Supergirl S01 E20 – Like cotton candy and contrivance

Previously: Non wanted to save the Earth by making people slaves. Maxwells wants to save the people slaves by bombing the Earth.
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Better Angels

Marines: Today, Supergirl season 2 premieres. It’s not that we were so slow and so late that the new season is lapping us, it’s that we wanted to celebrate the new season with last season’s finale.

Yeah. 

Samantha: That sounds like something we would do. We’re so considerate.

Catherine: This is correct. We planned this. 

Mari: We pick up this episode right where we left, with Supergirl charging at Robo Alex for some reason I don’t quite understand. She gets sliced on her belly with the Kryptonite sword for her trouble. They keep wrestling and flying at each other until Supergirl grabs Robo Alex and appeals to the Alex inside. That gets her nowhere but knocked to the ground. Robo Alex tries to run her though with the Kryptonite sword, but Supergirl just rolls out of the way. I really hope that on the way to the CW, Supergirl picked up a new fight choreographer.

Anyway. Supergirl is not having any luck fighting Robo Alex and things look bad, but suddenly Helen Slater is here? Apparently, a dying J’onn J’onzz figures a real cool plan was to bring Helen Slater here, protect her with his (dying) mind, and let her appeal to Robo Alex. (S: WHAT. IS. THIS. NONSENSE. We woudn’t even need Eliza if not for you bringing Alex here, Jonn!) (C: Oh God. This episode is gonna be poorly written, isn’t it?) Helen Slater uses every trick in the book, from ohana means family all the way to bringing up dead Dean Cain and how proud of her he would’ve been. It works and Alex breaks free from mind control. She powers down the Kryptonite suit and apologizes to everyone for trying to murder their faces off.

Catherine: So, okay…why was this fight included? Just to give us a curbhanger for the episode before this one? CHEAP. 

Mari: Super cheap.

…

*rimshot*

Back inside the TV station, everyone is getting ready to broadcast hope. Hank J’onn is like, “…a speech you say. About hope…” Cat says that it’ll totally work because reaching people is what she does and Supergirl is her protege. Plus, they have science on their side because Myriad shuts down the part of the brain that gives rise to hope and optimism. (C: You know, that part. The hope cortex.) Alex chimes in to say that under Myriad, she could hear and see but it was like she was a stranger to herself. When Helen Slater mentioned Dean Cain, it was like she could feel again. Oh, honey. I know how you feel.

Samantha: That gif…..that gif is something special.

Catherine: Homina, homina. 

Mari: So, anyway, Supergirl is going to appeal to everyone. Maxwell Carlisle is busy getting everything ready to broadcast and makes sure to tell us how much of a genius he is for getting this old equipment to work.

Maxwell Carlisle counts Supergirl down and she’s on the air.

Supergirl address the people of National City and the attack they are facing. We cut to CatCo, where Winn is still typing away, but he pauses and looks up at the TV screens that are suddenly broadcasting Supergirl. She talks about how sad and alone she felt when she arrived on this planet and we head to the DEO, where Lucy turns away from her computer screens and faces the TVs.

Maxwell Carlisle flips a switch and now the S is being shown on every screen ever. I think part of there plan was basically a Bat Signal…

Winn sees it and he has flashbacks to happy times with Kara. It snaps him out of his trance. He gets up, looks around and heads to Jimmy’s office. Jimmy is staring at the S and it sends him into his own flashbacks, including kissing Kara, and he snaps out of it too. (S: A no chemistry kiss memory would force me to wake up too.)

At the DEO, the agents are all coming to.

Catherine: Including Lucy, who doesn’t get a happy times with Kara flashback. Rude.

Mari: I don’t think Kara giving her boyfriend flirty eyes counts as happy times for Lucy.

All the while, Supergirl is really putting those School of Speechifying For Folks Who Want to Run Shit skills to use.

 

It works! Hope is served. (S: It tastes like cotton candy!) (C: With a side of contrivance!)

In the Lair of Evil, Non watches Myriad go offline and he’s bummed because he has failed. Indigo tells him his main failure was dreaming too small. She thinks they should still kill all the humans and leave Kara behind to be sad about it.

So, wait, Non didn’t really want to save the Earth or…?

Samantha: Nobody ever knows, not even Non. Astra was probably so relieved when she didn’t have to pretend to understand the plan anymore.

Catherine: I genuinely bet that’s true.

Mari: CatCo the next morning. Kara smiles because it looks like business as usual. James and Winn immediately come over to apologize for the things they said, but Kara says it wasn’t the real them and hugs them. Winn also thanks her for saving their lives. Kara smiles but Rando Kelly’s desk is just behind them and her smile falters. (C: KELLY! We didn’t know ye at all, redshirt.) Jimmy assures her that no one could’ve saved all three of them. Not even Clark. Which is supposed to be reassuring but is kind of dickish to say because Clark IS NOT greater than Kara.

Unless we are talking about Dean Cain, maybe….

Samantha: Look at that awkward smile!

Catherine: Awwww.

Mari: Wait, no! Sorry! We got distracted again. I was saying: Supergirl = Superman

Kara says that the DEO are searching for Non and Indigo and they’ll pay for what they did. Jimmy says he’s just glad they are all back together. He think that they should talk about that thing that happened just before Myriad happened. Winn gets that this conversation doesn’t include him and makes himself scarce. Of course, Jimmy is referring to the kiss. Kara apologizes for kissing him when he was in a trance because she’s all about consent. (S: Woot.) Before they can talk about this very much more, though, Cat stomps in and it’s time for a team meeting.

DEO. Everyone is cleaning up. General Lane shows up and Lucy hugs him and is happy to see him. That makes *counts* one person then. General Lane asks if they know why Superman is still knocked out and SERIOUSLY? They put his boots in the background and everything.

Okay, fine. Superman is mysteriously taking an extended nap right now. Fine.

Samantha: JUST SAY THAT HE HUGGED KARA OFF SCREEN AND LEFT, DAMN. The first smart thing the CW did was just freaking cast Superman.

Catherine: IF YOU’RE NOT GONNA HIRE SOMEONE THEN DON’T EVEN–ugh, my god. I don’t even have the energy anymore.

Mari: J’onn is next to Superman on one uncomfortable looking table, which is rude when you are literally trying to recover from a gut wound. General Lane orders some soldiers to handcuff J’onn and Lucy can’t believe it. I mean, he’s wounded for one and for two he just helped save the world. General Lane doesn’t care and insists that he’s trying to protect everyone and especially Lucy. She says that he’s actually just pushing her away like he pushed Lois away. General Lane has feelings.

Samantha: I wonder if the CW will ever cast Lois.

Catherine: I. WOULD. DIE. Even this Lois reference was enough to make me scream.

Mari: I have SO MUCH hope. CW will do anything for them ratings.

Lucy goes in to see J’onn and apologizes for the cuffs. He’s pretty chill about it, seeing as how his wound means he isn’t going anywhere anyway. J’onn tells Lucy that General Lane is just doing what he thinks is right.

Alex is in her lab also cleaning up when Supergirl and Helen Slater visit her. Helen Slater cuts to the chase and wants to know why they really came to visit her in Midvale. Alex tells her mom to sit down and breaks the news that Dean Cain is still alive and being held in a secret facility. Helen Slater can’t believe it and is also not a great actress. Sorry, Catherine. (S: *stares awkwardly at the ceiling*)

Catherine: No, no. I never said I like that movie because she was a great actress. Or it was even a good movie. It’s laughably terrible. Like: 

80’s LEVEL TERRIBLE. 

Mari: Why do you show us these things?

This moment is interrupted by Maxwell Carlisle who has bad news: Non and Indigo have amplified the Myriad signal and it’s causing people all over to get headaches. It’s going to keep being amplified until heads start exploding. Since they couldn’t control humans, they are going to kill humans.

Everyone is very worried about this and with that, take it away Sam!

Samantha: Okay so Maxwell Carlisle continues explaining how bad this is and I zone out a little until he says that they have about 4 hours. Supergirl wants to tell James and Winn but everyone tells her not to. For some reason. IDK.

Mari: Literally no reason except to create DRAMZ. Supergirl tells them everything ever and I hate this.

Samantha: Lucy and Alex are called away and tell Maxwell to find the source of the signal before they go. Max tells Supergirl that she’s not going to be enough to defeat this. Supergirl weirdly says that she can handle anything and is it just me or are the acting choices really weird here?

Catherine: All of this is really weird here.This whole ‘Myriad is gonna explode people’s heads’ thing comes so completely out of left field that it throws every bit of pacing off for the rest of the finale.

Samantha: Maxwell says that he’s not trying to be an ass, it’s just that she doesn’t have backup. Humans can’t get too close to it and Jonn is out of commission. It might be a suicide mission and he wants her to know. I 100% know it doesn’t happen but I have started daydreaming about Barry showing up. Also, what is with them trying to use Maxwell Carlisle as a grumpy mentor figure here? No.

Supergirl tells him not to tell Alex the odds.

CatCo. Winn is drinking water and grimmacing at presumably a headache. Kara walks in looking like her cute robot friend died and Winn tells her she looks hypoglycemic and offers her a Red Vine. She emotionally thanks him for being a great friend and why the hell aren’t we telling Winn and James what’s going on? This is some contrivance because Kara has always confided everything superhero related to them. Sure, they probably can’t help too much but that’s the same every other time. It doesn’t make any sense that suddenly Kara would be like “oh yeah, the DEO is right, let me not confide in my team.” (M: We are so upset about this. USE YOUR WORDS.) Anyway, this forced sappy moment is broken by Cat calling her into her office.

Cat tells Kara to go get her a Moon Juice smoothie that Gwyneth is always talking about. Shoot, if this were BrainDead this would be an infected sign. Kara points out that Cat hates smoothies and Gwyneth but Cat says that since they survived the last episode she has decided to take care of herself and carpe diem and stuff. The emotional piano starts up and Kara tells her that working for her has been an honor and that she’s her role model, mentor, and friend.

Cat says, “Okay. That was either my eulogy or your dictated suicide note. Is there something you need to tell me?” Kara insists that she’s just seizing the moment and Cat seems to accept that. She even deigns to says that Kara has made an impression on her too.

James’ Office. Kara comes in and James is all smiles, asking to finish their talk about their kiss. Kara is all moody and says that they’re always getting interrupted and maybe there’s a reason for that. Oh my god I care so not at all. Basically, maybe they missed their chance and she just wants him to find happiness.

  James is understandably freaked at her talking like she’s about to die, but she flees. I don’t need to go on another rant about how she should be filling them in, right?

Catherine: This whole emotional goodbye thing is so out of place and weird. The first time I watched this episode I was like ‘why is she wasting time saying goodbye when she could be going and stopping the thing?’ but then she explains that a little later. But it’s also just really boring since we all know she’s gonna fucking save everything and be fine. 

Mari: Shows like this should write with the knowledge that we as the audience know that the day is going to be saved. You have to create plot tension in other ways. I get that they are going for emotional tension, but 1- we don’t care and 2- it’s at the cost of the plot pacing. 

So, fail.

Samantha: DEO. Supergirl goes to visit Hank J’onn and Superman’s Boots. (M: lololcries) They are so distracting just lying there. J’onn says he’s worried about her because James called Lucy to say that Kara was acting really weird, like she was saying goodbye. Supergirl literally has the nerve to say she didn’t mean to worry him. WTF did you think was going to happen, girl? She explains that she knows she might now make it back from this mission and wanted to say all the things, a chance she didn’t have on Krypton. J’onn is worried that she’s giving up but she insists that this is why her mother sent her here so she’s at peace. She kisses his forehead and heads out, not even stopping to look at The Boots. (C: RIGHT? No goodbye for your cousin, Kara? Or your cousin’s useless coma body, anyway.)

Still at the DEO. Maxwell Carlisle has found them because they’re using a fancy Krypton energy source. They’re hiding in Nevada because that’s where Fort Rozz is. General Lane says that they concealed it there using its stealth technology. Supergirl gets ready to head out but not alone! J’onn is going with her, despite being hurt and under arrest. Does this mean he’s for real going to die? Probably saving Supergirl? Anyway after brief debate General Lane aquieces and orders someone to take the other cuff off of Hank Jonn. In an actual cool moment he says, “I’ve got it” and rips it off his wrist. See cause he could have broken out at any time but was trying to cooperate? Alex tells them to be careful and Supergirl gives her the necklace she’s wearing, that I don’t remember the significance of. (C: Me neither, tbh.)  (M: Don’t look at me.) She doesn’t say a proper goodbye to Alex.

Supergirl and Hank J’onn land near Fort Rozz and are greeted by Non and Indigo. Their army is already in their sleeping pods, which seems like a counting-your-chickens moment, and they are going to kill all the people to save the planet. Indigo leaps at Supergirl but she lazer eyes her. Then Non jumps at Supergirl and they go tumbling.

DEO. Everyone is a bit panicked because there’s less than 6 minutes left in the count down.

Fort Rozz field. All the aliens are fighting each other. Signal at 80% strength.

CatCo. James and Winn and other Kellys (M: Bwahahaha) are clutching their heads in agony overcut with Supergirl punching Non.

People in the One Restaurant and the DEO also clutch their heads. It’s fascinating. Maxwell and Alex hold hands. (C:Ugh. Stop.)

Field of Battle. Indigo stabs Jonn again. Non and Supergirl fly through the air punching each other until Supergirl is slammed into the ground.

Signal at 90% strength. Cat is on the ground in her office in pain.

DEO. 5 minutes left.

Field of Battle. Non tells Supergirl to say hi to her parents and then they get into an exciting laser eye staring contest. Indigo goes to finish off Jonn but is distracted by the staring contest so Jonn literally rips her in half. Yikes. Supergirl wins the contest and Non collapses on the ground. Supergirl for real starts cheering that they’ve won and omfg. Not yet you haven’t. Jonn says he’ll be okay and they get ready to shut down Myriad. Except, whoops, Indigo’s severed top half is still talking (while her bottom half twitches). She says that she locked the system and there’s no way they can turn it off. Come on, Indigo, they have 12 full episode minutes to figure it out. I happily hand this over to Catherine for the exciting conclusion!

Catherine: Oh great, the exciting conclusion.

Over at the DEO. Everyone is groaning on the floor and looking at the big, red COUNTDOWN TO HEAD EXPLOSIONS clock which has like 3 goddamn minutes left on it. I’m surprised anyone can still talk. But General Lane and Lucy are lying next to each other and he doubts that Supergirl will be able to stop Myriad. They hug. (S: God, these less than 5 minutes have been going on forever.)

Alex get’s a call on her little headset thing from Kara. She asks her whats going on and Kara tells her that they defeated Non and Indigo but they can’t stop Myriad and the only option is for Kara to fly Fort Rozz into space.

Alex freaks out at this, telling her that she can’t go into space because she’ll die. Umm, no she won’t show. I’ve said this before and I’ll say it again: this shows weird insistance that Supergirl can’t breathe in space is annoying. She can. Superman and Supergirl fly around in space ALLLLLL the time in every adaptation. They go there for lunch sometimes.

Samantha: Uh. Like. Last episode? Didn’t they say Superman was off planet LAST EPISODE? How did he get off planet if he can’t breathe???

Mari: Nice catch. And I basically watched the whole last part of this episode reminding myself to come talk about how dumb this is because the Supers go to space all the time. I’m glad we all agree: THIS IS DUMB. 

Catherine: Like, it’s not a big deal. Superman is always hucking stuff into space to deal with it exploding. Why do the writers think her invulnerability only extends to our atmosphere. If anything, it’s stronger in outer space because she’s closer to the sun.

I’m thinking about this too much. Let’s continue!

Kara insists that there’s no other way to save the earth and makes Alex promise her that she will tell Dean Cain that she never stopped wearing the magic glasses that he gave her and that she had a great life. It’s all very boo-hoo but I find Alex really boring and their relationship dumb so I don’t care.

Mari: I thought this was touching and of all the feels, the sibling feels got me the most. I think it was relatively well acted. I just also think that we kind of don’t care at this point because the episode has been dragging out the emotional goodbye as a damn 30-minute plot point when it isn’t. Had they just had this one moment, it would’ve been a gut punch. Instead, it’s like… someone stepping on your toes.

Catherine: Kara flies up under the gigantic Fort Rozz and manages to lift it and fly it up into outer space as Martian Manhunter watches and epic Lord of the Rings music plays. She hucks it and then floats peacefully as she looks at the earth. As Superman does a lot. Because space doesn’t kill them. (S: I’m cackling gleefully at your outrage.) (C: LISTEN YOU)

Just as Kara closes her eyes to accept death, or whatever, completely soundlessly Alex drives up in the spaceship that Kara took to earth that they had on display at the DEO.

Samantha: Sure. I’m sure that piloting that space craft through our atmosphere took no time. Okay.

I want to be angry. I want to point out that Alex miraculously knowing how to pilot a spaceship from a planet 27 light years away is ridiculous. But I swear to god, the image of Alex determinedly flying a child size space ship as the climax of a tense moment made me laugh so fucking hard, guys. I DIED. Futurama was supposed to be a parody, writers.

I’m keeping that image with me for my bad days.

Mari: I DIED. Someone came to check on my from another room because I was making laugh-choking noises. THIS IS NOT A JOKE. It was the best, most ridiculous thing I have seen in a really long time. 

ALEX CAME TO SAVE HER IN A KIDDIE POD OH MY GOD. 

Catherine: It was the only gift this episode gave to us.

Anyway, Kara wakes up in the DEO and before you ask, Superman’s boots are already gone. I assume he split before she woke up so he wouldn’t have to make lunch plans. Kara asks Alex what happened and Alex tells her that she saved her with her pod. Then she says, ‘You’re not the only badass in the family.’

She gives her back the necklace from earlier and says that her mother would have appreciated her piloting skills. I guess that necklace piloted her spaceship? I don’t remember that being a thing but it’s been a year so…

Kara goes out into the main DEO room and everyone cheers for her. She hugs Lucy and Hank and General Lane tells her that the president is super happy with both her and Hank. The president is granting Hank a pardon and reinstating him as director of the DEO. (S: It’s such a pretty bow, that we’re wrapping this all up in.)

Of course, Lucy looks upset that she’s gonna have to find another job AGAIN as this will be, what? 5 jobs this season? Or at least 4. (M: 38, actually.)

But Hank stops her and says that he wants to work with her since she’s so good at being an alien headquarters lawyer. He gives a big speech about facing dangers together and being a team and shit as we see General Lane giving the Omegahedron thing that was powering Myriad to Maxwell Carlisle.

CatCo. Clark messages Kara and tells her that he’s proud of her. Yeah right. I bet he hires someone to IM her so he doesn’t have to. He treats her like she’s an illegitimate child that he’s trying to hide from his regular family.

Samantha: Do they… do they just not address what was wrong with him? 

Mari: Of course not. 

Catherine: That would take effort.

Cat puts a box on Kara’s desk and tells her to pack her shit and Kara gets nervous and starts trying to bargain with her. But they go by the elevator and Cat shows Kara to an empty office and tells her she’s being promoted. She tells her that she is the best assistant that she’s ever had and so she has to give her up. She wants Kara to come up with a job for herself. She tells Kara that this is her end of Working Girl moment and before she can leave, Kara stops her and tells her that the end of Working Girl always makes her cry. Cat agrees. There’s a reference that the kids will get! Great job, CBS. (S: I googled it and it still didn’t mean anything to me, but apparently has Harrison Ford in it. So. #snarkathon?) (M: IN.) (C: I’ll watch anything with Harrison Ford.)

Cat tells her that if she works hard she may eventually get an office with a window and calls her ‘Kara’ before leaving.

Superpad. Everyone and Alex’s mother are piled into Kara’s inexplicably large apartment for a dinner. Winn points out that they are setting an extra place and Helen Slater says that she wants to set a place for Dean Cain.

Hank (who is wearing an apron, btw) says that they are going to find Dean Cain together. Next season, obvi. (S: OMG can the CW get Dean Cain??????) (C: Fingers crossed!)

Jimmy comes in and asks to talk to Kara privately as romanticy-music starts to play. The lyrics are ‘Superman got nothing on me’ so okay. No idea what to do with that. (S: Superman never got to mack with Jimmy?) (M: It’s implying that Superman tried to put the moves on Supergirl. I don’t like it.)

Jimmy gives her a present and instead of a picture of Supergirl it’s a picture of Kara, looking all candid. She jokes that she’s squinting in the picture and he says that she’s not squinting, she’s smizing and that she does that when she’s happy. She says that she is happy and he pulls her in for a kiss.

It’s less awkward now. But I still don’t ship it so who cares. (S: I don’t ship it at all. Boooo.) (M: I don’t have room to ship it. All my energy is behind this show + getting good writers.)

Alex calls them back into the other room to open up some champagne and the toast out of weirdly tall champagne glasses to family.

Of course, since everyones happy and celebrating, there’s a huge explosion outside. They rush to the window and see a streak that looks like a comet falling out of the sky. Kara and J’onn suit up to follow it and come across a pod that looks quite a bit like Kara’s in a crater outside of the city.

Kara rushes to open it and we see her shocked expression and her ‘oh my god’ but of course they don’t actually show us what’s in the pod. Of course.

End of episode.

Samantha: We did it! Yay us! I’m curious how the CW changes it up. It can only get better, right? (C: At the very least, they have a Superman budget.)

Mari: I don’t know about that, but I am pretty happy that we finished a thing! Thanks to my two lovely partners for insisting that we would finish this season no matter what, even before we knew that “no matter what” meant “no matter Superman boots in the background and Alex in a child-sized space craft.” 

Cheers to us!

 

Next time on Supergirl: Season 2 and her cousin is coming! Her cousin is coming!