Supergirl got a small reprieve from Nan this week in “Truth, Justice, and the American Way.†But there is never a moment of rest for Supergirl or Kara Danvers for that matter. While Supergirl deals with a Fort Rozz guard executing aliens here on Earth, Kara must battle against a gung-ho second assistant to Cat Grant.
Nan visits Supergirl, but he only wants to give Kara a chance to say goodbye to her Aunt Astra. They say a Kryptonian prayer over Astra’s coffin before they send her off. Nan says that he will mourn Astra, but then, the next coffin will be Kara’s. Kara is still upset about Astra’s death. Alex wants to tell her the truth, but Hank won’t let her. Meanwhile, Supergirl and the DEO have a new villain on their hands. Aliens are disappearing and being brutally executed by someone.
The DEO discovers that a Fort Rozz guard, aptly named the Master Jailer, is the one behind the alien executions. He is executing the prisoners in the order of their incarcerations at Fort Rozz. When he kidnaps a local professor, who was a former prisoner on Fort Rozz, Supergirl goes to the rescue. Unfortunately, she too is captured. Master Jailer reveals that he is trying to create a new Fort Rozz on Earth. He thinks that he’s carrying on Alura’s great work. He tells Kara, “Humans understand little about justice. Justice is absolute.†Alex and Kara save the day, and Master Jailer will not be executing any more aliens on Earth. While I thought that Master Jailer was an interesting villain, there was so much more that happened in this episode worth discussing.
Maxwell Lord is asking to be let out of his prison cell at the DEO. At CatCo, Cat Grant is pretty certain that Lord is missing. She puts her top people on the case. She asks for James and Lucy to dig into his disappearance, and James goes to Kara to plead with her to let Lord go. He says that Lord deserves fundamental human rights. James is worried about Kara’s ethics; that’s pretty harsh, even if he isn’t wrong. Cat regails James with a story from her youth where her ethics were tested. She produced a puff piece on an actor who was abusing his wife. She didn’t write the truth, and three months later he shot and killed his wife. I really enjoy hearing more about Cat’s youth. This story is particular showed her softer side. While she has to be a strong business woman, she is human.
James goes to the DEO to have a heart to heart with kara. He tells her, “Ultimately, it’s going to be a battle of values, your values versus the values of your enemies.†James takes it even further when he asks Kara, “Is this the kind of hero that you want to be? The Supergirl that I know believes in truth and justice. Kara, I don’t recognize you like this.†Kara finally snapped out of her ethics debate and let Lord go. Kara was right to let Maxwell Lord go even if I’m sure that we haven’t heard the last of him. Alex lets Lord know that they will still be watching him. She explains, “You tell on us. We tell on you.â€
Siobhan Smythe was introduced this week as another assistant to Cat Grant. Kara is baffled when not only does Cat pronounce Siobhan’s difficult name correctly but then refers to her as Assistant #1. Kara was relegated to Assistant #2. Siobhan Smythe is played by the ever charming Italia Ricci, but she sure is the girl you love to hate on Supergirl. One of the great things with Siobhan Smythe’s character is that we will get to see her as a rival for Kara before we see her as a villain, Silver Banshee, to Supergirl.
Siobhan is clearly trying to encroach on all of Kara’s territory. She flirts with James, but he is not swayed by her charms. Later, Siobhan discreetly sends messages to Kara asking about her relationship with James. Kara ends up yelling at Siobhan, which of course upsets Cat. Siobhan continues to stick her nose where it doesn’t belong when she eavesdrops on Lucy and James conversation about Supergirl and the DEO. How much did she hear and what is she planning to do with this information?
I really appreciated that they gave us some background as to why Nan would be quiet for a couple of weeks. This gave room for the Master Jailer to wreak havoc in National City. The Master Jailer was a great villain. His motives weren’t black and white. He truly thought he was carrying on Alura’s vision for Fort Rozz here on Earth, but he was just dealing out his own executions. And speaking of Alura, what is the ever mysterious Myriad? The hologram of Alura threatened self destruction rather than give any insight into Nan’s plan.
