Recap: Supergirl 2.22 "Nevertheless, She Persisted"

Welp, the Season 2 finale begins with a Supergirl v. Superman showdown. Apparently, Rhea infected Superman with silver kryptonite, causing him to hallucinates that Supergirl is his worst enemy. They shoot laser beams at each other from their eyes, and then punch each other while, for some reason, standing in shallow water.

Supergirl wins the fight, but I'm sure it was only because of the superdelegates or whatever.

Alex flies then flies an unconscious Supergirl and Superman to the Fortress of Solitude. How? I'm not sure. Maybe she borrowed the President's invisible jet. Anyway, when Superman wakes up, he's back to normal. They then all fly back to the DEO. Hey, I'm not here to answer logistical questions, I'm just here to report that Winn is very happy about seeing Superman again:

Say, what's Lyra been up to lately?

Anyway, the bad Daxamites are still trying to take over the Earth. They prepare to bomb National City, so Supergirl challenges Rhea to a trial by combat. Mon-El asks why Superman can't do the duel (ew), but Superman tells him that Supergirl beat him in a fight so she is the Earth's Champion.

(*koff* Make Superman a series regular, not Mon-El. Wait what?)

Meanwhile, the Luthors have offered up a device that would put lead into the Earth's atmosphere, which would kill all of the Daxamites unless they left Earth. Conveniently for Lena, this would also mean that Kara's boyfriend Mon-El would also have to leave. I guess this device is their backup plan in case Rhea wins the duel against Supergirl. (Side note: I'm no meteorologist, but it seems like you shouldn't just introduce a bunch of stuff into the atmosphere?? I'm no Daxamite either, but I don't want a bunch of lead in my lungs!)

Supergirl and Rhea then meet for their big duel. On a rooftop. For some reason. And, "on their honor" they swear that whoever wins gets Earth. Oh Supergirl, when will you ever learn that some foes, especially Rhea, have no honor. And yep, about 12 seconds into their fight, the Daxamites begin attacking Earth, because of course they do.

It turns out that Lena has given Supergirl the remote to detonate the lead-atmosphere thingy, as a backup plan, I guess. Supergirl makes the decision to use it, knowing that Mon-El will have to leave Earth. Mon-El and Supergirl say a sad goodbye and then he leaves in Supergirl's old pod. Where does he go? Who knows! It appears he gets swallowed by a black hole/flies through a wormhole.

The good news is that the Daxamite invasion has ended. And then, a few things happen:

• On the Sanvers front, Alex asks Maggie to marry her. We don't hear the response. Whyyyyy.
• Cat is apparently back at CatCo. I don't know where James is, but Kara walks into Cat/James' office and, just like old times, Cat gives her an Uplifting-Yet-Snarky Speech. When Kara walks away, Cat then says, "Go get 'em, Supergirl." 
• Some weird shit happens that's basically a Season 3 preview. Some robe-wearing, evil-seeming people put a baby into a pod and shoot it out into space. Hmmmm.

Deep Thought of the Day: This finale was a little "meh" for me. The addition of Superman was fun, but the dramatic peak was Supergirl having to send Mon-El away from Earth. And, I'm just not sure I care enough about the Supergirl/Mon-El relationship, let alone Mon-El himself, to have strong feelings about him leaving. I mean, I get that Supergirl loves him, but I don't get why she does. He outed their relationship like 10 minutes after she asked him not to and he lied, habitually, about a huge part of his past and lineage. But, I suppose if we've learned anything about Supergirl this season it's that she is the eternal optimist, giving people chance after chance after chance, even if they ultimately let her down repeatedly.

The other issue with the ending is that, well, it wasn't really Supergirl who defeated the Daxamites. It was the Luthors. They were the ones who invented the lead-atmosphere thingy. Supergirl just pressed a button to detonate it. And, even though her decision meant Mon-El had to leave Earth, it was still a no-brainer decision for anyone but an arch-villain. It would have looked pretty bad if she had instead chose Mon-El over an entire city. So, I'm not sure who or what, "Nevertheless, She Persisted" was supposed to refer to. The female hero persisting in saving the world by enduring the hardship of sending her boyfriend away?

To me, the central relationship of Supergirl is not Kara/Mon-El, Kara/Lena, or Alex/Maggie, but that of the Danvers sisters. They are loyal to each other but we also see an underlying tension when one sister is an alien and the other an agent whose role is to keep aliens in check. Supergirl is at its best when it remembers that.

(Still going to watch Season 3 though. And I really hope this show figures out what to do with James Olson one day. He was nowhere to be found in this episode).

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