The Girl of Steel is back with some hard hitting, heart breaking moments as Kara tries to find her feet in a city that is suddenly against her. After causing an oil spill at one of National City’s ports, Kara decides to take on her boss’s advice and start small. And, just like every fickle city, the people once again celebrate the woman in blue and, in the end, Cat Grant wants an interview with Supergirl. On top of this, Kara’s evil Aunt has kidnapped Alex with the help of an insect alien called a Hellgramite.
To kick-start the episode, Agent Hank Henshaw has Kara running a training regime of dodging missiles. The flying is well done, although not amazing, but the wow factor comes when Kara breaks the sound barrier, shattering a glass whiteboard as she passes. The use of her surroundings to enhance the power behind her flight is very well placed. Kara’s flying once again hits a huge wow factor as she and her Aunt, General Astra, fight in the open space of an abandoned warehouse. From the air, to the broken concrete below, the pair create a visually awesome fight. Especially when Astra punches Kara through several walls of the warehouse. However, the broken concrete under Kara when she lands after this epic door-making destruction is clearly set design placed on top of the warehouse’s real floor. There doesn’t seem to be any dent into the actually concrete, just debris surrounding the fallen Kara.
Some of the best graphics this episode came from the Hellgramite. This Hellgramite can open his mouth in four ways and is described as an insect-like humanoid that feeds on chlorine and can morph his shape. The visuals are a great translation from the comics to TV as they have removed the obvious traits of bug eyes and a tail and replaced it with one of the creepiest faces I have seen on TV. The Hellgramite even leaps from wall to wall and produces shards of what seem to be sharp, lateral filaments (thank you google). He is very quick to use this on Alex and her DEO team.
The audience also gets to see a lot more of what makes Alex, Alex. Along the theme of this week’s episode of working up to your goal and accepting help, Alex fights Kara in a Kryponite trimmed boxing ring to show how much Kara still has to learn. We again see that Kara really cannot fight, whereas Alex can. Alex explains that she spent twelve hours, every day, for five months training in that room which further debunks the idea she only has her DEO job because of Kara. Alex deserves the job. And the actress playing her more than deserves the role.
Chyler Leigh, a supergirl in her own right, performs some downright amazing scenes with Melissa Benoist (Kara/ Supergirl). Aside from kicking her sister’s butt, Alex has given Kara one of the best gifts she ever could: the artificial intelligence resembling Alura Zor-El. Which leads to one of the most heart breaking, single lines in the history of television. A.I. Alura says Kara can ask her anything she may want to ask her own mother.
Kara responds with “I’d ask for a hug.”
Dammit Supergirl! Stop crushing my heart!
And then there’s Melissa Benoist nailing the clumsy, headstrong Kara. Among the many awesome moments from this episode, the writers have Kara going from stopping a shotgun blast by placing the palm of her hand on the end of the barrel, to heat vision-ing Cat Grant’s coffee. The thought and execution of both were perfect.
In an interesting turn of events, I have come to really like Cat Grant. The character in the pilot felt very two dimensional and cookie-cut from every horrible boss on TV. But this week, amongst her many threats, she shows her intelligence as she condemns Supergirl rushing into heroics too big to handle. She even gives Kara an off-handed compliment as she says Supergirl should be more like Kara.
The whole episode is so chock full of fantastic moments that it’s impossible to squeeze them all into this review. But, you can rest assured because Supergirl has some great actors, great visual effects, and great heart stopping/ crushing moments. Supergirl definitely hit the screens with their best shot, and it’s more than a bulls eye.
