“I got femme fataled.” “Well, you certainly have a type.” Winn and Lyra had a bit of a rough go this episode. Initially, everything was swell. They were up to the same old lovey doviness that we’ve seen from them the past few episodes. However, things go a bit south when Lyra convinces Winn to help her break into an art museum after hours…for sexy times. Winn is far too easily motivated by this prospect and agrees. “When a beautiful woman asks you to do something, you do it. You know how it is.” While it is true that Maggie might be sympathetic to Winn’s dilemma (see her helping Alex go rogue to find Cadmus, and Valentines Day prom), at the very least Maggie’s grand gestures haven’t involved her being framed for art theft. Not that we know of anyway. I have to admit, I was a bit disappointed to hear that Lyra has been using Winn all along. Winn has been so invested in this relationship, and it was such a cruel way to break his heart. I genuinely felt sad for him. However, given the reason why Lyra does what she does, I don’t think she ever actually wanted to hurt Winn. She puts a guard up, and plays tough, saying that he meant nothing to her, but it doesn’t seem like that’s really the case. I feel like part of her problem is that she still has a very difficult time trusting men. She can’t seem to get past whatever heartbreak she has faced in the past, and she’s projecting those feelings onto Winn, assuming that in the end he’ll be no different. Winn manages to chip away at that mistrust, and ultimately proves to her that he is serious when he says he’s not going anywhere. Even when she completely betrays him, Winn still cares enough to help her, and he believes her to be worth forgiving. She’s genuinely surprised by his kindness. I do hope that Winn learned something from this experience though, and that he maybe thinks about his actions more clearly in the future instead of letting his hormones do the thinking for him. Also, while forgiving Lyra is sweet and a very Winn thing to do, he should at least have a conversation with her about wanting an honest relationship. Given that she’s a self acclaimed con artist, I think that talk is warranted.
“Yes. It’s great that Picasso is intergalacticly adored.” Ultimately, the reason that Lyra cons Winn is to save her brother, Bastian. Bastian works for Mandrax, a gang leader involved in the art trafficking business. Initially, the DEO team is weary of trusting that Lyra is telling the truth about her brother…since everything else in her life is made up. However, Winn has unfailing faith in her, and insists on helping her save him. Given the hesitancy of the rest of the group, for a brief moment, I actually believed that Winn was defying the DEO again in order to help his girlfriend. I guess that in an episode about lies and cons, it should have occurred to me that maybe they might try conning the audience. Congratulations. You got me. In actuality, Winn is conning Lyra in order to help her save her brother. The student becomes the teacher. Huzzah! I’m still not quite sure how he ended up getting the DEO on board, given the fact that J’onn said no, but since when has Alex ever followed J’onn’s orders? This did seem to be an above board operation though, so my guess is that they decided Winn and Lyra could lure Mandrax out, allowing the DEO to capture another Fort Rozz alien. Thusly there was adequate reward for their risk. It’s been awhile since we got mention of their mission to round up the Fort Rozz prisoners. I enjoyed the call back.
Speaking of those older sister vibes, when Winn realizes how much trouble he’s in, he uses his one phone call to get in touch with Alex and James. Ever since Alex was let in on the Guardian secret, there’s been a budding camaraderie between her and the boys, and they do trust her to help them when need arises. Alex sticks up for Winn to Maggie, which I feel like that was kind of a big deal, even though we know Maggie knows he’s innocent. She also directly refers to Winn as her friend, which means he’s graduated from being friend of Kara, to being friend of both Danvers sisters. That’s a cool acknowledgement, especially given that Winn and Alex didn’t have much interaction prior to season two. Recently though, I think Winn has actually had more interaction with Alex than he’s had with Kara. As such they have developed a very natural and fun back and forth. “They’re wonderful bruises.” “Please don’t point to where they are.” Alex does come through, helping Winn figure out where Lyra is and helping him clear his name. We get to see her beat up Boris at the alien bar again. At least this time she didn’t use a bar stool to get the information she wanted. That guy needs to start running when he sees her come in. Also, Alex seriously has some badass connections if she can score Hamilton tickets on a whim. I swear this girl gets more and more awesome every episode. Watching her and James and Winn work together to get Winn out of trouble was a definite highlight of the episode. They make a solid team.
Sanvers had limited time again, but as usual, I loved the scenes we got. Their brief moment at the beginning of the episode, with them curled up together on the couch, having both fallen asleep watching TV, was adorable. It lasted all of 3 seconds, but it was my favorite part of the episode. Maggie is sleeping with her head in Alex’s lap, and Alex has her arm around Maggie…the feels are real. Seriously. Domestic Sanvers is everything. At work though, they’re a bit less cozy and a bit more rough and tumble. I find it moderately amusing, given that their very first interaction involves a dispute over crime scene jurisdiction, that Alex and Maggie have an agreement not to meddle in one another’s jobs. “I don’t intervene with your job and you don’t question mine.” That seems like a very healthy contract for their relationship. Alex does give Maggie a peck on the cheek before she leaves though, and they end the episode with Alex saying “Take me home,” so the fluff is still their beneath the badassery.
James also had another great episode. I think the root of the Guardian problem in the past has definitely been the ego issue. The last couple of episodes have improved my feelings on James’ character immensely because the ego wasn’t a factor. He still gets to play hero, saving Alex from being hit by the van, and coming to help Winn and Lyra face Mandrax, but we never see the “Look what I did! Everybody praise Guardian! I’m so cool!” moment that showed up in so many of the earlier Guardian establishing episodes. He’s just being heroic without expecting anything in return, which makes him so much more likable. Also, where James Olsen, ordinary guy, is concerned, he’s being a genuinely supportive friend to Winn. James and Alex work hard to get Winn cleared of the art thievery charges, and it’s nice to see him being a team player in that. If they can continue writing James in this way, as the selfless friend and hero, then they will finally be doing the character the justice he deserves. Guardian will also be a hero worthy of my time and interest.
Elsewhere in National City, Kara finds out that Mon El has been lying about his identity. He’s actually the Prince of Daxam, and his parents have arrived to take him home. When I say arrived I mean in a giant space cruiser that shoots bubbles at intruders as a defense mechanism. Giant bubbles? Really? Interesting tactic. I guess that was a cool scene watching Kara have to break out of the bubble. It’s still weird though. To keep his parents from attacking, Mon El gives himself up, resulting in a very awkward family reunion. Hey, mom and dad, I know we haven’t talked in years, but this is my girlfriend, Kara, from the planet that you hate the most. Fun times. Mommy and daddy believe that spending too much time with his new Kryptonian girlfriend has changed Mon El and influenced his opinions about their home world. Mon El believes that Kara has made him a better person and he wants to stay on Earth and keep playing hero with her. His mother wants Kara to convince him to leave, believing that it’s in his best interest. On the one hand, I don’t like the idea of controlling parents or family legacy dictating who or what Mon El should become or where he should go. He should get to decide that for himself. On the other, given the tedious nature of his romance arc with Kara, I wouldn’t be all that sad if he left. If, as his mother claims, he has the power to be the face of a new, better Daxam, then maybe the heroic thing to do is for him to go back and lead that world using the knowledge and values Kara has apparently instilled in him. He could be like M’Gann, and strive to bring about a new world order. However, I don’t believe that Mon El is selfless enough to willingly do that if it means he has to leave Kara behind. Even though he ultimately chooses to stay on Earth, I don’t think this is the last we have seen of his parents. They’re not just going to let this go, especially after travelling all this way to find him. It was immensely fun to see Teri Hatcher as the Queen of Daxam, so even with my quibbles about Mon El’s character, I would love to see more of her. Welcome back to the superhero world. Now we just need some interaction between her and Jeremiah Danvers to give us a full-fledged Lois and Clark reunion. I would be so happy.
Honestly, Mon El lying to Kara was par for the course for their relationship. That said, this particular lie was actually not one that seemed unforgivable. I can understand his not wanting people to judge him for his past life, particularly if it’s not one he’s proud of. If it were just this one issue, then I would probably feel that he was worthy of another chance with Kara. The problem is that this lie is stacked on top of numerous other examples of his disrespectful treatment of Kara in recent history. This just felt like yet another example of him saying he’d do better and failing to follow through. When Kara tells him “I deserve better,” she’s deserved better for a while now. As such, *Spoiler* I’m annoyed that the musical episode the following night reunited them…with a true love’s kiss no less. We went from “I deserve better” to “nevermind, I’ll take you back” in less than 24 hours. It’s exhausting. Unfortunately Mon El is also starting to affect other characters besides Kara, which is not a good thing. Given everything that happened when Jeremiah came back, Alex defending Mon El felt completely out of character. Two episodes ago she was going to beat the snot out of him, and now she thinks Kara should give him a chance? She above all people should know that her sister deserves better. I did like that Alex is able to recognize when Kara is trying to avoid personal problems, and that she actually takes the time to pull her aside and have a conversation about it. That was a good moment, even if the conversation itself was problematic.
“I’m not dumb. I see things.” We got a nice Winn and Kara friendship moment at the end of this episode. There haven’t been many moments lately with just the two of them. The scene made me miss their close friendship from last season. Kara finds a parallel in their respective relationship dilemmas, given that both of them have been lied to. She finds it hard to believe that Winn would forgive Lyra for what she did. However, Winn recognizes that Lyra’s actions were bigger than their relationship, and that she did what she did to protect someone she cared about. They may still have some issues to work out going forward, but Winn still genuinely cares about Lyra, and believes her to be worthy of his forgiveness. Winn tells Kara that before she completely gives up on Mon El, she too needs to decide whether or not his reasons for lying were worth forgiving or not. Wise words, master Winn. Actually, all of the couples on this show have had to deal with one partner lying to them at some point. Maggie lied to Alex about her coming out story, Lyra lied to Winn, M’gann lied to J’onn about being a White Martian. Even the platonic relationships have dealt with this, with Jeremiah lying to his family, J’onn betraying Alex to test her, James and Winn lying about Guardian and going way back, you also had Alex lying to Kara both about working for the DEO and about killing Astra. In most of these cases, the lies came out of trying to protect others, though there are a couple of exceptions. I guess I’m wondering what the ultimate message is with all of these examples. Lying to protect someone warrants forgiveness and lying for selfish reasons does not? Obviously I don’t believe it’s quite that black and white, but comparing these lies and their respective fallouts does raise some interesting questions.
“I could use an interdimensional post break up vacay.” Welp, Kara got her wish. Music Meister makes his appearance to kick off the musical episode. He’s come looking for Kara, though no one is quite sure why. He perfroms some mind wammying, rendering her unconscious and then darts off to Earth 1 to find “the fastest man alive” aka The Flash. MUSICAL EPISODE SPOILERS TO FOLLOW J’onn and Mon El take a trip to visit the Flash gang and figure out a way to save Kara only to find out Barry is in the same boat. Both heroes are trapped in a dream “musical” world, but at least they’re together. Yay reunion! Just to add some brief thoughts on said reunion, the musical episode was a genuinely fun episode. The song choices were great, and since that’s always a sticky subject for me with musical episodes, the fact that I was impressed says something. The standout amongst those songs was definitely Kara and Barry’s performance of the original Superfriends. They could not have found a song that was more perfectly suited to those characters. Kudos to Rachel Bloom for writing such a fantastic piece. My only real issue with the episode was Mon El. Given what his and Kara’s relationship has become, the suggestion that a true love’s kiss from him could save Kara was disappointing and unearned. As was their quick fix recoupling at episode’s end. Other than that though, the rest of the characters were well used. Winn and Cisco got to interact, even if it wasn’t actually as Winn and Cisco. It was still fun to watch. I still don’t buy that Alex wouldn’t have followed her unconscious sister over to Earth 1, but the day that Alex actually gets to participate in a crossover will be a miracle, so I didn’t put much stock in her absence. She did at least get a couple of mentions in the episode, my favorite being the suggestion that she’s apparently told Kara that she “puts the Kara in Karaoke.” Fluffy Alex is such a cheeseball. I love it. All of that said, I would definitely recommend checking out the musical episode over on The Flash if you have not done so. Minor quibbles aside, it’s definitely worth the watch.
As for the Supergirl episode, I also enjoyed that as well. I still have a problem with how much screen time gets devoted to Mon El’s story, especially considering how many other series regulars there are, and given that he’s pretty much overshadowed Kara’s role in her own show. I’m admittedly curious to see how Mon El’s parents deal with his decision to stay on Earth, but I have zero interest in the romance story with him and Kara. The parts of the episode with team Guardian and Winn and Lyra were what really kept me invested in the episode. I think the James/Alex/Winn dynamic has proven to be fun to watch, especially since they’ve finally started writing James in a less egotistical manner. Winn and Lyra’s relationship also found itself deepened by the events of this episode. I hope they continue to explore her hesitations and trust issues with men, as I don’t think that should be brushed aside, but I am excited to see where her and Winn go from this point. Overall, this was definitely an enjoyable episode of Supergirl. The next one is supposed to be more Sanvers centric, so I’m looking forward to that. Until then, stay Super! (Yeah, I’m just as much of a cheeseball as Alex, I know.)