‘Supergirl’ Recap: A Death in the Family
Warning: This recap for the “Distant Sun” episode of Supergirl contains spoilers.
Get your mother-in-law jokes ready because the queen of Daxam goes to some pretty extreme lengths to get her son back, and that doesn’t work out well for Kara. Maggie and Alex have some quality relationship time together, which is a nice juxtaposition to the looming threat of another possible alien invasion.
The Plot
Supergirl stops an alien who’s tearing up National City, only to find that he’s a bounty hunter and she’s the target. A huge price has been placed on her head. Kara is happy to fight them all, but the team wants her to lay low for a while. Mon-El suspects his parents put up the bounty, but they deny it. A mind-controlling alien (Michael Rogers) forces Mon-El to fight Kara; Winn and James subdue him and, after a telepathic battle with J’onn, the alien reveals that the Daxams were indeed behind the bounty. However, President Marsdin (Lynda Carter) has ordered that the Daxam ship not be engaged to avoid an intergalactic conflict. Kara suggests talking with them, but when she, Mon-El, and Rhea (Teri Hatcher) meet, Rhea stabs her with kryptonite sais. Mon-El agrees to return to Daxam to save Kara’s life. The team violates the president’s directive and rescue Mon-El from the Daxam ship; Lar Gand (Kevin Sorbo) lets him go. Rhea feels betrayed and kills him, saying, “I’m not done with this world.”
Helicopter Parenting
There was a point when Rhea and Lar Gand had a point and Mon-El was just being a petulant child; if Vice President Pence suddenly decided he didn’t want to be VP anymore and moved to Bermuda, people would come collect him and make him go back to his job. As a prince, Mon-El has a responsibility to his people and his parents traveled light years to find him. But once Lar Gand realizes Earth makes his son happy and lets him stay, things get weird. Rhea will go to any lengths to get her son back, including hiring assassins to kill his girlfriend, murdering her husband for getting in the way and, one assumes, starting an interplanetary war in the next episode or two. Let this be a lesson to any parents out there: Hiring telepathic aliens to kill your kid’s boyfriend or girlfriend is not cool, no matter how terrible they are.
#Sanvers
Alex and Maggie run into one of Maggie’s old exes and, in an attempt to be super-cool with it, they invite Emily (Hayley Sales) to dinner. Emily stands them up, so Alex confronts her at her hotel and discovers that they broke up because Maggie cheated on her. That leads to a heart-to-heart/therapy session where Alex points out Maggie’s pattern of hiding her issues, and asks Maggie to trust her. Side note: If this happened on Arrow, literally 90 percent of the team’s problems would be solved. Only about 50 percent of the issues on The Flash would be solved by this breakthrough process of “not keeping secrets” that Alex has discovered, but it still seems like a thing these other shows could explore.
Inside Comics Moment
There were a few alien race names thrown around this week — the Amilaks and Alcorians appear to be original to the show — but Mon-El mentions the Durlans, which is interesting. They’re a race of shapeshifters, and while their natural form doesn’t resemble the face that the president revealed in the privacy of her office, many Durlans have morphed so often, they’ve forgotten their original shape. The evidence that Marsdin is from Durla is circumstantial, but their planet was destroyed by nuclear war, ehich is excellent motivation for becoming president and then acting like a sane, rational person.
Kryptobites
Thank goodness Mon-el didn’t go back to Daxam; Chris Wood — and the writers, of course — have inverted the trope of the ditzy blonde and created a guy who is pretty, charming, and a little dim. He’s the ideal match for Melissa Benoist’s ultra-competent (in certain arenas) Supergirl. His naiveté lets him get away with lines like:
“I’ll get a jump start on that laundry!”
“I am a mixologist. It is an artistic profession in the medium of pairing alcohol with beverages, and it is very honorable.”
And, of course, we’re still loving the adorable pairing of Mon-El and Winn:
“That’s a very culinary way to put it.” “I cook now!”
“Aren’t you a little short for a stormtrooper?” “You finally saw Star Wars!”
Supergirl airs Mondays at 8 p.m. on The CW.
