Nevertheless, She Persisted — Girls Run the World as #Supergirl Closes Season Two

Resist

Who Run’s the World? Super girls.

This week’s Supergirl gives us Rhea trying to conquer Earth and Earth trying to stop her; plus Cat is back! So I’m excited. 

The Enemy Of My Enemy iI Still My Enemy (but We Teamed Up Anyway)

We start with Lena waking up on Rhea’s ship. Rhea tells Lena that she wants to remake the Earth (not sure what that means, maybe weed out the people she deems unworthy) so that it is worthy of her (her being Lena), but Lena isn’t having it.

National City and the DEO are being attacked and Maggie and Alex are out there being the truest of heroes.

Mon-El and his mother hash it out while she tells him her plans. In order to make the Daxam takeover go smoothly, she wants Mon-El to marry Lena (LMAO). Mon-El is put out and I can’t see how Rhea thought that would be a thing that works.

Team Supergirl (everyone but J’onn who’s still decommissioned from last week’s episode) is huddled at the Bar with No Name trying to make a plan when Lilian Luthor shows up. She wants to help take Rhea down since it IS kind of her brand, but team Supergirl isn’t having it since she’s hi-key evil and tell her to get out. She asks Kara to call her if she changes her mind.

The president has boarded Air Force One and is headed straight for Rhea and her ship (who okayed this? Shouldn’t she send military personnel?). She tells Rhea to stand down, but Rhea isn’t having it. Cat has somehow found her way aboard Air Force One and steps in on the President and Rhea’s confrontation. She tries to broker peace while being shady and Rhea blasts Air Force One out of the sky.

Supergirl flies in and catches Cat who is free falling through the air. When the two land Air Force One is destroyed, but the President emerges in her alien form.

President Olivia (thinks of Scandal, chuckles) tells Supergirl her survival story and then promotes Alex to acting director of the DEO as J’onn is out of commission. She orders her to shoot down the Daxamite super ship with a Positron Cannon, but Supergirl is hesitant because her best friend and Mon-El are on the ship.

Rhea wants Lena and Mon-El to hurry up and get married so that they can go ahead and make her some grandbabies. Lena is completely disgusted by this thought (same) and refuses again. Rhea is unbothered by Lena’s defiance because she has stolen a lock of Lena’s hair and Daxamites can create children through gene splicing.

Since, the threat of theoretical children doesn’t change Lena and Mon-El’s minds, Rhea threatens to destroy the children’s hospital if she doesn’t get her way; Lena and Mon-El agree to marry one another.

Kara’s still upset that Alex is going to blow up the ship with Lena and Mon-El on it. She gets a pep talk from Cat, who tells her to do what she needs to do. Supergirl takes that to mean ask Cadmus for help and that’s exactly what she does.

Alex is not happy about Cadmus being involved, but Team Supergirl and Cadmus make a plan to save Lena and Mon-El.

While Super Gadmus (Supergirl + Cadmus) carry out the plan to get on the ship, Rhea is marrying Mon-El and Lena. Cat is in her rightful place (her desk) distracting Rhea and instilling hope throughout National City with a live broadcast. Furious, Rhea postpones the wedding and sends her goons after Cat.

Meanwhile Supergirl, Lilian, and Cyborg Hank manage to sneak onto the ship. They are fighting their way toward Mon-El and Lena, and Lena is helping Mon-El and herself escape. The two groups meet up and Lena is honestly surprised that her mother cared enough to save her.

Well, Lilian only had plans to save Lena and uses the trans matter particle to escape with Lena and Hank, leaving Supergirl and Mon-El behind. Since Lilian is decided to be Lillian, Winn and Kara had a back-up plan in the event that Lilian would leave them stranded. They enact the back-up plan but Kara only sends Mon-El because she thinks she can relate to Rhea’s humanity.

Kara finds Rhea and tries to have a heart to heart with her but Rhea’s not having it. Meanwhile, Alex is stressed because the President wants her to blow-up Rhea’s ship while Kara is still on board. Before she can decide between her sister and her country, something blows the Positron Cannon up. Back on the ship, Kara is attacked, when she looks to see who did it, it’s revealed it’s Superman.

This was a really good episode, like to the point where I don’t really have any complaints. I’m surprised that it isn’t the season finale (there’s enough suspense to keep me engaged until next season) but I suppose they need to utilize Tyler Hoechiln while they have him.

Musings

• Daxamite gear looks a lot like Guardian’s gear
• Alex jumping from the building was the best part of the episode
• I thought Rhea’s plan was to go back to Daxam? Why colonize Earth? Why not take Lena and Mon-El and go?
• When did Guardian get a gun?
• I appreciate the well earned Bill O’Reilly shade
• When Supergirl called Cyborg Hank R2D2, all I could think of is how proud Winn would be
• Lena seems to be oscillating between two extremes when it comes to mother figures in her life and their alien beliefs. Rhea (alien trying to preform global domination) vs. Lilian (anti-alien extremist)
• I need someone to create a spinoff show of Alex and Maggie being badass DEO agents
• Cat knowing James was Guardian was beautiful, also there’s no way she doesn’t know Kara is Supergirl

Nevertheless, She Persisted

This season finale actually snatched my edges. I’m really proud of the writers for stepping up — even though they forgot to include James.

Lena’s Learning curve

Lena is busy day drinking away her guilt and probable PTSD when Lilian stops by. She lets her daughter have it for trusting some rando (say no to strangers, girl) and Lena politely reminds her that Lilian’s lack of faith and support is why Lena doubted herself and searched for validation from strangers.

Lilian apologizes and gives Lena a gift that she found in Lex’s vault. Lex created the device to get rid of Superman and Lilian thinks that Lena can use it to save the day.

Lilian and Lena call a meeting with Supergirl and Superman to let them know that Lena has figured out a way to stop the Daxamites with Lex’s device. By releasing lead into the atmosphere the Daxamites would leave, but it would mean none of them (ie Mon-El) could ever return.

Winn is helping Lena with the machine and she finishes it. Lilian snatches the machine and attempts to turn it on without consulting anyone, and nothing happens. Lena reveals to her mother that she gave Supergirl the activation remote for the device so only she can turn it on.

Supergirl: Ultimate Warrior

We start the show with an epic (if not a bit dramatic) fight between Superman and Supergirl. Rhea has used Silver Kryptonite to control Superman, who thinks that he’s fighting Zod, not his cousin. Supergirl manages to beat Superman and then promptly blacks out.

Kara is having a dream about herself and Mon-El in bed and when she wakes up she’s in the Fortress of Solitude. Superman wakes up after and she fills him in on what happened to him. Supergirl, Superman and Alex look for something in the Fortress of Solitude that can help them, getting what they need and the three fly back to the DEO.

While Winn is fanboying over Superman, Kara fills in Mon-El about them finding out about Dacom-Or in the Fortress of Solitude and how she intends to use it. Mon-El is not having it and that’s because Dacom-Or is a one on one battle and Kara plans to battle Rhea.

The Daxamite ships are preparing for another attack when Supergirl calls Rhea and challenges her to battle for the safety of the Earth, Rhea accepts. Mon-El throws another hissy fit because the fight is on and he doesn’t think she’ll win. Superman sets Mon-El straight by reminding him that Supergirl beat him in their fight.

Alex goes to check on J’onn as does M’gann (hey girl hey!) and she gives him a pep talk from 54.6 million kilometers away (Mars). J’onn wakes up and looks for M’gann but she’s nowhere to be found.

Cat is back behind her desk, in her office, shouting orders when Kara and Cat’s fantasy bae, Clark, stop by. Cat asks Clark to tell James to cool it with the Guardian stuff.

While Supergirl and Superman fill the DEO in on Lena’s fail-safe plan, J’onn sends Winn to help Lena. Kara (who is determined to win this fight, for the sake of her boyfriend) asks Superman to spar with her so she can be prepared. In the middle of the sparing match, Kara has an existential crisis because she doesn’t think she’ll ever be able to have it all. Based on what happens during this episode, was Kara right? Was this the show creators way of telling us she never will?

Supergirl and Rhea meet up, establish the terms of their fight, and get to it. Midway through their fight, the Daxamite ships start attacking National City. Mon-El, Superman, and Martian Manhunter go through the streets saving innocent civilians and defeating Daxamite soldiers in the streets. M’gann arrives on earth to help and brought a bunch of White Martians with her.

Supergirl falcon punches Rhea and she starts to bleed… Kryptonite. Due to Krypton’s destruction/pollution, Rhea’s physical chemistry changed — as pollution is prone to cause. Her Kryptonite blood gives Rhea an advantage and she starts beating Supergirl. Supergirl regains the upper hand but Rhea is unfazed because even if she dies the Daxamites will continue to attack Earth.

The Daxamite ships reposition themselves so that they are targeting safety zones and Supergirl realizes she has no choice but to enact Lena’s fail-safe Daxamite Be Gone spray. Mon-El tells Kara it’s fine and she pushes the button. The Daxamites flee quickly leaving Rhea and Mon-El behind. Rhea dies a quick and dusty death, but due to his long exposure to the Earth’s sun, Mon-El’s death is slower. Kara thinks of a way to save him though, by bringing him back to the pod he arrived in. They say good bye and “I love you” for the first time, and then Mon-El escapes certain death.

National City is celebrating, not dying, but Kara is depressed because her bae can’t come back. Clark tries to comfort Kara by admitting that he wouldn’t be able to choose the betterment of mankind over Lois and proving that emotionally men are weak.

J’onn thanks M’gann again for helping and she proceeds to tell him about other White Martians she’s found who have regrets and they kiss.

Alex goes to talk to Kara, but Kara is inconsolable. She tells Kara she’s proud of her, and Kara tells Alex to hold tight to Maggie. Alex takes this literally and proposes to Maggie who says yes! (AHHHHHHHAJFHJEHbvakhahbf)  

The next day Kara goes to talk to Cat, but she’s still sad about what’s his face. Cat can see Kara’s depressed and gives her a pep talk. After the news reports a fire Kara conveniently remembers something she forgot to do and leaves.

Cat tells her to go and then tells the audience that she knows Kara is Supergirl. (*que more screaming*) Meanwhile, Mon-El is flying through space when a wormhole opens and sucks him into… something. The Phantom Zone? The 31st century? A multiverse? At the same time, Kara is on Earth fly-crying.

We get a flashback to when Krypton was dying and we see Clark and Kara being shipped off again. Then we see another baby (?) being put into a pod by some nefarious looking Kryptonians.

Wooo, what a finale. I enjoyed how they wrapped things up with the Daxamites, and not just because Mon-El left. I’ll admit it was a little clunky, but I got through it for the most part. I don’t think the finale needed this much M’gann in the episode — it was kind of distracting in contrast to everything else happening. (Especially considering she had more lines than James did the whole episode.) The writers could’ve left it at her waking J’onn up, giving them room to explore more next season.

Talking about the fact that James wasn’t in this episode AGAIN is tiring. I find it hard to believe that of all the writers in that room, no one could think of a subplot for him. Next season I need the Supergirl writers to do better, and stop doing to James what Arrow did to Laurel.

Musings

• I bet the DEO wished they’d kept some of their Kryptonite during the Supergirl v. Superman fight
• How did they get into the Fortress of Solitude if both Supergirl and Superman were blacked out?
• The Cat not seeing Star Wars thing is a nod at Callista Flockhart being married to Harrison Ford and it was brilliant
• LEAD IS STILL BAD FOR HUMANS EVEN IF THEY DON’T INGEST IT! Ask Flint
• Warworld reference!
• J’onn and M’gann make me so happy!
• I’m annoyed that we got cheated out of Cat meeting and reading Mon-El
• Kara: Everyone in my life is in a relationship // Me: Except James
• The shes who persisted:
  • Rhea: determined to destroy Earth, even after she dies
  • Supergirl: for trying to appeal to Rhea’s humanity, even at the end
  • M’gann: found White Martians that were like her
  • Lena: for doing the right thing, even with evil around every corner

Stephanie Francis is an aspiring journalist with a TV addiction. She has been published in a multitude of small papers including the Gloucester Times, the Salem News and the Boston Globe. You can find a collect of her published work at adventuringsomewhere.wordpress.com. And her live tweets @stephsfrancis.