Supergirl S01E18 “World’s Finest” REVIEW

Airing in the UK on Sky 1, new episodes every Friday
Writers: Andrew Kresiberg and Michael Grassi
Director: Nick Gomez

Essential Plot Points:

• Siobhan goes to the DEO after the events of last week’s episode to try and figure out what happened to her. She emits her loud-frequency screams but the organisation don’t know what is wrong with her. As she is about to leave she begins to be affected by an unknown force, and then comes across Livewire in her prison cell.
• Cat begins to give Kara advice on how to get James to notice her, the plan being to make him jealous by giving her attention to someone else.
• After finding out her family history with a banshee, Siobhan goes to CatCo to kill Kara and stop the curse. She throws Kara out of the window with her screams, and Kara is saved by none other than The Flash.
• Once they’ve established who each other is, and the fact that Barry Allen is on the wrong Earth, Kara and Barry team up to find a way to get him back to his original world.

• Seeing Kara with Barry makes James jealous; seems that Cat’s plan is working.
• Siobhan decides to free Livewire so that they can team up and defeat their enemies, aka Supergirl, Cat Grant and Kara. Livewire also decides to give Siobhan a makeover so that she becomes the Silver Banshee.
• In order to stop Livewire from harming Cat, Kara asks Barry for his help and the two decide to face off against her without a plan. The pair don’t last long against Livewire and Silver Banshee though, so they cut their losses and flee.
• After Livewire and Silver Banshee kidnap Cat, Kara and Barry decide to go up against them once again but this time with a plan. The public’s faith in Supergirl is restored after Kara almost dies trying to protect the city.
• Kara helps Barry return to his Earth by racing against him and using their joint speed.
• The awaited moment of James and Kara’s relationship finally happens! But then the launch of Myriad changes everything, taking control of all human inhabitants of the city.

Review:

The day is finally here, The Flash and Supergirl defy network boundaries and team up. After the events of the previous episode Siobhan, who is now being fully controlled by the Banshee curse on her family, is out for blood. Going to CatCo to get her revenge on Kara for ruining her life, she screams so loud that Kara is thrown out of the window to plummet to her death.

By a surprise twist of fate, though, Barry Allen saves Kara. Having found himself in National City in an alternate Earth from his own – where Supergirl doesn’t exist – he soon gets up to speed and the two become fast friends.

The highlight of “World’s Finest” is definitely the camaraderie between Barry and Kara, and this is mainly thanks to Melissa Benoist and Grant Gustin’s excellent onscreen chemistry. It’s great to see them become instant friends, and after their amusing “don’t you know who I am?” first meeting it’s clear that the bar is being set high for the episode. Luckily the humour doesn’t let up throughout. Whether they’re demonstrating their powers – such as Barry getting Kara, Winn and James ice cream super quickly – or they’re working together to stop Livewire and Silver Banshee, this team-up is one of the strongest to be seen on television. We would even go so far as to say that Barry suits Kara’s world even more than Green Arrow’s.

Of course heroes are nothing without their villains, and this week Siobhan – now Silver Banshee – and Livewire certainly delivered on that front. After Siobhan decides to follow the calling of her family’s curse she believes that the best way to get to Kara is to team up with Livewire, working on the assumption that removing Supergirl and Cat Grant would leave Kara defenceless. After Livewire gives Siobhan a makeover, the now comic-book accurate Silver Banshee is free to roam the streets. Where Livewire found those white contact lenses and dia de los muertos-inspired makeup in an abandoned warehouse we cannot say, but Siobhan certainly looks badass in her new getup.

The conflict between the two teams is also one of the best parts of the episode, particularly when Kara and Barry first decide to go up against Livewire without a plan. Seeing Kara desperately try to redeem her reputation after the Red-K incident is painful; it’s clear that she wants to fix things with the public as soon as possible but it makes her reckless and we get a real sense that she’s making mistakes. When Kara and Barry face-off against Silver Banshee and Livewire for the second time, with Cat’s life hanging in the balance, things go a lot smoother. Okay maybe smoother isn’t the right word, but things go Kara’s way in the end and she is able to restore National City’s trust in her. While it did seem like a quick change in opinion for the public, it was nice to see Kara back to her normal self.

The Good:

• The Flash was wonderful in this episode.
• Kara and Barry’s chemistry in this episode was amazing; they instantly get along and both suit each other really well. It felt more natural than the Flash/Arrow crossovers.
• Silver Banshee and Livewire’s team-up this episode also worked really well, and it will be interesting to see if they could do things together again in the future.
• “I have tried everything I can think of. Last night I helped a family assemble their Ikea table. It’s still not enough.”
• “Keera, if you haven’t caught on by now, I’m trying to make a parallel between this box of cupcakes and your nonexistent love life.”
• “If you must, read my 1998 guide to finding love entitled The Lighthouse Technique: Shine Your Light And Let Him Come To You. And before you know it, he’ll be docked in your port. Not my best work but it did get me a spot on Oprah.”
• Barry: “How did you do that?
”
  Kara: “I’m Supergirl.
”
  Barry: “You’re who now?”
  Kara: “Who are you?”
  Barry: “I’m The Flash.”
  Kara: “The who now?”
• “Okay, so you can just bop back and forth between universes?”
  “No, actually this happened by accident. I have traveled through time before by accident.”
  “That’s cool.”
• “Now I have to name this hero. I was thinking about The Whoosh or The Red Streak or…The Blur.”
  “What about The Flash? I’m just saying, I think that’s a pretty cool superhero name, right?”
  “The Flash? Sounds like someone whose only superpower is jumping out of an alley in a trenchcoat.”

The Bad:

• The public’s faith in Supergirl was restored rather quickly; even Livewire picks up on it asking them how they could so easily protect her again when only moments before they abhorred her as a criminal.

And The Random:

• The earpieces that Barry gives Kara to use against Silver Banshee were also used against the Pied Piper in The Flash, the episode takes place before the a timeline alteration makes Pied Piper an aid to team Flash rather than an adversary.