Violet and I recap the second episode of Supergirl, where Kara deals with Hellgrammite. Catch up on the CBS show, and check out our thoughts!
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Episode Recap of Supergirl Season 1 Episode 2: Stronger Together
On this second episode of Supergirl, the episode opens with Kara flying about the desert. She is dodging some missiles, and the DEO is testing her abilities. She continues her testing, and seemingly passes. Talking with her sister, Alex tells her that Henshaw is just looking out for her. Meanwhile, Winn radios Kara telling her there is a fire at the port. She heads there despite her sister telling her she needs a break.
At the port, Kara talks to the fire chief, then unleashes her cold breath on the fire, but it seems to make matters worse. She then decides to try to move the ship, which has a lot of fuel on it, away from the fire. The firefighters give her a round of applause, until the hull of the ship is cracked, and oil leaks into the ocean.
At work, Kara and Winn talk, and she is disappointed in herself. On the news, Maxwell Lord is giving her a hard time publicly. Kara super-hears Cat Grant coming in, and Cat tells Kara they have to have a meeting in her office. Cat is annoyed because the Daily Planet is getting more stories than her. Jimmy Olsen tries to defend Supergirl, but Cat isn’t hearing it. Cat then says she wants an interview with Supergirl. Cat tells James to ask Superman to work out the meeting. Cat demands to get this exclusive, by the end of the week. Cat has one last word for Kara, telling her that something is affecting her at the office, and she needs to get over it.
Talking with Jimmy, Kara refuses to do the interview, but Jimmy thinks Kara can pull it off. Kara starts having second thoughts about her “putting the S on,” but Jimmy tries to cheer her up. There seems to be a moment between the two, but Kara breaks it up.
At a chemical plant, we see two employees chit-chatting, then we see some sort of villain. He has a crazy jaw, and his powers seem insect-like, with his quick movements. He takes out the employees we saw.
Supergirl and the DEO come to investigate. Henshaw suspects a bomb could be made.
We get a brief flashback to Krypton. This flashback introduces us to Hellgrammite, the alien that broke into the chemical plant. Kara remembers this from her flashback, and tells Kara about him. Alex takes Kara to a training room, and tells her that she has to train. In the room, there is Kryptonite–enough to weaken Kara, but not hurt her. This will allow the two of them to spar for training. Kara is not doing well, given her lack of super strength. Kara gets all bent out of shape, and takes off.
The next day at work, Kara is clearly sore from her fight. Cat has written an article insulting Supergirl, and Kara puts up a fuss about it. Kara asks Cat what advice she would give to Supergirl, and Cat says she needs to calm down and take things slow. She explains her own work from the ground up to get to where she is now.
Kara then tells Winn to meet her in the alley in 5 minutes, which he does, and Jimmy is there too. Both don’t realize that the other knew Kara’s identity. She tells them she needs to “start small, and get better.”
Moving back to Hellgrammite, Non has shown up, and does as well, telling Hellgrammite to lure Kara out so she can capture him.
Winn and Jimmy work together to get her to crime scenes, and she takes down a robbery, and rescues a man suffering a heart attack. The news seems to be spinning around, giving her better reviews. Back at her room, Alex shows up for a chat. Alex apologizes to Kara about how she handled the situation earlier.
Alex heads back to base, and it looks like the Hellgrammite is just looking for food. The DEO plans to lure Hellgrammite out.
At work, Cat talks with Jimmy about getting the interview. Kara overhears the talk, and Jimmy says he doesn’t use friends for benefits, and Cat threatens Jimmy with being fired. Later, Jimmy talks with Kara, and he says that when he as a kid, he only really got famous because of him knowing Superman, and moving to this new job would hopefully let him make a new name. Kara then talks about not wanting to be a hero alone, but wanting to work with others. Kara tells Jimmy that he should accept her help, giving the interview to Cat.
On the road, Henshaw is moving some DDT to lure out the Hellgrammite. It shows up, and the DEO try to take it down. Alex gets taken, and the Hellgrammite flees, carrying Alex with him. Alura shows up and wants to know where Kara is, but Hellgrammite tells Alura that Kara didn’t show. Henshaw calls Kara and tells her about the kidnapping of her sister. Kara shows up, and is pretty ticked off. Kara heads out to search for Alex. Back with Alex, she identifies Alura, but she’s actually Alura’s twin, Astra. Kara overhears this and moves to save Alex. Henshaw, meanwhile, mobilizes his men too.
At Alex, Astra gets the jump on Kara. Kara is confused about seeing her Aunt Astra, and Astra reveals she was a prisoner off of Krypton. Astra tells Kara that her human allegiance is a mistake, and she shouldn’t stand against her. The two get into a fight, as Alex is attacked by Hellgrammite. She manages to use the Hellgrammite’s stinger against itself, and takes it out. Kara and Astra still battle though. Kara seems in some deep trouble, but remembering her brief training with Alex, she gets the upper hand. But Astra shows back up, using her cold breath. Henshaw then shows up, and stabs Astra in the arm with a Kryptonite blade.
Alex and Kara talk in the aftermath, and they determine they have to train Kara to help stop Astra. Alex then tells Kara that she wants to show her something. Alex tells Kara about Superman’s Fortress of Solitude, and that Kara can commune with her past relatives. She goes inside to see Alura there. It is an “interactive” memory, according to Alex. Alex leaves, and Kara and this image talk. Kara asks about her Aunt Astra. Meanwhile, we see Henshaw moving about the DEO with his glowy, red eyes.
Back at her base, Astra has the blade removed from her arm, and it appears to not be made by humans. But Astra says they have to deal with Kara.
Back with Cat, Supergirl has decided that to accept the interview. She picks up Cat Grant’s car, takes it to a mountain, and they have a chat.
Josh’s Thoughts: Supergirl, Season 1 Episode 2: Stronger Together
Well, I still am not terribly excited about this show. I think this was a better episode than the pilot, but at the moment it is coming off as too cheesy for me. The biggest problems I am having with it, is its desire to constantly remind us that Superman exists, and the constant feeling that this show has to parallel Superman’s story, or that characters involved in Superman’s world have to show up here.
The interesting bits this episode for me, dealt with Kara trying to learn her powers and figure out how to save people without making matters worse. I thought those were interesting. What didn’t work for me was Cat Grant, as her character, while supposed to be irritating, is way more irritating than I can handle. I also really dislike the necessity of Winn and Jimmy being rivals just because they are two men working with a woman. It seems really silly.
Other than that, I am pretty disinterested in the show as a whole. We will have to see if the next couple episodes pick up at all, or if the show will continue down its less-than-exciting path.
Violet’s Thoughts on Season 1 Episode 2 of Supergirl: Stronger Together
Although I felt this episode was a step up from the pilot, I’m still not on board with the show yet. However, one aspect of this episode I did like is that they actually addressed the fact that Kara is still very inexperienced at being a superhero, and that she has done no training whatsoever for the 12 years that she has been on this planet. Considering that this show is written by a lot of the same writers who write for Arrow, I thought they might make the same move they did on that show, where a certain character suddenly joins the team with little training, but somehow happens to be just as good as everyone else, which was very bothersome. So I’m glad that on Supergirl they are showing Kara’s faults, showing that she does not really know what she’s doing yet, and actually making an effort to train her.
What I didn’t like was Kara’s whiny attitude when her sister, Alex, was trying to train her. She actually got upset at Alex for trying to help make her a better fighter, acting like she didn’t need her help, and that it was an insult to even suggest it. Even Cat Grant, who it felt like was made to look like sort of a bad guy (or at least against Kara) in the pilot, was making more sense in what she was saying about Supergirl than what Kara herself was saying. I was actually agreeing with Cat’s suggestions about Supergirl, and I’m glad that Kara seemed to take her advice.
In any case, I hope that Kara continues to train and try to better her fighting abilities as the episodes continue, rather than her having this one little training session with Alex, and that somehow being all that she needed.
I am curious about Hank Henshaw though. His glowing red eyes seem to suggest that he’s a bad guy. But if he’s a bad guy, why is he helping so much? I suppose he has to infiltrate pretty far and establish some trust before he enacts whatever his master plan is. I wonder if he left the kryptonite knife in Astra’s arm on purpose, so as to alert the Kyrptonians about the existence of Kryptonite?
Overall, the show still seems really cheesy to me, but I’ll keep watching to see if things get any better.
Scenes from Supergirl, Season 1 Episode 3: Fight or Flight
Here are scenes from the next Supergirl episode, titled Fight or Flight:
