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Welcome back to Maid of Steel! This week, Karen and I are discussing Supergirl Season 2 Episode 7 “The Darkest Place” which originally aired on November 21, 2016. In this episode, Guardian is framed for the murder of a thief he apprehended and must fight to clear his name while Maggie and the National City Police call for his immediate arrest. Meanwhile, Kara gets lured into CADMUS where Mon-El is being held prisoner and comes face-to-face with the real Hank Henshaw and her once-dead adoptive father, Jeremiah.
The Darkest Places
Another confusing episode title, which eludes to more than the content of the episode itself. Do our characters go to the darkest places in this episode? Do they find something buried in the darkest places? Or, literally, was this entire episode shot in the darkest places of Vancouver. 
For all of our criticism, Supergirl always brings it with the stunts and fight scenes. Watching Barrage and Guardian go at it was great, and then there was the great showdown between Supergirl and the real Hank Henshaw.
Even in the darkest places, there is light. There is hope. I think one of the things that has been most consistent on the show, in spite of my increasing dissatisfaction with the writing, is that Kara still looks for the best in people. She’s still relatively innocent and work is being done to alleviate her of the carelessly naive nature of people’s innate goodness while not detracting from her responsibilities or her ability to carry out those responsibilities.
Project Medusa
CADMUS’s big plans were revealed in a big way this episode. Finally utilizing Hank Henshaw the way we thought he was going to be utilized last season was a long time coming and totally worth the wait.
The anger and resentment that has built up in Hank over the 15 years since J’onn assumed his identity is the perfect ammunition to believe the lengths this man is willing to go to in order to eradicate alien life.
The Supergirl Rebirth storyline is handling Cyborg Superman in, thus far, a very different way. But it’s super cool to be reading that story at the same time this one is unfolding and see the different takes on the character.
I am all for J’onn having a more central role in the show, but more particularly on the team. I realized something this week that I should have realized a long time ago… we’re missing an anchor. Karen wisely suggested that J’onn take up this mantle, and I couldn’t agree more. I really enjoy the storyline going on with M’gann, but we desperately need J’onn’s stability.
Cougar’s Comic Corner
Martian Manhunter: Son of Mars (Comixology) || [[[Martian Manhunter: Son of Mars]]] (Amazon)
The Martian Manhunter, one of the key heroes in The New 52, stars in this new title collecting his popular 1998 series. Featuring moody art by writer John Ostrander’s frequent collaborator, Tom Mandrake, the story begins as the Manhunter tells Superman about the end of Mars’s civilization and how he came to Earth. In his guise as Detective John Jones, he tracks a serial killer and investigates a mystery at Cadmus Laboratories, then saves the entire Justice League from the threat of Malefic.
Happy 20th anniversary Karen!
The more they show the less I get why James had to be in charge of CatCo; was it because Cat felt it’d be easier to get the company back…does she not trust Snapper to easily step down when she returns? When they announced James would be the head I thought it would be okay because we’d get to see how that affects him being more office bound than getting out in the street and how would it affect his relationship with Kara – would he always side with her on things at work or would they have bumps because he disagrees and is currently the boss…how were the other employees going to feel about still newly arrived Jimmy Olsen getting the chair instead of someone who’s been there longer but we’ve honestly got nothing and it’s almost like CatCo doesn’t exist except for the few moments we see Snapper with Kara and that’s sad. Snapper could have been the head of CatCo and then Jimmy could have been free to be Guardian sooner any maybe that would have helped the plot feel less rushed. Again it’s not inorganic to the character to want to be this person but due to his lying about it to the people who he doesn’t have to it just really brings down this plot for me and thus I wasn’t a fan of the Guardian stuff either in this episode; there were some neat fight scenes, although the military guy should have best Jimmy in that last fight to the point he needed Maggie to distract him so he could take him down (Jimmy really needs to lose some fights because if he wins them all while physically stronger and more trained characters done then that’s going to feel inorganic and lead to annoyance), but overall I felt when the story went to him the mood went down.
My favorite plots so far this season are Alex’s, Jonn’s, and Mon’s. Nice “Kim Possible” reference Emilee! In the “Justice League” cartoon they cloned Kara which is how they got Galatia. I SO agree about Alex’s actions regarding Guardian. The Barrage story Karen mentioned would have been so much better!
Oh UPSMan. 🙂 The rants are entertaining. LOL Karen – “Which is essentially trees which have been made into a website which you can hold in your hand and read.”!