Previously: All I remember is Dichen Lachman.
—
Crossfire
Marines: Hey, so it’s been a while! I don’t really know why. I do know that I always see people squeeing about this show on Twitter, and I’m not sure if it’s because it’s gotten better in season two or if we are seriously not watching the same show.
Catherine: SAME. I have friends who watch this and tell me it’s amazing. I’m so bored. What are we missing?
Samantha: Maybe it’s one of those shows that just really really falls apart upon recapping but works if you just mindlessly enjoy it?
Mari: On that note.
Kara runs into the bunk area of the DEO, cheerily announcing that it’s Mon-El’s first day of work. We cut to the Super Pad and a montage of getting ready for work. This involves Kara giving him a heat vision hair cut (idk), Mon-El biting into a stack of pancakes in one go (#relatable), and Mon-El trying on shirts until he finds one that fits. He also has a bow-tie.
Catherine: How DARE he. He has not earned what the Doctor has earned! He’s not an alien who lost his whole planet–oh, wait okay. Actually, there are some similarities. (S: LOLOLOLOL.)
Mari: Kara says the finishing touch is a pair of a glasses so that if he one day wants to help people, no one will know it’s him. From this apartment in Fort Lauderdale, I can hear Samantha screeching.
Catherine: Literally had the exact same thought. It’s okay, Sam! Ssh. Somebody bring the girl some calming tea, STAT.
Samantha: GAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAH.
It’s fine. It’s fine, I’m fine, whatever.
Mari: Winn hooked Mon-El up with a new identity: Mike Matthews. He’s got a social security card and a FICO score. Mike has no idea what any of that means, but he thanks Kara for helping him be more human. I’m not sure if he really means it.
CatCo. Kara tells Mike that when she first started, she found it useful to bring coffee to the other assistants. Mike’s like “bribery, aha!” He warmly greets a couple people and hands them their coffee, but then is kind of freaked out by the phone ringing. Kara explains how to answer it. (S: They never went over the phone in this, the 21st century, before this moment?)
Next, Kara introduces Mike to Eve, James’ assistant. Ha ha ha, remember when this show spent a season convincing us Kara and James were a thing and then they went LOK JAYKAY in the span of an episode? Good times. (C: Confusing times.)
Anyway, Eve likes what she sees so it’s totally cool that Mike is being super weird and starts reciting his fake social security number. James comes out of his office, and Kara introduces “Mike” the new intern to him. Mike is all, “so you’re the big boss?” because he was expecting someone more intimidating. Mike also apologizes for running out of bribery coffees. James kind of shuffles awkwardly and says he’s going to go grab his own coffee. Kara asks if she can tag along and James says he’ll wait by the elevator.
As they walk away, Mike asks why they would take the elevator when super jumping down would be much faster. “Mon-El,” Kara exclaims. “Mike,” he corrects. He’s doing all of this with kind of a shit-eating grin. I’m not sure we’re supposed to buy this as innocence or instigation. Anyway, Kara reminds him that he’s never supposed to use his powers in front of other people ever. Mike looks at the reports on his desk he’s supposed to file and asks if he really can’t use his powers to go through this pile of paper. Has Kara really never used her powers to do menial tasks? Kara says no, but she’s bad at lying. (S: I distinctly remember her heating Cat’s coffee with her eyes.)
The phone rings and Kara thinks Mike can handle it.
Catherine: I like how she has to teach him to use a phone but plans on leaving him alone for most of the day so she can go to her office on another floor?? How does she think that’s gonna go?
Mari: Even the phone thing. If he can’t answer it, he can’t transfer it. He has 0 answers to any questions they might ask and he knows no one. Kara has no one to blame but herself when this goes wrong.
Alien bar, maybe? Alex has just beat Maggie at pool. Maggie wants to know if she can play for her money back. Alex says that at the rate Maggie plays, they’d be there all night and her girlfriend would have to put out an APB. Maggie says that isn’t likely because they broke up. Alex jumps all over that, wanting to know how that happened and who would dump her. Maggie shares a couple of details, but then excuses herself to go home and drink something harder than beer.
We cut back to Alex and James still getting coffee so are Alex and Maggie playing morning pool and drinking breakfast beer? Slow down, ladies. Kara thanks James for taking in Mike, the “outer space stray puppy.” James says he almost is jealous of how new and exciting everything is for him.
A car comes to a screeching halt in front of them. Masked men jump out en route to rob something. Kara is like, “right in front of Supergirl?” and she says it jokingly but this seems convenient. Supergirl jumps into action, landing in front of a masked men, telling him that his bullets won’t work on her. Behind her, another masked man says it’s a good thing he didn’t bring bullets. He pulls of his mask and shoots something that looks like lightening. It knocks Supergirl right off her feet.
Meanwhile, James takes on the getaway car driver. He knocks him down pretty good, but then the Getaway Driver trips him, gets up, and stomps on his face. Supergirl is trying to get closer to Unmasked Man, but he keeps nailing her with his lightening gun. Getaway Driver finally gets in the car and drives away, smashing James’s (dad’s) camera on the way. Supergirl flies to James to check if he’s okay and sees his camera. Jimmy seems more concerned with who the men with lightening guns were.
DEO. Winn is showing Supergirl a gallery of alien weapons and she spots the one the masked guys had. Winn says it’s an Andrannian Photon Canon. (C: *shrug*) Winn thinks it’s lucky Supergirl didn’t get hit with a fully charged weapon because that would’ve been bad news. (S: Why wouldn’t they have fully charged the weapons?) (M: #contrivance) Winn suggests coming up with a way of detecting the particles the guns emit.
Suddenly, all the TVs at the DEO start broadcasting a message. The message is intercut with clips of different aliens, President Lynda Carter, and the masked men from just that day. The weird disembodied floating mask says that everyone was warned about the aliens, and no one listened. Now alien technology is falling in the wrong hands. Everyone will have to heed the chaos that amnesty has wrought. The message ends, “we are Cadmus.”
Alex things it’s super convenient timing that Cadmus releases a new video just after someone got their hands on alien weapons.
Catherine: This isn’t the first time that CADMUS has hacked the DEO’s computer (or all of the computers in the world or whatever) to send out a message and here’s my question, shouldn’t Winn be doing something about that? He’s this super genius hacker guy. Why is he not tracing the Matrix signal or some shit? Is that not his entire job?
Mari: He’s busy cataloguing alien guns, Catherine. God.
CatCo. A bunch of people are gathered around the TV, listening to a news report about the damage Supergirl caused. You know. With her body when she was being electrocuted all over the place. Some guy says that he wants an alien gun so he can feel safe. If bad guys get alien guns, good guys should. Plus the 2nd Amendment protects their right to bear arms, even if those arms are space arms. Kara tells him that is decidedly not the answer. And she says that Cadmus was the one who gave out the alien guns in the first place. Cadmus wants discord and fear. Random Guy asks how Kara even knows what Cadmus wants, and Kara is still bad at lying so she says she just knows. (S: Yeah. Bad at lying and also not looking exactly like Supergirl.) James breaks it up and tells them to get to work on their assignments. (C: JFC this was so heavy handed. GUN CONTROL. WE GET IT. MESSAGES. YES.)
Kara and James walk together. Kara says she doesn’t know what to do because all these alien weapons are far more advanced than anything they had on Krypton. James says he knows she and the DEO will figure something out. Kara calls out James’s defeatist tone. He says he just feels like there isn’t much he can do from behind Cat’s desk. (S: I miss Cat.) Kara assures him that he helps.
Their attention turns to Eve, his assistant, as she struggles under the weight of a bunch of files. Kara asks how much James gave her. I mean, it’s a lot of files to carry maybe but it doesn’t look unreasonable to me for a day’s work? (C: Oh, Mari. Sweet, wizard Mari with her ridiculous amount of daily finished tasks.) Anyway. Kara hurries forward to help Eve. She explains that Mike was struggling with his work on his first day, but he’s just so nice that she’s offered to help. James looks at Kara and asks which of them should handle this. Kara volunteers.
Kara finds Mike at his desk eating Twizzlers. He loves them, and I can’t relate because they are flavorless rubber. Kara tries to explain doing your own job. Mike doesn’t get it.
Wuuuuh? Did I miss that part? They are friends?
Catherine: I guess? I think they met when Clark was there and Lena was all “I’m not bad, swearsies” and Kara was like “I like to give people chances maybe she’s okay.” Which if you’re probably a secret villain like Lena, is enough to consider someone a friend.
Mari: Kara accepts the invitation. Lena bites her lip and I’m pretty sure she wants to kiss Kara. I’m just saying. (C: Yup!) (S: Us and the internet are very sure of this.) Mike overhears and invites himself to the gala because he loves a party. Kara says no way, but Lena says it’s okay.
Winn is working on tracking the photon guns, talking to Alex as he goes, but she is decidedly not paying attention. Alex is thinking about Maggie and how vulnerable she is lately. Alex wants to cheer her up. Winn says he tries to stay out of people’s relationships. Alex is like, “hello? Kara?” Winn says that’s different because he was into Kara. It’s not like Alex is into Maggie. Alex gives him an awkward turtle look.
Suddenly, his computer starts blaring because there’s another attack and they are using alien guns again. Alex calls Kara.
Supergirl shows up to the next attack and this time, one guy has a gun that suspends things in midair. Unmasked Man is there with his photon gun, but Supergirl gets the jump on him and disarms him. A masked man uses his gun to blast away a cop car. Supergirl flies after it and saves the cop.
Shady parking garage. Unmasked Man (“Mr. Miner”) meets with the head Cadmus lady. She thinks he’s being reckless, but Miner is feeling invincible thanks to all the alien guns. He refuses to take her advice and go after smaller targets because he wants to be rich. Cadmus Lady has no interest in making him rich. Her interest is in shaping public perception and then stepping in to “save” the world. Miner is like “whatever can I have a new gun?” Cadmus Lady complies and gives him an even bigger alien gun.
Crime Scene. Maggie and Alex are there. Alex asks Maggie if she’s feeling any better and suggests going out to do something fun after they are done here. Maggie doesn’t really feel up to it. Alex keeps insisting, saying she thought they could keep each other company. Maggie is a little surprised, saying that she read Alex completely wrong. She didn’t know Alex was into girls. Alex gets defensive and says she is totally not at all into girls nuh uh no way no how. Gay? What gay? I don’t know ha ha ha ha ha ha. Alex beats a hasty retreat.
Catherine: I still don’t really like Alex but I appreciate the LGBT rep and watching her realize that she’s somewhere over the rainbow is really cute.
Samantha: Yes.
Mari: CatCo. Jimmy finds Kara to tell her that polls show that 63% of people now support repealing the Alien Amnesty Act. Kara says Snapper wants her to write an objective piece about it, but she doesn’t know how she can when she knows what’s really going on. Kara asks James if he’s seen Mike. James hasn’t seen him since he sent him down to marketing with some proofs that are still sitting on his desk. Kara uses her superhearing. She hears Eve ask Mike if he has protection and he replies, “what, like a sword?” Well then. (S: Mike is annoying. This storyline is annoying. Yuck.)
Kara hurries off to find them, and they are in a copy room in the beginning stages of undress.
Mari: Eve says it’s not what it looks like, and Kara is like, “just go, girl.” Mike is totally not embarrassed and very non-repentant. He says that he can make any Earth girl fall for him. Kara tells him that he keeps messing up. Mike says it’s hard for him to pretend this way, especially because he’s used to doing his own thing. Kara says he has to do her thing now. Either that, or find a new mentor.
DEO. James goes to visit Winn, claiming that he kind of misses him around CatCo. He then casually asks if there are any developments on the alien gun thing. Winn explains the DEO system for tracking suspicious activity. For instance, right now there is a shady truck near or around the Federal Reserve, but they don’t think it’s really anything. James is like, “huh interesting nice talk bro” and leaves.
Catherine: Right, so, he totally didn’t miss him around CatCo then.
Mari: Obviously.
Federal Reserve. The masked men roll up. Jimmy is in the shadows, with a hoody and a mask of his own and this time he has a bat with him. He manages to take out three masked men before Miner shows up with his new gun. He blasts Jimmy though a glass door, and then uses the gun to destabilize the entire building. The masked men escape. Jimmy runs into the building and helps the tenants escape. As the building crashes, Jimmy runs away and pulls down his mask very dramatically. That seems like a rookie mistake.
CatCo, the next day. Jimmy is nursing some wounds. Winn walks in and he’s like, “yeah, I’ve got footage of you running away from the Federal Reserve because you took off your mask rookie.” See? Winn asks what the heck Jimmy was thinking. Jimmy replies that all his life he’s been a sidekick, hiding behind a camera while his best friends wear capes and save people. Jimmy wants to do something good for the world. Winn has found the work he’s supposed to do with the DEO, but Jimmy hasn’t found his work at CatCo. He feels this (meaning being a vigilante) is it. Winn reminds him that he doesn’t have super powers. Jimmy knows that, but he feels like he can do this, especially if Winn helps him by making him a suit. Winn seems a little interested, but quickly says he couldn’t. He helped Kara, but that was different.
Catherine: I’m confused, are the writers giving Jimmy… something to… DO? What show is this?
Mari: Maybe the one Twitter is watching?
Super Pad. Alex is waiting for Kara outside, eating a feelings donut. Kara calls her out on the mid-day sugar intake. It would be really cute if my friends could tell something was wrong with me because I was eating sugar. Alex says she’s confused about something, but asks Kara why she is stomping all over the place. Kara goes off on a rant about how Mike is a total disaster, after she got him a social security number and fake glasses and all. Alex tells Kara to sit for a second for story time: when Kara first came to the Danvers house, Alex was so excited to have a sister that she tried to make Kara do everything she did from go to science fairs to listen to punk. All that failed, and Alex had to stop pushing and let Kara become her own person. Kara gets the lesson and admits that maybe the glasses and the sweater were a bit too much. No word on the bow tie, though.
Kara realizes that she’s been talking nonstop, and Alex came here with a problem as well. Alex starts to say something, but is interrupted by a knock on the door. It’s Lena, dropping in on Kara for the second time this episode. Lena recognizes Alex as someone who saved her life. Alex introduces herself as FBI, and Kara adds that they are sisters. Lena is here because she needs a favor: she needs to get in touch with Supergirl.
Underground tunnel. (C: The ‘trash tunnel by a train’ from all comics everywhere.) Miner has called Cadmus Lady because he wants to attack Lena’s gala. Cadmus Lady says that’s a foolish plan. If he wants to do it, he does it with the alien guns he already has. Miner pulls a gun on Cadmus Lady, and she tells them that her noble cause to protect her son and daughter and the planet from aliens makes her unafraid of guns. Something like that.
L-Corp. Supergirl lands outside Lena’s office. It’s real helpful that these offices all have decks. Lena asks Supergirl to attend her party to ensure her guests will be safe. Supergirl doesn’t understand why she would take the risk. Lena speechifies about not living in fear and doing what you must and stuff. Supergirl says she’ll be there then. Lena’s like “great! See you and Kara both there.” Supergirl realizes her mistake and flies off with a “crap!” (S: The disguise is so good, even Kara forgets!) Also, Lena’s lipstick is beautiful.
Winn and Kara walk into the party together. He’s got a little doohickey that will alert him to alien guns. Kara spots Lena and says it’s time to commence Operation Doubtfire (lol). She runs and greets Lena. After a bit, Winn runs into Lena with his drink. In the distraction, Kara runs off and returns as Supergirl. Supergirl says hi to Lena and says she’ll be checking the perimeter and will be back at the first sign of danger. Supergirl flies off and reappears as Kara. Kara says hi to Lena again, who tells her she just missed Supergirl. (S: WEIRD THAT.)
Later, Kara is double fisting hors d’oeuvres. Mike spots her.
It seems like they are telegraphing that this might be a thing, yeah? I mean, I think they are doing a better job setting up Lena and Kara than Mike and Kara, but it’s early yet.
Catherine: I hope it won’t be a thing, only because Mike is kind of a douche. Also Lena x Kara would be far more interesting. Also: WHERE IS CAT??
Samantha: I just saw a twitter news article that Calista will FINALLY EVENTUALLY be coming back to the show. And yeah, ew Mike.
Mari: If they intend to go there, they are definitely going to make him less ew and more hero-y, I think. On the other hand, every gifset I came across of hi was like “aw he’s so cute look at his alien misogyny and copy room hijinks!” So.
Mike invites Kara to dance so she puts her dumplings down. Winn and Jimmy are watching nearby, and Winn makes a comment about how Kara definitely won’t like him, right? (Telegraphing.) Winn’s doohickey starts beeping, but I’m not sure how useful it is because once second later, Miner shows up with his alien gun. Like, thanks for that advanced warning, doohickey.
Kara tells Mike not to do anything. She takes off. Miner tells everyone to hand over their jewels. Jimmy is very tense, and Winn tells him not to even think about playing the hero. Supergirl shows up and Miner says he was counting on her showing. They go gun-to-heat-vision, and Supergirl ends up on the ground. Mike takes on one of the other masked men, but very quickly gets blasted away. Supergirl is flying above, shooting out heat vision, and I really wonder at hiring her to “protect” your party because everything is just chaos and ducking for cover right now.
Catherine: This is definitely a fight that should have happened outside and away from all the breakables.
Mari: Winn ducks under the stage and Lena is down there messing with something that is meant to neutralize the guns if she can get it work. This whole party was a trap, so I guess she wasn’t really counting on Supergirl to protect the party, which makes me LOL. Winn geeks out over the whatever thing for a bit and then helps her get it operational. It’s kind of cute. Wait…. is THIS gonna be a thing??? (Sorry. I’ll stop never.)
Catherine: Please keep going, I dig the ships. ALSO Lena being a genius and working with this gun-neutralizer thing is super cool. So often the Luthors are just protrayed as RICH and BAD, but in the original comics Lex was also a super genius. That was part of what made him a good villain. So having that be a character trait of Lena’s is cool. Even if she does turn out to be evil later.
Mari: Jimmy is punching some people but gets knocked down (again). He almost gets blasted by a gun, but Supergirl steps in front of the blast. Miner and the other masked men come for Supergirl. She takes on their gun blasts with her heat vision. Winn and Lena punch the button on their gun neutralizer. The alien guns all stop working and explode. Supergirl looks around questioningly, and Winn and Lena crawl out from under the stage.
Maggie escorts Miner in cuffs to a police van. He says he wants to talk to the DA because he can ID the person who gave them the guns. Suddenly, Miner hears Cadmus Lady’s voice in his head saying that she warned him not to get caught. Miner collapses, bleeding out of the ears. His buddies follow suit. Cadmus Lady rolls by in a car and smiles that it’s on to the next one.
CatCo. Winn comes to see Jimmy and offer his help, because it’s obvious Jimmy isn’t going to stop. Winn gets it, too because after so many years sitting at a little desk creating firewalls, he really loves his job at the DEO. Plus, he’d feel bad if Jimmy went and got himself killed and stuff. Winn makes Jimmy promise he won’t go into the line of fire without the suit. Jimmy’s got a hero name. He won’t reveal it just yet, though.
Catherine: Okay, here’s my thing about this, too. Jimmy deciding to be Batman is fine. Lord knows, Jimmy Olsen making dumbass decisions is a hallmark of the canon. But he hasn’t actually….won any of these fights. He’s gotten beat up a lot. He says he’s a blackbelt as justification for doing this to Winn and that’s surprising, because I don’t remember them ever mentioning that before and also he’s REALLY bad at fighting. Well, compared to all the Supers on the show, any normal human would seem bad at fighting. But again, he got into like three fights in this episode and lost all of them. I would think you’d want to, like, win a fight at least once before deciding to devote your nights to putting your underwear outside of your pants and standing on top of buildings. Just me.
Mari: A+
DEO. Kara wakes Mike up again. Not for work, though, because he got fired from that. Mike asks if she’s mad, and Kara says she has a feeling she’s always going to be a little bit mad at him. She gives him a nice little speech about how she was just so excited to take him under her wing because she never got to do that with her cousin. COUSIN SHOTS! I mostly recapped that portion of the feelsy speech for the cousin shots. And by “mostly” I mean yes. The point is that Mike is his own man whose life will be different from hers. Mike asks if he still needs to get a job. Kara says yes, but he can pick something he likes. She hands him a guide to National City, and he opens right up to the page on strip clubs. Kara quickly rips that page out.
Samantha: Again, pretty sick of Mike and MISOGYNY being his like, defining characteristic. Not cute.
Mari: Alien Bar. Maggie is drinking alone. Alex joins her to check on her after that weird witness dying thing. Maggie apologizes for being too forward the last time they talked. Alex sits and tells Maggie that all her life has been about being perfect, but the one part of her life she’s never managed to get perfect was her dating life. She never liked getting intimate, but she never thought it was because she was… And she struggles to finish here. To name the things she’s feeling. She just tells Maggie that she’s been thinking that there might be some truth to those things Maggie said about her. Maggie nudges her to name them, but Alex can’t. Not yet. She says she has to go. Maggie is left looking pensive.
Samantha: Yep, so far definitely like this. It feels authentic and genuine and not too LOOK LOOK AT OUR LGBT STORYLINE SEE?
Mari: L-Corp. Supergirl tells Lena that she took a great risk. Lena says it was great working together and she hopes to do it more in the future. They are interrupted by CADMUS LADY. I totally thought it was weird that earlier during her speech she emphasized her son and daughter but I didn’t connect it to the Luthors, which probably should’ve been obvious in a Lena-heavy episode. Supergirl says goodbye. Mama Luther apologizes for missing Lena’s party. Lena coldly asks what else is new, and it’s here that she calls her “mom,” in case we had any doubt.
That’s gonna make Lena’s next party pretty awkward, I’d guess. (C: Who invites their mom to parties anyway? Nerd alert!)
Next time on Supergirl: Infected scientists in S02 E06 – Changing.
I'm a 30-something south Floridan who loves the beach but cannot swim. Such is my life, full of small contradictions and little trivialities. My main life goals are never to take life too seriously, but to do everything I attempt seriously well. After that, my life goals devolve into things like not wearing pants and eating all of the Zebra Cakes in the world. THE WORLD.
I'm a 28 year old graduated English major and almost librarian. I can often be found singing too loudly (poorly) in the car or spending some time (hours) on Tumblr. I am a lover of Harry Potter, the Spice Girls, and too many other things.
I am a 30-something year-old human woman who lives in Maine. I'm a freelance writer who mostly spends time that I should be doing that, watching T.V. I also love reading and comic books way too much.
