Supergirl Season 2 Episode 10 Review

Season Two of Supergirl came back last week, and unfortunately the mid-season premiere wasn't the best episode to come back on. One can’t help every time the intro would state “my cousin had already become Superman” that the Man of Steel would come back and make things more watchable. Today’s installment, “We Can Be Heroes,” brings back a major plot point of the season: M’gann. Coupled with a super villain breakout and we have the formula for hopefully a good story. It looks like the show is back because “We Can Be Heroes” is the best installment in awhile. It’s not perfect but it’s very solid in comparison to what we’ve been seeing lately.

If there’s one thing that holds “We Can Be Heroes” together it’s a focus on the show’s male characters. Through I’ve already seen some griping about that on Twitter, I don’t mind when an episode of such a female-focused show shakes things up every now and again. I don’t think Supergirl needs to turn in its feminist card for downplaying Alex, Maggie, and even Kara this week given that they’ve all had plenty to do this season. Especially because Supergirl’s male characters were in need of a bit more shading.

The main conflict involves the return of Livewire. The jail therapy scene did a good re-establishing her as an unstable entity obsessed with frying Supergirl. Livewire's appearance was also more captivating than before as the actress who plays her left the campiness and embraced the insane. What follows is somewhat confusing. A couple of people come and break her out, but later the viewer discovers that it was a red herring and that those people were actually kidnapping her. Livewire made it seem like she knew she was going to be broken out. It’s as if a piece of the script is missing. It wasn’t explicitly stated that someone tricked her. Beyond that, everything else with Livewire is good. She’s a fun antagonist to have around, and it looks like the show isn’t done with her since she’s free by the end.

After taking a backseat last week, J’onn gets a lot of focus tonight in a story that is both the strongest and the most disconnected element of “We Can Be Heroes.” When a White Martian psychic attack lands M’gann M’orzz in a coma, J’onn has to put aside his hatred of her to form an intimate mental link that will save her life. Supergirl has never been afraid to go dark with J’onn’s backstory and that’s equally true tonight. He learns that M’gann rebelled against her people after being asked to kill a young Green Martian. She slaughtered her fellow guards instead and expected to die herself, only to somehow survive and wind up on Earth. She and J’onn connect over their survivor’s guilt, and J’onn—relying on emotional support from his two surrogate daughters—finds a way to forgive M’gann. David Harewood acts the hell out of the surprisingly meaty material, and the story really only suffers from being relatively removed from everything else in the episode.

The other big plot point is on Guardian and to a lesser extent Winn. Unfortunately most of Winn’s dialogue is cringe-worthy. James fares better. The dialogue sequence between Kara and James in the CatCo office was engaging. James doesn’t like Mon-El, saying he’s not a hero. Kara counters with making the claim that someone doesn’t decide another is a hero or not. Later in what is probably the episode’s biggest development, Kara learns that James is Guardian. The dialogue aftermath is interesting as Kara doesn’t approve while James uses her own argument of not deciding who gets to be a hero against her. After the final fight, James and Winn come up to Kara and state they want to work with her. Kara’s decision to decline is interesting. On one hand, at that point it might have made sense to bring them in as part of the team since they’re not going to stop. On the other hand, the viewer can understand her concern. In battle she would be distracted with James being human. This rift in the friendship should be interesting to watch in future episodes.

**Overall Episode Grade: 8.0/10**