This week’s episode gives us a more complete picture of J’onn J’onzz’s history with the Danvers family, as well as the evolution of Kara and Alex into the protectors they are today. What’s more, it introduces a new status quo through some pretty amazing reveals. Let’s dive into Season 1, Episode 17 of CBS’ Supergirl, “Manhunter.”
**THIS IS A RECAP – SPOILERS ARE PART OF THE TERRITORY.**
S1, Episode 17 – The Basics
- The episode opens with news coverage about Supergirl, and how National City now responds to her with fear and distrust. At CatCo, Cat tells those gathered at her morning meeting that she thinks it’s ridiculous that people are still this afraid and suspicious of Supergirl, but that “If Mel Gibson can present at the Golden Globes, Supergirl can win back National City. This too shall pass.” What’s really troubling her is that she can’t get her damn juice with chard. She calls out to Kara, but Kara’s out sick (or rather, at home eating doughnuts, depressed). Winn runs off when Siobhan calls leaving James to play assistant and answer Cat’s phone. He cannot even believe his life right now. Cat, however, is amused as hell.
- Winn meets Siobhan at Noonan’s, where she proceeds to rant about how Kara is to blame for her losing her job (as opposed to, you know, her own shit-tastic behavior and actions). Winn tries to be supportive and encouraging for reasons I do not understand. The sex can’t be that good … can it? Damn, Future Silver Banshee!
- Meanwhile, at the DEO Alex is focused on the news coverage of the “Mystery Alien” that has arrived in National City. That mystery alien, of course, being J’onn J’onzz, aka Martian Manhunter, aka Hank Henshaw, who now sits in a DEO cell eating Chocos. (oh no!) Alex keeps providing them, since they’re his favorite, and she keeps visiting him despite his warnings that she should distance herself from him. But she refuses to abandon him and vows to take care of him the way he’s always taken care of her.
- The DEO receives some unwanted, but expected new visitors. A Col. James Harper (Eddie McClintock) has arrived to conduct an investigation of how J’onn J’onzz managed to infiltrate the DEO for ten years. Lucy is with him to assist. Everyone can expect to be interrogated, but Col. Harper begins with J’onn. Once Harper and Lucy have him shackled in an interrogation room, they begin to ask him questions. But not before letting him know that they’ve developed a field around the room that prevents him from using his powers or shifting out of Hank’s body.
- Supergirl tries to eavesdrop, but the field blocks her powers too. She can’t hear a thing coming from the interrogation room.
- FLASHBACK: Picture it: South America, 2006. The real Hank Henshaw and Jeremiah Danvers (‘sup, Dean Cain! Welcome back!) stand with other DEO agents going over their mission—to capture the Manhunter. Jeremiah seems hesitant, but Hank is all hawkishness and aggression. He has no doubt they will succeed, and that their cause is true. Later, in the Peruvian Andes, the agents split up to find the Manhunter, whom their reports say is in the area. As Jeremiah goes off with a gun, he comes across a boa constrictor. Afraid for his life, he shoots at it and misses, only to trip and fall. As the snake approaches, it’s stopped and picked up by … Martian Manhunter!
- Supergirl and Alex debate going in to pull J’onn out of the interrogation. Supergirl is gung-ho, but Alex wants to play it smart, reminding Supergirl that they’re of more use to J’onn out here than possibly locked up with him. Supergirl mumbles that she dares them to try and lock her up.
- In the interrogation, Col. Harper is addressing the death of Jeremiah Danvers. He blames J’onn for killing him, but J’onn insists that he didn’t.
- FLASHBACK: Jeremiah sits at a fire trying to keep warm as J’onn stays as far away from the fire as possible while staying in conversation distance. When Jeremiah asks about his fear of fire, J’onn explains that life on Mars was destroyed with fire, and that he’s the last of his kind. Jeremiah tells him about his daughters, and that one of them is not “from here” either. He tells J’onn their names, they bond over fatherhood, and Jeremiah tries to reassure him that he will do everything in his power to explain that J’onn means Earth no harm and that J’onn should consider him a friend. Their touching moment is rudely interrupted by Hank rushing out from the trees and shooting J’onn with bullets designed specifically to take the Manhunter down. Hopped up on ignorant rage, Hank is determined to kill J’onn, but Jeremiah steps in and tries to stop him. They fight, and Hank ends up plunging a knife into Jeremiah’s stomach before Jeremiah pushes him off the cliff. An injured J’onn crawls over to a dying Jeremiah as he says, “Take care of my girls.”
- Back in the interrogation room, Col. Harper refuses to believe J’onn’s story, while Lucy seems like she’s taking it in and doubts seem to be forming on her face. J’onn insists that he’s done nothing but bring honor to the DEO. Things get heated when J’onn says that “Hank Henshaw was a sorry excuse for a man.” Hank was apparently Col. Harper’s best friend, and Harper blames J’onn for his death.
- Col. Harper and Lucy are leading J’onn away when Supergirl and Alex try to stop them. Alex speaks up for J’onn saying that he’s the best man she’s ever known. Col. Harper (like Hank in the flashback) insists that J’onn is “not a man.” J’onn gets escorted away as Alex and Supergirl helplessly look on.
- As Cat leaves CatCo that evening (on the phone with Kate Middleton!), Siobhan sneaks into the office and sits at Kara’s computer. To sabotage Kara, she opens Kara’s email and sends an email to Cat telling her how Kara “really feels” about her.
- In the DEO interrogation room, Alex is hooked up to a polygraph and answering questions. Outside, Supergirl asks Agent Vasquez to disable the sound field so that she can hear what’s going on in the room. Vasquez adamantly refuses out loud … but then walks away leaving an earpiece on her desk so that Supergirl can listen in.
- Back in the interrogation, when asked if she knew that Hank was actually J’onn, she says she didn’t know.
- FLASHBACK: Party Alex of two years ago is on the prowl and doing shots at the cloughb. She drinks too much, and is about to try and get in her car when a cop sees her. She gets put in the drunk tank. As she sits wallowing in her poor life choices, J’onn shows up, introducing himself as Hank Henshaw, telling her he knows pretty much everything about her—including that she’s a scientist and that she’s better than this—and recruits her to the DEO. Also, she has great hair.
- In the interrogation room, Alex insists that she’s proud of having served J’onn/Hank/whoever. That he’s saved her life and been a good leader. When Harper again asks whether she knew he was an alien, she again says no, and the polygraph doesn’t budge. Harper calls her incompetent, but lets her go. As she’s about to leave, though, Lucy catches something in Alex’s face and stops her, knowing she’s lying.
- Harper and Lucy escort Alex out in handcuffs. When Supergirl asks where they’re taking her, Harper says, “The same place we took your green friend. Project Cadmus.” WHAT THE HELL IS PROJECT CADMUS?!
- Kara goes into James’ office to talk to him about what’s just happened. When she says that Alex and J’onn have been taken to Project Cadmus, James looks worried. He explains that Project Cadmus is “the reason why Superman doesn’t work with the government.” Cadmus is a place where aliens are dissected, studied, and weaponized. Humans who go there don’t fare well either. Kara asks James for help.
- James invites Lucy to meet him at Kara’s apartment where Kara proceeds to reveal herself to Lucy as Supergirl. Lucy is upset, but not really surprised. Kara being Supergirl was something she knew deep down, but didn’t want to admit to herself. She asks, “You, Hank, why do you lie?” And Kara replies, “When you’re an alien, and your world is gone, and you’re dropped into a new one, you don’t have a choice.”
- FLASHBACK; Picture it: Midvale 2004. Kelly Clarkson’s “Since You’ve Been Gone” was all over the airwaves, and Young Alex and Young Kara are at school. As the kids around them remark on how weird Kara is, a cute boy asks Alex if she’d like to come with him and some other kids to the beach. When she says she has to stay with Kara, he invites her, too. At the beach party, Kara stands around marveling at everything and generally looking like a weirdo. Suddenly, Kara hears screams and runs toward them. She saves a mother and baby from a car wreck, but Alex ends up getting hit with flying car debris when part of the car explodes. At the Danvers home, Jeremiah talks to Young Kara, reminding her that keeping her abilities secret is safer for her. He gives her specially-made lead-lined glasses that will suppress her vision and help her lead a normal life. Cut to 2014 when an adult Kara goes in to interview with Cat Grant and meets Winn for the first time. When she walks into Cat’s office, Cat is not thrilled to have gotten sent another “special snowflake” millennial. But Kara insists she’s not special. She’s normal, and only wants to help. (Even if it means cheating a little teensy bit with her super vision)
- Lucy continues to resent the fact that J’onn and Kara lied about their true identities. Kara turns the tables, telling Lucy that she felt safe enough telling her that she was Supergirl, because she trusted the “real” Lucy under the uniform. The one she knows will do the right thing, even if it means that she won’t fit in where she’s trying to belong (ie: the military).
- In transit to Project Cadmus, Col. Harper tries to justify taking J’onn and Alex there with talk of protecting America and protecting humans. But J’onn and Alex be like, “Um, so you’re gonna dissect us.”
- Suddenly, the truck they’re riding in is set upon by two motorcyclists who take out the truck’s tires. IT’S KARA AND LUCY!
- As the truck swerves to a stop, the controller for the power-dampening field drops from Col. Harper’s hands, and Alex manages to break it with her foot. J’onn frees himself and sets upon Harper. But he doesn’t kill him. He just makes him forget what happened that night having “gotten better at this.” But when he goes into Harper’s mind, he sees something unexpected—Jeremiah at Project Cadmus! JEREMIAH’S STILL ALIVE. Outside the truck, Alex says goodbye to Kara for a while. She’s a fugitive on the run, but she and J’onn are going to find her dad.
- At CatCo, Cat has invited Siobhan back into her office. Siobhan looks like the cat that ate the canary as Cat explains that she received a horrible email from Kara. Siobhan feigns suprise as Cat talks about how surprising it was for someone like Kara to spew such vitriol. So, she had a Kara expert examine the email. Winn enters, having examined typing speeds and patterns and learned that the email didn’t match Kara’s but did match Siobhan’s. Then Cat utters the best line of the episode: “I regret having fired you the first time. I wish that I could fire you again, with feeling.” Siobhan stomps off. (I’m so proud of Winn!)
- When Supergirl and Lucy return to the DEO looking for Col. Harper, they learn that he’s resigned and appointed a new director of the DEO—Lucy! Boy, that Martian Manhunter sure knows how to brainwash a douchebag!
- Later, Siobhan is on a rooftop drinking. Winn has come after her and, thinking she’s going to jump, tries to stop her. But she has “too much self-esteem to kill myself.” She’s furious at Winn for having ratted her out (she sure has no problem doing horrible things, just with people who tell on her after said horrible things). So furious that she breaks a heel and falls off the building. Luckily, her piercing scream saves her. WHAAAAAAAAT? That moment was ridonkulous.
The Review Bit, Wherein I Express OPINIONS:
While nothing could top “Falling” for me as the best episode of Season One right now, “Manhunter” is definitely as the same level. The show feels so much freer now that they’re dealing less with Monster-of-the-Week and more with ongoing story arcs. I love watching these characters grow and change, and the past few episodes have really given them beautiful space in which to do that.
I think one of my favorite elements of this episode is the way they explored the idea of “belonging,” and how it’s something that we all—alien and human alike—want. Sometimes, we lie to fit in. Other times, we act against our better judgement, as Lucy has done, going against her conscience to fit in with Col. Harper’s or her father’s idea of the military.
And then, of course, there was the sheer fan goodness of finding out some quality backstory! We not only found out the story behind J’onn J’onzz becoming involved in the Danvers’ lives, but we also got to know J’onn better, and I was thrilled to see that they stayed so true to information we know from other incarnations of Martian Manhunter, from his fear of fire to his obsession with Chocos! Oh, and speaking of sheer fan goodness—LUCY KNOWS KARA IS SUPERGIRL! I love that this is how it happened—without the pressure from James, or any “love triangle ickiness” hanging over it. Kara made the choice to trust Lucy, and Lucy went on to make the choice to trust Kara. I’m really looking forward to seeing their relationship develop at the DEO free of all the James nonsense.
OMG, HOW ON-POINT WAS CALISTA FLOCKART IN THIS EPISODE?! I’ve always loved her performance as Cat, but she really nailed it in this episode, and we got an amazing sense of the core of Cat’s personality (she has integrity and gives respect where it is due) without losing any of her acerbic wit. In an episode full of great performances, she was a highlight for me. Runner-up, though, had to be Jeremy Jordan as Winn. He has truly come into his own doing this role. In the beginning of the episode, I was worried that Winn was completely blinded by Siobhan, but the fact that he was willing to investigate and alter his reaction to her based on new information was a testament to the kind of person he is, too. He, like Cat, has integrity deep-down, and in spite of their flaws are at heart the kind of people who strive to do the right thing.
But this wasn’t only an episode in which the characters evolved, but it was an episode that established an entirely new status quo—Lucy finding out about Kara and subsequently becoming director of the DEO; J’onn being out in the open. Equally big is the fact that Jeremiah Danvers is still alive. I’m gonna call it now: Because of his time at Cadmus, Jeremiah will end up being Cyborg Superman. Because HOW CAN YOU NOT HAVE DEAN CAIN BE SOME KINDA SUPERMAN?! Clearly Cyborg Superman isn’t Hank Henshaw in this universe, which makes that spot wide-open.
Oh, and speaking of new villain characters—how about that scream from Siobhan, huh? I have to say, I literally LOL’d in that moment. I could not believe they went there and were so cartoonish and blatant about revealing her Silver Banshee power. At the same time, it made me curious and interested, because: has she had this power the whole time? Did she know? If not, what triggered it now?
“Manhunter” is a game-changing episode that was exciting to watch and leaves me hopeful about where the show is going from here. Like THE SUPERGIRL/FLASH CROSSOVER EPISODE, “WORLDS FINEST,” WHICH IS NEXT WEEK!!
What did you think? Let’s talk Supergirl in the comments below!
Supergirl airs Mondays at 8PM ET/PT on CBS. For more Supergirl fun, check out The House of El—February’s video is up now!
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