Supergirl Episode Guide: Season 6, Episode 19 - The Last Gauntlet

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

Plot

When Lex and Nyxly kidnap Esme, an unlikely ally steps in to help the Super Friends save her.

Influences

Marvel's Infinity War (the hunt for the Totems mirrors the search for the Infinity Stones, Nxyly now has a gauntlet to hold the totems), Beauty and the Beast (the love totem losing its petals symbology)


Goofs

How did Alex get to Prague or retrieve the Totems from the Fortress of Solitude? (Presumably she could get a portal watch from Lena, but it never is explained.)

Even by the standards of comic book science, it beggars belief that a satellite could drain the sun and be used to super-charge Supergirl.

Despite the bridge being said to be a dead zone for tech and superpowers, nobody has trouble during the climactic fight scene.

The CGI fight between Lex and Nyxly opening the final scgment looks like something from a Playstation 2 era video game.

Lex and Nyxly briefly changing into snake people is not explained.

The idea that the All-Stone can permanently drain all the seven elements from the Earth seems to contradict the idea of the individual Totems always reforming so the elements are never lost.


Performances

Melissa Benoist shows her skill as a performer, selling the hell out of some truly terrible dialogue in this episode.


Artistry

The fight for the Allstone is well-choreographed.


Super Trivia

The Destiny Totem is revealed to be in the thread of destiny held by Clotho in a statue of the Three Fates. Clotho, who had adopted the alias Charlie, was a member of the Legends of Tomorrow in season 4 and 5. 


Technobabble

Lena has a spell that enables her to track people.

One of the first rules of professional chess is that if you touch a piece you must move or capture that piece if legal to do so.

Brainiac-5 suggests that they could use an experimental satellite used for enhancing crop growth and repurpose its output after adjusting its orbit to filter yellow sunlight directly into Supergirl, enhancing her powers. This would allow her brain to process information more quickly, her super-hearing to increase 50-fold and she would become invulnerable to magic. This process would take four minutes, however, this process would reduce the sun's power for six months. Lena adds that it could disrupt the sun's orbit, which would throw the whole solar system out of balance.

Lena casts a spell on both Lex and Nyxly that wraps them in blinding mist.

Using the Allstone drains the world of all the elements it is meant to represent. This equates to people watching the fight between Lex and Nyxly with total indifference and the color being drained from them. Brainiac-5 estimates that all the seven elements will be drained forever in 72 hours. Yet the one-third of the the AllStone is not powerful enough to open a dimensional gateway.


Dialogue Triumphs

(Brainiac-5 fits Dreamer with a gauntlet that draws on the Dream Totem power.)
Brainiac-5: See? It fits perfectly. Like Cinderella. Without the gender inequality through patriarchy. And sexual objectification.

Nyxly: From the moment I met you, I knew you shouldn't be trusted. You're nothing but a foul little man who lies and cheats and plays mind games to get what he wants. You're just like my father. I could say I hate you, but the truth is I pity you. No one will ever love you. Goodbye, Lex.


Dialogue Disasters

Lena: The sun is responsible for ocean currents, for climate, for plant life!


Continuity

Lex leaves a recording ransoming Esme for the five Totems the Super Friends have and tells them to find the Destiny Totem.

Lex wears a baby Truth Seeker, so they know he isn't lying.

Lex confirms that the Love Totem has merged with Esme.

Lex suggests they meet at a bridge near the Fort Rozz crash site, where the Omegahedron exploded in 120 which is a dead zone for technology and metahuman/alien powers. The exchange is scheduled for noon the next day.

Brainy starts scanning the globe for any sign of Lex, Nyxly, Mitch or Esme.

Lena starts searching every place Lex has access to with one of her mother's tracking spells.

Dreamer starts trying to find the location of the Destiny Totem.

Brainy offers to make Dreamer a shield that will let her tap the Dream Totem safely, like he did with the Courage Totem for J'onn and the Humanity Totem for Supergirl.

Alex suggests making a decoy Destiny Totem with Lena's magic, but Brainy says magic won't work in the dead zone either.

Kara wants to use the Totems to power herself up so she can save Esme.

Lex and Nyxly retreat to a bunker where Lex's butler Philippe (last seen in 603) is waiting with Mitch.

Esme is afraid she'll never see her moms again because nothing good in her life has ever lasted.

Nyxly tries to activate the Love Totem by holding Esme's hand and saying the magic word. This causes the rose petals on her tattoo to begin falling off. Lex theorizes the Totem will find a new host when that happens.

Lex suggests trying to cut the Love Totem out of Esme but Nyxly refuses to hurt an innocent girl and says Lex should know she'd never agree to that if he truly knows her.

Lex says that Nyxly's death in the future came about because of how she came to possess the Love Totem while assembling the AllStone. Originally, she used her magic to end-run the Love Gauntlet.

Lex suggests that maybe he should get the Love Totem but Nyxly says she must do it herself because she won't have any man do what she can do herself. She decides to try and win Esme's trust and hope that restores the Love Totem.

Andrea travels into the Watchtower using her shadow powers to observe where William died. She is discovered by Lena.

Andrea says she's a monster and that William was right about her standing for nothing.

Lena says there is still time for Andrea to be a better person because Lena was able to redeem herself.

J'onn and Kara discuss the pain of losing a loved one, after Kara searches the globe for Lex several times.

Kara says that she's ready to do whatever it takes to stop Lex and Nyxly forever, even if it means taking the All-Stone for herself. 

Lex is playing chess against himself when Lillian Luthor shows up.

Lillian notes that Bobby Fischer made the same mistake as Lex did in a match in Buenos Aires in 1960, playing Unzicker.

According to Lillian, the press is now reporting that Lex Luthor killed William Dey and kidnapped Esme.

Lex makes reference to Lillian trying to poison him on another Earth in 422.

Lillian tells Lex to abandon Nyxly, turn himself in and plead insanity.

Lex tells Lillian that he chooses Nyxly over her.

Nyxly promises Esme that she will see her moms again.

When Nyxly was Esme's age, her favorite thing was drawing until her father had all her colored pencils destroyed. He thought art was useless.

Nyxly tells Esme that just because things get scary that doesn't mean they will always be bad. 

Nyxly tries the magic word again, but it doesn't work.

Lex watches Nyxly with Esme over a security camera and then notices her crystal ball is unattended.

Alex has a breakdown in the Watchtower armory while looking for weapons that might work in the dead zone.

Kelly tries to calm Alex down and tells her its because of how much they love Esme that the Love Totem bonded to her.

Dreamer worries that she might foresee bad news but Brainiac-5 reassures her that too much knowledge is never a bad thing.

Brainiac-5 agrees to travel into the Dream Realm with Dreamer so they can face whatever visions she has together.

Dreamer is able to find the Destiny Totem at the ruins of St. Vassily's Catherdal in Prague. She also senses that Esme is safe, but can't sense where she is. He believes the Totem is in a famous statue of the three Fates located there, specifically the spool of thread held by Clotho.

The gauntlet of Destiny requires one to face their destiny without the power of the totem. This gives Kara a glimpse of the future and a battle with Lex and Nyxly and the world suffering before the totem reshapes itself into a purple gem.

Alex, in her Sentinel costume, shows up and takes the gem from Kara, saying she's going to use it to get Esme back by taking the Totems to Lex.

Kara says that in her vision Lex and Nyxly were all powerful and the world was in shambles. The only way to prevent that is to use the Totems against them.

Kara lets Alex leave with the totem when she admits that she isn't 100% she can save Esme and Alex says she will never forgive Kara if Esme is hurt by her plan.

Nyxly recognizes Lillian when she returns to their lair.

Lillian insists that Lex is incapable of loving anyone but himself and that Lex is using Nyxly. 

Nyxly refuses to believe her.

Alex takes the first five Totems from the Fortress of Solitude.

Brainiac-5 suggests that they could use an experimental satellite used for enhancing crop growth and repurpose its output after adjusting its orbit to filter yellow sunlight directly into Supergirl, enhancing her powers.

Lena and Dreamer go with Alex and Kelly while Brainy and J'onn try to celebrate the satellite. 

Brainiac-5 notes the satellite is jointly owned by the United States and South America, so Secretary Brown and the US Army will be all over them.

Lex asks Philippe to distract Nyxly while he tries to extract the Love Totem from Esme himself.

Mitch overhears Lex give Philippe this instruction.

Lex frees Mxyzptlk from the crystal ball, thinking the sudden release of 5th Dimensional magic would grant him access to the Love Totem gauntlet.

Nyxly says Lillian was right about Lex and says there is no longer a "we" between them. Her acting to protect Esme when Lex draws a knife causes the Love Totem to manifest in her hand, as her love for Esme as an innocent proved her worthy.

Lex insists that his releasing Mxyzptlk is what freed the Love Totem.

Nyxly says that she pities Lex and says he's a small, petty man who will never truly be loved.

Philippe called Lillian and told her that Nyxly dumped him.

Lillian returns to Lex's lair to find him playing chess alone.

Nyxly tells the Super Friends she is done with Lex as Alex prepares to hand over the Totems.

Lex arrives with Lillian and blows up the bridge as the AllStone is formed.

People begin freaking out as the sun dims and the army rolls out one minute after Brainiac-5 starts feeding the sun into Supergirl.

Supergirl hears all the people freaking out because of what is happening to the sun.

Secretary Brown asks the President to call in an air-strike on Supergirl.

Kara tells J'onn and Brainiac-5 to cancel the solar flare blast.

Lex calls Kara "The Brat of Brawn."

Esme breaks the AllStone into three pieces.

Kara, Nyxly and Lex each wind up with a piece, but Kara is blasted by both of them.

Nyxly works free of the mist first and tries to blast Lex, but Lillian takes the blast meant for him.

Nyxyly and Lex both develop green scaly skin, before Nyxly tries to escape through a portal and Lex chases after her.

Lillian is said to be stable, but not looking good.

Lena starts searching for a spell to save her.

It is suggested that Kara could use her piece of the All-Stone to fight Lex and Nyxly, but Kara says matching them power for power has only hurt people so she needs to think of something else.

Brainiac-5 suggests they call in reinforcements. 

Kara flies above the city and listens to the people of National City suffering. She is drawn to the sound of Orlando giving a speech to a crowd of hopeless people telling them they have to fight. As Orlando speaks, he restores the color to people.

Listening to Orlando's speech also encourages Kara and she calls J'onn to says she knows what to do now.


Location

St. Vassily's Catherdal in Prague
A bridge near the Fort Rozz crash site.


Untelevised Adventures

Alex journeys to the Fortress of Solitude and takes the Totems being stored there.


The Kryptonite Factor

It beggars belief that Kara wouldn't stop to think about how a plan that weakens the sun might be seen as a bad thing by the public, even in the face of Lex Luthor destroying the world.


The Bottom Line

One of the weaker episodes of the season, if not the worst. Contradictory in its characterization and featuring some of the worst junk science in Arrowverse history, it would be forgettable if it weren't part of the series finale. Only the charisma of the cast makes it work at all, but it seems clear that this one was hastily rewritten on the fly to set up the series finale.

Supergirl Episode Guide: Season 6, Episode 14 - Magical Thinking

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

Plot

The hunt for the second Totem is on, but Lena doubts she can use her newfound magical powers to help the team. Meanwhile, as William struggles to write a story that will satisfy Andrea's demands for dirt on the Super Friends after being embedded within the team, Kelly is forced to step in when one of her charges faces trouble in her new home.

Influences

Harry Potter (the magic connection between Kara and Nxyly resembles that between Harry and Voldemort), Marvel's Infinity War (the hunt for the Totems mirrors the search for the Infinity Stones) and Dragonball (the idea of magic artifacts that can alter reality that exist on each planet sounds a lot like the Dragonballs)


Goofs

The team discuss the need to keep Lena's connection to the Super Friends a secret from William, but he's later seen interacting with her without issue even before they let him in on the secret and he agrees not to report on it.

J'onn phases his hand through a window to attack a car-jacker, only to break the window pulling the car-jacker through it, causing needless damage to the car.

The NCPD appear to be completely AWOL during the rioting.

It was previously said that the Totems have to be acquired in a certain order. That rule seems to have been abandoned in this episode, with Nxyly looking for the Hope Totem and the Super Friends searching for the Dream Totem.


Performances

Katie McGrath and Melissa Benoist's interactions as Kara and Lena are the episode highlight.


Artistry

The special effects of the Super Friends protecting National City are pretty good.


Technobabble

Dreamer notes the Watchtower can patch into the NCPD's CompStat and track crimes in real-time.

Lena found a spell in her mother's book that can find lost things, which she thinks she can use as a tracking spell to find the Humanity Totem using the discharged energy signature from when Nxyly activated it. 

Lena says the air from within 30 feet of where Nxyly activated the Humanity Totm would be hyper-ionized and she can use that air for her tracking spell.

Lena determines her tracking spell requires fresh Sheep Laurel seeds and must be cast on-site.

Sheep Laurel is a flowering shrub unique to the Limestone Barrens of Newfoundland.

The kitchen in the Watchtower has a coffee maker which Brainiac-5 picked up on Corvon-4.

Lena says that all the Totems radiate the same form of ionized particles and that she can use the sample of one to track the energy signature of another. However, she only has another particles to track one.


Dialogue Triumphs

Dreamer: Patching into the NCPD's CompStat technology, we can track real-time crime incidents represented by the blue dots.
(Everyone just stares at Dreamer. She's not usually the one to use that kind of terminology.)
Dreamer: Well, don't look so surprised. I'm smart too. You guys are just showoffs.

Supergirl: I can't believe you would not help.
Lena: Not if it means losing who we are in the process because then we're no better than she is.
Supergirl: I know that you are still processing the fact that you can use magic, and I know that I've been pushing you out of your comfort zone. But that's only because I believe in you, and... I'm... I'm terrified. She makes me feel powerless. Nyxly's magic is unlike anything I've ever faced. I feel like I don't know how to beat her, and if she gets all seven Totems, I won't be able to. You can do something I can't. I need your help, Lena.
Lena: From everything you've told me about Nyxly, she's more than just her magic. She is cunning and manipulative and cruel. Who does that remind you of?
Supergirl: Lex.
Lena: You've beat him before and you will beat Nyxly too, but not by doing whatever it takes to win. By doing the right thing. My mother hurt people with her magic. Unintentionally, but... She hid the truth of what happened, and that secret destroyed lives. I'm so sorry. Nyxly has caused so much pain. And I don't wanna hurt anybody with my magic or deceit.
Supergirl: You're right. Mmm, you're right. We can't cross lines in darkness, however good the reasons. Secrets are hard to hide in the light of day. But maybe... But maybe the light of day is just what we need.

Nxyly: How can I be expected to get anything done when there's so much suffering on this planet? If only I didn't have this damn cuff, I could snap away poverty, disease, hunger. I could save the snow leopards from extinction. Am I the only one that cares?


Continuity

The Super Friends play Jenga at their latest game night.

As the episode opens, Brainiac-5 is on the Legion ship scanning for Nyxly.

Lena is still going through her mother's spellbook but she's having a hard time grasping how magic works since it is based more on instinct than logic.

Dreamer comments this sounds like her problems with interpreting her dreams and offers to help Lena with her book.

The Super Friends agree to let William Dey observe them in the Watchtower, but within certain parameters.

Kelly says she won't be able to hang around the Watchtower as Guardian, as she needs to spend the next morning checking on Esme, one of the orphans from the same group home as Joey Davis.

Esme, who appeared in 609, was just placed in a new foster home with a couple named Dana and Joe Ford.

Kara starts laughing randomly, as she senses that Nxyly is happy.

Nxyly is happy because Mitch just detected the next Totem in National City.

Esme is doing well in her new home and likes her foster parents because they make pancakes for dinner if she wants them.

J'onn reveals his secret identity to William, as does Alex. They do this after William asks how Kara and Nia developed a close connection to the former Martian head of the DEO.

William learns that J'onn's PI office is the front for the Watchtower.

The conditions of William being allowed to work with the Super Friends are that he can't disclose the location of the Watchtower, identify the Super Friends whose secret identities he knows and he can't try to figure out who the ones that maintain their secret identities (like Supergirl) are. J'onn says that he he tries it, he will wipe his mind. William also has to agree to run any story he writes by them first, in exchange for them not telling him what he writes.

The next Totem is revealed to be at an MMA Festival in National City.

The next Totem is revealed to be necklace, worn by one of the fighters, which is made of the same wood as a tree under which the Buddha meditated to achieve oneness with Humanity.

Nxyly is able to activate the Humanity Totem easily, with a voice telling her to use the Totem wisely after asking her if she is of ready heart and she says that she is.

As Nxyly activates the Humanity Totem, a wave of energy washes over the people at the MMA Festival and they all start fighting.

It is noted that the people who are fighting are depraved, but not cold or unfeeling. They are also described as being gleeful and reveling in theft, destruction and violence. These stand opposite the power of Humanity, which is defined as equating to compassion and empathy. This leads Kara to guess that the Humanity Totem is the one Nxyly just got.

Martian Manhunter, Guardian and Sentinel are said to be fighting the crowds.

It is estimated that Nxyly could have drained the compassion and empathy from 10,000 people but only a few hundred seem to have been infected.

William wants to write about Nxyly, but Supergirl is afraid people knowing about Nxyly might make them panic. She eventually persuades William to go ahead and write about Nxyly, but not to mention Lena or that the team has access to magic.

Esme made Kelly a friendship bracelet as a thank you for everything she did for her.

Andrea threatens to fire William after he refuses to write about what the Super Friends know about the weirdness in National City.

Lena's first attempt at casting her tracking spell leaves Nia unable to tell her right from her left. Lena guesses this effect will wear off after an hour.

Nyxly shows uncharacteristic compassion for Mitch when she notices he's hurt.

Mitch detects the third Totem at the Hague in the Netherlands.

William talks with Lena about her spellbook and says that it reminds him of his father's recipes.  Like William, his father was a baker, and William realized he couldn't follow his father's recipes literally because the ingredients had to be chosen with care, like fresh-picked berries over store-bought. This leads Lena to the revelation that magic has to be approached in the same way.

Esme breathes fire when she and her mother are confronted by one of the berserker fighters. She seems surprised that she had this ability.

J'onn accidentally reveals that the Super Friends have access to spy satellites, which they are using to track Nxyly's ship.

Lena has to retrieve a sample of Sheep Laurel seeds from the Botanical Gardens.

The National City Botanical Gardens are close to the Arena.

Mitch determines that the third Totem (i.e. the Hope Totem) is a sculpture called The Hand of the Flower, which is on display in The Hague. He tells Nyxly how to get to it, but it will require killing one guard silently.

Nxyly finds herself unable to kill the guard, after she suddenly starts thinking about how sad his family and friends will be.

Lena's spell accidentally amplifies the effects of Nxyly's energy wave and makes the berserkers even more angry.

Mitch guesses that the reason the Humanity Totem didn't have a test like the Courage Totem is that the Totem itself is the test and that whoever wields the Humanity Totem has to bear the suffering of everyone around them.

Kara feels Nxyly being overwhelmed by emotion and guesses what Mitch did about the Totem overwhelming her sense of empathy.

Kara suggests Lena keep casting her spell so they can overwhelm Nxyly. Lena refuses, saying she won't let Kara ever do something just because the ends justify the means.

Lena ultimately agrees to Kara's plan, but only if William will honestly report on what they are doing and why.

William agrees to keep Lena's involvement a secret, but insists on writing about Nxyly, the search for the Totems and the role of magic in all the craziness in National City.

The rest of the Super Friends keep the peace in the city, as Kara and Lena try to work the spell again and track down Nxyly.

Esme's foster mother locks her out of their home and tries to force her to fight the berserkers.

Esme is saved by Sentinel and Guardian.

Mitch takes Nxyly back to National City, where she deactivates the Humanity Totem and throws it out of their ship.

Kara recovers the Humanity Totem, but Nxyly and Mitch escape.

Dreamer suggests they use the particles Lena recovered to track the Dream Totem next.

Andrea is pleased by William's article, but demands he write about which Super Friend has magic powers. William refuses and threatens to go to the Daily Planet if Andrea keeps telling him how to do his job. She says fine, but moves him to the desk next to the bathrooms.

Lena and Kara get pot-stickers to celebrate.

The Fords give Esme up and Kelly and Alex both show up to escort Esme back to the group home. It is hinted, however, that the two are thinking of adopting her themselves.

Mitch and Nxyly begin plotting a new plan to get the Hope Totem from the Hague.


Location

The Hague - The Netherlands


Untelevised Adventures

Brainiac-5 is off-camera trying to track Nxyly's ship for the entire episode.


The Kryptonite Factor

Kara is running at less than peak efficiency through the episode and pushing Lena (who is also not at her best) to focus on using her magic.


The Bottom Line

Not the greatest episode of Supergirl, but far better than most of what has come in Season 6 thanks to a high-action quotient and some great dialogues between Kara and Lena. 

Supergirl Episode Guide: Season 5, Episode 15 - Reality Bytes

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


Plot

A transphobic troll begins attacking trans women through a dating app (including Nia's roommate) and threatens to keep doing it unless Dreamer quits being a superhero. As Kara tries to stop Nia from going over the edge in dealing with the wannabe super-villain, J'onn, Alex and Kelly search for a missing man who may have been abducted and is being held hostage in a virtual world in Obsidian Platinum.


Influences

Various 1990s horror stories built around virtual reality. The title is taken from the 1994 drama Reality Bites.

Goofs

Despite fretting over whether to wear a blue or purple shirt on her date with William, Kara winds up wearing the purple shirt after Alex told her to wear the blue and that blue is her best color.

Yvette is written as the stupidest woman on the planet, not thinking anything is weird about some strange man knowing her virtual boyfriend's name when he approaches her in a bar or when he later approaches her in an alley.

In fact, the only person stupider than Yvette in this episode is the bigot himself, who doesn't really think through the logistical problems of calling out a superhero with actual powers and attacking people who claim to know her on-line. He seems honestly stunned with Dreamer finds him and is able to overpower him easily.

Ignoring the reasons outlined in the episode, it seems incredibly stupid for Obsidian Platinum to operate without rules or without some kind of virtual sysop inside the game to monitor for things like, say, a serial killer/rapist attempting to make his fantasies a reality and targeting other players.

It seems unlikely that there are only 200 anti-trans message boards and social media groups on the entire Internet or that the sum total of their postings could be fit onto a single portable flash drive. Even allowing that the DEO and Brainiac-5 may have some wonderfully huge portable drives.

Yvette's decision to delete all her social media seems to be a bad lesson for this fable. As written, it seems like the episode is saying that dating apps are evil; not bigots, trolls and stalkers who use dating apps as a means of locating potential victims.

The closing montage set to "Everybody Hurts" would be a bit more powerful had the episode ended with Alex and Kara learning of Jerimaih's death rather than most of the song being played over Margot wheeling away Richard Bates.


Performances

Nicole Maines gives a powerful performance in the early scenes and you really feel Nia's rage at the bigot trying to stop her from being a hero and her frustration with Kara's well-meaning but misplaced efforts at empathy and her trying to give a "there's nothing we can't overcome together" speech at the worst possible time to be a clueless but well-meaning ally.

At the same time, Melissa Benoist does a great job in the early scenes trying to convey earnest empathy while realizing that she's not in a place where she can offer moral judgement, as much as it kills her that there are some things she can't solve with a speech about hope and some villains who can't be redeemed.


Super Trivia

Reference is made to the nation of Quarac, which is ruled by a royal family on Earth-Prime. In the DC Comics universe, Quarac is a fictional nation in the Middle East.

J'onn travels to Opal City following the psychic trail attached to Trevor Crane. In the DC Comics universe, Opal City is the home town of the first superhero to use the name Starman, Ted Knight. It was the main setting of the 1994 Starman series.

Jennifer Bates is played by actress Anna Van Hooft, who appeared in a season 1 episode of Arrow as a woman named Jenn who was mistaken for Sara Lance in a photo Dinah Lance believed proved her daughter was alive. Jenn was said to be engaged to be married, suggesting that maybe Jenn is Jennifer eight years later.on Earth-Prime.


Technobabble

There is a fail-safe tied to the bio-metrics of the user of Obsidian Platinum's lenses, that is meant to manifest a button the user can push to end the simulation when they are feeling unduly stressed.

The Hand of the Soldier is apparently capable of generating an electrical shock strong enough for a Kryptonian on Earth to feel it, as Alex is apparently able to teasingly shock Kara with it.

The Martian DNA inside the Hand of the Soldier should code itself to Alex's bio-electric impulses, allowing her to morph it with a single thought once she allows it into her.

Obsidian Platinum connects to a person's biology rather than acting through a link to their brain. It causes everything they experience to feel real.

Advanced Obsidian Platinum users can customize the virtual world but it takes time for the additions to be cataloged by the games' manager.  As such, there are some places (like The Escape Palace) where the people running the game have no clue what is going on.

Kelly says the Escape Palace draws upon a user's worst fears, making everyone perceive if differently. In Alex's case, she sees it as a series of tanks like the one she nearly drowned in.

One DEO agent reports to Brainiac-5 that she found over 200 anti-trans social media groups and message boards on the Internet and fit them onto a single portable drive.

Richard Bates is somehow able to customize his rooms in Obsidian Platinum to block remote monitoring.

According to Kelly, Alex should not have been able to blast Richard out of Obsidian Platinum.


Dialogue Triumphs

(Regarding the Martian Hand of the Soldier weapon J'onn gave Alex.)
Alex: This thing is supposed to know what I'm thinking, but it's being very stubborn.
Kara: (grinning) Well, like soldier, like hand.
(Alex raises her wrist at Kara and makes a buzzing noise. Kara jumps back as if shocked as Alex laughs.)

Nia: He wants me to stop being a superhero. He's going after my community to bully me into it.
Kara: Listen to me, Nia, listen. We will find this guy
Nia: Yeah, we will. And when we do, I'll bury him.
Kara: (shocked) Nia! Look, I... I... (sighs) I know this is a personal attack, but you have to trust that when we find this guy the cops are going to put him behind bars.
Nia: (exasperated) Kara, I love you, but do not tell me what I can and can't do right now. There is no catching this guy and redeeming him. There is no "hope speech" that can make this better!
Kara: Nia -
Nia: (firmly) No. Look, my community is vulnerable. This happens more than you could possibly know. And there are guys, just like this jerk out there, who want to hurt us. They want us to hide and to be afraid to be who we are. They want us to disappear and it happens. Every. Day.
Kara: I know. And what this guy did was horrible-
Nia: He's not the first and he won't be the last. We haven't exactly been a priority for the cops. So, just trust me when I say that I am the one protecting this community. And now this bastard is going after my community trying to erase me? No. No, this guy is over!
Kara: (shaken) Look, I know that you're hurting right now. And I know I'll never fully understand. But between us and the cops, we will make sure justice is served. Nia? Just give us a chance?
Nia: Fine. A few hours. Then I'm doing this my way.

Kara: I know sometimes being the good guy sucks. Especially when you know how easy it would be to get rid of someone so vile and full of hate. But, hey not doing that? That is what makes us different from them.


Dialogue Disasters

(Kara and William write a story together and we get the clunkiest message delivery ever.)
Kara: (reading) "Over 24 trans people have been murdered in this country in the past year."
William: The true number's likely much higher. Many of these attacks are misreported because victims are misgendered in police reports.

Dreamer: You make me sick.
Bigot: No, you make me sick you twisted freak! You show up on the scene one day tricking dudes into thinking you're this hot new superhero! The girl next door! But heroes are supposed to be virtuous and honest! And here you are - lying!


Continuity

Two months earlier, a man named Richard Bates testing  a virtual ski vacation in Obsidian Platinum's beta became trapped inside the game when the End Simulation button failed to manifest.

Kelly Olsen was overseeing Bates' experience. She promised to report the error, before Bates was led away by Margot, the woman with Leviathan.

Supergirl and Dreamer fight a Dominator together, just before Kara's first date with William Dey.

Brainiac-5 is distant yet formal to Dreamer when the DEO shows up to secure the scene after the fight.

Kara hasn't had a date in two and a half years.

According to the news, Lex Luthor just had dinner with Crown Prince Raakaan el-Farah of Qurac and, per his advice, Obsidian Platinum will soon be available in that nation.

Alex is still having issues training with the Martian Hand of the Soldier weapon.

Nia's roommate Yvette has a profile on a dating app called Upswipz. This was the same dating app made by the tech company Ray Palmer briefly worked for in L301.

Yvette has been seeing a man she met on-line exclusively for three weeks. She's going to meet him in person for the first time at a club that night and she wants Nia to go with her.

Yvette does not know that Nia is Dreamer or that Nia's ex "Barney" is a DEO agent and an alien from the future.

Yvette describes herself on her Upswipz's profile as Dreamer's best friend.

Kara and William go to a pool hall on their date. Kara claims she's only played 8-Ball one time in her life, but manages a near perfect shot.

Nia has a flash at the bar of blood being on her hands.

Yvette is approached by a man who somehow knows about Angus and doesn't take the hint when she asks about her being spoken for just before she gets a message from Angus telling her to meet her outside. She still seems to have no idea what is going on when the same man approaches her and talks about Angus standing her up.

Nia has another vision in the bathroom of Yvette being attacked.

The bigot leaves a note with Yvette that is addressed to Dreamer, saying the world doesn't want a trans superhero and that unless she quits he'll keep attacking trans women.

The police put together a sketch of what the bigot looks like.

Nia agrees to wait a few hours to give Kara and the police a chance to find the bigot before she goes off on her own.

Al, who runs Al's Dive Bar, comes to J'onn and asks for his help in finding his brother, Trevor, who has been missing for a week.

Trevor lives in Al's basement and spends a lot of time on-line.

Trevor's given name is Trevor Crane.

Al called the police but the only lead they found was an invitation on Trevor's computer to go to a weekend escape experience in the Virtual Las Vegas inside Obsidian Platinum. The police think Trevor is a hotel room somewhere on a VR party binge.

Trevor  apparently just started using Obsidian Platinum and apparently had met some friends somewhere called The Escape Palace.

Alex determines that Trevor must have paid cash for his hotel room since there's no credit card records of him checking in somewhere.

Kara asks Brainiac-5 to use the DEO's facial-recognition software to identity the bigot that is looking for Dreamer.

Kelly sets Alex up with a set of Obsidian Platinum lenses.

According to Kelly, Obsidian Platinum sets up a number of potential scenarios based on your own thoughts and desires before you enter the game world proper. In Alex's case, it appears that three of her scenarios involve being Supergirl, working as a doctor or having a baby.

There are no rules inside the Obsidian Platinum world.

The virtual Vegas experience has a virtual Siegfried and Roy show.

NPCs in Obsidian Platinum can be identified by the three lines on their neck. The NPCs are AIs run by the

Al says Trevor has spent that last few months in VR instead of spending time with him.

Al gives J'onn a watch that he gave him as a gift to mark their first year on Earth together. Trevor wore it every day until he got a smart watch, hoping J'onn can use it to psychically track him.

J'onn finds the names of two of Trevor's friends avatars on Obsidian Platinum.

One of the Obsidian Platinum users identifies The Escape Palace as a creepy haunted house located in the hills just outside Virtual Vegas.

Alice finds two of Trevor's friends trapped inside a flooding magician's tank, similar to the one she was stuck inside in 219.

Trevor's friends claim they were stuck inside the room for days. They say they last saw Trevor escape from their room with a new player named Richard, who had started hanging out with them.

Richard was the one who suggested everyone try the Escape Palace experience.

J'onn travels to Opal City, to a house he feels is connected to Trevor somehow.

The house belongs to Jennifer Bates, Richard Bate's wife, who was having a virtual affair with Trevor Crane.

Nia calls the detective working Yvette's case, but he hasn't made any progress.

Nia creates a profile on Upswpiez to get the bigot's attention.

Richard Bates is revealed to be a computer engineer who began exploring the technical specifics of how Obsidian Platinum worked.

Brainiac-5 is searching everything on the Internet relating to Dreamer and finds Nia's dating profile.

Alex breaks into one room in the virtual world and is cut off from Kelly in the real world.

Kara and William work on the story of Yvette's attack together.

Brainiac-5 calls Kara and tells her that he thinks Nia is trying to use herself as bait to attract the bigot.

The bigot's ID on Upswipez is GoodTimes1995.

The room Trevor is trapped in causes his virtual avatar to blow up like he was standing on a land mine and be reformed in a painful fashion, over and over. He says Richard Bates keeps coming back to the room to watch him explode over and over.

Alex is able to force Richard Bates out of the virtual world by shooting him with an imaginary taser.

J'onn tracks down Richard Bates in the real world, in Room 10 of the Coastline Motel.

After Bates tries attacking J'onn, his eyes become red-rimmed and he seems to hallucinate the world changing around J'onn.

Alex talks Trevor down and gets him to retake control of his body.

Trevor is at the National City Grand, Room 315.

According to Kelly, Alex should not have been able to blast Richard out of Obsidian Platinum. Alex says they can figure it out later.

Nia ambushes the bigot, who seems stunned that Dreamer came looking for him.

The bigot's name is Gregory Bauer.

Nia confesses to Kara that she's hurting far worse than she let on because of Brainiac-5 dumping her and like she's lost control of her life and going after the bigot was something she could do.

Kelly and Alex agree that virutal cheating counts as cheating and that virtual torture is real attempted murder.

Kelly says she believes her work can help people but agrees with Alex that VR technology should be regulated and the people allowed to program it limited.

Trevor comes to meet Alex in person and thank her for saving him.

Yvette decides to delete all her social media. She says she's tired of putting herself out there because she should have known better than to trust that most people could accept a trans woman of color or that she could find a man who loved her for her.

Brainaic-5 gives the detective handling Yvettte's case a list of people connected to a group Gregory Bauer was part of that was planning attacks on trans women on-line and identified several users who had claimed credit for several attacks.

Alex is still having trouble getting the Hand of the Soldier to work in the real world.

Alex gets a phone-call from her mother telling her that Jeremiah Danvers has been found dead.

Alex goes to Kara's apartment to tell her the news.

Margot is seen wheeling Richard Bates out of the hospital and placing him in a room with other Obsidian Platinum users - some of whom are somehow floating in mid-air.


Location

Opal City


The Bottom Line

Were it not for some strong performances, this might instantly have been the worst episode of Supergirl ever filmed. As it stands, it definitely has one of the weaker scripts, and surprisingly this is more because of the clunky virtual reality storyline (which would have seemed silly and dated had it been an episode of VR.5) than the Dreamer-focused story about the problem of violence against trans women.

The script is just lazy in the middle parts, with William and Kara literally reading off the statistics about how many trans women have been murdered by bigots. This severely undercuts the good parts of the episode, such as where Nia takes Kara to task for trying to give her usual chirpy optimistic speech about how we can overcome these problems if we work together, neatly ignoring all the people who are actively working to discourage that kind of unity.

It's also bothersome that the lesson taken away from this episode is that you should just stay off social media and close yourself off from the world. Yet none of that is as painful as the tech jargon rattled off by people who don't understand it. The hearts of the writers may have been in the right place, but their heads were somewhere else entirely.

Supergirl Episode Guide: Season 5, Episode 10 - The Bottle Episode

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




Plot

National City has been relocated to the new Earth-Prime and the world has been forever changed. The DEO is out in the open and Lex Luthor is now Supergirl's boss! As Kara and Alex struggle to figure out what this change means for them, Lena finds herself torn between an apologetic Kara and the devil she knows, as she tries to decide who she can trust. Meanwhile, Brainiac-5 finds himself confronted with several versions of himself from other realities as it becomes clear that the universe may not be finished settling after the recent Crisis.


Influences

The Callahan's Crosstime Saloon stories of Spider Robinson. (idea of a bar full of aliens and people from alternate timelines)


Goofs

Why does Lena value Lillian's word at all when she knows that she is just as treacherous as Lex?

The logic behind why the Kryptonian witches help Brainiac-5 doesn't quite scan - how can he help them get back to their world when all the universes are dead? (Either Brainiac-5 lied or they mean their version of Earth, which coincidentally is the one they came from.)

How do the jacket-wearing Brainiac-5 and the Kryptonian witches enter the sealed bottle to wait for release? (The seal only works one way?)

The female Brainiac-5 tells the Prime Brainiac-5 of the value of love and her her marriage empowered her, yet encourages Brainiac-5 to abandon everyone he loves in order to work with Lex Luthor for a greater good.

Setting the fight scene between the Kryptonian witches and our heroes to N'Sync's It's Gonna Be Me was a weird decision.


Performances

Jesse Rath is clearly having a lot of fun playing the different versions of Brainiac-5, including the new one sans inhibitors.


Artistry

The new make-up for Brainiac-5 is a marked improvement and the costume looks like it was taken directly from the classic Legion comics.


Super Trivia

In television circles, a bottle episode is one that is produced cheaply and intentionally written with a limited scope, often making use of old sets with no guest stars or extras. The term was coined by The Outer Limits creator Leslie Stevens, who likened it to "pulling an episode right out of a bottle like a genie."

Usually bottle episodes have a single setting and have a greater focus on interpersonal relationships. Quite often bottle episodes will be written to follow after a mid-season cliffhanger or an expensive season opener so as to better budget the show's expenses for the fiscal year, allowing more money to be spent on more lavish productions.

Despite its name, "The Bottle Episode" is not actually a bottle episode, featuring a lot of expensive special effects shots for the Brainiac-5 sequences, several locations and a special guest star.

At one point Lex Luthor is due to be given the Man of Tomorrow award. The Man of Tomorrow is a title that is typically applied to Superman and one of his comics was titled Superman: The Man of Tomorrow.

It is revealed that the full alias Brainiac-5 uses while posing as a human is Barney Fife. This is the name of the deputy played by Don Knotts on The Andy Griffith Show.

Upon encountering his doppelganger, Brainiac-5 asks if he is Martian, Durlan or made of clay. This is reference to two DC Comics alien species capable of shape-shifting and the shape-shifting villain Clayface.

The female Brainiac-5 is played by Meaghan Rath - sister of regular Brainiac-5 actor Jesse Rath.

Mention is made of The Anti-Life Equation - a techno-organic poison that can kill Coluans through their genetic hive-mind.

In the original DC Comics books based around the New Gods, the Anti-Life Equation is an artifact sought by Darkseid which he believes will give him the power to conquer the universe by eliminating all free will.

Trapping cities or planets in a bottle is a common stunt performed by various versions of Brainiac and the people of Colu throughout DC Comics history. Perhaps the most famous example of this is the Bottled City of Kandor - a Kryptonian City which Superman kept in the Fortress of Solitude, while searching for a way to safely restore its citizens to normal size after rescuing the city from Brainiac.


Technobabble

The Anti-Life Equation is described as a techno-organic poison, targeted and transmitted through the Coluan hive-mind.

The Brainiac-5s determine that they were transported to Earth-Prime through some kind of dimensional wormhole and that they must find the nexus point to return to their home dimensions. However, Brainiac-5 says that is impossible since following the Crisis there are no other dimensions. At least, none that can be detected through unique vibrational frequencies.

Coluan Personality Inhibitors block off a Coluan's access to The Big Brain - the Coluan hive-mind. This gives them more control over their emotions, but also limits their intellectual potential.

The Brainiac-5 attempting to free his Earth from a bottle is said to have piggy-backed off the personality inhibitors of Brainiac-5 Prime to hide his thoughts from the other Brainiac-5s and the Coluan hive mind.

Releasing a world from a Coluan bottle while standing on another planet can destroy both worlds, due to the gravity ripping both planets apart as they come to occupy the same space.

Coluan world bottles are sealed beneath the quantum level to prevent leakage. They can only be opened using magic or a device that harnesses Argonium 44, such as an Argonium Saber. Only one such saber exists in the Sol system in the 21st century and it is in the custody of the DEO.


Dialogue Triumphs

(We open on an image of a sunrise as a drone flies into view. As  the narration begins, we see images of doctors working on a patient and hot metal being poured into a foundry, giving way to images of children being threatened by aliens and scary ships filling the skies.)
Lex Luthor: (voice over) We live in a world on the cutting edge. And as mankind advances, so too does the danger it faces. For years, we protected America in secret. But now, we want you to know you're in good hands.
(An explosion transitions into an image of several black clad soldiers grappling down from the top of the screen before an office building. A fire suddenly blazes between them but Supergirl flies into the shot and puts it out with her freezing breath. The camera closes-up on Supergirl as she smiles like a beauty pageant queen.)
Supergirl: Hope, help and compassion for all.
Lena Luthor: (voice over) That's our motto here at -
(Cut to the scene from earlier, with Lex and Lena now standing before the DEO soldiers.)
Lex Luthor: The DEO. Call us for all your extranormal needs.
(We pull back away from the screen to see that this is a television commercial. Kara and Alex walk past. Kara looks disgusted and like she almost can't finish the doughnut she's devouring. Almost.)

(Lena slowly wakes up on the couch in her apartment. Lex Luthor is busying himself in her kitchen. He offers her a glass of orange juice.)
Lex: Hey there, sleepyhead. I fried a couple of eggs for you. Methohexital hangovers are no joke. You must be ravenous.
(Lena looks at Lex in disbelief.)
Lena: This can't be real. You're dead!
Lex: (curious) So, you remember everything?
Lena: Of course I remember! I killed you!
Yes, that's right, you killed me. But that is all in the past. Because I'm back now, and I forgive you.
Lena: What are you talking about? What is happening?
Lex: Well, it was, uh... a sort of a Crisis.
Lena: It was an antimatter wave.
Lex: Ah, yes.
Lena: Alex and I worked together-
Lex: (nodding) Mmm-hmm.
Lena: We built a portal....The wave still came?
Lex: Yes, and billions were lost and the multiverse collapsed, and it was all very interesting. What matters now is that a very powerful person brought me back to life. To help. But I refused to do so, unless he promised that you would make it through okay, And you have. With your noggin intact.
Lena: You gambled the fate of the entire multiverse to get your own way?
Lex: (cheerfully) It gets better! In this new world, we work side by side at LuthorCorp and the DEO to make the world a better place.
Lena: So I'm in hell!
Lex: No, no, you're in a new reality. To the outside world, we're billionaire philanthropists. It's the perfect cover.
Lena: I want nothing to do with you!
Lex: Ah, yes, you want to fix humanity with your Project Non Nocere. And using Myriad to broadcast the Q-waves? That was smart. But you should have known the moment you decided to steal from a Kryptonian, the Non Nocere was doomed. Kara Danvers will never see things your way. She'll always work against you.
Lena: (sarcastically) Right. So you'll be my friend now?
Lex: The world is ours now, Lena. You don't need a robot and you don't need friends. You need a partner. Imagine what we could accomplish together. Why not give it a go?
Lena: So you think this is your world now? You were a puppet on a string for Leviathan before. What makes this time any different?
(There is a long pause as Lex Luthor honestly looks confused.)
Lex: What the hell is Leviathan?!

Supergirl: So, uh, there's something I have to tell you. I know you think Lex is a good man, That he's your partner...
Lena: Save it. I already know.
Supergirl: What... exactly do you know?
Lena: The Crisis. What Lex did. What you did.
Supergirl: (muttering) Lex...
Lena: That you took the punch. What did you think would happen when you came here? That you'd tell me everything in a fit of selflessness, even if it meant that I knew how you betrayed me? And then I'd just keel over and forgive you?!
Supergirl: Lena, I hurt you. I...I know I hurt you. And I'm never ever going to do it again. And I know how much good you want to do in the world. Just think of what we could do together to help people.
Lena: (coldly) Funny. Lex gave me the same pitch.
Supergirl: He asked you to help him? (sighs) You're not seriously considering it, are you?
(Lena just stares at Kara coldly.)
Supergirl: Please, just be careful.

(Lena enters The Luthor Foundation offices. She sees Lillian Luthor wearing a pink suit.)
Lena: I never thought I'd live to see the day my mother wore petal pink.
Lillian: Technically, you didn't.

Brainiac-5: When I was eight years old, my family went on what humans might call a vacation. This was the first time I had seen the snow. It was incredible.
Kara: Why are you telling me this? '
Brainiac-5:  Because my mother saw how much I loved it. How badly I...I wanted to stay there in the snow. And so, she bottled it for me. The entire planet.
Kara: Brainy...
Brainiac-5: My father was horrified at what she had done. He freed the planet. I was so young and angry with him for taking away my planet. My planet! And that anger terrified him. He feared that I, too, could hold such darkness within me. That I could become my mother. So he placed three personality inhibitors on me. The same ones I wear to this very day.
Kara: Your three dots.
Brainiac-5: When I wear them, I'm not fully calibrated with the Coluan network of minds, The Big Brain. If I hadn't been wearing them, that bad Brainy wouldn't have been able to fool us.
Kara: And you're afraid to take them off?
Brainiac-5: Because I might be worse. And Nia... she...She might not care for me.
Kara: Brainy, you are good to your core. You will never be your mother.
Brainiac-5: How could you be sure?
Kara: Because you're loved. And the people that love you will always fight for you.

(Brainiac-5 and Kara figure out where the other Brainiac-5 with the bottle is.)
Kara We have to tell the other Brainys.
Brainiac-5: No, I...I need to do this alone.
(He pauses dramatically as the music swells and Kara just stares at him.)
Brainiac-5: But you should come, too.
Kara: I'm coming.

(Lex has bonded himself with a Truth-Seeker so he cannot lie.)
Lex: So, sis, what do you want to know?
Lena: Can you help me achieve Non Nocere?
Lex: Better and faster than anybody else.
Lena: Will you truly be on your best behavior? No homicides?
Lex: No unnecessary homicides.
Lena: This is about doing no harm.
Lex: But I won't. I have everything I want except for your partnership.
Lena: When will you turn on me?
Lex: As soon as this partnership inconveniences me. Just like you'll use Non Nocere on me as soon as you get the chance.
Lena: Good. As long as we're clear. You don't need me. Why do you really want to work with me?
Lex: Truthfully?  I don't want to be alone.


Continuity

On Earth-Prime, the DEO operates openly and has commercials informing people as to their existence.

According to Alex, based on her memories, Supergirl and Lex were once great collaborators when it came to the DEO's mission.

Alex's memories of Earth-38 have been restored.

According to Alex, Brainiac-5, Dreamer, Kelly Olsen and every hero who took part in the final battle against the Anti-Monitor in L501 had their memories of the original Arrowverse restored by Martian Manhunter.

Martian Manhunter can't restore the memories of the entire world, as it would likely blow everyone's minds given the way various relationships were changed by the merging of multiple Earths.

According to Kara, CatCo is unfortunately still a tabloid owned by Andrea Rojas and she's being wasted covering Lex Luthor being given the Man of Tomorrow Award.

According to Alex, Lena and Supergirl are partners on this world and there's no record of her having ever tried to mind-control the entire world.

Lena remembers her past-life on Earth-38 as well, thanks to Lex's bargain with The Monitor in S508. Lex only agreed to help The Monitor after he agreed to make sure that Lena survived the Crisis with her mind and memory intact. Apparently The Monitor was somehow able to make good on this promise, despite dying before the multiverse was erased.

Lex has no idea what Leviathan is.

Brainiac-5 and Dreamer encounter an alternate version of Brainiac-5 at Nia's favorite smoothie place. He uses the same human alias as Brainiac-5, but has a decidedly more cheerful personality.

Both versions of Brainiac-5 carry handcuffs on their person in case they need to arrest someone while off-duty.

Lena is seen researching the history of Earth-Prime, apparently having no memory of her life in the new reality. Apparently she and Lex worked together to cure some rare disease and Lex teamed up with Supergirl to fight Agent Liberty within the past year.

The web search also reveals that LexCorp bought the DEO due to it going over-budget and being in danger of being shut down by the Federal Government.

Supergirl tries to reveal her secret identity to Lena, not knowing that her memories of the old reality are intact. Lena is skeptical about her reasons for doing this, but Kara still tries to reach out to her and warns her away from working with Lex.

Three more Brainiac-5's appear at the DEO. One is a female version of Brainiac-5 who claims to be director of the DEO. Another is a male who wears a jacket covered with equations. The third one wears an eye-patch and dies, shortly after warning the others not to let "him" open the bottle.

The Brainiac-5 is determined to have been killed by the Anti-Life Equation - a techno-organic poison known to all the Braniacs except the Brainiac-5 of Earth-Prime.

According to Brainiac-5 Prime, the multiverse is dead. At least, he cannot detect other Earths through the old method of tuning to a specific vibrational frequency.

Lex suggests a truce between himself and Alex and Supergirl for the moment, saying they should focus on threats like Leviathan and see their conflict as a friendly chess game played out slowly. Neither Kara or Alex are agreeable to this, but Lex says he'll give them a day to think it over before declaring all out war on them.

According to Alex, there is no sign of Leviathan existing in the new Earth-Prime.

According to Andrea Rojas, 82% of Obsidian North's customers with cel-phone plans have purchased their VR plans.

Gamemnae is still the leader of Leviathan in the new reality and has been posing as a woman named Gemma Cooper for several years.

Gemma Cooper was Andrea Rojas' mentor in college and is part of the Board of Directors of Obsidian North.

The Brainiac-5's trace the wormhole nexus to Al's Dive Bar, where two versions of Al are now offering shelter to various alien doppelgangers from now-dead Earths.

The jacket-wearing, nervous Brainiac-5 almost falls prey to the Anti-Life Equation. He is saved when the cheerful Brainiac-5 manages to root out the virus using a process the Prime Brainiac-5 isn't familiar with that involves stroking his forehead and calming him down.

It is clear that Brainiac-5 Prime is much less quick-witted than his doppelgangers.

The doppelganger version of Al says that he had to close his bar down in 1979 when Disco died.

The doppelgangers include alternate versions of the trio of Kryptonian witches who created Reign during Supergirl season 3. They came from the same reality as the alternate version of Al, who claims they came to Earth as tourists and never left. He let them run a side-hustle out of his bar, telling fortunes, to get by.

Lillian Luthor is out of prison in the new reality, and now running The Luthor Foundation - the charitable wing of LuthorCorp.

Lillian Luthor doesn't have her memories of the old reality, but was told everything about what happened by Lex. She is somewhat annoyed that he only felt the need for Lena's memories to remain unaltered, but has put that aside given her apparently improved station.

Lena had a teddy bear named Miss Pizzly whens he was four.

Lillian encourages Lena to consider Lex's offer of a partnership, saying that she knows for sure that Lex can't be trusted but that her judgement regarding Supergirl is questionable and she can't be certain that Kara will never betray her trust again.

Alex vents about not being able to work for Lex Luthor to J'onn. He tells her a story about how he once saved an alien woman named Izzy from a co-worker who found out she was an alien and took her hostage, even thought the DEO regulations at the time prohibited him from moving against violent humans. He says that honor lies in running toward the bomb, regardless of what rules tell you.

The female Brainiac-5 hacks Lex Luthor's computer and determines that he is researching Leviathan.

Brainiac-5 reveals that he wears personality inhibitors. This stuns his female counterpart.

The female Brainiac-5 was married to a woman and credits the relationship with making her better - stronger and smarter in spirit. She says her wife is still with her thanks to her connection to The Big Brain.

Dreamer stumbles across the Brainiac-5 with the jacket trying to open a bottle containing a shrunken Earth in a DEO store room. He quickly asserts his true personality.

The jacketed Brainiac-5 reveals that he was able to save his Earth by trapping it in a bottle before the Anti-Matter wave destroyed it. Unfortunately, he lacks the tools to reverse the process.

Dreamer sends a psychic message to Supergirl and Braniac-5 Prime after the Evil Brainy attacks her.

The female Brainiac-5 notes that trapping worlds in bottles is an ancient Coluan practice.

Gemma Cooper encourages Andrea Rojas in her developing a more realistic shared virtual environment.

Brainiac-5 reveals that the reason he wears personality inhibitors is because of a tantrum he threw when he was 8 after his father freed a snow-covered world that his mother trapped to make him happy.  He feared Brainiac-5 would take after his mother and Brainiac-5 wore the inhibitors ever since, for fear he might go mad or that Nia would not love his real self.

After removing his inhibitors, Brainiac-5's skin becomes a darker shade of green and his hair a darker shade of blonde.

Brainiac-5 convinces his counterpart to allow him and his friends a chance to safely release his world somewhere it won't endanger either Earth.  The jacket-wearing Brainy and the Kryptonian witches enter into the bottle to wait for release.

The bottle containing the other Earth is taken to the Fortress of Solitude for safe-keeping.

The other Brainiac-5s decide to give up their corporeal forms and bond with The Big Brain of the new universe, saying it is the closest they have to going home, living on as digital ghosts of a sort.

The female Brainiac-5 warns Brainiac-5 Prime of Luthor's research into Leviathan and says that she nearly destroyed her world fighting against Luthor over Leviathan. She gives him her knowledge of how events played out on her Earth, saying they are similar to how things stand on Earth-Prime now.

Brainiac-5 Prime now carries the Life Projectors of the other two Brainiac-5s.

While bonded to a Truth-Seeker, Lex promises to assist Lena with Project Non Nocere and to avoid any unnecessary homicides. He does admit, however, that he will turn on her the moment their partnership becomes an inconvenience, but that he also realizes Lena plans to use Project Non Nocere on him the first chance she gets. Lena finds these terms acceptable because they know where they stand with each other.

Brainiac-5 breaks up with Dreamer.

William Dey reveals to Kara that he doesn't trust the Luthors and thinks they're involved in the death of his best friend, Russell Rogers, who died mysterious after the Luthors tried and failed to buy his company. He got hired on at CatCo hoping to get close to Lena Luthor, before she sold the company to Andrea Rojas. This is a change from Dey's backstory earlier in the season, where he thought Andrea Rojas was involved in the death of Russel Rogers.

Lex has a partnership with Lillian to manipulate Lena to their mutual benefit.

A photo reveals that Alex and Kara ultimately accepted Lex's offer of a truce, as they are seen standing besides him, Lillian and Lena at the Man of Tomorrow awards ceremony.

Brainiac-5 approaches Luthor and informs him that he wishes to work with him to find Leviathan, despite knowing Kara and Alex would not approve of it.

Lex asks Brainiac-5 to track down a doppelganger he believes has information on Leviathan from the futre - the doppelganger is an alternate version of Winn Schott.


Untelevised Adventures

Apparently, up until the Crisis, Supergirl and Superman in the original reality thought The Luthors were good people and had no objection to shooting commercials with them. This means there could be a whole host of adventures involving the Luthors and Supergirl working together that we aren't privy to. Indeed, this is implied by Lena's web search, which says that in the new reality Lex Luthor joined with Supergirl to fight Agent Liberty.

One of the Brainiac-5's makes reference to the experience of dealing with multiple versions of himself reminding him of "some crabs on Helven." The other Brainiac-5's agree that was a terrible experience.


The Bottom Line

A rather odd episode to come back with. On the one hand, it does an effective job of establishing the new status quo-post Crisis and the changes at the DEO and CatCo while showing where Lex, Lena and Leviathan stand.  On the other hand, the subplot with Brainiac-5 and the otherworldly duplicates seems like an unnecessary addition and revisiting the "will they/won't they?" nature of Brainiac and Dreamer's romance seems like a step backward... amusing though it is to see Jess Rath play the multiple Brainiac-5s. It accomplishes what it sets out to do and gives us a more comics-accurate Brainiac-5 in the bargain but the action elements are largely forced and the return of the Kryptonian witches maddeningly random.

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.