Recap: Supergirl 1.12 "Bizarro"

So, "Bizarro" opens in Max Lord's lab. He has assumed a Frankensteinian role of having turned a comatose woman into a Supergirl body double to wreak havoc on National City. And, he programs the double into wanting to kill Supergirl.

Supergirl not bad?

On the Kara love life front, she has a date planned with Adam. Winn is also now speaking to her again, after giving her a one-episode silent treatment, so I'm glad that's all worked out. Anyway, the eventual date with Adam starts well enough, but Kara has to leave in the middle of it because there's an emergency she has to attend to as Supergirl. At the emergency, the Supergirl body double shows up and Supergirl realizes the double is real person and not a Buffybot. Er, I mean, a robot. Winn, James, and Kara figure out that someone (Max?) has been kidnapping comatose women and experimenting on them for this purpose.

At CatCo the next day, Adam is at the office with Cat. Kara walks in and they plan a make-up date for later that night. They then proceed to awkwardly hug, and Cat's like:

I'm with her.

It's not that I don't like Adam, I just see him as the Riley Finn of Supergirl - nice, pretty, but not very interesting. But, my Cat/Kara shipping biases me, probs.

Alex then goes to Max's office and confronts him. Like all true villains, he then goes into a detailed monologue about how he brilliantly created the doppleganger (whom Cat has now named Bizarro) and that he used DNA samples from Supergirl to do so. Max says that he sees Supergirl as a threat to humanity and Bizarro as humanity's defense. This rightly pisses Alex off. So, on the bright side, subtextual things seem to be over between Max and Alex.

Later, Kara and Adam go on another date. It's going well, but right when they're smooching, Bizarro swoops in and kidnaps Kara. They then get into a doppleganger fight:

Alex and the DEO cavalry ride in and start shooting kryptonite bullets at Bizarro, but instead of weakening her, it makes her stronger. So, she gets away. Kara sees this all as a sign that she shouldn't date Adam, so she breaks up with him. *sad trombone* The central conflict strikes again. She will never have a normal life or romance.

Bizarro then kidnaps James. FYI, the kryptonite has now transformed Bizarro into this:

Holy shit.

Supergirl and the DEO figure out where Bizarro has taken James, and Alex shoots Bizarro with reverse kryptonite, capturing her. They take her back to the DEO and like a true Frankenstein monster, we see that she's actually a tragic figure. She says she's sorry and scared. She can't help how Max made her. Meanwhile, Alex has arrested Max and he's being held in the DEO's bad human jail. So, that's a fun development.

The episode ends with Supergirl going home and finding a structure that - how shall I put this delicately? - bears a slight resemblance to a Georgia O'Keefe flower gone alien?

The end.

Deep Thought of the Day: New realization. I love doppleganger tropes. I think it has to do with seeing established characters act off-character through a shadow self, yet in a way that still somewhat rings true to that character. Bizarro was a bad version of Supergirl, but having been made from Supergirl's DNA, still had that resonance of puppy pureness. Basically, I like seeing good characters "turn" bad. (Why yes, I do want to see more Vampire Willow, thank you for asking.)


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