Alex, Kara, and Nia are in the car on the way home when they almost get hit by a careening gas truck. Nia astral projects into the cab of the truck and realizes that no one is driving it. What they don’t know is that this truck is being controlled by the Glam Rock Aliens as a trap for the littlest Kryptonian.
Alex starts to pedal to the metal after it, but when it’s clear they still won’t catch up that way, Kara flies into the truck, Nia dream-lassoing in after her. Nia tells Kara to use her freeze breath on the axel and they eventually stop the truck, just missing a Glam Rock Alien beam.
“That was SO not rock and roll.”
Nia gets a dream flash about the pink panther again, and Brainy shows up and spots a cloaked ship with his scanner; outnumbered and outsmarted, the Glam Rock Aliens retreat…for now.
Alex drives up and warns that CJ is hot on their heels, so they all hop in and flee the scene. Nia, tormented by her pink panther dream and not knowing what it means or how to even figure it out, finally breaks down and calls her mom…
This is why Nia and Brainy should have had a crash course in Time Travel from the Legends before taking this trip.
Luckily she gets her mom’s voicemail and when she realizes what she almost did, she hangs up instead of leaving a message.
When Alex and Kara get home, Alex is FURIOUS. She thinks they need an adultier adult, but Kara begs her not to tell Eliza. But Alex points out that they might be in over their heads! They have two sets of aliens on their hands, plus a reporter breathing down their necks, and also they just committed a small crime that could get the Best Mom Ever fired!
Alex says they need help and weapons, and that Eliza could at least get them in contact with the DEO, but Kara snaps at her, saying just because Alex was in college for two years doesn’t mean she knows everything. But Alex has been out in the real world, she’s seen how hard it can be, she’s felt its cruelty. And she gives us a hint as to exactly what her time in college so far has been like when she tells Kara you can’t just “risk the truth of your identity” and that sometimes you have to make sacrifices to keep yourself safe.
This is the face of someone whose closet walls are closing in on her.
However we all know she doesn’t come out to Kara until years later, so instead she tells Kara about how Kara’s powers and secret identity don’t just affect her. Mom sacrificed her career, Jeremiah sacrificed his life, Alex skipped her trip to Europe because Eliza was worried about Kara.
She’s even got that classic Kara eyebrow scrunch down!
Alex tells Kara her powers don’t give her free reign to do whatever she wants, and it’s okay that she’s messed up before because she’s still a kid, but that’s just it. She’s still a kid. Kara lashes out and insults Alex’s lack of a dating life, and Alex lashes back about how Kara still hasn’t told Kenny about college. Because sisters are like that sometimes.
So Kara storms off and slams a door behind her. To prove how mature she is.
Brainy goes back to the ship to do some research on the Glam Rock Aliens and realizes that they’re a race that is building a cosmic menagerie, which explains Nia’s dream. But as they read the future report, they see something happen that Sara and Ava know plenty about: the future changes right before their very eyes. For the worse.
Kara and Kenny go on a walk, and Kara fully intends to tell Kenny about college, but before she can, Kenny shows her the super base he made for them. And suddenly Kara’s heart is torn.
On the ship, Brainy is spiraling…both literally in his spinny chair and also emotionally. When I was in college and felt this overwhelmed and didn’t know how to cope I used to stand on my chair to try to get physically above the emotional feeling of drowning, so I GET sweet Brainy in this moment.
Nia starts to blame herself about the future changing because she called her mom, though she promises she didn’t leave a voicemail.
BRAINY LET HER DO WHATEVER SHE WANTS. FUCK THE TIMELINE. FUCK ALL THE TIMELINES. I’D DO ANYTHING TO MAKE HER SMILE AGAIN.
Brainy starts rapid-fire trying all the coping mechanisms he learned from teens today but none of them are working, so he asks Nia how she coped when she was younger. And so she shows him. By singing Dolly Parton’s 9 to 5.
Could Nia Nal be any more perfect? Because I don’t think she could be, I think she’s peak adorable.
It’s the cutest shit ever. It works to cheer them both up and also pass the time until the tracker finds the Glam Rock Alien ship.
Kenny shows Kara around the bunker be built, complete with the ACTUAL LOG on which they shared their first kiss and OMG PROTECT THIS BOY. He looks around proudly and tells Kara about the future he dreams of sharing with her, and you can see Kara’s whole heart break when she realizes she’s going to have to break his.
Wherever Kenny is now, I hope he’s so happy. I hope Kara sends his babies presents. PS. If he dies in Part 2, we riot!
Brainy and Nia find the Glam Rock Aliens, but it turns out they walked right into a trap, and soon they find themselves trapped in a cage, just like the pink panther in Nia’s dream.
And friends, I’ve never been so excited to see a “To be continued…” slide in my life. Not that I wanted the episode to end with my precious babies Nia and Brainy in peril, but because I love love love Midvale episodes and I’m thrilled this one is a two-parter.
See you back in Midvale next week!
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For the sake of funsies, let’s assume that Brainy and Nia accidentally tip off Alex to the fact that she’s gay. What would Alex be like when they get back?
After her rebellious punk phase…
Alex opens a bar in Central City with her girlfriend, Caitlin Snow/Killer Frost.
LOL, you’re still saying “pink panther”? [I’m not the only one who gets the dream, am I? I thought for sure there would be a dozen comments here, ahead of me.]
Frankly, I didn’t get much out of this episode . . . the FIRST time through. Then I watched again, understood the dream, and it became fun.
[I’ll go spoiler in my comment below. Avert your eyes, those who want more time to figure it out for themselves!]
Nia’s Dream: Interpretation, plus Spec!
Nia gave it away, when she said the word “cougar”. Hmm, what cougar could we be talking about? Oh, maybe the one strangely being called “CJ” here, who will go—in SIX SHORT YEARS—from underling to Lois Lane at the Daily Planet, “springing out of her cage,” to running her own worldwide media empire? The cougar is now called CAT???
“CJ” is hot on the trail and, from the promo, is going to get the goods. What could cause her to NOT publish this Earth-shattering, timeline-changing story? My spec is that CJ-henceforth-Cat, is going cut a deal w/ Brainy and Nia: squash the story, in exchange for media-empire creating POWER. I’m guessing we’re going to find out that Cat really knew who Kara was all along (S1’s dissing of “Kora” and “Kyla”, etc, to throw Kara off the scent that she knows) and, in fact, that Cat engineered this “National City University” coed to come to CATCO in the first place!
I furthermore guess—here, as I did all along—that Kara and Alex (and Kenny? I have no spec here) will agree to be mindwiped, so as not to eff up the timeline. But not Our Cat. She’ll be the only one who remembers this encounter. The encounter that set up “where the story begins” in the first place. Cute! I furthermore wonder whether they’ll be a heartwarming reveal between present day (thank Rao she’s back!) Kara “off on a story with…” (Callista, you better not be holding out on us) “…Cat”. Did I mention heartwarming reveal? Kara will learn about her wee self’s past encounter, and the role Cat had in helping her become Supergirl all along. We end at the beginning, as good stories do…
Or maybe I’m entirely wrong about a lot of the above. But not that pink “cougar” who is Cat!
Also wasn’t there a giant pink panther statue in Catco for several seasons? It got broken in a fight with Livewire(?)
It’s like the writers decided to make Kenny the best boyfriend in the Arrowverse, realized how low of a bar that is, and decided to shoot for the moon anyway. The fact that we haven’t seen him in the future is… worrying.
It’d be interesting to see how this young Kara is different than pre-Crisis young Kara, who didn’t have a steady boyfriend of two years who encouraged and supported her juvenile super-heroics, or the woman that Kara grew up to be.
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I’ve seen other reviews complaining that this episode ret-conned “Midvale” (s03e06) out of existence. Which… yes, it did. But technically, Crisis ret-conned everything; that was the point.
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The fact that Kara and Kenny are referred to as the Scooby Duo validates my headcanon that Kara avidly watched Buffy the Vampire Slayer reruns, even though Eliza forbid it because she didn’t want Kara to get ideas.
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Nia Nal singing “Working 9 to 5” is the one of the most precious thing to happen in the entire show and if the writers don’t work at least one Karaoke night in before the finale they will never be forgiven.
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Having time traveled, and now screwed things up (for better or worse), Brainy and Nia are now honorary Legends.
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Midvale: Scooby Duo spinoff, please. Even just an 8 episode miniseries.
Great recap, as always :)
I wouldn’t call Eliza the “Best mom ever” 😅
Sure..she was great with Alex’ coming out but everything else..
The pressure she put on Alex since she was basically a child doesn’t sit right with me.
And I think that’s a big part of why Alex is so tense.
Cause she knows that Eliza is going to blame her for everything that’s going on.
This is the perfect opportunity for Brainy let slip to Alex that children are not a requirement for a fulfilling life for someone who has a higher calling to be a badass vigilante, government operative, and self-sacrificing big sister to a Krytonian thus saving Sanvers and preventing Kelly from ever becoming a recurring character on Supergirl.
Not that there’s anything wrong with wanting to be a mom but Alex’s 24/7 lifestyle is so NOT conducive to that.
This used to be such a great show. What the heck happened? This is just plain silliness
Cute late 200x vibes all around.
Alex – no chill, phew! How long it took her to be less over-protective and trust her sister to do the right thing.
Brainy and Nia are just adorkable. Glad they have each other. And why not bring them back for a spin-off :D
I find the younger CS Grant annoying, but let’s see how they make her appearance count.
Next week, Chyler’s directing debut, yeah!