Supergirl - 'Star-Crossed'

"Family's always embarrassing, isn't it."

It's been a while since Kara was fired, and all in all she's taking it pretty well.

On the other hand, I have to admit, I am not digging 'funemployed' Kara. The idea that reporting, her 'calling', the thing that defined her as Kara rather than as Supergirl, can so easily be replaced by watching musicals with a cute fella is a disservice to the character and exactly the reason I fear romance in female-led titles. I am seriously disappointed that she's not even trying to make a go of it as a news blogger.

Not that this mysteriously-funded domestic bliss lasts long. A spaceship pops up in orbit and demands that Mon-el be handed over, then picks a fight with Kara when she goes to take a look-see. Rather than allow the situation to escalate, Mon-el agrees to go with the invaders. Kara hops into the teleport beam and it turns out that the ship is commanded by Mon-el's parents, the King and Queen of Daxam (dun-dun-dun!) Big surprise, except that the 'previously on' made a point of reminding us that Kara had heard that the Prince of Daxam was 'the worst'. Over the most awkward 'meet the family' dinner ever to include only privileged white people(1), Mon-el reveals that he was economical with the actualities in describing his escape, which involved rather more ditching his girlfriend and being hurried to an escape pod by his guard, who shot a Kryptonian ambassador on the way out.

Kara blows up at Mon-el for lying to her about his fundamental identity for six months and chucks him, and as a result reluctantly pushes him to accept his parents demand that he return to the somewhat recovered Daxam and lead the reconstruction as the face of the planet's future. He decides in the end, however, that he wants to remain on Earth and learn to be a real hero and a good person, even if Kara wants nothing to do with him anymore.

"I thought you said B&D, not B&E!"

Meanwhile, in the B-plot, Lyra tricks Wynn into helping her steal a Van Gogh. Alex persuades Maggie to let Winn out on her parole for 24 hours to track the real culprit. They find Lyra, who tells Winn he was just a mark, but it turns out that she was working for a gang whom her brother owes a stack of cash. With a little help from Guardian and the DEO, Lyra is captured, but J'onn won't approve a hostage exchange on the word of a proven con artist. Winn takes a chance, however, letting Lyra out and using a forged painting to lure the art theft gang and their alien leader into a trap. The brother is rescued and Lyra agrees to stay on in National City and give things another go with Winn.

Man, I am so glad that B-plot worked out the way it did, because the slightly comic male character only ever winding up with bad seeds with an agenda and never seeing it coming is a trope that got old with Xander Harris(2). Here, they worked through the situation well, with Lyra revealing that Starhaven was destroyed and she and her brothers were refugees, forced to endure death and suffering and confinement, and probably not best positioned to trust others as a first reaction, even people that she likes. I like that he still felt able to trust her once the truth came out, and I like that she decided to take a chance on trusting him, rather than vanishing from the series like a nu Team Arrow recruit.

The A-plot was less pleasing. I'm not agin Mon-el having a redemption arc beyond just being a bit of a self-centred sleaze and becoming less of a self-centred sleaze, but I don't like Kara when she's defined by her relationships. I really hope she takes a move into citizen journalism soon.

 

And then this happened...

Oh, and in the stinger a mysterious dude shows up while Kara is discussing the transdimensional device that Cisco provided, breaks out of cuffs, puts some sort of whammy on Kara and flees through a breach while she collapses into a dream world in which she has to sing in a 1930s nightclub. So there's that.

(1) As much as I am in accord with Kara's politics, the debate over Daxam's slave policies is painfully notable for being an argument between decadent slave owners and a former and current member of the liberal elite.

(2) 'I like you, I really do, but…' is almost as terrible a phrase as 'friendzone'.