Supergirl - 'Manhunter'

"I used to be Superman, you know."

It's troubled times for our hero, with J'onn in a cell at the DEO and Alex in imminent danger of sharing a treason charge.

Enter Colonel James Harper, a patriotic douchebag who used to shoot the breeze about killing aliens, commies and traitors with the real Hank Henshaw, so you can see that he might not be well disposed towards the alien who took Hank's place and face for ten years.

Essentially, this is all about the flashbacks, as J'onn reveals the details of his meeting with Jeremiah Danvers and Henshaw's attempt to destroy and dissect what Superman dubbed 'the most powerful creature on this planet'. This, coupled with his schooling of evil Kara last week, really brings home how well the series has done in limiting his role and power to keep the spotlight on Kara. In her interview, Alex explains how she went off the rails, faced with her step-sister's power and her father's disappearance, until J'onn/Hank brought her into the DEO and gave her a purpose.

Harper of course feels that Henshaw had the right idea, and when his aide - the re-enlisted Lucy Lane - realises that, polygraph or not, Alex is lying about her knowledge of J'onn's identity, she gets put on the Cadmus bus with him. Short on options, Kara makes an appeal to Lucy, revealing her secret identity and asking for Lucy's trust. It's a hail Mary, but it pays off, and Lucy helps her to hijack the Cadmus bus before it can reach America's favourite evil government superlab. J'onn surgically edits Harper's mind, and at the same time sees Jeremiah alive at Cadmus, so he and Alex go on the lam while Lucy takes over at the DEO.

Oh, and Siobhan seeks revenge by trying to frame Kara for sending an abusive email to Cat, but Wynn does a typing analysis to show it was her. This leads to a drunken rooftop confrontation, in which Wynn tries to explain why he wasn't willing to back her as far as criminal defamation and mail fraud, and Siobhan takes a fall, but levitates herself off the pavement with a road-cracking scream.

Oo. Flash crossover next episode. I wonder if Siobhan is a symptom of crossworlds metahuman spillage.

I continue to be very impressed with Supergirl, which has been working its butt off to prove that a superhero show doesn't need a male lead, and as I say, has done an excellent job of keeping J'onn from taking too much spotlight, with all the power he has. It has also showcased a range of female villains with way more too them than just 'Hi! I iz sexy villain.' Okay, Indigo was kind of trampy, but that's a deliberate character flaw.