What I’m Watching: Supergirl

Supergirl: Season 2, Episode 6 “Changing” (B+)

When this episode started with William Mapother in a faraway station somewhere encountering an alien presence, I got great flashbacks to one of my favorite quickly cancelled sci-fi series, “Threshold.” This episode actually felt a lot more like a classic hour of “The X-Files,” the season one installment “Ice,” starring as Xander Berkeley and Felicity Huffman as scientists driven insane by parasites at a remote Alaskan outpost. This premise was somewhat similar, though it fit into a more standard alien-starring series, with the new duo organism fighting to stop climate change by sucking the life out of other extraterrestrial beings. That paved the way for the perfect debut for James’ Guardian, a superhero with no powers but a handful of cool gadgets designed and operated by Winn in the van, including a lead suit so that Supergirl couldn’t see through his costume and figure out who he was. Mon-El also leant his help for a bit, which was productive after he stopped trying to act as an enforcer for a bookie, but it did manage to put him on Cadmus’ radar and get him snatched up by them at the end of the episode. Hank was saved by the other remaining Martian’s blood transfusion, but we still have no explanation about who she really is and if she’s not in fact a Martian. Alex coming out to Kara was very awkward, mainly because I never would have expected a conversation like that to take place on a show like this (though it’s great that it is!), and how unfortunate that Maggie shut her down completely when she worked up the courage to kiss her. I think that relationship is still going to happen, though this wasn’t a smooth start.