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“O Brother, Where Art Thou?” brings the warm and touching reunion of the Luthor siblings, J’onn losing his ever loving mind, and James’ sister Kelly appearing from nowhere. “Sister, so you have a sissssster…” We introduce Jon Cryer as Lex Luthor and man o brother, did he bring it. Let’s dig in, shall we?

Miss Tessmacher!!

MOS 81 Miss Tessmacher!!Let’s take this storyline through the lens of Eve, shall we? 4 years ago in Metropolis, Lex Luthor has his sister Lena zip tied to a chair while he makes her watch as he turns the skies red so that Superman will be unable to stop his nefariousness. I love this line: “I was supposed to be the Man of Tomorrow, not him!” Soooooooo good. He wants to convince the world that they are putting too much faith in the blue tights and one day, we will all thank him. The police come in and take custody of him and Lena is saved. Flash forward to the present where Lex is being delivered by helicopter to the Luthor mansion and Lena is there to greet her brother. It seems that all of his Kryptonite exposure has led to cancer and he is dying. Not that the Department of Corrections folk care, apparently he’s not that popular in prison. Lena stabilizes him and chides him that the irony is delicious that Kryptonite is what’s killing him. Lena is then alerted to James being shot and Alex leaning reeeeeeeeeeeeeeeally heavy on her to use her Super Serum to save him. Lena insists you can’t force a breakthrough and realizes she may be able to utilize Lex to get the Serum up to speed. The sibs work together and Lena is mad at the way Lex is degrading her as motivation but he explains he always pushed her this way and she has turned out amazing and that he truly is proud of her. They get the formula worked out so that the healing properties of the Harunel can be separated from the supernatural powers. A power drop at the hospital while James is in emergency services leaves Lena devastated because she thinks she is too late to help James. Lex tells her a story about his dog Ignacious and how as the dog was dying and he was dragged on a business trip with Father Luthor that the woman who was with them showed him such kindness that he was overwhelmed. That woman was Lena’s mother. While he came from poison she came from love and as dark as the rest of the family is she still stands out as light. Lena takes the serum to the hospital and injects it into James’ sternum. (AAAAAAAAAAHHHHHHHHHHHH) He is cured almost instantly. Lena goes home realizing that Lex has engineered the power drain that put James into imminent danger. She promises that she will never give the cure to Lex. He knows, which is why he brought OTIS GRAVES along with an image inducer that disguised him as a cop and got him to already give him the cure. Oh, and not only did he take care of the power drain, he also had Jimmy shot so that Lena would have to test the serum on him because Lex sure wasn’t going to be the guinea pig. Otis grabs Lena and ties her to the wheelchair and lo and behold, Miss Tessmacher comes out all evil like and tells Lena that her and Lex have been forever and that it isn’t personal. Otis knocks Lena out and Lex leaves Eve to look out for her. He then kills all of the law enforcement types that have been hanging around the whole time and gets on the helicopter with Otis. They meet Supergirl in the sky…

J’onn J’onzz, Man of the Skewer

MOS 81 SkewerJames is found shot and J’onn believes it has to be Manchester Black making good on his promise to come after J’onn’s peoples. He senses that Black is at M’yrnn’s burial site and goes there along with Kara, which makes Alex a little bit miffed, since she doesn’t know Kara is Supergirl, get it? (Wink, wink, nudge, nudge) Black uses the Scepter of the Martian God of Wrath to figure out all kinds of things about Martian theology and tells J’onn to join him or the Punishments will come. Kara is nearby and hears their discussion. Back in J’onn’s office, Kara and J’onn try to use the Martian Bible to figure out what in the ^*(^&T%( Manchester is talking about. Alex calls Kara wondering where in the (*&^(*&^ Kara is since James is at the hospital DYING!! Kara explains that she is helping J’onn track down a lead and Alex wishes her well on her investigation. (And by “well,” she means something else entirely.) J’onn is disturbed to be confronted by zombie Kara and zombie Alex who explain that they are the ones who were not saved while he stood by doing nothing. Kara snaps him out of the zombie trip and says the only reason she and Alex are able to face danger is because they know he’s standing by with them. She suggests that they stop trying to confront Manchester and let him come to them. Sure enough, J’onn senses that Black is at the city dam and so he and Supergirl go to confront him. Black blows a couple of big holes in the dam and the water comes pouring out. She deals with the water and J’onn shows down with Black. Manchester tries one more time to get J’onn to join him on his righteous crusade pointing out that he couldn’t save his own children on Mars. J’onn loses it, takes the scepter thingy and skewers Black with it. Black simply says “you’re beautiful,” and is dissolved away. And by dissolved I mean, we’ll be seeing him again soon. Count on it. Brainy’s Legion ring is left in Black’s place. J’onn gives the ring back to Kara to deliver to Brainy and says that he doesn’t know who he is anymore, but he’s sure he’s not a man of peace.

Sisterly Love

MOS 81 - SisterThe mysterious assassin of James knows that he has a Supergirl call button in his watch and summons her to rescue James. While at the hospital the doctor is not keen on sharing information with Alex, Nia, and Brainy as they are not kith and kin. Alex is politely arguing that she is FBI and knows more science than the doctor and at the last second James’ sister Kelly shows up and says that she will handle things and to give these folks access please. Nia and Brainy are blaming themselves to each other about how they should have been able to see this coming and not doing anything about it and Brainy is losing his ever loving mind over everything that has ever gone wrong in his life aaaaaanad how Mon-El is condescending when Nia snaps him out of it with a big ole wet one on the lips. Meanwhile, Kelly and Alex debate Lena helping James with her Super Solution and Kelly is a way bit wary about the Luthor’s and their solutions to problems. And she’s been to the hospital now 12 times to fix James and situations he’s running into to get away from their family problems. Although Alex is pushy eventually Kelly gives in and lets Lena do her thing. James is cured and has to talk to their mom. Oh, and the breakup of Lena and James was also manufactured by Lex so I guess I called that one too. Heh, heh, heh.

Closing Thoughts

I admit that I have never seen Smallville but I understand Michael Rosenbaum did an excellent Lex Luthor. That being said, from my other experiences Jon Cryer sold me on his Lex Luthor within the first three minutes of this episode. An amazing performance brought this episode a much higher grade than normal. Because if I grade the James storyline it is just meh, and the J’onn storyline was confusing and muddled, and had an unsatisfactory ending. Hopefully there will be more to come there. So, on the power of Lex alone this was a great episode. Eve turning was a non-surprise. This was a setup episode for the back end of the Season. Good deal, let’s get going on this, Red Kara, and hopefully Ben is dead and Manchester Black is not. Neither of those things are going to happen. It’s going to be OK, kids. I have to tell myself that all the time.

Cougar’s Comic Corner

β€œLuthor” Kindle & comiXology
by BRIAN AZZARELLO (Author), LEE BERMEJO (Author, Illustrator)
LuthorCoverSuperman has been called many things, from the defender of truth, justice and the American way to the Big Blue Boy Scout. In LEX LUTHOR: MAN OF STEEL, he is called something he has never been called before: a threat to all humanity. Brian Azzarello and artist Lee Bermejo–the acclaimed team who brought you the best-selling JOKER–deliver a bold story in which readers get a glimpse into the mind of Superman’s longtime foe. MAN OF STEEL reveals why Luthor chooses to be the proverbial thorn in the Man of Steel’s side: to save humanity from an untrustworthy alien being.

Next time on Supergirl!

Season 4, Episode 16, “The House of L”
Supergirl must deal with the destructive aftermath of Lex’s nefarious plans. Shocked at what Lex has created, Supergirl faces her biggest challenge yet. (Written by Gabriel Llanas, Brooke Pohl, and Katie Rose Rogers, Directed by Ben Hernandez Bray)

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