With Supergirl quarantined in her protective suit, J’onn teams up with Manchester Black to find the missing Fiona. Alex navigates the struggles of being director while Lena and Brainy work to clear the atmosphere of Kryptonite. Here is a review of the Supergirl episode “Ahimsa.”

REVIEW:

Although “Ahimsa” included several wonderful character moments for the supporting players, it did not match the level of excitement, investment, and quality messaging created by the first two episodes of this season. Without a fully realized threat and with expedited solutions, this episode breezed by instead of cementing the extent of Agent Liberty’s power and influence. The storylines explored here would have been more impactful and engaging had they been expanded over the course of two hours in lieu of last episode’s dive into Ben Lockwood’s backstory.

Like last year, the main characters don’t know Agent Liberty’s true identity when the audience already does, but I wish they would have held off on giving us this information and instead used the screentime to display Agent Liberty as a devious leader. His platform is terrifying, but his own actions are less so. Agent Liberty’s plan this episode fell flat. His attempt to use Fiona to spread his fear of aliens was not nearly as well-developed, understandable, or effective as any of the Graves’ plans, which makes me wonder if the writers have chosen the wrong antagonists to put at the head of this anti-alien movement. And by focusing more on the Graves, Agent Liberty seems slightly irrelevant. I have a feeling we’ll be seeing the twins again because no one on this show actually dies and/or stays dead.

Given that Reign didn’t emerge until episode nine of last season, this season feels like it’s microfocusing on one story and burning through its big bad’s plan at a surprising rate. We already have his full backstory and understand his motives by episode three. That’s not to say it’s a bad thing. Agent Liberty hasn’t created a whole lot of panic yet despite his best efforts, so there’s enough story to keep his arc churning out problems for a least a little while longer. And it seems like Ben will have means of creating problems without the mask in the near future. Then there’s still the whole Russian Kara situation to explore later in the year, so even if Lockwood’s threat is wrapped up by midseason, there’s still plenty of drama left in place. After last year’s overabundance of major storylines crammed into a short span of episodes, it’s nice to see them take one major point at a time.

This episode, we finally got to see Alex adjusting to her duties as director, giving Chyler Leigh several wonderful moments of vulnerability and anger. I love the scene of Alex taking a moment in the locker room to let herself feel – feel that insecurity that makes her heroism all the more strong. She’s a badass, but she’s also human. It was such a relatable moment for anyone who’s ever had to find those itty bitty boxes while at work and keep pushing forward through the madness. The beautiful scene of J’onn having faith in Alex and the fact that we’ve seen two Danvers sisters couch scenes in four episodes give me hope that the show is refocusing on the relationships that made the series a success. I just hope that Kara bought those pies because grief baking did not end well for her.

Why has it taken until season four to explore J’onn at his full Martian potential? If he can locate people with his mind, what else can he do? Why couldn’t he do this when Alex was kidnapped in season two? Anyways, it’s wonderful to see J’onn honoring his father’s wishes and learning to fight without lifting a sword. It’s given him a chance to be more emotionally invested in his actions than when he had to remain the stoic leader of the DEO. I’m all for more J’onn and Manchester Black team ups. I wasn’t sure what to expect with Manchester, but I thoroughly enjoyed the smooth fighter and loving fiancé. Although murdering a woman for the sake of driving a man’s story seems to be one of the oldest and most senseless tropes in the book, I’m interested to see what turns his character will now take. He brings a rogue and unpredictable energy to the series that could be a breath of fresh air when Alex is getting a by-the-books supervisor.

The Lena and Brainy storyline this episode further established the potential that these characters have when they team up. These two science geniuses who are trying to make a name for themselves outside of their evil relatives who’ve caused harm have so many interesting similarities. Like Lena, Brainy started out as someone we thought we knew: a socially awkward brainiac, but over the course of the past couple of episodes, he has exhibited a depth of personality. Jesse Rath has imbued Brainy with such an innocence and sweetness that makes the character shine.

I wish we could have actually seen Lena and Brainy doing science together, seen them bounce off one another’s ideas and finally reach that moment where they realize they can use Jack Spheer’s company as a force for good like he would have wanted. By skipping the middle section of this story, the episode failed to create and maintain a sense of urgency and suspense. Sure, we all knew Kara would get out of the suit eventually, but with a threat such as the entire atmosphere being irradiated with kryptonite, it should have had us worried for a least a little bit. Expanding the timeline could have also provided us with more of an emotional punch because other than Brainy, no one seemed all that concerned about Kara’s potential death. I would have liked to have seen Alex grappling with her sister’s mortality when she’s so used to Supergirl being made of steel, and seen Lena rifling through her itty bitty boxes to unpack emotions over a character whose friendship she lost, and seen J’onn comforting his space daughter after having just lost his own father.

It’s becoming clearer that Nia’s naps are premonitions, but how much does Nia know about her abilities? And how much can she control them? I’m certainly looking forward to this storyline taking off and hope it does so sooner rather than later.

ODDS AND ENDS:

– Brainy: If you’re in your mind palace, tell Streaky I said, “Hi.”

– Brainy: Do humans feel like this all the time? It’s intense and disruptive. How do you get anything done?
Lena: My solution… boxes.
Brainy: Boxes, yes. What variety? Cardboard? Wooden? Lucite?
Lena: Imaginary. I want you to imagine that you’re full of tiny itty bitty boxes. And then I want you to take your feelings, and I want you to shove them into those itty bitty boxes. And then I want you to take those and shove them way deep down until you forget you even had feelings in the first place. Then you and I are going to do science and get this air clean. Understand?

– Brainy: None of the nanites have eaten Kryptonite before, and they’re understandably very nervous. I don’t want to ask too much of them. They’re just nanites.

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