What a long, sad hiatus it’s been, huh? Well, we’re back, and The CW’s Supergirl returns with an episode directed by geek treasure Kevin Smith and featuring his daughter, Harley Quinn Smith in a guest starring role. It seems that after directing the “Runaway Dinosaur” episode of The Flash, Smith is permanently part of the Berlanti Productions family. Welcome to Season 2, Episode 9, “Supergirl Lives!”
**THIS IS A RECAP – SPOILERS ARE PART OF THE TERRITORY.**
Image via: Robert Falconer/The CW
S2, EP. 9 – THE RECAP
- Supergirl stops a group of jewel thieves with a rocket launcher…only to have Guardian show up to “help.” Guardian stops two of the three thieves from escaping, but when Winn stops the third, he ends up being punched and almost being shot before Guardian is able to step in and save him. Winn is shaken up.
- At the DEO the following morning, Supergirl expresses her annoyance with the Guardian, making it clear to Alex that she is not a fan. However, Alex detects that there’s something else agitating her. Supergirl is…bored, and misses challenges beyond jewel thieves. Meanwhile, Alex is super-giddy about her new relationship with Maggie.
- Cut to: Alex and Maggie the next morning (after)! They’ve had such an amazing evening (and sleepover!) that they each decide to call out sick from work and keep the party going…
- At CatCo, Snapper is annoyed as both Kara and James bombard him before he’s had his morning coffee/danish alone-time. Each of them has a version of the jewel thief story, but while Kara’s emphasizes Supergirl’s contribution (not to mention the fact that Supergirl had to deal with rocket launchers), James emphasizes Guardian’s help. Snapper could care less about either of their takes when a woman arrives wanting to talk to someone about a problem she’s having.
- The woman’s daughter, Izzy (Harley Quinn Smith) is missing, and she desperately wants CatCo to use their investigative skills to help find her. Kara promises her that they will find Izzy, which doesn’t thrill Snapper, who thinks the story is a waste of time.
image via Robert Falconer/The CW
- Kara goes to the alien dive bar to meet up with Maggie for help in finding Izzy, but not before chatting with Mon-El who is now apparently a bartender there, even though he doesn’t know what club soda is. When she tells him that she’s determined to go after Izzy, Mon-El advises her to stay out of trouble. Kara, of course, sees this as her duty. Meanwhile, Maggie tells her that Izzy is one of several missing persons cases that’s opened up recently but there are no leads.
- Cut to: a random medical facility where a young man has just completed some bloodwork. The doctor with whom the young man is speaking (James Urbaniak) leads him into what looks like a warehouse that contains a large, circular metal structure. Suddenly, the doctor flips a switch, causing something to light up, and the young man is grabbed by two goons and pushed forward. We hear screams as a familiar face emerges. Roulette (Dichen Lichman) is back and has apparently recruited this young man for unknown purposes.
- Kara goes to Winn at the DEO to see if he can track down what all the recent missing persons have in common. As he starts to work, he takes off his sunglasses to reveal a huge black eye, which he tells Kara he got from a mugger. Alex is practically floating around the DEO giddy over Maggie. After some searching, Winn tells Kara that the one thing the missing people have in common is that they all had bloodwork done at the National City Clinical Research Center before going missing.
- When Kara has returned to CatCo, Mon-El randomly appears even though he technically has a job that he’s already taking a day off from. He insists on helping Kara with her investigation, and she reluctantly allows him to.
image via Robert Falconer/The CW
- Kara and Mon-El pose as a couple of sturdy millennials there for a clinical trial and asking questions about the services beforehand, trying to get the doctor to reveal something, but between Mon-El’s constant screwing up and the doctor’s insistence, they end up being led toward getting “bloodwork,” or rather, to the room with the big metal structure. Kara inquires about her “friend who told her about the trial,” Izzy. The doctor confirms that Izzy has been through there…before revealing himself as an alien and attempting to have his goons push them through the portal. Kara quickly dispatches with the doctor’s goons, and the doctor himself runs through the portal. Kara runs after him as she changes into Supergirl, instructing Mon-El to go back to the DEO and tell Alex.
- Kara is promptly attacked on the other side of the gate by aliens, but….she’s suddenly weak, and a couple of punches make her fist bleed. Then she notices. She’s on a planet with a red sun. Mon-El disobeys orders and comes through the portal just in time to save Kara from the aliens. Suddenly the portal shuts off, and they now have no way of getting back. Mon-El wants to figure out a way back, but Kara insists that saving Izzy is top priority.
- At the DEO, James finds Winn in the locker room and briefly asks how Winn is after last night before asking him to go out again to fight crime. Winn becomes furious and rips James a new one for not really caring how he’s doing. The incident from the night before shook him up really badly, and he doesn’t want to go out in the field anymore.
- Back on the red sun planet, Kara and Mon-El get captured by a planet inhabitant!
- Meanwhile, Alex has traced Kara’s trail to the clinical research facility. She and her DEO team find the metal structure and J’onn tells them it’s a transmitter portal, designed to speed travel between worlds. They now know that Kara’s on another planet.
image via Robert Falconer/The CW
- Back on said planet, Kara convinces their captor that they have zero interest in hurting him, that all they’re doing is looking for a girl. She shows him a picture of Izzy. The alien then tells her that they are on Maldoria, or Slaver’s Moon, where carbon-based life forms are brought to be sold as slaves. Izzy has been abducted for that purpose. Kara and Mon-El get themselves arrested in order to get into the place where the slaves are kept.
- They are brought inside, and Kara finds Izzy. They discover that Roulette is behind all this. After Supergirl defeated her after their first encounter, forcing her to close her alien fight club, Roulette is now selling slaves for cash. And diamonds, apparently.
- The DEO has found the planet where Kara is now being held. J’onn cannot go to Maldoria, because its atmosphere is toxic to Martians, so it’s up to Alex, Winn, and the rest of her team to go get Kara. Winn starts freaking out when Alex expects him to go with her to make sure they can open the portal on the way back, revealing how scared he is. Alex gives him a pep talk. As they prepare, Maggie shows up, and suddenly Alex is freaking out about Kara having been taken on her watch because she dared to be happy for once. Alex can’t stop blaming herself, and she breaks things off with Maggie.
- Back on Maldoria, Kara is determined to get their group off the planet, despite Mon-El’s hesitation. When the doctor arrives with two goons and tries to shoot at the prisoners, Kara (without her powers) stands in front of them, absorbing the blasts from their weapons herself. This inspires the rest of the captives, and they revolt, freeing themselves and locking the doctor and Roulette up in their place. As they run away, one of the aliens prevents Mon-El from getting killed, then bows. Weird.
image via Robert Falconer/The CW
- Alex and her team make it through the portal to find Kara, and Alex leaves Winn with the portal to get it to start working. Winn succeeds, and also has an experience with a hostile alien where he punches the alien and knocks him cold. He feels like a badass.
- Alex and her team find Kara and the other captives and gets them out. Blah-blah-yellow-sun-grenade-blah-blah, EVERYONE IS SAVED!
- Back at CatCo, Izzy is reunited with her mom. Kara submits the story of the Slaver’s Moon to Snapper and insists that she will always write stories that follow her heart. As she leaves, Snapper smiles, and we know that he totally approves of that assertion. He wants her to succeed. Meanwhile, Winn tells James that game is back ON as far as Gladiator is concerned, because he’s been to another planet and he’s feeling great about himself!
- Alex asks Maggie over to tell her that she knows she was an idiot and wants to get back together. Maggie agrees. She also knows that Kara is Supergirl. Alex is glad not to have any secrets from her now.
- At Kara’s apartment, Mon-El arrives bearing club soda and asks Kara to help him be a superhero since she inspired him to heroism. She agrees, and is thrilled.
- Lastly, we see two aliens kill the doctor as they ask where Mon-El is. Mon-El is being hunted…but why? And what was with the bow earlier?!
image via Robert Falconer/The CW
S2, Ep. 9 – THE REVIEW
Since Kevin Smith was directing, and he did such an amazing job with the “Runaway Dinosaur” episode of The Flash, I really wanted to like this episode. Sadly, this was one of the weakest episodes of Supergirl.
There seemed to be zero real conflict in this episode. Everyone just kind of…accomplished everything they set out to accomplish. Kara went and got Izzy with very little resistance. The DEO found Kara in no time and arrived just in time to make the portal available for the trip back. There were no real stakes, and there was no real tension.
The storytelling was wonky for other reasons, too. What a waste of Dichen Lachman! The show should be ashamed of themselves, as Lachman is too good to be wasted on purring lines and staring adoringly at jewelry. When Roulette was first introduced, she was an interesting character, but instead of making her even more complex and awesome and formidable, she’s easily dispatched and barely has any lines.
And I am SO. OVER. GUARDIAN. I mean, he said to criminals, “This is the end of the line, fellas.” COME ON. This storyline is boring, and they need to figure something else out for James Olsen.
There were some weird editing moments during the episode, too, which ruined the pacing of the story. We go from the DEO on one day, where Alex says she has a date, to the morning after with Maggie. A similar moment happened at CatCo when Kara goes there after the DEO seemingly only so that Mon-El can go to CatCo and insert himself into her investigation before she turns around and goes right back out to use the info the DEO gave her. It seemed as though there were moments, or scenes missing, that were cut haphazardly.
Overall, this episode was the most paint-by-numbers Supergirl has been in a long time. However, there were some great character moments within that. Jeremy Jordan killed it as Winn in this episode! Of the entire cast this week, he was the one that seemed to be truly digging deep, and he’s made Winn a beautiful, brilliant, insecure mess. The Alex/Maggie scene at the end was great, though I thought it pointless to have Alex suddenly freak out in the first place.
I’m also really intrigued by the current Mon-El situation, and am looking forward to seeing what his deal is.
And lastly, Supergirl/Kara’s determination to bring Izzy home safe was beautiful and inspiring to watch. Melissa Benoist always does great work, but she was beautifully grounded and unwavering in this episode, reminding us of what a hero looks like, powers or no powers.
What did you think of Supergirl this week? Let’s chat about it in the comments below!
Supergirl airs Mondays at 8PM ET/PT on The CW.
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