Supergirl S04E16 Review: Name's The Same

Supergirl, Season 4, Episode 16: The House of L

A pretty fun episode! Interestingly, a significant amount of this episode ends up being in flashback, detailing the story of Lex Luthor over the past couple of seasons while also finally putting the huge buildup of the "Red Daughter" into context. We've had an episode similar to this back with Agent Liberty earlier this season, but... I dunno. Maybe it's just that Lex is so much more charismatic and likable than Agent Liberty? Either way, this ends up being one of my favourite episodes in all of Supergirl so far -- which is admittedly not saying much since I haven't been impressed with Agent Liberty taking up so much of the first half of the season, and loathing the whole memory loss nonsense with Alex.

Anyway... it's a pretty great episode. The cold open for this one is also neat, with Luthor suiting up in that gloriously Golden Age mecha suit and throwing around the giant globe on top of the Daily Planet building around. I'm a sucker for these sort of scenes, I'm sorry.

We then have a flashback to Lex's trial after being arrested after the whole red sun incident we briefly saw last episode, and he takes the time to ham things up and talk about how things will only be "Before Superman" and "After Superman", fashioning himself a saviour for the human race. And... and I absolutely love the usage of Frank Sinatra's "My Way" in this scene as Luthor gives one last fuck-you to the people involved, killing the judge and jury with poison as they send him away for 37 life sentences. Better add one more life sentence indeed.

And we get a couple of scenes showing just how Eve and Otis end up in Luthor's employ, which... it isn't honestly that necessary, and I'm not sure how I actually feel about these scenes. We also see just how much control Luthor has over his stay at the prison, having the prisoners and the warden at his thumb, etching huge grandiose pictures on wall, and can easily put pressure to allow the warden to allow him to leave for 72 hours to Kaznia. Complete with holographic dummy!

Of course, the Kaznian people calls in Lex Luthor because they discover the "Red Daughter" (heretherefore referred to as "Linda", a name she gets later in the episode). And while Linda ends up zipping away to help some child, she apparently loses her memory and can only say the word Alex. It's, of course, her sister Alex, and not Lex Luthor, but Lex quickly just makes use of this hilariously silly misunderstanding to integrate himself as Linda's new best buddy, giving her Chocos, being her friend, teaching her English and, in a particularly dark bit, tells the Kaznian minister to 'get rid' of the one soldier that made Linda uncomfortable. Later on, we get to see Luthor try to indoctrinate Linda a bit more, telling her to not see Great Gatsby as a romantic story, but as a showcase of fradulent wealth. It's a fun little usage of cultural differences to manipulate Linda's point of view, like keeping her locked up in a military base and mostly in contact with soldiers or poor Kaznian children, then showing off the fancy "princess in a tower" soft room that the Danvers siblings live in. I do like that Linda is... she's not just "Evil Supergirl" or "Memory Loss Supergirl". The Harun-El backstory irks me a little, but I do find that the episode does give us enough to work with that she's not just a carbon-copy of Kara. Some real great acting work on Melissa Benoist's part, too.

And... and I get it, the whole "Alex" bit finally makes Alex's actual amnesia that has been running throughout this season suddenly become a parallel to this version of Supergirl, but, shit, I still hate that storyline.

Anyway, while Luthor goes and befriends the very inquisitive Linda, we get Luthor's little motive rant to Tessmacher and Otis, telling them about how he wants to make himself a hero for the Americans -- he has to goad Kaznia to attack America, so that Luthor can swoop in and save them, and thus become a hero. Not the most intricate plan out there, but we also get the revelation that this is where Otis and his recruitment of Ben Lockwood came in, making silly old Agent Liberty just a pawn in a far larger game.

The Kryptonite Bomb from earlier in the season ends up coming up too, which is neat -- Luthor uses that moment to take Linda's blood sample, and tell her all about Krypton, feeding her lies that Supergirl is her 'sister' who overtook Linda's position, painting a parallel with Luthor's own story about Lena. We later on get Luthor bringing "Linda Lee" to America, showing off the sheer amount of debauchery and how these damn foreigners are profiteering on suffering and being douchebags. For whatever reason, though, Luthor brings Linda to Kara Danvers' home (very fun of the episode, casually revealing to us that Lex knows all about Supergirl) and causing Linda to accidentally meet Alex.

Linda ends up figuring out that Lex isn't all that up-and-up, especially when she starts reading Kara's conveniently-placed journal, but then the little boy that she befriended, Mikhail, gets "killed" by the Americans when Luthor sends Tessmacher to infiltrate a battleship and unleash missiles on Mikhail's home. I'm curious if Otis rescues Mikhail on his own accord or if it's part of Luthor's plan, though dialogue seems to indicate the former. Linda ends up going on a rampage and ripping apart the battleship with heat vision, and ends up getting a bit of an argument with Lex over ethics and orders, and the two part in bad ways.

And then... Linda gets an illness, causing Lex to panic because he doesn't want to lose something he's invested so much effort into controlling... and then the hilariously dark moment where he goes "I have to give myself cancer! Of course!" Turns out that even the whole Kryptonite poisoning thing is a lie, which is pretty fucked-up when we see Luthor actually jump into a radiation chamber in order to, well, give himself cancer and manipulate Lena.

The final shot of the episode ends up Lex giving his blood to cure Linda, ending up earning her loyalty and turning her into a proper "Red Daughter" complete with a new suit. And... and honestly, this episode was pretty fun stuff. More focused and stronger than as the previous entry, I feel, but I did enjoy this one. It really ends up showing just how much the writers have planned out the plot of this season pretty well. And... and, sure, the season isn't the best, pacing-wise,

DC Easter Eggs Corner:

• The Daily Planet and its big-ass globe makes an appearance. Stryker's Island, a very common prison in Superman comics, also makes an appearance. 
• AmerTek industries, a constant enemy of Superman's supporting character Steel in the comics (and previously an antagonist in Arrow), shows up as Linda's antagonist in this episode. 
• Lex leaving a realistic hologram of himself while he leaves prison is a homage to a similar trick he does in the movie Superman II. 
• "Red Daughter" Supergirl adopts the alias Linda Lee while working in America. Linda Lee, of course, is Kara's original civilian secret identity (Linda Lee Danvers) in the comics. 
• Linda's storyline is pretty similar to the iconic Elseworlds story "Superman: Red Son". Linda's final costume is also heavily inspired by Red Son Superman's costume. 
• An alien really liking Chocos (a trademark-friendly pastiche of Oreos) is done most memorably with the Martian Manhunter in various comics in the 90's.