Supergirl Episode Guide: Season 5, Episode 8 - The Wrath of Rama Khan

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



Plot

As Lena and Hope work to launch Project Non Nocere, Supergirl takes the fight to Leviathan and faces Rama Khan again, as he plots to use Acrata and her powers to trigger a super-volcano. Saving the world may require Alex to make an act of trust depending on Malefic to aid them, but can J'onn's brother be trusted?


Influences

Star Trek II: The Wrath of Khan (title) and JLA: The Obsidian Age by Joe Kelly.


Goofs

It was said in 506 that the Medallion of Acrata has no power unto itself and it only awakens the inner darkness of the person who wears it. Yet this episode acts like the power of Acrata can only either be in the medallion or its host, as Rama Khan has to abduct Andrea Rojas to make use of powers to activate the Staff of the Shadow Realm. (Margot was lying to Andrea when she said that, to keep her from thinking she was free of Leviathan.)

How did Alex recognize Malefic in his human form when that form was chosen by Lena after the last time the DEO fought Malefic?


Performances

It's hard to single out a single performer this time around. As in last week's episode, Melissa Beonist and Katie McGrath break your heart with their interactions as Kara and Lena. Chyler Leigh gets some similar moments as Alex, being torn between duty and her desire to believe in Kara's idealism. And brief as they are, Phil LaMarr gets some great moments acting opposite David Harewood.


Super Trivia

Gamemnae mentions another member of Leviathan called Tezumak who has been speaking against Rama Khan in secret. In Joe Kelly's Obsidian Age story, which introduced Rama Khan and Gamemnae, Tezumak was a member of the League of Ancients who had been a monk from a Mesoamerican society which pre-dated the Aztecs. He lead the warrior order founded by Gamemane and wears bronze honor which honors the gods that brought science to his people. He would later sacrifice himself to help the Justice League stop Gamemnae's plans.

The password for Lex Luthor's security system is based on his favorite quote from John Milton's Paradise Lost - "Arise or be forever fallen."

This episode ended with a scene involving Nash Wells from The Flash, setting up Crisis on Infinite Earths. This scene is described in detail in the entry for F608.


Technobabble

Lex Luthor's hideouts are lead-lined, and protected by automatic systems with ion cannons that automatically change into Kryptonte cannons after detecting Kryptonian DNA following a first shot.

Brainiac-5 says that he can beam a hologram into Lena Luthor's hideout by harnessing the Kryptonian cache crystals the DEO has.

Lean determines that she can beat the DEO virus shutting down her system by replicating the virus, reverse-engineering it and overriding the shutoff remotely.

Kara suggests that Malefic could counteract Myriad by deploying all his mental energy against it.

Brainiac-5 says that the ancient super-volcano located under National City hasn't erupted since the Cenozoic Era, and was 10,000 times more powerful than the volcano at Pompeii.

Brainiac-5 calculates a 98% chance Myriad will be neutralized and a . 01% chance Lena will surrender, which makes it a virtual certainty Lena will not survive if Claymore 3 is used to attack Lena. He further calculates that if they use Malefic to neutralize Myriad, there is an 86% chance they will stop Myriad and a 0% chance Lena will be harmed.

The psychic inhibitors in the DEO absorb 6% of Malefic's psychic energy output, or 4,000 terawatts.


Dialogue Triumphs

Lena: We must stay true to our mission. We don't kill people no matter how much they've hurt us.

(Supergirl's hologram appears in Lena's secret lab.)
Kara: Lena.
Lena: (matter-of-factly) Supergirl.
Kara: Please, just hear me out.
Lena: Save your breath. You showed me who you really are, and I believe you.
Kara: You have every right to say that, but don't do this.
Lena: Do what?
Kara: Whatever it is you're planning on doing with Myriad and Malefic's Q-waves.
Lena: Did it ever occur to you that I was gonna do something good for the world?
Kara: With Myriad, people won't understand!
Lena: Of course, you assumed the worst. I'm not the bad guy.
Kara: I know. You spent years trying to be open and trusting, even when everyone expected you to be like your family. Even when everyone in your life let you down. Even when I was weak and lied to you, knowing that all you ever asked for was the truth, you were always better. Lex took advantage of my weakness and he used it to manipulate you. He wanted my mistakes to change you. He wanted you to become him. But you are nothing like him. Nothing. Don't let my mistakes turn you into something you're not.
Lena: I am good. And I always was. Lex didn't change me and you didn't change me either. You just exposed me to the ugliness of humanity. You did me a favor, Kara. I learned what kind of deceitful person you really are, and that's what inspired me to do this.
Kara: Lena...
Lena: Your words mean nothing to me anymore. Spare us both the drama. Leave me alone.

Kara: You know, a part of me always knew that this couldn't be that easy. And I get it. I fully understand why she feels betrayed. It's so hard for her to trust people. But I made her trust me. Over and over again, I made her believe that I was the best friend who would never ever hurt her. And then she finds out in the most horrible way that our entire friendship was based on lies.
Alex: Look, you were damned either way, Kara. Your choice to conceal your identity... it wasn't born out of a place of maliciousness. It was born out of love and compassion. And you were just trying to protect your family. And you were trying to protect Lena from people who could use that information to hurt us. And look, I love Lena, too. I am deeply upset by what is going on. But this... This isn't just two friends that are in a fight. This is someone who has turned a corner.
Kara: No, but this is not her. This is not our Lena.
Alex: Well, who is our Lena? I mean She knew that Lex was out of prison, and she said nothing. She kept Sam Arias locked in a subbasement at L-Corp, knowing that she was Reign, and she said nothing. She knows how to make Kryptonite, and she kept that hidden from us. Lena is leading her own double-life.
Kara: You are making her sound like a Luthor.
Alex: Maybe that's because she is one. We can't put our faith in some distant hope that she's gonna do the right thing when every single action that she has taken up until now points to the contrary. Okay, we have to stop her, Kara. The safety of the world depends on that.
Kara: She is not Lex. I will not treat her like a villain.
Alex: I know you won't. That's why I have to.

Alex: She doesn't understand how hard this is for me. I mean, Lena is my friend, too, and now all of a sudden, I'm supposed to decide whether I should risk everybody's lives just to save hers? And Malefic, he invaded my mind. He threatened Kelly, and now I'm just supposed to trust him? You know what's on the line. You're the one who taught me how to do this job, and you're the one who's had to make really tough decisions so that people don't die.
J'onn: You have every reason to fear my brother. I can't promise you that Malefic has changed for good. People make mistakes and they do terrible things. We have to let them do better, bring them back into the light. Otherwise what's the point in trying to save everyone?

Hope: I can still try a manual override. I can reposition the dishes myself.
Lena: We discussed this. Absolutely not. You could be killed. Both Hope and Eve gone, forever.
Hope: But it would be worth it for both of us because I believe in you. Eve did, too. I have seen the depravity of humans. I have seen the betrayal and the pain. Let me help, so that we can stop them from committing any more of these horrible acts once and for all.
Lena: No. I will not allow it. We will find another way. Your partnership has meant the world to me, Hope. You're the only friend I can count on.
Hope: But, Ms. Luthor, I'm not your friend. I'm something you created to serve a purpose.

(J'onn watches Malefic fly off. Suddenly, he senses a presence behind him and turns around to see a strange man in alien armor.)
The Monitor: Well done, J'onn J'onzz. You passed the test.
J'onn: Test? You released my brother from the Phantom Zone? You brought my brother here?
The Monitor: When I saw you fight in Elseworlds, I could see that you were a great warrior, but one plagued by his past, and that made you vulnerable. You believed it was because you had left Mars, but it was something far, far greater, J'onn. Your brother. But now that you have faced those demons, you have come to learn your vulnerabilities and your strengths. And now you are ready.
J'onn: Ready for what?
The Monitor: A Crisis.

(We see the Monitor's celestial platform from Elseworlds. Lex Luthor is sitting regarding a crystal chessboard. He moves a piece and sighs in boredom.)
Lex Luthor: Checkmate. Again.
(There is a wooshing noise as The Monitor appears and walks over to Lex.)
Lex Luthor: Finally, you've returned. I don't know if anybody's told you this, but the feng shui of this place is a bit stale.
The Monitor: I brought you back because the universe will need a mind like yours.
Lex Luthor: Someone who can checkmate anyone?
The Monitor: The time has come for you to fulfill your destiny, Lex Luthor. You can now become the hero that you have longed to be.
Lex Luthor: I've always been the hero.
(The Monitor regards Lex stoically and without comment.)
Lex Luthor: (chuckle) Happy to help. But first, we have to discuss my sister.


Continuity

Alex and Brainiac-5 save Kara from the Fortress defenses.

Brainiac-5 tracked Rama Khan's energy to the Fortress.

Kara tells Alex and Brainiac-5 that Lena already knew her secret identity and that Lex Luthor had told her.

Brainiac-5 tracks Lena to Mount Norquay - the site of one of Lex Luthor's old hideouts.

Lena stops the automatic defenses from killing Kara because she is still committed to a non-violent solution.

Leviathan is led by an Elder, whom Gamemnae refers to as a "her."

Tezumak is a member of Leviathan who is even more violent and warlike than Rama Khan, whom Rama Khan fears would burn down the Earth if he were put in charge of running things.

Rama Khan has been running Leviathan for two million years.

Gamemnae speaks of a cosmic alignment that comes once every 2000 years which is almost upon them. During the last such alignment, Rama Khan caused the eruption of the volcano at Pompei.

The Staff of the Shadow World is an artifact that Rama Khan can use to supplement his own powers. Brainiac-5 says the last time it was seen was at Pompei, but there are references to it in the writings of the Ancient Mesopotamians and Herculaneum. However, it requires the power of Acrata to function - either the person wielding the power of shadow or the Medallion of Acrata itself.

Kara tells Alex and Brainiac-5 about how Lena killed Lex and how he told her about how they lied to her with his dying breath.

Kara says she thinks she can still get through to Lena, based on the fact that Lena did save her from Rama Khan and deactivated the Kryptonite weapons at Mount Norquay.

J'onn and Malefic arrive and Malefic tells everyone about Project Non Nocere and Lena's plan to force everyone on Earth to act in what Lena considers to be a socially acceptable manner.

J'onn says Malefic can be trusted following their mind-meld, but Alex refuses to allow the DEO agents to turn off their psychic inhibitors and has armed guards watching Malefic at all times even after he agrees to help them fight Lena.

Rama Khan abducts Andrea Rojas and takes her with him.

Kara fails to reach Lena once her message goes through.

Alex points out that Lena had kept secrets from them just as much as Kara had kept secrets from Lena, specifically mentioning how Lena learned how to synthesize Kryptonite, how she knew Reign's secret identity and how she said nothing about Lex sneaking out of prison.

The DEO secretly used Kara's hologram broadcast to send a virus to shut down the defense systems of Lena's secret base. If that doesn't work before Myriad activates, Alex has positioned the Claymore 3 satellite over Mount Norquay to destroy the mountain outright.

The DEO virus successfully prevents Myriad from activating by locking the satellite arrays in Lena's base. The arrays could be unlocked and aimed manually, but that might risk activating the failsafes Lex Luthor installed that Lena doesn't know how to deactivate.

Hope offers to sacrifice herself to unlock the arrays but Lena refuses to allow her to do it, calling it suicidal. When Hope points out that she is programmed to do whatever it takes to see Project Non Nocere completed, Lena finally says her by saying it would be short-sighted to let her self-terminate now when there is another way to win. In truth, Lena seems to have come to regard Hope as a friend.

Kara suggests that Malefic could counteract Myriad by deploying all his mental energy against it. Malefic is agreeable to trying, though J'onn says the energy required could kill him.

Arcata is able to briefly teleport inside the DEO to warn them what Rama Khan is trying to do.  This results in her being entombed with the Staff of the Shadow World in the basement of the National City Tar Pits Study Center while Rama Khan tries to trigger a super volcano under National City.

Rama Khan triggers a 5.4 magnitude earthquake with his opening salvo. This renders Lena unable to do any further work on reverse-engineering the virus.

Alex ultimately decides to let Malefic try to neutralize Myriad telepathically.

J'onn tries to free Acrata from Rama Khan's grip as Kara fights Rama Khan directly.

Alex orders the DEO agents to shut off their inhibitors to grant Malefic more power. This allows him to neutralize Myriad.

Rama Khan is defated and Gamemnae takes over his position as the leader of Leviathan, the Elder having lost confidence in him after he lost to Supergirl twice.

Hope pretends to be Eve Teschmacher and takes the blame for what Lena was doing with Myriad, claiming she was forcing her to act against her will.  Neither Kara or Alex believe this for a moment, but there's nothing they can do to prove Lena is pulling a fast one as nobody but Lena knew about Hope's existence or her taking up residence in Eve's body.

Andrea Rojas returns home, satisfied to be free of Leviathan, for now.

Andrea's happy place in her virtual network is revealed to be a montage of her happiest moments with Russell Rogers.

Malefic returns to Mars, in J'onn's spaceship, to join with the White Martian resistance.

The Monitor reveals himself to J'onn and congratulates him on passing his test, saying that he freed Malefic from the Phantom Zone to allow J'onn a chance to reconcile with his brother and rid himself of the guilt that was holding him back.  He says that J'onn is now ready to help him fight in the coming Crisis.

It is revealed that Lex Luthor is alive and was resurrected by the Monitor because his mind will be needed to help save the multiverse during the coming Crisis. Lex agrees to help but says they have to discuss his sister first.


Location

Fortress of Solitude.
Mount Norquay


The Bottom Line

A wonderful episode which would be better without the Leviathan subplot that is seemingly tacked onto it and serves no purpose other than giving us some more intense action scenes than Phil LaMarr staring at a screen and grunting. Presumably the set-up for Gamename will pay off later this season but right now Leviathan is too vaguely defined to be nearly as interesting as Lena going evil and not nearly as threatening.

Blame whoever decided to make the season's big-bad be an ill-defined Brian Michael Bendis concept that has nothing to do with that the Supergirl writers ultimately decided to do with the name.  I'll give them this though - turning Joe Kelly's League of Ancients into evil Kryptonians secretly ruling the Earth is way more interesting than what Leviathan turned out to be in the current Superman comics. But that's a whole other rant.

Supergirl Episode Guide: Season 5, Episode 7 - Tremors

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

Plot

Kara and Lena have both learned about Leviathan's existence, but will a new common enemy be enough to convince Lena to abandon her plans for revenge? Meanwhile, J'onn has a startling revelation regarding his brother Malefic.


Influences

JLA: The Obsidian Age by Joe Kelly.


Performances

As always, Carl Lumbly is a delight as M'yrnn.

The scene of Lena revealing all her secrets to Kara is heartbreaking on multiple levels and Melissa Benoist and Katie McGrath sell every second of it.


Artistry

The scene of J'onn and Kara sparring is well-shot and well-blocked, making effective use of some simple special effects.


Super Trivia

The characters of Rama Khan and Gamemnae originally came from a JLA storyline called The Obsidian Age. Both characters were powerful magicians and part of an order called The League of Ancients, made up of powerful mages from around the world, united in the common cause of protecting the Earth.

Rama Khan was the defender of the nation of Jarhanpur and drew strength from the soil of his nation. He was able to manipulate it, transforming the soil into fire, hard rock or wine. He commanded other magics as well, had a modicum of super strength and was immortal.

Gamemnae was an Atlantean from the days shortly after the magical island had sunk. Banished for having blonde hair, Gamemnae traveled the Earth and learned magics, returning home to raise the island once more and transform the water-breathing Atlanteans into air-breathers again. She went on to found the League of Ancients as a counter to the Justice League, whom she foresaw coming back in time to undo her actions, which were destined to fail.

The Arrowverse versions of Rama Khan and Gamenae are depicted as aliens from the planet Jarhanpur - a sister world of Krypton. They and three other people from their planet were said to have come to Earth thousands of years ago, with their spaceship being the "meteor" that killed the dinosaurs. Their powers are depicted as being alien rather than magical.

The Arrowverse version of Rama Khan is an Earth-Bender who can travel through the earth, change himself into a living dust devil and control the earth around him. He can also sense the presence of any person on Earth.

It is unclear what powers the Arrowverse version of Gamenae has, but she asks Rama Kham to let her use her technology to deal with Lena Luthor rather than making a big show of his powers.

The Leviathan organization in the original comics was recently revealed to have been created by the vigilante Manhunter (aka Mark Shaw). The details of this have yet to be adequately explained.

The security system for the Fortress of Solitude, upon detecting Lena Luthor, plays a prerecorded message warning Lex Luthor to give up his Kryptonite ring and transportal watch. This is a nod to a classic item Lex Luthor had in the post-Crisis era - a ring made of Kryptonite to keep Superman at bay. Ironically, the ring wound up giving Lex Luthor inoperable cancer in the comics, as it turned out Kryptonite radiation was deadly to humans - just not as fast acting as with Kryptonians..

As Brainiac-5's inhibitor fails, he unleashes a string of technobabble regarding the Psions affecting the Czarnians' evolutionary process. In the DC Comics universe, the Psions are a race of reptilian beings from the planet Maltus, who are among the most scientifically advanced beings in existence. The Czarnians are a nearly extinct species, with the bounty hunter Lobo being the last of the Czarnians.

Brainiac-5 also says something about hydrogen molecules being synonymous with Thanagarian atoms. The Thanagarians are a race of war-like bird-people. Some versions of Hawkman and Hawkwoman are Thanagarian.


Technobabble

The word "Leviathan" occurs six times in the Hebrew Bible, according to Brainiac-5 but not once does it appear in any historical scientific literature.

Brainiac-5 attempts to track Rama Khan by his seismic wave signature.

The archive computer for the Fortress of Solitude is powered by a polyphasic quantum processor.

The Fortress of Solitude contains a sonic cannon which sends concentrated blasts of high-frequency ultrasonic waves at whatever it is aimed at.

There is a particular coffee shop in National City which Brainiac-5 frequents because it is close to National City's tar pits, which emit an energy that enhances his brain functionality. He believes Leviathan have a base close by for the same reason.

The dust from the tar pits emits Veridian radiation. Brainiac-5 is able to use this to thwart the cloaking technology inside the elevator to Leviathan's headquarters and reveal the button to make the elevator work.


Dialogue Triumphs

J'onn: Father, I need your counsel. Malefic came after my family, and history repeated itself. To protect them, I had to send Mal back to the Phantom Zone. I have tried to move on, but it's like I can feel him nearby.
M'yrnn: That's because he is nearby.
J'onn: What?
M'yrnn: Your brother is here.
J'onn: You mean here in my mind?
M'yrnn: No. I mean, he's across town.

M'yrnn: The only chance of saving your brother is to let down your psychic shield entirely. Open your mind to him like a flower. Complete vulnerability. Allow him access to your memories and innermost thoughts, so he can see your truth.
J'onn: If I bond with Malefic... he can choose to poison my mind. How can I make that choice knowing that he will most likely murder me and kill everyone I love?
M'yrnn: Then retrieve the Phantom Zone projector, send him back to isolation.
J'onn: And punish him again?
M'yrnn: I'm sorry, my son. In my lifetime, I faced this test. Should I attempt to reach Malefic and risk the utter decimation of my people, my family, and myself by his destructive power? Or should I lock him away where he cannot harm others? I made my impossible choice. There is no such thing as right or wrong. There is only peace in one's heart, something I never found. The sins of the father are visited on the son. You must make your own choice, J'onn. Then ask H'ronmeer to guide you to your brother. No matter what you decide, I will love you for it. Just as I loved both you and Malefic long ago.

Rama Khan: (speaking as he shapes a giant bolder from the earth under him) You thought you could hide her from me? I am ancient. I am the earth. What are you?!
(He throws the rock at Supergirl, who punches it into dust easily.)
Supergirl: Me? I'm just peeved you didn't knock.

Kara: Lena, you have to believe me, I never meant to humiliate you.
Lena: No. When I came to this city, I promised myself that I would never trust anyone again... And then I met you. You chipped away at my armor with your warmth and your earnestness, and you convinced me to trust in people and friendship again. And against my better judgment, I did!  All the while telling you about my Achilles heel - betrayal. (sobbing) I confided in you that everyone in my past had betrayed me. About how much it hurt to have someone you love lie to you and betray you. I spelled it out to you over and over again, essentially begging you not to violate my trust, begging you not to prove that, once again, I was a fool! You reassured me ad nauseam that you would never lie to me, that you'd never hurt me. And all the while, there wasn't a single honest moment in our friendship.
Kara: No! No, that is not true
Lena: No! I killed my brother for you, for our friends! Don't you understand what you've done?!
(Kara starts crying)
Kara: When you found out, why didn't you come to me right away, so I could explain?
Lena: "Explain"?
Kara: Yeah? If you hate me so much, why... Why not out me at the Pulitzer party? Why pretend to still be my friend this long?
Lena: Because I wanted you to experience what you did to me. Feel what I felt
Kara:.(sighs) I understand your pain and your fury and... And you're right. I made a big mistake, maybe the biggest mistake of my life, but please Lena, please don't leave the Fortress with Myriad. Please don't let my mistake push you to do something terrible.You are a good person-
Lena: No! No, you don't ever get to tell me who or what I am again!
Securty Drone: Intruder alert! Intruder alert!
(The binding crystals instantly form over Kara's body.)
Kara: Did you reprogram the Fortress defenses to attack me?
Lena: Yes. And I rigged it to answer to this little button I have in my hand.
Kara: Are you going to try to kill me?
Lena: (scoffs) No. Supergirl, I'm not gonna kill you. I'm not a villain. (pauses as she activates her transportal watch) You shouldn't have treated me like one.


Continuity

This episode opens one day after the events of 506.

The old woman from Leviathan tries to kill Lena in her home.

Lena's apartment has the most sophisticated security system in the world, according to Lena.

Lex Luthor once theorized that Superman had a fortress where he kept all the advanced or alien weaponry used against him. Lena believes he was right and that this fortress has the dispersal system she needs for Project Non Nocere.

J'onn has been having visions of Malefic as if he were nearby for two days. He thinks they are guilt pangs over how he treated his brother in the past.

The old woman from Leviathan is revealed to be a woman named Margot. She is also a servant of Leviathan, albeit one in contact with its leaders.

Leviathan is said to have been on Earth since the dinosaurs were wiped out and they have been keeping humanity from destroying the planet ever since.

Two of the leaders of Leviathan are Rama Khan and Gamemnae.

Rama Khan was placed in charge of the Earth by an Elder of some sort.

Kara saves Lena from an assassination attempt by Rama Khan.

According to Brainiac-5, Rama Khan was said to have been responsible for the Antioch Earthquake of 526 AD (the 8th largest natural disaster in recorded history), the volcanic explosion of {ompeii, the Yellow River flood of 1887, the Bhola Cyclone and the Biblical flood.

J'onn communes with the spirit of his father seeking guidance. The projection of M'yrnn tells him that Malefic is being held prisoner in National City rather than the Phantom Zone.

Lena suggests that one of Lex's weapons might be able to neutralize Rama Khan, but says Superman destroyed all the really bad ones. This leads Kara to confirm the existence of the Fortress of Solitude to Lena and suggest maybe they can find an appropriate weapon there.

Alex and Brainiac-5 are caught in an explosion when they investigate Rip Roar's booby-trapped body. One of Brainiac-5's inhibitors is damaged in the blast. Alex develops a mild concussion.

Rip Roar's armor is intact after the explosion.

Superman programmed the Fortress of Solitude to react violently if Luthor family DNA was detected. This is known as the L-Protocol.

M'yrnn tells J'onn he must decide if he will truly banish Malefic for good or try once again to save his soul. The only way to do this is to drop all his psychic defenses and open himself up to Malefic completely.

Lena makes reference to the events of 420 and how she and Kara traveled to Kaznia together.

Rama Khan determines that Lena must be in the Fortress of Solitude since he cannot sense her on Earth. Apparently the Fortress is the one place on Earth that is not of Earth.

According to the Fortress computer, five aliens from a sister planet of Krypton, Jarhanpur, came to Earth to escape years of civil wars, which eventually destroyed their planet. One of them, Rama Khan, had the extraordinary power to bend the earth to his will.

Lex Luthor designed a number of tiny but powerful guns that could be hidden under a wig, back when he was still trying to hide his baldness.

According to Lena, Lex only wore real human hair wigs.

The Fortress armory holds Myraid - the device used by Astra to turn the people of Earth into obedient drones in Supergirl's first season.

Brainiac-5 discovers a symbol in Rip Roar's technology which he traces to numerous disasters throughout history. This knowledge leads him to what he thinks is an entrance to Leviathan's secret hideout.

Kelly dumps Alex, saying can't cope being with someone who risks her life on a daily basis.

Rama Khan attacks Kara in the Fortress of Solitude.

Gamemnae's security measures take Braniac-5 and Alex into a strange cavern underground rather than Leviathan's headquarters in National City.

Kara uses the same acrobatic flip maneuver she used while fighting J'onn earlier in the episode to beat Rama Khan.

Kara discovers Lena taking Myriad.

Lena tells Kara about how she killed Lex in 422 and that Lex's last action was to reveal how all her friends had been lying to her about Kara being Supergirl.

Lena turns the Fortress security measures against Kara and makes her escape.

J'onn finds Malefic in Lena's secret lab and opens his mind and heart to Malefic.  This changes Malefic's mind and destroys his hatred of J'onn.

Alex goes to Kelly and promises to help her work through her grief over her fiancee.


Location

The Fortress of Solitude


The Bottom Line

Enrapturing, despite its flaws. The biggest issue is that Leviathan, built up as this big deal all season, appears to be just two aliens sitting in a bar underground arguing with each other. (Depressingly, this is STILL a better use of the concept than what Leviathan turned out to be in the comics, but I digress.) Leviathan should be epic but its utterly goofy and far too much time is spent on the Alex/Kelly romance which was rushed to completion and is nowhere near as interesting as the writers seem to think it is.

That being said, the scenes with Lena and Kara are some of the best acting we've ever seen from Katie McGrath and Melissa Benoist and the real emotional resonance of the season is there. Ditto the scenes involving the J'onzz family and Malefic and J'onn finally coming to an accord, though part of me wonders how much of that may have been prompted by Lena's control of Malefic. Time will tell, I suppose, but all in all this is the best episode of the season.

Supergirl Episode Guide: Season 5, Episode 5 - Dangerous Liaisons

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

Plot

It's the eve of Obsidian North's public launch of their new "Collective Reality" contact lenses and a new metahuman mercenary is gathering gear for an unknown purpose. As Supergirl and the DEO try to track down this new threat, Kara must help William Dey with his investigation into Andrea Rojas, as she learns the truly personal reasons he has for bringing down her criminal empire. Meanwhile, Malefic and Lena begin working together to find a way to mechanize Malefic's power.


Influences

Titans #20  (character of Breathtaker), Young Justice #2 (character of Rip Roar) and the movies Spider-Man 2 and Robocop, which... inspired certain elements of Rip Roar's costume.


Goofs

The effects and editing used to make Brainiac-5 as possessed by the Aurafacian look scary are anything but scary.

Dreamer using her powers to hold back a wave the size of the whole Pacific coast seems far beyond her power level and what she should be capable of doing with her energy abilities.

Given their distinctive beards match, it is hard to believe William Dey - presumably observant to be a successful reporter - didn't realize that Rip Roar was Russell Rogers. Some best friend!


Performances

Phil LaMarr is a well-known voice actor these days, but he proves to be no mean actor in the flesh, playing Malefic trapped in a human form.


Artistry

The opening Obsidian North commercial is a stunning parody of nature-themed advertising for a piece of technology.


Super Trivia

The wind-controlling metahuman from last week's episode is given a proper name in this episode: Breathtaker. Strangely enough, this name has been used by two different DC Comics supervillains. However, the Earth-38 version of Breathtaker seems to be based on the second Breathtaker, given her power set and basic gimmick.

First appearing in Titans #21 in November 2000, Breathtaker was part of a group of metahuman assassins known as The Hangmen. Her real name and origins were never revealed. She had the power to control the air around her but her trademark move was draining the air out of a person's lungs.

This episode introduces a cyborg assassin known as Rip Roar, who is armed with two extra robot hands. There is an earlier DC Comics character called Rip Roar, but he has nothing in common with his Earth-38 counterpart apart from a shared name and their both having four arms.

The original Rip Roar was a member of the New Gods, who first appeared in Young Justice #2, in October 1998. A native of the planet Apocalypse, Rip Roar was a soldier under Darkseid's direct command and a rival of Darkseid's son, Kalibak. Rip Roar became stranded on Earth thanks to Kalibak's treachery, shortly after he stole a Super-Cycle from the world of New Genesis. This Super-Cycle would become the team transport of Young Justice, after the team defeated Rip Roar. In addition to having four arms and the usual New God super-strength and enhanced durability, Rip Roar had the ability to project fire and ice from his hands.


Technobabble

Kara tells Kelly that the perfect gift for Alex would be a Schadel XG-1000 motorcycle helmet, in small, matte black.

Lex Luthor created a laser rifle he called the Marathon Laser because it could fire a concentrated beam of light 26.2 miles.

Brainiac-5 is able to augment the executive section of his brain to allow the Aurafacian to speak through him, after he bonds with it.The Aurafacian will be unable to lie, thanks to a polygraph filter in Brainiac-5's brain.

The occipital lobe is the part of the brain where Q-waves are generated.

Q-waves are projected like sonar from a dolphin.

Malefic's Q-waves broadcast on a special frequency that allows him to control the thoughts and emotions of others, while being unable to connect to the Martian hive-mind.

A Fusion Cannon is a high-energy weapon formed from the combination of a high-power, high-range laser (like Lex Luthor's Marathon Laser) and a particle amplifier. It is capable of generating an energy beam 100 times hotter than the center of Earth's sun. According to Brainiac-5, the Fusion Cannon isn't supposed to be invented until the 22nd century.

Fusion Cannons are impossible to track, due to the amplifier's radiation obfuscating the laser's energy signature. They are also powerful enough to hurt Supergirl.

The Maladorian Dendroasp is 100 times more aggressive than any animal on Earth.

Rip Roar is able to trigger a massive eruption in the Antarctic water table, which sends shockwaves east and west, resulting in an unprecedented number of sea swells. Based on the seafloor pattern and the Antarctic Circumpolar Current, the biggest is set to make landfall on the North American Pacific coast one hour after the eruption.

The geyser Rip Roar creates pumps out three cubic miles of water every second. At that sustained rate, every coastal city in the world will start flooding within 12 minutes.

The helmet Rip Roar wears is biologically adhered and it functions as some sort of mental armor. Even with a Truth-Seeker attached to him, he does not say anything about who hired him other than to describe them as "They."


Dialogue Triumphs

Lena:  It seems we have gotten off on the wrong foot. So I have a proposition. You have the ability to incept thoughts into people's minds. I want to study your brain, so I can develop a technology that can do the same thing.
Malefic: Forgive my skepticism, but last time someone showed interest in my brain, the High Council sent me to the Phantom Zone.
Lena: You'd be back in the Phantom Zone if it wasn't for me.
Malefic: And yet, now we are at an impasse. What's in it for me?
Lena: We both want the same thing. We were each betrayed by the people closest to us. Work with me. I believe you've the ability to do great things.
Malefic: I don't want to do great things. I want revenge! So I have a proposal for you. Martian biology prevents a brother from harming his brother. That's why I've been attacking the people closest to J'onn J'onzz. If you remove this barrier from my brain so I can kill my brother, I will give you access to my mind.
Lena: It is my mission to stop people from hurting each other. I will not kill.
Malefic: Perhaps. But you've gone to extreme measures to bring me here. And now, you are at the precipice. Studying my mind is the key. I know of desperation, human. I know the depths you feel.
Lena: I would have to develop the technology first.
(Malefic merely smirks and nods slightly.)
Lena: Your terms are acceptable. Let's begin.

Brainiac-5: Now, I'm no super-villain, but if I were, and I was right over an Antarctic lake with a weapon designed to fire a beam 100 times hotter than the center of the sun, well, it would be, as they say, "a hot time in the old town tonight."


Continuity

As the episode opens, it is just over 59 hours before the Collective Dream VR contacts officially go on sale.

Andrea has everyone at CatCo writing articles about Collective Dream, regardless of their usual departments and beats.

William Dey volunteers for the assignment of continually writing articles about how big the sales are.

Kara has not told Nia about what William is working on and denied finding anything at the address Nia found which led to a house rented in William's name.

Kelly and Alex are celebrating the anniversary of their first date. Kelly asks Kara for advice on a gift.

Kara tells William about the air-controlling metahuman the DEO captured and says she can get him into the DEO on two conditions; one, he has to sign an NDA  agreeing not to talk about the building and two, he has to bring Kara in on the investigation.. She gives him all right to publish the articles in his name.

Alex uses the Truth Seeker, first seen in 410, on Breathtaker.

Breathtaker says she has no idea who hired her, as she is paid in Bitcoin through a secure server and she never knows what other contractors she might be working with at any time.

Breathtaker's previous contacts include "this lady with killer tattoos (i.e. the Aurafacian from 503), a guy who could detach most of his fingers, and this big dude with some extra appendages." She later clarifies this to be a man with two mechanical arms.

Breathtaker says the man with four arms uses the code name Rip Roar and she last saw him two years earlier in Darien.

William says that Rip Roar killed his best friend from college, Russell Rogers, two years earlier.

Russell had apparently dated Andrea Rojas but become suspicious she was involved in something shady. He disappeared a day after he told William this, with no body ever being found.

Rip Roar steals the Marathon Laser from the vault holding Lex Luthor's belongings at Fort Summit Army Base.

Malefic agrees to let Lena test his powers in exchange for her finding a way to overcome the Martian genetic coding that prohibits brother from hurting brother.

Brainiac briefly bonds with the Aurafacian so it can be questioned, but it delivers no useful information. Like Breathtaker, it was hired on-line through an anonymous drop.

Rip Roar is revealed to be working for Leviathan.

Lena has Malefic attempt to control three hostile alien creatures to narrow down the frequency he uses to control people. These are a Daxamite Scorpion, a Terran Oceanic Devil, and a Maladorian Dendroasp.

Kelly makes a reservation at a waterfront restaurant for her and Alex's anniversary.

Kara knows how to loop a security camera's footage to hide her breaking into Andrea's office.

William Dey has contacts at MI-8.

Kara and William find nothing in Andrea's office more incriminating than a large stockpile of foreign currency in her safe.

Brainiac-5 is able to track the power source of the Marathon Laser to a satellite station in New Mexico.

Rip Roar steals a particle amplifier from the satellite station.

J'onn conducts a psychic scan of Russell Rogers' old apartment in London but sensed nothing other than evidence of a struggle years earlier.

Brainiac-5 determines that the components Rip Roar stole could be used to create a high-power fusion cannon.

Brainiac-5 determines that the common link between the targets of the three super-powered assassins - a scientist, an engineer and a security officer - is that they all were all employed by the Lake Vostok Antarctica Base. Between the three of them, it would have been possible to override every single security protocol in the base.

Brainy further theorizes that Rip-Roar's purpose is to trigger a global flood by melting the glacier over Lake Vostok.

William Dey uses his VR Collective Dream contacts to imagine telling Andrea off about her crimes.

J'onn and Kara fly in-synch to create a whirlpool to suppress the water being pushed up by the geyser created by Rip Roar.

Dreamer uses her powers to stop the wave from destroying America's west coast.

Brainiac determines that Andrea Rojas and Obsidian North couldn't be behind the plot to flood the world. Ignoring that it would have ruined the launch of their new VR lenses (and many people were utterly helpless because they were in VR when the wave hit), the flooding would also have destroyed Obsidian North's manufacturing hub.

Nia and Kelly befriend one another after Nia walks in on Kelly having an anxiety attack triggered by watching Alex in action saving people.

Lena uses her research to place Malefic under her control, making him unable to hurt anyone or want to leave her lab.

Kelly's favorite color is purple.

Alex's gift to Kelly is the same motorcycle helmet she asked for, so that Kelly can ride on Alex's bike with her.

Rip Roar is identified as Russell Rogers.

The old woman from Leviathan appears to Andrea Rojas, telling her they need her to deal with Rip Roar.


Location

Fort Summit Army Base
Socorro Satellite Station - New Mexico.
Lake Vostok Antarctica Base - Antarctica


The Fridge Factor

Kara comes off incredibly indecisive in this episode. Early on, she laments to J'onn that her instincts about Andrea Rojas and William Dey were completely inaccurate and that she can't trust herself. Yet the middle part of the episode has her telling Alex to trust her gut instincts, despite a complete lack of evidence.


The Bottom Line

Quite possibly the worst episode in the show's history. It's on par with the various Parasite episodes, at the very least. The chief problem is that it makes Kelly (still a virtual non-entity, character wise) and Alex celebrating the anniversary of their first date more important than Lena stumbling down the slippery slope toward villainy by betraying Malefic.

It's hard to say what is stupider in the end; the conceit that one ray gun can trigger a tidal wave that will move straight toward the Pacific Coast of the USA from Antarctica, Dreamer suddenly having the ability to stop a tidal wave that huge by thinking at it or William Dey not being able to recognize his best friend is Rip Roar despite them both having the same beard.

Supergirl Episode Guide: Season 5, Episode 4 - In Plain Sight

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




Plot

Kara begins to investigate William Dey's shady connections, only to discover he is not who she thought he was. Meanwhile, the conflict between Malefic and J'onn reaches a boiling point, as James makes a decision about his future.


Influences

The Guardian comics of Joe Simon and Jack Kirby and the Martian Manhunter comics of John Ostrander and Tom Mandrake. James' storyline is also heavily inspired by the real-world crisis in the United States regarding for-profit prisons and the need for reform.


Goofs

Why is William Dey pretending to be married? It's an easily detectable lie and adds nothing to his cover identity, particularly since he is going undercover as himself!

For that matter, using a stock-photo off the Internet in place to represent said wife seems incredibly amateurish for an award-winning investigative reporter.

Despite J'onn's assertion that you can see the moons of Mars on a clear day from Earth, the Martian moons are renowned for being difficult to observe. The larger of the two moons is only 14 miles across, with the other being 8 miles across. The two also orbit so closely to Mars that it is difficult for them to be distinguished, even with a large telescope. It's even difficult to see the moons on Mars itself, as the planets circle the planet so lowly and so closely to the Martian equator that the curvature of the planet prevents large portions of the planet from ever seeing the moon.

Chyler Leigh goes over the top in playing the Malefic-possessed Alex, chewing-out J'onn.


Performances

The interplay between Katie McGrath and Jesse Rath is a delight to watch. We don't see Lena and Brainy interact often, but when they do it's something magical. There's an irony in them being the two least emotionally involved characters in the show, but while Brainy seeks to expand his horizons and become more empathetic, Lena seeks to shut down that side of her.


Super Trivia

William Dey's contact in Mexico City is said to be a member of Intergang. Intergang is a criminal organization created by Jack Kirby during his time writing various Superman comics, which was given alien technology from Apokolips to facilitate certain operations on Earth to benefit to Darkseid.

The homeless teen who sets James on the path to deciding to stay in Calvintown is named Simon Kirby. This is a tribute to writer Joe Simon and artist Jack Kirby, who created the character of Guardian.

James hiring Simon to work for his newspaper at the end of the episode is also a nod to The Newsboy Legion - the sidekicks of The Guardian, who were a group of homeless paperboys who frequently got into trouble while investigating crimes on their own in the grand boy adventurer fashion.

The wind-manipulating female metahuman who shows up at Elena Torres' apartment is not identified in this episode, but has similar powers to Windfall - a mercenary who was part of the group known as the Masters of Disaster. Curiously, Windfall was recently adapted as a character for both Black Lightning and the Young Justice animated series. Whoever she is, she has power enough to force Supergirl out a window when she's not expecting it and has control enough to suck the oxygen out of a small space, nearly suffocating Supergirl in seconds.

The suicide-bomb vest Alex is strapped into is said to be made up of a hybrid of Tamaranean and Pharoid technology. Both these alien races are taken from the DC Comics Universe. The Teen Titan Starfire is from the planet Tamaran. The Pharoids are the rulers of the Phraron Empire and hail from the planet Pharos IV, and first appeared in Green Lantern # 156.

At the end of the episode, James tells Simon not to call him Chief, after Simon says "Thanks, Chief" for James giving him his camera. "Don't call me Chief!" is one of the catch-phrases of Perry White, the editor of the Daily Planet and Jimmy's usual boss in the comics.


Technobabble

According to Brainy, Malefic's brain chemistry is unlike that of a typical Green Martian. As such, the usual psychic inhibitors and other DEO weapons meant to pacify a Green Martian are ineffective.

Synd'ar'k is the Martian word for Sinner.

The Verdex Blaster is a unique DEO weapon which was designed by Hank Henshaw to kill Green Martians.

Hope says that Lex Luthor's journals helped her to build the inception tuner needed to implement thoughts into the brain, but the specific Q-wave frequency needed for the device is still unknown and could be one of hundreds of thousands of variables.

It is shown once again that Kara requires air to breathe and it is possible to suffocate her.

One of the tools Lena uses is a polarity tuner.

The suicide bomb that Malefic binds to Alex is made up of Tamaranean and Pharoid technology.


Dialogue Triumphs

Lena: Look, Brainy, I know you haven't asked for help, - but you're getting it anyway.
Brainy: No. I need my mind consumed with this problem, so I don't think of Nia.
Lena: What happened to your little boxes?
Brainy: Little boxes prevented me from having a real relationship. Unfortunately, my unboxed self does not make a particularly good boyfriend. So I have been analyzing myself for days, searching for a way to modulate myself for the woman I love.
Lena: Well, I'm not gonna give you relationship advice. But as a scientist, you seem to be stuck in an infinite loop, and unless you can escape, you're headed for a crash.
Brainy: That would be cataclysmic.
Lena: So change a variable. What's the one thing you haven't tried yet? Asking for help?
Brainy: (hesitantly) Will you heeee (clearing his throat, suddenly having a coughing fit) Will. You. Help. Me?
Lena: Yes. And I think a small dose of that will go a long way with Nia.

James: Journalism's about fighting for the little guy. You taught me that. It's your job to point out corruption, so what the hell's going on here?
Nelson: Things have changed for some people. Idealism doesn't feed a family. And this whole power of the press thing... it might work if you've got the backing of a media conglomerate and a certain girl with a cape. But around here, it doesn't mean anything.
James: Standing up for what's right always means something. Nelson. That prison is stomping on the neck of this entire town.
Nelson: It's also the only thing that's keeping this town alive. Look, I'd love to see these bastards get what they deserve. But if I call them out, my advertisers, they pull their money, not only am I out of a job but so are the 30 other people I employ. (sighs) Go back to National City. I like to think of you there. You know, I'm just glad somebody made it out of this town. And I'm glad it was you.

J'onn: On a clear day, you can see the moons of Mars from here. Today's not a clear day.


Continuity

J'onn, Kara and the DEO attempt to ambush Malefic, but he is able to overpower their psychic inhibitors and incept Agent Blake and phases through the Phantom Zone Projector beam.

Kelly and James return to Calvintown - the small town they moved to after their father's death, where they stayed with their Aunt Vi.

Kelly keeps having momentary flashes where she sees through Malefic's eyes.

Calvintown has fallen on hard times since the last times James visited, with soup-lines for the homeless and needy a common sight and a large prison now dominating the town center.

Brainy is tasked with recalibrating all the DEO's anti-Martian technology to be effective against Malefic's unique physiology.

Alex also orders the Verdex Blaster - a gun designed specifically for killing Green Martians - to be retrieved from the DEO armory, despite J'onn's objections. She does agree to hold off on using the blaster in the field, however, until Brainy has had a chance to try and recalibrate their regular equipment.

Brainy is still in anguish from his argument with Nia in the last episode and is completely distracted from his work.

Kara suggests bringing Lena in as backup, given Brainy's current distracted state.

Nia investigates William Dey's background and determines that he is not really married. The photo of his wife he keeps on his desk is a stock photo taken from the Internet.

Nia also discovers, after following Dey while astral-projecting, that he's gone to Mexico City rather than London, which is where his current assignment is meant to be sending him. He's apparently meeting with a woman named Elena Torres.

Lena agrees to help the DEO capture Malefic, hoping to find a way to use his powers to facilitate her own research into mass mind control.

James and Kelly discover that a group of teenage boys were squatting in their Aunt Vi's home. Apparently the boys were doing homework when they entered the house.

Kara can speak fluent Spanish.

Kara discovers that Elena Torres is dead, apparently killed in a car crash and she spots William Dey fleeing the scene with another man in a car.

Elena Torres was the head accountant for Obsidian Worldwide.

Nia runs the plate of the car Kara saw William Dey escaping in. It belongs to Sergio Ramos - a known member of the Intergang branch in Mexico City.

James' first job in journalism was interning at the Calvintown Gazette. His mentor was a reporter named Nelson Stewart, who is now the publisher of the Calvintown Gazette.

James and Kelly see one of the boys who was in their Aunt Vi's house later as he's caught shoplifting. Kelly lies and says that he was getting the food for her and pays for it.

James invites the boy to dinner at their house and finds out his name is Simon Kirby.

Kara finds a sheet of paper with some numbers on it at Elena Torres' apartment.

Kara is attacked by a wind-manipulating female metahuman posing as a delivery person when she goes to Elena Torres's apartment.

Kara arrests the metahuman assassin as Supergirl, after Kara is blown out the window.

Alex is ambushed by an agent controlled by Malefic, who is also able to take control of her mind.

Simon has been homeless since last winter, when his mother was arrested trying to shoplift a $30 space heater from the local hardware store. Apparently the judge didn't even give her a chance to explain her actions and sentenced her to 10 years over a petty theft charge.

According to Simon, a lot of people have been getting arrested on minor charges ever since the privately-owned prison was built. The local police, judges and lawyers are apparently getting paid big money by the prison owners to arrest minor offenders and get them sentences for as long as possible to keep money rolling in from the state.

Lena agrees to help Brainy with working out his issues with Nia.

James confronts his former mentor on why the local paper isn't exposing the corruption of the local government and the prison.

Kara has a contact at the Mexico City Herald.

The body retrieved from Elena Torres' car was burned beyond recognition, but was determined to have died of natural causes two weeks earlier. An incisor tooth pulled from the body also didn't match Elena Torres' dental records.

The numbers Kara found correspond to an off-shore bank account with two names on it. One of the names is Elena Torres. The other is anonymous, but tied to an encrypted address.

Malefic attacks J'onn verbally through Alex, pretending that Alex has found out the truth about how J'onn erased all memory of his brother from the Green Martian hive-mind.

James hires the best defense attorney in National City to handle Simon's mother's case.

Simon asks James if he's going to stay in Calvintown and is disappointed when James says he was just visiting.

Kara refers to the events of 403 and how J'onn saved her life whens he passed-out mid-flight after Kryptonite was fed into Earth's atmosphere.

Kara and J'onn realize Malefic has taken over Alex's mind when J'onn says he is glad Nia broke her promise to keep his secret and told Alex about what he had done. Kara says Nia couldn't have done that, because she had been with Kara all morning.

Kelly realizes she is seeing through Malefic's eyes as part of her visions and insists they have to go back to National City to help fight him.

Malefic tells J'onn to meet him at a planetarium which is presenting a special on the history of Mars and its culture.

Malefic attacks J'onn with mob of mind-controlled civilians armed with stole DEO weapons. He also has Alex in a suicide bomb vest.

J'onn phases Alex through the vest before it can hurt her.

Malefic is apparently caught by the Phantom Zone Projector this time. However, it is revealed at the end of the episode that he was actually teleported to Lena's lab, where she said they could help each other.

Nia and Brainy reconcile after Brainy asks if she can help him figure out to be himself without being so obsessive.

James decides to buy the Calvintown Gazette, saying his non-competition contract with CatCo doesn't stop him from owning or managing a newspaper - just writing for one or taking photos.

Nia's hacker friend tracks the address on the secret off-shore bank account to National City. It turns out to be a largely empty house being used by William Dey.

Kara confronts William, who claims to be working undercover on behalf of the London Times, investigating the crimes of Andrea Rojas and Obsidian International - a story he's been working on for two years.

William claims that Elena Torres was his contact on the inside and that they faked her death because she was afraid the company was becoming suspicious that she was working with someone on the outside.

William also claims that Sergio Ramos is an Interpol agent, working undercover in Intergang.

William apologizes for being rude to Kara before, but said he was trying to keep people away as part of his cover.

William also says that he thinks Kara is a good writer, and that her work is honest and smart.

James hires Simon Kirby to work for his paper and gives Simon his first camera, offering to teach him how to use a real one.

James also tells Simon to call him Jimmy.


Locations

Calvintown
Mexico City


The Bottom Line

It's kind of sad how sudden James Olsen left the show and how his departure storyline is the third most important subplot of the episode. Otherwise, this one is strictly formulaic and just serves to push everything forward a little bit, with the best parts of the episode being the small character moments that succeed in spite of the script.

Supergirl Episode Guide: Season 5, Episode 3 - Blurred Lines

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




Plot

Kara tries to mend her friendship with Lena while adjusting to the new status quo at work and new demands upon her far outside her written job description at CatCo. At the same time, J'onn seeks Nia's help in working past the mental blocks on his memories as Kelly seeks to help an old patient, who is truly Malefic in disguise.


Influences

The Martian Manhunter comics of John Ostrander and Tom Mandrake and the Venom movie. (Concept of Aurafacians very similar to symbiotes.)


Goofs

How did James change into costume and chase after Kara so quickly when she flew across National City to go after Caroline O'Connor?


Performances

Sean Astin gives a remarkable performance as Malefic disguised as Kelly's former patient, Pete Andrews.

David Harewood delivers one of his most powerful performances yet as J'onn.

Carl Lumbly has another brief, but anguish-inducing turn as M'yrnn.


Artistry

It's a brilliant conceit having Nia picturing the Martians in J'onn's memories as humans because she's having to filter the memory through her own perception. This also eliminates the need for extensive CGI and make-up for a large group of extras.


Technobabble

The transmitter from the Obsidian contacts uses an ocular interface. Lena is trying to model it directly into the brain.

Q-waves should theoretically allow Lena to rewrite portions of the humor brain, but no matter how she manipulates the frequency the transmitter will only allow her to read information from the brain rather than implanting it. Augmenting the frequency only turns the subject into a zombie.

T'fek'lya is a Martian herb that helps those who take it to connect their minds telepathically.

Aurafacians are alien organisms that attach themselves to a host body. They can transform between a three-dimensional shape (usually an animal native to whatever planet they are on) and into a flat pattern that resembles a tattoo. In this form, the Aurafacian is basically liquid and can be treated like regular tattoo ink. This makes them difficult to track and even more difficult to capture.

The host of an Aurafacian is gifted with enhanced strength, endurance and the ability to fire blasts of webbing from their hands. This webbing is strong enough to contain Supergirl and can even suffocate her if piled over her nose and mouth. It can, however, be burned through.

James is armed with some sort of device that negates an Aurafacian's ability to generate webs.

Alex utilizes a device that uses the magnetic resonance in a Aurafacian's body to attract the heavy metals in their ink to draw them out of James' body after he becomes infected.

Brainy says the encryption used by the Aurafacians is more complex than anything that exists in the current time period, being on par with the encryption of his century.

Lex writes his journals in a variation of a Vigenere cipher - a deceptively complex polyalphabetic substitution key.


Dialogue Triumphs

(Alex is arguing against Kara stealing Lex's journals for Lena.)
Alex: What you can't do is break the law and steal federal property.
Kara: Technically, I break the law all the time. I just broke into a Supermax prison two months ago.
Alex:  Okay. That is totally different. That's to serve justice. Right? Okay. What you're talking about here is crossing that line for a friend.
Kara: How is it different? (scoffs) She deserves to heal, and who would it be hurting? (sighs in annoyance) You know what? Brainy just illegally hacked into security cameras at a nightclub to help me solve Dr. Jarrod's murder. I don't see you scolding him.
Alex: Totally different. But... Yes, Brainy should not be using DEO tech to help you write articles. I will crack down on that.
Kara: Just want to point out. Who do you think we learned all this rule-breaking from?
(There is a long pause.)
Alex: That cuts deep.

(M'yrnn is in utter despair, praying desperately.)
M'yrnn: H'ronmeer, I failed you as I failed my own son! The agony in my heart.. It's unbearable!
J'onn: Father, you did the best you could for Mal. It's not your fault.
M'yrnn: He was my boy. My child. He could not control his illness. The test was mine and I failed! I do not deserve to live. And how can I continue to counsel our people when I myself am nothing?!
J'onn Father, our people need you. I need you.
M'yrnn:  (weakly) Then I have failed everyone.
J'onn H'ronmeer, forgive me.
(J'onn reaches out and touches his father and a blank look comes across his face.)


Continuity

William Dey confronts Dr. Niles Jarrod in a nightclub and tells him it will end badly if he doesn't play ball with his organization.

Dr. Niles Jarrod was the man with Andrea Rojas in the photos William Dey was looking at in 502.

Dr. Jarrod says he wasn't interested the first 12 times Dey threatened him.

Dr. Jarrod is killed in the club's bathroom by a woman with several spider tattoos. One of her tattoos came to life and crawled into his heart.

Kelly Olsen says people have always opened up to her easily.

Hope tells Lena that Lex had been doing research on Q-Waves as a way to fight Superman. She says that three of his journals dealt with the subject, but are currently in a level five secure facility at Fort Summit.

Brainy has written 127 poems for Nia. When she says he shouldn't overdo it, he decides to move from sonnets to the villanelle.

Kara interviewed Dr. Jarrod for a piece on the moral implications of gene manipulation.

Kara hears William Dey's heartbeat become erratic when Kara suggests investigating Dr. Jarrod's death. This convinces her that the story is worth investigating and that Dey is involved in something sinister.

James has a contact with the Medical Examiner's office in National City and agrees to help Kara with investigating the Jarrod death story.

J'onn asks Nia for help in working past his mental blocks organically.

Malefic takes on the form of Pete Andrewes - a soldier with PTSD, whom Kelly treated once and hasn't seen in two years.

Lena's favorite snack is the coffee eclairs from Cafe Rue Serret on the Champs-Elysees? I know

Lena's favorite coffee is the cappuccino from Pave in Milan.

Lena's favorite scones come from a bakery in Dublin.

Kara flies around the world to get Lena's favorites for their lunch date.

Lena asks Kara if she could get Lex's journals for her, saying she's been having nightmares about Lex torturing her and that reading his writing and getting his thoughts in hear head seems to be helping by reminding her of the reality of who Lex was rather than the nightmare she built up in her head.

The official cause of death for Dr. Niles Jarrod was a heart-attack.

Kara finds a spider-tattoo on the inside of his heart with her X-Ray vision.

J'onn's memories reveal that Malefic was born with an inability to connect to the Martian hive mind. The other children teased him over this.

J'onn's memories also reveal that Malefic had some kind of telepathic power that forced his thoughts and feelings on others whenever he was scared or angry.

M'yrrn J'onzz responded to this by sealing Malefic away and praying for him. This did nothing to cure Malefic's condition and only served to further isolate him away from Green Martian society. This caused Malefic to side with the White Martians, who freed him from his prison.

According to J'onn, erasing the memory of a person's existence is the greatest sin in Martian culture.

Kara tells Alex about Lena's request. Alex is, naturally, against Kara stealing the journals.

Brainy discovers video footage of William Dey talking to Dr. Jarrod just before his death.

Alex recognizes the tattoos on the woman who follows Dr. Jarrod into the bathroom, but not the woman herself.

Alex identifies the tattoos as a Aurafacian. She says it was one of the aliens Lex Luthor freed from the DEO desert facility two months earlier.

The Aurafacian's current host is Caroline O'Connor - a former special ops commander, explosives expert, sniper and expert combatant. She apparently went off the grid two years earlier.

Nia realizes there was more to J'onn's memory than he let hmself see in their first encounter.

In the second encounter with Nia, J'onn sees that it is he who erased all memory of Malefic from the Green Martian hive-mind, because he couldn't cope with seeing his father so weak and near-suicidal over what he had done to Malefic.

J'onn swears Nia to silence over what she has seen in his memories.

Brainy figures out that the Aurafacian's is a Dr. Andrew Stern, who works at National City Hospital.

Alex is able to draw the Aurafacian from Caroline O'Connor's body, but a mysterious cloud of black smoke stabs her to death before she can say who hired her to kill the doctors.

Malefic is able to restore his telepathic powers thanks to Kelly's Q-Wave machine. However, their time together leaves Kelly with a connection to Malfic that lets her see through his shape-shifting disguises.

James goes into hiding with Kelly, to protect her from Malefic.

Nia asks Brainy to quit writing poems for her and to stop going to extremes. Brainy says he is just being himself and he can't NOT go to extremes for her, but he will leave her alone.

Kara gives James one of Lex's transmatter portal watches in case he needs a quick escape. She also tells James not to tell her or Alex where he is going.


The Bottom Line

Another lackluster episode where all the subplots gridlock trying to get the story set-up.

Supergirl Episode Guide: Season 5, Episode 2 - Stranger Beside Me

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




Plot

Faced with the mystery of a brother he has no memory of existing, J'onn turns to Kelly Olsen and her new mind-scanning technology at Obsidian Tech for help in sorting through his past. Kara, Alex and Brainy give chase to the mysterious Malefic, only for Kara to run afoul of her new co-worker William Dey, who seems to be stalking Kara. Meanwhile, Lena begins a new experiment with an unexpected test subject... Eve Teschmacher!


Influences

The Martian Manhunter comics of John Ostrander and Tom Mandrake.


Goofs

It seems unlikely that Mars would have characters named Phobos and Deimos in their mythology, just like the Ancient Greek legends of Earth. (Phobos and Deimos are the sons of the war god Ares and gods of Panic and Dread respectively.)

The dubbing for James in his Guardian costume sounds ludicrous, being too growly and almost unintelligible.


Artistry

The special effects used to create J'onn's psychic mindscape are well executed.


Super Trivia

Brainiac-5 makes reference to an alien race called the Euphorians, who he says have a similar brain structure to Martians. In the DC Comics Universe, Euphorians are the dominant species of the planet Euphorix. They resemble humans, save that some Euphorians have no pupils in their eyes and some have hair that is naturally pink or purple. Like humans, Euphorians do not have any innate superpowers, though there are members of the species who developed powers as a result of genetic mutation or alteration. Some Euphorians are also capable of utilizing magic.

J'onn makes reference to Malefic creating something called H'ronmeer's Curse, that killed off most of the Green Martians and eventually ended the Martian Civil War. In the comics, H'ronmeer's Curse was a psychic plague Malefic created that was passed through the Martian hive mind by any Martian attempting to telepathically link to another. This was due to Malefic being jealous and isolated, having been born without a Martian's natural telepathy. It was later revealed that Malefic did have telepathy at one point, but his memory and ability to use it were removed after he psychically raped his sister-in-law.


Technobabble

Fa'ra'too'rik is a psychic punishment inflicted through the Martian hive mind on brothers who fight one another physically.

Q-Waves are a form of radiation located between X-Rays and Gamma-Rays which are used in treating psychic trauma. Brainy says they weren't discovered until The Late Dark Ages, but is then informed that Kelly uses them as part of her work at Obsidian Tech. It should be noted that

Non Nocere is the Latin phrarse for "Do No Harm."

The VR lenses developed by Obsidian North create a link between what the brain sees and what it wants to see, creating a blank slate. Lena believes she can use this link to direct the blank slate to impose rules on the viewer.

Q-Waves scans maps and catalog a persons memories, creating pictures that depict the memories as a series of rings, like the rings on the base of a tree that has been cut down. The rings show breaks and irregularities at points where a person suffered from severe brain trauma.

Q-Waves are measured in biohertz. Doses of Q-Waves are administered in increments of 20.

A dose of 80 biohertz could permanently erase a person's mind.

One component of Obsidian North's contact lenses is a Lumus pixellator.


Dialogue Triumphs

Lena: Hope, could you hurt someone?
Hope: I am incapable of causing pain. It is against my prime directive.
Lena: Exactly. Because you were built in the very image of perfection. You have no selfish inclinations.Your base code is morality, empathy, and logic. Humans and aliens, however, are flawed. They are driven by their emotions. They lie, cheat, and hurt each other to protect themselves. But it's not their fault, it's just how they're programmed. I am going to make them better with Project Non Nocere.
Hope: Do no harm.
Lena: I'm going to rid humanity of its instincts to hurt each other.
Hope: But you cannot reprogram organic creatures.
Lena: The VR lenses create a link between what we want and what we see, constructing a blank slate in the brain on which a new world can be projected. If I can find the source of that link, I can redirect the blank slate to have one single rule.
Hope: Non Nocere. Do no harm.

Brainy: Nia! You are welcome. I assume you received the pizza delivery?
Nia: Thank you for the pizzas but my dress is bursting at the seams, and I'm pretty sure I have heartburn.
Brainy: (romantically) Hmm, yes. My heart also burns.


Continuity

Alex's signature breakfast is poached eggs, crispy bacon, fresh whipped cream, and blueberry pancakes.

Kelly is deathly allergic to blueberries - a fact she discovered when she nearly died after eating some when she was 4.

Kelly always carries an epi-pen with her, in case of an allergy attack.

Kelly doesn't liked poached eggs. Bacon and whipped cream, however, are two of her favorites.

Nia's favorite breakfast is burritos with chorizo and crema. Her preferred brand of coffee is "Nitro," which she takes with an extra shot of cold brew.

Kara thinks Andrea Rojas bough CatCo was a means of getting an advertising platform for Obsidian North.

In the day since he quit CatCo, James has been approached by a group that wants to back him in a run for the open race for a new state Senator.

James was also offered the position of the media director of the Smithsonian Museum.

According to J'onn, there were two brothers, Phobos and Deimos, in the early days of Mars. Their rivalry and bloodshed was the reason for the split of the Green and White Martians. To prevent this ever happening again, a curse was placed on the Green Martians, which psychically inflicted pain on brothers who fought each other. This is known as Fa'ra'too'rik.

J'onn says there is no cure for Fa'ra'too'rik on Earth.

Brainy says that, in the future, psychic traumas are treated with Q-Waves.

Kelly uses Q-Waves in treating her patients at Obsidian North.

Males is revealed to have a White Martian ally on Earth.

Lena's new project, Project Non Nocere, will rid humanity of their instincts to hurt one another. Lena intends to accomplish this through studying Obsidian North's contact lenses and using them to find a way to reprogram people organically.

It is revealed that Lena abducted Eve Teschmacher in 501.

Andrea Rojas starts requiring all of CatCo's writing to be submitted through a portal that can only be accessed by certain special tablets .

William Dey's wife is a lawyer.

Andrea assigns Kara to write a piece on the fashions worn at her Pulitzer Prize award ceremony and demands it be done by lunch, after Kara pitches a piece on the state Senate race.

Eve says that she was recruited by Leviathan at age 16, because she was deeply in debt after her parents died and she had no other way to finish paying for college.  She does not, however, name the organization as she says they would kill her and Lena if they even thought Eve had exposed them.

Brainy overdoes it trying to deliver Nia's favorite lunch, leaving her with enough Bento boxes to build a fort around her desk.

Kelly works with her patients to create a sort of mind palace where they feel safe. For J'onn, the palace takes the form of his office. His altered memories take the form of books with blank covers and no names on the spines.

The Battle of L'Zoril M'nt and Battle of C'arel were two major battles of the Martian Civil War.

One of the blank books in J'onn's mindscape opens a secret passageway revealing a Martian door Opening it leads J'onn into a void where his memory should be.

According to J'onn, only another Martian would be capable of erasing his memory but altering the mind of another is the greatest sin in Martian culture.

William Dey looks suspicious when Kara leaves in the middle of the day. As she does this, he was looking at photos of Andrea Rojas with someone named Dr. Niles Jarrod.

William Dey calls in a favor with the NSA to have Kara's phone tracked.

J'onn guesses his parents might have made him forget Malefic existed

William Dey follows Kara's phone signal into the sewers, seeing Supergirl fighting the White Martian before running away.

J'onn recalls that Malefic created a poison called H'ronmeer's Curse, which weakened the Green Martain forces, killing many and basically winning the Martian Civil War for the White Martians.

Before they fell, the Green Martian High Council sentenced Malefic to be banished to the Phantom Zone for his crime.

William Dey finishes Kara's article for her and turns it in. This results in Kara being assigned to edit copy rather than writing, since the copy editor department is overworked.

Andrea Rojas is able to get into Lena's secret lab.

Lena's assistant is the girlfriend of Andrea Rojas' best friend.

Andrea had trackers installed in the contacts she gave Lena and determined she was taking them apart trying to figure out how they worked. She takes the borken pair, says Lena will never own another one and that it she tries a stunt like that again then Lena will be the big story rather than owing her one.

Eve points out she could have called for help when Andrea was in the lab but didn't and says that proves she can be trusted.

Brainy sends Nia far too many of her favorite pizza for dinner.

Nia tells Brainy to lay off the food and find other ways to express his love.

Nia says she enjoys stupid buddy comedies, Taylor Swift, quiet nights in and poetry.

 Alex sees through Malefic's disguise immediately when he masquerades as Kelly.

Kelly is allergic to blueberries, hazelnuts, bees, and cats.

Brainy sneaks into Nia's apartment and reads her poetry as she is falling asleep.

William Dey is revealed to volunteer at a homeless shelter, after Kara tells him off for trying to sabotage her at work.

Malefic says that he has no power to incept (i.e. enter another person's mind telepathically)

Lena uses Hope to alter Eve Teschmacher's mind, letting Hope take over her body.


The Bottom Line

A decent enough episode, though the focus is on J'onn rather than Kara and almost everything in the Lena subplot is far more interesting than Kelly and Alex's romance and Nia and Brainy's comic relief. Still, it does a lot to develop Malefic and it mostly harmless and inoffensive.

Supergirl Episode Guide: Season 5, Episode 1 - Event Horizon

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




Plot

It has been one month since Lena learned Kara's secret identity and she is out for revenge against everyone who lied to her. Selling CatCo Worldwide Media to a fellow tech magnate who considers Pulitzer Prize winning journalism to be a detriment is only the first step in a plan to hurt Kara the same way she hurt Lena.

As James copes with his sudden demotion from Editor In Chief, Kelly and Alex and Nia and Brainy settle into to their newfound romantic relationships. And the team faces an alien shape-shifter with a grudge against J'onn, who is able to summon another of J'onn's old enemies from The Phantom Zone.


Influences

Superman IV: The Quest For Peace (subplot involving a new owner more concerned with hype than real journalism), the Rebirth Superwoman series (character of M1dn1ght)  and the Martian Manhunter comics of John Ostrander and Tom Mandrake.


Goofs

J'onn says he would be able to sense if the alien telepath menacing them were a White Martian. Why can't he sense that it's a Green Martian? (Presumably this has something to do with the psychic attack Malefic unleashes when John gets close?)

Where does Kara keep her glasses in her new costume when she isn't wearing them?

How DO Brainy, Dreamer and Guardian change into costume and get to Midnight before Alex can run there in heels?


Performances

Both Melissa Benoist and Katie McGrath sell the hell out of their respective speeches about the value of their friendship.


Artistry

The special effects work for Kara's new Super-Suit is of cinematic quality.


Super Trivia

The Supergirl log in this episode slowly pixelates into view, much like Kara's new Super-Suit.

It is revealed that Lena uses virtual-reality to run simulations where she can kill Supergirl as a means of stress relief. Lex Luthor did something similar in the Superman: Doomsday animated movie, but Lex created imperfect clones of Superman.

The plotline of a new owner pushing a news organization to hype scandal over real news was also a major part of Superman IV: The Quest For Peace.

Andrea Rojas is based on a Mexican superhero from the Superman comics. First appearing in Superman Annual #12, Andrea Rojas was Acrata and had the power to teleport through shadows thanks to her possession of an ancient Mayan symbol. She was also a talented martial artist and detective, who was said to be the Batman of Mexico City, though she did not work with the local authorities and indeed had a deep disrespect for them. She was also the daughter of a former politician, who became a professor of pre-Hispanic cultures at the University of Metropolis campus in Mexico City.

The Arrowverse version of Andrea Rojas has not yet shown any signs of having superpowers. Far from an anti-authority rebel, she is a scion to a large tech company and has just taken over the Obsidian North operation, which oversees all the virtual and augmented reality aspects of Obsidian's business. She also now owns CatCo Worldwide Media and has made herself Editor In Chief of the magazine, ousting James Olsen.

Midnight is based on a character from the Superwoman comics called M1dn1ght. First appearing in Superwoman #15, M1dn1ght was a computer code created by Lena Luthor that was meant to free her should she ever become trapped in an extra-dimensional prison. With this accomplished, M1dn1ght began to wonder if she could justify her existence having accomplished her one purpose in existence. This spurred her to create her own body from the virtual world of code (i.e. The Void)  and enter the physical world. Still programmed to obey Lena Luthor, M1dn1ght sought to free herself by bonding with Superwoman and taking over her body.

Brainy makes mention of an alien race called the Farfarmniflatch.  Monstergirl, from the comic Young Heroes In Love, was a Farfarmniflatch. All Farfarmniflatches have the power to shape-shift.

Brainy also mentions the poisonous prison pits of Takron-Galtos. In the classic DC Comics universe, Takron-Galtos is a planet that was transformed into a maximum security prison for the worst criminals in existence. It exists in the 20th century and is still around during the time of the Legion of Superheroes.

The Arrowverse version of Midnight is said to be an alien of unknown origins who joined with the White Martians in their war on the Green Martians, caring nothing for their politics - only wanting a chance to kill as many beings as possible. J'onn says that her powers were fueled by death and he cannot remember how he defeated her, though she blames him for trapping her in the Phantom Zone.

Both versions of Midnight have the ability to create energy-voids that destroy whatever they touch. With enough focus, they can both create small black holes capable of crushing anything. They can also create portals that allow them to teleport through space.

While not yet identified by name, the Green Martian who claims to be J'onn's brother is identified in the credits as Malefic J'onzz. First appearing in Martian Manhunter #0 in 1998, it was revealed that Malefic was responsible for killing the Green Martian race, having created a psychic plague that killed anyone who used their telepathy to commune with the Martian Great Mind. Malefic was spared this, having been born without telepathy, or so he thought. In truth, Malefic was stripped of his telepathy as punishment for attempting to psychically rape his sister-in-law and had all memory of his crimes erased.

The Arrowverse version of Malefic has a similar hatred of his brother, but also hates their father for reasons that have yet to be explained. Malefic seems to possess telepathic powers, inflicting a psychic paralysis on J'onn unlike anything he had ever felt before.


Technobabble

Lena has created an artificial intelligence she has named Hope, who offers "assistance without ambition, drama or ego."

Obsidian North is beta-testing a line of augmented reality contact lenses which makes the wearer's eyes glow silver.

Kelly Olsen's new job with Obsidian North involves using their virtual reality technology to treat patients with dementia and PTSD.

Kryptonian spacecraft use anti-matter to propel themselves. The engine from even a small one, like the rocket that carried Superman to Earth as a baby, can be transformed into a bomb with the proper resources and knowledge. Such a bomb could destroy three whole solar systems.

One of Obsidian North's VR projects is a virtual gym that allows the user to work out in several exotic environments.

A Kryptonian anti-matter engine could also be used to build a make-shift Phantom Zone projector.

Rather than just repair Kara's cape, Brainy creates a microscopic motion activator, which he attaches to her glasses. From now on, the act of hurriedly jerking her glasses off will activate a stream of nanites that will build a costume around Kara. The new costume has pants and can be dissolved by Kara putting her glasses back on.


Dialogue Triumphs

(After Kara and Alex are less than helpful in settling their argument over the greatest villain in movie history.)
Nia: Well, I guess you'll just have to accept that I'm right.
Brainy: Hmm. This Earth custom that the girlfriend is always right is illogical and frustrating, but I can assimilate.

Brainy: This is no time for sarcasm, however dry or well-crafted!

Kara: Lena. What are you doing back here?
Lena: Okay, you caught me. It was supposed to be a surprise, but I'm the one who's gonna introduce you. I couldn't miss an opportunity to tell the world how wonderful you are.
Kara: No, no, I Lena, I can't let you do this, I don't deserve it.
Lena: Are you kidding me? Me more than anyone knows how much you deserve it. I saw how you risked your life to expose Lex's crimes-
Kara: I'm Supergirl.
(Lena looks uncharacterisically surprised. Kara takes off her glasses, her breath quickening, clearly holding back the tears.)
Kara: I've always been Supergirl. I should've told you so long ago, I know that. But I just kept making excuses because you've been hurt so many times and... I convinced myself that I was protecting you. And then one day, you were so angry with me... with, with Supergirl. But you still loved Kara. I just kept thinking... if I could be Kara, just Kara... that I could keep you as a friend. (Kara sighs.)
Kara:I was selfish and scared, and I didn't wanna lose you, so I kept pretending, and I never stopped.
(Kara sniffles and is on the verge of tears.)
Kara: Every time I kept my secret from you, I wasn't... protecting you, I was hurting you, just like everyone else, and I am so, so sorry.
Kara: (softer) I am so sorry.
(Lena just stares at Kara.)
Kara: Please say something
(Lena's lips part, but before she can speak...)
Usher: Ms. Luthor? You're on in two minutes.
Kara: Lena...?
(Lena walks away, leaving Kara to start crying.)

Lena: The world is full of liars. People who hide things from us. People who manipulate and control us. I should know. Some of the best liars in the world are members of my own family. But in my life, there was someone who always reminded me that truth was the better way. And she is the person we are here tonight to celebrate. Kara Danvers.
(The crowd applauds.)
Lena: The truth isn't easy. It's certainly not for the faint of heart. But it is something that Kara, as a journalist, has pursued relentlessly every day. And because she's so good at it, she makes it look easy. We sometimes forget that she's just like us. But forging a path to the truth isn't a piece of cake. It's more like climbing a mountain. It's arduous and painful at times, and, just like us, Kara can sometimes slip. But she always gets back up and pulls through in the end. And we're always better for her efforts. So, thank you, Kara, for reminding us that the truth is important. Even when it's not always easy to accept.

(Alex is the last to arrive in the room to confront Midnight, despite still being in her fancy dress. Dreamer, Brainy and Guardian are in full costume.)
Alex: How do you guys always change so fast?!

(Midnight begins making a black hole.)
Supergirl: Brainy, if I solar flare, can I shut that down?
Brainy: Gravitational power comes from the core. We'd have to go inside the void to do that. But why do things the hard way? J'onn?
(Brainy tosses J'onn a pair of power-inhibitor hand-cuffs.  J'onn phases through the crowd to get behind Midnight and places them around her wrists.)

(J'onn sees a little girl in his office.)
J'onn: Uh... Are you lost?
(The little girl turns around and speaks in a male voice.) 
Malefic: No, J'onn J'onzz. I'm exactly where I should be.
(Malefic's eyes glow green and he shifts into the form of a figure in a hooded black robe.)
J'onn: You're the shapeshifter that released Midnight. What do you want from me?
Malefic: To be punished for your crimes. You may have defeated Midnight, but I'll make sure you get what you deserve.
J'onn: Why? Who are you?
Malefic: Don't pretend you don't recognize me...
(Malefic lowers his hood, revealing himself to be a Green Martian.)
Malfeic: ...brother.
J'onn: (looking confused for a moment but the confusion gives way to anger) I have no brother!
Malefic: Lies! You and Father are more evil than even I knew, but justice will prevail. I will do to you as you did to me.
J'onn: (growling) You say you're my brother? Prove it!
(The two charge each other but there's an explosion of red and green light as they meet. The psychic backblast knocks them both back and J'onn passes out.)

Hope: The file was ready to upload. Why didn't you send it, exposing Supergirl's identity to the world? Did you forgive Kara Danvers?
Lena: She betrayed me. It broke my heart. I could never forgive her.
Hope: Then I don't understand.
Lena: How could you? You're not a Luthor. We're scorpions. When someone betrays us, we sting. But I have a calling, Hope, and it's to fix mankind. I never thought Supergirl would tell me who she was, but now that she has, I have an opportunity, and I can use Supergirl to achieve my ends. That is easier to do if she believes there is trust


Dialogue Disasters

Supergirl: Pants!


Continuity

The events of this episode take place roughly one month after 422.

Slattorians are a race of silver-eyed aliens whom J'onn recently discovered while working a case.

Kelly has started a new job with Obsidian North.

Obsidian North is housed in the same building as CatCo Worldwide Media.

Kelly and Alex are officially dating exclusively.

J'onn has started teaching a children's tai chi class in his spare time.

Kara still has not told Lena her secret identity.

The DEO is still trying to recapture all the metahuman prisoners Lex Luthor was holding at his Shelley Island facility.

Brainy believes the most evil villain in cinematic history is Miranda Priestly from The Devil Wears Prada. Nia says that it is Hannibal Lecter from The Silence of the Lambs.  Kara thinks it is Lord Voldemort from Harry Potter. Alex thinks it is Hans Gruber from Die Hard.

Nia and Brainy have been dating for a month, but have yet to initiate any physical contact beyond a handshake.

Lena is revealed to have sold CatCo to Andrea Rojas - CEO of Obsidian North. Her first act is to demote James Olsen from Editor-In-Chief to take the job for herself, though she does plan to keep James on staff.

Lena went to the same boarding school as Andrea Rojas.

Lena claims to have sold CatCo because she needed capital for a new project. She sold the company for $1.3 billion.

Malefic was able to cause some kind of psychic paralysis in J'onn and is strong enough, in the form of a T-Rex, to rip Supergirl's cape.

Brainy offers to fix Supergirl's cape, noting that she requires it to maneuver properly when flying at high-speeds.

Obsidian's headquarters is based in Buenos Aires.

Andrea Rojas took over Obsidian North, which handles the augmented and virtual reality aspects of her father's business, after he elected to focus his efforts on space colonization.

Andrea's father apparently has a rivalry with Elon Musk, whom Andrea calls "Uncle Elon."

Andrea plans to have Obsidian technology in every household in the world within a year.

Lena's deal to sell CatCo had some very specific conditions. Lena did not want the sale announced until the same day as Kara's awards ceremony for her Pulitzer. She also promised Andrea an exclusive, world-shaking story that would be sent to her at 9 PM on the day the sale was announced. It becomes clear later that the story involved Kara being Supergirl and Lena was timing it so the news would break as Kara was accepting her award..

William Day is a renowned journalist, most recently employed by The Times of London. Andrea hires him to work for CatCo.

Andrea announces that CatCo will now be focused on getting hits over hard journalism. She specifically decries Pulitzer Prize winning articles as boring and notes that circulation went down after Kara's being honored with a Pulitzer was announced.

Somehow, Andrea got everyone currently employed at CatCo signed to three-year contracts, with non-competition clauses that will stop them from ever working for another news outlet if they quit the company before their contract expires.

The Green Martians apparently had access to the Phantom Zone. J'onn makes reference to sending Midnight there, but he has no memory of how they beat her down to manage it.

William Day rewrites Kara's articles, removing facts and making them shorter. Kara is not pleased by this and tells Andrea she will not stop trying to do real news, no matter how difficult she makes it.

Kara tells Lena that she is Supergirl, just after learning that Lena is introducing her at the Pulitzer ceremony.  This cause Lena to abort her plan to send Kara's secret identity to Andrea.

Alex is able to send Midnight back to the Phantom Zone using the make-shift projector.

Both Kara and J'onn are strong enough to briefly survive beyond the event horizon of a black hole.

James quits his job at CatCo, knowing no other media outlet will ever be able to hire him.

Kelly agrees with Alex that Hans Gruber from Die Hard is the best movie villain ever.

Brainy reveals the reason he's been avoiding physical contact with Nia is that after the events of 422 he's afraid to let his guard down and risk becoming the cold, emotionless being he became before. He also reveals the reason he thinks Miranda Priestly is the greatest movie villain is he fears becoming like her - uncaring and willing to betray those closest to her.

Malefic reveals himself as J'onn's brother but J'onn says he has no brother.

Kara gives Lena a signal watch so that she can call Supergirl if she ever needs her.

Lena tells Hope that she hasn't forgiven Kara for lying to her but that she can exploit their relationship to accomplish her goals to save humanity.


Eve Teschmacher, dressed in a waitress uniform, is jumped by someone at the end of the episode - presumably Leviathan agents.


The Bottom Line

A solid start to the season, though it does forget about the Leviathan subplot until the literal last second. Lena has been turned into a tragically sympathetic villain and Andrea Rojas is similarly wicked. The new status quo is set-up well, though there aren't that many drastic changes apart from the beginning of the end for Mehcad Brooks' time as Jimmy Olsen. Midnight is a bit underwhelming as a villain, but at lest she's defeated easily enough, though I get the feeling we'll be seeing more of her somehow. All in all, there's more good than bad here. And the new costume looks awesome, even if I do wonder where Kara keeps her glasses now.