In the latest Supergirl recap, Kara falls victim to red kryptonite which turns her into an angrier and much more brutally honest anti-hero….
By Damon Martin — Editor/Lead Writer
Despite the fact that Supergirl is still making its way through a freshman season, the writers behind the show are digging deep into every corner of the shared Superman universe — this week exposing us to red kryptonite for the first time.
For those who don’t remember when this same story played out on Smallville, red kryptonite is a nasty substance that causes bizarre and often times angry behavior from the people it effects.
This week, Kara finds out what happens when she gets dosed by the red kryptonite and she ultimately lashes out against all those people who step on her during the daytime while acting out against everyone she really loves.
In the meantime, anyone and everyone around Kara finds out what it’s like to have Supergirl as an enemy rather than a friend and things get ugly in a hurry.
With that said, let’s recap the latest episode of Supergirl titled ‘Falling’….
No More Miss Nice Girl
As the episode begins this week, Cat Grant is making an appearance on a talk show while promoting her close friendship with Supergirl and simultaneously extolling her virtues as a super heroine, who does nothing but benefit the people of National City.
Later that day, Kara strengthens Cat’s belief in her when she stops a fire, saves a man from a burning building and does all the things Supergirl should do to save the day. But while she’s at the site of the fire, Kara is secretly exposed to a glowing red object beneath the burned out building and from that very moment forward it’s clear something isn’t right.
The next day at work, Kara shows up in a much more risqué outfit than normal while also doing her job even better than before. Cat Grant is definitely impressed and Kara’s even managed to outshine the ultimate brown noser, Siobhan, who is suddenly No. 2 in the pecking order.
Later that day, Kara transforms back into Supergirl but at the DEO she’s bored listening to Hank droll on about some alien who has teamed up with a pair of humans to rob armored trucks. Supergirl decides that game plan for these things is always the same — Hank talks a lot, Alex makes a plan and Supergirl kicks everybody’s asses.
Sure enough at the scene of the next crime, Supergirl shows up, kicks everybody’s asses but decides the alien involved isn’t worth her struggle so she lets him go.
Hank and Alex are confused and infuriated that Supergirl just let the alien get away, but instead of accepting responsibility, she lashes out and blames both of them for always putting the onus back on her to get the job done. Even worse, she tells Hank that he’s secretly hiding similar alien powers but rather than expose himself and help out, he continues to shy away while she does all the hard work.
Hank and Alex know something is definitely wrong but there’s no clue as to what actually happened to turn Kara from a sweet, kind hearted superhero to a mean spirited anger junkie who takes out her frustration on anyone and everyone around her.
From Bad to Worse
As Kara’s condition worsens, she heads back to work where things get even more interesting. Kara takes her boss’s personal elevator upstairs (a big no, no) and then proceeds to rat on Siobhan for nearly sending the Daily Planet footage of Supergirl allowing the alien criminal to escape after Cat specifically said to let it go. Siobhan gets fired while Kara just smirks and smiles in the corner.
Following a hard day at work, Kara invites James and Winn to a club with tickets courtesy of Cat Grant. There, Kara puts the moves on James and says she’s glad he finally ditched that ‘poor man’s Lois Lane’. James brushes off her serious advances but when she gets rejected, Kara lashes out and nearly takes his head off (both figuratively and literally).
Now James and Winn are also convinced that this isn’t the Kara that they know and love.
Kara leaves the club after she’s summoned to a private meeting with her good ‘friend’ Cat Grant. Once she arrives as Supergirl, she reads the riot act to Cat Grant about the real power she possesses and how she’s nobody’s call girl (no pun intended) before chucking the media mogul off the roof. Cat drops 30 stories, but just before going splat on the ground, Supergirl flies down to save her.
This is just a demonstration of real power.
Cat obviously freaks out and goes on television where she makes a public decree and says that Supergirl is no longer the hero that National City needs but instead the villain every citizen should fear.
The Battle Within
While Supergirl is out reliving a scene from Superman III (an underrated classic, I don’t care what anyone says) — Hank and Alex find the real culprit behind Kara’s bizarre behavior. It turns out Max Lord attempted to synthesize his own kryptonite to set a trap for Non, but the formula didn’t work and when Kara showed up unexpectedly at the site where he was hoping to take down the rogue Kryptonian, she was exposed.
Things continue to go downhill when Alex attempts to confront Kara and finds a new Supergirl waiting to greet her. This version is dressed like one of the Kryptonians from her home world and she’s no longer interested in saving cats stuck in trees or sticking up for little girls who are being bullied in school.
This is a new Supergirl, who even tells her sister that the bond they supposedly had is only in her own imagination. They aren’t even blood relatives after all. Alex is crushed because even though she knows this isn’t the Kara she’s known her whole life, the things she’s saying are the same ones she’s feared hearing forever.
Finally, Max creates a solution to zap Supergirl back into normalcy but who can actually get close enough to hit her with it?
One final confrontation on the streets of National City has everyone scared out of their minds as Supergirl goes on a rampage and finally with no other alternative to slow her down, Hank transforms into J’onn J’onzz and brings her back down to reality. Supergirl gets blasted with the anti-red kryptonite ray and she returns to normal.
But it’s too late for J’onn because he refuses to flee and instead gets captured and placed into a holding cell at the DEO he was running just a few hours earlier.
When Kara wakes up from her own living nightmare, she’s terrified by the things she’s done and the people she hurt. She apologizes across the board, but for all the hurtful things she did, each one was laced with a strain of truth. Even James pushes her away and says he needs some distance.
Finally after a horrific day, Supergirl pays one more visit to Cat Grant, who actually helps her understand that everything she’s done that day can’t just be erased with an explanation and an apology. In fact, Cat tells Supergirl with a dose of brutal truth that she can’t just magically make everybody in city trust her again but over time she’ll earn it through deeds and actions.
It appears for all the publicity and bravado, Cat Grant really was a friend to Supergirl after all and right now she might be the only person on Earth who truly understands what she’s suffering through.
