I’m going to be honest with you, I go into every episode hoping it will be the one that makes me like Mon-El. I go in with a positive attitude, a clean slate, and give him the benefit of the doubt. So when Mon-El woke up in Kara’s bed, I thought to myself, “Wow, it must have been so nice for Kara to finally not have to hold back or worry about hurting the person she’s with.” (This was later confirmed by her mentioning she’s broken a nose or four during an over-eager make-out session.)
And Kara’s happiness is very important to me. So I was ready to try to get on board with this relationship. But then Kara comes home, having saved half the city before Mon-El even woke up, and he calls her a “gentleman” for bringing him coffee. But okay, fine, I’ll brush that off as a cultural difference. But then he took my clean slate and shattered it when Kara asked him to keep the fact that they were dating quiet for now and he IMMEDIATELY told the entire DEO as soon as he walked into the building.
And he thinks he’s soooo cute, but he directly went against her one request, and it makes my BLOOD BOIL. J’onn sends them to HR, who will hopefully tell him to cut it out.
Winn gets a ping about a Cadmus shipment moving out (they had been dark since Lillian Luthor escaped) and Supergirl and J’onn fly out to check it out. Instead of finding weapons, though, they find Jeremiah Danvers.
Back at the DEO, Jeremiah gives them a quick recap of what he’s been up to while kidnapped by an evil organization. The lump of bread dough in the corner rises up and says it seems a little fishy that they found and rescued him relatively easily, despite being unable to locate him for years, and Jeremiah agrees that they shouldn’t let their guard down.
Jeremiah says Cadmus has a nuclear fusion bomb they made from Kara’s heat vision and are going to blow up National City and blame aliens, so he sends Winn off to trace heat signatures and all that.
Alex and Kara have no interest in wondering why Jeremiah appeared now after all this time, and why no one seems to be trying to get him back, especially when Eliza comes to the DEO and their family is all together again.
Mon-El ruins the moment by pointing out to Kara that when she was kidnapped, it didn’t seem like they were harnessing her heat vision as much as trying to drain her powers so they could get her blood, so are we sure we buy her father’s story? Kara tells him to calm down and just come to family dinner and get to know the man who raised her. She’s sure this will change his mind about Jeremiah.
That night at dinner, Maggie comes and Alex nervously kisses her on the cheek and introduces her to Jeremiah as her girlfriend.
Jeremiah is surprised, and says a very dad-like thing about how men wouldn’t be good enough so obviously she upgraded to a woman, and Maggie takes it in stride and gives him a bottle of tequila. Jeremiah calls her family and heads off to make margaritas and Alex breathes and adorable sigh of relief.
While making drinks for everyone, Jeremiah tells Eliza to look at their girls, and how happy and loved they seem. He’s so happy that they’re happy.
Eliza takes this time to remind him that a lifetime has passed since he left, and while she’s not about to give up on him, or even them, they can’t just pick up where they left off. But she’s willing to start the getting-to-know-you process all over again, if he is.
J’onn shows up and joins the Danvers family and their plus ones gather in toasting to coming home. Mon-El ruins the nice moment by expressing concern with J’onn welcoming Jeremiah back to the DEO, and when Kara tries to get Mon-El to say something nice, all he does is question Papa Danvers’ loyalty but in a “nice” tone. Alex. is. Furious.
Kara pulls Mon-El aside and says enough is enough – this is twice just today he directly disrespected her very simple requests. He tries to apologize but it’s too little too late, and she’s starting to wonder if this can work after all. Either way, he should probably go for now.
Jeremiah walks him out and tells Mon-El that he knows who he is and that Kara wouldn’t like The Truth. Fueled by not only genuine suspicion but now extra motivation to get rid of him, Mon-El recruits Winn to help prove the prodigal father might not be the good news he seems to be.
So when Winn spots Jeremiah doing shady things on a computer, he grabs Mon-El and they tell Kara, who is not pleased that they went behind her back.
Kara, not one to sneak around (and sure there’s a reasonable explanation for this), faces the problem head on and asks Jeremiah what he was doing. He says he was looking at case files, and Alex gets a worried look on her face when she asks him why.
Jeremiah says that he wanted to read up on what his girls were doing while he was gone, because he hates how much he missed. This is good enough to Alex to both continue trusting Jeremiah and being mad at Kara for going along with Tweedle Dee and Tweedle Dumb being suspicious of her dad.
Kara tries to explain her thinking but Alex is so mad. She says it’s okay to be a little suspicious of Jeremiah after all this time, but Alex won’t hear it. She says, “He’s my father.” and Kara snaps back that he’s hers, too. So Alex implores her to act like it.
Mon-El goes to Winn for advice about how not to be terrible and Winn says what we’ve been shouting at our TVs for weeks: Kara doesn’t need to be saved. She doesn’t need a strong, handsome savior. She needs a partner. And only she knows what that looks like. So Winn rockets himself right out of the yellow zone and into the green zone of likability and says: Just. Ask. Kara. And ffs, LISTEN to her. And, despite the fact that this is exactly what Kara herself has been saying over and over again, when Winn says it, it finally seems to sink in.
Winn gets an alert about the Cadmus bomb and the team swoops in, Alex with her dad in her ear and Supergirl ready to break down the door.
But when they get inside, there’s nothing there. J’onn realizes it might be a trap and turns to see Jeremiah hopping away like a slimy bullfrog and realizes he can’t read his old friend’s mind. And then we learn the truth: Jeremiah is a cyborg now. He steals some files and fights his way out of the DEO, begging for understanding all the while.
Later, when J’onn wakes up in the med bay, J’onn tells Alex about her father’s cyborg arm, and Alex is furious with Cadmus. She’s ready for revenge.
For now though, they have to find Jeremiah. Luckily Winn put a tracker on Jeremiah, so they follow him right to the middle of the woods where he’s meeting Cyborg Hank Henshaw and Lillian Luthor. So as soon as he hands over the files he stole, his daughters appear, ready to fight.
The girls want to take Jeremiah with them, but Cadmus had planned on them coming, and there’s a runaway train Supergirl has to save. While she does that, Alex tracks her father down and begs him to look at her, to look her in the eye and tell her that he’s evil now.
She tearfully asks for an explanation, and he swears this is all for her. She chokes through a sob, asking how, on this or any planet, betraying her and everyone she loves could possibly be FOR her? She wants to take him into the DEO, but he says she’d have to shoot him first, knowing she never could. He tells her that she was the best part of him and runs away, and poor sweet Alex Danvers falls to her knees and cries.
Kara is worried. She’s worried about her sister, worried about what Jeremiah’s whole deal is, worried about what Cadmus is doing, worried that everything is going to change. J’onn says that probably it will, but that they’ll be stronger for it, admittedly not the most helpful/comforting advice Papa J’onn has ever given.
Back at her apartment, Alex is drinking alone again for the first time (that we’ve seen her) since she officially started up with Maggie. Speak of the angel, Maggie is at the door and wants to know how her dad’s first day back went.
Alex answers by finishing her drink and Maggie stops her from pouring another. She makes her girlfriend look her in the eye, and says that she’s here for her, and asks again. What happened? And Alex just breaks down. She starts to cry and Maggie holds her close.
Across town, Kara is curled up on her couch, wallowing in her own sadness. Mon-El comes over and asks what he can do to help, and she asks him to just hold her. And I thought this was an interesting difference. Maggie saw her girlfriend hurting, and instinctively pulled her closer. Mon-El had to ask. But I guess at least this time he listened?
Kara’s phone goes off and Winn tells her that they figured out what files Jeremiah stole: It was the alien registry. So Kara runs off to work.
So here’s the thing about this whole situation: I have a theory. This relationship feels forced and strange and they’re not leaning into the things that, on paper, could make sense. So I think what they’re doing is making us think Kara thinks she’s happy with Mon-El to try to double-down on the emotional impact when she finds out who he really is or whatever. Which, granted, I don’t think they’re doing a good job of thus far, BUT gives me a little hope because maybe that means they’ll cut it out soon? “I’ll train you but I can’t date you because I don’t trust you”? Maybe? I don’t know, I still feel like Kara is fighting against this narrative and I’d be so happy if I believed she was genuinely happy in this relationship but I just don’t.
The A-tag is Jeremiah hoping his deal with Lillian is still on, and Lillian saying soon Earth will be “free.” Which is interesting, that this storyline seems to be coming to a head, since there are still eight episodes left in the season. I know a lot of you have been disappointed in a lot of things going on lately, and frankly I have been too, but I haven’t given up on this show, not even close. I’ve loved this show since I first saw the pilot at a preview event before it even aired. I loved season one with all my heart, long before Alex was confirmed queer. It was a bright light in the darkness, a constant source of joy in an ever-changing world of terrible. So Supergirl put a window in my dark room of sadness, then Sanvers came along and knocked down half a wall to create a bay window. But then Mon-El came and put up curtains. At first they were just cute curtains – I could have done without them, but they were cheerful, so I was fine with it. But he keeps trying to put up blackout curtains to block out the power of the yellow sun. It’s exhausting and surprising and I would like him to please stop.
The end of this episode was a step in the right direction. Again, not ideal, and I still don’t think they’re a good match, but if he’s genuinely willing to work on it, and will legitimately listen to and respect Kara even when he disagrees with her, maybe, just maybe, he won’t continue to be the worst.
In the meantime, more Alex/Maggie screentime, please and thank you. Also where’s James? Why has no one mentioned him? Why haven’t we even heard what Guardian is up to? Please don’t tell me they set up ANOTHER storyline for him just to drop it cold turkey?
The good news is, it looks like next week Alex is going to channel all of her daddy issues into kicking the crap out of anyone and everyone, which I’m sure will be cathartic for all of us.
