written by Dayna Abel, Jason Froikin and Cara Russell

SPOILER WARNINGS ARE IN EFFECT

Supergirl has spent a lot of time in its inaugural season addressing secrets and lies, and the conflict between right to privacy and the right to know the truth. It’s a sticky moral issue, and there isn’t a one-size-fits-all answer for it. Cat’s response to being provided an adultery website’s data hack was to nuke it in the microwave, Kara ultimately chose to allow James to tell Lucy about Kara being Supergirl, and we see Alex destroyed by Hank’s insistence that she keep up the pretense of Hank having killed Astra. By the end of the episode, the data hack was a misdirect, it was too late for James and Lucy’s relationship, and Alex and Kara’s – and Hank’s – relationship survived Alex’s teary confession. Sometimes you have to keep a secret for the greater good, sometimes you have to tell the truth to stop more hurt. I like seeing Supergirl demonstrating different outcomes to similar decisions, because that’s the reality of how things like that play out.

I was pleasantly surprised to see Winn being useful this episode, although the technobabble grated on my soul a little. (tl,dr; Python can be used in encryption with PyCrypt, but to insinuate that it’s above and beyond what a government shadow agency would have access to? Come on now. Sidebar, I know jack and shit about programming but I learned that in a five-second Google search. Sure sounded like I knew what I was talking about though, didn’t I?) I continue to insta-loathe Siobhan, which is probably the point because who honestly didn’t have a co-worker you wanted to throw into space? Siobhan and Winn going all Love In An Elevator was a neat curveball for which I am very thankful because anything getting Winn away from creeping on Kara is a huge plus. (I ship Kara/James anyway, fite me irl bro)

Laura Vandervoort as Indigo was a delight to watch, even if the character herself wasn’t all that interesting and the coloring choices made a lot of viewers look at her as a Mystique rip-off. I always enjoy it when a modern adaptation of something brings in actors from previous versions, and Vandervoort played the hell out of the role. Other high points of the episode were Kara and James visiting the Fortress of Solitude and interacting with Kelex, the connection between Non and Indigo, and the surprise Omegahedron at the end. A solid bit of filler this season.

-Dayna

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I believe this week’s Villain of the Week was inspired by the character in Tron: Legacy who escorted Flynn’s son into the End Of Line club. Of course, it’s easy to say that because of the costume and the fact that it has glowing lights, and that they both were products of computers. There was something else to it, though, with Indigo’s mannerisms and movements, and it’s hard to tell if that was direction or acting. Whichever it was, someone was inspired by it. Acting role aside, Indigo coming back might be interesting, because this is Supergirl. Every time a character returns it brings a chance of them turning completely around and backing the other side.

Hank seriously underestimated the bond between Alex and Kara when he took the blame for killing Astra. The entire time instead of fighting rebellion from Supergirl over Astra’s death, he could have let Alex tell the truth and solved the whole thing with a hug. And then Hank spouted the somewhat ironic catchphrase about them being stronger together. I suppose even though he tries to lead and look like he knows what he’s doing, this shows that occasionally he has no idea, just like everyone else.

I’m going to leave the fire-setting over more ridiculousness about computers to my fellow two reviewers, because they always reserve some space for it. Instead, I’m going to set fires over the ridiculousness of…no, actually, for a change Winn behaved like a human being, so I can’t poke fun at him this week. I can, however, point out that James Olsen made such a big deal about Supergirl being a faster flier than her cousin, yet later in the episode she struggled to keep up with a missile. Then again, Olsen kind of screwed up everything else this episode too, so why not that? It’s almost like he and Winn are trading places. Except for the creepiness.

-Jason

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I feel like the biggest observation this week will be the striking resemblance between Indigo (our baddie-of-the-week) and another certain similarly-hued villainess from the Merry Mutant Society’s camp. It also could have been easily avoided, but it brings up an interesting parallel, as Indigo and Non seem to have had A Thing in the past, before he married Astra. And now that Astra is out of the way — well! It’s rather nice to see another love triangle (albeit a resolved one) that doesn’t involve the Girl Of Steel herself, as that mess has overstayed its welcome.

Kara’s well-intentioned meddling with Lucy Lane only serves to show Lucy that James wasn’t as open with Lucy as one would hope in such a close relationship. Rather than reconciling, Lucy breaks things off, and tells James that Kara’s in love with him, as he is with her. Winn also gets a moment to appear less like a “Nice Guy”, when he’s genuinely nice and supportive to Siobhan, who seems to be somewhat interested. I hope it’s not just a setup for her own personal downfall, as she seems to be having trouble adjusting as Cat’s assistant.

To top off this cake of relationship drama, Alex confesses to Kara that she was the one to kill Astra, and in a touching scene Kara wordlessly forgives both Alex and Hank. It’s moments like this one that tend to overshadow whatever else happened in the episode (nuclear apocalypse, this time), and show that Supergirl‘s core strengths still remain in the family relations rather than the romance plots.

-Cara

Supergirl airs Monday nights at 8 Eastern/7 Central on CBS. Dayna can be reached on Twitter @queenanthai, Jason at @Mangacool, and Cara at @virtualcara.

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