Supergirl S01E13 “For The Girl Who Has Everything” REVIEW

Airing in the UK on Sky 1, new episodes every Friday
Writers: Andrew Kreisberg (story), Ted Sullivan, Derek Simon (teleplay)
Director: Dermott Downs

Essential Plot Points:

• Kara has been attacked by a parasite called the Black Mercy and it has put her under a deep sleep, giving her the impression that she is back on Krypton with her family.
• Alex is determined to find a way to save her sister, and eventually agrees to trust Astra to get the information she needs.

• While Kara is incapacitated J’onn impersonates Kara at Cat Co to make sure she doesn’t lose her job, but he wasn’t expecting Cat to be so hard to deal with.
• Alex, with the help of Maxwell Lord’s invention, is able to merge her mind with Kara’s and she tries to get Kara to reject the world in front of her.
• After she wakes up Kara decides to go after Non, who made her lose her family a second time, and the pair fight as he tries to initiate his Myriad plan.
• Alex and J’onn go up against Astra meanwhile, and the fight ends with Alex thrusting a kryptonite filled sword into Astra’s chest.

Review:

This week on Supergirl we had the chance to see the life Kara would like to have, after she’s put into a deep sleep by an alien parasite set loose on her by Non. Kara is transported back to Krypton to live with her family as the creature takes over her consciousness, keeping her at bay so that Non, Astra and co can unleash their plan to make Earth theirs.

The episode opens with Kara waking up on Krypton, her family surrounding her and telling her that she has just recovered from a fever that gave her hallucinations of being on Earth. While viewers are quickly tipped off about what’s really going on, it was a great way to start off the episode. As it goes on, Kara slowly begins to forget her time on Earth, and everyone she knew, and is starting to accept that she is back on Krypton with her family. Seeing her back with them is heart-warming, as we almost wish it were true that she was with them and that they didn’t die.

It is what happens around Kara while she is being affected by this parasite, though, that is the most compelling. Alex gets her chance to shine in this episode, as we see her fight to try and find a way to save Kara. She asks an AI interface of Kara’s mother, attacks Maxwell Lord when she thinks he’s behind everything, and eventually agrees to trust Astra in order to wake Kara from her sleep-state. It’s obvious that she’s up against the clock desperately scrambling to save her sister, and her speech about how she felt towards Kara as a kid provides some interesting development. Chyler Leigh’s performance in the episode is wonderful, and, really, it is probably her best on the show to date.

The episode is not all doom and gloom, though, as we get to see a rather interesting encounter between J’onn and Cat, the former impersonating Kara so that she doesn’t lose her job. For the past two weeks Supergirl has struggled to make its two narratives knit together, as one always dominated the other, to the point where the less interesting plot felt pointless. This week, though, J’onn trying to deal with Cat works really well. It’s a lot of fun to see Melissa Benoist play J’onn playing Kara, and Cat also had the chance to provide some scene-stealing quotes once more.

The episode ends on a rather intriguing turning point, as Astra is killed and J’onn covers for Alex when Kara comes onto the scene. It’ll be interesting to see how this eats away at Alex, and while Astra is now no longer the main villain of the series the final moments she had with Kara are very moving. It’s also good to see Kara’s dark side again: seeing her go all-out against Non was a great change of pace for the show and if we see more of it as the series goes on it’ll be great.

The Good:

• Alex is the stand-out performance of the episode; her determination to find a way to save Kara is great to see and her speech to Astra is particularly moving.
• J’onn trying to deal with Cat’s demands is rather funny, especially after he said that it wouldn’t be that hard a job and he quickly learns that that is not the case.

• It was nice to see Kara back with her family, though it’s a shame that it wasn’t real. It was also great to see a young Kal-El there with them.
• The end of the episode created a serious predicament for Alex, and it’ll be interesting to see how she deals with the guilt of killing Astra – and Kara not knowing.
• “Touch my face, lose your hand”
• “What are you, resigning from Congress?”
• “Whole milk has not passed my lips since I rode a bicycle with streamers on the handles.”
• “That woman makes me miss my alien prison.”
• “I used to resent her for coming into my home. For following me around at school. Some strange girl who didn’t know how to fit in. For embarrassing me in front of my friends. But all Kara wanted was a family. And that’s what she is to me. She is my sister.”
• “I can’t promise you a life without pain and loss because pain is a part of life. It’s what makes us who we are. It is what makes you a hero.”

The Bad:

• How exactly did Maxwell Lord’s head-set work? And why did it give Alex a gun?
• Speaking of Maxwell Lord, what do the writers want to do with him? It’s still unclear whether we should take him as a serious threat or not, and now that Astra is gone it’s a question of whether he or Non will be Kara’s main adversary of the series.

And The Random:

• This week’s episode is based on the classic Superman comic “The Man Who Has Everything” by Alan Moore and Dave Gibbons which sees the Man of Steel experience the same dream as Kara.

Review by Roxy Simons

Read our other Supergirl reviews