraying is yourself. It wasn't easy for me to show you who I really am. But I did it because I trust in who you are. Who you really are under that uniform. And I trust  you'll do the right thing.

(After revealing that she saw through Siobhan's incredibly stupid plan to get Kara fired)
Cat: I don't have very many regrets, Siobhan, but I do regret firing you the first time. I wish to God that I could fire you again. With feeling.


Dialogue Disasters

Jeremiah Danvers: I know you were only trying to help. But the world already has a Superman. All you need to be is Kara Danvers.


Continuity

Lucy Lane has been reinstated to her position as a Major in the United States Army.

J'onn apparently was hiding in the Peruvian Amazon, where the local natives thought that he was Supay - the Inca God of Death.

J'onn does not have a physical weakness to fire but is uncomfortable around it due to the fiery death of his race.

Superman reportedly described J'onn as the most powerful being on Earth.

J'onn has regenerative powers  - presumably a function of his shape-shifting allowing him to reshape the damaged areas of his body.

Jeremiah Danvers died saving J'onn from Hank Henshaw. He was able to throw Henshaw off a cliff, but not before being fatally stabbed.

Col. Jim Harper was the best friend of the original Hank Henshaw.

J'onn is over 300 years old.

Cat Grant is friends with Princess Kate Middleton.

Alex Danvers was recruited by J'onn for the DEO three years ago.

Kara reveals her secret identity to Lucy Lane.

Kara began working for Cat Grant two years ago.

J'onn has super strength.

J'onn has refined his control to where he can erase memories more precisely with his telepathy. As a result of this, he accidentally discovers that Jeremiah Danvers is alive at Project Cadmus.

Alex and J'onn go on the run, determined to find Project Cadmus and rescue Jeremiah.

Col. Jim Harper resigns his position and insists on Lucy Lane being placed in charge of the DEO.

At the end of the episode, a drunken Siobhan falls off a roof and is able to save herself as her scream turns into some form of sonic blast that allows her to levitate.


Location

The Peruvian Andes, on the border of the Amazon jungle.

Midvale Junior High School in the city of Midvale.


The Fridge Factor

Jeremiah Danvers argument against Kara trying to help people boils down to "Superman is already doing that sort of thing, you silly girl!"


The Bottom Line

A rushed episode that seems to be doing too much while simultaneously ignoring several urgent plot lines (i.e. the public no longer trusting Kara) in favor of a series of flashbacks that offer some much needed development to several characters who are quickly ushered out of the series. Still, if this turns out to be the back-door pilot for a Martian Manhunter solo series, I'll cope.

Supergirl Episode Guide: Season 1, Episode 16 - Falling

For a summary of the episode guide layout & categories, click here.




Plot

Exposure to a piece of Red Kryptonite makes Kara into a more aggressive person and nothing will ever be the same again.


Influences

Countless Silver Age stories involving Red Kryptonite, Mark Waid's run on JLA (the idea of Red Kryptonite being a synthetic element created by Earth science), Spider-Man 3 (Kara's descent into evil is reminiscent of Peter Parker being influenced by The Symbiote) and the Legacy episode of Superman: The Animated Series (the theme of a brainwashed Kryptonian hero going on a rampage and then having to win back the public's trust).


Goofs

Again, Cat is flip-flopping on the importance of reporting the truth no matter what.

For all of Cat's talk in this episode about only employing people she trusts, she doesn't seem to put much stock in James' assurance that what's happening to Supergirl is temporary and a cure is almost ready when he's trying to talk her into delaying her speech to National City about how Supergirl i snow a villain.

For that matter, you'd think Cat would think twice about endangering all of her employees and the public at large with any action that would further annoy a psychotic Supergirl.

While we're used to Superman not getting involved in Kara's business by now, you'd think if ever there was a time for Clark to come and help his cousin this would be it!

How exactly is J'onn's decision to turn himself in to the DEO keeping Kara and Alex safe?

The speed with which the whole world turns against Kara seems more appropriate to a Spider-Man comic than Supergirl.


Performances

Melissa Benoist has a strong performance here, playing the more aggressive Kara. She gets a little too hammy when she's doing her "BWAHAHAHA! I am evil now!" speech to Alex but her pained reaction upon waking up more than makes up for it.

For once, Calista Flockhart finds the perfect note to play Cat Grant for the whole episode - not just one fleeting moment. For the first time, Cat really does seem to care about Supergirl as something beyond a meal ticket and the final scene between the two is pure magic.


Artistry

There are some very good speeches in this episode and a meta textual analysis of paragon superheroes like Supergirl not being allowed to be written as real people who have negative traits. These moments are so good, in fact, that you almost forget how stupid the overall plot-line is.

The scene with Supergirl saving one of her fans from a group of mean girls, however, is pitch perfect.


Super Trivia

The red-tinted form of Kryptonite has a variety of different effects, with each individual piece inspiring a different condition in Kryptonians exposed to it. The effects are temporary, only lasting 24-72 hours.

The changes Red Kryptonite has caused in the comics include transforming Kryptonians into dragons, creating an evil clone, growing extra limbs, losing all sense of balance and coordination, causing mental transference, making them evil, causing them to shrink, granting them telepathy, causing blindness, driving them temporarily insane, causing rapid hair growth, turning them into a giant with no superpowers, causing color-blindness to the color green, depowering them, causing rapid aging, transforming their head into that of a giant ant, causing them to be unable to speak or read any language other than Kryptonese, losing invulnerability along the left side of the body, developing total amnesia and making their skin transparent, which has the side-effect of making their powers uncontrollable as they absorb solar radiation much faster.

In the DCTVU, Red Kryptonite was created by Max Lord in a failed attempt to create a synthetic form of the common Green Kryptonite used by the DEO.  In the post-Crisis DC Comics Universe, Red Kryptonite was created by Batman during an experiment where he was trying to create a less-lethal version of Kryptonite that he could use to temporarily disable Superman without running the risk of killing him as with Green Kryptonite. His Red Kryptonite samples were stolen by the League of Assassins and used on Superman during one of Ra's al Ghul's attempts to take over the world.

The base plot of a Kryptonian hero losing control and needing to regain the world's trust once they regain control of themselves mirrors the base plot of Legacy - the final episode of Superman: The Animated Series. In that story, Superman was brainwashed by Darkseid into believing that he was Darkseid's son and led an invading Apokolyptian army on Earth.

Cat sarcastically suggests that Supergirl needs to go on Lexapro. While this is a real-world medication used to treat anxiety and depression, it probably isn't a coincidence that the writers chose to mention a drug that sounds like the creation of perennial Superman villain Lex Luthor.

The alien bank robber whom Supergirl lets go is identified as a K'hund. In the DC Comics Universe, the Khund (no apostrophe in the name) are an alien race best known as enemies of the Legion of Superheroes in the 30th century. The Khunds are a war-like humanoid race with pale magenta skin from a world with much stronger gravity than Earth. This makes the Khunds stronger and more durable than humans, despite being of similar size and shape. In the 21st Century, the Khunds are known to the Green Lantern Corps and were part of the alien alliance that attacked earth in the storyline Invasion!

Apart from the slightly different name spelling, the K'hund of the DCTVU seem to be just like the Khund of the DC Comics Universe.

Siobhan attempts to send her scoop to Perry White. Perry White is the Editor In Chief of The Daily Planet - the newspaper that employs Lois Lane and Clark Kent in the comics and in the reality of the DCTVU.


Technobabble

Cat suggests that Supergirl needs to go on Lexapro - a real world drug used to treat anxiety and depression.

The DEO is able to detect the Red Kryptonite at the scene of the fire with a thermodynamic scan and comparing the radiation signature to that of Green Kryptonite.

Red Kryptonite does not damage Kryptonians on a cellular level but can apparently alter their body chemistry like a drug. causing erratic behavior.


Dialogue Triumphs

(Kara is flying when she overhears her name at a nearby school. A group of mean girls is laughing at another girl in a home-made Supergirl costume.)
Mean Girl: So, you think you're Supergirl? If I shoved you, could you fly? You look so stupid.
Fan Girl: No I don't!
Mean Girl: Everybody thinks so. That's why you don't have any friends.
(Supergirl lands behind the Mean Girls.)
Supergirl: I wouldn't say that.(moves to stand next to the fan girl) I actually think you look pretty awesome...
Fan Girl: Thanks!
(Supergirl uses her X-Ray vision and peeks a look at the Fan Girl's homework in her backpack, to find out her name is Laura.)
Supergirl ... Laura.
Mean Girl: You know Supergirl?!
Supergirl: Yeah! I'm friends with all the nice girls. (pats Laura on the shoulder) See you later!

(J'onn, Alex, Supergirl and Senator Crane are talking when an emergency report regarding a fire-fighter trapped under rubble at the scene of a fire comes up on The Big Board.)
Senator Crane: Supergirl, can you get there in time?
(They all turn around to see Supergirl is already gone.)
Alex: (smiling) Yeah. She can.

Cat: I know you see yourself as a plucky heroine who broke a story as big as Watergate and then gave it to my biggest competitor. And I know that you think once The Daily Planet runs the story that you will have a fancy job there. And I know that you believe in the end that I will admire your gumption for scooping me and I will beg you to come back.
Siobhan:  Won't you?
Cat: No. I admire loyalty, integrity and employees that I can trust - not back-stabbing, opportunistic little... imps. Clean out your desk.
(Siobhan blinks and seems like she's about to speak but Cat cuts her off.)
Cat: I''m sorry? Was I using my inside voice? (deliberately, raising her voice on the last word) You. Are. FIRED!

(Supergirl lands on Cat Grant's balcony)
Supergirl: What do you want?
Cat: I want to know if Ashton Kutcher and his camera crew are hiding underneath your cape. Supergirl would never release an evil alien caught in the act of armed robbery, so I assume I am being "punked".
Supergirl: I wouldn't assume anything from now on, Cat.
Cat: Did you just call me Cat?
Supergirl: You branded me in the media as a Girl Scout. "Supergirl is brave, kind and strong."
Cat: Mmm-hmmm?
Supergirl: Isn't that kind of a stock characterization? Very two-dimensional. Everyone knows real people have a dark side.
Cat: Yes, but you don't get to be a real person. You'er a superhero. You get to represent all the goodness in the world.
Supergirl: Yeah, well I'm sick of it. And you know what else I'm sick of? Enabling all of you in your victimhood. (mocking sing-song voice) "Oh well, my building's burning down, la-di-ah. Supergirl will just swoop in and save the day." Well, get used to the flames, people, because I quit!
Cat: Supergirl? I fear that you are having some sort of a mental breakdown. Don't worry. It happens to the best of us. And I'm happy to take you to Dr. Schuman for emergency Lexapro. That is, if your alien brain will respond to the SSRIs...but, in the meantime I would lay low. This haughty attitude is highly unsuitable.
Supergirl: Well, I learned it from the best - Cat Grant! You are the most arrogant, self-serving, mean-spirited person I know!
Cat: Now you listen to me. I made you! And you are not going to let me down!
Supergirl: Or what?
Cat: Or what?
Supergirl: (mock horror) Wait! I forgot! You're the most powerful person in National City. At least, that's what they say on TV.
(Supergirl takes a step closer to Cat.)
Supergirl: You want to see what powerful really looks like? Watch.
(Supergirl picks Cat up with one arm and throws her over the balcony ledge. Cat screams as she falls forty stories, only being caught by Supergirl in front of a crowd seconds before hitting the ground.)
Supergirl: True power, Cat, is deciding who will live and who will die. And don't ever call me again.
(Supergirl flies off, leaving a truly horrified Cat Grant kneeling on the pavement.)

(Cat Grant steps out on her balcony with a glass of wine, only to find Supergirl sitting there.)
Supergirl: I love this city. (exhales deeply) The lights. All the windows. I love that behind every window there's a story. Someone's eating take-out with their boyfriend. Someone's playing board games with their kids. (exhales) To me, every person in the city is a light. And every time I've helped one of them, a little bit of their light has become a part of me. I've never been happier than when I've been Supergirl... I know what happened wasn't exactly my fault. My... brain was altered. But it brought something inside of me out... that was mean and horrible. What I did to you, Miss Grant, I-
Cat: (dismissive) Oh, please. I've base jumped Mount Kilimanjaro. Do you really think you scared me? (thinks a moment) Well, okay, yes, you DID scare me.
Supergirl: I know...I scared the whole city. And now I'm so afraid that I'm never gonna win them back.
Cat: Well... if you came here for me to tell you that everything is going to be okay, I can't do that. It's not that easy.
Supergirl: (sighing) I know.
Cat: Now, I said that it's not going to be easy but I didn't say it would be impossible. Personally, I don't believe in failure. Not if you get back up and face the music. It takes time. But if anybody can win this city back... it's you.
Supergirl: (softly) Can I just sit here a little while?
Cat: Of course.
(Cat leans against the balcony railing and looks at the city lights along with Supergirl.)


Continuity

Kara finds out about Winn and Siobhan's "relationship".

Lucy Lane resigned her position with CatCo.

Senator Crane, first seen in 111, makes an appearance, saying that she's trying to get the funding for the DEO increased.  By the end of the episode, she has returned to her alien-hating ways.

Siobhan is fired from her position as Cat Grant's assistant.

When fighting the K'hund, Supergirl refers to defeating White Martians (111), Coluans (115) and Kryptonians (113) and says he's nowhere near as tough as them.

Max Lord created Red Kryptonite as part of a trap for Non and the other Kryptonians attacking his satellite labs. He claims that the fire was a true accident and that he never intended for any firefighters or Supergirl to be harmed by it. To make up for what he did, Lord creates an energy weapon that purges the Red Kryptonite radiation from Supergirl's body.

J'onn exposes himself to the world in order to stop Supergirl from killing Alex. He then allows himself to be arrested by the DEO.

J'onn also confirms, by saying nothing when accused of the murder, that he killed the original Hank Henshaw.


The Bottom Line

This episode does for Supergirl what Spider-Man 3 did to the Raimi-directed Spider-Man films. There's some fine performances but the episode tries to do too much, too quickly to create the darkness before the dawn, with Kara having alienated most of her allies and the world at large.

Supergirl Episode Guide: Season 1, Episode 7 - Human For A Day

For a summary of the episode guide layout & categories, click here.




Plot

Left powerless by her encounter with The Red Tornado, Kara must rely on her inner strength and the legend of Supergirl to save the day when an earthquake strikes National City. At the same time, Alex's mistrust of Hank Henshaw reaches its breaking point when the earthquake traps them in the DEO offices with a psychic alien escapee.


Influences

Superman: The Movie (Kara's reaction to being unable to save an injured man mirror Clark's reaction to being unable to save Pa Kent as he has a heart attack), The Superman comics of Geoff Johns and John Romita Jr. particularly Superman #39 (several story elements, described in Super Trivia), the sci-fi comics of Gardner Fox (mention is made of The Faceless Hunters), the New Krypton storyline (established Jemm as an enemy of the Kryptonians and leader of The Faceless Hunters) and various classic Superman comics centering around the idea of Superman temporarily losing his powers and coping with human illness.


Goofs

For an underground base, the DEO HQ doesn't seem to have been built to handle earthquakes very well.

While it is an uncharacteristically nice gesture on Cat Grant's part, a news organization sending employees home in the middle of a natural disaster in nonsensical.

Alex really does not do a good job of hiding her disdain for Henshaw once Kara leaves for work.


Performances

Any who doubted Melissa' Benoist's suitability for the role of Supergirl need only watch her during the scene confronting the robber to see that she was perfectly cast.

That goes double for Mehcad Brooks as James Olsen. And it goes without saying that the best moments of the episode (excluding the scene with Supergirl and the robbers) are those which involve Kara and James playing off each other.

The final scene though, in which Hank Henshaw is revealed as J'onn J'onzz, makes the season for David Harewood.  And suddenly so much about his performance before now makes so much more sense!


Artistry

The editing and interplay of Cat Grant's speech and Supergirl confronting the robber is excellent.

The build up to the reveal of Martain Manhunter was well-written and props to the show runners for keeping this a secret for so long.  No television show this year has surprised me so well as this episode did with that revelation.


Super Trivia

This episode greatly resembles the recent comic Superman #39  Several issues earlier, writer Geoff Johns and artist John Romita Jr. introduced the idea that Superman could be left temporarily powerless after particularly stressful battles and the use of his new "solar flare" power, where all the solar energy in his body is unleashed in one explosive attack.  This mirrors what seems to have happened to Kara in this episode. Indeed, James Olsen says that Superman calls this ability "the solar flare", in reference to the original comic.

Superman #39 is specifically referenced, as the plot of this comic centered upon a powerless Superman attempting to live a day as a normal human and eventually donning his costume to talk-down an armed gunman as Supergirl does here.

The character of Jemm is based on a DC Comics character named Jemm, Son of Saturn.

Originally designed as a cousin of The Martian Manhunter, Jemm's 12-issue mini-series was meant to explore the Martian culture and a civil war between the war-like white Martians and the more thoughtful green Martians. Jemm was changed into a Saturnian and his skin changed from green to red after his creators discovered that The Martian Manhunter would be returning to comics shortly. Later, writer John Ostrander explained away the similar appearances and powers of Martians and Saturians in a story where it was revealed that the Saturians were a clone race created by the white Martian race as slaves.

The Jemm in the comics is a heroic figure, who risked his life to bring peace to both the white and red Saturians. He was briefly brainwashed by Lex Luthor into acting as a counter to The Martian Manhunter in the pages of Grant Morrison's JLA. Jemm also showed up during the New Krypton storyline, fighting against the Kryptonians after they moved one of Jupiter's moons without considering the effects on other life forms in the solar system.

Jemm's powers in the comics include strength and durability on par with a Kryptonian. He has limited shape-shifting powers which allow him to stretch any part of his body. He can fly and survive in the vacuum of space. His main power, however, is his telepathy, which allows him to both read and control minds. He can also fire blasts of psychic energy through the organic gem in his forehead.

The Jemm of the DCTVU is a villain, while seeming to have most of the same powers as his comic-book counterpart. He is telepathic and fires psychic energy blasts and the hologram of Alura says he is dangerous enough physically that only Kara should try and fight him. He claims to have conquered twelve planets.

Jemm makes reference to being leader of The Faceless Hunters.  This is an alien race that appeared on three separate occasions - all in sci-fi stories written by Gardner Fox. They later appeared during the New Krypton storyline as soldiers under the command of Jemm.

The end of the episode reveals that Hank Henshaw is, in fact J'onn J'onzz aka The Martian Manhunter.  First appearing in Detective Comics #225, J'onn was pulled to Earth from Mars by an Earth scientist's experimental teleportation device. The encounter with the alien caused the scientist to have a heart-attack, stranding J'onn on Earth with no way home. J'onn used his shape-shifting abilities to take on the identity of John Jones and he decided to use his powers to fight crime and keep the peace on Earth, as he waited for Earth technology to develop to the point where he could return home. Operating in secret at first, he eventually revealed himself to the world and became a founding member of The Justice League of America.

Later retellings of J'onn's origins revealed that J'onn was displaced in time as well as space and that the Martian civilization had died off thousands of years earlier, leaving J'onn - like Superman - as the sole survivor of a dead world.

While this episode has yet to reveal how J'onn came to Earth, his noble intentions and desire to work incognito match his original origins.  Thus far, the only power he's revealed to have is shape-shifting. We can guess from how he was able to snap Jemm's neck, however, that he probably has the super-strength of his comic-book counterpart.


Technobabble

Winn still has the Kryptonian bio-analytics from Alex's DEO files. He later uses this to run a differential analysis on the rates at which Kara might metabolize solar radiation. He then puts forth the theory that Kara's powers might be jump-started by a sudden surge of adrenaline.

Jemm's cell has neural shielding, which prevents him from using his psychic powers on anyone outside the cell.

Superman calls the release of heat vision that drains his powers for a few days "the solar flare".

The DEO has neural disruptors - portable versions of the neural shields used to block Jemm's powers when he is in his cell.

Maxwell Lord postulates that Supergirl blew put her photovolatic capabilities, effectively making her a dead battery.

The injured man Maxwell Lord is called in to save has a tension pneumothorax - a progressive build-up of pressure, usually caused by laceration of the lung. There is also a venous bleed, which causes the man to exsanguinate into his own chest. This causes him to bleed out, go into shock and die.


Dialogue Triumphs

Jemm: I will grind your loved ones to dust!
(Henshaw looks off, as if looking at something far away.)
Dir. Henshaw: There are none left to grind.

Kara: Don't you think that people need a more positive message right now? Hope instead of fear? I just think that if Supergirl could be here today, right now, she would be.
Maxwell: (laughs) Why? Because Cat Grant says so?She might as well be Supergirl's PR flack, slapping that S on everything just to make money.
Kara: What are you doing?
Maxwell: I want everyone to know who's helping them in their time of need - a human being. Supergirl lulls us into complacency. She fools us into thinking she'll save us and renders us incapable of saving ourselves. Like heroin. Or The Welfare State.
Kara: That's cynical.
Maxwell: That's realistic.

Kara: These past few weeks have been the best of my life. I was helping people the way that I've always wanted. Do you know what that's like? To just have that ripped away?
James: Can't say that I do. But I do know that you're the same girl as you were before. Losing your powers does not change that.
Kara: It's changed everything! I - I - feel, I feel so helpless!
James: What you're feeling is human!
Kara: And what if Maxwell Lord is right? What if mine never come back? Now what kind of hero does that make me without them? I- I - I couldn't even save one man!
James: No hero can save everyone. Not even Superman. But a real hero never stops trying.

(Supergirl walks into a convenience store that is being robbed)
Supergirl: (holding a hand up) I wouldn't do that if I were you!  That's not going to work on me.
Robber: (pointing his gun at Supergirl) Stay back! Don't come any closer.
Supergirl: You don't want to hurt these people...
(Cut to Cat Grant, at her desk. She's wearing glasses and reading a prepared statement.)
Cat: People of National City - this is Cat Grant coming to you from Catco Plaza. We've just, minutes ago, restarted our broadcasting capabilities...
(Cat sighs dramatically, takes off her glasses and puts the the statement aside.)
Cat: Look. We're all suffering through a major disaster. Now, you could react to this crisis by being petty and divisive or preying on other people's fears. And after all, it is human to be selfish. But isn't it also human to face our weaknesses and rise above them? Act like a superhero even if you aren't one?
(Cut back to Supergirl and the robbers. Her hand is shaking nervously.)
Supergirl: I know you're scared. We all are. You want to save yourself. Your family. But don't you see that we are all in this together?
(Cut back to Cat)
Cat: It's true. Supergirl has not been located yet. But her spirit stays with us. Her insistence on seeing the best that is in people - a call for us to heed our better angels.
(Cut back to Supergirl and the robbers)
Supergirl: There's about a dozen ways that I could stop you right now. But I don't think I have to.
(Cut back to Cat)
Cat: Supergirl has faith in us.
(Cut back to Supergirl and the robbers)
Supergirl: Because this is not you. It isn't any of you!
(Cut back to Cat)
Cat: So let's have a little faith in her. Supergirl will return when we need her most.  Until then, we need to help each other.
(Cut back to Supergirl and the robbers)
Supergirl: I believe that we are better than this.
(Cut back to Cat)
Cat: Call us. Share your stories of herosim. Let's show the world what we're really made of. And no... we can't do what Supergirl does, but-
(Cut back to Supergirl and the robbers)
Supergirl: We choose who we want to be.
(Cut back to Cat)
Cat: We must choose to do what we can.
(Cut back to Supergirl and the robbers)
Supergirl: And I know you're going to choose to be a better man.
(Supergirl holds her hand out.  The robber slowly takes his finger off the trigger as James Olsen raises his camera and takes a picture as Supergirl smiles softly at the robber.)

James: When you take a picture of someone, it's permanent. And you've captured the truth of them in that moment. And that you can keep forever. And (clears throat) the truth of this moment...(James holds up the picture of Kara and the robber) is that you don't even need powers to be a hero.

Dir. Henshaw: You're wondering how I got out of a pair of locked handcuffs?
Alex: (nodding) For starters.
Dir. Henshaw: There's only one other living person who knows the truth. You sure you want to hear this?
(Alex just stares at him)
Dir. Henshaw: You can't share this with anyone. Not even Kara. Can you do that?
Alex: You're the one who taught me to keep secrets from her.
Dir. Henshaw: I am not Hank Henshaw. He died the same night as your father. The DEO had been pursuing an alien for months. Not one of the Fort Rozz prisoners but... an innocent one. Stranded on this planet. With the help of your father, the DEO tracked the alien to a remote location in Peru. Henshaw led the squadron sent to terminate him.
Alex: My father would never have been part of a mission like that.
Dir. Henshaw: You're right. Jeremiah Danvers was a good man. He realized the alien they were hunting wasn't a threat. He was a refugee, like your sister. The sole survivor of a lost world. Your father tried to stop the mission, but Henshaw... was obsessed. He'd finally trapped the alien he'd been hunting for so long. So Jeremiah made the ultimate sacrifice. He gave his life to save that alien. (pause) Your father died a hero.
Alex: That alien...Is that you?
(Dir. Henshaw nods)
Alex: But how... are you him?
Dir. Henshaw: I am a shape-shifter. When Hank Henshaw died, I assumed his identity to reform the DEO. But I also made your father a promise - that I would take care of his daughter. I recruited you so that I would honor that promise and protect you as if you were my own child.
Alex: If you're not Hank Henshaw, then who are you?
(Henshaw's eyes begin to glow red as he turns away from Alex)
Dir. Henshaw: I am the sole survivor of my planet.  The last son of Mars.
(Henshaw turns around to face Alex, shifting into a green-skinned man with a bald head in a strange alien uniform)
J'onn J'onzz: My name... is J'onn J'onzz.

Supergirl: I heard your amazing broadcast today. Thank you.
Cat: Well, thank you for the complement. Now where the hell were you?! How could you up and leave in the middle of the worst disaster in decades?
Supergirl: I didn't mean to scare you -
Cat: Oh no. No, you didn't scare ME. But regular people, they're starting to depend on you. It's easy for them to feel abandoned. You have to understand that most people out there spend most of their lives feeling isolated and alone. And when a tragedy strikes, they look to their heroes not only for rescue but for solace. And consistency.
Supergirl: That's why I'm glad they have you. You gave them hope today. I know that you inspired them. Because you inspired me.


Dialogue Disasters

The entire exchange between Winn and Kara after Winn walks in on her and James hugging.  The good news is that after seven episodes they've finally developed a personality for Winn beyond comic relief techie. The bad news is that personality is that of a whiny "nice guy".


Continuity

The hologram of Alura is seen for the first time since 102. She reassures Kara that her power loss is likely temporary and she'll be back to normal after she absorbs enough yellow solar energy.

It is noted - by both Alex, James and Maxwell Lord - that Superman has lost his powers temporarily as well, but never for longer than 48 hours at a time.

Lucy and James are moving in together.

Superman calls the heat-vision blast that drains his cells for a few day The Solar Flare.

Maxwell Lord is a medical doctor, having gone through medical school in one year.

The daughter of the man Maxwell Lord tries to save says she once saw Supergirl carry a man to the hospital on the news. This could be a reference to 102, where Supergirl airlifted an amublacnce that was stuck in traffic.

The first picture James ever took was of his father, who bought him his first camera as a gift before leaving for The Gulf War. He died overseas. Kara says James looks like him.

It is revealed that Hank Henshaw is not actually Hank Henshaw but an alien named J'onn J'onzz - a Martian shape-shifter, who took on Henshaw's identity after Jeremiah Danvers sacrificed himself to save J'onn from an Ahab-esque Henshaw. J'onn promised Danvers that he would look after his daughter, which is why he recruited Alex into the DEO.

General Astra, Commander Gor and Lieutenant Mur are seen for the first time since 102,


The Fridge Factor

The circumstances of the dying man's condition coupled with Maxwell Lord's words only serve to make Kara feel more powerless than ever. It's all so contrived one wonders if Lord somehow set this up as a way to taunt Kara, having figured out she's Supergirl - what with the dying man's daughter wishing Supergirl could fly him to the hospital and Lord saying there's nothing they can do with out an x-ray machine.

On that note, it's horrible on SO many levels that Kara is made to feel guilty over Winn's bratty response to her and James having a tender moment and is all but begging for his friendship at the end of the episode.


The Bottom Line

The strongest episode of the series to date. Granting that there's a lot of contrivances to push the idea of Kara suddenly feeling powerless when she'd been living a normal life until a few weeks ago, Kara and James having most of the episode together makes up for a lot. And as utterly cheesy as the hunt for Jemm is with Alex acting increasingly deranged due to her sudden mistrust for Henshaw, the revelation that we've got the freaking Martian Manhunter as a regular member of the cast makes up for a lot. Cat Grant is no longer grating and actually comes off as kind of awesome in this episode. The only real problem is that it seems like we're supposed to sympathize with Winn's unrequited crush on Kara when he comes off as a creepy stalker rather than a befuddled geek. But then I think about the sequence with the robbers where Kara gets three men to surrender by appealing to their better nature and I think to myself "This is a pretty damn good show that gets what heroism is about."

Supergirl Episode Guide: Season 1, Episode 6 - Red Faced

For a summary of the episode guide layout & categories, click here.




Plot

As Cat Grant's mother comes to visit and Winn offers Alex his help in investigating her father's death, Kara loses control while helping test a military-grade cyborg commissioned by General Sam Lane.


Influences

The Supergirl comics of Sterling Gates (General Lane having a hatred of all aliens), The Flash comics of John Broome (T.O. Morrow) and  the Justice League of America comics of Gardner Fox (Red Tornado).


Goofs

To be quite frank, the core idea of this episode - that Kara has suddenly developed anger-management issues - doesn't ring true given that she's been continually holding back for the better part of 12 years. Most of this episode's problems stem from that logical disconnect.

For instance, granting that there is a double-standard regarding women being allowed to express anger (as Cat Grant points out), one might expect the double-standard regarding men hitting women to work in Kara's favor in the road-rage case. Given that the target of Supergirl's anger is a road-raging jackass who was unconcerned about the fact that he nearly plowed through a crosswalk full of children and lacked the faculties to realize that taking a swing at Supergirl was an incredibly bad idea, it seems completely random that all of the media everywhere runs with the story that Supergirl put two men in the hospital because of her anger rather than the fact that she saved the lives of a dozen children from two complete idiots.

Cat Grant's mother - who pals around with the likes of Toni Morrison and Margaret Atwood is enough of an old-school feminist to criticize Cat dubbing a heroine Supergirl instead of Superwoman yet still traditional enough to think only men should be doctors?

Why on Earth would the US Army ever allow an untested potentially independent drone like The Red Tornado to be tested close to a major city? Either General Lane was totally ignorant as to that capability (unlikely given his control freak nature) or he was actively hoping to force an incident that would embarrass and/or kill Supergirl.

Why did they allow Dr. Morrow into the top-secret DEO base when Lane was getting ready to fire him?

On that note, General Lane has got to be the biggest idiot in the world - firing the person who knows more about the RT project than anyone right after said project goes rogue. At least keep him around until after the situation is neutralized THEN throw him under the bus when the inevitable investigations start.

The CGI for the tornado effects is just awful.While I'm willing to allow that National City has highly advanced buildings capable of withstanding tornado-force winds with no obvious signs of strain, I refuse to believe that there's some technical property that prevents the carts on the street from being moved by the high winds.

Did it really take Maxwell Lord to point out to the DEO that maybe The Red Tornado was being controlled by the disenchanted inventor who just got fired by General Lane?

Where did Kara get an abandoned space to turn into a gym? Or a car to beat up on? (Maybe the DEO set it up?)

Morrow has amazing fighting skills for a scientist with no life outside of building robots, proving capable of holding his own against a highly-trained DEO field agent.

Winn is finally given a chance to do something besides be the comic relief... and it's all handled entirely off-camera!


Performances

Once again, the best parts of the episode are Mehcad Brooks and Melissa Benoist playing off of one-another. The two have a great chemistry together and it truly kills you that James and Kara aren't together.

Calista Flockhart gets to further humanize Cat Grant in this episode and show that there truly is a decent person somewhere under all the snark and cynicism. It's just a shame that humanization only comes in the face of an even more cartoonish caricature of an empowered woman...


Artistry

The final fight between Red Tornado and Supergirl, inter-cut with the fight between Dr. Morrow and Alex Danvers, is efficiently edited and plays quite well.


Super Trivia

As in the comics, US Army General Sam Lane is a xenophobic military leader and the father of Lois and Lucy Lane. He disapproved of Lois marrying Clark Kent, who he thought was too weak-willed to be worthy of his daughter. He faked his death in order to take over a US Army covert operation called Project 7734, which was developing resources for use against alien invaders.

The DCTVU version of Sam Lane is exactly like his comic-book counterpart. His opinions regarding James Olsen's suitability for his daughter Lucy mirror those of the comics General Lane regarding Clark Kent and Lois Lane. He also hates aliens for no logical reason.

Dr. T.O. Morrow first appeared in comics as an enemy of The Flash. His full name was Thomas Oscar Morrow and he had developed a television set that allowed him to see 100 years into the future. He attempted to replicated the technology he saw there and used it to commit crimes to fund his own research into time travel. He was also a master of robotics.

After Crisis On Infinite Earths, a slight retcon changed Dr. T.O. Morrow's full name to Tomek Ovadaya Morah and made him of Polish/Jewish descent. This didn't change much of his background or motivations, apart from giving him an incentive once to help Wonder Woman in fighting a neo-Nazi villain.

There was an earlier Dr. T.O. Morrow during the Golden Age of Comics, who has a similar gimmick and fought the hero Shining Knight. This T.O. Morrow pretended to be an explorer from the future in order to scam rare materials from other scientists.

One of T.O. Morrow's schemes involved creating a mechanical superhero that he would use to infiltrate The Justice Society of America. He dubbed his creation The Red Tornado. But unbeknownst to Morrow, his creation was possessed by an alien nature spirit (aka The Tornado Champion), who developed amnesia shortly after taking over The Red Tornado's body while still maintaining the alien spirit's strict moral code.

Very little of this comes into play regarding the DCTVU versions of Dr. Morrow and The Red Tornado. Here, apart from a sudden unexplained bout of sentience after Morrow's death, The Red Tornado is an electronic proxy rather than a thinking being.

When Alex Danvers meets with Maxwell Lord for the second time, she suddenly tells him about her father's mysterious death and wonders out-loud why she told him about that. This could be a hint to the comics, where Maxwell Lord was a low-level telepath whose abilities manifested early on as an ability to plant simple suggestions and come off as trustworthy.


Technobabble

Morrow describes The Red Tornado (aka Project RT) as being, "not a robot" but a "anthropomorphic pseudo-entity with combat capabilities." It has an emergency self-preservation function which is triggered after it loses an arm. When it goes into stealth mode it becomes 100% undetectable, defying even Supergirl's super-senses. It took 11 years and one billion dollars to develop.

Supergirl's Super-Breath is capable of chilling an object to absolute zero.

The Red Tornado's dermal covering is made of a bio-synthetic polymer with traces of lead that make it impenetrable to a Kryptonian's X-Ray vision. Based on that, Henshaw deduces that The Red Tornado's purpose was to kill Superman and Supergirl.

Maxwell Lord notes that the arm for The Red Tornado that he saw seems to have come from a drone with an incredibly advanced GPS rather than an independent robot. In other words, Morrow has to be controlling it and sending it after General Lane.

The DEO has Kryptonian technology that enables it to project a thermally accurate three-dimensional hologram over a distance of at least 70 miles.

Morrow runs The Red Tornado's cerebral matrix through a telepathic relay interface. The only way to shut it down is to kill Morrow.  Even after Alex does this, The Red Tornado somehow achieves sentience and still tries to kill Supergirl.


Dialogue Triumphs

The way James says "Affirmative" when Lucy asks if she can tell her father 'yes' to the two of them having dinner with him. The tone is subtly mocking, as James knows General Lane is the sort of military tight-ass who would want to hear Affirmative rather than Yes.

(After General Lane describes all the monsters the DEO has captured)
General Lane: Do you know the difference between them and her? She's blonde.
Director Henshaw: She saved you and your daughter tonight! You don't owe her fear and contempt! You owe her a thank you!

(Kara has set up a gym of sorts for herself and James so they can vent their rage together)
James: Ok. (James begins unloading on the punching bag) I can't stand Lucy's dad.
Kara: (Kara begins punching a car) I can't stand him either.
James: I hate how he gets involved in our relationship. And I am NOT holding Lucy back!
Kara: I can't stand the way Cat treats me!
James: And I really cannot stand how he talks about your cousin!
Kara: I hate how my emotions get the best of me. And I hate how my sister doesn't know what happened to her father.! And I hate that I am never gonna get to have a normal life!
(Kara sends part of the car innards flying)


Dialogue Disasters

Director Henshaw:  I am not mad. I am... controlling my anger. (Which you wouldn't need to do if you weren't mad...)

Director Henshaw: I suggest you get into the habit. You know, I once told you there are people out there who fear your cousin. It's not because he has god-like powers. It's because of what he might do with them if he ever lost his temper. (Because they're afraid of his powers...)

Quite honestly, about 90% of the script.


Continuity

Alex and Kara tell Winn what they discovered about Jeremiah Danvers' death in 104.

The President in the reality of Supergirl is a woman.

Supergirl has apparently learned how to control her Super-Breath since 102.

Maxwell Lord refers to the death of his parents, as he did in 105.

Winn discovers that Jeremiah Danvers disappeared and was presumed dead while on a mission with another agent in South America. The other agent was also presumed dead, until he reappeared a month later with no memory of what had happened.  The other agent was Hank Henshaw.

At the end of the episode, Kara cuts herself on a broken piece of glass.


The Fridge Factor

Kara is attacked on all fronts throughout the episode and isn't really allowed to defend herself, purely so that her two harshest critics - Director Henshaw and Cat Grant - can come to her defense in the face of the just plain evil General Lane and Cat Grant's mother. The worst part is that Kara's sudden anger-management issues seemingly came about because James Olsen is back together with his ex-girlfriend.


The Kryptonite Factor

The entire episode is entirely dependent upon the public suddenly being afraid of Supergirl after she breaks the hand of one idiot who tried taking a swing at her, the media running with the idea of her being out of control and General Sam Lane being completely untouchable from any sort of scandal while still being blisteringly incompetent at his job.


The Bottom Line

The first truly disappointing episode of Supergirl to date. Ignoring the waste of introducing T.O. Morrow and The Red Tornado only to kill them off (yes, I know there's a few ways they can bring Red Tornado back but I'm ignoring those for the moment), the whole episode is mean-spirited and ill-conceived given that everything is built around the concept of Kara having trouble repressing her anger when everything about her character to date has been built around how repressed she is. The one saving grace of the episode is that Cat Grant is allowed to move beyond being a cartoon character for a moment, albeit it entirely as a reaction against her even more cartoonish mother.