Hello space cats, how ya holding up? Going back and forth between protests and extreme escapism like a really stressed out ping pong ball? No? Just me? Cool, right, anyway. We have some important emotional developments in this episode, so let’s dive right in.
We open with Kara in the gaylien bar, feelin’ weird about the last conversation she had with Mon-El, trying to explain why she doesn’t think they’re a good match. She also tries to explain that she wants to focus on her career as a reporter, which is hard enough to balance with her Supergirl life, without throwing a boyfriend on top of it. But she fumbles her words and things get extra awkward and Mon-El mopes away so she’s left being bummed. Alex pops over to ask if her sister is okay, and Kara explains.
“I’m too strong, I cracked his fragile male ego.”
Kara decides she’s done talking about her embarrassing moment and says she’s excited to celebrate her 13th Earth Birthday, and starts to rattle off her plans for them to go learn how to line dance. Alex doesn’t look especially thrilled about the idea? But also she has some bad news: Maggie surprised her with some Barenaked Ladies tickets and they’re for tonight. To emphasize the point, Maggie runs over and tells Alex she just got them upgraded to VIP.
“I don’t know, I said ‘barenaked’ and the guy started sputtering and gave me VIP passes!”
Kara’s eyes and face and entire body radiate sadness and disappointment, but her voice swears it’s fine as she sends her sister off with her girlfriend.
Outside the bar, M’gann is taking out the trash when she hears a noise. She turns to see a man and immediately confronts him; turns out it’s J’onn and he’s been trailing her in case the White Martians appear. As if on cue, one drops from the sky and attacks, but luckily Supergirl’s sadness doesn’t affect her powers and she swoops out to help them fight.
THANK GOODNESS SOMETHING I CAN SET ON FIRE
But the White Martian escapes.
Kara, J’onn and M’gann head to the DEO to try to track the White Martian and Kara sasses Winn about the Guardian stuff, saying she’s just worried about him and James. He hisses back at her, but they’re interrupted by J’onn and M’gann arguing over who should go out and fight the White Martians.
M’gann turns out to be correct in saying they’re after her, as is confirmed when one strolls into Dollywood looking for her; and calls her “wife.” She clearly has not missed him — and in fact seems to hate him quite a lot. He wants to bring her back but there’s no way in this hell or any other that she’ll go with him voluntarily.
Get your Alt-Mars lunacy out of my face.
Then this dude spouts some “pure race” bullshit like he’s a Death Eater or I dunno currently living in the White House. He gives her two hours to turn herself in or he’ll kill J’onn and “the Kryptonian” (which lol over my dead body) and as soon as he’s gone, M’gann is ready to run, but J’onn will have none of that. She’s on the team now, she’s not going anywhere.
At Alex’s apartment, Maggie is bouncing around all excited about the Barenaked Ladies concert…and…please tell me that choosing “Barenaked Ladies” was a joke because they’re lesbians? Like probably saying Tegan and Sara would be too underground? But Barenaked Ladies is a good pun? Because no one has unironically likes the Barenaked Ladies in like 15 years and I don’t love that the only things we know about Maggie Sawyer now are that she’s a detective, she’s a badass, she knows the way to a girl’s heart is through pizza and beer, and she likes the Barenaked Ladies, still, as an adult, with access to more music than the CDs her parents let her buy at Sam Goody. At least it’s a weird thing they have in common?
ANYWAY, Maggie’s excitement fizzles when she realizes something is bugging Alex. Alex tries to play it off, but Maggie says that she knows what Excited Alex Danvers looks like (*waggles eyebrows*) and that she can’t push down her feelings anymore.
“It’s fine, we can be barenaked ladies whenever we want.”
So she sends Alex off to clear the air with her sister and will meet her at the concert venue later.
At the DEO, Alex apologizes to Kara, and Kara promises that she wants her to have fun with her girlfriend, but Alex still isn’t buying it. Before they can talk more, M’gann and J’onn walk in…and then another M’gann walks down the stairs. The White Martian is among them.
Chaos ensues and the DEO is put on lockdown, but suddenly there’s only one of each of them, so the White Martian could be anywhere, and anyone. Well, anyone left in the room, which is Kara, Alex, Winn, J’onn, M’gann, the infamous-for-some-reason Vasquez, and a man whose name according to IMDb is “Demos” but I don’t remember anyone saying that out loud so I’m going to go with Agent for now.
Anyway, our buddy Agent is apparently new, because he gets a little loosey goosey with his firearm until J’onn remembers a trick for revealing White Martians. And that trick is to hold your hand up to the flame.
“This is not the flame I was hoping for…Where’s the Fleimkepa?”
M’gann shows them what it looks like, and for some reason they don’t seem concerned that it could still be her. And it’s not Vasquez or Agent or J’onn… but it IS Winn. Dun dun dun! He starts throwing things and being all fierce and it was pretty badass and also I was worried about Winn, proving truly he has come a long way since mid-season one when I wanted HIM to go to Mars.
Not!Winn runs around wreaking havoc, and codes the building to blow up in about fifteen minutes. Unfortunately, Supergirl can’t use her x-ray vision to help them, because kryptophobia lined the DEO walls with lead.
So instead they split up. Martians down one hallway, Danvers girls down the other. Alex does some cute tactical hand motions and Kara looks at her like she’s swatting a bee away. Alex uses this as an opening to talk about the fact that their communication has been a little bit off lately, and Kara admits that Alex bailing on her for Maggie hurt her feelings. Kara has spent the past thirteen years on Earth with Alex by her side, and she can feel that shifting, and it’s scary.
SHE PUNCHED ME IN THE FEELS AND SHE’S STRONGER THAN A LOCOMOTIVE
When she got into her pod that fateful day on Krypton, she didn’t know she was saying goodbye to her family, to her planet, forever. Plus, now Cat is gone, and Lena is nowhere to be found. Everyone she gets close to leaves. But Alex promises she will never abandon her little sister. Never.
In the other hallway, J’onn and M’gann bond over the fact that they were both dead-set on being alone forever until they found new family here in National City, but their heart to heart is interrupted when they find a dripping web holding Winn. But there’s another web holding another person. There are two White Martians here, and the other one has taken the form of…
ALEX
IT’S A LESBIAN NIGHTMARE
AHHH
She calls them dumb and man do I feel dumb. I got GOT! I watch a lot of TV. A lot. I usually see things coming from a mile away. I’ve known the “shocking” thing that happened on last night’s Jane the Virgin was going to happen since season one. I knew it was going to happen in that episode within the first fifteen minutes. But I guess I was distracted by Danvers Sisters’ Feelings Corner because I. got. Got.
They fight and Not!Alex is pretty bold and it’s pretty sexy; I’m not going to lie. Well, that is, until she’s extra mean to Kara, saying it was exhausting pretending to care about her feelings, and asks her if Kara is going to whine her to death.
MEAN ALEX. DO NOT WANT.
Okay fine even that was a little sexy even though it hurt my soul at the same time. I was once in a musical and there was this one scene where a friend of mine had to scream at me, and even though I knew it wasn’t her, it still felt really rotten every time (and for her too, we’d always have to hug it out after the scene), so I can’t image having someone with your sister’s face tell you your feelings don’t matter.
Luckily Kara doesn’t have to deal with that much longer, because Not!Alex morphs into its natural White Martian shape and Kara properly kicks its ass while the real Winn stops the reactor from blowing the town to smithereens.
J’onn and M’gann team up and kill M’gann’s ex-mate, and Alex shows up in the nick of time to kill the White Martian who took her face.
BROTP
The lockdown is over, everyone is safe. And Alex is late for her date.
Kara congratulates Winn on saving the day, and Winn excuses himself to go see if James needs help. Instead of scolding him this time, she just tells him to be careful, and looks sadly to the places where her best friend and her sister have disappeared; she’s all alone.
LONELY KARA. DOES NOT WANT.
M’gann thanks J’onn for helping her defeat the White Martians, and tells him that she’s decided to go back to Mars to see if there are other White Martians like her that want to join the resistance. She wants to lead protests and rallies and teach White Martians how to call their senators. She presses her forehead against J’onn’s one last time and I reach out desperately to my TV and beg her not to go.
Across town, Kara is watching TV all alone, looking like a puppy whose owners have been gone too long, when there’s a knock on the door. And it’s Alex. With a cupcake.
Same.
She wishes her sister a Happy Earth Birthday and comes in to spend time with her. Maggie understood about the whole alien attack thing, perks of your girlfriend knowing aliens exist. And speaking of aliens, was Alex remembering correctly and did Kara have a heart to heart with the alien version of herself? Alex remembers the conversation, kind of in the same way one would remember a dream? But she remembers it nonetheless, and she reiterates the promise her doppelganger made, this time for real: She’s not going anywhere. She doesn’t have to choose between Maggie and Kara; there’s enough room in her heart for both her best girls.
“Sistering before scissoring.”
Kara understands; she just wanted the day to be extra special because she was afraid she felt Alex slipping away. But not even Kara’s hurricane breath could blow Alex Danvers away from her for long.
Alex asks if maybe she was focusing so much on this Earth Birthday thing because she was trying to avoid other feelings she was having, maybe about Mon-El. Alex thinks that maybe Kara likes him more than she’s letting on, but Alex also thought she was straight until a few months ago, so maybe Alex doesn’t know what she’s talking about ALL the time.
But she took a “romantic risk” recently and she’s so deliriously happy right now, that she’s hoping maybe the same could happen for her sister.
“I…don’t…really want that with Mon-El though?”
But why? Is my question. Why can’t she just do what she said she wanted to do and focus on her career? And then in a few episodes if Mon-El is just being normal and not pining and is starting to naturally do nice things that aren’t motivated by his crush then she can fall for him on her own terms? WHY???
Anyway, to rub salt in the wound of Kara considering having this conversation with Mon-El, he comes strutting out of CatCo with that assistant from the copy room on his arm, off to a lunch date. So even the blob of mayonnaise she didn’t really want but was going to give a chance anyway is gone.
“I don’t even have the energy to be upset about this.”
So hopefully this will lead to Kara finding her own self and choosing her own path, not because someone made puppy dog eyes at her, but because she sees their worth and sees her own worth and decides together their worth is greater. Even if it’s Mon-El, I could get over it (even though I’m still annoyed that he’s a generic white dude, he can be very funny and I’m a sucker for Amelia Bedelia stuff like “I brought stuffing”), but it has to be KARA’S choice and Kara’s choice alone.
Anyway, next week is the Valentine’s Day episode, and the name of the episode is “Luthors” and the preview was like 75% Lena, and it has been confirmed to have a Sanvers-centric storyline, so RIP all of us.
EDIT: I was going off old intel; Alex would definitely fire me from the DEO. The next episodes, “Luthors,” is on the 13th and is Lena-ful, the Valentine’s Day episode with the Sanvers storyline is the following week and is called, “Mr. & Mrs. Mxyzptlk.” Sorry! Still RIP all of us, just over a longer period of time than I thought.
AMELIA BEDELIA MY OLD FRIEND
Alex’s Mars-mouth looks like something I edited on my phone, except without any Budgie side-eye face in the corner.
It would definitely have been better with Budgie side-eye. Though, everything would be.
Loving your recaps !!
Side note: The valentines day episode is actually in 2 weeks time. and the Luther episode is next week. (CW messed up the episode descriptions)
The BNL references are a Canada joke, since they film in Vancouver, and I refuse to believe otherwise. Canadians still like BNL unironically :)
i also think this is true as an unironic canaidian bnl lover
– “…she knows what Excited Alex Danvers looks like (*waggles eyebrows*)” I don’t think that it’s EYEBROWS waggling that gets Alex excited.
– Here’s the thing that gets me. Alex and Maggie have a scene talking to each other, but it’s about how Alex is distracted by Kara being upset. Alex and Kara have three scenes together, but it’s about Kara being upset about Alex bailing on her Earth Birthday. HERE’S WHERE IT BOILS MY BLOOD, Kara’s upset about Alex missing her birthday because she wanted to use it to forget about her feelings for Mon-El. So all of the female/female scenes are centered around Kara having feelings for Mon-El. Even though he’s only in this episode for the first and last five minutes of the show, he inserts himself into everything.
Yes, exactly.
I love the show and the Alex/Kara scenes, but this whole plot felt shaky to me. No one gets concert tickets for their girlfriend without confirming that she’s free that night in advance! And the fact that at the end the entire sister plot was supposed to be about Kara’s feelings for Mon-El was stupid. I like the character, but the constant making him into the axis Kara’s whole world revolves around is dumb.
10 pts for Vasquez’ new, gayer haircut
100 pts to you for your Amelia Bedelia throwback
I think the Alex possession by the White Martian is an allegory for her time of the month. We all say things we don’t mean, ya’ll, as if we’re “possessed.
hahahhaha blob of mayonnaise
Whenever I read mayonnaise I always hear Maya Rudolph saying it: mayonnnnaaaaaaaaaisssssse
OMG your captions this weeks are the best (I can not recover from “lesbian nightmare”)! I believe people who live across the street just heard me laughing.
Two things about this episode:
– For someone who has been called “hard-headed, insensitive, obsessed with work and borderline sociopathic”, Maggie is doing more than fine with Alex. One could not ask for a better girlfriend. So far so good.
– I’m not sure how I feel about Kara at this moment. I’m aware about her insecurities and it’s amazing that she has those, but I wish she could really stand for that feminist shirt she was wearing at the end of the episode. She needs to get empowered as the (incredibly) powerful woman she is, feel good about herself being just her (and the fact that her sister is now finally dating someone should be nothing but an encouragement to that). And even tough I LOVE the bond she has with Alex, I believe if it was not for Mon-El, she wouldn’t be that upset about her sister going for the first time to a concert with her girlfriend. The thing is: I don’t like the fact that she’s becoming fragile because of this dude. This season is not being fair with Supergirl.
How does Alex go from having a BNL shirt on to being in full uniform with a gun at the DEO? She said she was going to stop by and talk to Kara. Not go to work. If I have to go to work to talk to someone I am not going to work in a full uniform. I am wearing my street clothes.
Sorry but had to post that.
My brother was yelling about that too. Personally, I love Alex done up all sleek in her DEO tactical clothes, so I wasn’t complaining, but we figured at first it was because she was the imposter, because who does that…pop into work on the way to a concert in work attire? Turns out: Alex does. Perhaps it’s just part of her work persona she feels comfortable with? She thinks it keeps her private and personal lives separate? The T-shirt was on underneath? I don’t know!
Anyway, just wanted to agree with you.
She did this on the Black Mercy episode too. I was super confused how she went from street clothes to her tactical DEO uniform. Did she like go, “Okay, so Kara’s got this life sucking unknown alien on her chest. Let me just go change into my black ops gear then we can run tests on her. No biggie.” I already have a hard enough time trying to ignore the fact that Kara doesn’t wear her boots and cape beneath her civilian gear but they magically appear when she runs off to save the city but Alex doing something similar? It’s too crazy even for me to get my head around.
Yes! I was also distracted by this.
I think that she wants to be ready if something happens so she won’t be caught off guard, and her uniform has all that she needs to respond pronto.
I was thinking the same. But then I thought well maybe she just needs to be prepared in case something happens on the premises but the other part of me was like no the DEO is a secured government facility and you can’t just walk into from the street. But the first part was like yeah last year’s DEO was underground, secluded, in the desert but this one people are just walking in from the street. And I also thought well she can still be in her civilian clothes but be strapped with her weapon “just in case”, and then I gave up trying to reason this.
I noticed that in the coming out episode. When she asked Kara if they could talk, Alex was in full uni. Then, as they walked along the waterfront, she was wearing street clothes. I sort of understood that, since the DEO is supposedly a covert operation, but I couldn’t imagine mustering up the courage to come out to your sister and then pausing for a costume change.
I think the Valentine’s day episode is 2 weeks from now. Another torturous week to wait. It does look like we get some Sanvers in the next episode though according to the official descriptions!
S2 Ep12 Luthors
Airs 2/13 After Metallo breaks out of prison and frees Lillian Luthor, Lena is arrested by the police and blamed for the escape; Alex introduces Maggie to the gang.
S2 Ep13 Mr. & Mrs. Mxyzptlk
Airs 2/20
A magical imp shows up on Earth, and after declaring his love for Kara, begins to wreak havoc on National City; Alex and Maggie celebrate their first Valentine’s Day together.
After some pretty messed up info, next week’s not the Valentine’s episode because they pushed back the return of the show in a week. So next week’s about the Luthors and only on the 20th that’s the Valentine’s day one called Mr. & Mrs. Mxyzptlk.
Ep 12 is Luthors and ep 13 is the Vday episode with Sanvers.
I think this spoiler from tvline: “Lena and Kara grow “closer,” leading to a possible shift in the Luthor/Super dynamic” was about next week’s episode. Though, spoilers are often a mismatch with reality.
I saw the Alex thing coming, but not he JtV thing – so I was quite shocked! (im really not ready for stuff like that in a non-finale episode)
I kinda laughed at “a career in journalism” line from Kara as an excuse for not dating Mon-El, when her journalism has mostly been flirting with Lena. I think Kara and Mon-El will be dating by the time we find out who he really is. Kevin Smith said on DCTV youtube channel that the writers wanted to make kara and mon-el into a barry/iris thing, but that they couldnt be together if they were following the comics on this storyline. or something.
Excuse you. Barenaked Ladies in their prime were an absolutely incredible band. Really talented songwriters and musicians and two of their albums are among my all time favorites. It made me very happy to see Alex and Maggie love them too.
Pretty good episode and I was so happy to see Vasquez! She looked gayer than ever! I wanted her and Alex to have a moment! They could talk about girls! :(
Alex pushing Kara at YawnEl was a BETRAYAL! Wtf Alex? Don’t you love your sister?!
Haha. Right? WTF, Alex?
I only excuse it from the point of view of those happily newly-coupled friends who suddenly push everyone around them to couple up, as if that’s the secret to everything.
You only get so many excuses, though, Alex.
SO MANY FEELINGS. *SorryNotSorry*
I wonder if Alex is at that stage in her relationship where she wants EVERYONE to be a relationship, because look at how happy she is because she is in one??? And that’s why she pushing Kara towards Mon-El. Otherwise I cannot see why Alex would be pushing Kara towards a piece of white toast.
I am loving the M’gann and J’onn story- both M’gann’s redemption and J’onn forgiving her. I hope she comes back, because if they ditched her for boring wonder bread boy I WILL BE PISSED.
yes! and brabked makes a similar guess in a reply to Erin above. I’m soooo familiar with that ooey goey stage of a new relationship where you want everyone to be in one. full disclosure, i’ve often been that person (but its generally more in a “cmonnnnn its worth downloading Her! Just see what’s out there! not try dating this boring blob of mayonaise”)
LENA
Correct.
Great recap as usual, Valerie!
“Sistering before scissoring” is my favorite caption LOL.
Can’t wait for next week!!
Also, wouldn’t it be so amazing for Cat to show up at some point some time soon?? (Ijustmisshersomuch)
I really thought that maybe they were going to let the Mon-El thing die out like they did with Winn in season 1 after Kara rejected him but it just keeps getting worse and worse. If all her friends weren’t off doing their own things I do not think this would be happening. I can’t wait till their storyline is over.
Winn got SO MUCH BETTER when that storyline dropped! I love S2 Winn! (Well, when he’s not whining with James.) I think I could genuinely love Mon-El if they dropped the romantic storyline. I just don’t think Kara needs to date anyone right now.
“Alex thinks that maybe Kara likes him more than she’s letting on, but Alex also thought she was straight until a few months ago, so maybe Alex doesn’t know what she’s talking about ALL the time.”
I’M SCREAMING.
Remember that interview where Melissa said she was excited for season two Kara to develop and grow as a person without a romantic sub plot? Good times…
I personally liked that they had Kara allude to the insane trauma of her backstory a little more because her entire family being dead and everyone she ever met before she left Krypton being dead and being the last native speaker of her language and the only one who remembers her culture seems like it would leave some emotional baggage.
And yeah – Kara is being a tad sensitive about her sister being there for her birthday (which sidenote why on Earth would Maggie not have been informed of Kara’s birthday by Alex? Like ‘oh on Tuesday Kara and I will be celebrating her birthday’ seems like it would’ve come up at some point?) but cancelling last minute on a birthday is a dick move and precious Kara has this birthday because all her other family died in an actual apocalypse and she didn’t grasp the finality of saying goodbye when she last saw her parents for fuck’s sake she’s allowed to milk that cow for another while.
Also Melissa Benoist is so good at being sad on camera? I hope they invent a mopey lady genre like they have a mopey dude one and cast her in every single one just moping around looking heartbroken at various things. 10/10 would watch forever and be completely affected and sob relentlessly – producers of the world, get on it!
Totally agree with everything in this comment, but especially how traumatic Kara’s backstory is. And how she deserves to be a little bit mopey on this day of all days! And maybe her baggage entitles her to sometimes feeling sorry for herself (especially on her anniversary for it)…because that’s normal.
I’m glad Alex didn’t just let it go (i.e. showed up with a cupcake), but I was really hoping in the end that she’d wander up to Catco, and Cat would be there for some “chin up” words that also somehow honor Kara’s tragic past. (PS someone fic it)
Melissa Benoist’s sad face is the actual saddest and sometimes the thought of her being sad IRL hurts my physically SHUSH THIS IS A TOTALLY NORMAL THING
Sad!Kara makes me so sad. I was ready to wage war against everything and everyone just so she’d smile that blindingly sunny smile again because I honestly couldn’t handle the way she was so obviously trying to hold back tears at the bar when Alex ABANDONED her. And I say abandoned because that’s exactly what Alex did. I know she’s in a relationship now and it’s all shiny and new and exciting and exhilarating but Alex needs to find that balance between Maggie and Kara and I hate to say it but right now, she’s doing a poor ass job. I mean forgetting to tell Maggie about Kara’s earth birthday? I would think that they were in that point in their relationship where these details have been hashed out. Maggie definitely would not have gotten those tickets if she knew the concert fell on Kara’s Earth Birthday. It just seemed a little OOC of Alex to mention something so significant. And I’ve mentioned before how I really wanted more Danvers Sisters scenes but the one we got is not exactly how I wanted the scene to go. I just want these two to camp out on the couch stuffing their face with pizza, Chinese takeout and potstickers while binge watching something on Netflix not have Alex try to push Kara towards Mon-El. I can’t help but think Alex has ulterior motives for this – like she’s in a relationship now so maybe if Kara was in one too she wouldn’t have to worry/spend as much time with her sister because she’d be occupied with her own new crush. Ugh, I’m starting to not like the direction the dynamic of these characters are going. Everything’s changing and frankly it looks like things are falling apart. I am displeased by this. On the plus side, Lena’s back in next week’s episode so maybe she can put a bit of light back in Kara’s baby blue eyes?
So, there’s a lot that was great about this episode, but also a lot that REALLY pissed me off.
Positives first:
– Winn and Alex getting to act evil – so good!
– Vasquez is back!
– Maggie being perfect
– M’gann and her husband had a very DV tone to it, which I thought was well done
– Pretty much all of the bottle episode part of the episode, when they were all stuck in the DEO, it was tightly plotted and the twists were actually surprising
– Kara’s abandonment issues coming to the forefront. Kara’s experienced a lot of trauma in her life, and it makes total sense that she feels abandoned now that Alex, Winn, James, and J’onn all have other things/other people in their lives.
Next, the not-important nit-picky stuff:
– I, too, didn’t understand why Alex changed to go to the DEO, that’s a big continuity error there, show
– Whyyyyy does the nuclear reactor work that way? that made no sense
– when/how did the second white martian get in?
And now the real negatives:
– The first scene with Kara/Mon-El/Alex and the last two scenes feel like they were from two completely different shows. First Kara tells Mon-El she doesn’t like him like that, that it’s not about his job it’s just “the way he is”, and she tells Alex she doesn’t like him and Alex seems to agree with that. And THEN she tells Alex she DOES like him and Alex PUSHES her to get together with him?! Like, are we SURE that wasn’t still WhiteMartian!Alex? because that was SO out of character for her, and totally incongruous with what they’d both said in the first scene!
– Kara’s reasoning for NOT going after Mon-El was bullshit. She doesn’t want to put herself out there just to get hurt again? I’m sorry, but didn’t Kara reject James herself? And Winn? And Adam!? When has she EVER put herself out there only to wind up getting hurt?
– Wasn’t two episodes ago that Alex was freaking out about abandoning Kara and doing things for herself? How did that flip so fast? And I do not buy for a second that Alex forgot Kara’s Earth Birthday. Wouldn’t she have said something to Maggie like “Oh my god babe, that concert sounds awesome, but I can’t that night, it’s Kara’s birthday, I’m really sorry, can I make it up to you another night?” Like, I agree Alex needs a life outside of Kara, and blowing her off for Movie Night or skipping work to have sex with Maggie all morning, that’s one thing, but to miss her birthday? That’s a bit different, and I don’t buy that Alex would do that.
– While I liked most of the M’gann/J’onn stuff in this episode, making their relationship implicitly romantic at the end was weird. And I really didn’t like M’gann’s line about “you made me brave” like, fuck that, she was brave on Mars when she stood up to her people and saved a Green Martian, J’onn didn’t make her do that. If she’d said something like “you taught me how to forgive” I could maybe buy that, but “you taught me to be brave” is very different.
-ANOTHER FUCKING LOVE TRIANGLE MY GOD WHYYYYYYYYY
Yes, yes, yes, to so much of this comment. (The nuclear reactor thing drove me crazy.) And everything you say about Mon-El/Kara is on point.
Kara and Alex broke my heart this week! I felt so much for both of them and I HAVE NEVER BEEN SO HAPPY TO BE SAD.
I don’t think it’s strange to like BNL even if their best days are behind them. Metallica hasn’t done a good album in 25 years, but their older stuff is awesome. So I never miss a chance to see them in concert. You don’t just stop listening to a band that used to be good just because their newer stuff isn’t good. At least I don’t.
Also, the Kara’s birthday storyline seemed pretty weird. They’ve celebrated it every year and obviously it’s a big deal, so why this year all of a sudden has a) Alex forgotten all about it and b) why did Kara mostly wanting to celebrate it to get her mind off of Mon-El… Bad writing if you ask me.
Maybe I’m a bad lesbian, but I like Mon-El.
I like him too. I mean he hasn’t done anything terrible to make me not like him, he’s still learning Earth’s ways.
And I like that he’s white bread you know why because white bread is boring and knows his place. He’s not going to get any ideas to break his white bread mold and think he’s a better Superhero to Kara like James did.
Yes those few Superhero times Mon-El did disobey orders to “protect” Kara even though she didn’t need it but he didn’t do it to overstep and think he knew better than her, he did it because he liked her and wanted to keep her safe.
Unlike James who thought he and Winn could go solo and defeat Livewire on their own but even when Mon-El got there and they were captured he thought they could break out and win the fight whereas Mon-El was like nah, let’s wait for Supergirl to save us.
“It’s fine, we can be barenaked ladies whenever we want.”
This line made the unfortunate decision to make them Barenaked Ladie’s fans ok.
Busted a gut over “sistering before scissoring”.
I have found myself too many times on the Kara end of being left behind when your friends couple up, but it hit me much harder when my sister started dating her now husband. I still have moment 8 years later where I’m like ugh, he’s still around, so I get it Kara. However, Maggie is not my brother in law and when Kara and Alex made up, Kara could’ve extended the invite to Maggie to join the party.
I totally thought the same thing about the Barenaked Ladies. I thought oh yeah they’re in Canada of course they can find 2 t-shirts. I would’ve like to see more of Maggie in general. I just want to see more Sanvers couple stuff.
Even though James was just mentioned in this episode it was still too much of him. My idea, bring back Clark/Superman do a backdoor pilot kind of deal (cause you know a Superman show is gonna be picked up) and have James go to that show.
Nice to see the other DEO chick. I guess Winn kind of took her job or she’s been running thing at the underground DEO location, either way they should bring her back full time-ish.
And I’d really like to see them bring back Lucy.
More Sanvers!
It’s too soon to talk about what happened on Jane the Virgin last night…too soon, Valerie, too soon…
I actually thought this week’s episode of Supergirl was disappointing on a lot of fronts…probably the worst episode of the second season. Don’t get me wrong, I loved the White Martian story, especially seeing Chyler Leigh and Jeremy Jordan play evil for a while, but the rest of it? UGH.
Everything just seemed so disjointed…M’gann is being hunted by the White Martians because she stood up to her race and refused to kill the Green Martian…but when she leaves, she thanks J’onn for making her brave? C’mon.
And Alex? It wasn’t clear to me whether Alex just forgot Kara’s Earth Day or just chose to ignore it to go on a date, but either way, the behavior was completely out of character for the Alex Danvers we’ve come to know. I thought Kara’s reflections on abandonment were poignant but I thought they cheapened it by bringing her previously disavowed feelings about Yawn-El into it.
It was just a bad episode all around. I hope it was just a one-time misstep and that the return of the Luthors next week will be better.
Crap. Totally screwed that HTML up.
Meant to post this reaction gif to Monday’s Jane the Virgin:
Just want to add my voice to the poll that it was Kara’s birthday! And Alex leaving her alone for her birthday is not all right. Any other night would have been fine (and she has been doing that). But, to forget her birthday? of a kid who has lost almost everything when she came to earth. That is extremely weird for Alex.
Also, I am not convinced Kara actually likes Monel and her plans for the birthday was about that. I think it was as much or more about her missing Alex because Alex seems to be spending all her free time with Maggie these days (come on, Kara has been alone in her couch or with Mon El for a few episodes now). So, Alex, you are projecting… and reading Kara pretty badly (unfortunately, writers seem to read Kara badly too).
I am glad she didn’t invite Maggie along to that mini-birthday celebration; mainly because again, birthday is one thing, other evenings quite another. And, I think Maggie is still a new entry to Kara’s life. Besides, it would have been as terrible as Kara inviting Clark to sisters’ night. (I love my brother-in-law, but I still like the times when I could have my sister for myself.)
I do like Monel; but I would like him more if he wasn’t a romantic interest. :). The fact that he looked like Kara’s twin in that last scene, what with similar glasses and all, is pretty funny. He has so much potential as a jerk-friend who would stake his life for his chosen friends but is otherwise kind of selfish.
Did anyone else have disturbing flashbacks to BtVS’s Conversations with Dead People when Alex turned out to be a White Martian? Especially that shot with the evil mouth opening up.
I thought this was actually a really good episode (three cheers for James not being in it!), but I’m not buying the Mon-El stuff. I have yet to see any indication that Kara has ever had any romantic interest in him. I’m fine with him as a character–he’s funny and goofy and clueless–and I get him being into Kara because she’s wonderful but I don’t know what vibes Alex is supposed to have picked up on to suggest that Kara actually likes him? I’m fine with Alex encouraging Kara to be with him because in-universe it’s Alex understanding her sister and encouraging her to go after something that will make her happy, my problem is just that that observation on Alex’s part doesn’t seem accurate.
Also, when in the world did Alex and Winn get replaced by the White Martians?? Cause originally it was double M’gann so at least one of Alex/Winn would have had to be real. And then they rounded up everyone in the building… did they foolishly split up to find the other agents and get snatched then?
Also I’m all for M’gann deciding to stop running and instead try to enact change as a leader, but it doesn’t seem like the White Martians exactly have a political system or anything…? Like, are there other species on Mars? Cause it seemed like they just had exterminated the Green Martians and now just got to be supremacist Nazis in an echo chamber with no one to actually target? And won’t M’gann just be killed on sight? Also I don’t get how M’gann making that decision follows logically from the events she experiences in the episode. I guess she feels empowered because of the love she’s found among the superfriends?
A lot of you said this so instead of commenting to anyone in particular I’m just commenting on my own recap like a cool kid. One thing I will say for Alex is that she didn’t FORGET Kara’s Earth Birthday. She had been planning on hanging out with her – cupcakes, as usual – but that morning, Kara made plans for line-dancing, and also Maggie surprised Alex with tickets to BNL. The thing that I agree was weird was that Alex hadn’t told Maggie it was Kara’s Earth Birthday, because if she had known, Maggie maybe wouldn’t have gotten the tickets for that night, OR at the very least, would have said something about it to Kara at the bar, not look confused as to why things looked tense between the Danvers girls. And it was definitely the principal of the thing; Alex figured they could just have cupcakes another night. No big deal. But Kara had made other plans last minute without talking to Alex first because she had assumed it wouldn’t be a problem — because any other year it wouldn’t have been. So while I still am not sure why Maggie didn’t know Alex had plans with her sister that night, I don’t think it was out of character for Alex to break plans last minute since she’s swept up in her new romance, but I do think it was uncool, and I do think Kara was rightfully upset, and that it had nothing to do with Mon-El.
I agree. I feel like Alex is obviously a bit inexperienced in how to act in a relationship so she might (though we haven’t seen anything yet) be that yes person like ‘you pick the movie’, ‘whatever you want to eat’ etc. (which Maggie is going along with for now but is getting tired of it) so she tries to be honed in on just Maggie when they are together and hopefully because she’s in this bubble the date of the concert slipped her mind that it was also Kara’s Earth Birthday (which does she celebrate her Kryptonian birthday too then selfish on her for having 2 birthdays) and also hopefully she’s busy doing other stuff with Maggie that Kara is the last thing on her mind anyway (since it did cause a little rift before).
I still maintain, as someone who has in the past surprised girlfriends with big romantic gestures, that no one gets concert tickets without confirming that your partner is free for the night in question. I think Kara feeling abandoned as Alex gets into a real relationship with Maggie makes sense, given her history, and the fact that Alex has never been in a relationship that was deep enough to have the capacity to threaten her bond with Kara before. But they set it up weakly, and then had to make it about Mon-El at the end, which is just UGH.
Great recap generally. I especially loved this line:
I’ve known the “shocking” thing that happened on last night’s Jane the Virgin was going to happen since season one.
Yeah, they told us it was going to happen, and they set it up and executed it so well!
I’m having a lot of feeling about how many people I have seen online swear they are going to stop watching Jane the Virgin, a show centered on a Latina woman, and on Latinos and women more generally (let’s face it, Xo and Petra are secondary protagonists), because of the (respectful and well-written) writing off of a white man. It’s really making me furious.
That’s not the, ‘assistant from the copy room, that’s Eve Teschmacher THE Eve Teschmacher, she who was Cat’s personal assistant after Kara took that windowless office, and who is now GuardiJames’s personal assistant.
Love that Alex ‘loves her new gun’! :D