'Supergirl' Recap: 'The Martian Chronicles'

Written by John Edward Betancourt

THIS IS THE EMERGENCY SPOILER ALERT SYSTEM...YOU ARE ADVISED TO READ AT YOUR OWN RISK...

I have to admit, that for the first time ever, I was nervous and hesitant to tune into an episode of Supergirl following last week's sub par and off the wall episode. Part of me was seriously concerned that we were about to slide down a slippery slope filled with more bizarre character decisions and throwaway plot lines.  Thankfully though, the show didn't continue down this strange new path last night, since 'The Martian Chronicles' instead delivered a tense and fun little episode that found a way to repair and recover some of the damage that was done to some of the fundamentals of the series as well. 

The show accomplished this, by finding a way to reunite the team, to the best of its abilities anyways by bringing a common foe back into the mix, the White Martians. M'gann made mention of the fact that her people had discovered her location at the end of last week's episode and they wasted no time in coming to earth, making their presence known in the most violent way possible, and in order to get to M'gann and bring her back to Mars to face trial for her crimes against her own people, they used her own friends against her and holy cow, that's when things got interesting and tense because we spent a good majority of the episode locked within the DEO...

Because the Martians saw an opportunity to disguise themselves as some of the characters we know and love and that's where the tension came into play since we spent a good chunk of the story playing 'Who's a White Martian?' and well, this was definitely my favorite part of the night because the series decided to take a page from a horror classic, paying a wonderful homage to 1982's The Thing, even going so far as to recreate a scene from the film where they use fire to figure out who is actually a White Martian and that led to some awesome action and adventure where the team was forced to work together once again in order to defeat these powerful beings. But while the gang was able to beat the White Martians and find a sense of unity after losing it last week, the show still needed to find a way to set Kara back on the right path since she was so angry and divisive in the last episode.

I want to say that it was successful in doing that, but well, considering the fact that a true hero and beacon of hope acted like an angry child toward her friends for no good reason makes for a lot of damage to undo and the show more or less justified her behavior by exposing her anger and fury to be related to fear, specifically in this case, the fear of being alone. Yes, it would seem that Kara is fully aware of the fact that her family and friends are growing and evolving into new phases of their lives and she's terrified that they will at some point abandon her for something new. Is it a perfect way to justify her behavior? It is not. However, the show is trying to set things right because it seems as though someone behind the scenes knows they made a mistake and effort is a good place to start, and well...I will give the writers credit in the respect that we all find ourselves worried about such matters from time to time because the people we truly love mean the world to us, and not having them around sucks. 

So if anything this episode was a step in the right direction, and I'm glad for that. The last thing Supergirl needs to become as a series is an angst driven superhero show, not when it has spent a year and a half putting out positive messages and positive vibes toward the audience by way of an intelligent and solid female lead, so I certainly hope this path of repair continues as the weeks progress so we can get back to incredible adventures with a hero that inspires all of us, and hopefully Supergirl gets a worthy foe soon as well. I've said it before and I'll say it again, this show is at its best when there's a giant threat on the horizon, so the team has something to rally behind and the quicker that baddie gets here, the better. Until next time.

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