Supergirl: Fight or Flight Recap

Synopsis: Supergirl takes on a new villain, gives an interview, and struggles to find her place in the hero canon.

Rating: ★★★★★

I don’t know exactly what it is about this show, but every week it makes me smile even more. I see it consistently railed on, and it just make my heart hurt because I feel like our standards for what constitutes “good TV” have gotten so slim.

Supergirl is full of cliches and one of the corniest shows I’ve ever seen, but it works. And frankly, if it were any darker, or took itself anymore seriously, it would be unbearable. As it is, it has just the right balance of camp and heart and I’m in love.

Melissa Benoist crushes it every week with incredibly dorky and lovable cinnamon roll Kara Danvers, with her snorting giggles and always-slipping glasses. She kills it just as hard with earnest, determined and vulnerable Supergirl. There is a clear juxtaposition between the personas that is also entirely seamless and believable. I mentioned before that I appreciate how Supergirl was doing her thing before the pilot was even half-over, doing away with the traditional broody and drawn-out Origin Story. The conflict instead, is Kara’s desire to be distinct from her cousin (who made a cameo this week!) and the fact that she’s… still not that great at being a Superhero.

I love that she doesn’t just decide to use her powers and become an instant success. She’s known about her powers her whole life, but having powers doesn’t make you an expert strategist or skilled fighter right out the gate. She still hasn’t quite mastered Super Breath, her strength sometimes gets away from her, and she spends an awful lot of time being electrocuted and thrown through concrete walls. It’s refreshing that she’s still developing a style and a skill set. How often do you see full-fledged Superheroes who, in the hero persona, are still awkward as hell?

This week finds Kara, awkwardly, giving an interview to Cat Grant as Supergirl. The story comes out less than stellar though, implying that Supergirl is cliche and expects more recognition than she deserves. Kara tries to talk Cat out of running the story, but instead just gets saddled with planning the party for the story’s release.

Kara gets a little bit distracted though, when accidentally revealing herself to be related to Superman brings one of his most formidable foes to her door. Nuclear-powered radiation victim Reactron gives Kara a run for her money when he tries to kill her to get back at Superman. She damages his suit, but he gets away.

Back at CatCo, Winn shows James and Kara the awesome new secret lair he built in the office of a guy who died. Nice. With Alex’s help, they manage to track down Reactron again, but James, after seeing how close Reactron came to killing Clark Kent, does not want Kara to go after him without backup. She’s annoyed by this, saying that she can handle it, and that she can’t just call Superman for everything, because that’s not what a hero does.

She goes after him alone, and gets her butt completely kicked, but before Reactron can deliver the killing blow, Superman swoops in and flies Kara to safety. When she wakes up in her apartment, James admits to calling him. Kara’s furious, but she’s already late for Cat’s party. There, James apologizes, and confesses to often using Superman as a safety net when he’s afraid – which he was, of losing Kara. They dance. Sparks fly. Everyone ships it.

Reactron ruins the moment though, busting in through the ceiling and making a mess. James, identifying himself as a friend of Superman, distracts Reactron long enough for Kara to prepare to remove his nuclear core. Which she does. It’s badass. Seriously, it might be Supergirl‘s best fight scene to date.

Later, Kara’s hanging out with her sister, in a fantastic scene where they eat chinese food, throw pillows, and argue about the DVR, when Alex tells her she should be hanging out with James instead. Delighted and aglow, Kara goes to confess her feelings for him – only to find him making dinner plans with his gorgeous ex, Lucy Lane.

It seems that things ended poorly with James and Lucy, and he’s not overly pleased to see her. Kara doesn’t read it that way though, and she’s crushed.

Special shoutout to the scene where Kara IM’s with Clark Kent, who apparently uses smiley faces. And honorable mention to Winn’s reaction upon learning that Clark Kent is Superman.

On the low side of things, I’m really not feeling Peter Facinelli as Maxwell Lord, or really the Lord storyline at all. We’ll see where that goes.