"Supergirl" Recap: "Livewire"

Written by John Edward Betancourt

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

One of the grand benefits of having a top tier DC Comics SuperHero grace our television screens every single week is the sheer fact that some of the most iconic villains from DC have the opportunity to show up and one of the more "modern classic" baddies if you will from the DC Animated Universe managed to pop up last night on Supergirl.

It was Livewire that graced our presence this week on the show and her appearance/origin story was nothing short than a classic comic book tale come to life as we were introduced to Leslie Willis, a National City shock jock who felt the need to insult and rip Supergirl to pieces on the airwaves as often as possible, garnering the ire of the powerful Cat Grant as she banishes Leslie to doing nothing more than mere traffic reports until she decides to clean up her act.  

That's when things get interesting since a storm puts Leslie's traffic helicopter in jeopardy and in the process of saving her, Kara is slammed by a lightening bolt that transfers from her body to Leslie's, putting the shock jock into a coma and when she emerges from it...she is transformed into Livewire and both Cat Grant and Supergirl have to work together to find a way to bring down this new ruthless villain and well...this was hands down the best episode of season one to date. It's clear the show is finding its stride at this point and at last our characters are starting to grow, especially Cat since this experience appears to have changed her fundamentally.

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Gone is her disdain for Supergirl for starters, but more importantly, she was able to recognize the folly of her work ethic and how she treats others, taking responsibility for the monster that Livewire became. It was a wonderful performance on Calista Flockhart's part, since up to this point she has been a tad one dimensional and I love the fact that she came to an epiphany that her attitude and her desire to stick with the hot story may have caused more harm than good. But, the centerpiece of the night revolved around the Department of Extra-Normal Operations and the questions that are now in my mind about Hank Henshaw and his purpose on the show. 

We learned last night that Hank came to the Danvers home years ago demanding Kara be handed over and rather than let that happen, Jeremiah went to work for the organization to keep his adopted daughter safe. Now, an interesting theory has been posed to me by way of our very own Daniel and he makes a good one. I've been of the assumption that Hank is the Cyborg, a villain known for horrible things in the DC Universe but Dan has made mention of the fact that he could actually be...Martian Manhunter. The fact that he can shape shift, and is in tune with computers are all attributes of this character but the matter at hand is whether or not he is friend or foe and well...I think he is here to help, it's more a matter of, I think he understands what threats are coming earth's way and he will do whatever it takes to make sure the greater good is protected. Either way, time will tell. 

But, despite all the awesome that we were privy to this week, there is one thing that the show keeps doing that is starting to get under my skin, the whole "we have to protect Kara" routine. Look, we get it, the people close to her care for her so much, so stop treating her as though she is a mere mortal who happened upon these powers by accident. She's Superman's freaking cousin, and I think four episodes in we can see she can handle herself. It just seems like a cop out plot point to create character conflict rather than advance the story and I can't wait for it to be over because everything else in this episode, Livewire, the DEO/Henshaw plot was so much stronger. But in the end, it's a minor complaint because I am still thoroughly enjoying this show. 

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