Recap Wednesday: Supergirl 1.10 Childish Things

Creeps gonna creep, ya'll. That is theme today.

The episode begins with us seeing a villain who has a talking doll in his prison cell (because um?), who escapes from prison by killing the guards with a yo-yo weapon, and whose name is ToyMan, so like I said, creeps gonna creep. (Also, you gotta love DC comic names. Formula: generic adjective + noun).

At CatCo, Cat is surreptitiously interviewing Lucy for a job. We learn that Lucy has a JD/MBA from Harvard and has been in the Army ever since. I'm not sure what happened with this Army gig, since she was in uniform like two days ago. From my understanding an armed forces job is not something one can just walk away from without a somewhat formal process, but hey, disbelief officially suspended here because I'm all for more Lucy in the show. Cat wants Lucy to be CatCo's General Counsel, and so say we all!

Later, some FBI agents come to CatCo and question Winn. It turns out his father is *dun dun dun* ToyMan. Of note, the lead FBI agent is played by Emma Caulfield, who played Anya in Buffy, whom I adore. It's kind of fitting, isn't it, that she'd be interacting with the Xander of Supergirl?

"I've got a theory, it could be bunnies."

We find out that what supposedly turned ToyMan into a sociopathic killer was that his business partner stole his toy designs and got rich off of them. Instead of going through the legal system, he killed five people with a bomb. Oh.

On the DEO front, Alex and Hank are working to break into Lord Technologies because they know Max is plotting against Supergirl.  There is a moment when Alex calls Max and we see that he has her named "Mata Hari" in his cell phone. Ew ew fucking EW.  I can't wait until this Alex/Max shit is over in Season 2.

ToyMan then asks Winn to meet him at an arcade, which Winn does while wearing an FBI bug. We see a lot of creepy shit going on there. It's devoid of people but there's a Tilt-A-Whirl running, the seats spinning emptily around. There's flashing lights. The talking doll is back, robotically asking into the void, "I. love. you. Do. you. love. me?" And, you know how sometimes when you watch a scary movie you're privy to a vantage point that the protagonist is not?  Yeah:

You in trouble, Winn.

While Winn talks to Daddy ToyMan, the FBI moves in. It turns out that Daddy ToyMan isn't actually there in the flesh. It's a holographic trick! (Isn't it always?!) Some toy elephants start spraying a poisonous gas out of their trunks. Supergirl swoops in, inhales the all the gas, and flies away, saving everyone!

[blah blah blah Alex/Max subtext in which he tries to literally spoon-feed Alex snail eggs that he boasts are $100/mouthful, soooooo, burn it down BURN IT ALL DOWN]

While Alex and Max are eating snail eggs, J'onn has shape-shifted into Max and broken into Lord Technologies. While there, he finds a comatose woman hooked up to a bunch of machines. Eeesh. Max is up to something indeed.

Supergirl, meanwhile, has tracked down ToyMan at his old toy factory, which apparently the FBI didn't think to do. When she arrives, this toy greets her, which is fine:

Stephen King reference noted.

Somehow, Supergirl almost immediately becomes trapped in a giant Jack-in-the-Box thingy, while small children's voices emanate from crates suspended in the air. Supergirl escapes, so it seems that the purpose of that scene was mostly to add some new visual and audio to our subconscious minds' ongoing political night terrors.

Winn later goes to Kara's house and reveals his great fear that one day he'll turn into a killer like his dad. He then tries to kiss Kara, is rebuffed, and then huffs out of her apartment, at which time he's captured by ToyMan. (This ToyMan dude is seriously everywhere at once!)

ToyMan then sends Winn to a toy convention to kill the former business partner who got rich from his toy idea. ToyMan has planted 10 bombs (when? how?) and will set them off if Winn doesn't kill the guy. Winn is unable to do the deed, but before the bombs go off, Supergirl flies in and makes a big ice barricade that shields all the convention-goers from the blasts. ToyMan is recaptured and imprisoned.

In a super-uncomfortable scene, Winn then tells Kara that he doesn't want to bottle up his feelings toward about her anymore because it might turn him into a killer. Which, you know, seems.... fine? (It doesn't seem fine)  I might kill people if I can't have you! No pressure though. So, that'll be an interesting bit of character development to .... watch pan out.

To end, we see some essential Danvers Sisters bonding, wherein Kara just chills in her Supergirl outfit, as one does, and dinner consists of exactly one bite each of pizza:

If you're not gonna eat the rest of that...

Oh. And the creepiest moment of all? It turns out that Max has secretly installed a surveillance camera and he's secretly watching the above scene between Alex and Kara, unbeknownst to them. So, it's full-on Mark-from-The-L-Word voyeurism. Creeps gonna..... yeah.

Deep Thought of the Week: My earliest, most-formative horror movie moment is "the clown doll scene from Poltergeist." So, the creepy-toy genre will probably always give me a bit of scared-shitless nostalgia. Speaking of which, and because it's the holiday season, I was reminded of one of my all-time favorite Lost Girl episodes, "Groundhog Fae."

The whole episode is worth watching. For one, it goes full-on toy-creep when Tamsin almost gets turned into candy (it's not as weird as it sounds?). But, it also references Krampus, the Bill Murray movie Groundhog Day, and includes this moment, in which Lauren Lewis' ice cream cone melts. Never forget!

 [Note: In November 2017, CW/Supergirl Executive Producer Andrew Kreisberg was suspended after allegations of sexual harassment.]