By: Atiya Irvin-Mitchell
We open with a montage of Clark (Jack Quaid) and Kara (Kiana Madeira) fighting crime as Superman and Supergirl. Kara saves a little boy from being hit by a car due to a distracted driver. She scolds the driver for texting while driving, and Clark tells the little boy to look both ways. Then stop a hostage situation and a purse snatching. An unspecified amount of time later, Clark, Kara, Lois (Alice Lee), and Jimmy (Ishmel Sahid) headed to Superfest, a super-themed convention. Clark is going as his mild-mannered reporter self, but Kara is attending in uniform as Supergirl. She is very excited and hopes to rebrand as Power Woman, but Lois points to the giant Supergirl banner and says that that’s unlikely.
Kara asks Clark how he’ll be spending the day, and he says that after introducing Kara to the public, he’s just going to attend as Clark and not Superman. Kara and Jimmy have a moment, and then Jimmy gives the group watches that double as communication devices. Lois wonders if they’re necessary, but Jimmy reminds her that every time they go to an event that it gets attacked. Kara thanks him for thinking of her, but Jimmy says he just thought of her platonically. This causes Lois to pull him aside and tell him that he’s screwing things up with Kara. Jimmy explains that he really likes her, but she was trapped in a cage her entire life, so he doesn’t want to tie her down. If she chooses him now, Jimmy is worried it won’t last because Kara hasn’t seen enough of the world to know she has other options. But Lois asks what if Jimmy is the best option. Jimmy just says he knows what he’s doing, and no one will be hurt.
Also, Jimmy’s writing a comic about himself and Superman that takes a lot of creative liberties. He assures Clark that it’s all just marketing, but that doesn’t comfort Lois, who is the villain in the comic books. Jimmy says it’s only because people love a good enemies-to-lovers story, but Lois is still annoyed. She is even more annoyed by having to cover Superfest because it’s a puff piece. But Cat Grant (Melanie Minichino) says she’s wrong because the name Lois Lane means something. She asked Perry to assign Lois to Superfest because no one knows the Man of Steel like she does. Cat knows she’ll find a way to find an interesting story at Superfest.
Clark gets caught up playing with a toy tractor, but Lois says that he can’t keep playing when her story’s getting away. When she motions to a booth, Clark wonders what Lois wants with a kindly old man. But Lois says it’s an act, he’s not kind, he’s Winslow Schott (Michael Yurchak), aka the man who tried to murder her. She tells Clark that he sent her and her father a teddy bear with a bomb inside. Lois says he might look harmless, but he’s dangerous. Clark has to go introduce Kara, but in the meantime, he asks Lois not to do anything rash.
Elsewhere, Kara is asking a flustered Jimmy how to use Earth technology. When Kat notices them interacting and asks Jimmy if he and Kara are a couple. Jimmy says no and sends Kara off to get hot dogs. When she’s gone, he tells Kat again that they’re just friends, but Kara comes back with the hot dogs and is carrying two people cosplaying the characters she and Jimmy were on Halloween. Kara asks if he remembers their “couples costume,” and Jimmy looks distraught, knowing Kat Grant is likely going to put that in her column.
Kara notices that Jimmy looks upset and lets the cosplayers go so that they can talk. She tells Jimmy that she has romantic feelings for him. Not only that, but she tells Jimmy that she wants the two of them to be mates the way that Clark and Lois are. Jimmy seems touched, and he tells Kara he cares a lot about them, but the difference between the two couples is that Clark got to see the world before he was Superman. Since having freedom is so new to Kara, Jimmy thinks Kara shouldn’t make such an important decision about her future without seeing what else the world has to offer. Before she can respond, an announcement is made, and it’s time for Kara to be introduced as Supergirl.
Clark introduces Kara as Supergirl, but has to leave when he hears an alarm going off. There’s a Q&A being led by Kat, and it’s a little awkward because there are skincare and astrology-related questions that Kara doesn’t entirely understand.
Outside, Clark is dealing with a bunch of robbers, who he realizes are the same robbers from when he was crime-fighting with Kara earlier. A new element is a woman who calls herself The Whip (Melanie Minichino). She wants to use Superman to make a name for herself as a hired gun in Metropolis. Clark tells her he doesn’t want to hurt him, but she activates her kryptonite-covered whips and tells him she’d like him to try. Also, apparently, since robots are leaving kryptonite all over the city, it’s easy to come by lately. It seems like that’ll come up later.
Lois confronts Winslow Schott and not so subtly asks him if he’s made any dangerous toys lately. He looks confused, and she tells him point-blank that he almost killed her. Winslow realizes that she’s Sam Lane’s daughter and asks that she leave him be because her family already ruined his life enough. He motions to the children playing with his toys and says he just wants to share the gift of toys with the world.
In the Q&A Kat makes Kara uncomfortable when she asks if Metropolis really needs two heroes. She says she doesn’t know, and Kat asks what makes her different from Superman. Kara thinks for a moment and then points out someone hesistantly raising their hand in the audience and calls on them. A very reluctant girl says Supergirl is special because she’s brave. The girl says she loves that while Superman protects them, Supergirl is a warrior, and she fights for them. The girl says she wishes that she could be like Kara, thanks her, and when Kat asks her what her name is, she says she’s Jessica Cruz (Auliʻi Cravalho). For the comic book fans, this version of Jessica Cruz looks to be late-elementary school or middle school-aged, but she is eventually a Green Lantern.
Then Kat asks her what comes next, and Kara says she needs to make an important decision about her future. So, she invites every eligible bachelor at the convention to come to her booth after the talk. Jimmy has been recording the Q&A and doesn’t seem thrilled about the development.
Clark is feeling very affected by the kryptonite, and The Whip says everything is going according to plan. The plan, of course, is to ruin Superman’s day and replace him as the most well-paid hired gun in the city. Clark says he isn’t paid to fight crime, but The Whip says that makes her sad for him because you should never give away things people are willing to pay for. Clark says he isn’t interested in career advice, but The Whip says she’s interested in him.
At Superfest, Kara is signing autographs, and a man goes up to her and asks if she can sign something for his boyfriend. Kara says, ” Sure,” and observes that he looks a little like her friend Jimmy. Speaking of Jimmy, since he doesn’t have superhearing, he doesn’t realize the man isn’t interested in Kara. He gets upset and says he knew she’d find someone better, but he didn’t think Kara would do it today. While he’s freaking out, Lex Luther (Max Mittelman) swings by to troll him about his comic books. But he still gives Jimmy a business card because he thinks he has found an innovative opportunity. When he leaves, Jimmy throws away the business card.
Someone else at the convention, Lois, is tearing apart Winslow Schott’s booth. Winslow says that he’s reformed and asks Lois to stop because she’s scaring away the customers. Lois refuses and says that finding the truth is her job. At first, Lois hesitates and then sees a little girl clinging to a teddy bear. She thinks the bear has a bomb inside, like the one that almost killed her and her father, and takes the bear and rips its head off. This upsets the little girl, and to make matters worse, there is no bomb inside. After the girl’s mother scolds her, Lois worries that she really is Villain!Lois.
Kara is being serenaded by a lot of men, and Jimmy is feeling jealous. Kat drills him about if he plans to fight for Supergirl, but Jimmy says that she’s Supergirl and Jimmy’s just Superman’s pal. Speaking of Superman, he’s still not doing well in the fight with The Whip until he manages to pull them apart. Clark ties her up and leaves her for the police, and once he’s gone, she says she loves him.
Clark gets back to Superfest, and Jimmy notes that he looks pretty rough. In lieu of an in-depth explanation, Clark just says fighting crime is harder than it used to be. But his troubles aren’t over because his super-hearing picks up Lois saying she already apologized, so what else is she supposed to do? Clark goes over to the crying girl, apologizes for Lois, buys her a new bear, and pays for the bear Lois damaged. He also wants a few of Winslow’s toy tractors.
Clark urges Lois to apologize to Winslow Slott, but when she sees his missile-themed toys and decides to give reverse psychology a shot. She says she’s sorry for overestimating him, because a harmless little toyman like him could ever be a real threat. This makes Winslow angry, and he hits a button which activates a Gundam-like creature that he climbs inside. Lois is so happy she was right that she isn’t immediately concerned that Winslow wants to kill her. Clark says he can’t believe he deals with things like this for free, when another person wearing a costume just like Clark’s swoops in and stops Winslow. Lex comes in and introduces Hank Henshaw (Max Mittelman). He says Hank is a war hero who was injured defending Metropolis last year during the alien invasion. With Hank on their side, Lex says, they won’t need to depend on violent aliens for protection.
This upsets Lois, and later, when she’s talking to Clark, Jimmy, and Kara about it she wonders what Lex did to get Hank, a former classmate of hers, to agree to work with him. Kara wonders if people are afraid of them because she was bad. Clark says no and promises that people were afraid of him at first, but they came around. He promises her that as long as they keep doing the right thing, everyone will come around. Jimmy says if things get out of hand, the real Superman and Supergirl can stop him. But everyone still looks worried.
In Lex’s lab, Hank (who is part cyborg now), is being worked on by Lex. He’s surprised that “washed up” Winslow provided the opportunity to show the world what Hank can do. Hank says they’re one step closer to saving Metropolis from Superman.