‘Supergirl’ Recap: Martian vs. Martian to the Death
Warning: This recap for the “Survivors” episode of Supergirl contains spoilers.
“Survivors” is a classically comic book story, with characters being thrown into an intergalactic cage match by a sexy and untouchable villain. Add in the romance of Maggie and Alex and the comedy of Mon-El and Winn and you’ve concocted the ideal Supergirl episode.
The plot
Alex and Maggie (Floriana Lima) uncover an illegal underground cage fight in which aliens are abducted and forced to fight to the death. It’s run by Roulette (Dichen Lachman), who hosts the blood sport for National City’s elite. Meanwhile, Hank’s offer to telepathically bond with M’gann (Sharon Leal) is rebuffed. When it’s revealed that she’s involved with Roulette’s fight club, he assumes that’s the reason. Hank is captured and forced to fight M’gann, but he convinces her she doesn’t need to kill him. Supergirl flies in and convinces the rest of the alien fighters to turn on Roulette, who is arrested and promptly released due to her social connections. M’gann doesn’t tell Hank that the real reason she won’t share minds is that she’s actually a White Martian, Hank’s mortal enemy.
Law and order: Alien victims unit
It’s such a familiar rhythm, you almost forget what show it is until Kara awkwardly interjects, “Seems like you two got it handled?” Seriously, how great would it be to have Alex and Maggie in a Supergirl spinoff as police detectives working cases of alien homicide? Not like the Arrowverse needs another show, but the introduction of the alien subculture in National City has opened up an interesting door — not just for new plots, but for a new aesthetic. It could be Torchwood to Supergirl‘s Doctor Who.
Drinking buddies
Speaking of great teams, Mon-El and Winn are a fantastic pair. Hank has only himself to blame for Mon-El getting out; of course Winn is going to crumble when buttered up. And even though we know that the Daxamite is being kept at the DEO to protect humans, not the other way around, it’s a wonderful character moment that he figures it out when he gets a little too carried away while drinking. We’re learning about Mon-El and Daxam’s hedonist culture at the same time, and it’s an interesting contrast to the “snobs” of Krypton. Not that being a planet full of philosophers and scientists like Krypton isn’t noble, but man, Daxam has soccer with dragons!
It’s actually about ethics in superhero journalism
Honest-to-goodness, beat-reporting journalists must hate this show with the fiery passion of a thousand Kryptonian suns. Just the notion alone that Kara is her own source for a story would be enough to get her kicked out of a newsroom — it would be like a firefighter ensuring his job security by setting fires. To say nothing of the fact that a desperate young reporter who hems and haws, then “admits” that her source is Supergirl makes Jayson Blair and James Frey look like Walter Cronkite in comparison. That being said, Ian Gomez single-handedly absolves Supergirl of all its sins against the Fourth Estate with his curmudgeonly deadpan, and the line “Go! Bake, bake, bake!” should be in every mentoring handbook ever.
Inside comics moment
Roulette has locked horns with the Justice Society of America as well as Mr. Terrific, which means it’s possible the writers are looking for a way to cross her over with either Legends of Tomorrow or Arrow. On Legends — because we saw the JSA in 1942 — we saw present-day Vixen’s grandmother (Maisie Richardson-Sellers), so there’s also the chance we could see Roulette’s mother, Debra Sinclair, who also engaged in a bit of supervillainy.
Kryptobites
Kara calls the prince of Daxam “frat boy of the universe,” but you’d be forgiven if you heard “frakboi of the universe,” which works on so many levels but is also entirely inappropriate for 8 p.m. on the CW.
It’s good to see Lachman back on comic book TV. She last played Jiaying on Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D., for which she wasn’t allowed to go full-on supervillain like she is here. She’s the ideal counterpoint to Kara: Smooth where Kara’s awkward, cold where Kara’s empathetic. More importantly, she has no superpowers, but Supergirl is powerless against her because of her political connections. Roulette would be great as the big bad in Season 4 when Kara would have to learn how to defeat foes without using her fists.
Maggie has a girlfriend?! But what about Detective Danvers (fandom’s current relationship name for Maggie and Alex)? As the wise sage O-Ren Ishii once said: “You didn’t think it would be that easy, did you?”
Supergirl airs on Mondays at 8 p.m. ET on the CW.
