written by Dayna Abel, Jason Froikin and Cara Russell

SPOILER WARNINGS ARE IN EFFECT

Gentle readers, I don’t think I can review this episode properly because literally all I am doing is squealing in such a way that you’d think I was browsing Kitten War.

This is sincerely the best episode of anything I have ever seen. And after publishing and reading two reviews of Broodyman v Superdesaturated, I deeply needed this. Barry Allen and Kara Danvers are the two brightest spots on television right now; everything I could have ever hoped for in role models and superheroes. They love being superheroes, they love helping people, they love doing good, and their strength comes not from their superpowers but from their innate kindness and the unbreakable friendships they’ve forged. Millions of people watch these shows, many of them little boys and girls who can grow up idolizing heroes who show them how to be strong themselves through helping others.

The dialogue and acting is absolute perfection, with a few loving digs at other shows. Silver Banshee and Livewire are a great team-up, and Barry and Kara are almost instant best friends and it’s THE BEST THING YOU GUYS YOU HAVE TO SEE THIS. You probably ought to have been watching Supergirl, but it spoils nothing for Season 2 of The Flash. Watch it, watch it with friends, and then hug those friends. And get ice cream.

-Dayna

* * *

This week’s episode of Supergirl was a lot of fun, because it had just about everything, even with the somewhat sad undercurrent of Kara’s sister Alex missing. But then Non showed up and tossed a wet blanket all over the episode by turning it serious, activating Project Myriad and turning all humans into zombies. Why? It doesn’t even make much sense to have a contingent of powerful alien soldiers, prepare for months for a war, and then flip a switch and force Earth’s residents to comply.

I was briefly almost convinced Winn would actually have an effect on the Silver Banshee and turn her against her new friend, Livewire, but he failed miserably. Again. But where he failed, Supergirl succeeded by inspiring the people of the city to back her up, and some firefighters to take brave action and put a stop to Livewire beating Supergirl. I know it was a little cliché, especially after basically the same thing was pulled in one of the Spider-Man movies, but the timing of Supergirl falling out of favor just before that made it work.

And I waited for the last paragraph to say something about the Flash’s appearance in this week’s episode. As someone who hasn’t watched The Flash with any regularity, I still have to say the appearance was a lot of fun. The two characters have a lot of friendly chemistry, and his leaving left kind of a hole, because it was so great seeing the two of them not just work together, but hang out and become fast friends.

-Jason

* * *

This week is the much awaited Supergirl/Flash crossover. While I know logically they couldn’t have planned to air this episode after Batman v Superman‘s premier weekend (reviewed here by both Kate Spencer and BluThundur), I still take delight in the incredible contrast between the cape movie-verse, and the breath of fresh air in weekly television.

Instead of a grim and gritty battle of paranoia, Flash appears to whisk Kara Danvers from a date with concrete after Siobhan screams her out of Cat’s office window. Kara’s identity as a superhuman is outed immediately, to which Flash, in what is likely a first for him, offers his own name (Barry Allen) and all of his other secrets. At no point does anyone act as if Barry is a spy, secretly evil, or anything but a cool new friend, along for the ride. Even James, who is jealous of how Barry and Kara clicked, behaves himself. It’s so remarkable that you may even forget that this is our subplot, and a luckily-timed one, as Siobhan has broken Livewire out of the DEO to help her in her revenge against Kara by letting Livewire at her own targets – Cat Grant and Supergirl.

Our heroes do save the day, and status quo restored neatly, with Barry (such a helper!) tying up some lingering plot threads with the DEO’s illegal incarceration, and a few pep talks for Supergirl. We also get a glorious look at what may be a genderswapped Emil Hamilton in the first few minutes of the episode, in Dr. Amelia Hamilton. One thing that does bother me was the constant nudging on both Kara and James by every other cast member to hook up. While it would have made sense for Alex to do so, it feels a bit weird from Cat, who has said multiple times that she expects total devotion from Kara as her assistant. A boyfriend would really put a damper on that, especially without the ulterior motive on keeping her oldest son in town. Then again, it did help set up the conflict for next week pretty well, so your mileage may vary based on how thick you like your drama!

-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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