In the ‘Supergirl’ recap for the season 3 debut, Kara doesn’t want to face reality in the wake of losing Mon-El but she’s soon forced to take on a new villain in National City…
By Damon Martin — Editor/Lead Writer
There will be a lot of new faces checking in during ‘Supergirl’ season 3 as well as some old favorites as Kara Danvers adjusts to a world where the only man she’s ever loved is gone and destined never to return (at least until Mon-El actually comes back).
In the debut episode for ‘Supergirl’ season 3, we find that Kara is trying to block off her human emotions by only focusing on her work as Supergirl, which is shutting out anyone and everyone that has ever loved her.
Meanwhile, it doesn’t take long for the show to reveal that Alex and Maggie are now engaged, which is good news, but knowing that Sanvers’ fate has already been written makes these scenes all that much more heartbreaking.
And finally a new villain shows up in town as Adrian Pasdar joins the cast as real estate developer Morgan Edge while the first episode also teases the arrival of another enemy who will be revealed at some point during season 3 and she may be the toughest test yet of Supergirl’s heroic career.
With that said, let’s recap the ‘Supergirl’ season 3 debut titled ‘Girl of Steel’…
Haunted
The episode begins with a dream sequence where Kara is rejoined with Mon-El but then drawn away by a vision of her mother (who is being played by ‘Smallville’ favorite Erica Durance starting this season). It’s a happy moment soon interrupted by reality as Kara realizes that it’s only just a dream and soon she’s back in action helping to stop a robbery.
In fact, Supergirl is so effective, she knocks one of the assailants across the road, crashing into another car before brining the semi-tractor trailer to a stop just before it collides with a family station wagon. As Supergirl examines her work, a little boy is enamored with seeing the girl of steel in person but rather than offer a smile or perhaps a selfie, she flies back off into the sky to help stop the next crime before it can happen.
Supergirl arrives back at the DEO and she’s all about the business at hand by having Winn test the blood leftover from punching the suspect to find out his true identity since he was able to escape after she tossed him from the moving truck.
In attempt to bridge the ever widening gap with her sister, Alex attempts to get Kara to join her to test out the tasting menu for her upcoming wedding to Maggie, but she wants no part of it.
It turns out ever since Mon-El was vanquished to space to avoid the lead poisoning that was released to stop the Daxamite invasion — that would eventually kill him as well — Kara has been in a separate state from the rest of her friends and co-workers.
She’s disconnected from the social scene, skipping out on trips to the bar as well as game night with her friends and family. It’s safe to say, Kara is doing her best to compartmentalize the loss of Mon-El but she’s shoving everything from her personal life as Kara Danvers into one small box while occupying the rest of her time with the duties fulfilled by Supergirl.
Work is also taking a hit as Kara can’t seem to put together a one-on-one interview with Supergirl for the upcoming expose CatCo. will be running ahead of the unveiling of the ‘Girl of Steel’ statue that’s being erected in National City as a celebration of how she saved the world. James is concerned of course as his role at CatCo. has only grown in recent months as Cat Grant has taken on a new job — as the press secretary for the President.
Of course in the short clips we see of Cat, she takes some pointed shots at the idiocy of anyone dumb enough to believe that global warming is not real and some other facts rather than fake news when concerning the presidency.
As happy as everybody is for Cat’s new job, Kara is struggling and no one seems to be able to help her get out of this funk.
The Edge of Disaster
As National City is being put back together like a puzzle after the Daxmite invasion, Morgan Edge — a powerful real estate developer — has largely taken the reins and helped to rebuild the city in record time. That’s not only afforded him a nice income but it’s also turned him into one of the most powerful men in all of National City. While he’s essentially ordering around the mayor and everyone else in the room full of assembled business people, only James Olsen and Lena Luthor remind him that it was Supergirl who saved the city, not him.
Of course, Edge has to take his shots — most notably at Lena Luthor for the destruction left behind from her brother that she’s forever cleaning up.
Edge isn’t just trying to help the city recover, however, because he’s also taking affordable housing and turning it into high-rise condos for the rich and powerful. He’s all about the bottom line and his next project will take him to the waterfront where he plans to destroy whatever was left over from the alien invasion and build it back up again in his own image of greed and money.
Add to that, Edge is a vindictive type because he ends up buying enough shares of CatCo. to potentially take it over after the paper continuously painted him in a bad light as he rebuilt National City after near disaster. It’s a shocking move but one that Cat Grant can’t fight right now because her shares are tied up in a blind trust (another jab at the current commander-in-chief) and she has no say over the company.
Kara decides to talk to Lena and see if she can speak to Morgan Edge in an attempt to get him to back off CatCo. Of course he doesn’t listen and instead opts to talk down to her because she clearly couldn’t understand his level of sophistication when it comes to this kind of business savvy.
Meanwhile, Kara is called away after Winn figures out that her bad guy from the earlier robbery is named Robert DuBois — code name Bloodsport — and at one time he was a soldier at a weapons depot just outside of National City before going into the mercenary business. When the DEO can’t seem to contact that military base, Supergirl pays a visit when she’s blasted by a huge weapon that appears to be hidden inside the walls at the base.
It turns out, DuBois was breaking into the depot to steal a cloaking device from a Daxamite ship that had been recovered from the wreckage of the war. It’s then that Supergirl and the rest of the folks at the DEO realize that his heist from the previous night was to get another piece of weaponry that would allow that cloaking device to work with any standard military vehicle. In other words, DuBois could turn an F-14 fighter jet invisible and drop a bomb on National City and no one would even see where it’s coming from.
That’s all bad news.
More Human Than Human
Things only go from bad to worse for Kara after failing to stop DuBois when she’s summoned back to James’ office where he shows concern about her lack of focus at work lately. Rather than make excuses, Kara lashes out and quits her job at CatCo. all together.
Things only escalate when Alex pays her a visit that night as Kara basically tells her sister that her only weaknesses come from her humanity and she has to remind herself that she’s actually an alien. Kara’s words are meant to shut off the emotion she feels but in reality she’s hurting the people closest to her who only want to help.
The next day at the unveiling ceremony for the new statue in National City, Supergirl is once again focused on the task at hand, keeping an eye out for an invisible plane that might show up at any moment. In the midst of looking out for an attack, Kara talks to J’onn about how he’s adjusted to life on Earth after the loss of his family and how he’s learned to adapt. J’onn offers her some words of wisdom while reminding her that while she may be an alien on the outside, her heart is very human.
The touching moment is cut short when an earthquake rocks the site of the unveiling as Supergirl searches the sky to find out where DuBois is with this weapon. It takes her a moment but she figures out that he’s not attacking from above — he’s attacking from below. DuBois has cloaked a submarine and he’s firing torpedoes into the waterfront to bring everything crumbling down. He didn’t just decide to do this, however, because Morgan Edge is the one who hired him.
Thankfully, Supergirl is able to dive into the ocean to show him down but she’s knocked unconscious during the fight and seemingly sinking to a watery grave. At that moment, Mon-El reaches her in that dream state again and tells her to wake up and Supergirl snaps to it before stopping the submarine from firing another weapon and bringing the waterfront down.
The day has been saved.
Kara then returns to see her old pal Lena Luthor, who surprises her with some good news. Lena was able to maneuver around Morgan Edge to buy a controlling interest in CatCo. before he could secure the stock. Lena then asks Kara to help her run CatCo. because she has no idea how to operate a major media conglomerate like this one. That’s when Morgan Edge shows up to express his rage over her purchase of CatCo. out from under him and Kara exits to allow these two titans of industry to finish their discussion.
In reality, Kara was just getting a change of clothes as she shows back up a second later as Supergirl to ensure that Lena is OK after being strong armed by Morgan Edge. Lena assures her that everything is fine but the meeting is finished. So Supergirl picks up Morgan Edge and carries him out into the middle of the ocean before dropping him off on the top of giant container ship.
Supergirl tells Edge that she knows he’s behind the bombing at the waterfront and while she can’t prove it yet, she’s devoting all of her attention to him from now on.
Later that night with everybody out at the alien bar for drink, Kara returns to join them before texting Lena that she’s ready to go to work the next day for her new boss.
Super-Bites
— Throughout the episode, Alex seems less and less interested in organizing a big wedding with Maggie, before she finally confesses that she’s sad because her father won’t be able to walk her down the aisle. Maggie understands as the kiss and make up before Alex asks J’onn to do her the honor of walking her down the aisle and giving her away at the wedding. Of course, J’onn gladly accepts.
— At the ‘Girl of Steel’ unveiling, Supergirl runs into a woman named Samantha and her daughter. During the attack, Samantha’s daughter gets trapped under a support beam and her mother ends up using super human strength to bend and then lift it up off her. At the same time after Supergirl stops the submarine attack, we see the remnants of an alien ship buried in the side of the waterfront.
— Samantha is somehow connected to the Zor-El family because she also has a vision with Kara’s mother but her beautiful face soon fades away into a horrible creature that screams just before she wakes up from the night terror.
— This all adds up to the eventual revelation that Samantha is the alien last seen leaving Krypton at the end of season 2. Her name is ‘Reign’ and she comes from an alien race known as Worldkillers. It’s safe to say her transformation from loving mother to all time villain will be a major part of this season.
‘Supergirl’ returns for a brand new episode next Monday night at 8pm on the CW
