'Supergirl' Recap: 'Alex'

Written by John Edward Betancourt

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

While superhero stories often supply us with an endless amount of 'oohs' and 'ahhs' when it comes  to the thrilling acts that our favorite heroes perform, there is a dark side to their incredible adventures that isn't always addressed...the fact that sometimes, the hero in question, cannot save everybody.

Sometimes they are a moment too late, or meet a villain that knows how to beat their abilities and someone potentially loses their life or great harm is caused, and while this kind of darker storytelling is readily explored in comic books themselves, you often don't see such matters discussed on television, that is until last night. Because as it turns out Supergirl, a television show that is never one to shy away from challenging storylines, took such matters in hand and the end result of doing so made for a powerful and intense episode that left Kara working to save someone supremely important to her...Alex. 

Yes, her beloved sister was kidnapped by an unknown assailant who quickly made contact with Kara to share his demands. He wanted Supergirl to break a man named Peter Thompson out of prison in the next thirty-six hours, or Alex would die and this mystery man knew that Kara could help him because...he was fully aware of her true identity as Supergirl. This of course led to a frenetic hunt for Alex, which eventually turned up her kidnapper, and as it turns out, the man responsible for Alex's disappearance just so happened to be a childhood friend from Midvale named Rick Malverne and he was able to put two and two together when it came to Kara's powers and he planned to use that knowledge to his advantage, to get Supergirl to do his bidding.

In fact, Malverne's plan and push to bend Supergirl to his will is what made this episode so fascinating to watch simply because, he in essence robbed Kara of her powers. It didn't matter how fast she could fly or what her X-ray vision could see, Rick planned for all of it and was ready for anything and everything that the DEO threw at him, leaving Kara helpless for the first time ever and that was quite the adjustment for her. A hero that is always used to getting the job done is forced to sit back and potentially watch her sister die and well, it was a stroke of genius to go in this direction. It allowed for Melissa Benoist to truly shine in her role and she was complimented nicely by Floriana Lima's performance as a desperate Maggie Sawyer who thankfully helped facilitate Alex's safety by being pushed to the edge.

In the end however, credit is due to the writer's room for making this one quite the intense tale. There was a real sense of danger when it came to Alex's predicament and it was incredible and terrifying to see a problem in front of Supergirl that she simply couldn't solve and those elements were so strong, they vastly overshadowed the B story this week wherein Lena discovered Queen Rhea's true identity and made a deal with her regardless, setting in motion all kinds of trouble, but in the here and now, we can all be thankful that Alex is safe and that Maggie and Kara have a new understanding for one another and I do hope Supergirl continues to push the envelope like this, because this episode was one impressive one off storyline. Until next time.

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