Supergirl Recap: Kara Fights to Keep Mon-El From Being Taken to a “Distant Sun”

Kevin Smith directs Supergirl for the second time this week, and he had some juicy material to work with. Mon-El’s mother goes to extreme lengths to get him to return to them and to the Daxumite people, and Kara remains convinced that his parents can change. Meanwhile, the President of the United States (Lynda Carter is back!) is being really shady, and Alex and Maggie have an awkward run-in with one of Maggie’s exes. Welcome to Season 2, Episode 17, “Distant Sun.”

**THIS IS A RECAP – SPOILERS ARE PART OF THE TERRITORY.**

image via Robert Falconer/The CW

S2, EP. 17 – THE RECAP

• Mon-El makes Kara breakfast, grateful that she’s taken him back. She’s thrilled about bacon and poached eggs (which he learned to make by reading The Joy of Cooking), but slightly less thrilled that his parents are still hovering over Earth in their ship, despite his having asked them to go and never return. Duty calls when a news report of an alien attack comes up and Supergirl speeds off.
• Supergirl fights the alien and dispatches with it pretty quickly, letting J’onn back at DEO headquarters know that there’s an “alien clean-up on Aisle Three.”
• After the alien incident, J’onn is on the line with President Marsdin who doesn’t seem happy that the Daxumites are still hovering above Earth. However, rather than expecting the DEO to do something about it, she orders J’onn not to engage with the Daxumite ship, assuring him that “her people” are getting intel on them. He is willing to follow her orders, even though she’s being super-shady.
• Alex and Maggie are matchy-matchy as they leave a yoga class. Just as they’re being sickeningly adorable, Maggie runs into an ex named Emily (Hayley Sales). It’s clear in their overly-polite interaction that there are unresolved issues there. Alex, however, is the epitome of class and grace, being friendly and encouraging them to catch up. Alex invites Emily to go out to dinner with them that night, and she accepts.

image via Robert Falconer/The CW

• At the DEO, Winn has discovered that the alien that Supergirl defeated, an amlax, is a bounty hunter who was on Earth specifically to kill Kara. A small broadcasting device the amlax had reveals that someone has put a bounty out for Supergirl, and is willing to pay handsomely for her head. J’onn, Alex, and Mon-El all beg Kara to lay low and not go out as Supergirl while they figure out who put the bounty on her head. At first, Kara is determined not to hide, but she reluctantly agrees to lay low for 24 hours to give them time to figure things out.
• At the alien dive bar, Mon-El meets with his parents, whom he’s invited down from the ship. Rhea is being super-snobby about the vibe of the place, while Lar Gand throws shade at Mon-El for being a bartender. Mon-El asks them if they are responsible for the bounty on Kara’s head. They deny it, and Rhea insists that all they want is for their son to come home to them.
• Later that night, Alex and Maggie wait at a restaurant as Emily has stood them up. Alex is pissed off on Maggie’s behalf, while Maggie seems determined to just forget the whole thing.
• Kara is laying low at her apartment and having a game night with James and Winn, but she has cabin fever after not having been Supergirl all day. As she tries to convince the guys why she should go out and help people right now, Mon-El shows up and tells her that he suspects that his parents are behind the bounty. As he grabs a drink to join them, he drops it, and is suddenly unable to move. His eyes glow blue, and he begins to move erratically, and completely out of control. Suddenly, he knocks into Kara and pushes her out the window, falling out with her.

image via Robert Falconer/The CW

• There’s a creepy-looking, bald alien dude nearby on the street whose eyes also glow blue. He’s controlling Mon-El telepathically and forcing him to beat the crap out of Kara. Mon-El still has the use of his mind, so he’s able to tell Kara this, but he continues to pummel her and throw her into stuff as she tries to help him fight it. Winn ends up finding the bounty hunter and bluffing him into releasing Mon-El … by sticking a stapler in his back and pretending it’s a gun.
• The bald alien dude is locked up at the DEO, and Team Supergirl questions him. He’s a powerful telepath, so he thinks he’s got the upper hand, refusing to talk. Alex is about ready to make him talk and says “Winn, get me a wrench.” But that’s not necessary, because they’ve got J’onn freaking J’onzz on their side. TELEPATHY FIGHT! J’onn and the alien literally go head to head, and after a bit of struggle, J’onn is victorious, and the alien gives up the fact that Rhea, Mon-El’s mother, did put out the hit on Kara.
• Everyone is ready to take the fight to the Daxumites, but J’onn forbids it, telling them that the POTUS ordered them not to attack them.
• Later, Alex confronts Emily about standing her and Maggie up. When Emily says that there are certain things she doesn’t want to remember, Alex starts defending Maggie based on what Maggie told her: that Emily was to blame for the break-up. But then Emily drops the news, they broke up because Maggie cheated on her. Whoops.
• At Kara’s apartment, she and Mon-El try to figure out what their next step could be. Mon-El wants to run to a distant planet (orbiting a Distant Star?) to hide from his parents and live a life with Kara. He compares their situation to that of Romeo and Juliet (having not finished the play!). Kara refuses to hide and leave her home. She believes Rhea can change, and urges Mon-El to talk to her and let her know that living on Earth is what truly makes him happy. He agrees to contact his parents.

image via Robert Falconer/The CW

• Mon-El and Supergirl invite Rhea to the Fortress of Solitude, and Rhea manages to snark on that, too. Mon-El tries to reason with her, and Supergirl tries to appeal to her mother love and desire to see her son happy, but Rhea’s all NOPE. She’s got sai made of kryptonite and she comes out slicing at Supergirl, severely wounding her. Before she can hurt Supergirl further, Mon-El stops her by telling her that he will go with her. Supergirl tries to stop him, but he’s determined. He sacrifices his freedom for Supergirl’s life.
• When Mon-El and Rhea beam up to their ship, Lar Gand is thrilled to see his son back. But when Mon-El demands that his mother remove the hit on Kara, and she does, it’s clear that Lar Gand had no idea she had done that.
• Alex tells Maggie that she went to confront Emily. At first, Maggie is pissed that she did that, but then Alex brings up that she’s not upset about Alex’s past, she’s upset that Maggie doesn’t trust her enough to tell her things: about Emily, about her parents, about anything. She insists that she’s worthy of trust, and that “I’m not here to judge you. I’m here to help you heal.” Maggie seems grateful. As they hug, Alex gets a call from Kara, and she rushes off to find out what’s going on.
• Kara has arrived at the DEO, and she is frantic about Mon-El. She insists that the DEO has to do something to save him, but J’onn is equally insistent that they can’t oppose a direct order from the President. That, and he says that Mon-El made his choice. Kara delivers an unnecessarily low blow by saying “This is not like M’gann.” J’onn is still reluctant.

image via Robert Falconer/The CW

• On the ship, Lar Gand approaches Mon-El, trying to comfort him. However, the only way Mon-El will find comfort is if he can at least help his people become more just. As he will be the future leader of Daxum, he wants to start implementing changes to the way they do things now. Rhea shows up and literally slaps the idea right out of his head. The trip to Daxum will take four years, and so she has Mon-El locked up to spend the trip detoxing from Supergirl’s influence.
• At the DEO, Winn reveals that he’s fixed up one of the portals they used to get to Slaver’s Moon, and that they don’t need one on the other end. They just need a really, really precise calculation which, if off by even a fraction of a fraction, people could die. But they can get on the Daxumite ship now, so yay!
• Supergirl materializes on the ship, and proceeds to fight Rhea’s guards. When she dispatches with all of them Rhea busts out her kryptonite weapons. However, when she tries to stab one into Supergirl, it doesn’t work. That’s because it’s J’onn working his shape-shifter magic! He transforms into his Martian Manhunter self, and continues to whoop ass. Meanwhile, Winn takes the opportunity to get Mon-El out of his cell. They run to Kara.
• No, of course Supergirl couldn’t stay put. So, she transported herself onto the ship. Rhea, very much looking forward to using her weapons on the real Supergirl, comes after her. She hurts Supergirl. Before she can do worse, Mon-El breaks the window in the throne room, which causes things to start getting sucked out into space, including his mother’s weapons.

image via Robert Falconer/The CW

• Lar Gand, seeing how Team Supergirl came to Mon-El’s aid, and seeing how far Mon-El would go for the woman he loves, realizes that these people are also Mon-El’s family, and he allows him to go. Rhea is not pleased, saying to Supergirl “Krypton has taken everything from me, and now you take my son.”
• Later that night, Maggie and Emily hash things out and find some closure as Alex looks on.
• Having returned from helping to save Mon-El on the Daxumite ship, J’onn is now in hot water with POTUS. She somehow knows that they were just on the ship, because she “has her sources.” Then, when she hangs up, she turns into her full, alien self. Whaaaa?!
• Kara and Mon-El safe in her apartment. Mon-El thanks Kara profusely, and goes on and on about how much he admires her. Kara apologizes to Mon-El for insisting that he go talk to his parents in the first place. They agree, “we saved each other today.”
• And back on the Daxumite ship, Rhea is furious that her husband didn’t back her. So furious that she kills him, looks out at Earth, and says “I’m not done with this planet.”

image via Robert Falconer/The CW

S2, EP. 17 – THE REVIEW

I really enjoyed this episode, mostly because Rhea is an amazing character. Played by the amazing Teri Hatcher, Rhea is one of the best antagonists that has ever been on this show. Partly, because of how she’s written, and partly because of Hatcher’s performance (with a huge assist from Kevin Smith’s direction), Rhea is absolutely fascinating, and I’m so glad that it seems like she isn’t going anywhere.

This episode did a great job of balancing the main story-of-the-week and a completely unrelated storyline involving Alex and Maggie navigating their relationship. Each storyline involved a relationship being put to a test. For Kara and Mon-El, their test was dealing with Mon-El’s family. For Alex and Maggie, it was dealing with an ex.

And seriously though, HOW CUTE WERE ALEX AND MAGGIE?

“Distant Sun” was well-written, beautifully acted, and in great directorial hands. What did you think? Let’s chat about it in the comments below!

Supergirl airs Mondays at 8PM ET/PT on The CW.

—The Mary Sue has a strict comment policy that forbids, but is not limited to, personal insults toward anyone, hate speech, and trolling.—

Follow The Mary Sue on Twitter, Facebook, Tumblr, Pinterest, & Google+.