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

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



Plot

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


Influences

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


Goofs

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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


Performances

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


Artistry

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


Super Trivia

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

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

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

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

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

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

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


Technobabble

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

The frequency of Myriad penetrates neural tissue.

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

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


Dialogue Triumphs

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

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

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


Continuity

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

James refers to his and Kara kissing back in 118.

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

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

Kara seems to blind Non with her heat-vision.

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

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

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

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

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

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

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


Location

Fort Rozz - Somewhere in the Nevada desert.


The Kryptonite Factor

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

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


The Bottom Line

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

Supergirl Episode Guide: Season 1, Episode 19 - Myriad

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


Plot

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


Influences

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


Goofs

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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


Performances

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

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

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

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

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


Artistry

The fight scene with Maxima is well-staged.


Super Trivia

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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


Technobabble

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

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

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

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

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

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


Dialogue Triumphs

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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


Dialogue Disasters

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

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


Continuity

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

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

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

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

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

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

Max Lord is an atheist.

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

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

J'onn is seemingly killed by Indigo.

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


Location

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


The Bottom Line

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

Supergirl Episode Guide: Season 1, Episode 18 - World's Finest

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



Plot

Livewire is on the loose and partnered up with a new villain called Silver Banshee, who also holds a grudge against Supergirl. Luckily, help arrives in a Flash, as Barry Allen - a superhero who is the Fastest Man Alive on his world - runs into Kara's life... much to James Olsen's annoyance.


Influences

The classic World's Finest Comics series, The Flash #123 - Flash of Two Worlds (The Flash travels to another dimension and teams with another superhero before returning home) and various comics in which The Flash races other heroes.


Goofs

CatCo must have some crack security team to allow Siobhan to get up to the level of Cat Grant's office with no questions asked, given that she's been kicked out of the building twice before now.

After blasting Kara out the window with her sonic scream, Sibohan doesn't go after Cat Grant? Granting that Kara is the focus of Sibohan's anger, you'd expect her to go after the boss who fired her and denied her dream of becoming a reporter too.

Cat objects to the name of The Flash on the grounds that it suggests someone exposing themselves, yet she has no objection to The Red Streak?

Barry describes his enemy Blackout as a being of living electricity when Kara describes Livewire. While Blackout was able to manipulate and absorb electricity like Livewire, he was not made of pure energy.

The Silver Banshee's curse doesn't seem like much of a curse, all things considered. Being unlikable doesn't seem to have stopped Winn from falling for Siobhan and it doesn't seem to be stopping any of the women in her family from being able to attract men long enough to spread the curse on to the next generation. And super-strength and the power to kill those who wrong  you with a focused thought and a scream don't seem like bad things if you're a miserable witch like Siobhan.

Barry is really quick to trust people with his secret identity in this episode, allowing Kara to reveal his identity to Winn, James, Lucy and several DEO agents. This is maddening considering how reluctant he was on his own show to let his girlfriend know who he was.

How did Sibohan know where to meet Livewire after helping her escape?

Granting that Kara and Barry didn't have much of a plan for going after Livewire, it's hard to believe that Barry would be so stupid as to try throwing lightning at a villain he's been told can manipulate electricity.

Sibohan's costume as The Silver Banshee costume looks more like a Day of the Dead costume than the outfit from the comics it is meant to emulate.

Barry says "We're not going to win this today" and encourages Kara to run... just as they've knocked Silver Banshee and Livewire down under the combined force of Kara's super-breath and the twin cyclones Barry made with his hands.

James seems oddly unphased by the lightning bolt that knocks him across the room. No burns or shock at all.

A whole lot of civilians come out of nowhere to enter the park when people are needed to witness Kara sacrificing herself, after fleeing it once the super-villain fight broke out.

All of Barry's talk about Kara's relationship with the people of her city improving in time is seriously undercut by everything being fixed instantly after Kara takes one lightning bolt to the chest trying to save a helicopter.

Livewire's got a point about how stupid it is everyone is just now realizing Supergirl was willing to die for them and deciding the feeling is mutual when they were ready to string her up two days earlier.

We're told that thanks to The Flash, the National City Police Department now has a way to lock-up and contain metahumans. One wonders why the DEO didn't discretely offer up this technology years ago.

Either Cat Grant is deliberately trolling Kara regarding her secret identity or she truly is the biggest idiot ever, if she can figure out Barry Allen is The Flash but not put two and two together regarding her continually disappearing assistant and Supergirl being needed somewhere.


Performances

The chemistry between Grant Gustin and Melissa Benoist is quite good and manages to sell some of the more difficult aspects of the script through sheer charisma.


Artistry

The special effects for Silver Banshee's scream are far better than the ones used for the Canary Cry on Arrow.


Super Trivia

The title for this episode - World's Finest - comes from a classic Silver Age DC Comics anthology series, which featured a variety of stories and characters. In time, it would come to feature stories of Batman and Superman teaming-up though occasionally it would include team-up stories involving other heroes.

World's Finest was also the title of a 2009 mini-series written by Supergirl writer Sterling Gates, which centered upon various Batman and Superman allies teaming-up... including Supergirl!

More recently, World's Finest was the title of a comic devoted to the adventures of Power Girl and Huntress - the Supergirl of Earth 2 and the daughter of that world's version of Batman and Catwoman.

The World's Finest title has been applied to various mini-series and one-shots, including a recent one teaming Batwoman and Wonder Woman

The title World's Finest Heroes is usually applied to Batman and Superman.

The doctor at the DEO who treats Siobhan is named in the show credits as Dr. Amelia Hamilton. She appears to be a feminized version of Dr. Emil Hamilton - a character from the DC Comics Superman books.

In the comics and various other adaptations, Dr. Emil Hamilton is a scientist who helped Superman by acting as a scientific adviser, medical doctor and by constructing various devices such as the Phantom Zone Projector.

Livewire is seen for the first time since S104.

When the Supergirl logo appears just before the first commercial break in this episode, the theme from The Flash TV show plays and we hear the lightning effect that usually plays before commercial breaks on The Flash as the S-shield disappears.

Barry's explanation for how multiple earths work is taken directly from The Flash #123 - the comic which introduced the idea of the DC Comics multiverse. Perhaps not coincidentally, it also fits neatly in line with The Many Worlds Interpretation of Quantum Physics, which was introduced four years earlier, though there's no evidence that comic writer Gardner Fox was familiar with the theory. (See Technobabble below for more on the MWI.)

Winn suggests the existence of a parallel Earth where everyone good is evil. In the DC Comics Multiverse, this world is commonly referred to as Earth 3 and it is ruled by an evil version of The Justice League called The Crime Syndicate. Their version of The Flash is called Johnny Quick.

Cat says that James, Winn, Kara and Barry look like the cast of a show on The CW network. The Flash is aired on The CW Network.

Cat considers the names "The Red Streak" and "The Blur" for the mysterious new speedster hero. In the early parts of the first season of The Flash, Barry was called "The Streak" in the local press and referred to himself as a blur.

In the classic DC Comics Universe, The Silver Banshee's powers were the result of a magical curse, albeit one far different than the one we see for Siobhan Smythe.

The original Silver Banshee was named Siobhan McDougal. The scion of an ancient Gaelic clan, Siobhan attempted a magical ritual to claim her rightful place as head of the clan over the objections of her uncle and brother. She was drawn into the netherworld, where a being known as The Crone offered to send Siobhan back to Earth in exchange for a magical book that had been part of Siobhan's father's library. The quest to recover the book resulted in several murders, which got the attention of Superman and brought him into conflict with The Silver Banshee.

The Silver Banshee's powers in the comics include super-strength, speed-agility, super-speed, super-hearing, super-durability to both physical and energy attacks. She has a hyper-sonic scream capable of incapacitating even Kryptonians and Amazons. She also has the ability to kill anyone by speaking their full true-name. Since her powers are magical in nature, they are capable of hurting Superman and Supergirl.

The DCTVU version of Silver Banshee's powers are magical in nature, part of a curse that affects all the women of the Smythe family. According to Siobhan's aunt, some female ancestor stole from a banshee and every woman of their bloodline was cursed to be unlikeable.

The second level of the Smythe family curse is triggered when someone wrongs a woman of the Smythe family. This causes the woman to hear the voice of the Banshee in her head, until such time as she kills the person who wronged them. If they fail to do this, the power of the banshee grows within them and their voice becomes a lethal weapon. Not only can they scream at people in front of them and cause great pain, but they can focus their scream anywhere in the world and even kill the target from a distance. Doing this, however, will cost the woman her soul.

The DCTVU version of Silver Banshee exhibits the hyper-sonic scream as well as the power of super-ventriloquism, projecting her voice anywhere in the world as when she uses her scream to remotely break the glass in Livewire's containment cage. She also possess enough super-strength to punch Supergirl and make her feel it.

Lucy Lane asks if she could call The Flash "Speedy". This is, ironically, the code-name of Green Arrow's sidekick in the comics and on Arrow.

Barry introduces himself to Lucy Lane as a CSI. Curiously, Barry never uses this term to refer to his job or himself on The Flash - presumably because the term is also the title of several CBS TV series. Since Supergirl is on CBS, however, he can safely say those letters here.

Barry and Kara address each other by their nicknames from the comics - The Girl of Steel and The Scarlet Speedster.

There have been numerous comics devoted to the idea of The Flash racing other heroes - most frequently Superman. A list of them can be found on the wonderful The Flash history website Those Who Ride The Lightning.


Technobabble

The theory of the multiverse - AKA The Many-Worlds Interpretation of quantum mechanics - holds that there are many worlds which exist in parallel at the same space and time as our own. First introduced in 1957 by physicist Hugh Everett III, a remarkably similar idea would appear in The Flash #123 in 1961 and form the basis for what would become known as the DC Comics Multiverse.

Barry has to consume 10,000 calories per day in order to make up the energy he expends running at super-speed.

Livewire's ability to absorb the electricity in the air around her gives Barry the idea to compose a computer algorithm that monitors variations in meter usage around National City, allowing him to find where she is at any given moment.

Winn suggests using an industrial capacitor to trap Livewire - the plan from Kara's first fight with her that didn't work due to equipment failure.

Barry creates special ear-plugs for himself and Kara that negate the effects of Silver Banshee's scream.


Dialogue Triumphs

Lucy: Five people were rushed to the hospital last night. All suffering from electrical imbalances in the brain. Is there anything you wanna tell me?
Livewire: Yeah. The food here sucks.
Lucy: You are the only person we know with the ability to cause electrical phenomena of this magnitude. How did you do it?
Livewire: I'm flattered you think I'm behind it, but I've got bigger brains to fry. Like Cat Grant's. And Supergirl's. And when I get out of here? You're all going to pay.

(The Flash catches Kara in mid-freefall and runs her to a field outside of National City)
The Flash: You're on fire!
(The Flash is about to try and pat out the fire but then realizes he's almost touched a strange woman's breasts and hesitates.)
The Flash: I.. . nope... uh...
(Kara looks down and begins beating the flames out herself.)
The Flash: You don't seem that bothered by the fact that you're on fire?
Kara: I didn't need you to save me.
The Flash: (chuckling) Uh... you just fell from a skyscraper. So if I hadn't been there, you would have gone splat.
Kara: I need to get back to the city.
(Kara jumps up into the air. A few seconds later, her work clothes come falling down on top of The Flash)
The Flash: What the what?  That's a new one. I thought I was the impossible.

(The Flash goes running after Kara, now in her Supergirl costume, She sees the lighting bolt on the ground and flies down to cut it off after he gets ahead of her.)
The Flash: How did you do that?
Supergirl: I'm Supergirl!
The Flash: ... you're who now?
Supergirl: Sorry. I was just a little... disoriented from the scream.  How did you save me?
The Flash: Well, I... you- you fell out a window and I... I caught you and ran you all the way out here, which I did not mean to do. But I've been working on my speed and...I guess I'm faster than I thought.
Supergirl: Yes, yes, but I... (deep breath) Who are you?
The Flash: I'm The Flash!
Supergirl: The who now?
The Flash: The Fla- wait, do you not know who I am?
Supergirl: Should I?
The Flash: What about The Green Arrow?
(Supergirl shakes her head.)
The Flash: Black Canary?
(Supergirl just shakes her head and looks confused.)
The Flash: Firestorm? Atom? Zoom?
(Supergirl shakes her head and looks at The Flash like he's speaking another language.)
Supergirl: (apologetic) Sorry.
The Flash: Oh boy. Not as sorry as I am.
(The Flash reaches up and pulls his mask off.)The Flash: Hey. I'm Barry Allen. I'm the fastest man alive. And I think that I'm on the wrong Earth. I'm gonna need your help.

(Looking at Kara, Winn, James and Barry)
Cat: All four of you standing there, doing nothing? You look like the attractive yet non-threatening, racial-diverse cast of a CW Show.

(Siobhan enters a shop called Luck of the Irish. She sees the shopkeeper, a red-haired matronly sort with a thick Irish accent, taking to a customer.)
Shopkeeper: Thank you, my dear. Love will soon be coming yer way. Don't forget ta write his name five times in your journal every night.
(The customer leaves. Once she is out the door, Siobhan turns to regard the shopkeeper)
Siobhan: What the hell was that accent?
Shopkeeper: (now speaking in a normal American accent) It's one of the many talents I use to trick Muggles to buy 300 bucks worth of cheap quartz.

(Siobhan reveals herself to Livewire)
Livewire: Who the hell are you?
Siobahn: Siobhan Smythe.
Livewire: It's like your parents knew you'd grow up to be a big snob.
Siobahn: I need your help.
Livewire: I can help you catch on fire.
Siobahn: You should be a little more grateful. I'm the one who broke you out of your hamster wheel.
Livewire: How'd you do that?
(Siobhan looks up at a window and screams, breaking it. The noise brings Livewire to her knees.)Siobahn: Luck of the Irish.
Livewire: Okay. Listening. Sort of.

Livewire: You see, Cat, I'm still 50/50 if your heart's actually beating, but I'm going to stop it anyway.

The Flash: Hey, Sparky!  Shrikey! Hi. What do you way we step away from the nice lady? Settle this like women?
(Supergirl gives The Flash the side-eye.)
The Flash: What? There's more of you guys here than me.
(Supergirl nods, smiles, and keeps moving forward toward Livewire and Silver Banshee)


Dialogue Disasters

Siobahn: You and I have shared interests. You want to kill Cat Grant and Supergirl and I want to kill Cat's assistant, who is protected by them both. Figured we could team up.
Livewire: Like an evil Taylor Swift squad?
Siobahn: What do you say?
Livewire: Not in that outfit. You need a makeover.
Siobahn: This is going to be fun.

Silver Banshee: All my life I thought I was cursed, but now I see I was cursed for the better.

Livewire: I HATE HELICOPTERS!

Every single moment of the crowd coming forward to protect the fallen Supergirl.


Continuity

Kara and Winn both refer to the events of S116 and Kara losing the public's trust after being poisoned with Red Kryptonite and turning evil.

The tests Dr. Hamilton conducts confirm that Siobhan is 100% human. She has no explanation for Siobhan's powers. This seems to confirm that metahumans - human beings who are genetically enhanced in some form or fashion - do not exist on the Earth of Supergirl or, at the very least, they're rare enough the DEO hasn't encountered any besides Livewire.

Cat Grant wrote a romance self-help book in 1998 called The Lighthouse Technique. She admits it wasn't her best work, but it did get her on The Oprah Winfrey Show.

The Earth of Supergirl's reality does not have a Flash, Green Arrow, Black Canary, Atom, Firestorm or Zoom. These are all superheroes or super-villains in the reality of The Flash.

The Earth of Supergirl's reality does have a Central City (Barry Allen's home town) but there's no STAR Labs (the scientific organization that was responsible for Barry gaining super-power) or a Caitlin Snow, Cisco Ramon or Harrison Wells - the three scientists who help Barry out as The Flash.

Both Barry's Earth and Kara's Earth have Mariah Carey, donuts and the book The Three Musketeers.

Barry's reaction to Kara being an alien seems to suggest there is no proof of alien life in the reality of The Flash. This also seems to suggest, indirectly, that there is no Superman or Supergirl in the reality of Barry Allen's Earth 1. Or, at the very least, that they do not operate openly, as on Supergirl.

When Winn suggests the existence of a world where everyone is evil, Barry says that he's been there and it sucks. This may be a reference to F213 & F214, in which Barry traveled to the world of the super-villain Zoom and discovered that three of his friend's counterparts on that Earth were super-villains.

Barry admits to having traveled in time by accident but never traveling between realities by accident. This refers to the events of F116 and A408.

Kara's Earth has a CW Network.

Siobhan has an aunt who runs a new-age magic shop called Luck of The Irish. She's a bit of a con-artist, using a fake Irish accent to sell phony artifacts to people. Yet she does seem to have some honest magical knowledge, if no real power. She apparently killed her own husband to rid herself of The Smythe family curse.

When telling Barry about Livewire, Barry says that he has an enemy who is living electricity called Blackout. He fought him in F107.

Barry runs around Livewire to build up an electrical charge, which he then throws at her as a lightning bolt. This is a trick Barry learned in the second season of The Flash from fellow speedster Jay Garrick in F202. Unfortunately, the attack only charges-up Livewire's powers.

Barry refers to the events F216, where he was blamed for several thefts committed by a female super-speedster called Trajectory but the public eventually grew to trust him again.

Barry refers to The Pied Piper - a villain who used sonic-based technology - and how they used special earplugs to block his powers. This didn't happen in the original battle between The Flash and Pied Piper (F111) but may have happened in the changed timeline that came about because of The Flash's actions in F217, where his time-traveling changed the events of Episode F111 in a major way.

Kara refers to S114 and James' lecturing her on the importance of criminals being tried for their crimes, after the DEO took Maxwell Lord into custody.

The NCPD now have the means to contain metahuman criminals, thanks to The Flash.

Cat Grant figures out that Barry Allen is The Flash.

The trick where one speedster uses another speedster's momentum to boost their own was first utilized in F211,when Barry used his speed to send The Reverse Flash back to his own time. Here, Barry has Supergirl throw him forward at her top speed in order to break the boundary between realities.

At the end of the episode, James Olsen and hundreds of other people walk out into the streets like zombies. We find out this has something to do with Myriad - the Kryptonain secret weapon - being activated.


Untelevised Adventures

At the time of this episode's airing, it was unclear exactly when Barry Allen jumped realities relative to the timeline of his own TV show. Specific references indicate it was sometime after F216 - the last episode of The Flash to have aired when this episode aired.

Barry refers to making special earplugs to block the powers of a villain called The Pied Piper. This did not happen in any previous episode of The Flash at the time this episode aired. However, the episode that aired the next evening, F217, had Barry travel back in time and alter things in such a way that his first encounter with The Pied Piper changed and the second one never happened. Also, STAR Labs had a chance to replicate The Pied Piper's special ear-pieces, which may have led to Barry knowing how to make the earplugs he creates here.


The Kryptonite Factor

Honestly, the fight with Silver Banshee and Livewire should have taken about a minute.  Have Barry run out and back, grab Silver Banshee, run faster than sound and knock her out. Then all Kara has to do is remember that water shorts out Livewire and boom. Done.

Really, the only thing that saved them is that the villains were stupider than they were in the final fight and they didn't think to kill Cat Grant at literally any other point in the episode or Siobhan didn't think to just sit in a quiet room, focus on Supergirl and THEN attack her from a distance like she did with Livewire's cell.


The Bottom Line

About the only thing this episode has going for it is the charisma of its two leads and the quality of the special effects. The script is crap, with horrible dialogue, numerous logic problems and some continuity problems regarding The Flash. Turn your brain off and maybe it could be an enjoyable distraction. As is, this could be the worst episode of Supergirl to date.

Supergirl Episode Guide: Season 1, Episode 17 - Manhunter

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




Plot

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


Influences

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


Goofs

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

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

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

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

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


Performances

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

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


Artistry

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


Super Trivia

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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


Technobabble

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

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

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

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

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


Dialogue Triumphs

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

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

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

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

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


Dialogue Disasters

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


Continuity

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

J'onn is over 300 years old.

Cat Grant is friends with Princess Kate Middleton.

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

Kara reveals her secret identity to Lucy Lane.

Kara began working for Cat Grant two years ago.

J'onn has super strength.

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

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

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

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


Location

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

Midvale Junior High School in the city of Midvale.


The Fridge Factor

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


The Bottom Line

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

Supergirl Episode Guide: Season 1, Episode 16 - Falling

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




Plot

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


Influences

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


Goofs

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

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

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

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

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

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


Performances

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

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


Artistry

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

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


Super Trivia

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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


Technobabble

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

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

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


Dialogue Triumphs

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

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

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

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

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


Continuity

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

Lucy Lane resigned her position with CatCo.

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

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

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

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

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

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


The Bottom Line

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

Supergirl Episode Guide: Season 1, Episode 15 - Solitude

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




Plot

With Kara unwilling to work with the DEO in the wake of her aunt's death and Winn drafted by them to help fight a dangerous alien hacker with technopathic abilities, Kara and James must journey to the Fortress of Solitude to see answers on how to fight the creature known as Indigo. But will their working together strike the final blow to James' relationship with Lucy Lane?


Influences

The Outsiders comics of Judd Winick (the character of Indigo/Brainiac 8), All-Star Superman (the key to the Fortress of Solitude being made of a heavy material only Superman or another Kryptonian could lift), The X-Men movies (Indigo's appearance here bares more resemblance to the make-up design for Mystique than her appearance in the original comics) and Superman: The Movie (the interior design of The Fortress of Solitude and the sequence in which Kara must race to stop a missile is a tribute to Superman doing the same thing in the movie).


Goofs

Granting that hypocrisy from Cat Grant is hardly unusual and that - given the events of 108 she would feel some sympathy for the victims of a hacker making private information public - it still seems odd that Cat was preaching the importance of always reporting the truth to James last week yet this week she's throwing out a gift-wrapped list of powerful people who make use of a website catering to married people who wish to cheat on their spouses because nobody will care about the scandal!


Performances

Jeremy Jordan has suffered a lot on this show, particularly in recent episodes. It almost seemed like the writers weren't sure to do with Winn now that he can no longer pine after Kara .  This episode proves a welcome change, as Winn gets to not only save the day by being a more capable hacker than anyone else at the DEO but he gets a nice little subplot where he tries to be nice to evil queen in training Siobhan Smythe.

Laura Vandervoort's performance as Indigo is interesting, to put it mildly. There's a cattiness to the performance that doesn't fit what I was expecting when I heard what character she was playing... and  yet I rather like the idea of a rogue Brainiac in a female robot body playing the femme fatale instead of the usual cool, dispassionate Coluan. It's a little cheesy but it's fun.

The scene in which Alex confesses to killing Astra and J'onn lying to cover for her ends with some wonderful non-verbal acting on the part of Melissa Benoist and David Harewood, as Kara just hugs Alex, J'onn tries to leave the room to give them some privacy and Kara just reaches out and grabs his arm before taking his hand and squeezing it. It's a wonderful yet silent acknowledgement of the relationship between the three.

Once again, the best scenes of the episode are any scene in which Melissa Benoist and Mehcad Brooks get to play off each other. The two have a great natural chemistry and it is a real treat seeing them at work.


Artistry

The script this week is unusually smart, answering all the logical questions this show usually glosses over as I ask them, such as why Jimmy Olsen knows more about The Fortress of Solitude than Supergirl does.

The final action sequence - with Kara trying to bring down the rocket charging toward National City - is easily the best the show has seen to date.


Super Trivia

The symbol seen on the screen of Kara's rocket when it reawakens in The Phantom Zone - three circles forming a point-down equilateral triangle - is the symbol of Brainiac in the comics.  Indigo later refers to this symbol as the sign of her people - the font of omniscient knowledge.

The truck which nearly hits the car that Supergirl saves has a license plate which reads PLASTINO. This is a nod to artist Al Plastino, who not only co-created Supergirl but also co-created Brainiac.

James offers to take Lucy out to dinner at Noonan's so they can have some time alone together outside of work. This may be an ironic nod to Noonan's Sleazy Bar - the favorite watering hole of super-powered assassin Tommy "Hitman" Monaghan in the comic Hitman.

In the comics, Indigo first appeared in the Titans/Young Justice: Graduation Day #1 special. Created in an uncertain future era, she traveled back in time to the early 21st century and arrived severely damaged. She attempted to heal herself by bonding with other electronic life-forms, causing tremendous damage in the process and indirectly killing two Titans. Once it was determined that she was no longer dangerous, she was later adopted into the new Outsiders team, formed by Nightwing and Arsenal.

It was later revealed that Indigo was really Brainiac 8 - the granddaughter of the future Brainiac 6 and that her sweet, innocent personality was a cover for a murderous android akin to the other Brainiacs. She was destroyed, resurrected again later as part of Superboy Prime's Legion of Doom, and destroyed again.

The DCTVU version of Indigo was once known as Brainiac 8 and was once linked to The Great Colun Cyber Construct. She was a descendant of the Brainiac clan. She was captured while trying to shut down Krypton's planetary defense system in order to kill everyone on the planet. She was also considered the most dangerous criminal ever sent to Fort Rozz.

Laura Vandervoort, the actress who plays Indigo, played Supergirl on Smallville.

Indigo's species is identified as Coluan - a highly intelligent, blue-skinned race from the planet Colu. They severed as super-computers on Krypton, responsible for running day to day operations.

In the comics, Coluans are a highly-intelligent green-skinned race from the planet Colu. Though considered cool and machine-like by other species, they are not a mechanical race.

The key to The Fortress of Solitude is made of a million tons of condensed dwarf star and is so heavy that only Superman and a few other select beings - including Supergirl - are capable of lifting it. This is a nod to the mini-series All-Star Superman, where Superman replaced the original key - a gigantic arrow disguised as a directional marker - with one made of dwarf star material.

The DCTVU version of the key is a compromise between the two designs from the comics. It doesn't look like a normal house key, unlike the version from All-Star Superman. Instead, it is an rod-shaped device, not unlike an over-sized arrow, with the House of El symbol engraved on one side.

The Fortress interior contains a statue of two figures holding a globe. The globe is Krypton and the two figures are Superman's parents, Jor-El and Lara Lor-Van.

There are a number of display cases inside the main room of The Fortress. One of them contains the rocket which brought Superman to Earth.

Another display case contains a Legion Flight Ring - the rings used to denote membership in the 30th Century superhero team The Legion of Superheroes, of which Superman was a member in the comics when he traveled forward in time as Superboy.

Kara identifies the robotic helper in The Fortress of Solitude as Kelex. This was also the name of the robotic butler who tended to The Fortress in John Byrne's Man of Steel mini-series.


Technobabble

Winn determines that Indigo created an oscillating variable matrix to cover her footprints.

Winn creates an inversion pathway to track Indigo down.

Winn knows more about Python 6 malware encryption than anyone at the DEO.

According to James, the key to the Fortress of Solitude is made of a million tons of condensed dwarf star.


Dialogue Triumphs

Alex: Kara, Hank was only doing his duty, okay? Protecting the planet, just like you do, every day!
Kara: I don't kill.
Alex: But soldiers do. When they have to. And Hank had to.

J'onn: As effective as kicking and punching is, next time you're angry about something... lets have coffee.

(After Indigo disappears from the monitors after hacking CatCo's computers)
Cat: Toyman Junior? You're the computer expert. Fix this.
Winn: (After Cat has left the room) I definitely liked it better when she did not know who I was.

Indigo: To think... I was once linked to The Great Colun Cyber Construct. And now I wander the same realm as Candy Crush.

James: Think we should run this by Director Henshaw?
Kara: ...No.
James: Kara, I know you're upset with him for what he did. I would be too! But that doesn't mean you have to fight this alone.
Kara; I'm not alone. I'm with you.

Kara: I miss Winn and Alex. I save the world better when I save it with people.
James: Well, you ARE saving it with me.

Indigo: I am invincible! I am a god!
Winn: No. You're just a glorified Windows Vista!


Continuity

Kara prefers crullers to powdered donuts.

Cat refers to her own recent run-in with having her secrets exposed to the press by hackers in 108.

Supergirl flies faster than Superman, according to Jimmy Olsen.

James Olsen knows the location of The Fortress of Solitude and has been there several times.

Kara had never visited The Fortress of Solitude before, though Clark did invite her several times. She was afraid it would remind her of Krypton and make her feel homesick. Despite this, the Kelex robot in The Fortress of Solitude are programmed to respond to Kara's commands.

A different Kelex robot appeared in Kara's dreams of Krypton in 113. When James asks her about it, she says they were commonplace on Krypton.

The Coulans are identified as a highly intelligent, blue-skinned race from the planet Colu. They severed as super-computers on Krypton, responsible for running day to day operations.

Kara tells Lucy the story James told her about how his father gave him his first camera as a gift before dying in combat from 107. It turned out that Lucy had never heard that story before.

Fort Pemberton holds the closest nuclear missile silo to National City.

Indigo was the one responsible for reactivating Kara's ship and linking it to Fort Rozz so both could escape The Phantom Zone.

Winn hooks up with Siobhan, apparently making-out (or possibly more) in an elevator.

Lucy dumps James, thinking he is in love with Kara and knowing, from Kara's words, that she's in love with him.

Alex confesses to killing Astra. Kara forgives her.

At the episode's end, Non retrieves the pieces of Indigo's body.


Location

The opening flashback takes place in The Phantom Zone, 13 years ago.


The Bottom Line

Possibly the best episode of the series to date. There's nothing tacked on and Laura Vandervoort turns Indigo into a gloriously memorable (if somewhat hammy) villain. Would that they'd given her a more memorable design (seriously, are they TRYING to provoke a lawsuit from Jennifer Lawerence and Fox?!) but the whole thing is so fun, smartly-written and well-acted you can forgive them.