Okay y’all, this week’s episode was Sanvers-lite, but not lacking in the lady love. Plus Livewire was back, so while I’ll probably skim over the boys being literally useless, there are still some fun things to talk about. And frankly? I was happy for the break from having my heart carved out of my body, tossed around a bit, cuddled, then shoved back in. I feel like it’s been a long time that we’ve had a major female character in a relationship with a woman where they had an entire episode where they could just be. No drama, no fighting, no being hunted by the heads of an illegal cloning experiment, no tension, just…girlfriends. And even if I’m forgetting someone, and it hasn’t been all that long, it feels like it’s been that long, because every day since November 8th has been an exhausting eternity, and every day since January 20th has been twice that long. So it was just nice.
Last we left our hero, she agreed to start training the bowl of oatmeal so he could be “super” too. So we open this episode with Kara doing just that. He proves to me…somewhere left of super, mostly good at the fighting, not so great at protecting the cardboard citizens of the training room.
Because she feels like she has a handle on her new protegé, so she decides to take him out on a mission.
Meanwhile, out in the world, Maggie responds to what she calls a “thief drop”. It seems James has been watching too much Arrow, so the Guardian left the bad guys tied up in an alley for the police.
Back in the van, Winn begs James to tell Kara, and he says he’ll do it tomorrow.
At the DEO, M’gann starts hearing voices in her cell, and goes all smashy-smashy, screaming so loud she breaks the unbreakable glass, and passing right out. Things look grim, because even Alex can’t figure out what’s wrong with her, beyond the fact that something is in fact wrong. J’onn can sense her, and knows it’s true that she’s fading fast; he says he doesn’t care about her well-being with his words, but his face tells a different story.
Across town, Livewire is in her jail cell, receiving some much-needed counselling. Except her feet are in a bucket of water (to keep her from electrocuting people) and her therapist refuses to call her Livewire, so obviously the girl is pissed. But she’s not in her cell long, because a man dressed as a guard frees another prisoner from her cell, then they come get Livewire, too.
After they escape, Maggie and Alex are scoping out the scene. Maggie admits that she liked Livewire’s radio show, before she went all…well, Livewire on them. They hear Kara storming her way through the prison and take a bet on how long it will take her to get through the guards; Maggie thinks it’ll take ten seconds, but Alex is sure she’ll get through in five. If Maggie wins, Alex has to try vegan ice cream. If Alex wins, date night is at her apartment tonight.
Alex wins the bet, and frankly Maggie doesn’t seem to upset about it.
The guards, confused as to how a skinny little reporter bested them, try to apologize to the ladies running the crime scene, but Maggie assures him, “She’s with us.”
I love those three words so much. She, meaning Kara Danvers aka Supergirl, is with, aka accompanying and working alongside, us meaning Maggie and Alex, dynamic duo. IT’S TOO GOOD.
Kara goes on a full frustration-ramble about Livewire and Maggie tries to present the facts and Alex tries to tell her sister to cool it, but Kara is practically a live wire herself, she’s so worked up about her nemesis being free.
Kara storms off to CatCo, probably partly out of old habit, but instead of a faux foe to take her frustrations out on, she finds James, who just turns up his nose at her annoyance and says there’s more than one hero in National City now. She knocks him down a peg when she thinks he’s talking about Mr. Cole Slaw.
James says that Mon-El is not a hero, and Kara says it’s her moniker they use as the title of the show, so he doesn’t really have a say in who does or does not deserve a chance to be a hero.
At the same time, they see breaking news about a…shocking situation at a parking garage, so they both run downtown. Supergirl shows up first, with Mon-El in tow.
But the charged-up lady they find isn’t Livewire; it’s a decoy…and she’s not alone. Supergirl tells Mon-El to protect the police officers while she takes on the two baddies. To his credit, Mon-El asks Supergirl to let him help her, but she insists he stay to protect the cops. Then he loses all of his credit by leaving them uncovered to “help” her. Guardian swoops in to pick up his slack while Supergirl saves her damn self, but he gets knocked unconscious, causing Kara to take off his helmet to see if he’s okay, only to discover that it’s James.
Back at the DEO, Kara. is. pissed. Kara asks to talk to James alone, and Alex zooms out of there faster than a speeding bullet. Kara takes a deep breath and tries to give James a chance to explain himself.
He tries to explain his desire to help people, to be a hero, that he’s just the same as her. But she reminds him that there’s one very important difference between them. He is not made of steel.
James is pissed that she’d rather work with Mon-El than him – even though surely she would prefer a man with James’ heart and Mon-El’s strength, but she has a human hero and a doofus alien and she can’t babysit both of them. James then says Kara doesn’t get to decide who’s a hero, even though that’s literally exactly what he was doing earlier? It’s annoying. If he had just come to her and asked to be on her team this wouldn’t be going down like this. There’s room for humans – like Alex, like Winn – on the DEO team, he just needs to swallow his pride and accept that the show’s not called The Guardian and Supergirl. It’s just Supergirl.
While all this hero drama is going on, M’gann M’orzz is dying. Alex begs J’onn to help her, but he can’t justify saving a White Martian. She reminds him that M’gann risked exposure to save his life, but J’onn doesn’t know who he is without his deep hatred for the White Martians. But Alex says forgiving M’gann wouldn’t be giving the White Martians anything; it would be giving himself some peace.
Outside, Kara and Mon-El fight on the street. Mon-El doesn’t understand why she’s mad; he was trying to protect her. But that’s not what she needs. She doesn’t need protecting. She needs a teammate. Someone who will listen to her, someone she can trust. Finally she confronts what the thinks the real issue is and asks if he’s only working with her because he like likes her.
He tries to play it off, but she stomps away; she doesn’t want help if he’s not in it for the right reasons, if he’s going to risk civilians’ lives to “save” her when she doesn’t need saving.
Back at the DEO, they realize that they Kara’s first theory was wrong; Livewire didn’t escape, she was kidnapped. Winn says he doesn’t know where she is yet, but he lied; he wants to give Guardian the leg up. So WinnGaurdian heads off to stop the bad guys on their own, an eavesdropping Mon-El on their heels.
While the boys run off to make a mess, J’onn tells Alex and Kara that he has made a decision. He’s going to mind meld with M’gann to save her. Papa J’onn says he needs help, and Supergirl is ready for anything he needs; but he doesn’t need Supergirl. He needs the Danvers girls – HIS girls – to stand by his side while he does this. And they’re more than happy to oblige.
And inside M’gann’s mind, where she is trapped and haunted by her past, J’onn kneels beside her. He sees her pain, he sees that she is not defined by the misdeeds of her people. He calls her a friend. He forgives her.
And together, they come home.
Across town, we find out that Livewire was abducted by a mad scientist (and I do mean angry; he’s bitter because he got turned down by Shark Tank) who is using her essence to make electrified minions. He calls her a “nasty woman” but she takes it as a compliment. Guardian swoops in to save her, and when Livewire realizes that Supergirl isn’t with him, she declares herself doomed. She doubles down on that thought when Mon-El strolls in after him. They’re soon overtaken by the mad scientist, who has also turned himself into a zaphead, and Livewire scolds them for not knowing when to rely on the woman in their lives who is better than them in every way.
Winn, in the van, calls Kara and begs her to save the lecture for after she helps her buds out of the tight spot they’re in. Supergirl flies in to save the day, and Livewire joins the Super Friends to take down the scientist. In the end, they make a deal; Supergirl will give Livewire a head start if she doesn’t kill the scientist and instead lets the DEO arrest him. Livewire agrees to these terms, but says it should be “just us girls” next time. Which. Co-signed.
At the DEO, the most beautiful thing happens. Maggie Sawyer, Alex Danvers, and Kara Zor-El stand side by side, having a little post-mortem about the case, and whether they’ll see Livewire again any time soon.
And in an overall hopeless episode, Kara regains a little bit of her usual spark when she says maybe that’s the last they’ll hear from Livewire; maybe she won’t cause trouble now that she’s free. Maybe.
After Kara heads back downstairs, Maggie reveals that a second bet was made – whether or not Supergirl would take Livewire down. And since Maggie won this round, it’s vegan ice cream tonight. Which I really hope is a euphemism. Because…I dunno. Of all the things you can make both vegan AND delicious, I’m not sure ice cream is one of them. But they lean on the railing and laugh; easily, comfortably. Togetherly.
Downstairs, James and Winn tell Kara that they’re going to do this with or without her support, but obviously they’d rather her be on their side. She tells them she can’t condone them running around on their own, two squishy and breakable human men, but they won’t be content with being just on her team like before.
She trudges home and finds Mon-El there waiting for her, and he confesses his feelings for her. He wants to keep working with her though, even if she doesn’t feel the same way (#blessed I’m sure), but wants to put this whole thing behind them. She thanks him for being honest, and they high five, and that’s that. Kara looks exhausted – the men in her life have all gone rogue and not in the fun way – but she doesn’t stop him when he leaves. They don’t kiss! It’s a miracle. For the love of Rao let that be the end of it. Let Mon-El date a stray DEO agent or something, let them become buddies, pals, let him be her sidekick, whatever. If a person has to be taught to care about people other than themselves, they’re not good enough for Kara Danvers. Just saying.
Questions we’re left with now include but are not limited to: Will J’onn work with Guardian or will he be on Supergirl’s side? Will the White Martians – who now know where M’gann is, as they’re the ones who poisoned her mind – come to National City? Where is Lena Luthor? When is Cat Grant coming back? And last but not least, did Alex like the vegan ice cream?
