While the Danvers sisters head to their mother’s home to decompress after Alex’s break-up with Maggie, Kara reflects on an incident that brought them together while they were in high school.
Previously, on SUPERGIRL…
It’s been a rough season for the Danvers women – Kara loses her Daxamite boyfriend when she makes the call to fill the air with lead, which is poison to Daxamites, and Alex breaks up with her fiancee Maggie because she wants kids and Maggie doesn’t. Kara spent the first couple episodes of the season moping around and really dragging everyone down. So to keep Alex from doing the same thing, Kara takes her sister on a road trip back to their mother’s house in Midvale for a break from everything. They take J’onn’s sweet ride, last seen in the season’s third episode, FAR FROM THE TREE.
Alex is not happy with the situation. Actually, Alex is an angry drunk about the situation, lashing out at Kara for brooding over her loss of Mon-El, but not allowing Alex to do the same. Both Kara and Alex were the ones who made the decisions that led to the end of their relationships, and we see how different they react to the loss. Kara threw herself into her work as Supergirl and started to eschew her human side, while Alex gave in to her human emotions. The contrast turns into an argument between the two of them, and they go to bed angry in the twin beds of the room they shared while growing up. And when they wake up, they’re teenagers!
No, it’s not an age reversal spell. It’s a flashback episode!
There’s a lot of tension between teenage Kara and Alex. Kara is resentful of being forced to be a normal human girl, going to school, hiding her abilities and living away from her cousin Clark – the only other living Kryptonian on Earth. Alex is resentful about having a superpowered sister dropped into her life after spending so much time as an only child. When Kara superspeeds her way into the bathroom in the morning, Alex yells out that she hates Kara, and we see from their interactions in school that they don’t put up much of a familial façade of closeness. But then Kara’s friend Kenny is murdered, and both Kara and Alex end up on the case.
Kenny, as it turns out, was using a telescope to capture the residents of Midvale in some compromising situations and someone killed him for it. Kara gets the high school quarterback to admit that he was caught smoking pot and when Kara and Alex find Kenny’s laptop, they discover that one of their classmates was sleeping with her teacher, and suspicion of the murder turns to the teacher. But when someone tries to run over Kara and Alex as they walk home one night, it becomes clear someone else committed the crime.
With everything going on, Danvers matriarch Eliza gets worried about the girls, especially about Kara accidentally revealing her powers. A federal agent – played by Erica Durance, who is also playing Kara’s Kryptonian mother this season – gets Kara to agree to not use her powers to keep her family safe. As the agent leaves, we see her get into J’onn’s classic car… and then she shapeshifts into J’onn, showing that the Martian Manhunter was keeping an eye on Kara from early on, keeping his promise to Jeremiah Danvers (which we saw in an earlier season).
Kara is determined to keep her promise, but when Alex gets cornered by the real killer – the sheriff, who Kenny caught on camera dealing drugs – Kara springs into action to save her sister, forging their bond. When we come back to the present, Alex slept off her anger and makes up with Kara, and the two head back to the DEO, set with sandwiches and provisions from their mother.
Show Notes
• The name the federal agent (played by former Lois Lane Erica Durance) gives Kara is “Noel Neill,” a nice wink and a nod to Superman’s television history. The real Noel Neill was an actress who portrayed Lois Lane in two Superman film serials and in the TV show “Adventures of Superman.” Having a character named after an actress who played Lois Lane being portrayed by another actress who used to portray Lois Lane is just brilliant on so many levels.
• In another nod to Superman’s television history, Kara relies on help from a friend of her cousin’s to get through the files on Kenny’s laptop. The friend’s name is Chloe, referencing “Smallville” character Chloe Sullivan, who was Clark Kent’s resident tech expert on the show. The character was portrayed by Allison Mack, who’s had an interesting week of news reports, having been identified as the “lead recruiter in a sex cult” in a few different stories this week. Really weird timing.
The Super Cinco
Rough week for the main cast, as only three regulars appeared in this episode.
- J’onn J’onnz / Martian Manhunter – The influence of the current head of the DEO over Kara’s life extends back all the way into high school, as the Martian shape-shifted into the visage of Kara’s mother to try and keep her and the Danvers family safe by not using her powers. (Last Week’s Ranking – 2)
- Kara Danvers / Supergirl – Her plan to get her sister out of her funk eventually paid off, and as a teenager she helped crack a murder case involving a corrupt sheriff, a pot-smoking quarterback and a teacher committing statutory rape. (Last Week’s Ranking – 3)
- Alex Danvers – Got drunk, yelled at her sister, but eventually came around. Teenage Alex also helped with the murder case, and proved that her adopted sister was more important than being popular in high school. (Last Week’s Ranking – 4)
- Kenny Li – Sure, the kid got murdered for it, but you have to admire his hustle, using a telescope to take pictures of the people in the town who were giving him problems. (Last Week’s Ranking – Unranked)
- Eliza Danvers – Mom comes through when she’s needed again, working to protect her family in the past and the present. (Last Week’s Ranking – 5)
That’s all for this week. Be sure to check out Joe’s recaps of THE FLASHand LEGENDS OF TOMORROW, and then I’ll be back later this week with ARROW and this week’s ARROWVERSE POWER RANKINGS!