‘Supergirl’ Recap: Kevin Smith and Daughter Make a Good Episode Great

Warning: This recap for the “Supergirl Lives” episode of Supergirl contains spoilers.

Kevin Smith directs this episode of Supergirl and it’s everything you’d hope for from a guy who named his daughter after a DC supervillain – who, incidentally, appears on the show. Not only are the comic book tropes on point, but the dialogue has a looseness that give a little extra zing to the show’s romances.

The Plot
Alex is adjusting to being happy in her new relationship with Maggie while Kara is looking for something to shake things up. She decides to help a mother looking for her missing daughter, Izzy (Harley Quinn Smith); Mon-el, who is now working as a (terrible) bartender, accompanies her. They find Roulette (Dichen Lachmann) has been luring people to a doctor (James Urbaniak) using a medical trial as a cover to abduct people. Kara and Mon-el end up on Maaldor where the abductees have been taken to be sold into slavery. The planet’s red sun also takes away their powers. They find the humans and convince them to rise up and turn the tables on their captors. Alex and the DEO arrive in time to bust them out of the slaver castle and return them to Earth. Two hooded aliens appear on Maaldor looking for Mon-el.

Sidekick or Secret Menace?
On the one hand, Mon-el is perfect and if this were the dynamic for the rest of the series — Kara being a hero, Mon-el being a cowardly sidekick dragged along on adventures — that would be amazing. Her earnestness could use a dash of cynicism in the same way that Felicity’s snarkiness lightens Oliver’s dourness over on Arrow. His decision to be a bartender is the perfect job to convey his complete lack of ambition and that relationship could believably be sustained for multiple seasons.

On the other hand, that clearly won’t be the status quo for long. Not only is Mon-el on the run from a pair of mysterious aliens with a penchant for disintegration, he also has a disturbing connection to the Dominators who, during the “Invasion!” crossover on Earth-1, almost killed every meta on the planet. Did it bow to him just because he’s Daxamite royalty who has a history with the invaders? Or is Mon-el actively colluding with creatures who may or may not be on their way to cause trouble on Earth? Maybe he’s not quite as unambitious as he seems?

On the Virtues of Cowardice
Mon-el isn’t the only one shying away from conflict this episode. During one of his night excursions with Guardian, Winn is shaken by a near-death experience. He refuses to go out with Guardian anymore and balks when Alex orders him to Maaldor with the team. His moment of redemption comes when he’s face to face with one of the alien slavers and he takes him out with a well-placed rock. It’s a great subplot because, not only does it highlight the danger all of Supergirl’s powerless friends put themselves into every day, it also gives greater impetus to Mon-el’s decision to become a hero. After all, if Winn can do it…

Giddiness
One of the show’s most endearing traits is the lightness of its romantic subplots. Where Arrow‘s couples are filled with angst and Flash‘s are filled with tragedy, Supergirl is filled with effervescent kisses between Alex and Maggie and Mon-el timidly snuggling under a blanket with Kara. It’s not all sunshine and morning after pancakes — Alex’s guilt at being happy and Maggie’s defensiveness will probably be a continuing threat to their happiness — but it’s something that sets it apart from pretty much every other comic book property out there, TV or movie.

Kryptobites
*Things you should definitely not to think too hard about: Why someone would go to a newspaper to find a missing person (and why would the editor-in-chief listen)? Also, the dubious economics of kidnapping one person at a time and transporting them across intergalactic distances to be sold as slave labor.

*“We are very religious. Very into our gods. One god. We are madly monotheistic!” Please more of Mon-el undercover — a job for which he is uniquely, and hilariously, unsuited for.

*“In the Venn diagram of things I care about, there is coffee and there is danish.” If Etsy isn’t overflowing with cross stitch patterns of Snapper’s quote by Friday, then why do we even have the internet?

*Line of the Night: “I’m not the red shirt! You’re the red shirt!” Of course, he shoudn’t have worried. In Star Trek terms, he was the transporter chief Miles O’Brien this episode, which means he’s a gold shirt, and gold shirts don’t die on away missions.

Supergirl airs Mondays at 8 p.m. on The CW.