In the ‘Supergirl’ season 2 finale recap, Kara battles Rhea for Earth but her plan to save the planet may be disastrous for someone she loves…
By Damon Martin — Editor/Lead Writer
As the second season of ‘Supergirl’ comes to an end, the show left us on a cliffhanger with a new threat looming large over season three as well as the fate of one particularly important character still unknown.
It’s one of the best parts about what the CW has done with their superhero shows as they’ve continued to churn out quality series while always leaving us wanting more when the last episode of the season is over.
Before season three gets here, however, Supergirl must first save the world from the Daxam invasion and it’s not a job she can handle alone.
So the season two finale pulls out all the stops with Superman making his re-appearance in National City as well as M’Gann M’orzz, a bunch of White Martians and the Luthor family finally pitching in with a helping hand. Add in a dash of Cat Grant and this was a pretty epic ‘Supergirl’ finale.
With that said, let’s recap the season 2 finale of ‘Supergirl’ titled ‘Nevertheless, She Persisted’….
Superman vs. Supergirl
At the end of last week’s episode, we witnessed Superman emerging from the bowels of the lead Daxam ship to stand up against his cousin Supergirl as she looked to put an end to the alien invaders. Instead, she was left to duel with her cousin after Queen Rhea revealed she had a few secret weapons up her sleeve.
Rhea tells Supergirl that when Krypton exploded and left Daxam as a wasteland, her planet was riddled with shards of kryptonite but not just the deadly green kind. Rhea shows off a piece of silver kryptonite, which allows her to manipulate the mind of a Kryptonian like Superman. In this case, Rhea has convinced Superman that Supergirl is actually his greatest enemy — General Zod!
The vision of General Zod puts Superman into battle mode as he goes after Supergirl and the two of them engage in a fight for the ages. The fight wages all over National City but Supergirl finally gets the upper hand on her powerful cousin and knocks him unconscious as she’s barely able to stand.
Alex and the DEO come to the rescue before taking them both to the Fortress of Solitude to rest and recover. When Superman wakes up, he’s no longer feeling the ill effects of the silver kryptonite while also marveling at how Supergirl just managed to defeat him at full strength.
As much as Superman would like to be proud of his cousin, there are more important matters to handle right now and that means finding a way to stop the Daxamite war ships from conquering Earth.
Digging through the archives at the Fortress, Superman finds a story from an old war file involving Krypton against Daxam. It’s an ancient challenge that Supergirl decides to use to slow down the Daxam forces while hopefully forcing Queen Rhea to surrender.
After arriving back at the DEO, Supergirl tells Mon-El her plan and he’s not on board because he knows what this ancient challenge is all about. Supergirl reaches out to Rhea and offers the terms of the challenge and the queen of Daxam accepts.
It seems this ancient challenge is a trial by combat where these two aliens will fight for the Earth but only one will survive.
Trial by Combat
As Supergirl trains with Superman in the four hour window she has to prepare for the showdown with Rhea, the rest of the troops begin gathering their forces.
At L-Corp, Lillian Luthor gives her daughter a weapon that Lex had started to design as a way to rid the Earth of Superman forever. The device releases kryptonite into the air, which would make Earth’s atmosphere toxic to Kryptonians like Superman or Supergirl. Lillian wants Lena to reconfigure the device so it will release lead into the air — a substance that is toxic to Daxamites.
Meanwhile, J’onn J’onzz finally wakes up from his induced coma after he reconnects with M’gann in his mind as she helps him break free from Rhea’s hold over him. There’s no rest for the weary either because J’onn is determined to help Supergirl stop Rhea and the invading Daxam forces.
With Mon-El by her said, Supergirl goes to battle Rhea in a winner take all fight for Earth. The two of them engage in battle but just when Supergirl starts to gain an upper hand, the Daxam ships start unleashing hell on National City. Despite the ancient ritual being invoked, Rhea doesn’t care about appeasing the gods and prefers to just win by any means necessary.
The ships attacking force Superman, Mon-El and J’onn to spring into action to save everybody in National City while Supergirl continues her fight with Rhea.
The back and forth battle appears to be at a stalemate when Rhea offers Supergirl a free shot at her and she gladly accepts while opening a cut on her opponent’s face. What Supergirl learns is that when Krypton exploded, everybody on Daxam was not only forced to leave the planet but they were permeated with radiation from their destroyed neighbors. It means, Daxamites now have kryptonite flowing in their blood and Rhea uses that to weaken Supergirl as she takes advantage during the fight.
As Supergirl battles for her life, Superman, Mon-El and J’onn take out the Daxam forces on the ground along with some help from M’gann and a garrison of White Martians she’s brought along as support.
Back at L-Corp, Lena finishes building the device with some help from Winn but of course her mother tries to steal it and unleash the chemical cloud that would not only kill the Daxamite invaders but would also poison Mon-El as well. Supergirl wanted to use that weapon only as a last resort, but thankfully Lena predicted her mother would betray her and so she set up the device so it could only be activated by a remote.
A remote that’s held by Supergirl
Ashes to Ashes, Dust to Dust
With Superman, Mon-El and J’onn still battling the Daxamite forces, Supergirl somehow battles through the crippling effects of the kryptonite to defeat Queen Rhea once and for all. When Mon-El joins her on the rooftop, they watch as the Daxam ships position themselves over every school and hospital in National City just waiting to destroy all of them on the queen’s orders.
Mon-El tells Supergirl to unleash the weapon because there’s no other way to stop the Daxamites, even if that means his own death.
Supergirl presses the button and the weapon releases the lead cloud into the air and all of the Daxamites on the planet begin to choke and die before quickly retreating back into space. As for Queen Rhea, she asks her son for help but Mon-El offers her nothing but contempt after learning that she killed his father when he refused to go along with her planned conquest of Earth.
Queen Rhea turns to ash from the effects of the lead but it’s also starting to choke Mon-El as well. Because he’s been on Earth for several months, the lead is slower reacting to his body chemistry but it’s only a matter of time before he dies.
So Supergirl rushes him back to the pod that he used to arrive on Earth and after a tearful goodbye complete with each of them finally professing their love, she sends him off into space so he can survive the deadly lead poisoning in the atmosphere. Supergirl is heartbroken after losing the only man she’s ever loved but Earth is safe and the Daxam army has been defeated.
What Comes Next
In the aftermath of the Daxam army fleeing Earth, J’onn celebrates with M’gann, who returned when she felt him in distress and she’s now learned that she’s not the only White Martian who believes the genocide against the Green Martians was wrong. She’s slowly building her army to hopefully chance the perception of everyone on their home planet.
Superman returns home to Metropolis to be with Lois Lane while Alex makes a bold move of her own when she asks Maggie to marry her. Alex doesn’t want to spend another day away from the woman she loves so she wants them to spend their lives together forever.
Of course all this love in the air has Kara feeling down in the dumps because her boyfriend is rocketing across the universe all by himself, destined never to return to Earth. She looks to Cat Grant for advice, who offers her the wisdom of her years as well as four marriages. When Kara spots a fire happening across down she makes up an excuse to bolt from the room, but after she’s gone Cat reveals that she’s knows her assistant is actually Supergirl.
As for Mon-El, his ship is going through space when a gigantic wormhole opens up and swallows him up. Is Mon-El headed to the Phantom Zone or somewhere even worse?
And finally we get a flashback to 35 years ago on Krypton just as the planet is about to explode. Both Kal-El and Kara Zor-El are sent fleeing for their new home on Earth. At the same time, a group of cult members put another baby into a pod to escape the planet. They bless the child with blood on its forehead before sending it to a new home on Earth. They believe this child will grow to become a great ruler who will reign over the planet.
Thus we are introduced to the villain for ‘Supergirl’ season three — a powerful alien named Reign, who hails from a race known as Worldkillers.
‘Supergirl’ will return to the CW this fall for season three!
