With Lex on the loose, Supergirl teams up with Alex and Lena to uncover his and Eve’s next move. Meanwhile, J’onn seeks guidance from his father about the person he’s meant to be. Here is a review of the Supergirl episode “All About Eve.”

REVIEW:

In a season focusing on the human threat against aliens, it’s only appropriate to introduce the most iconic alien-hater around: Lex Luthor. Even though I’d rather the series carve out Supergirl’s own stories apart from her cousin, the introduction of the bald baddie has certainly made the story personal for all of the characters, and Supergirl is at its best when things get personal. The theme of identity, both innate and forged, grounded “All About Eve” in a relatable way that also allowed the characters to move past previously held erroneous beliefs.

Before Lex even appeared on the series, Supergirl succeeded in establishing his relationship with the other members of his family, so much so, that “O Brother, Where Art Thou?” didn’t really feel like his first appearance. Jon Cryer has seamlessly fallen into the role of an eccentric, occasionally unhinged madman capable of concealing his true intentions to further his agenda. While it’s not necessarily an original take on a classic character, it is the take that works best in this narrative. His intelligence is on par with Lena’s, but his morality is far from hers, creating a fascinating game of live action chess. It’s forcing Lena to use the intelligence she more often speaks about than demonstrates and giving her that extra drive of wanting to succeed.

At this point in the season, Agent Liberty is starting to grow repetitive and losing my interest, so it’s rejuvenating to bring in a new bigger bad. Instead of Lex’s introduction feeling isolated, like Red Daughter’s appearances have felt for the better part of the season, his ties to both Agent Liberty and Red Daughter bring everything together. If only it didn’t take this long to do so. Red Daughter has been more endearing than expected, so I’m excited and intrigued to see more of what she’s capable of and what makes her a unique asset because it feels like we’ve already done the imposter bit with Bizarro and also had to regain the public’s trust after Supergirl got infected with Red K.

The main benefit of feeling Lex’s presence before his physical appearance has been allowing the story to become less about setting up his character and his agenda and more about how those around him are taking to his reemergence. Most notably, it has brought Supergirl and Lena back together after last season’s overblown dispute. Supergirl stands for hope, she inspires people, and yet, she was willing to ignore all the good that Lena could do out of fear for the possibility of bad that others could do, so her reasoning never felt consistent to her character. Plus, if a rift can be fixed with this quick and easy of an apology, it probably should not happened in the first place.

With Supergirl taken out of the DEO, her storylines as of late have been underwhelming and unemotional. It’s caused her to act and feel more alone than ever before, so this Supergirl, Alex, Lena team up was a breath of fresh air. Kara’s female friendships are something that the show struggles with, especially now with Alex not being privy to her alien superpowers, so it’s nice to see steps taken to build back up Kara and Supergirl’s all-around support system and allow her to connect more frequently with the people she’s trying to save. Alex’s memory wipe has not panned out to much of anything except for cutting out a lot of the Danvers sisters love. Hopefully, this one takes less time to course correct than Supergirl and Lena’s fight.

It seems we’ve finally reached a point in the series where there can be Luthor family drama without the redundantly added tease that Lena might turn to the dark side. To have her brother reaffirm that she is not like him, that she will always fall into the light, should cement her on the side of good, but this series loves teasing her turn, so I guess we’ll just have to see how long this lasts. One of the best and most impressive aspects of Lena’s character is how she’s forged her own identity in the middle of a family and of a country that wants to create it for her. Her scenes with Lillian this episode and Lex in “O Brother, Where Art Thou?” did well to highlight the contrast between their two mindsets and how firmly Lena is rooted in her sea of good. It feels like a victory for everyone trying to make a name for themselves outside of their family.

David Harewood gave an emotional performance this episode, highlighting how underused he has been. While I enjoyed the idea of seeing J’onn as a man of peace, as a private detective and average citizen, these storylines never really came to fruition in a way that made a memorable impact. What I loved about his storyline this episode was how universally relatable that feeling of being lost is. Having to figure out or refigure out who you are is not an event isolated to your tween or teen years. It can strike at any moment, even for an alien who’s been around for hundreds of years. It reminds us that there is both human and superhuman in all of us.

ODDS AND ENDS:

– Alex’s memory wipe has not panned out to much of anything except for cutting out a lot of the Danvers sisters love. Hopefully, this one takes less time to course correct than Supergirl and Lena’s fight.

– Does James understand the side effects he’s experiencing as a result of the serum? Did Lena sit him down and explain how she saved him? Or did she just inject him and then run off with Supergirl to save the day?

– M’yrnn: I said I wished for you to promote peace, but I never intended for you to become me. I meant only that you should help the world in whatever state is true to you.