Supergirl S02 E15 – Where is Lois?

Previously: Dean Cain was back but he was under cover evil.
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Exodus

Catherine: How are you all? Hope this review finds you in good health. I’m not stalling. Maybe I just care about all of you. Bitch.

Okay. On to the recap.

This episode begins with a random family taking a road trip. Random Parents are embarrassing Random Teenage Girl by singing along to the radio until Random Dad gets pulled over by a cop. Just when you think everything will  be okay because they’re white, it turns out that they’re aliens. (S: A+)

The cop tells Random Dad that he has a busted headlight and offers to help him fix it to get him out of the car. A black van pulls up and a bunch of commando guys pull the family into the van. When the aliens get scared they are revealed to be like? Snake looking people with white snake skin and blue snake eyes. The family is handcuffed and the Dad demands to know what’s going to happen to them but the commando guys just shut the door. Is this episode—that actually aired a year ago– gonna be weirdly prescient and uncomfy as hell given our current political climate? Let’s see, friends!

But yes. It is.

Samantha: But will they handle it well??? Tune in Now, to see!

Catherine: DEO. Supergirl says that Cadmus has been abducting alien refugees for God knows what reasons since Dean Cain stole the alien registry for them. Winn says that he can’t find where Cadmus is taking them because it’s not the last ten minutes of the episode because Dean Cain must have done some sciencey stuff to cloak their whereabouts. (M: *long-suffering sigh*) Hank says that Dean Cain is an enemy combatant now and must be arrested on sight. He asks Alex if she can do that. She says she can, but literally everyone knows that she’s lying. (S: Don’t you have another agent who could maybe handle this case?) Supergirl says that they need to warn the alien refugees of the earth about Cadmus. She wants to do it through a newspaper article at CatCo because it’s been a minute and we all forgot that she’s a reporter for some reason, too. Alex asks her if Snapper is gonna be okay with that and Supergirl is like “of course!”

Cut, of course, to Snapper telling Kara that he’s not okay with it. Snapper and his weirdly gruff voice doesn’t want to run an article that might start a public panic based off no evidence. Kara flatters his ego by telling him that he can interview Supergirl and surely he will be able to tell if she’s lying. Snapper agrees.

Marines: I was gonna make some comment about if Kara even knew Snapper at all, but she probably doesn’t because she never actually shows up to this job.

Catherine: Alien Bar. Maggie and Alex are playing pool and Alex is distracted on account of Dean Cain. Alex is worried about the DEO finding her dad because she thinks that he’s not really evil, and if he’s siding with Cadmus there has to be a good reason. I can sympathize with this because: 1. I never want to believe Dean Cain capable of evil and 2. Like. I agree. That’s probably how this is gonna go. So.

Maggie reassures Alex and the camera pans to Winn, and his new alien gf Lyra talking to some guy–OH HOLY SHIT THAT’S JIMMY!! I forgot Jimmy Olsen was on this show! And by ‘I’ I mean ‘the writers.’ I literally cannot remember the last episode he was in.

Mari: Something, something, Jimmy can fight and please forget we ever made him and Kara a thing.

Samantha: Yo, I also did not even notice that he wasn’t even IN the last couple of episodes. Damn. They really have done you dirty, Jimmy.

Catherine: Me neither! I totally forgot about him. That’s not a great sign.

Lyra talks to Jimmy about her favorite alien movies. Jimmy tells her he’s impressed that anyone can have anything in common with Winn. (I mean, he basically said that.) Lyra leaves to get drinks and Jimmy teases Winn about liking her a lot. Winn says that he wants to take it slow with her.

All of a sudden there is a huge explosion and everyone gets thrown to the ground. The Cadmus Commandos (not sure if that’s the name we should go with as it does make me picture them underwearless) burst in and start causing general chaos. Alex fights them off with a pool cue, Maggie uses her gun, and Jimmy uses the black belt he magically has this season or whatever, I can’t remember. Who is he?

Lyra also fights pretty well until she is subdued and taken away. Winn chases after her but can’t catch up with the van. Alex is held at gunpoint by one of the Cadmus guys until Guardian (Jimmy) shows up and helps her take the guy down. How? HOW did Jimmy manage to put on that entire Guardian get-up in thirty got-damned seconds? Why did he have it with him in the first place? These are the questions that I’m asking that will never ever ever be answered.

Samantha: I hate it so much. Kara at least has super speed and super everything so you can kinda shrug shit off. Jimmy is just… a dude. Just, a guy.

Catherine: His biggest super power is struggling for storyline.

Anyway, the van drives off and Winn is sad.

DEO. Alex tries to calm down Winn. Jimmy asks Hank if he can read the mind of the guy that they managed to capture to see where the new Cadmus hang out is. Hank says that Cadmus must have managed to shield the guys thoughts too. Okay. Fine. Sure. (M: Will that superpower ever actually become useful?) (C: I doubt it) Winn is overwrought and tells Alex that if Lyra gets hurt it’s on Dean Cain. Hank admonishes him but like… he’s right though? Where’s the lie? Mon-El, who is there for some reason, tells Winn that he needs a drink to take the edge off. I’m putting this in just so you guys know what Marshmallow is up to in case anyone alive even cares.

Samantha: There are a lot of bland men on this show that my brain keeps trying to forget.

Catherine: Toiletless DEO cell. The Cadmus soldier is sitting in his cell when Alex approaches. We already know that she’s gonna police brutality him to get info. She’s done this at least once and I think maybe even twice before. Alex beats the guy up and demands to know where Cadmus is. He tells her that they “put stuff in his head” and that if he tells her they’ll know and kill him. Hank comes in to stop Alex from killing the guy.

In another room, Hank reminds Alex that the Cadmus soldier can’t tell them anything if she kills him. She assures him that she would have stopped before she killed him. (M: Comforting.) Alex insists that this has nothing to do with Dean Cain but she’s clearly feeling a lot of guilt for her part in all this and worried about the innocent aliens that are maybe about to be killed. Hank says that Mon-El was right (lmao. never) and that they all need a drink. Alex says that she’s fine and leaves.

CatCo. Kara tells Snapper that Supergirl is waiting in Jimmy’s office so as not to cause a scene in the bullpen. (S: Oh shit, Jimmy is also sorta in charge of this company no, right?) (C: YES!) It is at this point that I realize that we’re a quarter of the way into the episode and this… this is Kara’s storyline in all this. Everyone else–JIMMY FREAKING OLSEN–is present and has a part in the main storyline but for some reason Kara is off doing this thing where she’s trying to convince Snapper to run the alien story but he won’t but she needs him too. Rather than just finding another way to warn the aliens, going to a different paper or media outlet as Supergirl (which seems like a story that LITERALLY ANYONE would take), (M: I spent this time yelling A PRESS CONFERENCE DAMMIT.) (S: Start a Youtube channel and LIVESTREAM EVEN so many other options) or, jeez, even calling up Lois Lane and asking her to run it at the Planet, THIS is the storyline they are going with for Kara here. She’s spending her precious time doing… this. This thing. Whatever this is. Trying to get a really important, life-saving story run in, what I’m still pretty sure is a fashion magazine.

Okay. Okay then.

Samantha: I grieve for what this show maybe could have been.

Catherine: I’m just so confused.

So, Snapper meets with Supergirl and asks her to tell him who her source is on the story. She can’t tell him because the DEO has to remain ultra private in their batcave. Kara does pretty well jumping through his journalistic hoops in order to try and convince him. She tells him that her source was a government agency. Snapper turns his recorder off and promises her that if she tells him which government agency she got the information from, he won’t reveal that she was the one to tell him. Which is kind of contradictory to the whole “WE NEED A SOURCE” thing he’s been on in this episode but w/e.

Supergirl stands firm and tells him that he needs to run the article or innocent people will keep disappearing. She flies away and Kara appears at the door .03 seconds later (because she actually can do that) asking how it went. Snapper tells her that Supergirl didn’t give him anything and was too shady to be trusted. He says that the American public has a right to know the whole truth and apparently it’s not a journalists job to find the truth, it’s their job to wait around until the truth gets dropped in their lap wrapped up in a pretty little bow. Apparently.

Bitch. WHERE IS LOIS?

This gif brought to you courtesy of -5 seconds of Googling.

Samantha: Amazing.

Catherine: Alex’s apartment. Alex is getting something from her fridge when she turns around to see Dean Cain standing in her kitchen. The implication being that he came in through the window, lol.

He tells her there isn’t much time and Cadmus is going to slaughter all the aliens UNLESS she helps him by getting an EMP bomb from the DEO to shut down the lab. Alex is reluctant to trust him but finally agrees to help. Of course, Dean Cain then transforms into Hank who was posing as him to test Alex. He’s very disappoint. He suspends her from duty and leaves. Alex looks shook.

Mari: I mean, for this invasion of privacy, he could’ve just been like, “hi, Alex, I can literally read your brain and it’s saying I’MMA SAVE MY PAPA. So, like, maybe stay home.”

Catherine: Cadmus Super!Secret Lab. Lillian and Dean Cain are overseeing ‘Project Exodus’ and he says that it’s almost ready. Lillian quotes Neitzsche because it wouldn’t be a Superman show with some of that good good Neitzsche ref.

Neitzsche’s idea of the Ubermensch (which can be loosely translated to ‘Superman’) is often referenced in Superman media because Neitzsche was one of the Nazi’s favorite philosphers and Superman’s creators, Jerry Siegel and Joe Schuster were Jewish in the 1930’s. Originally, they created the idea of Superman as a villain that fit that ideal but they later decided to make him into a hero that punches Nazi’s. A soothing balm of kindness that is relevant as hell in these dark ass times we’re currently in.

Samantha: Love it love it.

Catherine: I’m pretty sure that he was also referenced on Lois & Clark, which makes it all the more emotional when Lillian turns to Dean Cain and tells him that he is the only Superman Cadmus needs.

It was SUCH a good show, guys.

Mari: If we ever make it out of Supergirl, I think we owe it to ourselves to recap some Lois & Clark. And then we will punish ourselves again with Smallville.

Catherine: I’m lol’ing at the accuracy of that assessment.

The group of captured aliens is brought in and led toward a big spaceship.

Back in Alex’s apartment, Kara shows up to the main plot because she heard that Alex got suspended. Maggie is also there. Alex tells Kara that she needs to explain to Hank that he betrayed her and he needs to unsuspend her. Kara tells her that she doesn’t agree with Hank’s methods but she also thinks Alex needs to take a break. Alex gets angry, telling her that all that matters is their father and that there’s still good in him. Funny how Dean Cain is “Our father” when Alex wants something from Kara but “My father” when she’s mad at her.  Are the writers doing that on purpose, I wonder? Because I definitely picked up on it.

Samantha: LEGIT. Yet another not great look for Alex.

Catherine: Kara tells Alex that she will protect Dean Cain but Alex needs to focus on the aliens they are supposed to be finding. I’m thinking Kara doesn’t understand what “suspended” means. It means Alex isn’t supposed to be doing that, either. Just when Kara is invested in this argument, the B plot calls her back in the form of a beep on her watch (?) that tells her she needs to get back to convincing Snapper about the article for some reason.

After she leaves, Alex asks Maggie if she agrees with Kara and Maggie says that she doesn’t agree. She intends to help Alex protect Dean Cain.

Mari: Aw, it’s sweet that Maggie supports her, even if this is really weird.

Catherine: It is sweet. I can cosign that.

CatCo. Kara is working when Lena shows up. Lena, another character who I feel like has not been in an episode in AGES because for some reason we were focusing on Mon-El super hard for a while there, apparently had a lunch date with Kara that Kara forgot about. Jesus Christ. Be gayer.

Lena isn’t upset and asks Kara why she’s so stressed. Kara tells her about Lillian stealing the alien registry and trying to convince Snapper to run the article. Lena takes the news of her mother’s newest evil in stride (I guess you’d be used to it in that family) and reminds Kara that the CatCo magazine is not the only form of news media in existence. It’s 2018 and she can literally post a blog about this and get pretty good coverage if she promotes it well. (S: THANK YOU, Lena, damn.) Kara thinks this a great idea even though she knows that Snapper will be pissed. Kara asks Lena if L Corp has any tech that can help them find the aliens and Lena offers to try and find out if her mother left a “trail of breadcrumbs” to follow after she left the board of the company.

One scene and I was 1000% more interested in what was happening between them than anything Mon-El has ever done. But whatever.

Samantha: Still bitter over how shitty most of the cast was over all this, fyi.

Catherine: I’m still sipping that bitter tea right with you, friend.

Over in a Crime Alley, a random blue alien is talking to someone one the phone in his car when the same cop from earlier comes up behind him and tells him he’s got a busted tail light. Of course, when Blue Alien gets out of the car the van of Cadmus Commandos pulls up again and starts to take him away. But this time, Alex and Maggie are there to punchy kicky them. Alex downloads the GPS coordinates from the van while Maggie unties the Blue Alien. Alex says she knows where Cadmus is but Maggie can’t go with her because she has to go alone for dramatic reasons. They kiss and the Blue Alien creeps on them.

Mari: Their reaction was also really funny and cute. The fact they are going all rogue? Still weird. 

Catherine: L Corp. Lena’s assistant runs in with some paperwork for her. Lena shows her a picture of an abandoned warehouse and says that it’s an old project of Lex’s that was discontinued in 2007. Assistant tells Lena she wouldn’t know anything about that because she was in the eighth grade in 2007. LMAO. We’re old. Fuck. (M: *cries is retirement savings*) (S: My bones creaked as this happened.)

There’s something hinky with the old warehouse that I didn’t really totally follow. It’s Cadmus. Whatever. Reasons. Lena tells the Assistant to get some budget reports. Once Assistant is out in the hallway she calls Lillian and tells her that Lena found out about the warehouse. Lillian tells Assistant to redirect Lena’s attention. I will fight this small child if she hurts Lena. Apparently I like Lena.

Samantha: Yes! She’s one of the only truly sorta interesting characters.

Catherine: Cadmus Warehouse. Alex goes in by herself and takes down a couple of guards before she gets overpowered. Dean Cain walks in and tells them that she is with him. After a not!commercial break, Dean Cain lays out like literally the entire plan to Alex. He shows her their little glowy computer screens with the evil numbers and diagrams and everything. Cadmus has a ship called a “Hoshin Frigate” that they are going to stick all the aliens on and ship them to another galaxy. It was Dean Cain’s idea to send the aliens away. Lillian was gonna just murder them. Alex says that these people escaped famine and genocide and shit on their home planets and forcibly deporting them is wrong.

Ho boy. This is too too real. I feel upset. (S: Yup.)

Alex says that Dean Cain lied to her when he said he was working for Cadmus for her. Dean Cain insists that Cadmus told him they would kill his daughters if he didn’t do what they said. Alex wonders how he could think that they would want him to hurt others to protect them. Dean Cain says that she wouldn’t understand because she’s not a parent and Alex asks if Eliza would understand. Dean Cain says that he hopes she will one day. (S: Boooooo.)

Superpad. Mon-El comes in an announces his entrance in a way that I shouldn’t even have to point out is needlessly annoying. You should just know by now when I mention Mon-El that the scene and his dialog will be annoying.

Kara isn’t in the mood for jokes. She’s still trying to decide if she should blog her story. Mon-El wonders what the problem will be if she does because he knows nothing about his girlfriend’s job, apparently. I’m not blowing this out of proportion and you can shut your mouth. Mon-El asks if she thinks it’s the right thing to do. She does. He says that she is the most moral person he knows and if she thinks it’s right than it is. She decides to post it. Mon-El says that he’s gonna get some “chow.” He’s in a cheery mood, good to know the fate of a bunch of fellow aliens being possibly killed isn’t weighing on him. Is my tone coming across? I hope my tone is coming across.

Mari: I get that Mon-El is on the path to becoming a better character, at least according to what I’ve heard from fans, but instead of growth, the tone of his character just is swinging wildly here and also I can never take him seriously. 

Catherine: If he gets better that would be awesome. I have yet to see any character growth but I’ve also never seen a narwhal in person. Doesn’t mean they don’t exist, I guess.

Kara gets a phone call from Lena who tells her about the warehouse. As Lena is talking she sees someone coming up behind her and manages to stun gun the guy. She drops her phone and gets chased out onto the balcony where she falls over the edge, of course. I can’t hate. Supergirl would have no business if people weren’t constantly falling off balconies in National City.

Of course, Supergirl catches her. (S: Swoon.) (C: *heart eyes*) She flies back up and uses her freeze breath to blow the bad guys away. Lena asks her how she knew to rescue her and Supergirl lies about getting coffee with Kara Danvers when she called her. I mean. “I was flying around and heard you scream” was also an option. But sure. So Lena tells Supergirl where Cadmus is.

Samantha: Just. In case anyone forgot, people not figuring out Kara is Supergirl is stupid.

Catherine: Cadmus. Alex begs Dean Cain not to go through with the plan. Lillian comes in and tells them that they are launching the ship now, ahead of schedule because of Kara’s article. Alex demands that she stop the launch. She asks Lillian if she really thinks she’d “walk into the lion’s den without a whip.” Wow. Wow that dialog. Alex reveals that she planted a bunch of alien bombs all over the facility and she has a button to set them off. Lillian thinks she’s bluffing. Alex sets off a couple of the bombs and general chaos ensues.

Mari: Okay, I love this trope. Whenever someone is like, “you’re bluffing, you would never.” and then the other person is like POW POW POW BANG. Gold. It makes up for last episode when Dean Cain told Alex she would never and she was like “sigh you are right.”

Samantha: Agreed! See? We can like things this show does!

Catherine: We do that at least once an episode. At least.

She tells them that the rest of the bombs are on a dead man’s switch and that if she lets it go they’ll all go off. Alex begs Dean Cain some more to stop it. Lillian threatens him not to.

Dean Cain sides with the light side and fights off a bunch of Cadmus guys with Alex. He demands that Lillian stop the launch but apparently she can’t. Alex sets off some more bombs and tells Dean Cain that she’s going to get on the ship to see if she can stop it. He says that he’s gonna try to hack in from there. No one calls Supergirl. For some reason.

Alex boards the ship and sees the aliens, including Lyra, in cages. She opens Lyra’s cage and tells her to get everyone off the ship. Alex gets into the cockpit and looks confused even though she seems to deal with alien tech constantly with no problems before this.

Lyra gets everyone out of their cages but then another door comes down and they can’t get off the ship. The ship takes off.

Samantha: If only there was a superhero who could literally catch and redirect this ship.

Catherine: DEO. They get all sorts of alerts that a ship has taken off from earth and Hank realizes that it’s Cadmus. Alex calls them to tell them that she’s on the ship. Alex tells them that once the ship gets out of the atmosphere it’s gonna go into light speed. They have to stop it before that. Alex asks them to walk her through stopping it. Thankfully, Supergirl, (ya know, the one no one called? Who occasionally has a hand in the plot of her own show? Her.) shows up to slow down the ship.

Samantha: Oh, thank goodness! I’m only being half-sarcastic because a big part of me was sure that they weren’t going to utilize her at all for this.

Catherine: Back at Cadmus, Dean Cain fights with Real Hank Henshaw, the robot, and gets blasted back.

The ship tries to shoot at Supergirl and ends up taking out her comm. She freezes the guns so they’ll stop shooting. Basically, Supergirl just has to like… push the ship back. So she does that. It’s very tense and then it’s not. We’ve said this many times, but these kind of dramatic scenes are where Melissa Benoist shines. Supergirl manages to stop the ship and she and Alex have a moment.

    

Mari: I truly get that it’s these moments that make people like this show, in a fluffy feel good kind of way. I promise, I get that. I just cannot help that my brain is watching this and thinking WHY CAN’T MARTIAN MANHUNTER HELP? WHY CAN’T MON-EL WHO IS ALSO VERY STRONG? CAN NO ONE CALL SUPERMAN? Instead, we just sit there and watch Supergirl try very hard for like 10 minutes, Jesus. 

Samantha: I get that it’s probably hard to balance the fact that the Supers are… stupidly powerful and the fact that the show needs tension. But, to Mari’s point, this show just also is not good at making me stop thinking about how much easier this all should be.

Catherine: Both good points. Maintaining the tension with a bunch of people who can literally push entire planets out into space on your cast can be hard but it is possible and this show doesn’t do it particularly well.

Alien bar. Lyra reunites with Winn and Jimmy is there because I think he might be homeless. This Winn/Lyra stuff is honestly sweet, I don’t mind it. That’s as high a praise as you’re ever gonna get from me on something Winn-related.

CatCo. Kara comes back to work for the first time after posting her blog. Everyone looks at her with varying levels of awkwardness and anger. When she gets to her desk, her stuff is packed. Snapper tells her that he is firing her. He says that they have to be GOOD at JOURNALISM because “one misappropriated quote from a candidate and you can put a facist in the white house.”

Yeah. It wasn’t just the one but I can understand where he’s coming from a bit better now. Thanks for giving it to be on a Millennial level, CW.

DEO. Alex confronts Hank about suspending her. She tells him he was cruel. He tells her that he did it to protect her from getting hurt because he thought she might be reckless but then he almost lost her in that ship. He says that he was wrong and he’s sorry. Alex tells him he sounds like Dean Cain and they hug and agree to stop doing the wrong things for the right reasons. He gives her her job back. Hank tells her that he hopes they can get Dean Cain back and she says that they will very confidently.

UM. Okay. I have a problem with this scene. There are like 3 minutes left in the episode so I don’t want to go into it too much but I feel like Hank shouldn’t have had to apologize. He was in the right. She WAS acting reckless. I get it, it’s her dad and I don’t really fault her for acting kinda crazy. But she directly disobeyed his orders, went to Cadmus by herself and would have died if not for Supergirl and Hank….apologized to her??? She literally did exactly the type of thing he was trying to keep her from doing.

I guess I just feel like Alex never really properly faces consequences for her actions on this show. SO often she will behave like she did in this episode or treat Kara like shit and tell her that she’s not her real family and then…everyone forgives her and apologizes and everything’s fine. Alex is a Mary Sue. I’m saying it. Fight me.

Anyway, she tells Maggie and I don’t care. 

Mari: Literally, she stomps around this show having grown-up tantrums and everyone is like, “oh, Alex!” 

Samantha: 3/3 Snark Ladies agree. Here is a gif of Lexi Grey, from a time when I really enjoyed this actress.

Catherine: A very relevant gif.

Superpad. Kara is super sad. Mon-El drops by to make it worse by being terrible. He tells her that she can get another job and she says that reporting is her calling (as of this season?). She wants to help people. Mon-El points out that she already does that as Supergirl. But Kara likes writing because she doesn’t need to have special powers to do it. “Supergirl is what I can do. Kara is who I am.” You may recognize this quote from:

Mari: We’re coming for you, Lois and Clark! 

Samantha: I am excited.

Catherine: We’re still doing the Lord’s Work.

Supergirl and Mon-El kiss and I still don’t care.

Speaking of the 90’s! Just when things seem to be calming down for the super pals, the scene changes to a ship in outer space where a woman is standing in front of a big window. She turns around and it’s TERI MOTHERFUCKING HATCHER.

She turns to talk to a man and it’s KEVIN MOTHERFUCKING SORBO.

Assistant girl who was 13 in 2007 won’t know this, but THIS IS SOME 90’S ROYALTY RIGHT NOW. Show some respect. 

Samantha: ohmygod.

Catherine: Lois Lane tells Hercules that she feels different. He seems to be examining his hands and tells her that there is something about “this place.” Some dude comes up behind them and calls them “your highnesses” (AS HE SHOULD) and tells them that they’ve reached their coordinates like a little living GPS system. The ship is shown to be floating over earth. End of episode.

Mari: Two final thoughts: 1- I’m torn about the aliens as stand-ins for all the topical discussion. On the one hand, I think it’s great that the bad guys are the ones trying to mass deport people because yes, that’s what bad guys do. On the other hand, sci-fi has a long history of using aliens as stand-ins for people of color, of othering them in that way. You can’t divorce that history from this portrayal.

1- On Twitter, Catherine asks people why they like this show and we got some very thoughtful answers back about the sunny disposition of this show. Maybe if I didn’t have to actually pay so much attention for recapping, I would get that. 

I just want this show to TRY with its plots and writing. TRY A LITTLE BIT, PLEASE. 

 

Next time on Supergirl: Who the f is Mon-El really? in S02 E16 – Star-Crossed.