'Supergirl' Recap: Will Kara Save Hank Henshaw in Time?
This episode on Supergirl, everything goes wrong for Kara until she realizes that compassion is her greatest superpower. Meanwhile Maxwell Lord gets even creepier, Cat is onto Kara until she isn't, and Hank Henshaw is this week's damsel in distress.
The theme of the episode is pretty well encapsulated in the Kryptonian saying, “Blood bonds us all.” No matter how bad Astra seems, Kara can’t seem to completely give up on seeing the goodness in her aunt.
It’s the ties that bond the characters together that are the most important, whether it’s Jimmy and Winn bringing Kara back from the edge of punching smug Maxwell Lord through a wall, or Cat giving Kara the confidence and guidance she needs. The people around Kara might not be blood family, but it’s these bonds that keep her on the right path.
Unfortunately right now Kara and Astra have bad blood (cue Taylor Swift pun) but it seems like there might be some hope for her once-evil aunt yet. While Supergirl is a young series, one of its biggest themes so far is the show's compassion and belief in people. Supergirl is a show that is not afraid to be earnest.
Supergirl might be fighting big foes who don’t play fair, but it’s her faith in people that most often wins the day. In a media universe where the default superhero template can often seem ultra-gritty, it’s a nice change of pace to have a hero who wears her heart on her sleeve.
Blood Bonds Us All
The episode starts off right where the mid-season finale left us, with Kara and Astra’s husband flying off into the air in an epic battle of Kryptonian might. Kara doesn’t do so well, and Astra’s husband Non manages to fly off with Hank Henshaw in tow.
With Hank kidnapped, Alex is made the acting head of the DEO. But she doesn’t get to luxuriate in her power for very long, because General Sam Lane is taking over the show and he means business. He immediately tells Astra that he’s afraid of her, showing himself to be an honorable man in the Kryptonian culture. Then he jabs her with a needle full of Kryptonite. That’s way harsh bro.
Kara is very conflicted about Astra. On the one hand, she still remembers when Astra was her favorite aunt. On the other hand, Astra seems to be a crazy person hellbent on saving Earth by killing a bunch of people, so that’s a bummer. And you thought having to deal with your family during the holidays was bad, imagine what it’s like for the House of El!
Astra eventually “gives up” Hank’s location, which is just a trap that turns into a bomb. Understandably, this upsets Kara. No one likes to be exploded. It has a way of ruining your day.
But Kara finally realizes that her compassion and belief in others are her real secret weapons. She deploys them against Astra by telling her that she still believes that there is good in her aunt.
Astra has really thrown Kara off with all her talk about her mother not really being who she thought. When Kara feels like she’s losing everything this episode, the one thing that clearly hurts her the most is losing this idealized version of her mother.
And while that vision might not have been completely true, it turns out that Kara was more right than wrong about her mom. Astra reveals that although her sister sent her into the Phantom Zone, she never gave up believing in her or seeing her good side either. In that way Kara is actually a lot like her mother. This familial heart-to-heart leads to Kara and Alex walking right out of the DEO base with Astra between them, even though they weren’t supposed to make the trade.
Despite General Lane whining, the soldiers are more loyal to Kara and stand down, allowing Astra, Alex, and Kara to strut out like the dope squad they are. The only way to improve this scene would have been if it was in slow motion with things exploding behind them. Basically I really wanted this episode to be the Taylor Swift video for “Bad Blood.”
Thanks to their family bonding, Astra calls off the double-cross after the trade is over, instead merely leaving with her husband Non. I doubt this is the last we’ll see of Astra and her evil plans of...environmental conservation? I’m still not super clear on her evil plans.
Maxwell Lord is a Jerk
While Kara is busy putting out fires at work and with her family, Jimmy and Winn team up to take down Maxwell Lord. For some reason they think this is a good idea, and it goes about as well as you’d imagine, which is not well at all.
On the plus side, we get to see Winn interact with someone who isn’t Kara, which means less puppy dog eyes and pining this episode. I still have no conception of who Winn is as a character though, which is becoming a bigger and bigger issue as the show goes along. As the other characters continue to get fleshed out, Winn remains fairly two-dimensional.
After a weird conversation where Max lectures Jimmy on media ethics, James proves he didn’t listen to a word Lord says by breaking into his secure compound. They want to find out what Maxwell Lord’s plans are to stop the aliens, including Supergirl.
Instead Jimmy just gets knocked out, tied to a chair, and beaten. Probably not Jimmy’s best ever day. Although no part of me really believes that Maxwell Lord’s tiny impotent fists would have that much of an impact on James “Six Pack” Olsen.
When Kara discovers what happened to Jimmy she flies into a rage and has to be talked down by Winn and Jimmy. They work as her anchors and bring her temper back down to Earth, explaining that she can’t just go and punch a hole through Maxwell’s smarmy face. She has to be better than that. Then they both hold her hand, which briefly causes me to remember the love triangle and groan. But mostly it’s a very nice scene.
Elsewhere in Maxwell Lord’s evil lair of evil, he has a Jane Doe in room 52 (a nice shoutout to DC Comic’s New 52 line) and is planning something nefarious. It’s probably not a good sign that she already has black eyes.
Secret Identities
All episode Cat Grant is sure that she’s onto Kara as Supergirl. Kara is understandably freaking out about this, but the fact that she’s a seriously terribly liar is not exactly making it easy for her to convince Cat that she has the wrong person. “Let me recite a lot of esoteric facts about my childhood for you! Convinced now right?”
Cat is not convinced, but she is curious why someone with Supergirl’s abilities would be a simple executive assistant. Kara tries to explain to Cat that the workplace is important to her, and that she enjoys learning from Cat herself. To this heartfelt confession Cat is like, “Ew, lame!”
Unless “Kira” can convince Cat that she’s not Supergirl, she’s going to be fired. Cat makes a fairly reasonable point, which is that while Kara is working at CatCo there are a bunch of people that need to be saved. Kara is like “Can’t those people just get into life-or-death situations on my lunch hour?” but Cat is not hearing it. Kara feels at a loss without her job at CatCo, which is one of the strongest bonds she has to a regular, human life.
Thankfully she finally finds out that Hank Henshaw is really the Martian Manhunter, and she immediately conscripts J’onn J’onzz to use his shape-shifting abilities to pretend to be Supergirl. This allows Kara and Supergirl to stand side-by-side in front of Cat, which is pretty convincing. This works like a charm and Cat feels embarrassed, immediately giving “Kira” her job back.
It feels like a bit of a cop out for a show that has thus far been fearless with putting all cards on the table quickly to backtrack like this. I’m interested to see whether Cat is kept in the dark for long, or if “Kira’s” secret eventually comes out again.
What did you think of the episode? Do you love the earnest and hopeful tone of the show? Has Astra seen the error of her ways? What’s Maxwell Lord up to now? Sound off in the comments!