Testing 1, 2, 3 | Supergirl “How Does She Do It?” Review

Supergirl delivered a fast paced episode in “How Does She Do It?” If anything seemed out of place, keep in mind that this episode was supposed to air before “Livewire.” At least now we got the answer of how James and Lucy Lane rekindled their relationship. We also got to learn more about Maxwell Lord and his vendetta against Supergirl.

Supergirl notices that she is being followed by a drone. She actually has trouble catching it, but she destroys some of it with her heat vision. Supergirl takes the remaining pieces of the drone to the DEO and assumes that they are the ones spying on her. When Henshaw says that it’s not one of his, Alex investigates the drone. They trace the parts back to Maxwell Lord, of course.

They don’t get far before reports come in of a bomb going off in a nearby office building. Supergirl to save the day! She used both her strength and heat vision to keep the building from collapsing. Another drone is not far behind watching Supergirl’s every move. Remnants from the bomb prove to also be technology from Maxwell Lord’s company. Lord himself naturally plays coy as if he has nothing to do with it.

Meanwhile, Cat Grant was given an award, finally beating out Lois Lane, that she has to accept in Metropolis. Unfortunately, no one is able to watch Cat’s son, Carter. Leave it to Kara to swoop in and save the day here too. For some reason Cat actually agrees to let Kara babysit. Carter is very reserved and doesn’t seem to want to talk to Kara at first, but with her bubbly and silly demeanor, Carter starts to open up. He gets very animated when Supergirl gets mentioned; it looks like someone has a crush.

At this point, the DEO, posing as the FBI, go to protect Maxwell Lord. It seems that these attacks are personal against Lord. They even find an employee, Ethan Knox, who seems to blame the dismantling of his life on Lord. Alex stays with Lord for protection, and they find a bomb in one of his labs. Thankfully, Supergirl comes to help when they can’t seem to disarm the bomb. She gets the bomb as far away from the city as possible but is knocked out from the blast. She wakes up back at the DEO, and at one point during her recovery she sees Henshaw’s red eyes. It’s unclear whether or not she remembers what she saw.

Even with Ethan Knox still at large, Lord continues with the launch of his new high speed train. The DEO is sure that Knox will be at the launch of the train with a bomb. At this point, Winn can’t find Carter. It seems that Carter has gone to the train launch to meet Supergirl. But, it gets even worse. It seems there are actually two bombs. One is at the airport, and Ethan Knox is wearing a suicide vest on the train. Trusting Winn’s information, Supergirl heads to the train, letting the DEO take care of the airport. Kara can’t let Cat’s son get hurt.

At the airport, Henshaw orders Alex to evacuate while he tries to disarm the bomb. He uses whatever powers he has to disarm it but tells everyone that it was a dud, a decoy to divert forces from the train. Later, Alex realizes that there’s no way that it was a dud. On the train, Supergirl tries to reason with Ethan, but he just says that he won’t kill all of those people. Ethan tells Supergirl that she will save them. He activates the bomb and tells Supergirl that she has 30 seconds. Supergirl doesn’t understand Ethan’s actions, so she tries to talk with Maxwell Lord. Supergirl thought that Ethan was sad but not crazy. Lord was definitely behind everything, but of course, they can’t prove it. Lord was doing all of this to get intel on Supergirl. He wants to figure out her identity. This entire episode was a series of tests to help him unmask Supergirl, so to speak.

This week, we got some more insight into James and Lucy’s relationship. Lucy broke up with James because she felt that James chose Superman over their relationship. Lucy even reveals to Kara that she doesn’t know how she could ever compete with Supergirl. But, when Lucy’s life is in danger at the airport bombing, James is there for her. There was also plenty of talk about the friend zone. Alex warns Kara not to get stuck in the friend zone with James, so she tries to keep their relationship professional. What she doesn’t seem to understand is that Winn has permanently been in the friend zone and is just dying for Kara to give him the time of day.