Recap Wednesday: Supergirl 1.3 "Fight or Flight"

This episode picks up with Cat Grant getting her first interview with Supergirl. The interview is conducted with Cat wearing a robe thingy and Supergirl sort of floating around her on a hilltop. I guess it sounds weirder than it actually is, all things considered? ANYway, Supergirl has many skills, but interviewing is not one of them. She accidentally reveals that she is Superman’s cousin. Cat Grant being Cat Grant reveals that to the public.

We then meet this week’s villain. He’s some angry, shirtless guy in what looks like a junkyard (Life Lesson #1: Avoid old warehouses, chemical plants, and junkyards). This guy sees an image of Supergirl on his mud-splattered TV screen and seems perturbed that Supergirl and Superman are cousins. (THANKS A LOT CAT!)

Meanwhile at the DEO, the female agent I’ve come to think of as “Alex’s Ex” lets the gang know there’s a pileup on the highway.

"I'm still processing things, Alex."

I'm not sure why exactly I think they're exes. The sleek-yet-functional uniforms? The down-to-business demeanor that is obviously a veneer for deeper, more complicated feelings? The fact that I'm in favor of queering all the things? Let's just go with it, okay.

But back to the pile-up. Supergirl takes off to go help and immediately rescues a bus driver. Yay! The junkyard villain guy shows up, however, and says he has some sort of vendetta against Superman that he's going to take out on Supergirl. So, he and Supergirl fight a little bit and then he flies away (because um?).  Him leaving the fight allows Supergirl to go back to the DEO, find out who he is, and learn what his specific strengths and weaknesses are. Which, is lucky.

(Life Lesson #2: If you are a villain, definitely spend less time delivering wise-ass monologues and more time kicking the superhero's ass.)

In Cat Grant news, she's writing an article, herself, about Supergirl, instead of handing off the menial task of writing to someone else. She's also throwing a party to launch the article, which Kara is helping plan. I relay this segment because it contains another bit of advice. At one point, Kara interrupts Cat's writing process to ask about what appetizers she should order for the party.  Life Lesson #3: Never interrupt a writer who is on a deadline to discuss trivialities:

Grrrr Argh

At the DEO, Hank tells Supergirl that the villain guy's name is Reactron, he's obsessed with Superman, and he's a human, which means he "falls outside of the DEO's jurisdiction." Womp womp. Such a stickler, that Hank. I guess it's no big that there's this rando guy stalking around. Luckily, Supergirl has other allies. It turns out Winn has built a lair at CatCo to help with superhero operations. Translated into Buffy, this would be the equivalent of the Sunnydale High School Library, minus Giles (also, maybe Winn is more Willow than Xander? Or, a conglomeration of the two?)

"There has to be a superhero handbook on the interweb somewhere."

They learn that this Reactron shoots bursts of nuclear energy and he's incredibly powerful. So powerful, in fact, that James suggests Supergirl call Superman for backup. Supergirl nips that suggestion in the bud.

Reactron ends up abducting Max Lord, who is a genius and runs a tech company blah blah blah (if you ask me, Max Lord is the supremely-punchable Gaius Baltar of Supergirl). It turns out Reactron is a former nuclear power plant worker who was exposed to radiation during a meltdown that Superman wasn't able to prevent. (Well la dee da. Sometimes the superhero can't save everyone, geeez.) Anyway, Reactron wears a suit that keeps him alive and he needs Max's help to fix it.

Alex, despite Hank's insistence that the DEO not help with this villain, goes rogue for the day (which, seems fine?) and helps figure out that Reactron is hiding in the junkyard. Supergirl shows up, frees Max, and almost gets killed by Reactron. Superman actually has to come in and save her. It turns out that James had called Superman in for backup anyway, which Supergirl gets pissed about.

At this point, you might be wondering, "What happened to all that Stronger Together talk, hmmm?" And yes, Supergirl is thus far willing to accept help from her human friends, but mostly sees it as a sign of weakness to accept help from Superman. But can you blame her? Maybe she doesn't want to be seen as riding on Superman's coattails, okay? SO BACK OFF!

Now, where were we.

Oh yes, Hank then finds out that Alex is helping Supergirl with Reactron. He takes it surprisingly well. Perhaps, that's because he's harboring a secret of his own.  He appears to be a Cylon infiltrator. Or an alien. Or something. I don't know:

Hank WTF

Meanwhile, Kara is at the CatCo party, dancing with Winn. She really has no clue that he's in love with her, so I feel awkward for them. James cuts in and some non-subtle eye-gazing ensues. Then, Reactron shows up. Luckily, Alex and Hank at the DEO have just figured out how to defeat him. They buzz(?) Supergirl (is there an earpiece? an implant? telepathy?) and relay the instructions to her, and she defeats him. The point is that Supergirl was, in the end, able to defeat Reactron, which is something Superman was unable to do.

At the end of the episode, Kara meets *dun dun dun* James's on-off girlfriend, Lucy Lane (played by Jenna Dewan Tatum). Kara is like, "It's so nice to meet you" in that fake way people do, but her face is like:

FML

And, it's an understandable reaction, to be honest. I like to think Kara is feeling sexually confused because of Lucy, rather than jealous of her, but I do realize one doesn't always get what one wants in a TV show.

Deep Thought of the Week: I can suspend my disbelief about a lot, including: (a) Effectively disguising oneself with glasses, just glasses; (b) Being a secret superhero and deciding not to win eleventy-million Olympic gold medals (have Ledecky and kryptonite ever been in the same room together, by the way?); and (c) Wearing your hair down when you fight but tied back in a ponytail when you work in an office. *shrug*

But where. For the love. Of all that is holy. Does she hide that fracking cape in her clothes all day when she’s working at CatCo? If I wear the wrong pair of underwear it ruins my day. And that is all, goodbye.

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