Supergirl – S5 Ep19 – Immortal Kombat Review

It’s Team Supergirl vs Lex & Leviathan in the Season Finale!

For what was not originally intended to be a finale, this episode of Supergirl sure felt like one! It had the intensity and stakes of a season ender and even left us wanting more. While this season has had its ups and downs, it ended strong in my opinion. Let’s recap!

The fittingly titled “Immortal Kombat” opens with a gleeful Lex being welcomed by Gemma (guest Cara Buono) onto Leviathan’s ship. His glee turns to pain as he is greeted by an angry Rama Khan (guest star Mitch Pileggi) and a nasty radiation wave. Gemma then gifts him with a pin that quells the pain of the security system and accepts him as one of their own. Khan then prepares the Kryptonite he gathered from the DEO to slaughter Supergirl and any who stand in their way.

Meanwhile, Kara tells Lena not to bring up the past. They must move on if they hope to stop the coming threat. Despite her reservations, Kara agrees to let Lena help her stop Leviathan. The rest of Team Supergirl show up and are filled in on the latest Leviathan developments. Realizing Kara is in danger, Lena offers to build a Kryptonite resistant exo-suit as she did on their previous Earth while the Martians act as decoys to draw Leviathan out. In some welcomed humorous moments, J’onn as Kara complains about the suit chafing him while Nia makes a hilarious Harry Potter reference.

In addition, Alex reveals her new super/vigilante suit to Kara promoting the latter to scream with excitement. J’onn and crew rush to Kara’s aid only to find that: “It was a scream of delight.” With that settled, they put their plan in motion.

Elsewhere, Lex meets with a nervous Brainy, who is ready to upload the code and wipe out Leviathan. Luthor being Luthor refuses to hand over the pin and tells him that they must let Rama Khan kill Supergirl and friends first.

The Superfriends’ decoy plan turns out to be successful despite J’onn being injured (in battle against Khan and his backup including Tezumak). During the battle, Nia has a dream vision of Brainy which gives her pause.

Speaking of Brainy, he refuses to sit back and allow his friends to die. He communes with his female counterpart (guest star Meghan Rath) and asks her to be with him as he attempts to right his wrongs. He plans to sneak aboard the Leviathan ship and upload the code and bottle the villains instead of destroying them. Knowing he will surely die in the process, he asks female Brainy to be with him as he does not want to die alone.

Lena and Kara make it safely to her lab. As they wait for the suit to be built (which will take hours), Kara becomes anxious and wants to join the fight. The others arrive and inform them of J’onn’s injury. In addition, Kelly calls Alex and reveals that William is missing. Alex benches Kara and teams up with Kelly to track down Eve, as William was investigating her connection to Lex. The duo break into Obsidian to sort this out. location. Lena and Kara are able to pinpoint Eve’s location. But when Lena jokes about the Kasnia adventure, Kara unloads all of her hurt that she’s bottled up. She tells Lena that she worries about endangering her loved ones’ lives who know her secret. This is why she kept her identity from her. “I made one mistake, one mistake, that was only ever meant to protect you, and in return, all you did was hurt me in every way imaginable,” Kara exclaims. Following this, they then find William handcuffed in a warehouse being held at gunpoint by Eve. They both are able to stop Eve, not before she shoots him in the shoulder though. Supergirl is able to cauterize his wound and get him to safety.

Suddenly, a barrage of colorful lightning swirls as Rama Khan and crew arrive. Kara is affected by their Kryptonite weapons until Lena’s completed exo-suit arrives as does backup in the form of Dreamer and M’Gann (guest star Sharon Leal). Supergirl levels the threats with a superclap, but they just regenerate! With this knowledge, Supergirl questions a captured Eve, who reveals everything in exchange for her mother’s protection. She tells her that Gemma aka Gamemnae is planning to use the VR Obsidian’s Unity Festival as a means to kill everyone. Kara decides to go into VR and try to save everyone. Speaking of “Gemma,” she grows impatient as Supergirl has yet to be vanquished. She suggests they kill everyone in the VR now. However, Lex urges her to wait until more people join. He then suggests that she use another assassin to kill Supergirl while she is vulnerable in VR. This leads Gemma to activate Andrea Rojas, who was saved by Leviathan when she retrieved the Acrata medallion in the cave (same as Pre-Crisis). She reluctantly agrees to kill Supergirl in order to protect her father and her company.

While Supergirl attempts to free the blissful VR users, J’onn draws out Leviathan by telepathically taunting Rama Khan. The Leviathan trio battles Team Supergirl and looks to gain the upper hand. This also gives time for Brainy to sneak into the ship and begin his bottling plans. As soon as he steps into the control room, he reverts to his green skinned form and begins to succumb to the radiation. With female Brainy’s help, he is able to upload the code and successfully bottles Khan and his backup.

As Supergirl gives an incredible speech to the users about hope and forgiveness, Andrea arrives, but is intercepted by Lena. Lena urges Andrea to not give into her fear and reminds her of their friendship. She is ultimately successful as is Kara in emptying the festival.

Meanwhile, a dying Brainy is greeted by an angry Lex, who gloats that he knew this would happen and in fact planned for it. He didn’t think he would kill himself though, but no matter. He takes the bottle and bids Brainiac-5 adieu promising his death will be in vain. Elsewhere, Nia has another dream of Brainy, and taking M’Gann’s earlier advice, goes deeper and realizes Brainy is in trouble.

Lena, realizes her errors, and sincerely apologizes to Kara for reacting the way she did. Kara accepts and the two vow to take down Lex together.

In the final moments of the season, Gamemnae, who was previously glitching, turns into a monstrous robot-like being and Lex hands the bottle to his mother for nefarious purposes.

This finale was truly enjoyable! Well directed (kudos David Harewood), well written, and well produced all things considered. Great action, humor, and visuals as well. Everyone involved in this episode and the season overall has done a stellar job. The Lena and Kara storyline was handled quite well in this episode as they finally let Kara unburden herself of her own hurt. Now that they are on the same side again, it will be exciting to see them take on Lex next season. Speaking of Lex, Jon Cryer continues to be brilliant in this role. He plays the manipulative genius masterfully. Jesse Rath also shines in this episode as Brainy is left in dire straits as he sacrifices himself for his friends. I sincerely hope that the team is able to save him as he is a wonderful part of this cast of characters.

Given that this was not the original finale, I still really enjoyed the way the story of this season wrapped up (for now).

Thanks for following me on this journey for this season! Be sure to join me again in 2021 for recaps & reviews of Season 6 of Supergirl right here on Earth-9!

Supergirl – S5 Ep18 – The Missing Link Review

Things are coming together in this penultimate episode of the season as Supergirl and friends gear up for all out war with Leviathan!

While this was not initially meant to be a finale set up episode, “The Missing Link” does a great job of elevating the tension and raising the stakes for our heroes. This exciting episode showcases fun action, compelling drama, and stellar performances. Let’s recap!

An angry Brainy determines that Lex was behind the Sun Eater attack which endangered the lives of his friends. Lex assures him that it is all a part of the greater plan to take down Leviathan which involves playing dirty. While the Coluan is understandably concerned, Luthor urges him to trust him and the process.

Lex puts the next part of his plan into which involves delivering a weapon (which was stolen from Leviathan years ago) to Gemma (guest star Cara Buono) in order to receive an invitation to Leviathan’s ship. The Leviathan leader is pleased and meets with a shackled Rama Khan (guest star Mitch Pileggi), who shames her human guise and approach. She assures him that humanity has been lulled into a false sense of safety and now is the time to strike. She gives him the Super killing weapon and lets him loose to retrieve the necessary elements to prepare it.

Meanwhile, Team Super Friends struggle to locate Leviathan. They are convinced that Lex is working with them and vow to bring them down. However, without the DEO’s resources, they turn to other means. Dreamer uses her abilities to try to locate the Leviathan HQ, while Alex turns to Kelly’s war buddy Pete Andrews (guest star Sean Astin), an expert in iconography, for more information on the organization. With his help, they are able to trace the Leviathan symbol throughout history as a precursor to catastrophe. However, they are unable to dig deeper than that as Andrews’ is shut out of the special collections room at the Library of Congress at their mere mention of Leviathan to his higher ups. When they try to break in, they are attacked by an armed assassin. This encounter forces Andrews and his family to go off the grid for protection. Before leaving, Pete encourages Alex to learn to let go of her soldier life and move on.

Elsewhere, Kelly and William team up to investigate a mystery employee at Obsidian believed to be connected to the late Margot. They quickly discover that their employee #873 is none other than Eve Teschmacher, which immediately puts Kelly on alert. They bring this information to Andrea, who quickly dismisses their concerns. She also threatens to fire them both if they bring it up to her again. Nothing can interfere with her newest project: Worldwide Unity Festival. William, of course, doesn’t leave it alone and ends up getting kidnapped while following Eve in a dark alley.

Back at The Tower, Nia has a vision of the Leviathan HQ where Brainy sits playing cards and laughing wildly. After expelling him from her vision, she zeros in on the picture of Rama Khan which leads her to finding his location: the Oregon Geological Center in Portland. The Super Friends jump into action and quickly subdue Khan. Brainy and the DEO arrive and take Khan away for questioning. Kara and Nia are frustrated at this new, distant Brainy as well as being pushed away. The duo watch on as Brainy questions Khan in the man’s own language. They grow more concerned when they hear Brainy say Luthor. In actuality, Brainy reveals to Khan that he knows what’s up as he has been partnering with Lex just as Leviathan has been. With everything out in the open, Brainy hopes that Khan will allow them access to the ship in exchange for his freedom. However, Rama Khan chides him saying: “Why would I want to leave when I worked so hard to get in?” As he says this, Khan effortlessly escapes his shackles and goes on a rampage through the DEO gathering Kryptonite in the process. Despite a valiant effort by the Super Friends, Khan ultimately destroys the DEO building completely forcing them to retreat.

In the aftermath, Nia confronts Brainy and is once again shut out from the truth. At her wits end, she cuts him out of her life for good. Brainy is left broken.

While Kara and crew faced Rama Khan, Lex and Lena investigate an Non Nocere related issue at Stryker’s Prison and link up with Steve Lomelli (guest star Willie Garson). An inmate reverted back to violent tendencies during the Sun Eater attack and has now caused a domino effect throughout the prison population. This leads to the Luthors fighting off a mob. Much to her dismay, all attempts to fix the glitch fail. She then destroys Non Nocere out of frustration. The crafty Lex then makes his long awaited pitch: humanity can’t be fixed. It must be controlled. It needs a firm hand to lead it. His. Lena quickly realizes that her brother has played her once again. Lex unleashes his rage saying that he supported her project in order for her to ultimately see the wickedness of humanity and see things his way. Lena stands up to him calling him a monster. She declares she does not have to be one as well. Upon her departure, Lex gets a call from Gemma, who accepts his request to join them at their HQ/ship. He then has the prison destroyed, grabs a visibly shook Brainy and prepares to initiate the next phase of his plan.

The episode concludes with Kara and team at a complete loss. However, a tearful Lena arrives at Kara’s begging to help them take down Lex and Leviathan. She apologizes for her past actions saying she was in fact a villain and is not expecting to be forgiven. Kara then offers her a seat.

“The Missing Link” was in my opinion, one of stronger episodes of this season. It felt like a penultimate episode which is a credit to the writers. I hope that next week’s episode will be a satisfying finale despite it not originally being one. This episode once again featured several incredible performances namely from Melissa Benoist, Katie McGrath, and Jon Cryer. McGrath certainly can deliver a tearful apology quite well. Her chemistry with Benoist is stellar. In addition, Jon Cryer continues to impress me as Lex Luthor. His outburst in this episode was frightening and visceral. His version is quickly becoming one of the best depictions of this character.

This was yet another strong episode of the series! Looking forward to next week’s season finale! Hard to believe the season is almost over already!

Stay tuned for more recaps and reviews of Supergirl and the other Arrowverse shows here at Earth-9!

Supergirl – S5 Ep17 – Deus Lex Machina Review

Lex has plans within plans, within plans in this revealing return episode for Supergirl!

Supergirl is finally back after quite a lengthy hiatus due to the global COVID-19 crisis. Melissa Benoist makes her directorial debut with this Lex-centric episode that takes us inside Lex’s mind once again. “Deus Lex Machina” reveals that Lex has once again been orchestrating recent events all for his own goals. While some could argue that this is too similar to last season’s Lex arc, Jon Cryer plays it so well that I’m willing to forgive this.

This crazy episode opens in the present day (aka ninety days after post-Crisis On Infinite Earths). Margot (guest star Patti Allan), Leviathan middle management agent, is dead on the floor of a complex where the comatose Obsidian Platinum users are being held. Lex is found at the scene by Supergirl and J’onn, who immediately questions his involvement. Luthor and others claim that he saved them all from Margot and a gun went off in the process. Lex also tells them that Margot was working with Amy Sapphire, who previously tried to destroy Obsidian Tech out of revenge for her husband’s death. To everyone, it seems that Lex was a hero in the situation! However, we all know better.

Next, after seeing some exciting Crisis moments, we are transported back to the day after the Multiversal reboot. Lex wakes up and is in shock that not only is he alive, he finds himself in a new world in which he had a hand in creating. Before accepting his Nobel Peace Prize, he visits his mother (guest star Brenda Strong) to inform her of this new reality. Lillian tells him that he must remain calm and cool-headed if he is to succeed in this new world. He must not make the same mistakes. This time he must make Lena his ally by setting his Super-vendetta aside for now.

Next, we return to several key points over the course of this season. First, we flashback to Lex’s first meeting with Lex post-Crisis. He delivers his allies speech to her and as we see it is successful. She also tells him of Leviathan and Eve’s involvement. Lex decides right there and then that he will eliminate them. From there we return to the Toyman crisis, in the chaos, Lex gains access to the Legion’s ship where he learns more about Leviathan and its leadership. He uses this information to track down Eve, whom he finds in mid-assassination. Eve is shocked to see him. Lex knows her history and uses it to recruit her to his cause. Leviathan killed her father in order to force her to work for them. Luthor offers to protect her mother and do Eve’s dirty work, if she will be his eyes and ears in the organization. After he kills her target, Eve agrees. Lex places ex-Mossad agents outside Teschmacher’s home and arranges for Eve to be part of the Obsidian Platinum project.

This is only the beginning of Lex’s latest master plan. Eve informs him of the glitch in Platinum, which it turns out is his doing. He tells her that she must make sure that it is not fixed. With the glitch in place, Leviathan will come to Lex to cover it up so that people will continue to use the product. Ultimately, once they trust him, he hopes to gain access to their ship. Once there, he will use the reengineered Toyman code to make Leviathan mortal thus easier to kill.

Lex then puts the next part of the plan into motion. He finds and puts pressure on Richard Bates, the man who built the VR torture chamber to torment his wife’s online lover.
Now, forty-three post-Crisis, Lex uses Eve’s infatuation with him to get her to help Amy Sapphire attack Obsidian HQ using special gauntlets he made. Lex also shows her that using Q waves, he can make a mouse disappear. Eve then brings him to the warehouse where Margot is keeping the comatose VR users. As a token of appreciation, Lex gives Eve a vial of poison to use on the man who murdered her father: a Leviathan hitman who is currently posted in the Peruvian Andes. However, Lex gives her a file on Jeremiah Danvers!!

While she goes off to carry out her revenge, Lex sets out on his Obsidian world tour. Meanwhile, we see flashes of the Danvers sisters learning of Jeremiah’s death, Alex’s adventures in VR, and William’s discovery of the ID bracelet.

Lex’s plan hits a snag however when Lena visits Kara expressing her condolences. She also apologizes and offers a book to help with the grief. Lex watches angrily from afar. Lex vents to Lillian while they play chess (two days ago). Frustrated, he hatches another plan. He feeds William the information concerning the medical ID bracelet. Dey brings this to Alex, Kelly, and Kara. Alex and Kelly immediately recognize the name and start putting the pieces together concerning the missing VR users. Meanwhile, Eve records this from afar and gives it to Lex, who then shows it to Gemma (guest star Cara Buono). Gemma reveals that her plan is to gather humanity into VR then kill them all with one flick of her wrist. Lex, however, warns her that Kara will soon expose this and put an end to it all. He asks to fuel public fear as it will distract from the real plan

He lies to Brainy about his involvement with the missing VR users and suggests that Team Supergirl use Myriad to track the Q Waves in the users VR lenses. Kara journeys to the Fortress Of Solitude to use Myriad, which gains the attention of a hurt and angry Lena. She shows up at the Fortress and confronts Kara calling her two-faced. Unbeknownst to her, Lex sent a Leviathan agent a cloaked Morae along with her to cause a disturbance at the Fortress. After Lena leaves, Kara detects the creature, but their struggle accidentally unleashes the Sun Eater from its cage. As a result of the danger, Obsidian sends out a prompt to all users instructing them to go inside VR to get away from the danger.

While the Sun Eater rampages, M’gann (guest star Sharon Leal) suddenly arrives to aid Team Supergirl. The duo along with Kara in a lexosuit stop the creature and thus save the sun.
With the day saved, we return to the events at the top of the episode. Lex maintains his hero status and has everything nicely tied up. However, Gemma is not pleased with Margot’s death. She briefly assumes her true computer tech based form and attacks him with lightning. Lex convinces her that he protected them by pinning the VR stuff on Margot and Amy Sapphire. He also commits to her VR plan, but they must first eliminate Supergirl. This does not worry Gemma as she claims she will not fail.

With all this in place, Lex returns home where he is greeted by an overly excited Eve. He greets her love with callousness as he nonchalantly breaks her heart. He claims that love is a weakness that he can not allow. He casually reveals that the supposed Mossad agents are awaiting the order to kill Eve’s mother if she fails to stay in line. In addition, he also reveals that he never found the man who killed her father and that the man she killed was in fact Supergirl’s father. He further threatens that if she breaks rank, he will send footage of her killing Jeremiah to Supergirl herself. A distraught Eve angrily declares that Lex is worse than Leviathan. He smuggly replies: “Not worse, better.”

With everything in place to wipe out all of his enemies, he travels to the Fortress of Solitude and gleefully looks around.

“Deus Lex Machina” was yet another strong episode of Supergirl. Melissa Benoist does an incredible job directing this Lex-centric episode. It is truly fascinating to watch Lex outwit those around him. Jon Cryer’s stellar portrayal has also made him one of the best Arrowverse villains in my opinion. I once again enjoy the use of the flashback storytelling device as a way to show the events of the season tying together. I also was surprised to see Sharon Leal’s M’gann M’orzz again. While I loved seeing her in action again, I wish she would’ve had more to do in the episode. Hopefully, she will stick around and help the team further. With only two or three more episodes, it will be interesting to see if or how things will wrap up this season.
For more recaps & reviews of Supergirl and the rest of the Arrowverse shows, stay tuned to Earth-9!

Supergirl – S5 Ep16 – Alex In Wonderland Review

Alex takes a trip into VR to deal with some devastating news in this well crafted episode of Supergirl!

The VR plot thickens as “Supergirl” and the crew begin to discover things aren’t exactly going smoothly as they thought with Obsidian Platinum. This week’s episode sees Kelly (Azie Tesfai) and William (Staz Nair) team up to investigate the failsafe glitch and Lex Luthor’s ties to it if any. However, the central focus of the episode is Alex Danvers. Chyler Leigh delivers an incredibly powerful performance as Danvers deals with the devastating news of her father’s passing. Both storylines are woven together well and begin to set the stage for the endgame of the season. Let’s recap!
This well crafted hour begins with Kara and family preparing to leave for Midvale to attend Jeremiah’s funeral. However, Alex refuses to join them. Jeremiah had a heart attack while helping displaced aliens in the Peruvian Andes. While Kara is at peace knowing Jeremiah loved them, Alex is still angry at him for leaving them. She lashes out at them saying he cared more about Kara than herself. She feels that he never had the time for her and has never forgiven him for always leaving “to protect them.”

Alex kicks everyone out including Kelly, who tries to comfort her. Once they are gone, she decides to use the VR to escape her pain. Choosing the “Supergirl” simulation, Alex finds herself as National City’s #1 hero sporting a nice black and blue suit (with a black wig as well). At the mall, she is recognized by a fellow user who introduces herself as Treasure Hunter Tilly aka Bonnie, who gives her the low down on the simulation. She explains that aside from them and Derek (who is currently playing guitar on stage) is a non-player character. This is a product of Alex’s brain mapping which populates the world with familiar faces and places. The duo quickly bond over their desire to escape real world pain. Bonnie reveals that she uses VR to deal with her sister having cancer. While Bonnie seems to realize that she is in a simulation, Derek on the other hand has no idea. In reality, he is currently wrapped in foil like a burrito in Leviathan’s secret lair tended to by Margot (guest star Patti Allen).

As a helicopter whisks “Tilly” away, the mall is attacked by a large dragon alien, but it is no problem for Alex or should I say Supergirl. With the day saved, Supergirl gets bombarded by the press and adoring fans. Following her victory, she goes out to what looks like the alien bar for pancakes. There she reunites with Bonnie, who now seems to have no recollection of her real life. In reality, she is found in her RV by Margot, who takes her to the warehouse holding the other red eyed VR users.

In the real world, Kelly teams up with an equally concerned William to investigate new satellites recently pushed through by Lex, who now finds himself on the Obsidian Board. These thirty-two devices are being placed above each city that Lex travels to as part of his Obsidian World Tour. William becomes even more suspicious of Lex when Kelly brings up the failsafe glitch/loophole. He wonders if Lex had something to do with that as well. They ultimately find no connection to Lex, but Kelly does discover that the glitch still has not been fixed despite the patch being ordered. She brings this to Andrea, who doesn’t seem too concerned. Rojas simply assures her that it will be fixed and that there is no need to inform users of this issue.

Back in the VR simulation, Alex is called to the DEO featuring NPC versions of Team Supergirl where she is given a new urgent mission. NPC-J’onn informs her that Hank Henshaw has kidnapped her sister Kara and demands them to hand over a missile. If they fail to do so, he will kill them all and expose Supergirl’s identity. NPC-J’onn urges Alex to not let her emotions cloud her judgment as she rushes to engage Henshaw. She saves the day once again tricking Henshaw and overcoming his Kryptonite powered shackles. Despite the victory and happiness, Alex begins to sense that she is forgetting something. NPC-J’onn brushes it off saying it is nothing. He takes her to celebrate at the bar where they enjoy some karaoke. As she begins to feel comfortable, Alex’s lenses in the real world turn red!

Meanwhile, in the real world, Kelly and William, feeling that some users could be trapped in their experiences, decide to check up on the nearly five hundred people who have been using for the past forty-eight hours or more nonstop. When Kelly gets no response from Alex, she begins to suspect something is wrong with her as well.
Back in VR, Alex runs into another woman claiming to be Supergirl (wearing the OG suit no less), which confuses her. Her NPC-DEO companions suggest that she return to the DEO with them. However, Alex begins to realize that this isn’t real. She then wakes up in her apartment, seemingly in the real world. She takes off her lenses and goes to respond to Kelly’s messages. However, before she can, she gets an urgent call from J’onn, who says that Psi is attacking the city and making everyone question reality. Alex suddenly rushes into action as Supergirl, this time without the wig.

In the real world, Kelly finds and unresponsive Alex in her apartment. Olsen tries to revive her with her adrenaline, but to no avail. She then decides to enter the simulation to save her. Once there, she tries to reason with Alex, but the NPC-DEO squad (who have become increasingly villainous) convince Alex that Kelly is a victim of Psi’s attack. Realizing her efforts as futile, she exits the VR and brings this to the attention of Andrea. Rojas suggests that Kelly use something unexplainable and undeniable. Ultimately, Kelly decides to introduce Alex’s teenage self into the simulation to confront Alex with reality. Despite the NPC-DEO team trying to distract her, Alex finally accepts her father’s death and that she can’t repair their relationship. The younger Alex reminds her grieving counterpart that Jeremiah’s life was a result of his own choices. Even though he is gone, Alex still has people who love her. With that, Alex wakes up in the real world and takes off her lenses.
Alex quickly apologizes to Kelly for the way she treated her earlier. She confesses that she was not angry at any of them. In actuality, she was mad at herself for being able to save her father. Alex also tells Kelly about Bonnie and Derek, who were becoming trapped in the VR. Kelly assures her that she will do everything in her power to fix this and save them. First, they need to join the others in Midvale for Jeremiah’s funeral.

This emotional episode concludes with a revelatory montage. First, William follows a lead from his NSA contact which leads him to the warehouse where Leviathan is holding these trapped VR users. However, just as he arrives, Margot engages a cloaking device which hides their presence. Dey does, however, find an hospital ID bracelet which should help greatly in his further investigation. At Obsidian, Andrea demands that the glitch be fixed. The employee she orders to do this: Eve!!!!

In the end, Alex joins her family and friends as Eliza (guest star Helen Slater) eulogizes her late husband.

This episode gives Alex a truly compelling storyline, something that has been a bit lacking this season in my opinion. Chyler Leigh does an incredible job conveying Danvers’ grief and desire for happiness. It was great to see her front and center and getting to truly let loose and have fun as VR Supergirl. This storyline also featured a fantastic performance from David Harewood, who got to play the villain again as Hank Henshaw. I also really enjoyed the investigation subplot as well. Azie Tesfai has been underutilized in my opinion so it was great to get to see her be more of a focus this episode. Overall, this episode was another great chapter in this series.

Stay tuned for more recaps & reviews for Supergirl and the other Arrowverse shows here at Earth-9!

Supergirl – S5 Ep15 – Reality Bytes Review

In this powerful episode, Dreamer takes center stage in a deeply personal quest.

Sometimes, life sucks. People struggle everyday with a variety of issues and just want to get away from it all. This episode, through an interesting cautionary storyline, reminds us that we must confront our issues instead of living in fear of them. Perhaps more importantly, this episode also shines a light on real world horrors that the Trans community faces everyday via a heartbreaking story featuring Dreamer (Nicole Maines).Let’s recap!

The episode begins with a flashback to two months ago where Kelly monitors a test run of the new platinum lense prior to launch. Mr. Bates, the participant, sees his wife with another man in this winter fantasy land and fumes. He tries to exit, but cannot. Due to a glitch in the program, the failsafe failed to work. Kelly brings the man out of his VR experience and tells him that the glitch will be taken care of shortly.

In the present day, Supergirl and Dreamer fight a dominator which the latter takes out rather quickly. Dreamer encourages Kara to go off to her date with William (which ends being fun, but a bit awkward).

Before Nia goes home, she has an awkward run in with Brainy who arrives to escort the alien to the DEO.

At her apartment, Nia catches up with her roommate Yvette, who is excitedly looking forward to going out to meet her new boyfriend of three weeks (they met on Upswipes), Angus. Yvette encourages Nia to come with her to the club and to quit “crying over that weird little man.” Nia reluctantly agrees. Once at the club, Nia has a terrible vision that she is unable to interpret. Meanwhile, Yvetter is lured outside by “Angus” who in actuality is a bigot. He attacks her and leaves a message with her for Dreamer which simply states: “The world doesn’t want a trans superhero.” It also says that if she doesn’t stop her heroics, he will attack more people in the trans community.

An angry Nia and Yvette meet with the cops at their apartment. The NCPD assures them that they will do all they can to bring the man to justice. While Yvette goes to rest, Nia fumes over the attack. Kara arrives and attempts to comfort her. Nia, however, is now determined to end the man’s life. She claims he is not worth saving and that she will not allow him to erase her or her community. Kara (who later aids William in writing a piece about the attack) urges her to let justice prevail and not succumb to hate and killing. Nia gives Kara and the cops a few hours to fix this, but if they don’t, she will do it her way.

Elsewhere, Alex continues to train with J’onn. She is still struggling with controlling her new weapon. Their session is interrupted by Al, from the alien bar, with an urgent mission: his brother Trevor (guest star Corbin Bleu) is missing. According to Al, Trevor checked into a hotel a week ago for a simple weekend VR getaway in virtual Las Vegas and has not been seen since. The Tower crew agrees to help Al find Trevor with J’onn searching for his real self while Alex searches for him virtually.

Alex meets with Kelly, who helps her through the new Platinum VR experience. In the “lobby,” Alex sees various options, one of which features an image of her wearing a version of the Supergirl suit and another of her holding a baby. She stays on task and choses virtual Las Vegas where she finds a haunted house on a hill. This unusual place is a customizable add-on that Obsidian grants to advanced users free of regulation. Kelly also informs her that the house taps into peoples’ worst fears. Once inside, Alex finds two men submerged in large tanks of water screaming for help. Alex, facing her fear drowning, breaks the glass and saves them. The men, who are friends of Trevor’s, inform her that they have been trapped there for some time and that a man named Richard is responsible for their torture.

Meanwhile, in the real world, J’onn finds Richard’s wife, who turns out to be the woman from earlier in the VR experience. She explains that she has been having a virtual affair with Trevor and her possessive husband, computer engineer, is furious at her. J’onn quickly realizes that Richard has built a trap within the VR for Trevor.

Unfortunately for Alex, she does not learn any of this due to her losing communication with Kelly. She does however discover Trevor in another room where he is frozen in fear. He has been forced to explode over and over again. Alex successfully calms him down not before she is attacked by Richard, who has come to watch him suffer. Alex launches him out of the simulation where he wakes up in his home now forced to contend with J’onn. After a brief struggle, J’onn subdues him and takes him into custody. Alex finds out where Trevor is in the real world and relays the information to J’onn so that they can save him.

Elsewhere, after nothing happens in the search for the attacker, Nia decides to take matters into her own hands by luring the attacker with her own Upswipes account. She is successful in luring him out and meets him as Dreamer, much to his surprise and disgust. She confronts him as he spews hate and attempts to attack her as well. Dreamer quickly subdues the man and strangles him with her lasso powers. Supergirl arrives having been alerted to the situation via Brainy. Ignoring Nia’s earlier request/warning, Supergirl delivers a hope speech in which she urges her friend not to stoop to his level. She apologizes for not realizing the true dangers that her community face. She pledges herself as well as J’onn, Alex, and even Brainy’s aid in the further protection of the trans community. Dreamer then allows Supergirl to have the man arrested, not without a final threat however.

Later that night, at CatCo, Kara finds a crying Nia on the balcony and comforts her. Nia is overwhelmed and disturbed at how she wanted to murder that man. She also expresses frustration at not being able to interpret the dream she had, both now and before her mother died. In addition, she is heartbroken that one of the only people who loved her and supported her simply broke things off without an explanation. Kara apologizes for not considering Nia’s experiences, but also reminds her that violence is never the answer. Not lashing out in hate is what separates them from the villains.

Following Trevor’s rescue, Alex and Kelly discuss the events at Al’s bar. Kelly is shocked that Alex was able to eject Richard from the simulation and that the glitch was not fixed after all. Trevor then shows up and thanks them both for helping him.

Back at their apartment, Nia comforts Yvette and encourages her to not let this attack erase them.

Elsewhere, Brainy, who was tasked by Kara to gather information on the trans hate group, delivers his findings to the cops telling them the DEO takes these threats seriously.

Meanwhile, Richard is wheeled away in a hospital bed by Margot (guest star), the Leviathan liaison lady, to a room full of wrapped bodies suspended in the air.

At the Tower, Alex continues her training with J’onn. As they wrap up,  Alex receives a devastating call from Eliza. She delivers the news to Kara at their apartment: Jeremiah Danvers is dead.

This was yet another incredible episode of Supergirl. Nicole Maines delivers a powerful, and deeply emotional performance in this Dreamer centric episode. I have immense respect for her and the trans community for living in the face of these horrors. I give credit to the show for allowing this important message to be showcased. In addition, I really enjoyed the VR storyline as well which showcased Alex’s desire to help people no matter the cost. All in all, this was a deeply moving and powerful episode that continues the upward trajectory of the season!

Stay tuned for more recaps & reviews of Supergirl and the other DC TV shows here at Earth-9!