Supergirl – The Darkest Place

By: Michelle Lopez

At the alien bar, Kara, Winn (Jeremy Jordan), James (Mehcad Brooks) and Alex (Chyler Leigh) are hanging out and discussing National City’s newest vigilante, Guardian. Much to James and Winn’s dismay, Kara (Melissa Benoist) is not a fan despite him helping her out with the Parasite last week. James toots his own horn and points out that Guardian’s stopped quite a few crimes in a pretty impressive fashion, which Kara doesn’t deny but she doesn’t trust him. Alex freaks Winn out with her prediction that Guardian must have a partner to be so on top of things. Kara’s still not impressed and throws a fantastic dig at the only vigilante her cousin’s worked with, Batman. Changing the topic off Guardian, Alex ask Kara where Mon-El (Chris Wood) is since he practically lives at the alien bar. Kara assumes he’s off being a “male floozy” and they leave it at that.

Grudge Match

At the DEO, M’gann (Sharon Leal) is escorted in to see J’onn (David Harewood). She wants to check on how he’s feeling. J’onn assures her he’s doing great thanks to her help and blood. M’gann looks guilty as hell and gives J’onn the thermos of K’rkzar’s tonic she made for him. As J’onn thanks her again he zones out for a minute as he hallucinates his family.

Kara walks in on J’onn trying to relax and recenter himself. She’s concerned he’s still sick from last week’s brush with death after fighting Parasite. J’onn tells her that he keeps hallucinating his family. Kara suggests that it might be because having M’gann around might be causing him to think about his family. When she was new to Earth she saw her parents everywhere and until she accepted that they were gone they would always be a part of her and she couldn’t feel whole. J’onn needs to accept that M’gann isn’t replacing his family but adding to it.

In the DEO, Alex and J’onn’s discussion about Kara’s whereabouts is disrupted when J’onn beings seeing a White Martian in front of them. He pulls his gun, takes aim and is prepared to shoot when Alex interrupts him. The interruption is enough to snap J’onn out of what turns out was another hallucination. Realizing these visions are more than just him missing his family, J’onn has Alex run a blood test on him to see what’s going on. The blood test comes up normal except for low hematocrit levels. J’onn recognizes that’s a sign of White Martian blood and rushes off the confront M’gann.

In the alley behind the alien bar, J’onn stops a fleeing M’gann. He accuses her of running off to report his whereabouts to the other White Martians for extermination. M’gann explains that she couldn’t bear what her race was doing to the Green Martians so she rebelled and tried to save as many as possible. J’onn doesn’t believe her and attacks. M’gann allows herself to lose and gives J’onn the opportunity to kill her, but he opts to arrest her. At the DEO, J’onn visits M’gann in a holding cell. She thanks him for sparing her life and informs him that he’s sick. White Martian blood causes Green Martians to turn into White Martians and there’s no cure.

Ghosts of Family Members Past

In a warehouse, Mon-El tries to make small talk with the guard of his cell. The guard is not having any of it and points his gun at Mon-El to shut him up. Mon-El takes the opportunity to disarm the guard, escape his cell and make a break for the exit. The head of Cadmus (Brenda Strong) stops Mon-El in his tracks as they drag out a beaten up J’onn. Mon-El surrenders to save his friend.

Supergirl, on her way to assist the DEO and NCPD with a situation, is disrupted when Cadmus sends her a message. The head of Cadmus informs Supergirl that they have and are prepared to kill Mon-El. Supergirl is to head over to the Cadmus warehouse and not inform anyone of where she’s headed. Being the hero that she is, Supergirl complies. Upon arrival at the warehouse, Supergirl is confronted by the real Hank Henshaw – not J’onn. Hank monologues a bit about being Team Cadmus now that J’onn stole his life and his agency until Supergirl has heard enough and clocks him. Hank is unaffected by the punch and returns the favor sending Supergirl flying through a wall as he tells her that Hank Henshaw is dead and he’s Cyborg Superman.

Supergirl, now in a cell next to Mon-El, lets him know that J’onn is fine and they’re being held by Cadmus. The head of Cadmus walks up and informs them that she’s Lena and Lex Luthor’s mother. She needs Supergirl to deplete the solar radiation in her cells a/k/a drain herself of her power. Supergirl refuses prompting mama Luthor to shoot Mon-El in the leg with a lead bullet. They’ve discovered that Daxamites are allergic to lead and the wound will kill him if she refuses to cooperate. Supergirl relents and depletes her energy until she’s as weak as a human. With that, Cadmus agents drag her off and take a sample of her blood.

Back in the cells, Supergirl asks Mon-El to pass along a message to Alex in case she doesn’t make it. She wants Alex to keep living her life on her own terms and that in the end she wasn’t scared. Mon-El reflects on his life and wonders if him dying in the cell is payment for being the only Daxamite to survive. Supergirl won’t let him degrade himself like that, but her pep talk is disrupted when Jeremiah Danvers (Dean Cain) shows up. He frees them, removes the bullet from Mon-El’s leg and sends them to safety as he stays behind to buy them some time.

At the DEO, Kara let’s Alex know that she found Jeremiah and gives her the location of where they were held. Alex and a team of DEO agents infiltrate the location, but Cadmus and Jeremiah are long gone.

Mistaken Identity

After a night of cleaning up National City’s streets, James strolls into CatCo to catch up on the latest news of his conquests. He’s surprised to find that Guardian has been charged with murdering one of the villains he dealt with last night. James tries to defend Guardian, but Snapper (Ian Gomez) is quick to point to the video footage they have of what appears to be Guardian executing the villain point blank. Winn bursts into the room to grab James and freak out about the murder situation. Winn wants to shut down project Guardian, but James assures him that they’ll find the real killer so they need to keep helping people in the meantime.

The following evening Guardian heads out to break up a drug deal. As he begins to fight the drug dealers, the killer vigilante runs in guns ablazing. He takes out one of the drug dealers before taking aim at Guardian. The killer vigilante wants to team up with Guardian, but is disappointed when Guardian refuses to kill anyone. Their discussion is broken up when Maggie (Floriana Lima) and the NCPD show up forcing both vigilantes to flee.

At the DEO, Winn asks Alex to have Maggie lay off on Guardian. Alex wants to know why he cares and Winn claims to be very onboard with vigilantism these days. Alex points out that Guardian isn’t a vigilante anymore, he’s a murderer. Winn adamantly assures Alex that Guardian didn’t kill anyone, showing his entire hand. Seeing through Winn’s terrible act Alex throws Winn up against a wall and demands to know who Guardian is. After a quick threat Winn folds like a cheap suit and tells her it’s James. Exasperated, Alex drops Winn and heads off to call Kara to end this ridiculous game, but Winn begs her to keep the secret. He promises they’ll find and stop the killer.

Later on, Winn rushes into James’s office to let him know that he’s figured out who the killer is and who’ll be the next target. Guardian shows up at a warehouse where he finds a man tied up. He goes to free him, but is attacked by the killer vigliante. Guardian tries to reason with the vigilante, but he refuses forcing Guardian to take him down. Maggie and Alex show up in time to see that Guardian wasn’t the killer so they let him run off.

Miscommunication Nation

At the alien bar, Maggie walks up to Alex and asks if they can speak for a minute. Alex hasn’t returned any of Maggie’s calls and Alex plays it off as just being busy with work. Maggie wants to make sure things are ok between the two of them since the last time they spoke things got a bit complicated. Alex passive aggressively assures Maggie that things weren’t complicated. Alex is fresh out of the closet and Maggie isn’t into that, no biggie. Maggie assures Alex again that she does in fact like her, but the situation is the issue. Alex doesn’t quite parse that, assuring Maggie they’re still friends and walking off.

A bit later on in the NCPD parking garage, Alex approaches Maggie to discuss the Guardian manhunt. Alex requests Maggie reign in the manhunt, but Maggie needs some more info before she can do that. She evokes the sacred claim of friendship causing to Alex unload all the pain she’s been bottling up since the kiss. They are two people who hung out and got close. Maggie called out Alex’s feelings for her and Alex reevaluated her entire being to discover a truth she never considered for herself. Alex ran with it and came out to her sister. She took off all her emotional armor and put herself out there because she knew one thing to be true, her feelings for Maggie. She did so much work just to be in a place where she could be with Maggie and then Maggie rejected her. She can’t be friends with Maggie because it’s too painful and laced with betrayal. Maggie tries to explain herself, but Alex doesn’t let her as she storms off.

Later on, Maggie shows up at Kara’s apartment asking for two minutes of her time. She lets her know that she heard everything Alex had said and will respect Alex’s wishes no matter what they are. She understands that Alex took off her armor and let Maggie really see her. To salvage their relationship, Maggie decides to do the same. She opens up and explains to Alex that it’s rare for her to find people she cares about. In the short time they’ve known each other Alex has managed to become someone Maggie cares about so much that she can’t imagine living her life without Alex in it. She knows it will take time to repair the wounds between them, but she desperately hopes Alex is willing to try. After a pause that felt like hours, Alex invites Maggie to play pool the following night.

Pizza and Potstickers

Mon-El and Kara are recovering at Kara’s apartment when Alex, James and Winn burst in with pizza and potstickers. To James and Winn’s relief, Kara admits she was wrong about Guardian. While Kara and Alex heat up some food, Mon-El asks James and Winn if Kara has chosen a mate yet. She hasn’t and they ask why Mon-El’s curious, which he plays off as curiosity of Earth’s customs. As Alex and Kara wonder what Cadmus wants with Kara’s blood we see Cyborg Superman entering the Fortress of Solitude. He uses Kara’s blood to gain entry and demands to be told everything about Project Medusa.