Supergirl: Manhunter Recap

Synopsis: Hank remembers his first encounter with Kara and Alex’s father. Kara debates trusting someone new with her secret identity and Siobhan plots against her.

Rating:★★★★☆

After he was forced to reveal himself in order to stop an out of control, Red Kryptonite-laden Kara last week, Hank is currently being detained by the DEO and the military. Alex is furious and upset, knowing that he’s done nothing wrong, and is mad at him for refusing to escape while he had the chance.

He explains that he doesn’t want to live on the run or abandon Alex, Kara, and his mission to protect Earth. That he’ll do everything he can to exonerate himself through the proper channels, and accept the consequences however it turns out. Through flashbacks, he tells Alex the story of meeting her father, a DEO agent, for the first time. It turns out the real Hank Henshaw was kind of a major dick, and basically everything has been way better since J’onn J’onzz took over his identity, and the DEO.

That isn’t flying with the Marines though. Lucy Lane and Colonel James Harper have returned to town to interrogate the entire DEO about Hank, and cart him off to the mysterious Project Cadmus, where supernatural beings are dissected and studied by the military in an attempt to weaponize their powers, and humans, presumably are just killed.

Humans meaning Alex, who was carted off along with Hank after she refused to pretend she hadn’t known the truth about him like he wanted, even knowing it would brand her a traitor. It was hardcore. Their dynamic is one of the most powerful and endearing on the show, actually, and I’m glad to have an episode that focused on it.

He tells her how her father died to save him, when the real Hank Henshaw tried to kill him, and when they escape from custody together as fugitives, he uses his powers to make James forget what happened, and discovers through his memories, that Jeremiah Danvers is actually still alive, and a prisoner at Project Cadmus. As escaped and wanted prisoners, they can’t go back to the DEO, and they ride off together to rescue him alone. Incidentally, I would watch the crap out of that roadtrip movie, and I hope we get to see some of it next week.

Speaking of their escape, it was orchestrated (beautifully) by Kara and Lucy Lane, after Kara was forced to reveal her identity to her in order to convince her to help. Which they do, on motorcycles. It was amazing. Lucy was upset and reluctant to find out the truth, but she came around in a big way, and, with Hank and now James out of the picture, she and Kara are pretty much running the DEO in tandem.

This is honestly the best possible outcome. I’m thrilled that Lucy’s character has been written in such a way that, even as a rival love interest, she’s always been so, so much more than that. And when it looked like they were going to write her out of the show to make space for Kara and James, they turned around and immediately brought her back in an even bigger capacity – without making her any kind of antagonist. When has that EVER happened, let alone with a female character, on TV? I can’t think of even one example.

Despite their jealously and rivalry – in more ways than one – Kara and Lucy like each other. Respect each other. And have become a team out of necessity and implicit trust. I’m over the moon.

Meanwhile, at CatCo, Cat and Winn catch Siobhan sending horrible emails to Cat, pretending to be Kara, in hopes of getting Kara fired. Pissed at being foiled and humiliated by Cat, she’s getting very drunk on the roof, from which she accidentally falls, and stops her own terminal descent… with Wind Superpowers. It seems like having them was news to her, but it also happened right in front of Winn, for no real narrative reason. And we know how cunning Siobhan is – so it could be the long con on poor Winn. Regardless, I smell supervillian origin story.

Supergirl is also about to cross over with The Flash, so don’t touch that dial, kids.