Supergirl S03E15 Review: Mon-El's New Suit

Supergirl, Season 3, Episode 15: In Search of Lost Time

There's... not that much to talk about this episode, actually. There are plotlines going on, sure, but none of them really feel all that interesting. Where to begin? The main storyline, I feel, is the continuation of M'yrnn's struggles with dementia, where his attempts to do the Martian equivalent of mental strengthening exercises causes people to go violent as they get consumed in M'yrnn's own angers and frustrations... which is all dramatic and all, but it's so blatantly obvious that the show is just using it as a catalyst for the episode's action scenes and romantic storyline. And, to be fair, both Carl Lumbly and David Harewood give it their all, giving us a very powerful closing act as M'yrnn ends up realizing that he's being a bit of an ass in his denial... but it's a storyline that honestly ran for way too long. There's also really no reason for J'onn not to hand out mental inhibitors to everyone if he knows he's going to have M'yrnn taken to the DEO for safety. I really like my Martian Manhunter stuff, and it's easily the strongest part of this episode... but it's not a particularly good episode. Lumbly and Harewood are amazing to watch and are great actors, but a combination of the storyline being stretched a bit too much, a couple of obvious plot holes and some pretty bad, repetitive dialogue... that's about the only thing I can praise about this storyline. And it really shouldn't be. At one point Alex compares it with a human equivalent that the audience can relate with, but I'm not sure having a mental dampener put on M'yrnn is the same as not being allowed to drive. The conflict being focused is less M'yrnn's dementia and how to deal with it, and more "oh my god psychic powers are out of control!" Last episode focuses on M'yrnn's dementia amazingly well, and that's because it's a lot more subtle and grounded. Here the real driving conflict of J'onn and M'yrnn's relationship ends up being handwaved aside because, hey, let's have alien cameos and agents fighting each other and M'yrnn completely flipping out and fighting J'onn in a mental battle.

The B-plots here... not too much either. We get to see Mon-El's new costume, which is... um... yeah, at least they're trying to be accurate to Mon-El's comic-book counterpart. But the entire bit is just a couple of exchanges of the pent-up sexual tension between Kara and Mon-El, which honestly just feels stretched thin. I get that both Kara and Mon-El have to work with their complex feelings for each other, and in this episode Kara is forced to essentially go crazy and tear Mon-El a new one for being an ass in the past? That Kara is romanticizing the relationship they have at the end of the second season? It's a neat observation, except for the fact that, y'know, Mon-El has apologized multiple times in the past for being an ass, and Kara has had her ass moments as well in the relationship, making this huge 'wow' revelation fall flat on its face. Plus, so much of the episode's interactions has been cape tricks and just 'rawr forced romantic tension!' that like the M'yrnn storyline, the lack of subtlety and focusing on the wrong aspect of an otherwise interesting plot point makes the episode a fair bit less enjoyable than it should. 

Meanwhile, Lena and Sam... is even more obviously stretching for time. The whole point of Sam is to ask Lena to help, but she's so angry and refuses every single diagnosis from Lena, causing us to have this long, convoluted and drawn-out scenes of Lena angsting, Lena asking help from James, Lena goading Sam, before we reach a conclusion that really shouldn't have taken this long to reach. It feels out of character for the otherwise intelligent Sam.

DC Easter Eggs Corner:

• Among the prisoners in the DEO are one of the White Martians (possibly the one that impersonated a senator from season one), Draaga (last seen in season two's "Survivors") and Mandrax (last seen in season two's "Star-Crossed"). Agent Demos, a minor recurring character from season two, also makes a brief, prolonged appearance here fighting with Winn.
• Mon-El's new costume is, of course, based on his comic-book counterpart Valor's superhero suit. 
• "The son becomes the father and the father the son" is quoted from Superman: The Movie. Kara even attributes the quote to Jor-El. And, of course, it's repeated like nearly a dozen times throughout the episode. 
• Zook the fifth dimensional imp is noted by M'yrnn and J'onn as being his imaginary friend as a kid. In the comics, Zook was J'onn's sidekick in the Golden Age (where a lot of characters have their own personal fifth-dimensional imp sidekick), and was erased from continuity during Crisis of Infinite Earths.
• The psychic alien that was taken down early in the episode is identified as a Kalanorian, which is the race that the DC comics villain Despero hails from. Despero, as you can imagine, is an alien with psychic powers. The Kalanorians tend to be portrayed as having pink skin and head fins, though.