Airing in the UK on Sky 1, new episodes every Tuesday
Writers: Gabriel Llanas and Anna Musky-Goldwyn
Director: Ben Hernandez Bray

Essential Plot Points:

• James continues to do his good work as the Guardian, helping to save people but things aren’t going well as the victim is equally afraid of him.
• When out in National City, James and Winn witness a seismic alien attack (Forian) and while James tries to help save people it’s Supergirl who saves the day.
• Lena and Rhea continue to experiment together, so far the tests aren’t working though. Rhea says that it’s because Lena is trying too hard to be like Lex.
• After interrogating another alien, James discovers the identity of the alien terrorist and comes across the woman’s child. He’s taken to the DEO to help find her.
• After the child, Marcus, doesn’t talk to the DEO they decide the best way to get him to open up is to spend time with James, since they have a telepathic connection together.
• The pep talk Rhea gave Lena works, and now she is able to open a portal. It has a side-effect though, it makes Marcus react like his mother and try to attack Cat Co.
• J’onn asks James to help them talk to Marcus, but James feels that he is just in the way.
• When Kara tries to call Lena to find out what her experiment is, but Rhea answers instead. She tells Kara that everything that is about to happen is her fault. Mon-el tries to talk to her but it doesn’t work.
• James talks to Marcus, and tells him how he learned to trust those around him. He promises to protect both Marcus and his mother if he takes him to her. When they meet her, they discover that there’s a whole community of the aliens. When Rhea starts the portal again the alien’s telekinetic powers are activated.
• Kara, Mon-el, and J’onn confront Rhea but she’s able to stop them somehow. Meanwhile, James tries to get through to Marcus to help save his family.
• The portal was used to guide hundreds of Daxamite ships to Earth.

Review:

Have you wondered what’s been happening to James recently? If you haven’t, no one would blame you. It seems like the writers have had a hard time trying to fit James into Kara’s life since the end of last season, and while he runs around National City trying to prove he’s a hero too he hasn’t been making much of an impact. This is something that he’s finally starting to realise this week, as he learns that you don’t have to wear a cape and take on an alias to be a hero.

In City of Lost Children James is starting to doubt himself, he’s scaring the people he saves rather than inspiring hope in them and this hurts his ego. Not sure what to do to make things change, it’s only when an alien attacks National City that he knows he must act on his own. While it’s reckless he can’t help himself, and soon he finds the son of the alien fugitive. After connecting with the boy through telekinesis it seems that he’s the only one who can help the DEO with their mission, and thanks to this James finally has the chance to feel relevant again.

Throughout this season it’s felt like he was an afterthought when he’s appeared onscreen. Now that he spends so much less time helping Kara and going on his own quest to beat up bad guys as the Guardian he’s just seemed like he’s in the way but City of Lost Children gave him the platform to shine again. Melding well with the developments in the Lena/Rhea team-up, his storyline held up well and it was good to see his character develop and move on from the selfish vigilante hoping for praise. He doesn’t need to wear a costume to be a superhero, and that’s what has been missing with his character this whole season. Even though the instant connection between him and Marcus may have been a little bit of a stretch, it worked well with the story at hand and was also a good contrast to Rhea and Lena’s budding mother/daughter relationship.

Speaking of Lena and Rhea, this episode proved to be a great warm-up of things to come for Kara. The prospect of there being a fleet of Daxamites ready to claim and conquer Earth is interesting, especially since Kara has very few allies and Mon-el will be put at odds with his mother and her. Teri Hatcher was a definite highlight of the episode, the way she performed her character’s devious nature and ability to manipulate Mon-el made her a force to be reckoned with, and a villain that feels the most fleshed-out of all the ones to appear on the show. Her relationship with Lena was also good to see, and the genuine connection between the pair made them even more likeable as characters — even if what they’re doing isn’t good. It’ll also be interesting to see where Lena goes from here, since Rhea sees her as the daughter she never had then there is the potential for Lena to follow in her footsteps.

City of Lost Children was a good prelude to the upcoming season finale. It gave James a chance to shine when he has so often faded into the background this year, and the dynamic between Lena and Rhea was fascinating, to say the least. The episode’s final moments were intense, and Kara has her work cut out for her, but it seems like there will be good things to come.

The Good:

• James had the chance to stand out, proving himself to be an asset to Kara and her team as well as a hero without a cape.
• Lena and Rhea had great chemistry this episode, they’re genuinely close so it will be interesting to see if Lena wants to follow in her surrogate mother’s footsteps or not.
• The episode’s climax was dealt with really well, not only did James do well but it was also intense to see all of those Daxamite ships come in and hover above National City.

The Bad:

• James and Marcus’ instant bond was a little bit of a push, but they worked well together.

And the Random:

• The alien that James interrogates to find out where Marcus and his mother lived was also in episode 6 of this season, “Changing”.

Written by Roxy Simons