Supergirl – Supergirl Lives

By: Michelle Lopez

We open with a group of jewel thieves uselessly attempting to flee from a bored Supergirl (Melissa Benoist), excited Guardian (Mehcad Brooks) and Guardian’s tech support, Winn (Jeremy Jordan). Supergirl stops their van and one of the thieves while Guardian deals with the second. The third and final thief gets the drop on Winn and is about to put a bullet in him until Guardian makes a last minute save. Upon returning to the DEO, Kara is quick to share her annoyance at Guardian’s unrequested backup. Alex (Chyler Leigh), knowing her sister better than she knows herself, asks what the real issue is. Kara became Supergirl to help the people of Earth. Stopping the people she set out to protect from hurting each other isn’t what she had in mind. Kara invites Alex over to hang out, but her sister has plans and based on Alex’s poorly concealed grin Kara figures she’s got a date with Maggie (Floriana Lima).

Alex wakes up the next morning in a scenario she never dreamed for herself. The girl she likes in her kitchen, wearing her shirt, making coffee. It’s simple, but means so much to Alex and Maggie can’t help but play into Alex’s fantasy of staying in that moment forever. They take the morning off to enjoy their sliver of happiness before re-entering the real world.

At CatCo, Kara pounces on Snapper (Ian Gomez) as soon as he steps foot off the elevator. She’s got the inside scoop from Supergirl on the jewel heist, but before she can finish pitching her piece James swoops in with a piece of his own all about Guardian saving the day. They bicker about which hero is better while Snapper holds on to the last shred of his sanity. Snapper hasn’t had his morning coffee or Danish and doesn’t care about either hero, but before he can storm off a woman stops him to ask for help. Her daughter, Izzy, has gone missing and the police won’t look into it claiming she’s a runaway. Much to Snapper’s chagrin, Kara promises they’ll find Izzy for her.

Down at the alien bar, Kara finds Mon-El (Chris Wood) behind the counter while she waits for Maggie. He senses something’s bothering her and urges her to open up since he’s a bartender now. Kara’s been feeling a little lost lately, but she’s found purpose again in finding Izzy. Maggie doesn’t have much information regarding Izzy, but she does have a list of missing persons. As they ponder where the these people have gone, we see a scientist leading a young man into a warehouse where some goons grab and drag him through a portal. The scientist thanks Roulette (Dichen Lachmen) for another perfect candidate.

Kara brings the flash drive to Winn so he can search for connections between the missing people. As he works, Kara notices the sunglasses he’s wearing to cover up the black eye he got the night before when he was “mugged.” Alex floats into the room looking like she just won the greatest prize in the world and Kara rushes over to find out what’s got her sister looking like she got shot with a love ray. Alex tells Kara about Maggie sleeping over and they both hop around in excitement. The lovefest ends when Winn finds out the missing people all had blood work done a few days before going missing. Alex offers to help Kara investigate, but Kara wants Alex to stay put and keep on glowing.

Back at CatCo, Kara’s done some research and is headed out to check a lead when Mon-El hops off the elevator asking her out to lunch. She declines, but he’s set on spending time with her so he offers to help find Izzy (Harley Quinn Smith). They head over to a lab where Mon-El discovers Highlights magazine as they wait to be helped. The scientist from earlier walks out to get them started on the clinical trial advertised on their website. They follow him into the back where he confirms that Izzy had been there. In front of the portal machine, the thugs from earlier attempt to force Mon-El and Kara through a portal. They fight off the thugs and Kara prepares to run through the portal to find Izzy as she commands Mon-El to go tell Alex what happened so she can bring backup.

Through the portal, Kara’s jumped by the aliens again. She knocks a few of them out while Mon-El sneaks through the portal to take out the last one. Both are surprised that the fight actually hurt them until they notice the planet has a red sun. Mon-El is ready to run back to the safety of Earth, but the portal closes leaving them both stranded without powers and no help on the way. Kara is not going to let that deter her from saving Izzy, but Mon-El is more concerned about saving them. They march off in the direction of a huge ship where Izzy is most likely being kept. On the way, Mon-El manages to get his foot stuck in a trap that Kara can’t help him out of. An alien, Jo, finds and takes them to his tent. Jo (Nikolai Witschl) explains that the planet is Maaldoria and the humans are being sold as slaves. There’s no way to break onto the slave ship so Kara and Mon-El surrender and get thrown into lockup with the kidnapped humans. Supergirl promises that despite not having her powers she’s going to help rescue them as Roulette stops by to gloat.

In the DEO locker room, Winn struggles with his confidence and black eye as James stops by to ask if he’d like to go on a Guardian date. Winn almost died the previous night and James is more interested in playing Guardian than his friends wellbeing. In frustration and fear, Winn calls it quits on project Guardian as Alex rushes in to see if either of them had heard from Kara. She’s been MIA and not answering her phone. Winn forwards along the information on the kidnapping case so Alex and a strike team can raid the lab. They find the machine which J’onn (David Harewood) recognizes as a interplanetary portal and realizes Kara’s not on Earth anymore. Winn traces the portals past linkups to Maaldoria, which J’onn identifies as a slave trade planet with a red sun and a toxic atmosphere for Martians. Alex panics and takes that energy out on a concerned Maggie. Alex blames herself for Kara’s predicament and breaks up with Maggie as a result.

Roulette explains that Supergirl shutting down her fight club is the reason she moved to human trafficking. Humans are durable creatures that aliens will pay top dollar for as proven by the Dominator that purchased the whole group. Supergirl assures the humans that they’re going to be ok and Mon-El can’t understand how Supergirl is optimistic. She explains that she’s optimistic because they need her to be. The odds don’t matter, all that matters is you keep fighting because that’s what heroes do. She goes on to demonstrate that . When the guards come to usher the group out, Supergirl stands tall in front of them and refuses to move despite being hit with a shock baton time and time again. This courage empowers her fellow captives to rise up and disarm the guards, trapping Roulette in the cell as they flee.

At the portal machine on Earth, J’onn hands Alex a yellow sun grenade that’ll give Kara her powers back for a short time. Winn gets the portal turned on and begins to explain to Alex how to turn it on from the other side. Alex doesn’t have time to play around and tells Winn he’s coming with. Winn explains he’s useless in the field, especially since he couldn’t handle a single thief. Alex, in a pot-meet-kettle moment, throws down some solid advice – fear is natural, but you don’t get anywhere in life by running from it. Kara needs Winn so he’s going to face his fear and step through the portal. On Maaldoria, Alex leaves Winn alone at the portal to make sure he can turn it on when she gets back with Kara.

Kara and Mon-El lead the group through the corridors of the ship toward the exit. At one point on the journey, Mon-El takes a page from Kara’s book and prepares to take a bullet to protect her. Luckily, the aliens decide to bow down to him over killing him. The group rounds a final corner and runs into Alex and the DEO strike team. They rush back to the portal where Winn has faced his fears, taken out a bad guy and has gotten the portal working. Alex, Mon-El and Kara help the kidnapped people through the portal as Jo walks up asking to tag along because Maaldoria kinda sucks. She agrees and everyone passes through except Izzy, who’s been grabbed by another alien. Alex throws the yellow sun grenade recharging Kara’s powers and she makes short work of the aliens. They run through the portal and destroy it from Earth’s side, putting an end to Roulette’s operation.

Kara reunites Izzy and her mom at CatCo before walking into Snapper’s office and dropping an 8,000 word article on the off-world human trafficking ring Supergirl shut down. Snapper acts unimpressed as usual until Kara leaves and he gives her a quiet “Atta girl, Danvers.” In James’s office, Winn stops by to brag about going to another planet and proving that he’s capable to handling himself in the field. He’s back in on operation Guardian.

Mon-El heads to Kara’s apartment to let her know that he’s decided he wants to become a hero like Supergirl. He’d never had anything in his life that inspired him to care for anyone other than himself, but watching Kara sacrifice herself did the trick. He wants to prove he’s the last Daxamite for a reason and help Kara carry the weight of the world on her shoulders.

Alex has invited Maggie over to apologize for her erratic behavior earlier. Maggie’s fears about Alex not being ready to handle a relationship bubble to the surface, but that’s not what caused Alex’s freak out. Alex has spent her entire life caring for Kara. In the past, when she’s taken time to be happy, things have gone wrong. After years of not taking time for herself, Alex finally found herself in a place where she knows what she wants and it’s within her grasp. She woke up that morning in a happy reality she didn’t know she was starving for until she was living it. Of course, that same day the pattern repeated. Kara got into trouble and Alex’s life has conditioned her to blame happiness for the trouble. If Alex destroyed the thing that was making her happy, the balance would return and Kara would be safe. That’s not how life works, but that’s what she did. At this point, Maggie lets Alex know she knows Kara is Supergirl hence Alex losing her marbles, but that doesn’t make it ok for Alex to treat their relationship as a cosmic bargaining chip. All Alex can give Maggie is a genuine “I’m sorry” and it’s enough for Maggie to give her one last chance.