Whole worlds pivot on acts of imagination

Sir Vi has always been denied everything.

Princess Caitlyn has only ever wanted freedom.

When Princess Caitlyn's protector dies in a brutal attack, she finds herself in need of a new knight ; enters Sir Vi who is in desperate need of someone to serve. The two strike an unlikely alliance ; Princess Caitlyn will make Sir Vi her knight, if Sir Vi agrees to her one request : leave her to do as she pleases.

But the Queendom of Piltover needs its princess to fall in line, and the pressure of the court might prove too much for two people who have never quite fit anywhere. As the maw of the castle begins to close around them both and enemies lurk in the shadows, Princess Caitlyn and Sir Vi grow ever closer ; but what can become of them when Sir Vi is not who he says he is and Princess Caitlyn longs for one thing only ?

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I love them !

I love them, but I was also sporting my own personal crinkle for most of this episode because though it isn't a bad episode, there are so many things in it that piss me off and I'm just… crinkle.

Alex is so happy at the beginning of this episode. She is so happy, and she is so cute, and she deserves this happiness (which is a word that I apparently do not know how to write 🤨)

She wakes up, and Maggie is there, and this is, perhaps, the best she's ever felt in her entire life.

And Kara is so happy that her sister is happy ! She is so thrilled that Alex is with Maggie and that things are going well and that Alex is finally being herself. And that scene is so fucking cute ! (Even though I do have to report that Kara's belt loops appear to be missing. Again.)

So someone is going to have to explain to me what the fuck happened in the writers room for 1. things to unfold the way they then unfold, 2. it being made out as if it's Alex's fault.

Because Kara goes missing, and Maggie randomly shows up at the DEO because Alex wasn't texting her back which… what ? It's the middle of the work day, Alex doesn't have to be glued to her phone, texting her girlfriend back while she's, you know, AT WORK.

And Maggie has had this whole thing about Alex not "going crazy" on her, but she's the one who's being weird and clingy, and then ! When Alex is obviously hardcore panicking, she takes her at her word and just… leaves, even though it's incredibly obvious that Alex is just spiralling.

What. The. Fuck ?

But that's not even the worst of it. Because when Kara has been found and the day has been saved, Alex apologises to Maggie (and I feel like I should have counted the amount of times she says "I'm sorry" in that conversation because it was a lot).

She is honest, opens up about something that really, really hurts, that has been a weight on her for most of her life, and Maggie goes, "LOL. You get to mess up one time."

WHAT ?

And, okay, maybe Maggie has something of a point. In their line of work, shit happens, and if Alex freaks out every single time, this isn't going to work. But Alex freaked out specifically because her sister was gone and, apparently, Maggie knows this, so what is this about ? And why does it seem like this is Alex's fault when clearly Maggie has some issues ?

This makes me so mad, and Alex deserves better than someone who gives her a fucking ultimatum right after her sister has gone missing, when, perhaps, what she needs, is a fucking hug, and a little bit of understanding.

I feel like I could scream about this for hours so I'm going to just, move one, or this entire ramble is going to be nothing but me being pissed about this.

So, Winn ! Agent Schott goes on something of a hero journey this episode and, you know what ? I am not mad about it.

I am however mad about James being so callous about the whole thing. His friend almost got shot, he could very well have died, and he… did not think it might be a good idea to check up on him ? To be a little bit more considerate about the whole thing ? To show a little bit of care ? In my notes I described his behaviour as "abysmal" and I sincerely don't understand why Winn forgives him so fast just because he got to go on an alien planet and bring back some dirt 🤨

I'm not super sure of why they (the writers of the show) are so insistent that Winn absolutely has to be "more" than the computer guy (nothing wrong with being the computer guy), but I do like that he gets to face some of his fears with with a little help from Alex and immediate exposure therapy via murderous alien.

The actual plot of the episode is so intertwined with Mon-El that I cannot not talk about him for real this time and it fucking pisses me off. He spends the entire episode being a disrespectful prick, refusing to listen to Kara, undermining her at every turn, and then, somehow, making it seem like she's somehow responsible for them being stuck on an alien planet (moon ?) when he's the one who didn't fucking listen.

But she does look beautiful when she looks like she wants to rip him apart with her bare hands.

Fortunately, with or without this asshole, Kara is going to save the day, because being a hero is not all about having superpowers (and, crap, I think I'm starting to see James' point 🙄)

She takes charge of the situation, she tries to reassure the rightfully very scared people who have been abducted by Roulette of all people (who appears to own, like, only one dress ?)

And the space fratboy is not only an asshole about it, he also goes down with one punch and does not get back up again even as Kara is being actively tortured and electrocuted in front of him ! But you know who steps in ? Poor, fragile humans who have been inspired by Supergirl, and also her sister with her cool new alien gun !

And if they get out of here, it's because Kara didn't give up, and people who actually cared about doing the right thing and saving others stepped up, while Mon-el, well, to quote my sometimes illegible notes, "he's just a dick."

(Here comes the sun)

I'm not sure of whether or not Kara is a good reporter or simply a good hero since it's a little unclear of whether or not she does her actual job or only shows up to write about what she likes/what she did as Supergirl and then leaves again (where is her article about the pelicans ? I want to know what happened to the fucking pelicans !)

I know very little about reporting, and I don't understand why CatCo magazine, a publication not known for its hard-hitting journalism, has a whole investigative journalism thing going on, but I do like when Kara stands up for herself as Kara, and not just as Supergirl.

And to balance out all the rants, here's Alex looking very, very good with her alien gun. I cropped the prick out, you're welcome.

What. The. Fuck.

No one will be surprised, I think, when I say that the only things I usually remember about this episode are mostly Supercorp related and that I've completely erased from my memory anything pertaining to Mon-El. This has the unanticipated disadvantage of having to deal with that thing again anew every single time.

"You look beautiful with the weight of these world on your shoulders" is not romantic regardless of what I think about this whole thing 😬

Moving on !

Alex sneaking alcohol from the freezer (why is it in the freezer in the first place, the fridge is right here ??) will never not be funny to me. This woman is one of the top agents of a government agency dedicated to fighting alien threats, she is trained to hell and back, she can torture people with her index finger. She is also sneaking around in the background like a fucking cartoon character 😂

Alex also has the worst luck when it comes to telling people things. She was interrupted multiple times when she was trying to tell Kara about Astra in season 1. She was interrupted by Lena when she first tried telling Kara about Maggie. And now that she's trying to come out to her mother, an interdimensional portal is opening above the dinner table.

I went back and forth over whether or not I like her coming out to her mother and I'm still not absolutely certain of how I feel about it. It's a good scene, and I like how easy it is, how it seems to imply that Eliza might have already known ; but that scene feels so short to me in a way that is a little abrupt.

There's also the fact that this scene doesn't really seem to know what it's doing regarding Alex's relationship with her mother. Eliza seems genuinely surprised that Alex is finding it hard to come out to her, as if season 1 has not happened at all, and Alex hardly pushes back against this at all.

The reason, Dr. Danvers, why your daughter is finding it hard to talk to you, is because you have been very, very shitty to her in the past 🤷

Ultimately, I do like that Eliza is so supportive of Alex, but, I don't know, I feel like something is missing from this.

And this is a very good hug.

The problem with watching Supergirl with my thinking brain on, is that I'm, well, having thoughts about things, and this time around, I am having a lot more thoughts about Sanvers than I've ever had.

These thoughts ? Not all of them are positive 😬

Because see, I love this next scene, but thinking about it makes me like the scene they share afterwards much much less.

Alex has taken the time to think about this. She has come to terms with the fact that she is gay and that her being gay has a lot more to do with her than it has to do with Maggie ; even though Maggie was the catalyst to her coming out.

She is starting to feel comfortable about herself, is growing accustomed to this new reality, to the fact that she is finally herself, that she finally understands who she is.

And what does Maggie decide to do about that ? Kiss her about it ! And decide that, after all, she does not want to be friends !

And don't get me wrong, this is an iconic scene, people have put that line on tshirts for a reason. Alex gets the girl and she deserves to get the girl, and if I ignore a lot of context around it, it's kinda cute and I'm happy for Alex.

But I find the back and forth somewhat exhausting, and the thing Maggie says right after ? It fucking pisses me off.

This is not okay on a multitude of levels. You simply do not say something like that to someone you've 1. just kissed, 2. previously rejected. That's just not okay.

😶

On a whole different level of things that are not okay : creating viruses to wipe out people who are not like you.

As someone who is absolutely terrified of biochemical weapons this episode should rightfully freak me the fuck out, but for some reason it does not (maybe because I've watched it at least 5 times ? 🤨) which means I get to focus on other things like the comedy duo of Alex and Winn.

Or how absolutely devastating Lena and Lillian's relationship is.

(Side note, Lillian sniffing the wine and slowly putting it down is comedy gold)

We are, at this point of the show, far, far from knowing everything about Lena's complicated relationship with both of her mothers, but even just this little kernel goes off with the strength of a nuclear blast. Lena, at the end of the day, simply would like to have one (1) family member who loves her.

You ☹️ told ☹️ me ☹️ you ☹️ love ☹️ me ☹️ and ☹️ we ☹️ both ☹️ know ☹️ that's ☹️ not ☹️ true ☹️

(Also, I don't have children and do not plan on ever having any so I don't know to what extent this is true or not but the thought that parents might indeed like one of their kids more than the other hurts me. I have a sister, and either possibility feels absolutely horrible. If I'm the favourite, then what about her ? If she's the favourite, why am I not good enough ?)

Kara is also not having a fun time with her parents and this makes me want to cry because Krypton is dead and so are her parents (LOL, no.) and all she has are memories, and day after day her memories are getting more and more tainted as she learns about the truth about her planet and her parents.

(This shot is fucking beautiful)

And, well, learning that your parents are flawed is part of growing up, but most parents' questionable decisions amount to poor parenting/life choices, not engineering a genocide weapon, and since whether we want it or not our parents inform a lot of who we are, where does that leave Kara ? How much of what appears to have been a quite privileged childhood (minus, you know, her planet exploding) comes from her father's contract with the military and her mother sending truckloads of people to space prison ?

And Kara and Lena share that common ground of having parents who kind of suck and they might be able to relate to each other were they not a Super and a Luthor…

Because Kara may have "looked into Lena's eyes" but she still did fly straight here to investigate when she was asked if she trusted Lena enough to bet Mon-El's life on it…

And that speech is so fucking good !

You 👏 are 👏 not 👏 like 👏 your 👏 mother 👏

Be 👏 your 👏 own 👏 hero 👏

And it's absolutely devastating that Lena seems to hear none of it.

Or does she…?

Surprise ! Lena switched the isotopes ! And fucking saved the day !

I think I have to say this again : Lena. Saved. The. Day !

Kara couldn't stop the missile from blowing up, she couldn't save Space Dad, nor any of the other aliens of National City, neither Eliza nor Alex could engineer a cure for the virus ; if Lena hadn't switched out the isotopes, Cadmus would have won !

Lena Luthor is a fucking hero !

I had to skip over Space Dad to get my point across but the fact that he is so ready to die for this, for the community he has (briefly) found in the aliens of National City, the way he is ready to see his wife and daughters again, how he wants to die as himself, not as a monster, but then embraces the monster so that he can keep fighting just a moment longer, FUCKING KILLS ME.

And it starts with Kara going for the throat, which I always appreciate 😌

I go back and forth a lot on Sanvers. It's definitely not my favourite Alex ship, but when I'm watching season 2, I easily get caught up in it and it's only after the fact that I take note/remember some stuff. Interestingly this time around, I realised right away that Maggie's behaviour reminds me eerily of not one but two of my exes so I'm really, really happy that Alex stands up for herself when it comes to this.

Because she's right ! Maggie and her are not friends ! They always had that something else going on between them, regardless of the fact that Maggie had a girlfriend, and it was very easy to interpret, from Alex's point of view but also from the outside, that Maggie was angling for something when she suggested Alex should come out.

And now Alex did the hard thing which was coming out to her sister, and she finds herself adrift in this new world because her one anchor to this was her very real feelings for a very real woman, who, as it turns out, does not apparently want to be with her.

(Side note : I love how the camera progressively closes in on Alex as she speaks)

Then Maggie shows up at Kara's (which had me really, really confused because 1. I thought for a moment we were already at the "girls we wanna kiss" moment which felt a bit early, and 2. how the fuck does Maggie know where to find Alex ??) with the look of someone who does in fact have feelings for Alex !

And I actually do really like what she says to Alex because whereas previously she made it sound like it was an Alex problem (Alex was too fresh off the boat), here we can glimpse that it might in fact be a Maggie problem.

So they're going to be friends for, like, one episode, and then they'll get together (I think it's in the next one at least), and Maggie will continue to have a sometimes dubious behaviour towards Alex !

(I like her face)

Now, I am trying really hard to care about the Guardian stuff but the truth is that I don't 😬 Mostly this episode it was two dudes in armour punching each other in not great lighting. Couldn't see shit. Lots of clanging and grunting. I do like James and Winn working together but that's about it 🤷

What I do like about the Guardian storyline ? Alex threatening Winn with her index finger. Top tier Alex moment.

I am a quite simple person, at the end of the day, when all is said and done, I LOVE a good star-crossed relationship, and J'onn and M'gann make me want to eat glass.

(Tea is also the way to my heart)

To save him she had to poison him !

He doesn't understand what is happening to him !

He feels guity for getting closer to her !

Which gets us Kara saying something so understanding and so kind that I think might resonate with a lot of grieving people.

The people you lost would want you to live.

We then take a brief detour to remind us that Alex is, in fact, a doctor (I'm still not super clear on that, especially regarding when she graduated since unless I missed something she went straight from failing med school to training at the DEO 🤨)

And Space Dad is off to fight M'gann...

And I've never befriended my mortal enemy wearing the skin of my genocided people, but...!

He is so angry !

And she doesn't fight back !

And she won't have him kill her when wearing a skin that doesn't fit her anymore !

And ! He does not ! Kill her !

😭

And in the midst of that, there was also something going on with Kara (who is a much, much better person than me because I do not think I would have saved Mon-El 🙄)

I'm not too mad about it (I am a little, Mon-El could have rotted there for all eternity for all I care) because it gets us a wonderful confrontation between Lillian and Kara.

I haven't spent much time discussing Lillian because her character develops quite slowly with bits and pieces in various episodes, but she is such a good character. She is evil, but that sort of evil where she is entirely certain that she is right and that her cause is the only thing that matters.

She is torturing aliens for her children !

She is "saving" the planet for her children !

She is sensing the gay vibes between Supergirl and her daughter !

I love Lillian 😌

But 👆 torture is not okay, and also harvesting people's blood without their consent.

Kara is rightfully scared, she doesn't think she is going to make it, and, like the last time this happened, her last thought is for her sister 🥹

Enters Earth Dad !

And her face when she sees him is so good !

And the hug ! 😭

And he saves her, and all she can think about is that she has to get him out for Alex 😭

And we don't yet know that something fishy is going on, but the fact that he does exactly what he did for her years and years ago, sacrificing himself so she can be safe, is such a Danvers thing to do🥲

This is a family of self-sacrificing idiots !!

My final thought on this is that I know Alex has a lot going on right now but the fact that she wasn't a little more worried about Kara vanishing from the face of the Earth for a hot minute is a bit weird ^^ Especially when in only a few episodes she is going to lose her entire shit over Kara going missing and they're going to use this to create strife in her relationship with Maggie in a way that, to this day, many, many years after first watching it, still fucking pisses me off 😬

(Side note : when she runs to Kara, she is wearing a bulletproof vest that she definitely didn't have in the previous scene when she is actively arresting someone who has an automatic weapon strapped to his arm 🤨)

Closing thought : Kara, don't heat-vision a plastic container. You are going to be eating so many micro-plastics 😭