Supergirl delivered more of a coming of age story in “Fight or Flight.†It seems that Supergirl is having difficulty pleasing everyone and proving herself. We got to hear plenty of talk about how wonderful Superman is, but no one seemed to think that Supergirl was even close to his level of hero.
Cat Grant got her Supergirl interview. Cat was harsh and judgemental asking Supergirl why she only just started to give back if she’s been here for years. Naturally, Kara got very flustered by her questioning and accidentally spilled that Superman is her cousin. Oops, I guess Kara needs to get better at answering questions about herself. Later, she even tells Winn that Cat is like a super interviewing villain, to which he replies that is the worst superpower ever.
As if the interview were bad enough, Kara got to proofread Cat’s expose on Supergirl, and it wasn’t pretty. Kara tries to be politically correct about the exposé. She says it’s beautifully written, but it’s a little nasty. Cat essentially says that Kara is just a millennial who will call her cousin at any sign of trouble. Cat doesn’t seem to think that Supergirl is a very capable hero.
Now, it’s time for Supergirl to prove herself. Back at the DEO, they get wind of a multiple car collision. Kara flies right in to save the day, and she does, if only momentarily. She rescues a bus driver who was pinned down, but then a man comes from the sky. Meet the latest villain, Reactron. They have a small fight before Reactron flies away after his weapon was damaged. The DEO realizes that Reactron is a human, so it’s actually not in their jurisdiction. Kara is baffled and tells them that she can’t keep letting him hurt people. She’s going to go after him with or without their help.
Reactron, after hearing about Kara’s relationship with Superman, wants to hurt the Man of Steel. He says that he wants to take everything away from Superman starting with her. Kara goes after Reactron on her own after Reactron kidnaps Maxwell Lord to fix his weapons. If you remember, Maxwell Lord isn’t exactly Supergirl’s biggest fan. Supergirl saves Lord and goes to fight Reactron, but Reactron is slowly killing Supergirl until a blur of red and blue comes to save the day.
While Kara is thankful that her cousin came to save her life, she really won’t be able to prove to anyone that she’s capable of handling these villains if he keeps saving her. She wonders how Superman even knew she was in trouble, and James Olsen reveals that he called Superman in to help. Kara is furious that James would put such doubt into her abilities. Later at Cat’s party, James tells Kara that he only called Superman because he was scared of losing her. Superman has become his security blanket; anytime James is scared, he knows who to call. He tells Kara that he wants her to fly her own path separate from Superman. It also sounds like James is ready to find himself without Superman.
After Supergirl’s failed run in with Reactron, it doesn’t take long before he’s back. This time, Reactron crashes Cat’s party to find Supergirl. Her sister, Alex, finally came around and decided to disobey her orders to help Kara take down Reactron. Director Henshaw even caught Alex, but in the end he decided that maybe they should help Supergirl. (Seriously, is he Martian Manhunter? If not, who is he?) Henshaw and Alex tell Supergirl that she needs to remove Reactron’s core, but she must encase it in lead to avoid a nuclear explosion. James uses himself as a decoy for Reactron, so Kara can find lead. He tells Reactron that he’s the closest thing Superman has to a best friend, so he’s actually a better candidate to hurt Superman. Kara finds lead from none other than a museum artifact and saves the day. It seems that both James and Kara stood up for themselves and for each other today.
Reactron was surprisingly a great villain. His wife was killed from radiation poisoning, and he blamed Superman. Superman had prevented a nuclear explosion, but his wife was still a casualty of the fallout. He was a human with human emotions and wanted revenge for his wife’s death. It also showed how Superman is not perfect, even if the media makes him out to be that way. I guess even the media gets things wrong in TV land as well. Plus, Supergirl did something that he never could; she took down Reactron.
At the end of the episode, we got to see Kara and Clark sending messages. He gave Kara the encouragement that she needed, and he thanked her for taking down Reactron. Clark also mentions that he spoke with Jimmy, and he will no longer interfere with her life. Kara did thank him for saving her. At least she can recognize that she needed help and be grateful that he was there.
