Medusa was everything I could have asked for from a midseason finale. It was a definite step up from last week.
“Jolly Thanksgiving!” It would seem that Danvers family Thanksgivings are going to become a yearly tradition on this show, and I have to say I kind of love it. This year’s dinner was, perhaps, slightly less awkward than last year’s, but it was equally as dramatic. As usual, Alex has a big secret to share, and Kara’s love interests, past and present, have something to confess to her. Kara invites the group to another round of sharing what they’re thankful for, a tradition that is becoming a bit of an ego boost for her. All three of her main suitors have now used it as an opportunity to express how thankful they are for her. James’ reasoning may have been more for selfish gain than true love profession, but I still say it counts…especially since he got the phone call last year too. Poor Alex on the other hand just does not mix well with this particular holiday. Having decided that she’s going to come out to her mother at dinner, she spends most of the morning drinking, presumably for the sake of having some liquid courage in her system. I will say that the annual drunk Alex gag does have its amusing moments. I get the impression that Kara has been trying to monitor her sister’s alcohol intake. We see Alex steal a beer from Winn, which Kara later takes away from her. Then when Kara’s not looking, Alex sneaks to the freezer and grabs a bottle of whiskey. Sneaky Alex getting her booze back was a pretty funny bit. I actually missed it the first time because I was focused on Eliza and Kara’s conversation. Noticing it on rewatch had me rolling with laughter. All of that said though, by the time they actually sit down for dinner, Alex is so drunk that she can barely stand up. That seems like a less than healthy way for her to actually come out, so it’s probably in her best interest that Cisco’s breach appeared when it did.
I’m genuinely beginning to think that Alex has a bit of a drinking problem. It seems like every time we see her lately, if she’s not at the DEO fighting aliens, she’s at the bar or at her apartment drinking. It’s become a character act that when Alex can’t deal with something emotionally, she drinks. We’ve seen that since the Pilot episode. However, it just seems like this season, Alex and alcohol have become overly synonymous. Even at the end of the episode before Maggie shows up, Alex is just chilling in her apartment with a glass of scotch or whatever that was. Then Maggie proceeds to bring over pizza and a six-pack, and we see Alex opening another beer for herself, which she never gets to drink…for reasons I will get to later. Seriously though. I don’t know if this is intentional or what the deal is, but Alex has been drinking a lot of alcohol lately.
“Jolly Thanksgiving!” It would seem that Danvers family Thanksgivings are going to become a yearly tradition on this show, and I have to say I kind of love it. This year’s dinner was, perhaps, slightly less awkward than last year’s, but it was equally as dramatic. As usual, Alex has a big secret to share, and Kara’s love interests, past and present, have something to confess to her. Kara invites the group to another round of sharing what they’re thankful for, a tradition that is becoming a bit of an ego boost for her. All three of her main suitors have now used it as an opportunity to express how thankful they are for her. James’ reasoning may have been more for selfish gain than true love profession, but I still say it counts…especially since he got the phone call last year too. Poor Alex on the other hand just does not mix well with this particular holiday. Having decided that she’s going to come out to her mother at dinner, she spends most of the morning drinking, presumably for the sake of having some liquid courage in her system. I will say that the annual drunk Alex gag does have its amusing moments. I get the impression that Kara has been trying to monitor her sister’s alcohol intake. We see Alex steal a beer from Winn, which Kara later takes away from her. Then when Kara’s not looking, Alex sneaks to the freezer and grabs a bottle of whiskey. Sneaky Alex getting her booze back was a pretty funny bit. I actually missed it the first time because I was focused on Eliza and Kara’s conversation. Noticing it on rewatch had me rolling with laughter. All of that said though, by the time they actually sit down for dinner, Alex is so drunk that she can barely stand up. That seems like a less than healthy way for her to actually come out, so it’s probably in her best interest that Cisco’s breach appeared when it did.
I’m genuinely beginning to think that Alex has a bit of a drinking problem. It seems like every time we see her lately, if she’s not at the DEO fighting aliens, she’s at the bar or at her apartment drinking. It’s become a character act that when Alex can’t deal with something emotionally, she drinks. We’ve seen that since the Pilot episode. However, it just seems like this season, Alex and alcohol have become overly synonymous. Even at the end of the episode before Maggie shows up, Alex is just chilling in her apartment with a glass of scotch or whatever that was. Then Maggie proceeds to bring over pizza and a six-pack, and we see Alex opening another beer for herself, which she never gets to drink…for reasons I will get to later. Seriously though. I don’t know if this is intentional or what the deal is, but Alex has been drinking a lot of alcohol lately.
Thanksgiving also, thankfully, holds the episode’s only mention of Guardian. This story continues to do no favors for James. What little we see of him in this episode is just annoying. He’s suddenly decided that he needs to tell Kara his secret right away…why now? While discussing his plan with Winn and Alex, James proceeds to make it all about himself, continuing to dismiss Winn’s role in their “vigilante hijinks.” “I’m the one in the badass suit so I should be the one to tell her.” Yeah, James, Winn is just the one in the truck keeping you from getting yourself killed, but keep disrespecting him. It’s cool. Not. Making matters worse is the way in which James decides to go about telling Kara. Alex specifically tells him that she has an important announcement of her own that she needs to share. As a guest at the Danvers family Thanksgiving celebration, one would think James would be courteous enough to let Alex, the person who actually is a member of the Danvers family, have her opportunity to speak. Instead, he acts like a child and hijacks her moment with his selfishness. I honestly don’t know how much more of obnoxious James I can take. I’m starting to reach my limit.
Mon El was actually pretty charming in this episode. His crush on Kara is making him less frat-boyish and he’s becoming a more endearing character. His inability to understand Earth customs is still providing some great moments of comedy, like when he brings stuffing to Thanksgiving…as in literal stuffing from his mattress. That may have been one of the funniest jokes this show has ever done. It’s so obvious, but he sells it so innocently that it was quite amusing. Apparently though, the act of courting a girl follows similar trends on both Earth and Daxam. Mon El seems well versed in this ritual, as we see him doing things like winning Eliza’s good graces and just generally trying to be a better guy in order to impress Kara. He also turns down the girl at the bar, which is impressive given his usually flirty track record. I did kind of have to laugh at how directly Kara asks Mon El about his feelings for her. He doesn’t seem to understand subtle implications, so she just straight up asks him “Do you want to mate with me?” No room for subtext there. While Mon El denies his feelings at the time, after he’s infected with the Medusa virus, he kisses Kara in his feverish daze, professing to her how beautiful she is. Of course he conveniently can’t remember the kiss once he’s well again, but on that I call bull. He remembers. Karamel is beginning.
Honestly, I get the impression that Kara, on some level, likes Mon El too. She didn’t pull away from that kiss like she has in the past with Winn, and she seems pretty flattered by the suggestion that Mon El was chatting up Eliza for her benefit. It’s also suggested that Kara has been talking to Eliza about Mon El, which sounds like a bit of a parallel to Alex and Maggie, as Eliza infers that Alex has feelings for Maggie based on the fact that she’s been talking about her a lot. When telling Kara that Mon El likes her, Eliza says, “Believe me, a mother knows” which also foreshadows her conversation later with Alex about Maggie. The more I think about it, the more I’m noticing just how many parallels there actually were between the Kara and Mon El, and Alex and Maggie in this episode. Good for the Danvers sisters. They’re both finding love. I will say that, despite my previous hesitations about doing a romance story between Kara and Mon El, they actually have done a pretty good job with it thus far. It’s not being rushed, and they’re actually writing it in a way that is making me like Mon El, which is more than I can say about what they did with James last season. The Karamel relationship might hit a bit of a snag though if the creepy aliens we saw in the Well of Stars searching for Mon El ever actually find him. I can’t yet tell if they’re friendlies or enemies. What do they want with Mon El?
“You were always going to be different, Alex, because you were always exceptional. And I love you, however you are.” Eliza Danvers is an amazing mother. Her reaction to Alex coming out is the prime example of how every parent should respond in that situation. I love that Alex doesn’t even really have to say anything. Eliza already has a hunch about what her daughter has been trying to tell her, and she gently seeks out a confirmation of her suspicions. There’s no judgment, only reassurance that she loves Alex no matter what and that she’s completely okay with her being gay. All of the gold parenting stars to you, Eliza. That was such a beautiful moment. Considering the fact that Eliza has only been in four episodes across the two seasons of this show, they have done an incredible job developing the relationship between her and Alex. They’ve had their struggles and miscommunications, as any mother/daughter duo does, but when they have these heart to heart moments, you see just how much love and understanding exists between them and it’s so touching to watch. I did have to laugh later when Maggie asks Alex how her mom took her coming out and Alex says “Better than me.” While Alex had already come a long way in accepting her “new normal” prior to talking to her mom, I do think that knowing that Eliza was okay with her situation did take a huge weight off of Alex, giving her an extra self confidence boost in terms of being truly comfortable with who she is.
Speaking of Maggie, she finds herself in the middle of the action this week when Alex calls her to get some police back up for Supergirl at L Corp. As a result, Maggie gets shot…or rather laser eyed by Cyborg Superman. Kara’s “Oh crap, that’s the girl my sister is in love with, she can’t die” reaction was on point. Maggie survives though, and Alex gets her Lexie Grey on and patches Maggie’s wound up. Alex thanks Maggie for helping her come to terms with who she is, saying that she now realizes that this self-discovery wasn’t about Maggie, but about her finding herself and living her life the way she was meant to. You can tell in this scene that, even though Maggie is happy for Alex, she’s having a bit of an “oh crap” moment...for lack of a better description. I get the impression that she thinks Alex is starting to move on and get past her feelings for her, and considering the fact that Maggie actually does like Alex, despite all of her friend talk in the last episode, she doesn’t want to miss her chance to tell Alex how she really feels.
Which brings us to their last scene together. Maggie makes a visit to Alex’s apartment, supplied with pizza and beer, ready to profess her true feelings. “We should be who we are. And we should kiss the girls we want to kiss. And I just want to kiss you.” As I suspected, Maggie has liked Alex as more than a friend all along. She just had her guard up. The intensity of thinking that Alex came out for her, among other factors, was just a bit too much for her to handle, so she pushed Alex away. Maggie uses the “I almost died” explanation for her epiphany, to which Alex sweetly responds “I would not have let that happen.” However, I have to think that, given Maggie’s line of work, this isn’t the first time she’s been in some sort of near death situation. I honestly think her sudden need to open up to Alex had more to do with their chat in the med bay. Either way, regardless of how she got there, Maggie takes a chance and goes in for the kiss, and Sanvers has officially become a thing. “So you’re saying you like me, that’s what I got.” “Of course. You’re not gonna go crazy on me are you?” “Probably.” Adorable. So many warm and fuzzy feelings. Maggie has only been around for six episodes, but the story that they have managed to tell with her and Alex in that time is a thing of beauty. Under normal circumstances, their getting together may have seemed rushed, but in this case, they totally earned it. On top of that, to see Alex finally getting to be happy and having something that she wants just makes me happy as well. I love that character so much, and I love what they have done with this relationship. Plus, now we don’t have to wait out the six-week winter hiatus wondering whether or not Alex and Maggie will end up together. They’re together, people. And it’s beautiful.
That final Maggie and Alex scene did also open up another opportunity for some visual and structural analysis. As much as I was concerned about Alex’s excessive alcohol consumption, I do think that in the case of this scene, the presence of the alcohol is more so meant as a visual symbol than really having anything to do with Alex specifically. What I mean by this is that I think it is meant to mirror the scene we got in Alex’s apartment back in Changing. Both scenes begin with Alex, sitting alone with a drink. Someone comes to the door, and once inside, a conversation ensues about Alex’s relationship with Maggie. The first time, Alex tells Kara “She doesn’t like me, like that.” In this episode, Maggie kisses Alex, and Alex responds with “So you like me. That’s what I got.” Structurally and even contextually, these two scenes are a connected pair. They are a call and response to one another. You even see representation of how Alex’s emotional state has evolved over the past couple of episodes. The first time she won’t even attempt to let Kara in. Kara essentially has to force herself in, flying through the window. This time we see a still guarded Alex answer the door with a gun in hand, but when she sees Maggie, she instantly relaxes, and lets her in. While it makes sense from a character standpoint that Alex would answer the door with a gun, that physical reaction of seeing Maggie and then putting the gun down and letting her in also visually reflects her willingness to be emotionally vulnerable with Maggie, perhaps even more so than she is with Kara. With Kara, I get the feeling that Alex doesn’t necessarily like showing too much weakness or vulnerability from the standpoint that she’s the older sister and therefore is supposed to be the tough, strong rock. With Maggie, they’re equals in almost every way, so it’s easier for her to open up, because she doesn’t have anything to prove. Anyway, I found the visual connection between the two apartment scenes interesting.
The big threat this week is Cadmus, who has found a formula for an alien killing virus. Kara is all set to do whatever it takes to stop them, but protective Alex steps up to keep her in check…”My alien sister is not leaving here.” Fortunately, Kara isn’t actually susceptible to the virus because of the fact that it happens to be created by Kryptonians to use against other aliens. So it’s off to the Fortress for Kara to get some answers. Possibly the saddest scene of the episode was watching Kara have to heat vision Kelex, who was reprogrammed by Cyborg Superman to attack Kara. Poor little guy. I’m going to miss him. Adding to the series of unfortunate events, Kara also learns that her father was responsible for creating the alien killing virus, meaning that she is now just as disillusioned with her father as she was last season with her mother. This revelation did give us another great moment with Kara and J’onn in this episode. Concerned that her parents left behind a legacy of death and destruction, J’onn reassures Kara that she is her parents’ legacy, not whatever mistakes they made. Kara has done great things and helped a lot of people, so the legacy remains intact.
“Hack Lena anyway.” “Duh.” Wanting to know what Lena knows about her mother’s involvement in Cadmus, Kara decides to put her reporting skills and sneakiness to the test. Winn and Alex have little faith in her ability to succeed. They’re not exactly wrong, seeing as how all that Kara really manages to do is tip off Lena that something is up. Somehow, it does seem that Lena has managed to remain blind to what is happening with Cadmus though. Clearly the Luthors aren’t big on sharing nefarious activities with one another. “You told me you loved me. And we both know that’s not true.” Contrasting Eliza’s positive and loving relationship with her daughters, the one between Lillian and Lena is just sad. Lillian is, to be frank, a terrible mother to Lena. To flat out admit that you favor your child’s sibling over them…who does that? It makes me feel truly sorry for Lena. It’s no wonder that she wants nothing to do with her family name. Unfortunately, regardless of whether she wants to be involved with them or not, Lena finds herself caught in the middle when it’s discovered that L-Corp has an isotope that’s necessary for distributing the alien killing Medusa virus. Supergirl confronts Lena about her mother’s plans. Initially, Lena takes offense to the suggestion, accusing Supergirl of jumping to conclusions based on the Luthor name just like the rest of the world. I liked that Kara sort of feeds off of J’onn’s legacy speech, as Supergirl tells Lena that she’s not her mother and is smart and good enough to choose her own path and be a hero instead. Ultimately, Lena takes Supergirl’s words to heart, and earns herself some favor with me by making an effort to prove that she actually is on the side of good. They pull a red herring with her supposedly siding with her mother, but in the end she double-crosses her. Good for you, Lena. I’m still always going to be wary of Lena, because this is a comic book show, and one always has to be wary of the Luthor name. That said, I like the idea of Lena actually being an ally. The conflict that creates between her and her mother makes for an interesting story. Overcoming the baggage associated with her family makes Lena sympathetic. There’s also the fact that, because Kara thinks so highly of Lena, and truly believes her to be a hero, I inherently want to root for Lena because I trust Kara, and I don’t want to see her disappointed by someone else whom she has so much faith in.
They briefly touched on the story about J’onn becoming a White Martian. He has this big reveal with Kara, and later wants to sacrifice himself and go out on his own terms as himself resulting in that epic fight with Cyborg Superman. These were some good moments for him. However, at the end of the episode, Eliza’s just like “Hey! You’re cured!” and his story is over. I mean, awesome for her for fixing him, but from a writing standpoint, they wasted so much potential with that easy fix. What could have been an incredibly rich story of him learning about what it’s like to be a White Martian and relating to M’gann, was reduced to a frivolous tease of a story that was suddenly scrapped just when it was starting to get interesting. I guess we’ll see where they go from here with J’onn’s relationship with M’gann, but as it stands I’m not too pleased with the way they handled this arc. A quick note on the fight with Cyborg Superman – I noticed that he kept pulling disappearing acts in this episode similar to the one Jeremiah pulled last week. Does that mean Jeremiah is actually a cyborg now?
The last bit of the episode was the kick off to the four-episode crossover with the other CW superhero shows. Cisco and Barry make a pit stop to this Earth to pick up Kara. It was pretty adorable to see Kara and Barry reunited, but there wasn’t much else to the scene. I will say that I wasn’t a huge fan of the crossover episodes this year. Supergirl’s inclusion was so marginalized, and I felt that the way that they went about including her was pretty insulting. Oliver benches her because he’s afraid of powerful women as usual, Mick repeatedly refers to her as “skirt” and honestly I didn’t even understand the point of Kara being there beyond some obligatory “we have to include all of our superhero shows somehow” logic. Kara did have a few good moments, like her wiping the floor with all of the other heroes when they use her as target practice to train for fighting the Dominators, and Sara Lance finding this “kind of hot.” Kara also steps up to diffuse the situation when everyone decides to stop trusting Barry after learning about Flashpoint. Her telling off the creepy old government guy at the end about his treatment of metahumans and aliens was also a great Kara moment. Those positive moments made up all of maybe 3 minutes of the entire crossover though, so ultimately it wasn’t worth it. If you haven’t watched the other episodes and don’t watch the other shows, don’t bother investing the extra time. You’ll be sorely disappointed.
As for the Supergirl episode itself, Medusa was an exceptionally satisfying midseason finale. All of the storylines as they stand were wrapped up well enough so as to give the episode that finale feel, but they still left so much to explore when the show returns in the new year. I’m actually remarkably impressed with the way they are developing the romantic relationships this season, especially in comparison with the train wreck love quadrangle from last year. Danvers family Thanksgivings have become an annual treat, and I enjoy those moments of our characters hanging out together, without alien threats looming over them. While I was disappointed with J’onn’s story and James, pretty much everything else about the episode I enjoyed immensely, especially the Sanvers story. Season two has been a remarkable improvement over season one, which was fantastic in and of itself. I can’t wait for the show to return in the new year.
Mon El was actually pretty charming in this episode. His crush on Kara is making him less frat-boyish and he’s becoming a more endearing character. His inability to understand Earth customs is still providing some great moments of comedy, like when he brings stuffing to Thanksgiving…as in literal stuffing from his mattress. That may have been one of the funniest jokes this show has ever done. It’s so obvious, but he sells it so innocently that it was quite amusing. Apparently though, the act of courting a girl follows similar trends on both Earth and Daxam. Mon El seems well versed in this ritual, as we see him doing things like winning Eliza’s good graces and just generally trying to be a better guy in order to impress Kara. He also turns down the girl at the bar, which is impressive given his usually flirty track record. I did kind of have to laugh at how directly Kara asks Mon El about his feelings for her. He doesn’t seem to understand subtle implications, so she just straight up asks him “Do you want to mate with me?” No room for subtext there. While Mon El denies his feelings at the time, after he’s infected with the Medusa virus, he kisses Kara in his feverish daze, professing to her how beautiful she is. Of course he conveniently can’t remember the kiss once he’s well again, but on that I call bull. He remembers. Karamel is beginning.
Honestly, I get the impression that Kara, on some level, likes Mon El too. She didn’t pull away from that kiss like she has in the past with Winn, and she seems pretty flattered by the suggestion that Mon El was chatting up Eliza for her benefit. It’s also suggested that Kara has been talking to Eliza about Mon El, which sounds like a bit of a parallel to Alex and Maggie, as Eliza infers that Alex has feelings for Maggie based on the fact that she’s been talking about her a lot. When telling Kara that Mon El likes her, Eliza says, “Believe me, a mother knows” which also foreshadows her conversation later with Alex about Maggie. The more I think about it, the more I’m noticing just how many parallels there actually were between the Kara and Mon El, and Alex and Maggie in this episode. Good for the Danvers sisters. They’re both finding love. I will say that, despite my previous hesitations about doing a romance story between Kara and Mon El, they actually have done a pretty good job with it thus far. It’s not being rushed, and they’re actually writing it in a way that is making me like Mon El, which is more than I can say about what they did with James last season. The Karamel relationship might hit a bit of a snag though if the creepy aliens we saw in the Well of Stars searching for Mon El ever actually find him. I can’t yet tell if they’re friendlies or enemies. What do they want with Mon El?
“You were always going to be different, Alex, because you were always exceptional. And I love you, however you are.” Eliza Danvers is an amazing mother. Her reaction to Alex coming out is the prime example of how every parent should respond in that situation. I love that Alex doesn’t even really have to say anything. Eliza already has a hunch about what her daughter has been trying to tell her, and she gently seeks out a confirmation of her suspicions. There’s no judgment, only reassurance that she loves Alex no matter what and that she’s completely okay with her being gay. All of the gold parenting stars to you, Eliza. That was such a beautiful moment. Considering the fact that Eliza has only been in four episodes across the two seasons of this show, they have done an incredible job developing the relationship between her and Alex. They’ve had their struggles and miscommunications, as any mother/daughter duo does, but when they have these heart to heart moments, you see just how much love and understanding exists between them and it’s so touching to watch. I did have to laugh later when Maggie asks Alex how her mom took her coming out and Alex says “Better than me.” While Alex had already come a long way in accepting her “new normal” prior to talking to her mom, I do think that knowing that Eliza was okay with her situation did take a huge weight off of Alex, giving her an extra self confidence boost in terms of being truly comfortable with who she is.
Speaking of Maggie, she finds herself in the middle of the action this week when Alex calls her to get some police back up for Supergirl at L Corp. As a result, Maggie gets shot…or rather laser eyed by Cyborg Superman. Kara’s “Oh crap, that’s the girl my sister is in love with, she can’t die” reaction was on point. Maggie survives though, and Alex gets her Lexie Grey on and patches Maggie’s wound up. Alex thanks Maggie for helping her come to terms with who she is, saying that she now realizes that this self-discovery wasn’t about Maggie, but about her finding herself and living her life the way she was meant to. You can tell in this scene that, even though Maggie is happy for Alex, she’s having a bit of an “oh crap” moment...for lack of a better description. I get the impression that she thinks Alex is starting to move on and get past her feelings for her, and considering the fact that Maggie actually does like Alex, despite all of her friend talk in the last episode, she doesn’t want to miss her chance to tell Alex how she really feels.
Which brings us to their last scene together. Maggie makes a visit to Alex’s apartment, supplied with pizza and beer, ready to profess her true feelings. “We should be who we are. And we should kiss the girls we want to kiss. And I just want to kiss you.” As I suspected, Maggie has liked Alex as more than a friend all along. She just had her guard up. The intensity of thinking that Alex came out for her, among other factors, was just a bit too much for her to handle, so she pushed Alex away. Maggie uses the “I almost died” explanation for her epiphany, to which Alex sweetly responds “I would not have let that happen.” However, I have to think that, given Maggie’s line of work, this isn’t the first time she’s been in some sort of near death situation. I honestly think her sudden need to open up to Alex had more to do with their chat in the med bay. Either way, regardless of how she got there, Maggie takes a chance and goes in for the kiss, and Sanvers has officially become a thing. “So you’re saying you like me, that’s what I got.” “Of course. You’re not gonna go crazy on me are you?” “Probably.” Adorable. So many warm and fuzzy feelings. Maggie has only been around for six episodes, but the story that they have managed to tell with her and Alex in that time is a thing of beauty. Under normal circumstances, their getting together may have seemed rushed, but in this case, they totally earned it. On top of that, to see Alex finally getting to be happy and having something that she wants just makes me happy as well. I love that character so much, and I love what they have done with this relationship. Plus, now we don’t have to wait out the six-week winter hiatus wondering whether or not Alex and Maggie will end up together. They’re together, people. And it’s beautiful.
That final Maggie and Alex scene did also open up another opportunity for some visual and structural analysis. As much as I was concerned about Alex’s excessive alcohol consumption, I do think that in the case of this scene, the presence of the alcohol is more so meant as a visual symbol than really having anything to do with Alex specifically. What I mean by this is that I think it is meant to mirror the scene we got in Alex’s apartment back in Changing. Both scenes begin with Alex, sitting alone with a drink. Someone comes to the door, and once inside, a conversation ensues about Alex’s relationship with Maggie. The first time, Alex tells Kara “She doesn’t like me, like that.” In this episode, Maggie kisses Alex, and Alex responds with “So you like me. That’s what I got.” Structurally and even contextually, these two scenes are a connected pair. They are a call and response to one another. You even see representation of how Alex’s emotional state has evolved over the past couple of episodes. The first time she won’t even attempt to let Kara in. Kara essentially has to force herself in, flying through the window. This time we see a still guarded Alex answer the door with a gun in hand, but when she sees Maggie, she instantly relaxes, and lets her in. While it makes sense from a character standpoint that Alex would answer the door with a gun, that physical reaction of seeing Maggie and then putting the gun down and letting her in also visually reflects her willingness to be emotionally vulnerable with Maggie, perhaps even more so than she is with Kara. With Kara, I get the feeling that Alex doesn’t necessarily like showing too much weakness or vulnerability from the standpoint that she’s the older sister and therefore is supposed to be the tough, strong rock. With Maggie, they’re equals in almost every way, so it’s easier for her to open up, because she doesn’t have anything to prove. Anyway, I found the visual connection between the two apartment scenes interesting.
The big threat this week is Cadmus, who has found a formula for an alien killing virus. Kara is all set to do whatever it takes to stop them, but protective Alex steps up to keep her in check…”My alien sister is not leaving here.” Fortunately, Kara isn’t actually susceptible to the virus because of the fact that it happens to be created by Kryptonians to use against other aliens. So it’s off to the Fortress for Kara to get some answers. Possibly the saddest scene of the episode was watching Kara have to heat vision Kelex, who was reprogrammed by Cyborg Superman to attack Kara. Poor little guy. I’m going to miss him. Adding to the series of unfortunate events, Kara also learns that her father was responsible for creating the alien killing virus, meaning that she is now just as disillusioned with her father as she was last season with her mother. This revelation did give us another great moment with Kara and J’onn in this episode. Concerned that her parents left behind a legacy of death and destruction, J’onn reassures Kara that she is her parents’ legacy, not whatever mistakes they made. Kara has done great things and helped a lot of people, so the legacy remains intact.
“Hack Lena anyway.” “Duh.” Wanting to know what Lena knows about her mother’s involvement in Cadmus, Kara decides to put her reporting skills and sneakiness to the test. Winn and Alex have little faith in her ability to succeed. They’re not exactly wrong, seeing as how all that Kara really manages to do is tip off Lena that something is up. Somehow, it does seem that Lena has managed to remain blind to what is happening with Cadmus though. Clearly the Luthors aren’t big on sharing nefarious activities with one another. “You told me you loved me. And we both know that’s not true.” Contrasting Eliza’s positive and loving relationship with her daughters, the one between Lillian and Lena is just sad. Lillian is, to be frank, a terrible mother to Lena. To flat out admit that you favor your child’s sibling over them…who does that? It makes me feel truly sorry for Lena. It’s no wonder that she wants nothing to do with her family name. Unfortunately, regardless of whether she wants to be involved with them or not, Lena finds herself caught in the middle when it’s discovered that L-Corp has an isotope that’s necessary for distributing the alien killing Medusa virus. Supergirl confronts Lena about her mother’s plans. Initially, Lena takes offense to the suggestion, accusing Supergirl of jumping to conclusions based on the Luthor name just like the rest of the world. I liked that Kara sort of feeds off of J’onn’s legacy speech, as Supergirl tells Lena that she’s not her mother and is smart and good enough to choose her own path and be a hero instead. Ultimately, Lena takes Supergirl’s words to heart, and earns herself some favor with me by making an effort to prove that she actually is on the side of good. They pull a red herring with her supposedly siding with her mother, but in the end she double-crosses her. Good for you, Lena. I’m still always going to be wary of Lena, because this is a comic book show, and one always has to be wary of the Luthor name. That said, I like the idea of Lena actually being an ally. The conflict that creates between her and her mother makes for an interesting story. Overcoming the baggage associated with her family makes Lena sympathetic. There’s also the fact that, because Kara thinks so highly of Lena, and truly believes her to be a hero, I inherently want to root for Lena because I trust Kara, and I don’t want to see her disappointed by someone else whom she has so much faith in.
They briefly touched on the story about J’onn becoming a White Martian. He has this big reveal with Kara, and later wants to sacrifice himself and go out on his own terms as himself resulting in that epic fight with Cyborg Superman. These were some good moments for him. However, at the end of the episode, Eliza’s just like “Hey! You’re cured!” and his story is over. I mean, awesome for her for fixing him, but from a writing standpoint, they wasted so much potential with that easy fix. What could have been an incredibly rich story of him learning about what it’s like to be a White Martian and relating to M’gann, was reduced to a frivolous tease of a story that was suddenly scrapped just when it was starting to get interesting. I guess we’ll see where they go from here with J’onn’s relationship with M’gann, but as it stands I’m not too pleased with the way they handled this arc. A quick note on the fight with Cyborg Superman – I noticed that he kept pulling disappearing acts in this episode similar to the one Jeremiah pulled last week. Does that mean Jeremiah is actually a cyborg now?
The last bit of the episode was the kick off to the four-episode crossover with the other CW superhero shows. Cisco and Barry make a pit stop to this Earth to pick up Kara. It was pretty adorable to see Kara and Barry reunited, but there wasn’t much else to the scene. I will say that I wasn’t a huge fan of the crossover episodes this year. Supergirl’s inclusion was so marginalized, and I felt that the way that they went about including her was pretty insulting. Oliver benches her because he’s afraid of powerful women as usual, Mick repeatedly refers to her as “skirt” and honestly I didn’t even understand the point of Kara being there beyond some obligatory “we have to include all of our superhero shows somehow” logic. Kara did have a few good moments, like her wiping the floor with all of the other heroes when they use her as target practice to train for fighting the Dominators, and Sara Lance finding this “kind of hot.” Kara also steps up to diffuse the situation when everyone decides to stop trusting Barry after learning about Flashpoint. Her telling off the creepy old government guy at the end about his treatment of metahumans and aliens was also a great Kara moment. Those positive moments made up all of maybe 3 minutes of the entire crossover though, so ultimately it wasn’t worth it. If you haven’t watched the other episodes and don’t watch the other shows, don’t bother investing the extra time. You’ll be sorely disappointed.
As for the Supergirl episode itself, Medusa was an exceptionally satisfying midseason finale. All of the storylines as they stand were wrapped up well enough so as to give the episode that finale feel, but they still left so much to explore when the show returns in the new year. I’m actually remarkably impressed with the way they are developing the romantic relationships this season, especially in comparison with the train wreck love quadrangle from last year. Danvers family Thanksgivings have become an annual treat, and I enjoy those moments of our characters hanging out together, without alien threats looming over them. While I was disappointed with J’onn’s story and James, pretty much everything else about the episode I enjoyed immensely, especially the Sanvers story. Season two has been a remarkable improvement over season one, which was fantastic in and of itself. I can’t wait for the show to return in the new year.