Supergirl: Solitude

"I was once linked to the Great Coluan cyber construct. And now I wander the same realm as Candy Crush."

As the title of the episode suggested, this one was about the possibly catastrophic results of Supergirl blowing off the DEO and going it alone when we all know that one of the key themes of this series (and the Clinton campaign) is "Stronger Together."

Honestly, Smallville's Supergirl deserved a better guest outing than this. Why did they decide to make a beautiful woman like Laura Vandervoort look so awful? The blonde corn rows alone were appalling. If they had to rip off Mystique, couldn't they have done a better job?

Secondly, while Brainiac can be chilling (James Marsters did pretty darned well with the role, and yes, I've been noticing how often I refer to Smallville in my Supergirl reviews) they gave Indigo an evil villain plot that's been done to death -- taking over the internet in order to destroy the world. Yes, the CGI bits as Indigo jumped in and out of laptops and cellphones were cool-looking, but Winn taking her down with a computer virus was deeply predictable, too.

Wouldn't it have been fun if they had managed to include a scene with Eliza Danvers so that they could have had three Supergirls in a single episode? Maybe they'll manage it at some future point, since Indigo still exists... scattered in several dismembered pieces on Non's coffee table. Apparently, Non and Indigo used to be an item. That could have been interesting; I wish we'd gotten more about that.

Since I'm speaking of "items," Siobhan and Winn? No and no. Trying to make Siobhan more sympathetic by giving her a sad past with a cheating father also didn't work for me. Neither did the whole Ashley Madison/Diamond Discretions thingy, even though it was a means to an end since the internet plot hinged on an adulterous General. (Couldn't that have been General Lane instead of some random general? I really despise General Lane.)

In general, though, pun intended, this was a good episode for Winn. It feels like we've finally gotten past the uncomfortable Winn unrequited love subplot and moved him back to being a useful member of Team Supergirl again. We also got a nice reminder of the Toyman episode. Continuity rules.

This week's entry in the romantic rectangle plot (is it back to being a triangle again?) centered on Lucy breaking up with James because she realized he shared confidences with Kara that he didn't share with her. Does that mean Lucy Lane will be written out? I'm not necessarily in favor of that; I like Jenna Dewan Tatum, and Lucy Lane is part of Superman mythology and has possibilities. But clearly, Lucy needs some character development stat if she's going to hang around this series.

As much as I like Mehcad Brooks, I am having some trouble connecting the James Olsen in this series, brilliant photojournalist and undeniably hot guy, with the traditional Jimmy Olsen who always came off as a juvenile, naive, and occasionally inept. Here, James being Superman's friend did work as a plot point, although the James and Kara visit to the Fortress of Solitude mostly consisted of fun reminders of the comic books. I did like the immense key to the Fortress, mostly because it related to the corresponding bit with Indigo stretching out both of her arms in order to put both nuke keys into their slots at the same time.

While I felt relatively certain that National City wouldn't get nuked (even though sister show Arrow has managed to shock us with some heavy duty Starling City destruction), the sequence where Supergirl tangled with the ICBM was terrific. The most serious problem with Superman as a character has always been that the writers have to get around the fact that he is simply too powerful. The way Supergirl struggled physically with that missile made it seem like the task might be too much for her, and that even she could be in serious danger. Good job there.

But the best part of the episode was the resolution of the Hank-killing-Astra situation. (Although I'm still feeling a bit underwhelmed by the plot point as a whole, because after all, it was because Astra was about to kill someone. It's not like Astra was out walking her Kryptonian dog and Alex decided to take her out for no reason.) Our actors shone in that final scene where Alex shed painful tears and confessed the truth to Kara.

Melissa Benoist did such a terrific job with her reaction to Alex's revelation that I honestly didn't know what Kara would do: take off without a word, even react physically with anger. I was touched when Kara chose to embrace her sister and forgive her. I also liked that the two of them included Hank in that emotional moment.

Bits:

-- The fact that Indigo inadvertently saved young Kara from floating in space forever was introduced, but really not addressed.

-- Superman's Legion ring was sitting there at the Fortress being easter-egg-like.

-- Random thing I picked up on the internet: someone somewhere mentioned that the key to the Fortress isn't usable by human beings, but it won't keep out Non and the other Kryptonians. Good point there.

Quotes:

Kara: (re: Siobhan) "I could throw her into space. I dream about doing that."

Cat: "My massage therapist spent the entire session talking about how her surrogate has Celiac disease and my Pilates instructor just informed me that he's quitting to open up an artisanal yarn store in Vermont. So, which one of you hearty souls is going to give me a reason to go on living?"

Hank: (to Alex) "As effective as kicking and punching is, next time you're angry about something, let's have coffee."

Cat: "Relevant people. In my office."

Cat: "Oh, Lucy. We live in a brave new world of gay marriage and transgender Republicans. Nobody bats an eye at that stuff anymore."

Winn: "Thank God we have our own personal black ops unit."

James: "Anybody ever tell you that you're a lot faster than your cousin?"
Supergirl: "No, actually."
James: "Well, you are. But your turns are kind of sharp."
Supergirl: "Hey, no one likes a backseat flier, okay?"

Winn: "You realize that I'm learning an alien coding language in the same amount of time it takes to watch an episode of Doctor Who, right?"

Indigo: "I'm invincible. I am a god!"
Winn: "No, you're just a glorified Windows Vista."

Two out of four critical keys,

Billie
---
Billie Doux loves good television and spends way too much time writing about it.

• Next episode
  
• Supergirl season 1
  
• Supergirl home