In the ‘Supergirl’ recap, Lillian Luthor escapes prison with an assist from Metallo but did her daughter Lena Luthor help to orchestrate the whole thing?
By Damon Martin — Editor/Lead Writer
In the history of comic book lore, there may be no last name more synonymous with evil than Luthor.
For decades, Lex Luthor has been the main antagonist to go up against Superman and that rivalry has carried over into ‘Supergirl’ with the introduction of Lillian Luthor as the leader of the alien hating group Cadmus along with her kryptonite powered assassin Metallo and cyborg Superman himself, Hank Henshaw.
But throughout the second season of ‘Supergirl’ one Luthor has fought tirelessly to redeem her family’s name.
Lena Luthor, who was supposedly the adopted daughter of Lionel and Lillian Luthor, set out to rebrand her family’s company and fight for good instead of evil. Despite her best efforts, Lena seems to fight a constant uphill battle, especially when the entire world judges her as guilty long before she’s ever been presumed innocent.
So when Lillian makes an escape from prison and video footage shows Lena grabbing the kryptonite that powered Metallo back up again, just about everybody is ready to convict her before a trial could even begin. Everybody that is except for Kara, who has faith that her friend is trying to do the right thing and would never betray her.
Of course in the end, Lena’s true nature may have started to seep through — that in the pantheon of Luthors, she may be the craftiest one all.
With that said, let’s recap the latest episode of ‘Supergirl’ titled ‘Luthors’…
Like Mother
Lillian Luthor is currently standing trial for her attacks on National City and leading the terrorist organization known as Cadmus, but she’s requested a meeting with her daughter Lena while in the midst of a courtroom battle. Lena has been testifying against her in court so she’s not sure why her adopted mother would care so much to visit with her just days before she’s more than likely headed for a sentence that will put her in jail for the rest of her life.
Still, Kara encourages Lena to visit her mother if for no other reason than to gain some kind of closure to the damaged relationship they’ve had all these years.
When Lena arrives, Lillian greets her with a story about the past — about the day she arrived in the Luthor household.
According to Lillian, Lena wasn’t adopted but instead was the product of Lionel’s infidelity and that’s why she was kept at arm’s length when she was first born. Sadly, Lena’s real mother died and Lionel decided to take care of his daughter by bringing her home and adopting her into the family. At the same time, he told Lillian to keep her distance, knowing that Lena would serve as a constant reminder of him cheating on her.
Lena grew closer to Lex and her father, but Lillian was icy as a result of Lionel warning her away. Now years later, Lillian just wants to rebuild that bond with her daughter that they never had when she was growing up and it starts by telling her that she’s not adopted — she really has Luthor blood flowing through her veins.
Meanwhile at the jail nearby, John Corben aka Metallo is rotting away in a cell when he receives an anonymous envelope filled with kryptonite. The next day at Lillian’s trial, Metallo is testifying but before his line of questioning is finished, he exposes the kryptonite heart that powers his cyborg body and he blasts the courtroom to help his benefactor escape.
Supergirl arrives to stop him, but Metallo fires a shot at a nearby crane that starts to fall, threatening hundreds of people down below. Supergirl is forced to choose and of course she saves the innocent people below, but it allows time for Lillian and Metallo to escape.
Following the jailbreak, video footage surfaces from L-Corp that shows Lena grabbing a hunk of kryptonite that undoubtedly made its way into the prison after she was the last visitor on the logs from the night before. Authorities believe she went into the jail under the guise of visiting her mother, but really snuck into hand off the powerful rock to Metallo that would allow him to help Lillian to escape.
Maggie arrives to place Lena under arrest, much to the protest put on my Kara, who believes that her friend is being set up and would never assist her mother’s escape. Still, the evidence is overwhelming and Lena is headed to jail.
Guilty Before Proven Innocent
Kara is enraged that no one is giving Lena a fair shake, much less believing that she could have been used as a pawn in her mother’s wicked game. Both James and Snapper believe she helped orchestrate the entire escape and given the video footage, they have no choice but to prepare an epic takedown of Lena Luthor for the cover of the next Cat Co. magazine.
Even Winn can’t believe that Lena is somehow innocent, but Kara convinces him to dig into the video footage that shows her taking the kryptonite to see if there’s any chance it was doctored.
The evidence against Lena gets that much worse when Metallo shows up at the jail the next night in an attempt to break her free. The Guardian shows up to stop him because he truly believes that Lena is teaming up with her mother and this would be the logical next course of action. Unfortunately, Metallo gets the better of the Guardian in the fight before ripping the jail door off its hinges and freeing Lena Luthor.
Back at the DEO, James gets stitched up while giving Kara the sad news that her friend has gone rogue. James reminds Kara that before Superman and Lex Luthor were mortal enemies, they were also friends. Clark would routinely stand up for Lex until the day came when he could no longer call him friend and perhaps that same time is coming for Lena. He also notes that the kryptonite inside Metallo’s chest seemed unstable somehow because during their battle he could see the half-man/half-cyborg cringing in pain whenever he used it.
As for Lena, she’s on the jet with her mother headed for a secret bunker that was set up by her brother Lex before he was sent to prison.
Lillian’s plan is to use some of the weapons that Lex amassed to regenerate an arsenal for Cadmus to help take down the aliens all over the world. She’s reassembled her team with Metallo and Hank Henshaw by her side and now she’s even reformed her family with Lena there as well.
Unfortunately, Lillian’s desire to reconnect with Lena came with an ulterior motive because Lex’s security system inside the bunker would only unlock for a Luthor. In other words, Lillian needs Lena’s blood to open the safe because she actually is a Luthor after all. Lillian’s story about Lena’s birth was true, but the intentions she had for her daughter were anything but honorable.
Lena tries to stand up to her mother, but Hank Henshaw just forces her to play along and once the secret chamber opens up, Lillian has access to a huge cache of weapons including Lex’s former super suit, a black mercy and numerous other trinkets he collected over the years while trying to destroy Superman.
Back at the DEO, Winn is able to track down Lillian’s whereabouts thanks to a search for kryptonite radiation but he’s also found something else quite strange. The rock currently lodged in Metallo’s chest was synthetic kryptonite and it’s unstable so within a matter of hours he’s going to blow sky high. If there is one piece of good news, Winn also discovers that the video footage of Lena was altered and it was Hank Henshaw who stole the kryptonite after all.
Now Supergirl has to race off to stop Lillian and free Lena from her captors.
Ticking Time Bomb
Supergirl arrives at the not so secret location at Lex Luthor’s bunker where she finds Lillian, Henshaw, Metallo and Lena. The battle ensues as Lillian uses one of Lex’x auditory weapons to set off a noise bomb that cripples Supergirl thanks to her super hearing. Thankfully, Supergirl is able to fight back the pain and destroy the device before going after Metallo and Hank Henshaw.
Metallo gets the upper hand with his kryptonite heart but J’onn J’onzz shows up and helps put him in check while Supergirl goes after Henshaw. The bigger problem is explosive piece of rock in Metallo’s chest corrupting more and more every time he uses it. Winn warns the team that he’s going to go nuclear in a matter of seconds.
Just when it looks like Metallo will explode, Supergirl grabs Lena and flies away just in the nick of time as does J’onn but neither of them are able to get to Henshaw or Lillian Luthor, who escape in an awaiting helicopter outside. Metallo is dead but Lillian and her other henchman managed to get away.
Back in National City, the real magazine cover is published vindicating Lena, who meets with Kara to thank her for all the support she showed when everybody was turning against her. Kara leaves but then Lena turns her attention to the chess board sitting in front of her. When she was a child, Lena used to play the game with her brother Lex, who had been classically trained in chess since he was a baby.
It turns out even at four years old, Lena knew how to play the game better than her brother as she routinely caught him in checkmate despite his best efforts to defeat her. The look on Lena’s face once again makes you wonder if she’s really trying to change the perception of the Luthor name or if she’s just playing the long game before finally revealing her true nature.
Say My Name
One other story that got some play this week was the budding romance between Kara and Mon-El. Kara found out that Mon-El’s date with Eve ended in disaster when he couldn’t stop talking about her the entire time. When Kara confronts him about it, Mon-El wonders why she seems to care so much?
Later after the mission was completed, Kara comes clean about her worries that she’ll never be able to have it all — as a superhero, a journalist and also find love at the same time. But maybe it’s time to finally try.
Kara and Mon-El finally get ready to kiss when a fairy dust like swirl of light goes whizzing through her apartment before a man appears in the room out of nowhere. He introduces himself as Mister Mxyzptlk before pronouncing his love for Kara Zor-El.
The classic prankster with a tongue twisting name from ‘Superman’ has just arrived on ‘Supergirl’.
The new episode of ‘Supergirl’ airs next Monday night at 8pm ET on the CW.
