In the Supergirl recap, one of the greatest Superman stories ever told is adapted for Supergirl as she gets trapped in a vivid fantasy that threatens to keep her locked away forever….
By Damon Martin — Editor/Lead Writer
It’s not easy for anyone on television or film to adapt a story written by the great Alan Moore.
It could be argued that Moore remains the most universally beloved writer in comic book history and his stories from The Watchmen to V for Vendetta are some of the best and most vivid tales to ever be told. Among those great stories is the 1985 comic book from Superman Annual No. 11 titled “For the Man Who Has Everything” where he weaves a tale about an alien named Mongul, who has attacked the Man of Steel with a killer plant that attaches to a host like a symbiotic parasite while giving the person the most vivid fantasy they could ever imagine. Superman gets trapped in his own mind and can’t escape as the plant continues to suck the life out of him while he remains in a dream like state.
In the final seconds of last week’s episode of Supergirl, the same fate befell Kara as she returned home after defeating Bizarro and found the same plant left in her apartment that soon attached itself to her and that’s where we pick up in the latest episode.
Did Supergirl do justice to the original story? Yes and no — there were moments of taut emotion, especially on the part of Kara’s sister Alex but the vivid dreams and fantasy world didn’t really get fleshed out as much and that left a little to be desired when it was all said and done. Really, this episode felt like it could have easily been stretched into a two-parter or even a season finale but alas it was still solid storytelling.
With that said, let’s recap the latest episode of Supergirl titled “For the Girl Who Has Everything”…
Fantasy Land
Kara “wakes up” back at home on Krypton where she’s greeted by her mother, her father and even a 10-year old Kal-El, who is more like a little brother to her than a cousin. At first, Kara believes this is all some kind of dream because she knows she’s spent the last 12 years on Earth, growing up with the Danvers family and eventually becoming Supergirl. But as more and more memories from the past start flooding into her consciousness — including a visit from her aunt Astra — it’s getting harder and harder for Kara to remember home much less the names and places that decorate it.
Back in the real world, when Kara doesn’t show up for work it concerns Winn and James and their worst suspicions are realized when they head to her apartment and find her passed out on the ground with some kind of alien creature suckling onto her body and wrapped around her throat like a face hugger from Alien.
Alex ends up taking her sister to the DEO for assistance removing the symbiotic organism, but when they try to take it off, Kara’s vitals fluctuate and she dips near death. They realize that there’s no pulling this creature off of her — they are going to need help and the key is figuring out where it came from in the first place.
Alex is convinced that it’s Maxwell Lord’s doing but when he plays dumb, there’s only one other place to look — towards the Kryptonians who have been gunning for Kara ever since she “came out” to the world.
Sure enough, Non reveals to Astra that he’s responsible for the creature known as the Black Mercy being unleashed on Kara. She made him promise not to harm her niece, and by the strictest letter of the law, Kara is no danger from the Black Mercy but she can’t escape her dream state, which keeps her away from their plans to launch something called the Myriad Initiative.
Unfortunately for Non his plan didn’t get cleared by Astra and she’s not very happy about this torture device being unleashed on someone she loves. So Astra goes to Alex to tell her how to remove the Black Mercy from Kara. It seems Kara has to choose to come out of the fantasy state on her own and the Black Mercy will release her from its clutches.
Family First
Alex realizes that the only way to save Kara is to merge her own consciousness with her sister while trying to convince her that what she’s seeing is all an illusion. She enlists Maxwell Lord to help with the technology necessary to send her into the same dream state while she tells James Olsen that no matter what happens — even at Hank’s objections — they are not to bring her back unless she’s returning with Kara.
When Alex arrives in the dream state, Kara is completely resistant and more or less doesn’t even remember her at all from the real world. Kara ends up knocking her sister out cold and the next thing we see is Alex standing trial for crimes and being vanquished to the Phantom Zone.
Before she’s carted off, Alex makes one more impassioned plea to her sister to try and get her to remember. Kara is clinging to the family she lost on Krypton but more and more she realizes that this world isn’t her home and it’s all a dream.
A moment later Alex wakes up back in the lab and she’s furious because in the dream state she was just about to clutch hands with Kara and bring her back. But the good news is the plan worked — Kara awakens, the Black Mercy crawls off and dies, and she realizes that this was all some elaborate plot pit against her by Non to keep her on the sidelines while they unleashed whatever nefarious plans they’ve been working on.
Supergirl is determined to go after Non because he not only attacked her, but he made her go through the loss of her parents for a second time and that can’t go unpunished.
Myriad
While Kara’s been trapped and her friends have been fighting to free her, there’s been a huge solar flare affecting the world’s satellites. Hank has been annoyed because he can’t use his surveillance equipment to track down Non for what he did to Kara, but only thanks to Winn does he realize that this solar flare has actually given the Kryptonians a secretive window to enact whatever plan they’ve been waiting to hatch.
It seems when Non and the others broke into Maxwell Lord’s compound they weren’t trying to steal anything — they were planting equipment to take over his satellite technology that would allow them to override commands and enact the Myriad Initiative (we never actually learn that the Myriad is but it sounds like a way to eradicate the humans and officially turn the Earth over to the Kryptonians).
Now with the solar flare affecting the satellites, it’s finally time to strike.
But just as they go for the six satellite sites controlled by Lord Industries, Supergirl shows up and kicks the hell out of Non for what he did to her. Unfortunately emotions get the better of her and he eventually escapes. As for Astra, she’s at another site planting another computer device inside the satellite system when Alex and J’onn Jonzz shows up. Hank sheds his Earth form and becomes a Martian once again to battle Astra and keep her from doing what she came there to do.
In the ensuing battle, Astra gets the upper hand but just as she’s about to kill Hank, Alex unsheathes a Kryptonite saber and plunges it directly into her heart. Supergirl arrives shortly thereafter but Hank explains that he’s the one who killed Astra because that was the only way to stop her. Kara shares one final moment with her aunt before she expires — and she loses one of the two relatives she has left in this world.
Back at the DEO, Hank explains to Alex that he took the blame for Astra’s death because Kara didn’t need that emotional situation clouding her feelings for her sister because they need each other more than ever right now.
Supergirl heads home with her friends for a night of Chinese food and ice cream while hearing about tales from the day where Hank disguised himself as Kara and paraded around for Cat Grant’s benefit so she wouldn’t get fired from her job.
And somewhere in the distance, Non grieves over the loss of his wife and promises bloody revenge — and don’t forget she was the only thing holding him back from truly unleashing hell on Earth.
