‘Supergirl’ Recap: Mon-El’s Lies Revealed

Warning: This recap for the “Star-Crossed” episode of Supergirl contains spoilers.

Kara and Mon-El begin the episode at peak couple cuteness, so of course, things have to be ruined by the end. Winn is also dealing with relationship issues; you know, the usual — being framed for robbing one of the most famous paintings in the world and almost getting murdered by violent gangs of smugglers. All that and Music Meister (Glee‘s Darren Criss) makes a cameo tying this episode to tomorrow night’s musical crossover on The Flash? Doesn’t get much better than that.

The Plot
The aliens tracking Mon-El for half a season have finally arrived; they demand his “captors” release on every TV and radio frequency. Kara attacks the space cruiser that has appeared over National City and is repelled; Mon-El decides to turn himself in before she gets hurt. Kara leaps into the transport beam taking Mon-El onto the ship and discovers his secret: He wasn’t a reluctant nobody on Daxam — he is actually the crown prince and he must return to Daxam to rebuild the planet as their leader. She has dinner with her boyfriend and his parents, Rhea and Lar Gand (Teri Hatcher, Kevin Sorbo) and she finds out that he really was as awful as the all the prejudiced things she believes about Daxamites. She breaks it off with him. A mysterious prisoner at the DEO whammies Kara, then uses the inter-dimensional extrapolator Cisco gave her to jump to Earth-1… for the Supergirl/The Flash crossover.

Stolen My Heart
Lyra revealed her true colors — or non-colors if we’re talking about security cameras — by using Winn to steal priceless art. The writers are not subtle about their real-world allusions either: She calls herself a “refugee” and talks about the horrors of being smuggled illegally onto Earth. She steals to keep from the gangsters from killing her brother and, after Winn arranges for the DEO to bust both the alien smuggling and interstellar art theft rings, Lyra is let off the hook. It’s all a little ham-fisted, sure, but that may have just been because there was a lot of exposition to get through; now that she seems to be a semi-permanent addition to the team, hopefully there will be more time to explore her as a character.

Prince Not So Charming
Speaking of not being subtle, Rhea’s pitch to “make Daxam great again,” couldn’t have been any more on the nose without putting a red trucker hat on her. She mocks Kara for her seeming moral superiority, mirroring the red state/blue state divide. And while Mon-El rejects their entreaties for him to come back and rebuild Daxam, it’s clear Rhea and Lar Gand aren’t going anywhere soon. This definitely has the potential to take Mon-El out of the picture by season’s end if the writers decide to go that way. Whether that’s a good or a bad thing depends on how hard you ship Kara and Mon-El and how much rom-com you like in your superhero shows.

Casting
One of the peculiar joys of comic book TV and film is seeing people who played one character play another in an alternate continuity. It’s much harder for Marvel to do because most of their stuff takes place in the same universe, but in DC, you can have a Superman play an Atom, you can have a Flash play Flash’s dad. Teri Hatcher, of course, played Lois in the ’90s series Lois and Clark alongside Dean Cain, who plays Kara’s adopted father and, while executive producer Andrew Kreisberg says they don’t know if Hatcher and Dean will meet on the show yet — these things usually come down to whether they can get guest stars schedules lined up to film together — “There’s always a plan.”

Inside Comics Moment
*Mon-El gets that name in Superboy #89 because he crashes to Earth as an amnesiac. Superboy finds him, realizes he has powers similar to his, assumes he’s a long lost brother, and gives him a Kryptonian name: El is his family’s name, “Mon” for Monday —the day he crashed on Earth. His real name turns out to be Lar Gand, which is the name Mon-El’s dad goes by on the show. Maybe Mon-El’s a nickname and we should actually be calling him Junior?

Kryptobites
*Robert Zen Humpage is still listed in the credits as “Fish Head” and not “Kevin.” When with this injustice be righted?

*Reuniting Lois and Clark on the show would be amazing, but why stop there? Surely Lucy Lawless is available for a Hercules and Xena reunion? Also Bruce Campbell (who played Autolycus, the King of Thieves on both Hercules and Xena), who belongs in everything even remotely genre-related.

*Starry Night is an obvious piece to use as a plot point because it’s pretty universally recognized. But that also means that if you count the number of times it’s been stolen in TV shows and movies, Van Gogh must have painted six or seven dozen of them to keep up with demand.

*Hey, when this did Supergirl go from comic book show to deep psychological horror? Raise your hand if you’ve had a nightmare that exactly replays the final shot of Kara being shoved on stage in front of a room full of strangers to sing a song she doesn’t know. One… two… okay, literally everybody in the world?

*Mandrax isn’t the name of an existing DC Comic character, though strangely, it is the South African brand name for Quaaludes.

*Line of the Night: “Superfrieeeends! Back in the habit!” A reference to the ’70s cartoon and the underrated Sister Act sequel? It is both wildly over the top and is pitch perfect for this show’s target demographic, which is people who are both devoted comic book fans and die-hard theater nerds.

*Speaking of that very specific demographic: We’re all in agreement that the Hamilton actor from Rimbor V is Ultra Boy, right?

Supergirl airs Mondays at 8 p.m. on The CW.

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