“We are FAMILY! I got all my sisters and me!” ….Or something like that.
Astra doesn’t want to kill Supergirl.
She wants to be a family again.
Probably to burn Earth to the ground, but hey.
Cat Grant’s been hacked, by the way. While she’s dealing with that, she’s scooping from an ice bin… filled with candy, which is wonderful and something I aspire to have myself. Unfortunately, it means that personal information has been exposed: Cat’s real age, personal shoppers, and a date rejection from Idris Elba. His loss.
So it’s up to Kara to go through Cat’s emails to preemptively find any information that could be used against her. She’s allowed to use James and her Handsome Hobbit Friend Who Owns More Cardigans Than Kara Winn.
It’s surprisingly current, given that 2015 was the year of celebrity leaks.
But Winn wants to know why they’re focusing on that instead of Astra and snipes a little at James since he knew she was back first. Ugh.
We get to see that Astra’s lieutenant is actually her husband, by the way. And she’s insisting she’d rather die than let another world die… even though she’s been trying to kill Kara. Whether or not she’s merely the embodiment of the misguided villain trope or is actually redeemable is yet to be seen.
Alex is worried about their relationship, though. Astra is Kara’s only remaining family and is ready to kill her. Kara might not kill her; she remembers Astra talking vaguely about her eco-terrorist tactics, and their final goodbye. Astra loved Kara dearly.
Almost as much as Cat loves CatCo. She doesn’t want to step away from the company because of the hacks, and one of her board of directors, “the walking personification of white male privilege”, seems to be on her side. Ten bucks says he’s the one who leaked the emails in an act of revenge.
And Kara hears him from the elevator: yep.
So they enlist Lucy Lane for advice, and they need to be careful not to go after Dirk Armstrong, White Male Extraordinaire, without hard evidence. It seems like things are about to get going until Astra shows up hovering over CatCo Plaza.
Their fight nearly destroys a building and nearly kills innocent people. Kara saves them, and finally pins Astra down while Astra tries to monologue but then Alex was right: Kara can’t do it, can’t kill her aunt. So she captures her, and there’s got to be more to it considering the show was building Astra up to be the Big Bad of the season.
Even more dangerous, though, is Winn’s idea of hacking into Armstrong’s computer. Corporate espionage is not exactly legal. Considering that Winn’s idea of a distraction is claiming Armstrong’s car is on fire, and obviously it’s not, I can’t think of any ways at all that this plan could go wrong!
It’s not like it’s obvious that the car isn’t on fire, or that there’s something sticking out of Armstrong’s computer monitor. Why are they even hacking into his monitor? It’s just a display. And James isn’t wearing gloves— oh god, if Armstrong suspects anything James is leaving fingerprints everywhere this is why you wear gloves.
Of course, Armstrong walks in. So James pretends to be supportive of him, in case Grant has to leave the company she created, and walks out scot-free.
So he’s not captured, but Astra is, and only wants to talk to Kara. She still has a trinket that matches one she’d given Kara back on Krypton, just to remind her of why she killed so many people back then. She had to. But Alura was the one true evil to Astra.
“My mother was the best woman who ever lived,” Kara shoots back. Her devotion to her mother is touching, and it’s great that we’re seeing Supergirl rely so much on sisterhood, friendship, and family without falling into the trap of catty interplay… but it also feels a little naïve. Was Alura really that amazing? Incorruptible? Kind?
She was the one to capture Astra, possibly even using Kara’s attachment to her to do so. Astra knew Krypton was dying because the planet was being used solely as a resource, and she wanted to help. Sure, her methods may have been disliked, but she was desperate to stop the planet from dying, and she’s doing it now with Earth too. We are on the edge of destruction, of overusing our resources.
It doesn’t gel with what we saw in the pilot, with Astra being hell-bent on dominating the planet and killing Kara. Is it a writing mistake, a change, or is Astra playing a long con?
She’s telling the truth in at least one thing, though: Alura used Kara to get to Astra, and Kara’s now hurting because of it.
But at least she has something to take her mind off of things: Cat has been supporting a 24-year-old named Adam Foster. Secret lover?
No, of course not. Her son. Not her young son Carter’s whole brother, but a different father, from before CatCo was where it is now. It’s not neglect: Cat was worried Adam would be better off without her. With the e-mail hacks, he’s at risk of being hurt by Cat again.
But she’s going to step down from CatCo to ensure Adam doesn’t get embroiled in a media scandal.
And I’m crying. Between Kara’s breakdown when she talks to AI Mommy Alura to find out she was used, and Cat Grant telling Kara she always has a job with her, well. This episode is tough.
And Kara almost accidentally comes out as Supergirl to Cat when James, Lucy, and Winn finally find proof of Armstrong’s misdeeds. And them hacking into Armstrong’s computers?
That’s not a problem. They’re provided by CatCo. The email address he uses is, too. And he’s conspiring against Cat while literally inside of CatCo. It’s all CatCo property. Cat’s property.
Armstrong was a moron.
But so is Winn. James apologizes to him, saying he’s not in Winn’s way of Kara, and that Winn should confess his feelings for her.
Except he did that. In the pilot. We know he’s asked her out. It’s not James, or Lucy, or Supergirl, or Astra standing in front of Winn and Kara being together. It’s Kara herself: she does. Not. Want. Winn. Yes, Winn has self-esteem problems, and lord knows I can relate, but that doesn’t give him the right to act the way he does toward her.
But James tells him to risk it.
Ugh.
Alex and Not-Hank realize, meanwhile, that Astra lost to Kara purposefully. It was a distraction: Astra’s henchmen are after Maxwell Lord.
But Kara doesn’t know anything about it. She’s busy with Cat Grant, who thanks her for saving her butt once again.
Who thinks it’s weird Kara managed to overhear Armstrong.
And only has been sick once during her tenure with CatCo.
And has a fully healed arm after the earthquake of the last episode.
…. and that Supergirl wasn’t around during the earthquake.
And how personally Kara took the Supergirl moniker.
So Cat asks Kara to take off her glasses.
And then thanks her for everything. And I’m crying because it feels like perfect timing. It’s not contrived, it’s not drawn-out, and it’s not as a result of a direct superhero power. It’s understated, and a wonderful evolution of their friendship.
But now, Supergirl has to go defend Lord Industries.
Image courtesy of CBS
