As a naturally optimistic person, I tend to hold onto hope longer than most people would. Some would argue I’m an unnaturally optimistic person and I tend to hold onto hope longer than reason says I should, but that’s beside the point. The point is, I watched everyone slowly but surely start to lose faith that Supergirl would ever remember who Kara Danvers was, and while I understood the impulse, I couldn’t bring myself to let go of that last shred of hope that this storyline wouldn’t go the predictable route. Because even though pretty much every movie and TV show that has ever had a storyline like this would have had Kara forgiving Mon-El by episode’s end, I truly believed Kara Zor-El was better than that and hoped beyond hope that she would see that. I can’t wait to rewatch this episode knowing how it ends, because it was a really fun episode, and being able to unclench my jaw the whole time will surely add to my experience. Do I think this Mon-El/Kara storyline is over? No. But Kara finally said some things that made sense and it felt really nice to hear.
Let’s go back, back to the beginning, back to where the earth, the sun, the stars all aligned, and the former King and Queen of Daxam came to Earth to collect their son, Mon-El. Of course, no one knows who they are or why they’re here yet; they interrupt some Sanvers Snuggles to tell the citizens of Earth that they want Mon-El and they want him now.
Supergirl flies up to this new ship and it does not exactly put out the welcome mat for her arrival. In fact, it shoots a missile at her and then traps her in a literal bubble. Everyone jumps to come save her, but she says, “I can do it!” and breaks the glass ceiling her damn self.
Mon-El decides to turn himself in and Kara goes with him, against his will to see how he likes it, and everyone on the ship takes a knee upon seeing them. In what was one of my favorite moments, Kara asks, “Are they bowing to us?” US! It never crossed her mind that they would be bowing only to him. In fact, it was gracious of her to include him in that question at all. It was such a small moment but it made me laugh so big.
Anyway, so the BIG REVEAL we’ve all been waiting for finally happened, and Mon-El is exposed as the former Prince of Daxam. Still mad about this because of how it was executed exactly like M’gann’s storyline but with even less subtlety, but I suppose that is neither here nor there.
When Kara realizes what is going on she. is. PISSED.
PISSED.
Back on Earth, Winn and his lovely alien girlfriend sneak into a museum for a bit of sex with a side of adrenaline: sweet, trusting Winn hardly questioning why. Which is why the next day when he gets a call from Detective Maggie Sawyer, he jokes with her about being his favorite pool shark and offers to bring donuts when she asks him to come down to the station. He only cites his father’s criminality as the reason for stress-eating while Maggie lays a soft interrogation on him.
He quickly confesses to breaking into the museum for a quick romp, probably hoping to get off with a slap on the wrist, and looking with pleading eyes for Maggie to understand how one’s will could be weakened by the wiles of a woman.
And maybe Maggie could have understood, but the thing is, she doesn’t see a wily woman. In fact, she doesn’t see a woman at all; the security footage of the museum shows only Winn prancing about the museum. And a Van Gogh is missing.
Winn starts to sweat, but fear not, for Alex swoops in to save the day. (For the first of three times this episode.)
Alex is a little miffed at Maggie for not giving her the heads up about this, but Maggie says she’s not going to give her girlfriend preferential treatment. But then her will is weakened by the wiles of a woman and she gives the DEO 48 hours to prove Winn had nothing to do with the art thievery.
Alex thanks Maggie with a kiss on the cheek and heads out to help her little buddy.
Back at the DEO, they learn that not only can Lyra not be picked up on cameras like the Buffyverse vampires she’s styled after, but that this ain’t her first rodeo.
Up on the Daxam spaceship, awkward family dinner is awkward. The king and queen are slimey at best, and even use the phrase, “Make Daxam great again,” to drive home that they are not the good guys. And to remind us that Mon-El wasn’t either, in the flashback to his escape (the correct one this time) we see him leaving his people behind, including a girl he left in his bed without looking back. Kara holds her own with the sassafras long enough to get the full story before deciding she’s lost her appetite and storming out; not only was he from a cruel planet, but he was part of the cruelty. He benefited from it. And he lied to her about it. He made her believe he was the victim of it.
She storms back down to Earth and throws herself headlong into Winn’s grifter girlfriend problem. She even shouts, and I quote, “Superfriends: Back in the Habit.” And if you think I have not made very similar jokes in my life (with both Back in the Habit and *whatever thing* 2: Electric Boogaloo) you are mistaken.
Kara is practically giving herself a Harriet the Spy foot tattoo when Alex pulls her aside to say that she’s deflecting her anger and that maybe she should talk to Mon-El. Which. Whose side are you on, Alex?? I guess she just doesn’t understand the extent of the lie because she didn’t grow up knowing about Daxam, but come on!
Anyway, Queen Susan Delfino comes down to the DEO for a chat with Kara, asking her to let Mon-El come back to Daxam to help them rebuild their world instead of staying and realizing more and more each day that he’s not good enough for Kara. She also mentions that Kryptonians are known to hold a grudge which made me nervous because Kara likes to do the opposite of what people assume she will do but she seemed to take that first thing to heart.
Meanwhile, at the gaylien bar, Alex gets info about Lyra’s whereabouts with a few pulled punches and a favor from her alien buddy who plays King George in Hamilton. (No YOU just cross-referenced Chyler Leigh and Taran Killam to see if they ever worked together.) (They did not.)
So Winn heads to the trailer park where Lyra is hiding out and she calls him a long con. She looks him dead in the eyes and tells him he was a mark, in a cool, calculated, unfeeling tone. His little heart falls to the trailer floor and he leaves, defeated, and reveals that he brought along Guardian just in case she said just that.
Fighting ensues and when the going gets tough, the tough show up. It’s Alex, Alex is the tough.
They grab Lyra and the stolen paintings and head back to home base. Lyra is furious; she tells Winn her brother fell in with the wrong crowd and they were holding him hostage until she could settle his debts. She admits now that she did like Winn more than any other marks, but she had no choice but to use him. So Winn asks her who her brother is involved with, exactly.
Kara goes to Mon-El to do as his mother asked, and pointedly ignores him when he informs her that this is the part of the story where she’s supposed to magically forgive him. She asks if he would go back to Daxam, and when he says no, she turns to leave. He stops and asks if that’s really all she has to say and she says yes; huge, unforgivable lies aside, he has this chance she will never have: his family is alive when he thought they were dead, his planet is survivable when they thought it was gone, he has the chance to start over, to be a true prince, to be with his parents again.
Meanwhile, Winn and Lyra sneak off to make the exchange: painting for money, money for brother. But the painting is a fake, and Alex is there to save the day again.
Back at the NCPD office, Winn hands over the baddies and the stolen art and tries to be all chummy with her, but Maggie deadpans that he should leave before she throws him into holding. Maggie looks at Alex and asks if she thinks she scares Winn and Alex proudly responds, “Almost as much as I do.” And my friends this is what I live for. In episodes where they don’t get their own storyline (because obviously not everyone can get a whole subplot in every episode), just some crime fighting girlfriends being cute.
I know I said that last week but it’s true. Too often if two women are in a relationship, in the episodes where a story isn’t about their relationship specifically, a passer-by would never know they were dating. Not Supergirl though. Alex and Maggie won’t let anyone forget their dating, and I’m eternally grateful for it.
After seeing Lyra and Winn kiss and make up, Kara asks Winn how he could forgive her for lying to him. Winn says she had her reasons for lying, and that Kara just has to think about Mon-El’s reasons and see if they’re worth forgiving or not.
Kara goes back to her apartment, where Mon-El is waiting for her, a speech about how she should forgive him because she makes him a better person. But the thing is, when he talks about being a hero, he still never mentions helping people, he still never mentions being good. He mentions liking being near her, he says he loves her. He calls her special, and she stops him there because she doesn’t need him to tell her that.
“I deserve better,” she says, verbatim, echoing what we’ve been shouting at our TVs for weeks.
She asks him if he was ever going to tell him the truth, and he pays her the kindness of not lying this time: he doesn’t know if he would have. Kara musters up a strength she knows too well and the music in the background pleads for her to be strong enough to let go and tears fall from her eyes, but she does it, she tells Mon-El that they just won’t work. It’s over.
And like I said earlier, I’m not so naive to think that’s that; but it felt so good to hear Kara realize that she deserves better than to be lied to, she deserves to be loved by a true hero.
Mon-El goes to his parents and tells them that they are far too high-profile for the show’s budget to possibly afford for one more minute, so instead of being and important vessel for change on Daxam, he’s going to stay at the DEO and help Supergirl fight evil. One thing I will credit him is that he doesn’t seem to have any delusion she’ll magically forgive him, but instead says that even if they’re not together, he knows he’s better when he’s near her, as anyone would be.
And now! It’s time! For the classic crossover setup scene! Winn has finally finished scanning Cisco’s interdimensional travel tool, conveniently just in time for a supernatural baddie who looks like Blaine Anderson to come in, cuffed and excited to see Sweet Marley Rose Supergirl. He locks eyes with her, grabs her breach-maker and hops into Tuesday night, leaving Kara unconscious in the DEO.
Kara dreams under this mystery man’s spell, and in this dream she’s dressed up like a beautiful lounge singer.
As has happened in many of my recurring nightmares, someone tells her that she’s on and she’s shoved on stage without any clue what to do.
Before she can open her mouth to sing, however, the screen goes black. We’ll have go to over the rainbow tomorrow night on The Flash during the Very Special Glee Reunion Episode starring Blaine, Sweet Marley Rose and Sebastian, with special guests Tom Collins, Captain Jack Harkness and Jesus himself. (That’s Joe from The Flash, Malcolm Merlyn from Arrow, and Professor Stein from Legends of Tomorrow for those of you unfamiliar of their journeys before they entered the DC universe.)
I probably won’t recap The Flash, because despite Chyler’s lovely performance in the Grey’s musical episode, I don’t think Alex will be in the episode, so I’ll likely just tell you how much I loved it next week.
