Supergirl - 'Myriad'

Team Earth.

Welcome to, in the parlance of Six White Complainers, 'The One Where Shit Gets Real'.

Myriad is revealed as a massive mind control program, using Max Lord's satellites to transmit its control signal. Once Kara finally gets her holographic mother to talk about it, she is told that once begun, Myriad can not be stopped. I'm going to call bullshit on that, since otherwise we're down two leads and a recurring support character right out of the gate. Besides, when Superman shows up to help, it affects his Earth-raised brain, and I seriously doubt if the series is ready to straight up gack the Man of Steel.

Fortunately, Kara is able to prevent the controlled Lucy Lane releasing all of the DEO's prisoners. Moreover, Lord realised what was happening in time to make tinfoil helmets for himself and Cat, but not to actually tell anyone about it (despite the fact that Cat's ion shield was delivered in the form of gift earrings. Seriously, Lord; make better use of your time!) Lord believes that the only way to defeat Non now is to detonate a Kryptonite bomb above the city, killing Non's forces and rendering it uninhabitable to Kryptonians. His assumption that Kara can get Clark out of the city, but that Non won't just relocate, is just one of the flaws that no-one points out while they agonise over the 30,000 projected collateral casualties.

"It's all for you, Damian!"

Pushed by Indigo to deal with Kara, Non shows up to explain that he's saving the world, and just to fuck with our hero has James, Wynn and Kelly (you remember Kelly; she's in the background of some shots?) jump off the roof. Kara is able to save James and Wynn, but misses Kelly, which is enough to tip her over into regrettable genocide mode.

Alex and J'onn make it to Alex's mother's house in disguise before they hear what is happening in National City. J'onn opts to go back and help, as his mind won't be affected, and Alex persuades him to take her along and use his power to shield her. Alex remains slightly above Barry Allen on the 'list of people who are allowed to make plans', but her stock is falling.

Perhaps due to the effort of shielding Alex's mind, J'onn is blindsided by Indigo, and after a short fight apparently impaled through the heart and killed. I'm hoping that his powers were just shut down by the proximity of a large fire, and will be pissed if this is not the case, because damnit I want a Martian Manhunter here if I can't have one in the Justice League movies. Either way, Alex falls under Myriad control.

Alex tries out the Sam Fisher look.

Cat persuades Supergirl to take a chance on hope, so instead of the bomb they hijack Cat's first TV station to hack the Myriad broadcast. That's when Alex shows up, Myriad controlled, clad in an exoskeleton and carrying the old Kryptonite sword.

CLIFFHANGER!

'Myriad' really takes to extremes the idea that pretty much anyone except Supergirl herself is powerless, with most of the cast either mind-controlled or, at best, incapacitated so that we can have the Alex vs. Kara fight without wondering where he is. That's not a huge problem, although the variable usefulness of Max Lord is. The idea that he has time to undetectably incorporate his shield into a pair of earrings, but not to make more of them or produce any sort of larger-scale defence is pretty ludicrous, and basically just a fudge to get Cat involved. Still, it's dramatic and painful, and of course Benoist sells the hurt hard.