Supergirl S03E11 Review: XX

Supergirl, Season 3, Episode 11: Fort Rozz

It's a bit of a hilarious handwave that the superhero/supervillain team they needed to bring into space is affected by some sci-fi goobledeygonk that kills anything with a Y chromosome (hell, not even all gendered species on Earth has equivalents to X/Y chromosomes) but it's a handwave that's so hilariously Golden Age comic book that I'm actually willing to just handwave it aside.

Because the setup for this episode is pretty neat. Supergirl and Saturn Girl have to head off to space, to Fort Rozz, to gather intelligence about Reign and the Worldkillers from Priestess Jindah Kol-Rozz, one of the two priestesses from the Cult of Rao imprisoned on board the prison. Small problem, though -- Fort Rozz orbits a blue sun, meaning Supergirl will be without her powers, and there's the aforementioned "kill all men" radiation emitting from that sun. 

And this leads to a genuinely unexpected swerve where Kara ends up recruiting former villains Livewire and Psi to go along with her and Imra to Fort Rozz. I must confess that I genuinely forgot Psi exists, but Livewire's been a neat little recurring villain and a personal favourite from Superman: The Animated Series, so it's definitely great to see her along. What's unexpected is that this episode actually gives her a character arc that's wrapped up pretty neatly with a bow at the end of the episode. Kara finds Livewire serving tables and being grumpy in some random diner,  and as much as Livewire wants to bitch about it, it's clear that she has the capacity to do some good. Or just scared by the scary Kryptonian Punisher going around burning people to death. 

It's a classic premise -- hero is forced to recruit some of her older enemies, oooh, when will the inevitable betrayal happen? Except it doesn't. And genuine kudos to the show-makers for hinting that at least the under-developed swear-vengeance-upon-you-do-gooders Psi is going to be the one that betrays the group, but she doesn't. Sure, during a scuffle with some random alien Psi ends up accidentally mind-blasting poor Imra, but it ends up being a genuine accident. I don't particularly care for Psi, because all she does is quote nursery rhymes and being gloriously weird and creepy, but Livewire and Supergirl's interactions here are genuinely neat. 

And redemption is the big theme here in this episode. It's particularly telling that Supergirl states that her big goal is to redeem Reign -- or at least subdue her in a way that doesn't involve killing her. While it's clearly naive (and Livewire, bless her, points this out), this is Supergirl. And as Mon-El points out at the end of the episode, Supergirl has clearly succeeded with at least Livewire herself, who ends up taking a heat-vision blast through the chest to protect an unpowered Supergirl. It is a shocking and emotional death, and I definitely didn't expect it.

Sure, the scripting could be a bit tighter. Kara barely interacts with Imra, and the setup of the two is even lampshaded by Livewire as being so soap opera it hurts. Imra herself is a bit of a generic superhero, and Psi is a generic mouthy pontificating villain, and Reign's still more plot device than character, but it's relatively enjoyable. All in all, this ends up with Kara and company learning about the existence of the other Worldkillers -- there are at least two, Purity and Pestilence, and we meet one of them in the final scene of this episode.

As per normal, the B-plot doesn't quite work as well, although at least this episode has the sense to ixnay James Olsen and Lena Luthor's romance out. Instead we get Winn and Brainiac 5's arguing, with Winn solving the day with some ingenuity while Brainy is too concerned about not having full access to what he would think are appropriate amounts of technology. It lays it on a bit too thick with the whole "GO THROUGH THE SUN!" "GO AROUND IT!" argument, but eh. Meanwhile, poor, crippled Alex has to baby-sit Ruby for a bunch of fun fluff where they deal with Alex's remaining feelings for Maggie and Ruby's bully. It's... it's cute, I guess? I liked it, but it's definitely filler. It does end up putting Samantha in a place to talk to Alex for help when she realizes that she's been missing time and that desperate panic in Alex's apartment is a pretty well-acted scene.

Overall, it's an episode with definite hiccups, but one that still manages to be relatively enjoyable, and Livewire's story ends up being quite emotional in a way that CW shows tend to stumble where secondary characters are involved. 

DC Easter Eggs Corner:

• Priestess Jindah Kol-Rozz is played by actress Sarah Douglas, best known as playing the evil female Kryptonian Ursa from Superman II. 
• A low-key Easter Egg, but the roster of Saturn Girl, Psi and Livewire mimic the powers of the founding members of the Legion of Super-Heroes, with Psi having similar powers to Cosmic Boy and Livewire to Lightning Lad.
• Fort Rozz finally returns after being thrown into space at the end of season one, Livewire returns, having last seen in season 2's "We Can Be Heroes" (her encoutner with Mon-El is referenced here; and her origin story as a CatCo employee is also brought up) while Psi was last seen earlier in this season's "Triggers".