Supergirl S01 E07 – Dark and scary hallways

Previously: Supergirl got so mad. So mad.
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Human For A Day

Marines: Supergirl is getting something like a super-physical. A voice-over of Holo-Mom explains that Kara’s cells have drained after fighting that robot thing last episode. She’s basically a real girl now and things will be able to hurt her. Her powers should return as soon as she’s absorbed enough yellow sun power. (S: Thank god she doesn’t live in Ohio. I haven’t seen the yellow sun in a week.) We cut to the Back Room of Solitude, where Holo-Mom is wrapping up her handy information in a slightly impersonal, AI kind of way. Supergirl sighs. (C: Still waiting on that hug, mom.)

Alex walks with Supergirl and tells her it’s fine because this kind of thing happens to Superman too. It’s been two days, though, and Supergirl has to get back to work and life. Henshaw comes over to say some unimportant things while looking morally gray (or whatever). After he walks away, Alex and Supergirl provide us with the handy exposition that reminds us that they now suspect Henshaw of being involved in Dean Cain’s death. (S: Pics or I will remain in denial.)

Kara arrives at work late and is already sneezing because there was kid with a runny nose on the bus. Winn is real confused about Kara being late, taking a bus and being sick. She explains about her missing powers and he offers to go through her biology files to look for a solution. Kara sneezes again, just as Cat is arriving. She’s personally offended by the sneeze and the spread of germs. Kara tries to pretend like it wasn’t her, but she can’t hold back yet another sneeze. Cat berates her for having germs and tells her that she might be the cause of the next recession. Kara says she’ll go home.

Samantha: It’s hella goofy that Kara got sick like exactly immediately after being near the runny nose kid but the struggle to work when sick is real. I’m bad at calling in sick, even when my co-workers do not want me there.  

Catherine: It is pretty impressive that she managed to get sick in just a few minutes. I’m guessing that’s more down to her not really getting how human bodies work. 

Mari: DEO. Some alien with a cheap looking crystal superglued to his forehead is blasting away at his holding cell. His name, hilariously, is Jemm. You gotta love comic books. (C: He so outrageous!) Henshaw walks in with Alex just behind him and Jemm starts being all growly and threatening. He tries to use his mind powers on Henshaw, but his cell comes with fancy neural-blockers so Jemm’s powers are useless. Jemm threatens to kill all of Henshaw’s loved ones. Henshaw takes this moment to bow his head and have feelings because he doesn’t have any loved ones left. Henshaw turns and tells Alex that Jemm’s “fish tank” is in need of cleaning. She gives him a feelsy look as he leaves and Jemm sends one more plastic jewel blast to usher us out of this scene.

Kara is walking along somewhere when Jimmy happens across her. She asks where he’s headed to and apparently he’s off to look at a rental because he’s moving in with Lucy. Oh god, she isn’t gone yet? Damn. Kara very unconvincingly says that’s great, but it’s cool, because she sneezes in the middle of the sentiment. Jimmy right away guesses that she’s lost her powers, something her cousin calls “solar flare.” Kara calls Clark a nerd for liking to name all his powers and such. I mean, he calls them things like “heat vision” and “freeze breath” so he’s actually pretty basic. (S: Clark Kent: Always Boring.)

  Catherine: I will kindly direct you both to when this issue was addressed in Smallville: 

Don’t make him cry. 

Mari: Jimmy assures Kara she’ll be alright. Thanks to TV timing, just as Kara says the world can survive without Supergirl for one day, a huge earthquake hits. A bridge crumbles, the pavement cracks open, Kara and Jimmy both get thrown to the ground. Just as Kara gets up, a car comes hurtling toward her. Jimmy pushes her out of the way, but Kara’s arm is hurt.

At the DEO, they lose power and, of course, Jemm escapes. Henshaw seals everything down. (S: *GASP* Holy Jeff! I did *not* see this coming!) (C: Why wouldn’t they have a fucking generator? They have some of the worst criminals in the galaxy there with less security than your typical Walmart?)

Jimmy removes his shirt to use it as a sling for Kara, who is making a lot of OW OW OW noises. The streets are all chaos and Kara looks on helplessly as smoke pours out of building and things are generally awful.

After a commercial break, some badly CGI’d helicopters fly over National City. Jimmy and Kara have returned to CatCo. Someone bumps into Kara’s broken arm and it’s the worst. Jimmy tells her to be careful and maybe go to the hospital. Kara just wants her powers back. (S: Okay, but that’s not actually helping the issue at hand, Kara.)

Alex calls and the girls quickly update each other on their current status. Alex tells Kara to stay safe and call if she gets her powers back. Cat comes out and says that if anyone wants to go be with their family, they can go. She takes pictures of the people who leave. She tells a random extra to get her station back up and running ASAP. Winn watches all of this happen with a look I can’t decipher.

DEO. Holo-Mom is giving everyone very useful information about Jemm. I thought Holo-Mom was just for Kara, but I guess not. No solitude for Kara. Holo-Mom says that their only hope is Kara and Henshaw yells for them to shut her off. They’ve got some mind-control blocking earpieces (?) to wear. (C: Sure.)  Henshaw picks two dudes to come with him and Alex protests because of all her field experience. Henshaw says he needs to leave someone behind he can trust.

At CatCo, Winn gets the TVs up and running and there is a lot of har har har about the fact that Cat doesn’t know who Winn is.

Catherine: Also a lot of bitching from Winn since he’s apparently the type of IT specialist who exclusively deals with computers and doesn’t understand anything about TV’s or how live TV works. Didn’t think he could get any more useless but there you go. 

Mari: On TV, Carlisle Maxwell Cullen Lord is giving an interview because the news in National City only ever interviews Carlisle Maxwell Cullen Lord. He’s taking this opportunity to say that Supergirl isn’t even here because she’s the worst. Cat says she’s not going to let Carlisle Maxwell do this to her creation. I see that Cat takes the Christopher Columbus kind of view of if you name it, you own it. Cat tells “Wit” to come into her office and set up a feed and he nervously follows her.

Jimmy asks Kara what she wants to do about Carlisle Maxwell. She wants to go there and stop him, at least by showing up for the cameras. At least, for Jimmy’s camera. (S: *wink wink*)

When Henshaw and Alex were having their conversation about “leaving Alex behind” I thought Henshaw was going OUT somewhere. He’s literally just checking out the DEO hallways. Alex is monitoring their progress by video feed, but it’s all wiggly and wobbly because of interference. The lights in the hallway go out briefly, and then they come back on, Henshaw is gone. The two remaining DEO agents get panicky as Jemm appears in flashes all around them. We hear gunshots and on Alex’s monitors, their heart rates flatline.

Carlisle Maxwell is handing out supplies to needy people while posing for cameras. He recognizes Jimmy and thinks Kara looks familiar. Kara introduces herself as Cat Grant’s assistant, which interests Maxwell exactly 0%. Kara follows after him, though, and tells him that what he said about Supergirl was negative and mean. Carlisle Maxwell is like WHATEVER because he says that Supergirl renders them incapable of caring for themselves. Like “heroin for the welfare state.” Maxwell thinks Supergirl should be thanking him for what he isn’t saying: that she lost her powers while fighting the android last episode. She’s a dead battery now. Jimmy says they can’t know that, but Maxwell has studied Superman. It takes him 48 hours to recharge. If Supergirl hasn’t regained her powers by now, she probably never will.

A woman comes running up, crying and saying her father needs help. Carlisle Maxwell, Kara and Jimmy follow her.

DEO. Alex is taking control since Henshaw is missing. She’s going out into the field hall. When the door opens, though, Henshaw is right there. He recaps for us what we just saw about Jemm killing the other two agents. Alex really wants to go out in the hall, but Henshaw says she can’t because they have no more mind-blocking earpieces. Plus, Jemm scanned one of the dead agents’s brains and he was head of security so now Jemm knows all things.

Out in the city, Crying Lady brings the group to her father, who is unconscious on the street. Carlisle Maxwell put his ear to the man’s chest and immediately diagnoses him because he did med-school in a year. (C: Also he’s a vampire.) Crying Lady says she once saw Supergirl fly an ambulance to the hospital, but Carlisle Maxwell grouses that unless Crying Lady knows where Supergirl is, they are all she’s got.

After a commercial break, Carlisle Maxwell keeps telling us what’s wrong with Dying Dad and why it would be useful to have Supergirl around: they need an x-ray machine. Dying Dad is definitely going to die. Maxwell take Crying Lady aside while Kara takes her glasses off and tries to will her x-ray vision back. Jimmy grabs her and tells her to stop. She puts her glasses back on and tells Maxwell to do something. He says there’s nothing he can do. Everyone is sad and distressed.

Catherine: This was honestly a pretty upsetting scene for me. You could see how much Kara wanted to help and how awful she felt that she couldn’t do something that has always come as natural as breathing to her. It’s a good way to show that she can’t always save the day. Ish. 

Mari: They are getting better about giving us scenes like this that really show us Kara’s not overly complex but still sympathetic problems. Last episode it was the car punching scene and I agree that this did reasonably well.

DEO. Alex is telling this other DEO agent who’ve they’ve definitely named this episode but obviously I’m not paying that much attention that Henshaw is shady as shit. She wants to go out into the hall.

CatCo. Cat says Winn is taking too long, which is why she is never nice to people. One compliment and he’s coasting. Winn says that he’s an IT guy. He hasn’t done this in a while. Cat says the last time she did a live broadcast was to end her talk show, so they are both going back to their roots. Winn breaks something and Cat says normally she would fire him, but they are short-staffed. Instead she gives him the Cat version of a pep-talk.

Winn gets the video working and Cat says that this is what it’s all about. Ordinary people rising to the occasion and becoming heroes. She sends “Wick” off to find someone to do her makeup.

Kara is sitting at a bus stop, distraught, staring at her bloody hand. Jimmy comes over to comfort her and give her a pep-talk. The long and short of it is that Kara was finally starting to help people and now she feels useless. Jimmy says that no hero can save everyone, but that doesn’t mean you stop trying. Thanks to TV timing, a man across the street breaks into a shop. Kara gets up and Jimmy is like, “woah there. I meant keep trying to be a hero when you get your powers back.” Or at the very least when you don’t have a broken arm in a t-shirt sling, homegirl.

  Samantha: Also….is her cold…gone? Katy and I were wondering whilst tweeting. Were this a better show it could be a subtle indicator that she’s almost re charged.

Catherine: But this is not that show, friends. 

Mari: DEO. Alex is finally in the hall and she finds the dead bodies of the two other agents. Their mind-blocker earpieces are in tact, so Henshaw lied to them. Alex puts one on, but before Totally Has A Name Agent can put his on, Jemm gets into his head. Totally Has A Name pulls his gun, but fights the influence enough to tell Alex to run. (C: Aw, he deserves a name for that. I’m calling him Waffles.) (M: Because they are delicious? I don’t know what’s happening.)

Apparently, the hooligans from earlier were breaking into a store with people in it? Okay, so they’ve got these people at gunpoint when Supergirl walks in. Her broken arm is shaking and I actually feel bad for her. She tells the Hooligan that his gun won’t work on her, but he doesn’t put it down.

Cat Co. She’s broadcasting live. Her speech is intercut with Supergirl’s speech to the Hooligan. Cat says that they could react to this crisis by acting selfishly or being petty, but they are in this together. Supergirl will show up when they need her most. Supergirl tells the Hooligans that this isn’t them. She knows they are scared and trying to find a way out, but this isn’t the way. Cat tells her viewers to call in with stories of heroism. She says she knows they can’t all do what Supergirl does but, “we choose who we want to be,” Supergirl finishes. Supergirl holds out her hand and the Repentant Hooligan gives over his gun. Jimmy takes a couple of pictures. It’s all very uplifting y’all. (S: I’mma go find a kitty in a tree to rescue.)

Halls of Doom. Henshaw grabs Alex from behind and pulls her into a server room. He asks wtf she’s doing in the hall and she says that she and Waffles were looking for Henshaw. Waffles is gone now. Henshaw gets pissed. He totally lied to her about the mind blocking earpieces so that she wouldn’t do something stupid LIKE THIS. Waffles walkie-talkies in and Alex is all, “phew! Awesome, you are alive.” Thankfully, Henshaw has at least some measure of brain and knows that this is Jemm-controlled Waffles. Jemm drops the pretense and threatens to break out all his alien buddies and make it to the surface.

Samantha: Seriously, Alex was stupid and so bad at her job this episode.

Mari: Henshaw says they need to move to a secure location but Alex holds him at gunpoint. Henshaw says he isn’t the enemy and Alex basically is all, “OH YEAH? WHAT ABOUT MY DADDY?” Henshaw says that Dean Cain was a great man, but Alex yells that he doesn’t get to talk about Dean Cain. Alex makes Henshaw handcuff himself to some bars and he gives the most hilarious eye roll. Once that’s done, Alex calls Jemm and tells him that he doesn’t need to release all his alien buddies. She has the access code for the blast doors and she tells him to meet her in the control room.

CatCo. Kara says busting that hold up felt better that flying or catching planes. They are looking at Jimmy’s picture of her grabbing the gun and it is awkward as hell. Supergirl is standing weirdly and her arm is all stiff and Jimmy’s cut off someone on the side of the picture. Jimmy. Do better. Kara loves it though.

Catherine: I like how this wasn’t even mentioned in the episode. You’re just legitimately mad about this. 

Mari: #recappingthings

Jimmy says that the best pictures are of people you secretly love (something like that).

Kara asks what his first picture was and Jimmy fishes in his wallet for the picture. It’s his dad right before he left to the Gulf War. He never came back. Jimmy never put down his camera after that. He gets chocked up but then moves on by saying that Kara doesn’t need powers to be a hero. They hug and nestle into each other.

Winn walks in and they break apart guiltily. Winn’s obviously really uncomfortable and starts babbling about how he accessed the DEO files on Superman. Basically, he learned that Kara will get her superpowers back with a Krytopnian-sized shot of adrenaline. He leaves awkwardly.

Kara chases after him and tells him that the hug was not what it looked like. Winn goes off with a speech that makes absolutely no sense and is just stupidity about how Kara’s going to get her superpowers back so obviously she’s never going to get the boy. So she should settle for you? PFFT.

Samantha: Worst worst worst I hate him worst. You don’t get to hurt her cause your ego is bruised. Worst.

Catherine: This made me RAGE. I hate Winn so much. It’s like they’re begging me to hate him at this point. All he needs is a fedora and a bottle of Mountain Dew covered in fingerprints of Dorito dust. 

Mari: Thankfully, this nonsensical and stupid aside is ended when another earthquake rocks the building. Did someone order a super shot of adrenaline? Thanks, TV timing! Anyway, it wasn’t an aftershock; it’s an explosion. Winn calls upstairs and someone calmly answers, “hello?” At this point I was super confused as to HOW they knew it was an explosion and how they knew the people upstairs were in danger and anyway, I’m almost done with this episode so let’s keep going. (S: I dunno, I didn’t even remember that it was an explosion.)

Kara says they need to get everyone on this floor downstairs but Winn asks what they do about the people upstairs. Kara thinks of the elevator shaft.

DEO Control Room. Jemm walks in and Alex is hiding in the shadows. She starts shooting at him and then sets off some little bombs. She runs down off the catwalk and picks up another gun and resumes shooting. One of the hits sends Jemm’s cheap crystal flying out of his forehead, but since it was just superglued on, it doesn’t kill him or anything. (C: Now he has to go back to fucking Hobby Lobby to buy another one.) Alex keeps shooting, but Jemm flings her across the room. It looks like Alex is in trouble but no! Henshaw shows up and breaks Jemm’s neck. Henshaw gives Alex a look and tells her again that he’s not the enemy.

Catherine: But good guys don’t usually break people’s necks???

Mari: Shhhh.

CatCo. Jimmy forces the elevator doors open, while Winn keeps talking to the people upstairs via telephone. He instructs them to head for the elevators. They can’t get the doors open so Jimmy says he’ll climb up and open them from the other side. Kara is not okay with this, but he assures her that he’ll be right back. He reaches the floor in danger, opens the elevator and helps a couple of ladies out. They climb down to Winn and Kara, but just then, there is another non-aftershock-explosion-maybe. Jimmy looses his balance and has to grab onto elevator cables to keep from falling.

Of course, the cable starts breaking. Kara looks on helplessly until she realizes that she’s clenching both fists. The cable breaks, Jimmy falls, but Kara is gone. She’s superchanged into her hero outfit and I’ll never not find it hilarious that this comes along with letting her hair out of a pretty intricate ponytail. It’s all curls and windblown now. Super.

Catherine: I love that she took the time to change. He was falling to his death and yeah, she can definitely move that quickly, but why? He already knows who she is. 

Mari: Anyway, Supergirl saves Jimmy and her boys tell her to get out there and help the city. We get a mini-montage of her saving a school bus, putting out a fire and flying over Carlisle Maxwell, who hates it so much.

Supergirl is all over the news, which is playing on a TV at the DEO. Alex calls Kara just to say that they are all okay. Alex watches Henshaw walk into an office and then follows. Henshaw asks if she really wants to know the truth since only one other living person knows. Alex can’t tell anyone, not even Kara. Alex says Henshaw was the one who taught her how to keep secrets from Kara.

Okay, story time: Henshaw is not actually Hank Henshaw. The Real Hank Henshaw and Dean Cain were sent on a mission to track down an alien. Turns out this alien was a good one, though. A refugee like Kara. Dean Cain didn’t want to kill an innocent alien so he sacrificed his life to save it. After The Real Hank Henshaw died, this alien assumed his identity and came back to work for the DEO. That Good Alien is Fake Hank Henshaw. Good Alien made Dean Cain a promise to look after his daughter, which is why Fake Hank Henshaw recruited Alex into the DEO. Alex asks who Fake Hank Henshaw even is if he isn’t Hank Henshaw. I really hope you are following all of this.

Samantha: Uh. We don’t really get an explanation of HOW Dean Cain gave his life to save Fakshaw and I can’t really understand that so… nope. He could still be out there. 

Mari: Our hope lives on.

With his back to Alex, we see Fake Henshaw’s eyes glow red as he explains that he is the last of his kind, last son of Mars. He slowly he shifts into his actual appearance which is a tall, greenish alien. He says his name is J’onn J’onzz. Those crazy Martians with their unconventional spellings.

Also, I don’t know enough about the lore for this to be a big, big deal to me but these are two previously unconnected characters, right? Henshaw is mostly a villain in this universe and they just pulled a PSYCH! HERO IN DISGUISE. Again, my basic knowledge tells me this could be a cool thing. Thoughts?

Samantha: I have zero knowledge so I have zero thoughts besides “okay then.”

Catherine: My reactions is I’M SO MAD. 

You’re right, these are two previously unconnected characters that have now inexplicably been melded into one. Hank Henshaw is supposed to be a homicidal cyborg who hates Superman and happiness and occasionally tries to tongue kiss Lois against her will. Whereas J’onn J’onzz is Martian Manhunter, a super chill outer space Ghandi who likes being friends and spouting wisdom and ass-kicking when necessary. These are two totally different characters. Does this mean that the Hank Henshaw of this universe wasn’t a cyborg? Was it just a guy with the same name? Why is Martian Manhunter even posing as him? He doesn’t exactly need to fear humans, he has more powers than Superman himself. If they were merging together two lesser characters or even two villians it wouldn’t bother me but this is some nonsense and I doubt they are gonna even bother to explain it. I’m real mad, show. 

Mari: And we were making progress too!

CatCo. Winn is still being a jerk. I honestly do not even get what his problem is right now. Well, I know that it’s coming from his crush on Kara and him having his underwear in a bunch because he saw Kara hugging Jimmy, but where is he getting this argument that it has anything to do with Kara having powers? Oh, wait, right now he’s saying that he’s never disappointed in Supergirl but he is disappointed in Kara. Take you disappointment and shove it up your ass, Winn. (S: A Fucking Plus, a 1430, and a partridge in a pear tree.)

Kara and Jimmy share a pained and meaningful look before he goes into his office. Kara sees Cat at her desk and gets an idea.

Cat looks up and sees Supergirl flying outside of her office. Supergirl compliments Cat on the broadcast and she’s like, “thank you. WHERE WERE YOU?” She lectures Supergirl about how sad, lonely people look to their heroes during crisis. Supergirl simply says that she was glad that Cat was that hero today. People looked to her and Supergirl knows she inspired them. Cat inspired Supergirl too. They exchange smiles and Supergirl flies off.

  She’s all happy as she flies along until something knocks her out of the sky. Supergirl stands and sees two men in black and then her aunt Astra. The men grab Supergirl as Astra asks if she really thought this was over.

Her subplot isn’t but my episode is!

Bye everyone!

 

Next time on Supergirl: Kara faces Astra and Cat faces a hacker in S01 E08 – Hostile Takeover.