What is it going to take to please some of you people? I mean, seriously; this was the best episode of the entire series thus far, and yet some people here are acting like it 'killed their mother'.
Supergirl was, is, and always will be the most 'politically driven' of the DCW series, and there's nothing wrong with that, because the political undertones and 'social commentary' narrative elements have been, at least for me, among the better parts of the show through its first 35 episodes. Tonight's episode so blatantly pushing back against the concept of forced deportation, coupled with Snapper's mention of a "fascist President", gave me everything that I want from this show as far as 'political commentary' is concerned, while also delivering a really great Sci-Fi-based story in and of itself.
Alex getting all pissed and aggressive this episode was nice to see from a character standpoint, although J'onn disguising himself as Jeremiah to trick Alex into incriminating herself really was a 'bridge too far'. I did like their reconciliation at the end, though, and 'got my squee on' when she hugged him since, if she can't actually hug her own father, J'onn really is the next best thing.
It continues to baffle me why there are so many people out there who insist on believing that Lena is 'shady', especially when the show keeps on showing us that she's not, but hopefully what happened tonight will silence the doubters since there's absolutely nothing in any way selfish, shady, or self-aggrandizing about what she did in looking into L Corp's past dealings to uncover possible connections/clues to Cadmus and what they were doing in kidnapping aliens. The only thing I was kind of surprised by is that she seemed to buy Supergirl's explanation about how she suddenly showed up outside L Corp, but only because I feel like Lena is eventually going to learn that Kara and Supergirl are one and the same and the show might not get a better opportunity to make that reveal than they gave themselves tonight.
Being in possession of some spoilers for upcoming episodes gives me a very different perspective on the Wynn/Lyra relationship and Kara being fired by Snapper than I've seen others espousing online, but I love that they brought James back to being a buddy to Wynn outside of their exploits as "Team Guardian", especially with Winn being so head-over-heels in love with Lyra, especially since I know what it's going to lead to soon. I also got a big kick out of James showing back up as Guardian to save Alex's 'bacon' and help apprehend the bald Cadmus thug that she later beats the holy crap out of (go POed!Alex).
They brought back the "Solar Flare" theme for the moment towards the climax of the episode where Kara had to forcibly stop the Hosnian transport ship from jumping into hyperspace, and I really enjoyed it; I do wish they'd had Kara be physically weaker, though, since it would've been a nice callback to the fact that she can in fact lose her powers if she's put under too much strain/has to exert an intense amount of effort. Having said that, though, I really enjoyed that entire sequence and love that we got another sweet "supersisters" moment where Alex is silently encouraging Kara through the ship's "bridge window".
Teri Hatcher and Kevin Sorbo making their debuts during the episode's coda was also fun, and confirms that the people that we saw earlier in the season at the conclusion of Medusa were Daxamites, which makes it kind of curious that they referred to one of their own - Mon-El - as formally as they did in conversation amongst themselves. I also found it kind of curious that it didn't seem to take long for Hatcher and Sorbo's characters, the King and Queen, to begin feeling the effects of Earth's yellow sun on their bodies as opposed to what happened with Mon-El, but maybe that's a function of the fact that he spent so many years stuck in a Kryptonian pod in the Well of Stars.
If
@Christopher hadn't pointed it out, I wouldn't have remembered/realized that Kara's comment to Mon-El that "Supergirl is what I can do; Kara is who I am" was a paraphrased reprise of something from Lois and Clark, but I think it makes far more sense coming from Kara, especially as she's characterized in this show, than it does coming from Clark (even Dean Cain's Clark), since it's an affirmation of something that I've repeated in the past, which is that Kara doesn't actually technically have a 'secret identity' so much as she has three separate but interconnected identities that help define who she is.
I'm really intrigued to find out what next week's episode - and The Flash's Duet - is going to hold, especially since it results in the outing of Mon-El's secret past as the Daxamite Prince - and wish we didn't have to wait two weeks, but I'd rather have them take a break next week than have to wait more than a week to get to The Flash's episode, "Duet", which is also going to have some pretty big Karamel-related stuff in it.