Supergirl, Season 1, Episode 17: Manhunter
Supergirl is best when J'onn J'onzz takes central stage, mostly because he's just so damned interesting. The fact that the writing team takes a more mature tone while writing J'onn as compared to writing Kara is probably a major contributing factor, but mostly because in addition to being an interesting character, we never have to suffer through J'onn reciting a badly-hackeneyed moral speech. Also the whole mystery behind Alex's father.
It's a nice little game-changer to have J'onn's masquerade as Hank Henshaw be uncovered, and J'onn's little trial, interspread with flashbacks to what really happened between J'onn, the real Hank Henshaw and Jeremiah Danvers, is really fun to watch. I mean, some of the interrogation moments felt a bit off, but it's still pretty decent as far as Supergirl's writing standard goes. The flashback sequences were powerful, portraying pre-human-society J'onn as this majestic, otherworldly visitor, and his immediate friendship with Jeremiah, and the conflict this brings against the xenophobic Hank Henshaw, is pretty well-portrayed.
Granted the fact that Superman knows J'onn exists, and knows enough to label him as powerful as him, raises some questions... namely, why doesn't Superman help in apprehending J'onn? They know nothing about him and what is he ends up being hostile?
Whatever the case, things happened just like everyone probably predicted happened -- Jeremiah died defending J'onn from Hank (and Hank died in the process), with Jeremiah asking J'onn to protect his girls. We get a short flashback of J'onn's first meeting with Alex, who's wasting her life in clubs and shit, and while not entirely necessary to the story hepls to build the relationship between J'onn and his surrogate daughter.
We also get a flashback of a young Alex having to deal with a young Kara when she still has to come to terms with fitting in school, as well as saving civilians from an exploding car. It's a nice, sweet moment when the Danvers parents tried to get Kara to, hey, enjoy her childhood and be normal before being a superhero. It's a nice, sweet moment.
Oh, by the way, J'onn J'onzz gets to eat Oreos Chocos! It's one aspect of the character that is absolutely crucial to any self-respecting adaptation of the Martian Manhunter. His love for cookies. That's totally canonical.
Lucy Lane spearheading this with one Colonel Harper is a decent way to bring in a character we know without resorting to reusing Sam Lane again, though honestly does anyone doubt that Lucy won't help out the good guys? The only real reason she wouldn't is her jealousy over James, and honestly that ain't worth fighting for. Supergirl's reveal of her identity to Lucy thankfully gains her trust and friendship. Lucy's a far more interesting character now that she's been freed from the utter plodding mess that was her relationship with James.
We also get an awesome motorcycle raid! That was just fun to watch as they go in on motorcycles and leather jackets to free J'onn and allow her and Alex to escape into the wind, with Lucy taking over the DEO. They also reveal some interesting tidbits -- Jeremiah is alive, and associated with Project Cadmus... which, in the comics, is basically Evil STAR Labs and would proceed to create many of Superman's supporting allies and villains. It seemed odd that Supergirl doesn't recruit J'onn to go and bust the heads at Project Cadmus, but hey, can't ever accuse Supergirl of good pacing, otherwise Astra and Non would've invaded like twelve episodes ago.
Everything in CatCo, from the flashback to Kara's first arrival, to Siobahn going in to hack Kara's emails and just spring off an utterly moronic subplot, did not need to happen. Oh, and Siobahn falls down from the side of the building, only to discover that her scream keeps her afloat. Hello, Silver Banshee!
Overall, despite the weak CatCo scenes (and honestly when have they ever really been strong? Cat Grant just barely straddles the fine line of being entertainingly hilarious and annoyingly preachy) this episode is pretty decent in all fronts, firing on all cylinders with great flashbacks, great developments and great foreshadowings. With the next episode being a fun-filled Flash crossover as Supergirl and Flash have a jolly old time, sadly we have exhausted the last bits of actually good and watchable Supergirl episodes.
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