Source: http://www.comix4free.com
Before I get into the episode, I should definitely clarify some thing. First, I’m not a fan of Mon-El. He’s got a long way to go before he becomes an actual adult. (Though his one-liners crack me up every time, I can’t lie about that.) Second, literally everyone except Alex and Maggie acted like whiny children in this episode, and gosh darnit I want my less-angsty supersquad back! But I digress, let’s dive into this recap!
Source: CW Supergirl
The show opens with Supergirl and Mon-El in the midst of a training simulation. They’re fighting against a flying orb that shoots lasers, (It’s somewhat reminiscent of the superhero fight club trailer) while attempting to protect a couple of cardboard citizens. The Girl Of Steel takes the simulation bot out, but when a second one appears along with a cardboard child and a disapproving cutout of Director Henshaw, Mon-El tries to show off. He destroys the bot, but the cost is the head of the child. One of the lasers he had deflected hit her. Despite his errors and the potential loss of life, Supergirl deems him ready for the field.
Source: CW Supergirl
James and Winn are still going about their night-lives, and after gift wrapping and hand-delivering a couple of drug dealers to Detective Sawyer, they have a discussion about telling Kara the truth. Winn goes into hysterics after noticing the bullet wound on James’ bicep, and admits that he is absolutely exhausted. Between lying to Kara, his job at the DEO, now having to repair Guardian’s flawed suit, AND having to make Mon-El a new suit, our favorite Tech Nerd is struggling. James questions why Mon-El needs a suit, to which Winn snarks that the Daxamite had graduated “Superhero Kindergarten.” James seems extremely displeased with the new information, but caves and tells Winn he’ll talk to Kara the next day.
At the DEO, M’Gann goes into what looks like a full mental breakdown, though she reacts in a physically violent manner. The command center scrambles to get more intel, but when J’onn goes to her cell, she’s chanting about blood and war. M’Gann lets out a scream that shatters the glass of her cell before falling unconscious into J’onn’s arms. While in the med bay, Alex tells Director Henshaw that there’s nothing wrong with the White Martian, but that she’ll run more tests to be sure. She tells J’onn not to worry, to which he harshly responds that he “doesn’t worry about war criminals.” (Honestly I felt every Supergirl Fan’s heart shatter when he said that.)
Meanwhile, we finally learn what Livewire has gotten up to since her capture. She’s in prison, FYI. She’s being interviewed by a therapist, who is becoming visibly unnerved by the villain’s death threats. Leslie goes on a rant about what it’s like to wield true power, while behind the scenes a prison guard and a fellow inmate work to free the former DJ. They shock the therapist to the point of unconsciousness before the trio make their escape.
Alex, undoubtedly posing as an FBI agent, and Maggie are casing the prison for clues when they hear Kara Danvers yelling “Freedom of the press, man!” down the hall. They make a bet on how tense Kara will be about Livewire’s escape, and how quickly she’ll get into the crime scene. Alex bets that she’ll be extremely wired (ten points to Slytherin if you spot the pun) and it’ll take her all of five seconds to get past the guard holding her back. Maggie bets that Kara will be chill and that it’ll be at least ten seconds – “She’s too polite, Alex.” The stakes are as follows: If Alex loses, she’s got to try some of Maggie’s vegan icecream, which…there’s no innuendo here guys, she really means vegan ice cream. If Maggie loses, they’re spending the evening at Alex’s place, and…okay, that time there might’ve been an innuendo, I’m not sure at this point. Use your imaginations.
Alex wins the bet, much to Maggie’s dismay, and of course to the chagrin of the guard, who probably has a bruised shoulder now. The couple informs Kara that Leslie’s accomplices were a man posing as a guard and a fellow inmate, and Kara scathingly responds that Livewire probably kidnapped them. Maggie tells her they should focus solely on the facts, though an extremely tense Kara shakes her head and simply stomps out of the prison.
Source: CW Supergirl
At CatCo, Kara walks into James’ office and begins venting about her feelings. She mentions how the case with Livewire has her going absolutely mental, and the training with Mon-El is simply adding to all the stress. James shows obvious disdain for the Daxamite, and tries to use the moment to inform Kara that Mon-El is no hero. Before it gets too heated, James let’s it drop and Kara apologizes for monopolizing the moment. She recognizes that the Photo Journalist had called her into his offices so that he could tell her something, but he says it’s no longer important. Their conversation is cut short when Kara sees on the televisions behind James that Livewire is attacking the National City Police Department.
Source: CW Supergirl
Supergirl and Mon-El arrive, and The Girl In Blue tells Mon-El to rescue the cops while she handles Livewire. Kara tries to plead with Leslie to let everyone go, but the woman claims that she isn’t actually Leslie. The guard that helped Livewire escape materializes into existence from one of the light fixtures, and Kara is left to deal with the two electric impersonators. Mon-El, in a moment of rashness, leave the cops behind to help Supergirl, but thankfully Guardian shows up to rescue them. In his attempt to deflect a lightning bolt, Mon-El unintentionally directs it toward one of the straggling officers. (Gee it’s almost like…we could’ve predicted this via some sort of human-friendly simulation.) Guardian tries to deflect the bolt with his shield, which gets he and the officer thrown harshly against the side of a police van.
Source: CW Supergirl
It injures the cop and knocks the vigilante unconscious, and after Kara drives away the Livewire wannabes, she and Mon-El tend to the fallen men. Supergirl removes Guardian’s helmet to find James, and we can easily see that she’s NOT pleased with this new information. At the DEO, Alex is looking James over while Mon-El is annoyingly talking at them about wanting a motorcycle. Supergirl stalks into the room, and James admits that he was going to tell her, while Winn exclaims that he told James the previous night to come clean. Alex (stupidly, in my opinion) tells them that she had said to tell Kara WEEKS prior to this. Kara gets upset at the realization that everyone knew, and asks to speak to James alone. She admits that she owes him at least the patience to listen, and asks why he’s doing this.
James describes a feeling of being whole when he helps people. He tells her that he’s tried helping people in other ways, such as his career and through the offer of friendship, but doing things as Guardian is what makes him truly feel complete. If you’ll remember, Kara said something extremely similar about being Supergirl in season one. However, Kara can’t seem to see past the fact that he’s human and fragile. He tells her that at least he really cares about saving others unlike Mon-El, who cares only about himself and whether he can use “being a hero” to impress Kara. She tells James that he will never have the strength for this, and he angrily demands to know why she gets to decide who becomes a hero. She tries to put her foot down by giving him an ultimatum: Stop being Guardian, or she will stop him herself. He ends the conversation by coldly stating she could try, before leaving the hero to her thoughts.
Meanwhile, J’onn is brooding over M’gann’s condition. Alex discovered that while her body is healthy, her mind is killing her. The only way to potentially stop it is for J’onn to perform the mind meld. The bond would allow him to see what’s happening with the former bartender, but in turn it would also give M’gann, a White Martian, access to his memories. Alex tells him that M’gann opened a vein for J’onn at great personal cost to herself. She knew it would ultimately reveal her true identity, yet she did it regardless of the consequences. J’onn admits that he doesn’t want to know if a White Martian can be good, because if he doesn’t hate her, if there is some semblance of good among her people, then he will have no true reason to continue loathing the creatures that destroyed his family. Alex explains that “forgiveness isn’t something you give to someone who has caused you pain, it’s something you give to yourself.” Which simply tells me that J’onn still doesn’t really forgive himself for fleeing Mars.
Outside of the DEO, Kara runs down Mon-El to reprimand him for his actions at the NCPD. She tells him that she can’t trust him because he left his post, and his actions caused injury to others. (Seriously, we all saw this coming Kara. You watch a lot of T.V., you should’ve seen the signs dammit.) He tells her that he was trying to protect her, and Kara exasperatedly tells him that she doesn’t need protection. It’s at this moment that she sees just why Mon-El is really doing this. Kara knows that he’s not doing this simply to be a hero, and that he has ulterior motives. She attempts to get him to admit to it, which he stubbornly refuses to do. Kara storms off, saying she’s going to go look for Livewire, ad when he offers his help she says that he’s “done enough superhero-ing today.”
Source: CW Supergirl
In the DEO Command Center, Mon-El joins Director Henshaw, Supergirl, and Winn to review the prison cameras during Livewire’s escape. It shows the Prison Guard and inmate knocking the handcuffed villain out, before dragging her off screen. Kara realizes that Leslie was the victim and admits that she had been wrong in accusing her. when Director Henshaw asks Winn if he’d gotten a lock on Supergirl’s Nemesis-turned-victim, Winn says he hasn’t yet but will keep everyone up to date. Moments later though, Winn calls James to let him know that he’s got a lock on Livewire, and the duo set out to prove Kara wrong. Mon-El overhears them and follows suit.
J’onn asks Alex and Kara to come to the med bay, where he confesses that he’s decided to do the Mind Meld. He tells them that it’s the right thing to do, and asks that they both stay with him. He tells his girls that he’s going to see things that will probably bring up painful emotions, and he needs them to be there for him. Alex tells J’onn that if she senses anything to be wrong, she’ll pull him out. On that note, he creates the bond and dives into M’gann’s mind. He finds himself on the outskirts of a Green Martian concentration camp, where White Martians are soldiering Green Martians into painful situations. He finds M’gann crouched on the ground, pleading that he run before her people catch him.
Source: CW Supergirl
He kneels next to her and tries to convince her that she’s living a memory, that like him, she escaped and found refuge on Earth. The memories begin to flood back to her, and she tells him of her escape. She was ordered to kill a small Green Martian boy. She tells J’onn that she took the boy behind the barracks, but she couldn’t bring herself to end his life. Instead she helped him escape, and she knew that she, too, would have to flee to escape the wrath of her people. She tells J’onn that she didn’t show her true self to him because she wanted to be his friend; She believed that by pretending to be a Green Martian, she could at least bring solace to a man who thought he was alone. J’onn tells her that they are friends, and that he forgives her. He smiles and tells her it’s time for them to go home, and the two regain consciousness in the Med Bay.
Source: CW Supergirl
In the Warehouse district of National City, Livewire sits strapped to a chair. A mad scientist has been transferring her electricity into other people, essentially making a new brand of super soldiers. Guardian bursts into the warehouse and tries to free Livewire, who demands to know who the hell he is and why Supergirl isn’t there. He tells her that The Girl Of Steel is busy and introduces himself, before turning to see the Super Soldiers stalking toward him. Mon-El speeds in and knocks them to the ground, and things look to be going great until Kara gets a call from Winn. He tells her that he knew where Livewire was and yes he knows it’s really bad, but right know she should focus on the fact that Guardian and Mon-El have been captured.
Source: CW Supergirl
The scientist has decided to use the boys as his new Super soldier test subjects, but Kara very literally drops in and throws him across the room before he gets the chance. She frees James and Mon-El, both of which run off to handle the electric goonies while Supergirl releases Leslie. Livewire turns her aggressive intentions toward Supergirl, but The Girl Of Steel convinces the villain that the scientist is the enemy, that whether she likes it or not she has powers, powers HE tried to take from her. Kara tells her that she’ll get justice for what he did, before joining her team-mates (however temporary that may be) to take out the bad guys. Leslie attempts to exact her revenge on the scientist, but Kara stops her and explains that killing him is not the way to go.
Source: CW Supergirl
She strikes a deal with Livewire: Let the scientist receive his punishment the right way, and just maybe she won’t immediately chase after Leslie. Maybe she’ll give the girl a week to get as far as possible before Supergirl starts tracking her. Livewire vanishes into some nearby circuitry, and Supergirl promises that she’ll catch the villain. At the DEO, Alex asks Kara why she let her nemesis go. Kara responds that Leslie ould’ve killed her, but she didn’t. She tells her sister that there’s still good in the villain, and that she’s going to give her a chance. She steps away to talk to James and Winn, so Maggie takes a moment to tell Alex she lost the bet. Kara letting Livewire escape meant that she saw reason when it came to the former DJ, which in turn means that Alex has to try vegan ice cream.
Source: CW Supergirl
Kara admits to James and Winn that while she won’t stop them from doing what they’re doing, she also won’t support them when they’re putting their lives on the line. She admits that she wishes things could go back to the way they were, though the trio knows that there’s no going back. Director Henshaw pulls Winn aside to reprimand him. He warns that if the IT nerd were to do it again, he would be immediately fired. The Superdad of The SuperSquad also takes the time to tell Winn that, despite how they went about it, he and James made an amazing team and that they did a great job. The comment lifts Winn’s spirits, and he goes about his day “pushing buttons.”
J’onn visists M’gann at the Med Bay, and she resignedly tells him that she knows that once she’s feeling better, she’ll be sent back to her cell. J’onn tells her that no, she won’t be going back to the cells. He tells her that she’d paid her debts, and she doesn’t need to be further punished. M’gann, in return, tells J’onn that it was White Martians that caused her to become so ill. They had launched a mental attack on her, and when she attempted to shield herself, she got lost in her own mind. She warns the Green Martian that they’re coming for her, and I have a feeling they’re going to need to prepare. Kara finds Mon-El waiting outside of her apartment, and the two sit at her kitchen counter to discuss the past couple of days. Mon-El admits that he does have feelings for her, and he remembers kissing her when he was sick. She shows obvious resistance at the idea of liking him to, and, to my personal surprise, he accepts the rejection gracefully. He tells her he understands that the feelings aren’t reciprocated, but that he wants to continue his work as a hero, before letting her be.
Source: CW Supergirl
The entire episode had our favorite characters dealing with a lot of…well…pettiness, to be honest. Kara has forgotten how remarkable humans can be, while James and Winn went about telling her the entirely wrong way. They went behind not only her back, but Alex and J’onn’s as well. Mon-El has yet to truly develop out of his childish tendencies, and I was actually a tad disappointed in J’onn this episode. While he eventually came around, and I can fully understand his hesitation, he held on to some hard prejudices, even when he was faced with facts that showed his prejudices to be untrue. Despite all of this, I think our Supersquad will find it’s foundation again. Until then, tune in with us every Monday on The Cw, to see what happens next on Supergirl! Thanks for reading!
