Two days ago, 88 days post-CRISIS, Lex and Lillian are playing chess and Lex tells his mother that he saw Lena reaching out to Kara. That he thought his plan to quietly murder Jeremiah Danvers was brilliant, but it had the opposite effect and drove Lena right toward Kara again. Because empathy and sympathy and frankly even the loss of a loved one aren’t things he can relate to or predict. That’s where he gets tripped up every time. He always thinks he can predict how people will act or react but he can never predict kindness.
And to Lillian’s earlier point, it does seem to be this relationship that infuriates him the most. Whether it’s because he doesn’t understand it or because it’s something he can’t have OR control – things that don’t sit well with a supergenius megalomaniac – is anyone’s guess, but he starts ranting about how one thing could lead to another then suddenly Lena is actually invited to Game Night again.
Lillian insists he stay focused on the plot but Lex, playing the part of the writers’ room, says he has to abandon every other thread to focus on keeping Lena and Kara apart. She calls him weak but he’s not listening as he storms out.
Back at Kara’s loft, Alex, Kelly and Kara are talking about how weird it feels to do something as normal as eat dumplings when Jeremiah is dead.
Kelly explains that this weird feeling is normal in a time of grief. That feeling joy in a time of distress isn’t bad. That feeling pain and comfort at the same time can be confusing and uncomfortable, but it’s not wrong. Kara agrees, since she read it in the book Lena gave her, which she presumably hasn’t put down since she received it.
And Kara thinks maybe Lena is finally coming around, that maybe this was her olive branch, that she’ll soon realize that Lex is evil. William comes over with baked goods and he and Kelly tell the Danvers sisters what they learned about Leviathan’s plots.
The bracelet William found when he almost discovered the hospital bracelet belongs to Richard Bates, and when they look at a list of people still stuck in VR, Alex recognizes the name of someone she met on the inside.
Eve has been spying on them, and tries to use the fact that the Superfriends are getting close to the truth against her (when in reality Lex has been puppeteering everything) but Gemma doesn’t take the bait. Lex pivots her to a new plan nonetheless, and asks for her stealthiest operative.
Brainy tries to confront Lex but Lex also turns that conversation to his advantage, telling him to have Supergirl use Myriad to find the missing people. He takes this information to the Tower, and I’m just going to let you know that Alex and Kelly are there, because look at them.
Kara is hesitant to use Myriad but Brainy promises they can use it safely, so she heads to the Fortress.
In her Luthor Lair, Lena is doing more Non Nocere tests on Richard Bates when she notices her q-waves being interrupted.
Lena recognizes the pattern as Myriad, and thinks it’s Supergirl being hypocritical and trying to specifically stop Lena’s experiments. Of course, Lex is right there agreeing with her and telling her they should go to the Fortress of Solitude to stop her. Lena won’t let Lex anywhere near the place – she’s too trusting, but she’s no fool – so she goes alone, but little does she know an invisible Morai sneaks in with her.
Lena confronts Supergirl and Kara tries to explain about the missing people and how Lex is involved somehow. Lena accuses her of being too quick to blame a Luthor and regrets their sincere moment from the other day.
Lena leaves, but the Morai stays and opens a door to let a SunEater out.
Back at The Tower, Alex is panicking because there’s a SunEater who probably knocked her sister out but M’gann shows up just in time to help.
While the SunEater slowly starts to swallow the sun, everyone just immediately goes into their VR. Obsidian of course is pushing out ads to encourage this. I want to say it’s wild, to see people literally being in traffic and seeing danger and deciding to just nope out of the situation. But if there was a VR world I could go into until this pandemic either passes or obliterates the planet, I’d go there.
The Martian duo flies up to stop the SunEater, but it ends up being Supergirl in a Lexosuit that saves the day.
Alex and Kara go back to the Fortress to tuck the SunEater back in, and M’gann uses her telepathy to learn that the Morai works for Leviathan.
And then we’re back to the present day, the scene we saw in the beginning. Lex tries to gaslight Supergirl into believing the missing people, Margo’s death, it was all somehow HER fault for not trusting him.
Lex goes back to Gemma, who is pissed that Margo is dead, but he brushes her off and says it was necessary. Gammamae reminds him who exactly holds the power here and honestly I’ve never been more attracted to her.
Lex admits that he underestimated Supergirl and her team, but that he pointed blame away from Leviathan and onto Amy Sapphire. BUT he insists Supergirl will continue to be a problem unless they kill Supergirl. But that many mortals have tried and failed. Gemma says she will not fail and leaves without taking a sip of the drink he offered.
Lex goes home, feeling overconfident as ever, basking in the glow of having rewritten the whole show to be about him. Eve fawns over him, says she loves him, even tries to kiss him, but he doesn’t need her anymore, so he shatters the pedestal she had put him on. He calls her sad and silly, tells her he only saved her because she was useful. That the guards outside his mother’s house are actually ready to kill her if she became difficult, and that he doesn’t know who killed her father; the man he sent her to murder was Jeremiah Danvers.
Eve is horrified; fooled and manipulated by this man in yet another universe. “You are worse than Leviathan,” she says. He smiles proudly; this is a compliment to him. “Not worse. Better.”
He hops on his high horse and gallops around singing “I Did It My Way” as he uses *69 on his transport watch to stroll right into the Fortress of Solitude.
The end. Now, I am so, so proud of Melissa Benoist for her directorial debut. I’ve been following her career for almost a decade, and she continues to surprise and delight me. I wish she had been given a better script; I think she would have been better suited to shoot Alex scenes, or even more Lena scenes, but that’s just me. I’m sure this won’t be the last we see (or don’t see) of her behind the scenes, especially if Hollywood gets back up and running before Melissa has her baby.
But this episode highlighted a lot of why I’m increasingly frustrated with this show. Why is Lex Luthor still here? Why are we now rewriting history to make him MORE involved than he already was? Or even if this had been planned all along…why? Lex Luthor is part of Superman’s story. A story that’s been told a hundred times, and will be told a hundred more. Supergirl’s story isn’t told nearly as often, and this show was doing it brilliantly for so long. Lex belongs in Clark’s story. Lena is Kara’s Luthor. And they were subverting the Super vs Luthor stereotypes, they were bucking against the system of rivalry they were born into. But then Lex had to come in to blot out the sun.
I want to trust that the writers know that Kara and Lena are stronger and smarter than their male counterparts, that they’ll overcome this manipulation and find their way back to each other, better together than they were before. That the show will get back to its feministy, girl powery-roots. But it’s getting harder and harder to pull the sunlight.
