What I’m Watching: Supergirl

Supergirl: Season 2, Episode 12 “Luthors” (B+)

One of the important themes of this show is what being a hero really means and what actually makes someone complicit in evil. The Luthors have been tangential characters on this show since most of it mirrors the Superman mythology and creates storylines that are duplicates and variations rather than purely adopted and made applicable to Supergirl. We haven’t – and surely won’t – see Lex on this show, but Lillian was first introduced as an unknown villain before being revealed as the matriarch of the most notorious family in this universe, while Lena was framed as the innocent one who always drew the short straw and got cast in a bad light with the press and the public. Kara has seen past that, and sticking by a friend she believes in was an important act over the course of this episode especially as no one else agreed with her. Getting to tell Snapper “I told you so” was a nice moment, if hardly the most realistic instance of intrepid young journalism outsmarting high-ranking veteran editors. Since Alex and Maggie got together, there haven’t been many obstacles to their happiness having to do with their gender, and their relationship went over pretty well with all of their friends. Kara gave a nice big speech about having it all before leaning it for what surely would have been a passionate kiss with Mon-El – finally – and then some weird lover apparition thing showed up with an almost unpronounceable, certainly unspellable name who I’m sure will play a major role in the next episode.