This is a fairly decent episode for one that has far too much of Mon-El and far too little of Kara. It's not one of the ones I completely forget exists, it's also not one that I spend a lot of time thinking about. It's a decent episode.
And it starts with Kara going for the throat, which I always appreciate π
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 !
Now, I am trying really hard to care about the Guardian stuff but the truth is that I don't π¬ 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 π€·
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 π€¨)
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...!
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 π)
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 !
But π 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 π₯Ή
And her face when she sees him is so good !
And he saves her, and all she can think about is that she has to get him out for Alex π
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 doπ₯²
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 π¬
(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 π€¨)
Closing thought : Kara, don't heat-vision a plastic container. You are going to be eating so many micro-plastics π