Previously on SUPERGIRL…
Business, as they say, is about to pick up, and it seems like we finally have out big storyline to close out the show’s fourth season. I’ve been waiting for this since they introduced the Supergirl clone at the end of last season.
All season, we’ve gotten teases spread out about the clone, to remind us that there’s a super powerful woman on the other side of the world just waiting to complicate things. But having her tied to Lex Luthor is a masterstroke that may just put this over the top as maybe the best episode of the season.
Jon Cryer really impressed me last episode with his Lex Luthor, and I was happy to get more of the same here… maybe not AS good as last week’s performance, but he was still decidedly Luthor-like in this episode, which flashed back to how he came to be tied to the Supergirl clone. Much like the flashback featuring Ben Lockwood’s ORIGIN from earlier this season, the singular focus on building up a new character on the show gave the writers an opportunity to up their game while playing with some different characters than normal. Everything felt fresh and well-done.
The Supergirl clone is taken in by the Kaznian army and, after a few of their men are killed, they call in Luthor to maintain a level of control over her. With the help of MISS TESSMACHER!, they deduce that she was created when Kara came in contact with the Harun-El, the black Kryptonite that Supergirl brought back from Argo City. So Lex goes about his business of gaining a psychological hold over the clone, teaching her to hate the opulence of America and the soft nature of her “twin sister.”
Lex even brings her to National City – while Kara is on her road trip with Nia Nal – to get a feel for Kara’s life. That almost backfires on him, when the clone is in Kara’s apartment, reads her diary and meets her sister, Alex. By the time she meets Lex’s sister Lena, the clone is almost ready to break free of her connection to Lex. So he has the village in Kaznia where she has been protecting a young boy get blown up by an American missile.
Lex Luthor is a bastard.
The best parts of this episode are the little nods to DC Comics history – the clone calling herself “Linda Lee,” the name Supergirl went by in the Silver Age; the way the story mimics one of the best Superman ELSEWORLDS stories of all time in RED SON; Lex Luthor wearing his green and purple armor! All these little Easter eggs are an amazing treat for Super-fans.
SUPERGIRL has me completely hooked now. It may be the best of the ARROWVERSE shows going right now, and I am very excited to see how the season wraps up.