Recap: SUPERGIRL Dreams Up a Merciless Episode
Episode 113 “For the Girl Who Has Everything”
Teleplay by Ted Sullivan & Derek Simon, story by Greg Berlanti
Directed by Dermott Downs
[Photos: Darren Michaels/Warner Bros. Entertainment Inc.]
I’ll say this up front: Justice League did it better.
That’s not to say this was a bad episode. It wasn’t. And it certainly moved the chains down the field in delivering a new main villain for the rest of the season. But the original Moore story is kind of wasted here.
It’s one of the classic Superman stories of the last 40 years. And the bar has been set pretty high by the animated Justice League. Granted, that show had more of the original cast of characters to work with — Superman, Batman, Wonder Woman, and Mongul — so it’s probably better that Supergirl took the liberties it did and told its own version of the story without slavishly trying to re-tread the same ground.
In the midst of high-energy solar storms, Non (Chris Vance) has dropped the Black Mercy on Kara (Melissa Benoist), hoping to keep her occupied while the Kryptonians deploy Myriad, an as-yet-undisclosed something that will wipe out humanity. Or something.
This episode very much belongs to Alex (Chyler Leigh), as she and Hank (David Harewood) try to ferret out Astra (Laura Benanti) and her cronies while also fighting to save Kara’s life. It’s noteworthy that Astra comes to Alex and tells of the Black Mercy, and how to get Kara out of it before she dies. Astra, while being a murderous villain set on world domination, isn’t without compassion for her family. And that seems to extend slightly to Alex as well, as Astra realizes the relationship between her and Kara.
Non’s clearly gone too far, and while he’s doing everything in service to the greater mission — and questioning Astra’s dedication along the way — he loses sight of the fact that Kara is family, and should have been dealt with in a different way.
Kara realizes something’s not right from the very beginning, but she starts to lose herself in the illusion the longer she’s under the influence of the Black Mercy. And it’s a natural fantasy for her to have: being home on Krypton with everyone she lost. Just as it was for Kal-El, the loss of her entire people combines with her feelings of self-doubt at work and give her a “There’s no place like home” dream.
Just as in the original story, Kara has to choose escape for herself. So Alex, with the help of Maxwell Lord (Peter Facinelli), uses a mind meld machine to insert her consciousness into Kara’s dream, trying to convince her that it’s an illusion.
Now, here’s where I start to look sideways at the story. Why in the world do you use a gizmo enhanced by the Bad Guy when you have a telepathic alien in the room? Why not clear out all non-essential personnel and have J’onn link Alex and Kara? Sure, you would have cut about ten minutes off, but still… wasted opportunity.
On the flip side, we did get to see Hank impersonate Kara again, only this time the ungainly assistant of Cat Grant (Calista Flockhart). Hank doesn’t reveal his true identity to Jimmy (Mehcad Brooks) and Winn (Jeremy Jordan), who have been covering for Kara, much to Cat’s annoyance. She’s really stewing over the whole Kara/Adam/nevermind thing…
Jimmy and Winn, of course, refuse to leave well enough alone and have come into the DEO facility when Kara was discovered with the Black Mercy. So now, they’re in on the little operation, and Winn even helps work some IT Guy magic to help the DEO restore some semblance of operating capacity as they fight the effects of the solar storms.
Alex manages to get Kara to reject the Black Mercy’s illusions, and the team goes off to foil Non’s plan. Alex and Hank go after Astra, while Kara hunts down Non, and pounds into him mercilessly because she’s now felt the loss of her world twice, thanks to the parasitic flower. Non has snatched away her home, her family, all in an attempt to sideline her while they try to take away her new world and family.
Nice to see the Martian Manhunter this episode, as his fight with Astra culminates with his refusal to kill her. Of course, the fight turns around and Astra gets the upper hand, giving Alex little choice but to stab her through the heart with a kryptonite sword.
Hank then takes the hit for that, later telling Kara he had no choice. And his reasoning to Alex is the kind of thing that makes this show work: Alex is Kara’s hero, and Hank can’t let that idea fall apart. As Alex inspires Kara, so Kara inspires the city.
Melissa Benoist continues to kill it as Supergirl. Her anger at what’s been done to her, her demanding, “Who did this to me?” an the look on her face … a perfect mix of rage and grief. And her chemistry with Chyler Leigh really seals the deal for me. Those moments at home with pizza (or ice cream) are just the right mix of respect, love, and “us against the world” attitude that you’d expect from these two.
The story line with Cat, however, leaves me cold. I’m not sure where they’re going with this, unless it’s circling back around to Cat’s re-discovery of Kara’s secret, but it really feels like Cat’s taking the breakup (well… really they never even got that far) way too hard for the amount of emotional investment everyone had in it. I get that Cat feels cheated that she won’t see Adam as much, but she’s still going to see him more than she had. Calista Flockhart is chewing the scenery add a little too intensely for my taste.
And what’s that last scene with the pizza and the best friends and the alcohol? Did someone forget the Kryptonians have uploaded Myriad to the Lord satellite network and there’s a threat to the world underway? Yes, Hank handed a Myriad hard drive to his team, but it’s already been deployed, and with Astra dead they have no way of knowing what it’s supposed to do. Nor is there any guarantee they’ll figure it out in time. Probably going into a part two -ish next episode…
…unless Alex wakes up and it was all a dream.
Oh, and memo to Zach Snyder:
The spit-curl isn’t that hard to do.
Supergirl airs Mondays at 8/7c on CBS.
