When Morgan Edge survives an assassination attempt, he targets Lena, leading her to use her Luthor genes in a positive way. Meanwhile, Alex runs medical tests on Sam to discover why she’s losing time. Here is a recap and review of the Supergirl episode “For Good.”

RECAP & REVIEW

This isn’t a review of the Wicked song; however, it could be because both are overwhelming me with the “feels” of friendship, as the kids say these days. With “For Good,” Supergirl returned to its roots, placing a positive message at the forefront and proving that the writers haven’t completely lost sight of their series’ powerful platform, despite their recent wavering. While not a perfect episode, this hour did manage to avoid the problems responsible for the majority of my critique last week. It’s interesting that two consecutive female-driven episodes can be so different from one another, and telling on its own that I have to write “female-driven” in a show literally named after a female superhero. Hopefully, the series continues in this forward direction, for good.

Some of my favorite episodes, and arguably some of Supergirl’s finest stories, have been those in which Kara’s relationships with her friends and family have been the driving force behind her need to save the day and those in which Kara has embodied Supergirl without ever needing to wear the suit. To varying degrees of success, this season keeps trying to say that humanity and compassion make the hero, and I count this episode as a win. “For Good” explored Lena’s humanity and fears, Sam’s humanity and fears, and Kara’s humanity and fears, and although Supergirl only appeared in one scene this episode, her message was the force responsible for Lena seeing the best in herself and Sam opening herself up to accepting support.

Lena Luthor continues to be a fascinating and dynamic addition to this series. I could write a dissertation on Lena, but I’ll try to keep it short-ish. First introduced when someone was trying to kill her, it’s only fitting that her quarterly assassination attempt has turned into a monthly assassination attempt whenever the writers need to bring her character into the spotlight. Keeping Lena teetering on the edge of darkness creates a natural mystery and gives the audience something to invest in and root for (one way or the other), which is the mark of a job well done. But it can only last for so long before it becomes monotonous.

“For Good” seems to have presented a conclusion to Lena’s internal battle with her Luthor genes, being able to own her Luthor side without resorting to evil. With Supergirl’s identity looming, who knows how long this truce with herself will last. Now that they’ve established that Lena’s friends keep her grounded, the only way for Lena to turn to the dark side is for her to lose that sense of security, for Kara to betray her. There hasn’t been much indication yet, so I’m wondering if they would ever dare to explore this arc. One thing that’s odd about the arc Lena took this episode was that her ability to utilize her Luthor side in a positive, manipulative way has always been there, even if she didn’t realize it or accept it. We saw her outsmart her mother in “Medusa” in a plan more devious than demanding a confession. And yet, this one was exalted. But where does her character development go from here?

Edge promised his rivalry with Lena wasn’t over, so there’s the possibility that he’ll knock her back into internal conflict in a repetitive storyline. Or maybe they’ll pull a Maxwell Lord, and we’ll never see him again. If that’s the case, it’s the perfect chance to take advantage of Lena’s awakening and watch her fulfill everything she wants to do. I’m hoping this will propel her back into being a creator of content and technology rather than just an overseer of other people’s work. The series has explored her inventions before, with the alien detection device, black body field generator, transmatter portal, and the lead dispersal device. There’s so much potential with her technology, but I feel like she needs an agenda – a humanitarian endeavor to make concrete or a societal injustice to make right.

As beautifully as the scenes with Sam played out, her storyline this episode sounded more fulfilling than it actually turned out to be as there was no payoff for Sam’s scenes. It feels as if we’re riding through this recent run of episodes on a stationary bike, investing in the journey but not making any progress. However, it wasn’t a total letdown since this episode expanded on the concept of worldkillers not being strictly Kryptonian. We’ve seen Reign not need a yellow sun for powers and shrug off a dose of Kryptonite, and now we’ve learned that her body can fluctuate between human and Kryptonian, vulnerable and bulletproof, when the need arises. In the world of the story, it makes sense for the genetically engineered worldkillers to break the rules we’re used to. It keeps them covert. It gives them the element of surprise. It prolongs their chance of being defeated. It naturally creates tension and investment when the audience knows more than the characters in the scene. It was a smart move at this point in the Legends of SuperFlarrow universe, where I’ve grown tired of a mystery villain wreaking havoc (like on Arrow and The Flash) and having to wait for their identity to be revealed. But the biggest aspect this episode was lacking was a reveal, and Sam’s identity being revealed to her friends would have hit the mark.

Overall, “For Good” was a solid character study, if a little stagnant on the plot front, so let’s dive into the details.

The episode begins with the worldkillers floating in a fiery haze. Kara wakes from this nightmare and heads to the DEO, but they’re no closer to tracking them until J’onn thinks to track them by where they crashed on Earth.

This scene contained a reminder of Winn’s admiration of Superman. While it’s often played for humor, it severely undermines the strength and impact of our title character, especially since she has proven herself to be more powerful than the Man of Steel. We should be fawning over our friends’ accomplishment just as much as, if not more than, those of others. The same problem arises with Zod’s resurrection. It turns Superman’s strength, success, and heroism into a fleeting accomplishment, rather than having him be the final authority on the matter.

Pausing from unknowingly serving justice, Sam visits an L Corp lab with a doctor named Alexandra, not to be confused with another doctor named Alexandra who deserved to find happiness and not have her body ravaged by wolves. Lying on the MRI table, Sam relays the findings of her WebMD search, which indicates that her diagnosis could be bad, like real bad. Or it could be caffeine withdrawal (yikes).

James passes up Lena’s invitation for breakfast for a meeting that Lena invites herself to. Although James loves having her by his side, the staff loses the ability to form coherent thoughts with the big boss around. Morgan Edge soils their stroll with childish insults before hopping into his hacked car, which speeds toward the harbor. Edge jumps out just in time for his car to explode.

Three episodes into James and Lena’s relationship and it hasn’t amounted to much. Based solely on their scenes together this episode, a casual viewer would not even recognize that a romantic pairing is at play. It’s understandable that the co-workers would want to keep things professional when working, but there has been no conversation establishing boundaries or even discussing how to function as a work couple, so these scenes just come across like a mistake on the writers’ part. But at least we’re not back in the dark days of their entire storyline revolving around a kiss.

What was nice about these scenes is that we’re finally seeing James show Lena the ins and outs of CatCo, passing on the knowledge and advice he’s come to understand while running their company in a non-condescending way. If only we were able to see how Lena actually spends her time at CatCo, and what she did day-to-day at L Corp, we’d be able to piece together a more comprehensive picture of her rivalry with Edge. There was already bad blood before she opposed his waterside development and bought CatCo out from under him, so how did it start? His dislike of Lena seemed more personal than just a professional disagreement. Did it involve the other Luthors? I like the contrast between Lena, the wealthy protector of those in need, and Morgan Edge, the greedy and callous capitalist because it plays into the side of free will. Lena has every excuse to be the type of person that Edge is, but she isn’t. I applaud their commentary on personal strength being a driving force in determining morality rather than it being an inescapable product of their situation.

Edge barges into CatCo accusing Lena of attempted murder. James and Kara stand tall beside their friend as Lena defends her honor. Later, Lena worries that this cycle of violence, threats, and incriminations will destroy her like her mother and brother, but Kara and James won’t let that happen.

Good news and bad news. Sam’s MRI looks clean, so Alex will send it to an expert along with a blood sample she has no problem drawing from Sam’s vein. Opening up, Sam explains that she’s been on her own since sixteen, but she’s tired of lying and burdening her co-workers, friends, and daughter. Alex, too, has a history of not letting people in, but Kara forced her to talk about her breakup, and it’s the only way she’s getting through it. Once Sam tells them all, Kara, Lena, and Alex promise to be there for her because that’s what friends are for.

This season, it’s been indescribably gratifying to see scenes between various parings of these four women in which they listen, relay their own life experiences, give advice, and support one another. It’s about time. In season one, all of Kara’s potential female friends, such as Lucy Lane and Siobhan Smythe, were either romantic rivals or business rivals. And her male friends, James and Winn, were romantically interested in her. It’s taken a while, but I’m pleased that el mayarah has finally been put into practive after saying it for two years.

Nothing about the worldkillers follows a pattern that we or the characters recognize, giving the writers leeway to be more creative, to pepper the story with unique, unexpected actions and reveals, but so far, it’s kind of been a mixed bag. Reign shrugging off the Kryptonite necklace and shooting laser beams without a yellow sun produced enough of a surprise to keep things interesting, but the unexplained inconsistencies with her sometimes-bulletproof skin border on eye-rolling convenience. Maybe if we saw her actively controlling her body’s density or her body using it as a defense mechanism, it would make more sense.

Also, what’s going on with Sam’s convenient blind eye? We saw Sam perform an iconic shirt rip to transform into Reign, so it stands to follow that she regularly wears her Reign costume underneath her normal clothes. Does Sam just space out when she’s putting it on in the morning? Is she like a Westworld host incapable of seeing the things that might hurt her? There are currently too many logic gaps in her storyline that I’m hoping will be filled once the other worldkillers come into the fold.

Taking a sip of her afternoon coffee, Lena convulses, collapses, and foams at the mouth. Kara doesn’t bother with a costume change before speeding to the DEO with Lena in her arms. James chases the barista, but a sniper kills the culprit before James catches him.

Alex diagnoses the poison and starts the treatment, but she can’t succeed alone. Kara uses her freeze breath to slow Lena’s circulation, stabilizing her. On the heart-to-heart balcony, J’onn admires Kara for risking her identity to save Lena. Kara promised to always be her friend and always protect her, so it’s what needed to be done. Kara hates waiting for the worldkillers’ next performance, but J’onn reminds her that Supergirl is about more than defeating threats. He says, “There is great power in being the calm at the center of the storm. The beacon to show the way. Supergirl is here to remind us on Earth about what’s best in ourselves. That’s what’s most important. That’s more important than if you ever were to catch another bullet.”

This scene, folks, this scene. Excuse me for a moment while I celebrate the writers remembering the point of this show.

Everyone feels lost at some point in their lives, so it’s understandable that the writers would want to explore that concept with their hero, even going so far as to have her declare that “Kara Danvers was a mistake.” I don’t fault them for that venture into realism, but it’s beautiful to see Kara on the mend. As Supergirl gives hope to the people of National City, she also gives hope for recovery and newfound strength for those who find her message particularly relatable. It’s also impactful that another alien is the one reminding her that her human side does just as much, if not more, good than saving people in danger, because sometimes saving people also means inspiring people to save themselves and others.

Back at CatCo, Lena wakes, remembering a dream in which she didn’t hate flying. Now she’s fired up for a war against Edge. Finding a lead, James discovers that the sniper’s bullet was futuristic vanishing tech. They just have to track the manufacturer. Lena retrieves a file from the L Corp safe that details the Evanesce Project, aka the Dissolving Bullet Project conducted by Lex Luthor. She heads to ThunderCorp Labs and finds her mother running the operation. Lillian wanted to prove her love for Lena by killing her nemesis. Just normal mother-daughter stuff. But Lena can handle this on her own. Lillian disapproves of Lena running a vanity business rather than changing the world at L Corp. When Lena embraces her Luthor genes, she’ll be great. Lena asserts that she’s already great, but she’ll let Lillian take out Edge.

And then I turned into the Kris Jenner meme: “You’re doing amazing, sweetie.” While Lena was far from excited to see her mother, she wasn’t upset either. It almost came as a relief because she knows Lillian. She knows exactly how Lillian thinks and how to outmaneuver her. I am both impressed by and grateful for Lena’s strength and her ability to keep her cool. Someone is trying to kill her, her mother is trying to kill someone, and she’s struggling with her own urge to kill someone, and yet Lena remains as calm as ever. She’s bothered and allows her emotions to bubble beneath the surface, but she’s not sitting around and crying all the time. Take note, world. This is how you write a female character.

This episode would have been a good opportunity for Lillian to reveal who Supergirl is to turn Lena to her side, but perhaps Lillian is saving that knowledge bomb for when she needs Lena’s help with a more complex, nefarious plan. Lillian points out that Lena constantly devalues her own accomplishments, and it begs the question, why, because Lena knows she’s smart and capable of greatness. Perhaps this is a way to distance herself from her accomplishments, especially after the transmatter portal she created with the intent to change the world was turned into a weapon to destroy the world. It would make sense that this guilt and fear of future consequences drove her to step back from L Corp this season.

Lena confides in Kara about the time she tried to kill Edge and her mother being back, but it’s not all bad. Lillian made her realize she’s a Slytherin through and through. Smart cunning, strategic, which Kara knows, having seen Lena’s chess trophies. Lena has an idea of what Lillian is planning, but she needs help to stop her.

Supergirl is doing a fascinating job differentiating the Super-Luthor relationship from that of Smallville. Where Clark and Lex’s friendship is what drove Lex to become “a Luthor” because of all the secrets and lies, Kara’s friendship with Lena is what keeps Lena from becoming “a Luthor.” It’s a relief that we have yet to embark on a storyline where Lena has grown angrily suspicious and accusatory toward Kara. I hope they don’t take this route, because while it’s natural drama (a necessity in television), it’s nothing new. I would like to see more of the friendship between Supergirl and Lena, two characters deeply disillusioned by their parents and atoning for their sins. Later on down the road, it might be interesting to see a rift grow between Supergirl and Lena while retaining the ever-supportive friendship between Kara and Lena.

Crashing a gala with Kara, Lena finds Edge. She gives him the chance to confess in return for his life. Granted he’ll spend the rest of it in prison, but details. A skywriting drone breaks formation and targets Edge, so he confesses. A disappointed Lillian arrives and armors up in the LexoSuit, complete with Kryptonite sword and flying capabilities. With no time to assemble a strike team, Mon-El heads off to distract Lillian in a sky battle while Winn hacks the drones. Supergirl takes on Lillian, allowing Mon-El to turn a hacked drone against Lillian and send her crashing to the ground. Guardian knocks Edge out with his shield. I love that shield.

I’m now realizing we haven’t really seen Lena’s opinion of Guardian, have we? Much less seen the two of them have a meaningful interaction. If she’s not going to figure out Kara’s identity, it would be nice to have one of her friends not lying to her about their alter-ego, and it’d be better if she found out about James at this point instead of going down the all-too-common television path of his lies and disappearances driving a wedge between them. I’m dying to see a Winn-Lena team up in the van while Guardian is out there chasing bad guys. Also, it’s entirely possible I’m just trying to come up with every possible scenario in which Lena joins the DEO crew or crime-fighting business because I think it would give her that sense of purpose she’s seeking the same way it did for Winn.

Did J’onn want to keep Lena in the dark about the DEO because she’s a Luthor or because he’s just trying to protect a super secret government base of operation? Given the fact that he wasn’t initially thrilled that James and Winn were let into the DEO when Kara was under the influence of the black mercy, I’m guessing it’s the later, so maybe Lena can eventually join the DEO crew as well. Speaking of the black mercy, Lex had one hidden away in his vault in “Luthors,” so there’s always the potential that it comes back into play. Can you imagine the team having to resort to using the black mercy against Reign? Or any of the Luthor tech intended to defeat Superman? I feel like black kryptonite would be more likely, but that hasn’t made an appearance yet, so who knows if it exists in this world. In her first episode, Lena stated that she wanted to turn her company into a force for good, and what better demonstrates that than turning Lex’s technology created for a world-dominating purpose into tech used for helping people.

Kara rejoins Lena, who now understands that she’s not a killer because that’s what friends are for. They get each other through the dark times, like Lena did when Kara lost Mon-El. Speaking of, Lena has news, but Kara already knows he’s back and promises to enlighten her.

While it’s a long shot, this could be taken as indication that Kara might be ready to tell Lena her secret. One could hold out hope for such a move of trust between Kara and Lena, a woman who has given Kara, and us, no reason to doubt her. Or we’ll continue the series with Lena Luthor, chess prodigy, outsmarted by a pair of glasses.

The resolution to Lena’s game of chess with Edge wasn’t entirely a dud, but it certainly did not exemplify Lena’s intelligence. Unlike in “Medusa,” Lena’s plan to get Morgan Edge to confess was not proactive and controlling. There was no underhanded scheming, no covert tactic. Her entire plan was laid out up front. With his life on the line as well as hers, I’m sure she had a back up plan, so it would have been more defining of her character if we saw that play out. In addition, the writers continue to have the same problem with Lena this season, telling the audience about Lena’s revelations rather than showing them. She ultimately decided not to kill edge and realized she has a greater potential for good than for evil because her friends are there for her. What would have made this plot point infinitely more impactful would have been showing Kara talking Lena down, talking her off the ledge to remind Lena in the moment what she has to fight for.

At the DEO, Kara bumps into Mon-El, who’s committed to heroism and plans to help out while he’s here, although he didn’t think that two episodes ago. Winn calls them over to assess a lead on the worldkillers. Four people stood out as anomalies when he cross-referenced meteor sites with hospital visits and inexplicable phenomena. Kara points to Julia Freeman, the woman from her dream. She’s Purity.

ODDS AND ENDS:

– Lillian: You know, you really hurt me, Lena. No matter how hard I try to show it, you still doubt my love for you. Do you know of any other mother who would kill for her daughter?
Lena: No, I don’t. That’s probably a good thing for society.
Oh my goodness, the sass, Ms. McGrath.

– Lena: I very well may be a killer.
Kara: You’re not a killer.
Lena: No, not as yet, but I do have the emotional range of Medea.

– Edge: It’s got two pools and a very large hot tub.
Lena: You know, you really should be careful of standing water. It’s usually riddled with disease.
Thank you, Lena, for validating my fear of small, stagnant bodies of water.

– Winn: These were not the drones we’re looking for.
My mind immediately went to, “I don’t need a Star Wars reference, Winn. I need a plan.”

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