Supergirl S02E12 Review: Kryptonite Armours and Fifth-Dimensional Imps

Supergirl, Season 2, Episode 12: Luthors

Superman's arch-enemy is Lex Luthor. There is no questioning that. Sure, Lex is ultimately just a really, really smart guy with hair issues. Sometimes he rides a robot suit. Superman has faced against world-conquering alien warlords and gods -- Darkseid, Brainiac, General Zod, Mongul, Doomsday -- yet it's the dude with the bald head that we remember. It's easily one of the best hallmarks of the franchise, the idea that this man whose goal boils down to wanting to prove himself superior to the god-like alien Superman, is told well even through sub-par adaptations. In the real world or in-universe, Lex Luthor is synonymous with 'Superman's nemesis'. And if Superman is the ultimate good, guess what that makes Lex Luthor?

So, her adoptive sister's presence in the series certainly raises some wary eyebrows. I admit that I, too, fell under the bias that, well, she's a Luthor, so she definitely has the potential to, if not become evil, then to do some morally ambiguous things. While I spent the episode shaking my head at Kara's naivety -- even if she's all buddy-buddy with Lena, it's a bit too naive for her to insist that Snapper and James not print what appears to be The Truth, backed up by hard evidence. Kara's argument actually kind of makes sense, though -- Lena has done nothing but help the good guys, even being instrumental in Lilian Luthor's downfall in the mid-season finale. And, yeah, I'm more of a cynic so I agree with James's own argument that "she put her mother under the bus, what makes you so sure she's not going to do the same to you?"

Lilian's talk to Lena, revealing that Lena's not actually an adopted daughter, but actually her husband Lionel's child, born out of wedlock, is a huge, huge bomb to drop on poor Lena and Lilian's talks of reconciliation certainly sounds sincere. Thus it's honestly not too much to believe that Lena engineered Lilian's escape -- if not to aid her in getting Cadmus online, then the motivation that she's trying to break her own mother out of prison is believable. Of course the moment Metallo shows up to 'rescue' Lena shows that anyone who suspects Lena is wrong, but for the first half of the episode I certainly believed that Lena went evil. So yeah, challenging the audience's own biases is definitely there... and while Kara might be naive, she's freaking Supergirl, the maiden of steel, as much a beacon of justice as her cousin, so she's inherently a better person than myself.

Mind you, they certainly could've scripted Kara's dialogue to make her sound less bullheaded and unreasonable, but emotions run hot and she truly believes Lena to be a good person, unlike the rest of the cast who operates in a 'not evil until proven otherwise'. Lena and Kara's friendship is shown to be really close this episode, and I think it's a matter of time before Lena puts two and two together and figure out just how quickly Kara can contact Supergirl.

Lena's childhood is also told very well through a series of flashback that shows us her father Lionel (who looks 100% like he should be playing Lex Luthor in an adaptation) and little Lex. Definitely a fun scene, which, in the short time that we had, shows Lena's relationship to her brother and mother. And the final scenes where he wraps her fingers around the chess pieces is intriguing. Is she remembering her bloodline ties to the Luthors, thinking about her past with her brother and mother, who both went evil? Or is she satisfied about playing Kara and even Lilian like pawns? Or is that just my own bias against Luthors speaking?

I'm a bit confused why Lilian and Lena keep talking about Lex in the past tense, when IIRC previous episodes established him to be locked up in prison. Is it just odd dialogue choices for Lilian to seduce Lena to the dark side, or did something particularly bad happen to Lex during his latest battle with Superman?

A lot of scenes really are things that are well-done, too. The cruel, cruel cameo of showing Lex's Kryptonite Warsuit only to have it apparently be destroyed in Metallo's explosion, is both something I appreciate and a huge, huge cocktease. J'onn randomly showing up like the big damn hero he really should be more often just comes out of nowhere and I actually cheered in that scene -- J'onn really needs to get out of base more often, not just for martian-relevant missions.

And the ending! Mr. Mxyzptlk just shows up out of nowhere without any real announcement, and in addition to the appeal of hearing a live-action actor say the word 'Myxzptlk', it's just absolutely awesome and unexpected to see a relatively big-name Superman antagonist appear again. And in an episode where we have a trifecta of other major Superman villains (Lex, Metallo and Cyborg Superman) appearing, too!

There are several weak points in this episode that really kept it from being stellar, though -- while Snapper Carr's arguments with Kara actually felt like they belong, and I think it's the only real good use of the CatCo setting all season... James just didn't work. Sure, the Guardian-vs-Metallo fight was decent, but James and his arguments with Kara all felt unnecessary and something that I honestly didn't particularly care about. I've spoken at length about my dislike of the Guardian subplot and James in general, so I don't feel I have to repeat myself. Likewise, Kara's romantic subplot with Mon-El is at its weakest in this episode, with their conversations feeling both rushed and prolonged at the same time... though Mon-El has the benefit of getting all the best lines about how just out-of-touch with human culture he is. But their will-they-won't-they relationship is starting to get tiring, and it's a good thing Mxyzptlk crashed that particular plot strand.

Both Metallo and Cyborg Superman make their return in this episode, but Cyborg Supreman is squarely out of focus, only showing up in the final acts and even then only to be another thug in Lilian's employ. Metallo fares better, having a lot more screentime, though I honestly am slightly confused -- didn't he freaking die in his last appearance? Or am I misremembering things? He certainly dies in this episode, going through a classic 'unstable kryptonite radiation' plot where he burns himself up and eventually explodes in the climax. Metallo's also a glorified thug with Kryptonite beam abilities, but I did like his rants against the aliens while testifying for Lilian in court. That was kind of well done, making him feel like he has actual motivations. Ultimately, though, he still feels one-dimensional, a problem that's common to most villains in Supergirl other than Lena.

Overall still a very interesting and fun episode, despite my little gripes. We're apparently getting a Black Lightning show into the CW lineup alongside with the Ray, whenever that's happening. Black Lightning is definitely a very solid B-list hero that I don't particularly like... but I know who he is and he looks cool, both things that I can't really say about the Ray. So yeah. I mean, I'm barely keeping up wit

DC Easter Eggs Corner:

• Lex Luthor's father's name, Lionel, originates from the Smallville TV series, and his physical appearance here seems to be very based on Lex Luthor's classic comic book appearance. Other details, like Lex and Clark being friends for years before being enemies, as well as Lex going bald in prison, are also aspects that originated in Smallville. 
• The items in Lex Luthor's vault include:
• Lex's iconic silver-age purple and green war suit
• The Atomic Axe is the weapon of choice of the supervillain Persuader and can cut through, well, anything. 
• The Black Mercy, from the iconic Alan Moore story 'For the Man who has Everything', the alien flower that appeared before in Supergirl's take on that story.
• Mr. Mxyzptlk is one of Superman's more iconic (and zany) enemies, a reality-warping imp from the fifth dimension who comes to bother Supreman with his insanely powerful array of magic, and the only way to return him to the fifth dimension is to trick him into saying his name backwards. Over the years he's alternated between being a truly chaotic neutral character, or someone with greater designs.