Verdict: Supergirl dives into its romantic relationships with results that are frequently fun and insightful, but it comes up short in pushing the current main pairing of the show forward into new places.

Review:

Romance has always been a key ingredient in any good superhero story. It’s the perfect way to provide the hero with something tangible to fight for beyond their city, and it externalises that age-old conflict of the hero’s role in balancing their duties as crime-fighter and their own personal lives. Supergirl has understood this well, and this season, it’s come up with a really strong couple in the form of Alex and Maggie. Yet it’s always struggled, oddly, to give Kara Danvers a convincing romantic storyline. Her season-long flirtation with James Olsen ended at the top of this season in a tacit admission that they weren’t a convincing couple, and any tension with Winn dissipated after his unrequited feelings were dealt with midway through season one. Therefore, Supergirl has gone for a do-over this season. Kara’s previous love interests were pushed out of that box, and Mon-El has been brought in for a plotline that’s been simmering slowly since the very start of the season.

More so than any other episode this season, Mr. and Mrs. Mxyzptlk tackled their budding relationship’s innate drawbacks before making a clear case for their pairing on a long-term basis. And while the medium of doing that, which involves one of the show’s most enjoyable villains in quite some time, is often entertaining, the episode stumbles in the execution. In its attempt to bury the hatchet by showing Mon-El at his worst before he proves himself to Kara, Supergirl badly overcompensates and actually undermines him as a legitimate romantic partner for Kara.

I’ve generally liked Mon-El as a character this season. His position as the ostentatious, lower-class counterpart to Kara has allowed for a strong exploration of Kara’s own prejudices, and Chris Wood’s charisma in the role has smoothed out a lot of the potentially dislikeable edges of the character. Furthermore, he’s had a substantiated character arc that’s allowed him to gradually, realistically change into a humbler person fit to be a hero. Mr. and Mrs. Mxyzptlk intends to roll some of that development back and explore Mon-El’s unhealthy attitudes towards Kara as the villain’s schemes tip him into irrational jealousy and a paternalistic desire to police Kara’s actions to ‘keep her safe’, and it sometimes comes off. It’s genuinely interesting to see Supergirl go for such a no-holds-barred approach to its exploration of the ways in which Mon-El might not be right for Kara, because superhero shows rarely ascribe this amount of flaws to a generally heroic character. The parallels between Mon-El and Mr Mxyzptlk in their beliefs that they know better than Kara and inability to consider other perspectives are irrefutable, and it forms the basis of a scathing critique of the way paternalistic attitudes can creep in even when they come from ‘good intentions’. In a season that’s zoomed out from Kara a great deal, it’s always important to find stories like this that take a uniquely feminine perspective in a way that the other superhero shows on TV, except perhaps Legends of Tomorrow, can’t really do. 

However, Supergirl has already been over Mon-El’s flaws a couple of times, and it’s made the point that Kara and Mon-El are drastically different in virtually every episode they’ve shared their storyline. After the tangible progress of last week’s ending, and the developments that Mon-El has had in learning humility and when to take orders, his behaviour here feels regressive – a way to turn back the clock on his dynamic with Kara just so the show can run in place for an episode. It seemed like the time to break the patterns of earlier in the season and to explore a new dynamic with Kara and Mon-El, but the structure of their storyline is disappointingly similar to the past few episode, complete with the episode-ending heartfelt talk in Kara’s apartment that’s quickly become a frustratingly repetitive cliché. They finally kiss at the end of their episode, but given how stop-start their forward momentum has been, there’s no guarantee that Supergirl won’t be walking back to the same territory of seeing them spar about their incompatibility soon enough. Furthermore, Mr. and Mrs. Mxyzptlk ends up overshooting the mark a little, as Mon-El’s behaviour, presumably intended to come across as well-intentioned but badly thought-out just comes across as unpleasant, ticking a surprising amount of boxes that constitute a villain on this show. It might be interesting to see a character’s flaws explored in such depth, but this is the point right where we should be rooting for Mon-El the most. The fact that his behaviour, presented clearly as a jerkish façade covering a good heart earlier this season, is more innately problematic here, is a problem in making his big romantic moment with Kara credible. Even with the apologies, it’s difficult for Supergirl to justify walking back the consequences of this behaviour so neatly by wrapping their tensions up within the episode. Ultimately, we don’t learn a lot more about Mon-El this episode, his arc just reiterating his flaws and his ability to cast them off, and his characterisation leaves a bad taste in the mouth that undermines him likeable romantic lead in the long-term.

Kara’s other suitor this week fares better. Mr. Mxyzptlk is, refreshingly, just a very fun villain who we’re never invited to take particularly seriously. Being an imp coming from a place no-one can physically comprehend, his villainy isn’t contingent on psychologically realistic motivations or a tragic back-story, and that takes a lot of the typical burden of introducing and fleshing out a villain off the episode’s shoulders. Peter Gadiot’s performance hits the mark well in this regard, playing up the hammy ostentatiousness of Mxy with just a hint of the sinister attitudes that underlie his antics throughout the episode. Furthermore, while Mxy’s fifth-dimensional powers provide a whole host of fun and unique scenarios for the episode such as the duel between him and Mon-El or the brief fight between Kara and the Jor-El statue in the Fortress of Solitude, he acts as the cornerstone of the episode’s themes. Mr. and Mrs. Mxyzptlk is keen to confront the ugly entitlement at the core of a character who never pauses to consider Kara’s perspective on the narrative he’s created for himself, with Mxy acting as a textbook example of the forced and unhealthy love that the episode makes a case against. Despite his miniature sob story of looking for love at the end, we’re never invited to feel sorry for the guy, because his immutable belief system and charmed way of life where he’s used to getting what he wants embodies everything toxic in Supergirl’s relationships – Maggie forgetting to take Alex’s views into account, or Mon-El’s belief he can push Kara around for her protection can be seen in Mxy’s attitudes. Supergirl can’t put forward comedy villains like this every week, but for this (late) Valentine’s Day occasion, Mxy was just the ticket.

After a few weeks of background flirting and references, Mr. and Mrs. Mxyzptlk put a spotlight back onto Alex and Maggie’s relationship. Compared to the bumpy road of Kara and Mon-El, Supergirl has always seemed more confident with Alex and Maggie, and that’s no different here. There’s finally an opportunity to explore some of Maggie’s murky past, with her monologue about her rejection by her friends and parents succinctly encapsulating years of painful isolation and prejudice and therefore putting the liberation of her relationship with Alex into context. And Alex’s desire for a Valentine’s Day after years alone is the kind of sweet, slightly cheesy, storyline that this show does so well. Supergirl has given Alex second wind as a character by focusing on this earnest side of her character that season one never tapped into with its singular focus on her lives as sister and DEO agent, and Chyler Leigh’s performance has only become richer and more engaging from this opportunity to explore Alex’s personal insecurities and desires more openly. TV needs more couples like this who might have their differences and conflicts and every now and then, but ultimately come out stronger and with a greater understanding of one another. Constant conflict isn’t always a must, and with Alex and Maggie, Supergirl is finally understanding that.

And it wasn’t just the regular couples who received a spotlight this week – a new one cropped up too, with Winn finding a potential new relationship with an alien from the bar, Lyra. It’s a fine storyline – Supergirl has struggled to give Winn his own things to do this year outside of Guardian even as he’s found a more sustainable place in the DEO, so a storyline that gives Jeremy Jordan more screen-time is always welcome – but ultimately, Mr. and Mrs. Mxyzptlk never really makes a case for its necessity. There’s the potential for this unconventional relationship to find focus in the same analysis of prejudice and parallels between aliens and race on earth that distinguished the first half of the season, but for this episode, Winn’s relationship is essentially a fun but disposable detour that has very few consequences for the wider action of the show.

Mr. and Mrs. Mxyzptlk has deceptively large ambitions behind the façade of acting as a breather episode with a very silly bad guy. True, Mxy is hard to take seriously, and that’s part of his appeal as a villain. But there’s a more substantial attempt to tackle the toxic attitudes that so often motivate people in relationships such as entitlement and a lack of empathy, an attempt that finds success in the possessiveness of Mr. Mxyzptlk and Alex and Maggie’s storyline, which illustrates a believable conflict that’s solved by the couple learning more about each other and finding new understanding. Sometimes, however, that incisive attitude of storytelling bumps up against the basic need to move forwards narratively, as with Mon-El’s repetitive story that regresses his character just as it needed to change in a clumsy development for Supergirl’s central relationship right now. Supergirl still hasn’t overcome its romantic relationships problem, but it’s getting better. It just needs to make sure that more of that good work comes at the centre of the show, and not just in the subplots.

Odds & Ends

• J’onn sends up a Valentine’s Day message to Miss Martian over on Mars, proving that commercial holidays aren’t just an Earth thing. I wonder what the adverts on Mars are like.
• A brief return for everyone’s favourite villain, Parasite, here, most famous for earning the rare honour of being mercilessly killed by Supergirl.
• The Mxy-as-Superman gag was in the trailers, but I still kind of hoped that he’d turn around and reveal himself as Tyler Hoechlin. Here’s hoping that the genuine article is back before the season is out.
• Mxyzptlk’s greatest weakness being spelling his name in reverse is never explained, and that somehow makes it even better.
• Next time: Homecoming! Dean Cain is back as Jeremiah Danvers! Also, the long-awaited return of Cyborg Superman after two weeks out! Pick which one you are most excited for!