M’gann wants to lead them there, but J’onn is afraid that’s too dangerous based on what happened last time, and Alex says they do have one more option…
Lena finishes the locator device and excitedly brings it to Alex, saying they can finally bring Kara home, but Alex has bad news; they need to reprogram the locator to find the chrysalis instead.
Lena says they can’t do that, this would erase the Legacy Download DNA she used, it might be their best chance at saving Kara. But Alex says if they don’t destroy the chrysalis now, thousands of people could die, and that’s not a sacrifice Kara would want to make. She knows it’s hard and she hates it as much as Lena does, but she knows this is the right choice.
Lena tries her best to remain calm, more sad and scared than mad, and begs Alex to reconsider. She has to bring Kara back. Lena then admits she blames herself for this; it was her brother who did it, it was her experiments that lead him to that point, it was her war with Supergirl that set all this in motion. This is her chance to make it right.
Alex speaks to her with a lovingly firm tone and says that nobody blames her for this. Not even Kara. The past is in the past and Lena doesn’t have to conceal not feel anymore. She can forgive herself.
Alex says she can’t change what happened, so all Lena can do now is do the next right thing. Alex uses her glove to take the locator from Lena and apologizes for doing it like this, but she doesn’t have time to argue it further. Lena doesn’t fight back, she just watches Alex go and tries to hold her broken heart together.
Kara is one step closer to getting home without the Superfriends’ help when she turns on the backup mirror.
But Nyxly stops her when she starts to head back for her dad. Nyxly’s own daddy issues blind her to the situation, says that Kara’s father banished her, just like Nyxly’s own dad did. Says her father has already had all the hope sucked from him, that he’s not worth saving. In her growing desperation, Nyxly admits that she’s the one who knocked Dad-El out and broke his ankle, that she was going to kill him but liked Kara too much.
In a last ditch effort to convince Kara not to leave, the imp says that if Kara goes, she will use the portal to go to Earth and wreak some havoc before heading back to the 5th dimension for her vengeance tour. Kara isn’t about to let that happen.
The Superfriends go down once more to the sewers to find the chrysalis and find an infestation of Phantoms. They tell Alex to go, go, go as one by one they get taken down. By the time they get to the chrysalis chamber, it’s just Alex and Nia.
Well, it’s Alex, Nia, and eleventy billion Phantoms. Nia makes Alex a dream tunnel and holds the Phantoms at bay as long as she can while Alex breaks the chrysalis.
And as soon as she cracks that sucker like a soft-boiled egg, all the souls are released and turn the sired Phantoms back into the people — or vampires, in Silas’s case — they once were.
Nia, Brainy and J’onn finish off the much-more-reasonably sized Prime Phantom and suck him into the proton pack with efficiency that would make Erin Gilbert proud. Alex looks a little sad about what she sacrificed to save these people who just scurried out of the building without so much as a ‘thanks,’ but knows she made the right choice.
Which would be all well and good if Kara’s plan had worked out better, but alas to stop Nyxly from imping around her Earth, Kara shatters the backup mirror, her last known escape option. In the struggle that led up to it, something started the self-destruct protocol, and she tries to get Nyxly to leave with her, but Nyxly refuses, and Kara isn’t strong enough or fast enough to get them both out, so instead she just runs.
And this whole moment is so Kara. She just got body checked clear across the room by this woman and her first thought when she realizes the place is going to blow is that “we” have to get out of here. Right down to the last second, she was trying to save the person who just betrayed her. Paragon of Hope, indeed.
Down in the Tower, Alex is looking sadly at the now-empty Legacy Download crystals on the Feelings Balcony when Lena brings her out some scotch. Lena says after some time to cool off, she knows Alex was right, and she’s sorry she pushed back. But Alex gets it, probably better than anyone else could.
Lena tells Alex that she should probably just quit the Superfriends. She was held to the fire and she melted, she’s not like the rest of the team. She says she’s not a hero. She watched Alex make the hardest decision and Lena’s not sure she could have done the same. Alex just smiles an understanding smile at Lena. Alex felt the same way Lena did, every single second until that chrysalis cracked. It’s only because she had years of training as a soldier that she was able to make such a tactical choice. Wanting to save Kara doesn’t make Lena less of a hero; quite the opposite, in fact.
Lena isn’t sure Alex gets it; she’s not like Alex, she doesn’t think like her, and she has recently learned her little boxes have all collapsed. But Alex says the fact that Lena doesn’t think like the rest of them is exactly why they need her. They are not a monolith, they are a team. They need all the best brains to succeed, and Lena is the smartest human in National City. Alex says it plainly so Lena can’t misinterpret it. “You belong here, Lena. You always have, and you always will.”
Knowing Lena would probably rather leap off the Feelings Balcony than have to respond to such a compliment given so directly, Alex eases her by joking that she’s also the only person she knows with a decent taste in scotch. They toast and smile and my heart SOARS. If Kelly wasn’t in the picture, I’d be screaming from the rooftop for AgentCorp to be canon. And honestly in the headcanon of my mind, this could be a very cute scene of Alex welcoming her sister’s girlfriend to the family. However, even in the plain and simple context of the show, this is a huge step in the right direction, and I look forward to Lena having more fun, happy, helpful scenes as part of the team.
Brainy finally admits to Nia that the donuts aren’t actually filling the sadness hole inside him where Kara used to be and Nia feels it too. Also she’s stressed about these intrusive Midvale visions and what they could possibly mean. But she’s glad that they have each other, because she loves him more than he loves donuts.
Alex and Lena rejoin the team and say that they want to use their new Prime Phantom pet and his bloodhound hunting instincts to find Kara in the Phantom Zone.
They just need more of Kara’s DNA. They know they can only get DNA from a Kryptonian when they’re weak so they think of times Kara maxed out her powers? Honestly I’m not sure why they can’t break into the loft and grab a toothbrush, but apparently the only solution is to GO BACK IN TIME?
Listen I’m all for time travel hijinx, especially if the Legends get a name drop, and I have been looking forward to this Midvale High episode since the last Midvale High episode, but I still don’t really follow the logic of going to this particular time and place of the power surge. If they can go back in time, why not go back to a month ago with some Krytponite and ask her for a vial of blood? Also, knowing how hard it is to get blood out of her, why not have some on hand?? Anyway, totems shmotems, this doesn’t actually matter, because I’m excited to go to Midvale.
And I hope it works because in the Phantom Zone, Kara watches the only hope she had of returning on her own literally blow up in her face…possibly taking her father from her again in the process.
Fingers crossed she can do what she does best and hold out hope. The Superfriends are almost there, Kara. Just hold on.
Overall I enjoyed this ep. Some great Alex and Lena stuff, some great Nia and Brainy stuff, and best of all? No Lex. All we need now is to get Kelly a desk in the Tower and Kara back on Earth and we’ll be hot to trot for the rest of the season.
Next week looks super fun, pun intended. See you then!
