Supergirl – S1E20 – Better Angels

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Previously on Supergirl, “Myriad”

The cliffhanger from last week gets resolved pretty quickly when Mama Danvers shows up and talks some sense into the possessed Alex. This is a bit of foreshadowing for what comes later—in more ways than one. The first is obviously because “hope” can overcome Myriad’s signal, given how the signal affects the brain, and seeing her mother gave Alex hope. The second is that it took me until now to realize just how little chemistry Mama Danvers has with the rest of the cast, something that really becomes clear by the end of the episode.

Once last week’s scuffle is over, the gang all go to Cat’s old broadcast station. That’s where we learn about Maxwell Lord and Cat’s intention to broadcast a signal of hope and piggyback it off of Myriad’s signal.

Myriad, it seems, works by shutting off the parts of the brain that give rise to optimism and hope. So when Supergirl begins broadcasting her message, everyone in the city sees it and begins to buckle. James and Winn have flashes of Kara telling them her secret, shake off the daze, and find each other.

Myriad failed. In the secret lair, Indigo tells Non that they should just kill everybody on Earth and leave Kara on a dead world.

Back at the DEO, General Lane comes to greet Lucy (and reveals that Superman is down-for-the-count, another reason for why he doesn’t just step in and help). Kara helps Alex clean up and their mom asks why Alex came to talk to her in Midvale when she and “Hank” were on the lam. Alex drops that bomb about Jeremiah still being alive.

Before Eliza can react much, Max shows up and tells them that the Myriad wave has been amplified through his LTE network and is still increasing. Max tells them that unless Supergirl can find Non and Indigo, everyone’s heads will literally explode when the amplification gets too high.

So, realizing her odds, Kara pays her respects as best as she can without freaking out her family, and then flies back to CatCo. This was a clever way to recap the sweeter moments of the season, and she recalls her first day at work and her first day as Supergirl, and how Winn was there for her the entire time.

Meanwhile, back in the DEO’s control center, Max reveals that he’s found the power source—and it’s in Fort Rozz, which was cloaked and residing somewhere in Nevada this whole time. Hearing this, Hank breaks free and tells General Lane that he’s going with Supergirl. Lucy stiffens and goes against her father by ordering Hank free, even as he breaks off his own handcuffs.

Which is, of course, the right decision. The pair fly to Fort Rozz and are confronted by Non and Indigo. A fight breaks out and Hank rips Indigo in half as Supergirl unleashes her eye-beams on Non.

Before they can celebrate their victory, Indigo’s top half reveals that they can’t shut down Myriad—she’s locked down Fort Rozz so it can’t fly away. They’ll be forced to watch Earth die, like Krypton and Mars.

Supergirl decides the only way to save the city is to physically lift Fort Rozz into space and (presumably) hurl it toward the sun. Before she does, she calls Alex and tells her the plan, and this is where the entire episode fell of the rails for me, because I was completely taken out of the moment and actually laughed out loud when Alex showed up in space flying Kara’s pod to save her.

Later, Kara awakens at the DEO and hugs Hank and Lucy over a round of applause. General Lane thanks her on behalf of himself and the President. Hank is pardoned and reinstated as director of DEO. Hank says that from now on they’re on the same team—even as elsewhere, Max has somehow acquired Myriad’s power source with General Lane’s blessing.

At CatCo, as Clark is IMing Kara and telling her how proud he is, Cat grabs Kara and escorts her to a new office and announces she’s promoting her—and it’s up to Kara to figure out what she wants to do. Cat says it’s her end of Working Girl moment and she believes if she takes advantage of it, she can change the world. Cat steels herself and says if she works hard there might be a window in her future, and then calls her Kara (not Kira) for the first time.

At the apartment, the entire gang is setting up for a celebratory dinner. Eliza, Alex and Hank set a place for Jeremiah, for when they find him… together. James pulls Kara away and gives her a photo of her looking happy with squinty eyes. They kiss. The others call her out to do a Champagne trick that apparently is just making the cork pop out by… gently squeezing the bottle?

Hank toasts Supergirl, Supergirl toasts family, and it’s a nice moment to see them all together, even as Eliza nearly ruins the moment by looking completely out of place and uncomfortable.

The episode could have ended there. But where’s the fun in that? So there is a rumble outside. Something flies overhead. Supergirl and Hank go to see what it is, and find that another pod from Krypton has just crashed. When Supergirl opens it, blue light illuminates her face, and… see you next season.