In the ‘Supergirl’ recap, Kara faces off with a mind altering super villain, Lena takes over at CatCo and Samantha’s daughter is determined to prove her mom has superpowers….
By Damon Martin — Editor/Lead Writer
There’s no doubt that Supergirl is one of the strongest people on Earth but what happens when she goes up against a villain who attacks her mind rather than her muscles?
That’s what the latest episode of ‘Supergirl’ poses as Kara faces off with a new villain in National City named Psi, who has the ability to attack the fear center in the brain and that’s one enemy no amount of power gained from Earth’s yellow sun can help fend off.
Meanwhile, Lena Luthor takes over at CatCo as her new full time job and immediately runs into a few issues with her friend/employee Kara not to mention clashing with James Olsen, who has been the one running the place for the last year while Cat Grant was missing in action.
And Samantha Arias pops back up again this week — she’s the one who eventually transforms into a Worldkiller known as ‘Reign’ — but for now she’s a single mom whose daughter is convinced that she has super powers after saving her from a collapsed tower during last week’s attack on the waterfront in National City.
With that said, let’s recap the latest episode of ‘Supergirl’ titled ‘Triggers’…
Face Your Fears
A new day dawns in National City with everybody getting ready for whatever will face them.
For Kara Danvers, she heads back into work at CatCo. with a new boss in charge as Lena Luthor arrives after purchasing the company to prevent real estate tycoon Morgan Edge from swooping in and doing the same. Lena plans on being a very hands on boss, which means spending every day at CatCo. after making some arrangements at L-Corp that will give her all the free time she needs to devote to this new business.
That’s not exactly music to James Olsen’s ears as he’s been running the place for the past year and Lena didn’t even bother to inform him that she was starting today. To make matters worse, Lena did send a text to her bestie Kara to let her know about the transition.
Of course, Lena’s first day is off to a rough start when she asks Kara to complete a task but she has to race off to be Supergirl but her boss doesn’t know that secret quite yet.
When Kara arrives at the DEO, she’s briefed about a bank robbery where the perpetrator marched in and out without any show of force, but she left the guards and the bank staff trembling after her exit.
As another silent alarm gets tripped in town, Kara races off to stop the bank robber but when she arrives, Supergirl is confronted by a woman with a handful of cash and not a single weapon in either hand. Instead this villain just looks down Supergirl and a moment later she’s washed over by a feeling of immense dread. The criminal is able to slip away as Supergirl is left uneasy by the encounter.
Back at the DEO, Winn has been able to figure out the bank robber’s identity as Gayle Marsh, a woman with mind altering abilities dubbed ‘Psi’ after taking out several local branches in her hometown before going onto bigger and richer prey in National City. As a third bank is getting robbed, Supergirl races off to save the day, determined to stop this criminal before she can get inside her head again.
While Supergirl is able to get the upper hand at first, Psi still applies her mental magic and before long the Kryptonian is locked inside her own mind, trapped with her worst fears. In Kara’s head, she’s replaying the day she left home as her mother put her in a pod bound for Earth. A sense of loneliness washes over Kara and she’s paralyzed with fear as Psi gets away once again. Even J’onn’s mental mind powers aren’t enough to slow Psi down so the team knows they’ve got a serious problem on their hands.
Women in Power
At CatCo., Lena is still letting her presence be known but it’s rubbing James the wrong way as she begins scheduling meetings with each department without even bothering to let him know.
To compound the problems at work, Kara is still barely there and lashing out when Lena tries to suggest taking some additional time off after Mon-El’s exit from Earth. That forces Lena to switch from friend into boss mode as she lets Kara know that her behavior will not be tolerated and she either needs to commit herself to work or start looking for a new job.
Kara finally concedes to her assignment when she gets an alert about another bank being robbed but as she gets into the elevator, she begins having a full blown panic attack and it forces her to burst out of the building as she transforms into Supergirl.
Back at the DEO, Kara confides in Winn about her paralyzing fears when facing off with Psi and how she needs to conquer this villain on her own. Unfortunately this latest attack wasn’t part of that crippling fear but instead Kara just experienced a very human panic attack. It doesn’t help matters much that Kara won’t tell anybody else what’s happening, but Alex eventually forces the truth from Winn so she can help her sister face these fears.
Meanwhile, Samantha Arias is just about to start a new job but she’s having some problems at home with her daughter Ruby convinced she has superpowers after the waterfront event during last week’s episode. Ruby can’t believe that her mom could lift that fallen tower off her, even with the excuse of adrenaline coursing through her veins at the time when she rushed in to save her daughter.
Ruby is so convinced that she ends up punching a classmate in the face at school after the girl argues that Samantha isn’t some kind of super-powered being.
At home later that night, Samantha tries to comfort her daughter with some of their favorite pizza but she’s nowhere to be found. Instead, Ruby has gone off the pizza parlor by herself when her meal is interrupted as Psi appears nearby to rob an armored truck just as the cops arrive.
Psi begins her attacks on the guards and law enforcement before turning her powers to a crane operator, who releases a giant wrecking ball that comes swinging at everybody down on the street as well as all the nearby buildings. Ruby quickly tests her mom the location and asks her to come save the day.
Mind Over Matter
Supergirl is ready for one more try to take down Psi, but this time she comes armed with a weapon that Winn built that he believes will shut down her psychic abilities. Unfortunately when Supergirl arrives, the weapon doesn’t work and Psi once again attacks her mind along with a burst of telekinetic energy that sends her flying halfway across town.
That’s when Alex shows up to save her sister as Kara’s mind is once again being attacked by her worst fears. It turns out, Kara’s not revisiting the day she left Krypton but instead she keeps seeing visions of Mon-El being shot out into space and she’s now convinced that he’s dead and will never return. Alex is able to talk her sister back down again by telling her that she saved Mon-El by sending him into space and there’s nothing to prove that he’s not alive and well.
Supergirl snaps out of her fright filled funk and rushes back to the scene of the crime where the wrecking ball is just about to smash through little Ruby, whose mother has arrived but no super powers have followed with her. Instead, Supergirl saves them before turning her attention to Psi.
This time around, Psi’s powers don’t work and Supergirl quickly dispatches her with one shot that renders her unconscious. Supergirl faced her worst fears and realized that she’s only been afraid of her own mind playing tricks on her.
As for Samantha, she’s able to convince her daughter Ruby that she doesn’t have superpowers after what unfolded today although when she returns home, she attempts to bend a crowbar but can’t find the power. Something is going to have to happen to Samantha to transform her into Reign but we’re not sure what that is quite yet.
Back at CatCo., Kara arrives with the story in hand that she was given as an assignment as she apologizes to Lena for her earlier outburst while admitting that she’s been struggling with Mon-El being gone. Lena understands that the two of them hug it out while she also has a carthartic moment with James as well as he seems to reach a middle ground with his new boss.
Before leaving, Lena introduced Kara to the person she just hired to run L-Corp in her absence while she focuses on CatCo. It’s Samantha Arias — the future Worldkiller — who is now running L-Corp while coming face-to-face with Kara for the first time.
Super-Bits
Alex and Maggie are trying to make arrangements for their wedding with the biggest arguments circling around whether or not they’ll have a live band or a DJ for the reception. When Alex mentions having kids one day, Maggie gets a little more serious about the proceedings but the couple seems happy enough. Sadly, we already know this union won’t last much longer and that makes these scene that much tougher to watch.
In the final cutaway scene before the episode ends, J’onn is visited by a mental image of M’gann M’orzz, who contacts him from his home planet of Marsh. M’gann urges J’onn to return to Mars — it would have been better if she said ‘get your ass to Mars!’ — but alas it looks like J’onn will be visiting his home world for the first time in centuries.
‘Supergirl’ returns with a new episode next Monday night at 8pm ET on the CW
