Supergirl Season 2 Episode 15 Review

One of the best things about Supergirl’s second season is that the writers have finally realized what a gift they have in Chyler Leigh. Though Alex has always been one of the most important women in Kara’s life, she shared that role with Cat Grant back in season one. But Cat’s departure has left more room for Alex storylines this season (at least when Mon-El isn’t stealing the spotlight), and Leigh has elevated just about all of the dramatic material the writers have thrown at her, from her coming-out arc at the beginning of the season to her confrontation with her father in the woods last week. “Exodus” is basically a spy thriller starring Alex Danvers and her sidekick Supergirl, and it serves as the perfect culmination of Leigh’s work this season. And her excellent performance, coupled with some politically relevant subject matter, elevates “Exodus” into one of the best episodes of the season, if not the series as a whole.

It feels cliché to describe a piece of entertainment as “more relevant than ever in the era of Trump.” But “Exodus” deals so directly with the language and policy of the Trump administration that the reference is impossible to avoid in this case. Not only does Snapper Carr warn that fake news could lead to a fascist in the White House, but Cadmus’ evil scheme isn’t too far off from real-life White House policy: Round up immigrants and deport them, regardless of whether the places they come from are ravaged by war, famine, or genocide. In this case, the alien immigrants are literal aliens and the way to deport them is to put them on a spaceship headed across the galaxy, but the parallel is clearly intentional. And though our heroes may disagree on the best way to stop Cadmus, there’s no debate about whether the organization’s fears are actually valid. In the world of Supergirl, rounding up innocent people and deporting them is something only a supervillian would do.

Director Michael A. Allowitz adds a decidedly cinematic flare to his first Supergirl outing, and that’s especially true of the exhilarating climax, which feels like a throwback to the bigger CBS budget of the first season. Alex goes on a one-woman mission to save Jeremiah and stop Cadmus from exiling its alien prisoners. She’s at her most badass as she both makes and then actually goes through with threats to blow up the Cadmus base. And she doesn’t hesitate to put herself in danger to rescue the captured aliens onboard a launching ship.

While Alex gets plenty of GIF-worthy action moments in the final showdown, her most powerful tool turns out to be her trust in her sister, which also feels like a return to the emotional, sister-centric storytelling the show so often relied on in its first season. When Kara’s comms are knocked out by a blast, Alex must use silent, open-hearted faith to motivate her sister to push a moving spaceship back to Earth. It’s a gorgeous, dialogue-free sequence reminiscent of Kara’s breakdown in “Red Faced” or the Danvers sisters hug in “Solitude” (not to mention Wrath Of Kahn), and it’s one of the most emotionally effective scenes Supergirl has ever done. Leigh and Melissa Benoist beautifully sell the Danvers sisters’ bond without even being able to touch or speak to one another.

If I have a complaint about “Exodus,” it’s that Jeremiah gets a little lost toward the end despite being so central to Alex’s motivations at the beginning. But that’s more of a nitpick than anything else. As comic books have done from the beginning, Supergirl is using its genre setting to make (pretty on-the-nose) real-world political statements, which is admirable in its own right. But it’s the nuanced, high-stakes character drama that really allows “Exodus” to soar.