The Most Epic Fantasy and Sci-Fi Website

Supergirl "S1E13 For the Girl who Has Everything" - Review: A gift of an episode


Supergirl "S1E13 For the Girl who Has Everything" - Review: A gift of an episode
10 out of 10

In some ways, you have to feel sorry for this episode. No matter how good it may be it’s been trumped before it even airs by the awesome announcement of an upcoming Flash/Supergirl crossover (The Flash will be appearing in Supergirl episode 18, “World’s Finest”).... or has it? Because what starts out as seemingly light and playful alternate reality setup develops into an incredibly dramatic final act that actually makes this the show’s best episode to date! Sure, it will be great to have the Scarlet Speedster in National City but this week, Supergirl reminds why she’ll still be the main attraction.

For the Girl who Has Everything – An alien plant parasite traps Kara in her “black mercy” fantasy of being back on Krypton that only she can chose to end. Meanwhile, Astra and Non take advantage of widespread solar storms to launch their attack and the next phase of Myriad.

Now, the basic alternative reality/fantasy setup is nothing new to the genre: the simple premise of a convincing a hero that their reality was the real dream along. In several cases, it’s even been done extremely well as Supergirl seems fully aware of. As such the episode makes the very smart decision not to pick a straight fight with its predecessors and takes its story in a very different direction. Kara’s fantasy itself actually becomes a very lesser part of the episode as it instead focuses on everyone else around her, both in trying to save her and how they cope without her. That’s not to say the Kryptonian life serial isn’t good as it offers a lot to enjoy. The visuals of a pre-destruction Krypton cityscape are stunning, the reconnection of Kara with her former family is great character fulfilment and we even get our first look at the much talked up young Kal-El/Superman which has plenty of fun to it. Although the most fun sequence of the episode comes from a much more unexpected source. In a wonderful creative play out on Kara’s incapacity, we see a shape-shifted Hank/J’onn impersonating Kara at Catco to stop her getting fired. The result is hilariously brilliant from start to finish and entirely down to some terrific out-of-character work from Melissa Benoist. From mimicking Hank’s stronger, more military physical mannerisms to foolish talking back to Cat and incurring her wrath, “That woman makes me miss my alien prison”. It’s a great showing of Hank coming to appreciate the difficulties of Kara’s day job.

click to enlarge

Bringing together the worlds of Catco and the DEO together becomes a key theme of an episode that make some real changes from a series perspective. Up until now, it’s really been just Kara and occasionally Alex bridging the gap between these two areas of the show, but not only do we see Hank working it at Catco but also James and Winn entering the DEO headquarters. The boys do not just crash the party, but over the course of the events, they are established with purpose. Hank comes to understand their value in Kara’s life as an adopted family, Winn is utilised for his technical skills and James shows he’s willing to do whatever it takes protect Kara (plus his experiences with Superman makes as bigger alien expert as half the DEO). It all lays excellent ground work for future team ups as the show creates infrastructural ties. Hopefully, this will eventually see James and Winn becoming DEO civilian agents setting up greater story possibilities as, like Kara, Catco just becomes their day job cover. There’s also a great deal of progress with giving a show a main villain threat (something it’s notably lacked for several episodes). As Astra and Non return, it’s with purpose and intent as their humanity exterminating scheme, “Myriad”, gets put into motion. It plays well on the sympathetic side to Astra seen in previous episodes. This links well to Kara’s fantasy of her former life as we see that the kinder (less genocidal) side of Astra is still within her somewhere, kept alive by her unbreakable family bond with Kara. Neither is it the only instance of villain side switching. After last week pledged Maxwell Lord as a fully fledged moustache twirling bad guy, it’s really enjoyable to see his character pulled back towards moral ambiguity by helping the DEO this week. Although he’s frequently been an outright villain in the comics, on this show and in the skilled hands of Peter Facinelli, he is always at his best when playing both sides down the middle.

Everything mentioned so far is what makes the episode good. What makes it outstanding is a final acted stuffed to the point of bursting with powerful drama and great action. Staring with Kara’s fantasy, the idea that she must herself chose to leave was always going to create a dilemma and merely placing Alex within it via a Matrix plot device didn’t guarantee success but my God, does Chyler Leigh make it happen. She is utterly heart-wrenching and compelling as she tries to make Kara remember. Then when (spoiler/not spoiler alert) Kara escapes, everything just gets cranked to 11 as Kara fights Non, taking out all of her anger and heartbreak of her experience, “you made me lose them again!”. It evaluates things from their past conflicts as we see Kara pushed to a new degree of drive and rage by the line Non has crossed. This is well-combined as it shows Kara putting aside her longing for her old home and fully embracing her new one, “I may have been born on Krypton but I chose Earth and I will protect it until my last breath!”. The action spreads out well as Astra takes on Alex and J’onn. Yet most importantly of all, due to this being a “turning point” episode, the action and climactic events have major consequences. The alien ranks even imply that a checkmate has already been made despite no apparent devastation which will be really interesting to see as it develops.

Everything this episode is a joy to behold right down to oddly beautiful “chest hugger” plant parasite (like the title, a nod to the episode’s adaptation of the 1985 Alan Moore/Dave Gibbons Superman story) . This is not just the show delivering its best episode, it is the show elevating itself to something greater. Of course, it won’t achieve this success every week but merely knowing that it could is enough to make Supergirl essential viewing.

For more articles like this, take a look at our Anime and Reviews page.