Supergirl Recap: “Bizarro” and Cat Grant-isms of the Week

SUPERGIRL RECAP – EPISODE TWELVE: “BIZARRO”

This week, we finally learn the identity and purpose of Maxwell Lord’s Supergirl look-a-like, while Kara struggles to date a normal guy who doesn’t know her secret, Adam Foster. Meanwhile, Alex is determined to do anything to protect her family, while Winn, stepping back into the role of Kara’s best friend (sigh), offers Jimmy some much-needed advice. There’s a lot happening this week, so let’s dive into Episode Twelve: “Bizarro!”

WELL, THAT’S BIZARRO…

We open with a flashback from three months ago. It highlights Maxwell Lord walking into his secret lab and going up to the doctor and the Jane Doe from a few episodes ago. In the lab, they are clearly testing a new solution and as it’s pumped into Jane Doe’s body, she begins to convulse. However, she survives. Maxwell seems to be very relieved, causing me to wonder, how many Jane Does have died on that table? Opening her now solid black eyes, it is clear that she is something new.

Jump ahead to “Yesterday,” and we see what this Jane Doe must have seen: Maxwell Lord with pride in his eyes. He calls the girl, who now looks exactly like Kara, his greatest creation, and proof that humans don’t need aliens. Given that he has just created a Supergirl look-a-like, he might be jumping the gun on that one, just a touch.

Watching the footage from the end of the last episode and trying to figure out what on earth that Supergirl could be, Hank and Alex count out an alien shapeshifter and cloning (as a clone would still be growing). When asked about Maxwell Lord, Hank points out that Maxwell just thinks he’s a god, he can’t actually reanimate a basically dead woman and give her superpowers.

Back at CatCo, Kara seems to have decided that Winn has had enough time and tells him that, after a meeting with Cat, she needs his help in their secret office. At first, he claims to not be interested, but when Kara confesses that she wasn’t the Supergirl who threw a truck, he admits that he is. So, now Kara and Winn are best friends again (to me, this is great for the story because I’ve missed Winn, but I am sad for Winn).

In the office space converted into headquarters for Team Supergirl, Kara expresses concern and confusion to Jimmy and Winn about both Cat’s friendly behavior and her own mysterious double flying around. They tell her to enjoy the new Cat while it lasts and that they’ll help her figure out the situation with her double.

With the team reunited, they set off to find the identity of the other Supergirl, operating under the idea that Maxwell Lord and the woman in his lab are somehow involved. When Kara tells him to look for Jane Doe patients that have gone missing with her body type, Winn discovers that seven women have been sent to a corporation called Prometheus Genetics, a company owned by Maxwell Lord. The team realizes that seven girls mean that seven women probably died to create this Supergirl look-a-like, and that makes Kara very angry.

Meanwhile, Maxwell’s Supergirl is watching videos of the real Supergirl and being given what seems like shock therapy to associate pain with Supergirl. Maxwell comes in and asks her about what she is watching, to which Supergirl Two says that Supergirl is bad. He asks her who is there to protect the planet, and she says that she is, not Supergirl. When asked what good guys like her should do to bad people like Supergirl, she says that she should kill them. This does not bode well for Supergirl.

When Kara rushes to the fallen tramway (see below for more details), she is met by an unexpected sight. Faced with her counterpart, Kara tries to find out if the other Supergirl is okay, but is greeted with a solemn proclamation of “We Kill Supergirl” and a fight.

Kara realizes that this Supergirl has got powers, can fly like her and also fights like her. She is confused and unsure of why this hero wants to kill her. In the midst of the fight, the tramway car breaks loose and Kara chooses to go after it, rather than finish the fight. This appears to cause some confusion for the other Supergirl, who is confronted with the fact that Supergirl is not evil.

At the DEO Headquarters, Hank and Alex realize that if the other Supergirl is a copy of Kara, somehow, they can take her out with kryptonite. Determined to subdue her somehow, Hank begins preparation to take her out.

Meanwhile, at Lord Technologies, Maxwell repairs the damage done to Bizarro, as Cat has christened her, and reminds her that she is supposed to kill Supergirl. Bizarro tells him that she saw Supergirl do good, and is now confused. He tells her that since they share DNA, she wants to see the best in Supergirl, but then asks who she loves and trusts, him or Supergirl (she chooses him, her creator).

This episode proved to me that I want more back story on Maxwell Lord. He told Bizarro that things that seem good can be really bad, which makes me wonder how he was burned in the past. He does seem protective of his new protégée, teaching her lessons that he probably took a lifetime to learn and considers important.

After her meeting with Maxwell (see the third plot thread for more details!), Alex updates Hank and Kara  on what she has learned, and they prepare to take down Bizarro. Kara is convinced that Bizarro is the victim (fair enough) and that Max needs to be arrested (also a fair point), but Hank points out that arresting him is beyond the DEO’s reach.

Alex tells Kara that she thinks Max knows they’re related, but Kara thinks he’s bluffing. In the hullabaloo of a  crazy clone who’s trying to kill her, Kara is going to cancel her date with Adam. Alex convinces her to go anyway because she needs some normal in her life. Although the date was going well, in the middle of it Bizarro appears, scooping up Kara and trying, again, to kill her.

After the DEO team hits Bizarro with kryptonite, they make an unfortunate discovery: Bizarro is Kara’s opposite, so the kryptonite makes her stronger, not weaker while also degenerating her. Kara and Alex are also concerned because they realize that Bizarro, and, therefore, Max, know Supergirl’s secret identity. Kara is pretty mad at Alex because she warned her to be careful and not underestimate him.

Now, Max knows everything about them, and they still can’t stop him. On the other hand, the Kara/Bizarro fight helped the DEO to figure out that Bizarro is Kara’s opposite, so by making a solution that is the opposite of kryptonite, they should be able to knock her out. So, they begin to create the compound that should neutralize Bizarro.

When Kara goes to rescue Jimmy from Bizarro’s clutches (she was using him as bait to lure Supergirl into her trap – see below), Alex is there with the solution. Despite her reluctance to fire and accidentally hit her sister, Kara tells her to take the shot. Alex does not miss.

The DEO takes Bizarro into custody and they decide to put her to sleep until they can heal her. She and Kara apologize to each other, and Kara promises to stay with her. Kara comforts her as Bizarro falls back asleep, leaving Kara, Alex and Hank furious at Maxwell Lord and what he’s done.

KARA CAN’T HAVE NICE THINGS

For most of the episode, Cat is in what appears to be a wonderful mood, picking up her own coffee and grabbing one for Kara as well. Winn, sitting there and observing the whole thing, seems just as confused as Kara by the whole situation.

In a meeting to decide what angle to take on the new Supergirl, the one who threw a car and actually destroyed something (rather than her usual do-no-harm attitude), Cat is unsatisfied with any of her staff’s headline ideas, until she hears Kara mumble under her breath that maybe this character isn’t actually Supergirl.

When Kara elaborates that it might be someone trying to discredit Supergirl, Cat loves the idea and begins thinking of ways to spin the situation in support of Supergirl. She seems to be very pleased and friendly toward Kara, and when everyone else has left, Kara suddenly wonders if this has to do with her upcoming date with Cat’s son Adam. When she asks Cat about it, however, Cat feigns surprise that the date is still happening.

While working with Jimmy and Winn to discover what Maxwell Lord is up to, Kara gets a text from Adam about their date. This makes her blush and her friends, being the smart young men that they are pick up on it. Kara tries to deny it, but with Jimmy being a reporter and Winn being her best friend, they get the truth out of her. Jimmy seems a bit too upset for someone in a committed relationship with someone else.

Despite her friend’s reactions, Kara goes on her date with Adam and seems to be having a really great time. He tells her that she’s made a huge impact on his life and that he wishes he could do that for her too. Sadly, the night is cut short when a local tramway somehow breaks and is preparing to plummet into the water.

As Supergirl, Kara has to go and makes a really terrible excuse to Adam about her grandmother. This leaves him concerned about what he might have done wrong and reminds us that it would be difficult for Kara to date someone who didn’t know her secret identity.

The next morning at CatCo, Adam is frantically asking his mother if he scared Kara off, to which she says that Kara is just a little skittish. Whatever else is happening in the episode, it is nice to see Cat and Adam continue to bond and reestablish their relationship. Cat as a doting mother is another wonderful layer to her character.

Of course, what with the whole doppelganger thing, Kara forgot to call Adam back, so she gladly accepts his dinner date for that night, as a way to make it up to him. It’s clear that she likes him, but it’s unclear how it’s going to work out. Cue the awkward hug.

Cat notices and, while making a wonderful comment that is one of the Cat Grant-isms of the week also names the other Supergirl, Bizarro. Thank goodness we now have a name for her!

As Kara is on her date with Adam, Jimmy stops by Winn’s desk with some whiskey so they can drown their sorrow. Winn pretends to be confused and reminds Jimmy that while he is permanently stuck in the friend-zone, Jimmy could get out at any time. When Jimmy mentions his girlfriend, Winn tells him that no one wants to date someone who wants to be with someone else.

Kara and Adam have a wonderful date, where she finds herself telling him a bit about losing her family (without mentioning the alien thing), and it seems like they really gel together well. She opens up to him and their kiss is adorable. I didn’t want to like them together, but I do (plus, he’s played by Melissa Benoit’s real-life husband Blake Jenner, so that adds to the cute-factor).

Unfortunately, Bizarro swoops in and carries Kara off, ruining the moment and, I think, raising doubts in the back of Kara’s mind about whether or not she can have a normal relationship.  The next day, we learn that Adam and Cat were super concerned about Kara and that Cat put out an amber alert.

Kara is concerned for Adam, however, and feels like she has to break up with him. Being Kara, she tries to break up with him in the “it’s not you, it’s me,” way and he reminds her that, despite what she’s been through, not everyone will leave her. When the breakup is final, it’s clear that she’s pretty torn up about it, so I’m hoping we haven’t seen the last of him.

Meanwhile, Max and Bizarro are angry, and decide that they should take someone Kara loves as punishment for what she has done to her. At the same time, Kara is on the balcony after breaking up with Adam and trying to sort through her emotions. When Jimmy finds her, he clearly wants to help, but Kara just as clearly wants to be left alone.

When he hears someone land on the balcony shortly after, Jimmy assumes it is Kara. However, it turns out that he’s the person Bizarro knows Kara loves. Honestly, I did not expect that one. I was expecting Alex or Adam to be the person Bizarro grabbed, but that’s just me.

During his capture, Jimmy admits to Bizarro that he loves Kara, not just because she’s Supergirl, but because of how beautiful she is on the inside. While telling Bizarro that she can be beautiful too and that she has good in her, Jimmy is trying to get to his watch that calls Supergirl when Bizarro realizes this and tries to kill him.  Kara and Alex arrive to save the day, however.

Cat, meanwhile, knowing that Kara broke her son’s heart, tells Kara that they should go back to an employer/employee relationship. She tells Kara that to build a life, you need to put other people first, something she thought Kara understood. Ignoring Kara’s attempts to explain the situation, Cat tells her that she and Kara are more alike than she thought.

With that, the soft and fuzzy Cat Grant is no more. Leaving work, Jimmy turns down an offer to grab drinks with Kara because he has to pick up Lucy. However, viewers still get the sense that something has changed with Kara and Jimmy, but we’re not sure what.

NOBODY PUTS A DANVERS IN A CORNER

About 20 minutes into the episode, Maxwell finds an irate Alex Danvers in his office. She tells him that she knows what he’s done, and while he doesn’t confess (per se), he tells her how someone might, hypothetically, have done what happened. It turns out that he got some of Supergirl’s DNA from when she fought Red Tornado, replicated it, and flooded the systems of brain-dead women until one survived, kind of cloning Supergirl.

In his mind, he was offering these women another chance at life while furthering humanity in the fight against aliens by giving them a human champion. When Alex is still angry, he mentions that she’s pretty upset considering Supergirl is just her work friend and offers some thinly veiled threats against Supergirl.

Later, when Alex learns that Max knows Supergirl’s secret identity, she goes to arrest him. When he also tells her that if she pushes him, he’ll not only reveal Kara’s secret identity, he’ll go after their mother, Alex calmly incarcerates the arrogant billionaire genius. Hank is not amused, telling Alex that people will notice and that she’s put the entire operation at risk. Alex informs Hank that Max threatened her family, and she’ll protect her family over the DEO any day.

Later, we see Kara confronting Max, who is housed in the same cell used for Astra earlier in the season. Kara tells him that she’s onto him and he will never hurt anyone again.  He counters by mentioning her adopted mother, leveling threats against the people Kara loves most.

Kara is about to blast him with her laser vision, but Alex brings her sister away just in time. It’s clear that for the Danvers sisters, family is the most important thing. Despite having poked a bear, Max doesn’t seem to be too concerned. I look forward to seeing what happens with this situation next week.

When she gets home, Kara is confronted by a strange alien creature in her apartment, one she discovers after seeing mysterious green goo on her coffee table and touching it. Why would you touch it, Supergirl?! Next week, I assume we’ll learn more about the goo, and the alien that comes with it.

NEW FACES

This week, we met Bizarro, the clone/alternate Supergirl created by Maxwell Lord. First off, in DC Lore, this character is actually called Bizarro-Girl, because there is another character named Bizarro who is constantly in conflict with Superman. He was created by Lex Luthor in the same way that Maxwell Lord has created Bizarro-Girl, to be a clone that ended up an opposite. All the Bizarros live on Bizarro World, which is an alternative planet.

When it comes to Bizarro-Girl, in DC Lore she is actually an alien herself. Bizarro-Girl’s planet of origin is Bizarro World or Htrae, the planet Bizarro goes to. Since Supergirl’s Bizarro seems to have more in common with Bizarro than Bizarro-Girl, she might be appearing again as more of a gray character, since Bizarro sometimes works with Superman (and sometimes against him).

FINAL THOUGHTS?

I honestly think that this show just keeps getting better and better. It’s got a good groove and sense of itself, and this fantastic episode was a good example of that. I like how the stories all tie together without seeming too obvious, despite the fact that it feels like Astra and Non kind of dropped out of the story (though they did get a brief mention this week).

I was glad to see that Winn and Kara are friends again though I was a little disappointed in the big “Kara loves Jimmy” reveal and thought that there should have been a bit more with Adam Foster; that storyline left a lot of loose threads that I hope they go back and tie up.

Happy Cat is a delight because she’s just as snarky and mean as ever, but with a smile on her face. The interactions between Maxwell Lord and anyone are amazing, but I especially enjoy watching him go head to head with Alex Danvers. I think it’s because she won’t take any nonsense from him, and he isn’t afraid of her.

It raised a ton of questions, but overall it was a solid episode. Like I said, there were a few weird things that I hope they go back and address, but some of those things, like what will happen with Maxwell and Bizarro, will keep.

CAT GRANT-ISMS

In many shows, there is one character who always says the funniest things. For Supergirl, I think that Cat Grant is that character. So, here are my favorite things that Cat said during the episode:

“Keera, you are like a character from a Jane Austen novel. Bizarro.”

“Oh, well, I guess I’ll go roam the halls of my building.”

This week we got a great Winn-ism: “Dude, look, I have been stuck in the friend-zone so long I’m just thinking about buying some investment property here.”

What did you think of “Bizarro?” What are your thoughts on Maxwell Lord?

Did Kara make the right choice with Adam?

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