[sc:mstop]

“Will The Real Miss Tessmacher Please Stand Up?” brings us a Kaznian field trip for Lena and Kara that reveals lots but stops short of the friends knowing everything. It also reveals the growing friendship between Alex and Kelly, and it reveals the depths of Ben Lockwood’s lack of character. Oh, and President Baker? Yeah, he’s in on Lex’s plan too – I know, it’s a shocker!

Kara and Lena Go Sightseeing

MOS 86 SightseeingFollowing up on the reveal that Lex has bought a missile base in Kaznia, Kara and Lena head to Lena’s private jet to go there. Kara’s leaning toward flying herself (ba-dum-ching) but Lena won’t hear of it. They fly to Kaznia in the non-pilot, totally technology-driven plane and, of course, it’s brought down by mysterious purple lightning. Kara saves the plane while Lena is trying to fix everything in the cockpit and they end up making a successful landing. They enter the base to find that Lex has been experimenting on the alien prisoners from the DEO’s desert facility, including “Copy,” the villain who could create copies of himself that got increasingly dumber as they went along. Then they hear a noise from behind a closed door and Eve is there so happy to see Lena and Kara together. They begin to piece together the plan that Kaznia will send an invasion force to the United States, which seems ludicrous, until they realize that Lex has Red Daughter. Lena describes “it” as a product of the Harun-El and Kara insists that “she” is a product of Supergirl and therefore must have some good in her. Meanwhile a cuffed Eve keeps “helping” and glitching at the same time. Hmmmmmmm. Then everything goes to hell and the base announces that it will self-destruct in ten minutes. Kara and Lena get separated and Kara wanders into Red Daughter’s room and is horrified to find the walls of photos recording her life with Lena, Alex, and everyone else important to her. She also finds her diary there. Yikes. She keeps Lena away from it and goes back to laser eye the whole display. Eve reveals that the glitching is because she is a copy and the copies get busy taking on Supergirl who does an amazing job dispatching them with relative ease. Lena gets separated from Kara and finds Eve on the plane. They fight and Eve ends up stabbing Lena in the shoulder but Lena gets the best of her – and she’s a copy. Lena goes back for Kara as the base explodes and feels incredible guilt that Kara could have been killed in the explosion. Kara takes off her glasses and goes into the heroine pose and is about to reveal it all *except* that Lena is going on and on about all of the people in her life that she lets get close to her and how they lie and eventually betray and lie and try to hurt her and lie. Kara puts her glasses back on and tells Lena she will always be there for her. Yeeeeesh. Back in National City, Kara catches James up on the whole thing and how, one day, she will reveal her Supergirl-ness to Lena because it’s the right thing to do. She then has a meeting in the White House. More on that later… Oh, and there’s this weird little segment with James being trained IN THE FORTRESS OF SOLITUDE!!!!!!! by Nia and Brainy where she wants to hit him with Lois’ sonic hammer back from the Crossover event.

Alex and Kelly Go to Portsmouth

MOS 86 AlexMOS 86 KellyJogging in the park with Kelly Olsen, Alex gets a phone call that the time has come for her to make a final decision about a baby that is available to adopt. She is taken aback by the news and shares with Kelly that she is alarmed by it all. Later, in her apartment, Alex tells Kelly about the breakup with Maggie over the issue of children but she’s not sure that she’s ready for all of this, and dang it! why can’t she get Kara on the phone to talk about it. Kelly asks her to role play with what Kara would tell her and Alex says out loud from Kara’s POV that Alex will be great at this. The two decide to go to Portsmouth. As they are waiting in the hotel Alex is again anxious because she doesn’t feel like she can be half of the mother that Eliza was. Kelly assures her that she is simply too nurturing not to be a successful mother. Kelly has seen it in how she has treated Kara, James, and herself already in her short time in National City. Later, Alex gets the final phone call that the 16-year-old mother has decided against adoption and is going to keep the baby. Alex is heartbroken and we later see her and Kelly once again back in her apartment lamenting her life choices with Maggie and where she is not. Once again, Kelly reassures her that she’s going to be great as a mother and in everything that she does. We also learn more about Kelly’s past in that she was once engaged and that they weren’t open about it in their military setting. Her finacee died and she found the note that she left to Kelly. She tells Alex that deep wounds like what she’s just experienced lead to faded scars over time.

Ben and George Go Their Separate Ways

MOS 86 BenMOS 86 GeorgeWe catch up with Ben and George Lockwood at Lydia’s funeral. George is giving the eulogy and toward the end Ben gets up and walks out. Just like that. He goes back to the DEO to berate the agents about not finding the alien who murdered his wife. One of his minions then comes to tell Ben that Lena Luthor has a lab in the DEO. Brainy overhears this and vows to take Ben on. He tries to keep the two out of the lab but Ben uses the minion’s gun to blow the glass door away. In all of this we learn that Haley is gone to DC to try to get Lockwood reigned in. Ben and the minion find the experimental Harun-El. Brainy tries to dissuade Ben from messing with it because of the unknown consequences. George also shows up – to the DEO – (Wait, what?!) and wants to know why his Dad left him IN THE MIDDLE OF THE FUNERAL! Ben summarily dismisses him. The murdering alien has been found so a strike team is assembled. The DEO apprehends her (she’s in the same exact outfit as last week) and Ben orders all of the other assembled aliens into custody. Brainy tries to object but is summarily dismissed. Out in the street Ben is confronted by Dreamer and Super-Guardian (Wait, what?!). Ben takes the Harun-El and gets all powery too. They brawl and who shows up but Martian Manhunter! (Wait, WHAT?! Dude, where have you been?) Brainy appeals to the other agents that all of this is wrong and they need to follow their hearts. Dreamer smiles at him…dreamily. Super-Guardian tells MM to throw Ben into a gasoline tanker. “Trust me,” he says. (WAIT,,,,WHAT THE WHAT?!?!) The aliens are set free – not sure about Lydia’s murderer or not – and Ben comes out of the flames unharmed. Ben goes back to find George at the funeral home where George tells him to buzz off, and oh, he hates him.

Kara and President Baker Go To A Very Bad Place

MOS 86 BakerKara goes to the White House to inform POTUS that Lex is planning an invasion attack and that he has tanks (thank you, Eve Copy) and that he has a Supergirl clone and that he’s the greatest criminal mind of our age! Oh, and he’s got a new rock in the Office, which happens to be Kryptonite. When she draws a breath President Baker asks her for proof of any of this. She hands over a manila envelope which he quickly places in the Resolute Desk. He asks if she’s shared with anyone else. She says no and then he kidnaps her. Bad POTUS!

Closing Thoughts

This episode was really…disjointed. The call out of nowhere to Alex felt shoehorned in so we wouldn’t forget that she really wants to be a mother. Obviously it was used to continue the ramp up to the Kalex/Ally(?) ship but it felt like a clunky way to achieve that. The dynamic between Kara and Lena was the best part of this episode. Kara “acting” like a helpless cohort to Lena is a great mechanism for the show to explore not telling Lena about her being Supergirl. When Kara feels guilty that Lena takes it on that she could have gotten Kara killed it is a great moment that Kara makes the decision to tell Lena everything – only to pull back when she thinks it will do more damage than good. Hats off once again to Melissa Benoist at the room where Red Daughter set up her shrine to Kara. The amount of disturbance Melissa showed was incredible as she had to deal with the complexity of learning the truth of it all and process it by herself. When Supergirl and Red Daughter face off it’s (hopefully) going to be very powerful and will, no doubt, blow up the special effects budget. Speaking of which, the plane landing sequence was really good! Other than that, I’m way over the edge with Ben. I’m just glad Brainy was able to stand up to him and get his fellow DEO agents on his side. That was refreshing. We have a lot to wrap up in the last two episodes of Season 4. I’m hopeful for what we might get!MOS 86 Closing

Cougar’s Comic Corner

“Superman/Batman Vol.1: New Edition”
DIG020809_2._SX360_QL80_TTD_(May 6, 2014) Written by Jeph Loeb and Artists Ed McGuiness and Dexter Vines
The iconic super-heroes unite when longtime Superman enemy Lex Luthor, now president of the United States, accuses Superman of a crime against humanity, and assembles a top-secret team of powerhouse heroes to bring Superman in — dead or alive. And in the second story arc, prepare for the arrival of Supergirl! Batman has discovered something strange on the bottom of Gotham Bay, which leads him to a mysterious and powerful teenaged girl bent on destroying Gotham City! What’s her connection to Superman? Why does Wonder Woman want to hide her from the outside world? And will Darkseid succeed in recruiting her into doing his bidding?

Buy it on Amazon here!

Next time on “Supergirl”!

Season 4, Episode 21, “Red Dawn”
SUPERGIRL BATTLES RED DAUGHTER — Kara comes face to face with Red Daughter and the two engage in an epic battle. Determined to find a way to extract the Harun-El, Lena turns to an unlikely source for help – Lillian Luthor (guest star Brenda Strong). Meanwhile, Alex realizes she’s missing parts of her memory, and Brainy, Nia and J’onn set out to track down aliens who have been abducted by Lex. Alexis Ostrander directed the episode with story by Lindsay Sturman and teleplay by Gabriel Llanas & Eric Carrasco.

Feedback

We want you to be part of the podcast! After a new episode airs, head over to our feedback site and drop us a quick line, or record a short voicemail, reacting to the events of the episode. What was interesting to you? What stood out? What did the episode do well or, perhaps, what did it not do well? We rely on your input to help round out our conversation and anticipate the opportunity to include your thoughts and theories!

[sc:ms]