The toxic love duo that is Kara and Mon-El has fueled a significant amount of screen time during the second season of Supergirl so far, and of course the latest round of drama culminated in Kara forgiving Mon-El yet again after she faces death. Am I the only one here who interprets the dynamic between the two as borderline abusive? As this week’s episode opens, Kara wakes up to Mon-El making her breakfast in bed, prompted by Mon-El’s latest venture into reading books to learn how to cook. The romantic breakfast is promptly and rudely interrupted by an alien attack in the heart of National City.
After Kara kicks some alien ass and heads to the DEO to discuss the deets with her cohorts, J’onn discusses the current state of the Daxamite’s orbit with the President of the United States. Madam President (yes, never forget that in this feminist universe, our President is indeed a woman) encourages the DEO not to engage with the Daxamites for fear of potentially sparking an intergalactic war.
After a yoga session and an adorable moment of Maggie and Alex poking fun at themselves for acting like a stereotypical lesbian couple, the two run in to Maggie’s ex-girlfriend Emily. The whole interaction is incredibly awkward (as lesbian ex run-ins usually are due to the inherent female instinct to be overly kind and welcoming in order to diffuse uncomfortable silence) Alex, of course, encourages Maggie to invite Emily to dinner with them that evening, and Emily quickly accepts. How many ways can this scenario end terribly?
Back at the DEO, Winn discovers that the invader Kara beat down is in fact a bounty hunter, hired to hunt and kill Supergirl. The bounty over Supergirl’s head is high enough to entice hoards of aliens to line up in National City to find her. Supergirl wants to meet them head on one by one, but the rest of the group encourages her to hide until they sort out the source of the bounty in order to preserve her safety. Mon-EL, suspecting his parents might be behind the bounty over Supergirl’s head, requests a meeting with them at the local alien watering hole. His parents vehemently deny being behind the price on Supergirl’s head, attempting to appeal to Mon-El to return to Daxam with them.
Meanwhile, at dinner that evening, Emily still hasn’t shown up to meet Maggie and Alex after a 45-minute wait, because who wouldn’t want to sit at a restaurant and eat with your ex and her new girlfriend? Maggie mentions that the blow off makes sense since Emily sliced through her with some pretty harsh words after their five years together ended, sparking obvious protective anger in Alex, because that’s what she’s been raised to do.
Supergirl is feeling restless while stuck at home playing board games with Winn and James, and Mon-El walks in and actually experiments with honesty, admitting to Supergirl that he was interrogating his parents. As timely as ever, almost implying that Mon-El’s body simply rejects telling the truth, a psychic alien hijacks his being to try and kill Supergirl. Winn has programmed an alert to notify him when a bounty hunter is nearby, so he approaches him with, a stapler? Once the telepath is caught due to his mistake assumption that said stapler is a gun, J’onn begins a psychic battle with him in an attempt to discover who has put the bounty out on Supergirl. J’onn’s mental victory persuades the alien to consent, revealing that Mon-El’s mother is in fact behind the hit out on Supergirl.
Alex shows up to the hotel where Emily is staying to confront her about standing them up for dinner after she hurt Maggie so badly during their breakup, triggering Emily to reveal that Maggie cheated on her. So, yet again, Maggie has convoluted the details of her personal history in order to present her past to Alex in a more flattering light. Maybe the two will handle this whole dishonesty situation more maturely than Kara and Mon-El do, because these parallels have to be playing out for a reason, right?
Mon-El encourages Kara to run away to a distant planet with him, citing his recent endeavors to read as the inspiration for the plan. Unfortunately, Mon-El’s source is Romeo and Juliet, and he hasn’t reached the ending yet. Kara decides that the best course of action is, wait for it, a heart to heart discussion with Mon-El’s mother. As soon as the three arrive for this discussion, Rhea insults Kara’s choice of meeting place, so it starts off really well.
Rhea makes her clear stance on how much she takes Mon-El’s own feelings into consideration when she pulls out a weapon made of kryptonite and attacks Supergirl. As it becomes clear that Rhea won’t stop until she kills Supergirl, Mon-El offers to leave with his parents if they agree not to continue hurting her. When I say parents I only mean Rhea, because it’s also apparent the Mon-El’s father is ignorant of his wife’s murderous escapades.
Alex approaches Maggie about the omission over Maggie’s infidelity, noting the pattern of Maggie withholding personal information from Alex when it surrounds her muddied past and how it was molded by her parents’ rejection. The two share a tender moment of maturity yet again when Alex expresses her understanding and encourages Maggie to be open and honest with her, because Alex is there to be her partner and help heal her wounds, not the judge of prior mistakes. Viewers, please take note of the relationship goals Maggie and Alex continue to emulate. People can poke fun all the want about lesbian tendencies to talk exhaustingly about feelings, but these two are in a much healthier place than Mon-El and Kara.
Speaking of Mon-El and Kara, Maggie and Alex’s moment is interrupted by Kara, who asks her sister for help after she’s been injured by the kryptonite and Mon-El has been taken to his parents’ ship. After pleading with the DEO to help save Mon-El, J’onn turns down the request, citing the President’s orders. However, J’onn’s change of heart is revealed when we see that Winn and the rest of the techy team have refaced the Slavers Moon portal to transport Kara to the Daxamite ship.
Mon-El’s father attempts to reason with him over his decision to rejoin his people, and Mon-El makes a proposal to become a different kind of monarchy where the people have an equal voice. In comes Rhea right on cue to slap her son and toss him in a cell for the four year journey back to Daxam. Also right on schedule is the dramatic entrance of the DEO. Rhea attacks who she believes to be Supergirl again with the kryptonite, but Supergirl reveals herself to in fact be J’onn in disguise. At the last minute, Mon-El’s father realizes that Kara and the rest of the DEO group is his family and stops the fighting to let him go back to Earth. Mon-El tells his parents he never wants to see them again, but we know that probably won’t happen.
Alex proves once again what a mature partner in a relationship she can be as she takes Maggie to patch things up with Emily. The difference in the conflict between this couple and Mon-El and Kara is that Mon-El lacks the ability to rise above pettiness and jealousy in order to take steps forward instead of regressing the relationship each time a conflict arises. Watching the lesbian couple be the standard for conflict resolution instead of doom and drama is incredibly refreshing, and an encouraging storyline, particularly for young fans who are looking to Maggie and Alex as a reflection of themselves.
Madame President expresses her disappointment with J’onn over his decision to defy her orders and engage with the Daxamites, and after the call is ended it’s revealed that the President is in fact some kind of Martian herself. Meanwhile, on the Daxamite ship, Rhea confronts her husband for breaking what is her interpretation of their marriage vows. In a surprising turn of events, Rhea stabs him, proclaiming right before the credits roll that she isn’t done with Earth yet.
What did you think of this week’s episode of Supergirl?
