Supergirl is having some image problems in “Manhunter.†The news reports Supergirl’s arrival at a bank heist, but she was met with terrified National City residents. Criminals and innocents alike are afraid to see Supergirl. As the news reports it, “What was once a symbol of hope is now a symbol of fear.†It’s going to take some time for Supergirl to earn back the trust from the people of National City.
Meanwhile, J’onn J’onzz has exposed himself as Martian Manhunter, and the DEO knows that he has been impersonating Hank Henshaw for 10 years. The Pentagon ordered a joint task force to figure out who knew about J’onn J’onzz and how they are going to deal with his impersonation. Major Lucy Lane is there to help keep the peace. Along with Colonel Jim Harper, they interrogate J’onn to get to the bottom of what happened all those years ago.
J’onn takes them back ten years to when Hank Henshaw and his men traveled to his hideout and attempted to kill him. Hank directed his men to shoot to kill, no questions asked. Alex’s father, Jeremiah Danvers, was uneasy with those orders. Somehow Jeremiah gets separated from the group and trips over a very dangerous looking rattlesnake. And who would come along except for J’onn J’onzz himself. J’onn saves Jeremiah from the rattlesnake.
Jeremiah takes it upon himself to get to know J’onn rather than just shoot him. Jeremiah asks J’onn about his planet and his people. Jeremiah understands that J’onn is just a refugee and doesn’t want to harm anyone. He goes on to tell J’onn about his daughter, Kara. He promises to do everything in his power to convince the rest of the team that J’onn is safe and can be trusted, but he never gets that chance.
Hank stumbles upon Jeremiah and J’onn and is ready to kill on sight. Hank reminds Jeremiah that Superman calls J’onn the most powerful alien on the planet, which must count for something. Jeremiah returns the favor and wrestles with Hank to save J’onn. Jeremiah throws Hank off of a cliff but not before being stabbed in the gut. In his dying breaths, Jeremiah asks J’onn to promise to take care of his girls.
And that’s exactly what J’onn tried to do. He brought Alex to the DEO and got her out of her bad partying ways. But now, the DEO is sending J’onn to Project Cadmus, which just so happens to be a place where they experiment on aliens. Alex tried to lie about not knowing J’onn was an alien, but even though she passed the lie detector test, Lucy doesn’t believe her. So now Alex is being sent to Project Cadmus along with J’onn. Supergirl won’t stand by and let this atrocity happen.
Supergirl needs some help, so she goes to Lucy Lane. Kara exposes herself as Supergirl because she believes that Lucy is the only one who can and will help. Lucy agrees to help, and she and Supergirl jump on a couple of motorcycles to break out J’onn and Alex. After they finish their escape, J’onn uses his powers to erase Jim Harper’s memory of them. While inside his mind, J’onn sees Jeremiah alive and being experimented on at Project Cadmus. Alex and J’onn vow to find Project Cadmus and free Jeremiah. Back at the DEO, a new director is named, and she is Major Lucy Lane. Lucy looks terrified and asks Supergirl, “You’re going to help me do this, right?†I’m glad that Lucy is back, and the air has been cleared between her, Kara, and James.
Siobhan Smythe had quite the transformation this week. While the focus of the alien community was on J’onn J’onzz, Cat Grant had her sights set of Siobhan once again. Siobhan calls Winn to complain about her situation. After she tried to sell a story to CatCo’s competitor, Cat Grant viciously fired Siobhan. Not only did she get fired, Cat blacklisted Siobhan in the media industry. No one will hire her. Siobhan blames Kara for dashing all of her dreams. If Kara hadn’t tattled on Siobhan to Cat, things may have been different. Instead, Siobhan completely hates Kara and wants to destroy her.
Winn, on the other hand, is conflicted. He tells Siobhan that Kara is his best friend. He’s trying to be a good friend to Siobhan and even encourages her. Winn tells her that she can do anything that she puts her mind to. Siobhan has a one track mind and takes Winn’s advice in a different way. She puts all of her energy into taking down Kara. She even goes to CatCo and sends a scathing email to Cat speaking as Kara. Cat asked for Winn to analyze the hard drive and realized that Siobhan was the one who sent the email. This only makes things worse for Siobhan, and she starts going off the deep end.
Later, Winn finds Siobhan drinking on the roof of a building. He tries to talk her down thinking she’s going to commit suicide. Siobhan assures Winn that she is essentially too narcissistic to kill herself. Winn says that deep down he knows she’s a good person. This is when Siobhan throws his words back at him. She reminds Winn that he said that she could get whatever she wanted. I’m pretty sure he meant something different than trying to ruin Kara. Siobhan then says the magic words. She says that she just wants to scream. In doing this, she falls off the roof and screams the whole way down. Alas, the Silver Banshee is born? Her scream stops her from going splat on the concrete.
