Supergirl S02E15 “Exodus” REVIEW

Airing in the UK on Sky 1, new episodes every Tuesday
Writers: Paula Yoo & Eric Carrasco
Director: Michael A Allowitz

Essential Plot Points:

• Cadmus has begun to abduct all of those on the alien register.
• To help let aliens know Kara wants to publish an article in Cat co magazine about what’s happening.
• Cadmus suddenly attacks the alien bar so Alex, Maggie, James and Lyra try to stop them. Lyra is taken away, but they manage to take one of the men in for questioning.
• Snapper meets with Supergirl to get an exclusive interview; he wants to verify the information but Kara only gives part of the information so he won’t run the story.
• Jeremiah Danvers comes to Alex to ask for help, but while she has mixed feelings she does agree to help him. Then J’onn reveals it was him all along and suspends her from the case.
• The aliens are taken away from Cadmus headquarters.
• Lena Luthor agrees to help Kara, while Alex decides to go out on her own to stop Cadmus. At their base, she comes across Jeremiah and he tells her his plan to forcibly deport the aliens back to their home planets.
• Alex tries to stop Lillian from sending the aliens off world and asks Jeremiah to help her. He does and after being told that the launch can’t be stopped with a code Alex goes to help the aliens out of the ship while Jeremiah helps before being stopped by Cyborg Superman.
• The ship launches with everyone on it and Kara goes to try and help slow it down, but she hasn’t got long to stop it from going into hyper space.
• Kara loses her job at Cat co for publishing her article about Cadmus’ plan.

Review:

There’s a lot about this week’s episode of Supergirl that feels familiar. The bulk of the episode focuses on the aftermath of last week’s turn of events: Cadmus is trying to round up and deport all the aliens on the registry that Jeremiah Danvers stolel Alex still believes there is some good in her father; and Kara wants to warn those that are being targeted. Its direct approach to the forced deportation of aliens is quite on-the-nose especially when you consider that it was released in the US just as Donald Trump revealed his revised travel ban.

There is also a lot of social commentary in this episode. From Snapper’s comments about the influence reporting can have on electing a fascist to the White House to Lilian Luthor’s justification for Cadmus’ plot, Supergirl seems to hit home on a lot of its plot points. It proves to be quite a strong episode thanks to this, and made it clear that Kara is the hero of the common people that her cousin was in his heyday.

“Exodus” was particularly impressive for the emotional character arcs it provided for Kara and Alex, though. Alex is still struggling to deal with her feelings about her father’s betrayal, she’s more volatile and desperate to prove he’s a good person to those around her. Because of this she’s making reckless decisions and when J’onn decides to test her by disguising as Jeremiah it all seems to be too much for Alex. It certainly wasn’t easy her to have another father figure betray so soon after Jeremiah, and it is difficult to see her so distraught. But what is especially moving is the way in which the episode deals with her decision to head out on her own.

In a scene that reflects the way in which Kara revealed her powers to the world, she needs to stop a spaceship so she could save Alex and everyone on board. The ship in question is filled with the aliens who were rounded up by Cadmus, and there were only a few minutes before it would travel to the other side of the galaxy in light speed. It’s an intense and emotional sequence, especially when Alex reassures Kara that she could stop the ship and the pair put their hands up together against the glass.

The storyline surrounding Kara’s determination to have her story about the kidnappings published is also interesting. It certainly gave Kara the lesson she needed about journalistic ethics and being a good reporter. She’s always used herself as a source and while she is a credible source things don’t always work that smoothly, her exchange with Snapper as Supergirl was amusing and it would be great if Snapper realised it was Kara as that was one of the drawbacks for Cat in the first season. We’ll have to see what comes of Kara’s future as a reporter, but maybe now she’ll realise what it takes to be a good one.

The Good:

• Alex and Kara’s character arcs this episode were very good, they developed their characters nicely and provided some emotional moments between them.
• The development of Kara’s role as a reporter at Cat co was dealt with quite well. Snapper was right to want her to follow journalistic ethics and hopefully it will also help her grow and learn as a journalist too.
• It was nice to see that Jeremiah is still good and joined Cadmus because he wanted to protect his daughters, and that Alex could persuade him and they could tag team the fight for a little while was a nice touch.
• “Exodus” felt very familiar thanks to the way it dealt with the topic of alien deportation, the writers did a good job and the episode couldn’t have come at a more opportune moment.

The Bad:

• Lyra’s character development is slowly getting better, but the relationship she has with Winn still feels off. At least their plotline aligned with the episode this time.

And the Random:

• Anyone else notice Lilian Luthor’s remark that Jeremiah was “the only Superman we need”? That was a pretty nice nod to Dean Cain’s past.

Review by Roxy Simons

• Read our other Supergirl reviews