5 Thoughts About Supergirl: "Alex"

Bit of work on last week's episode just in time for this week's, which should go up tomorrow!

1.)  The "Supergirl Defense" feels like something that the DEO should have informed Kara about by now.  If you missed the episode, it's apparently a combination of bringing up Kara's use of excessive force and vigilante justice combined with a tainted crime scene that allows criminals to get freed from their crimes.   Maggie brings it up after a showboating Supergirl pops up and snatches some criminals out of a hostage situation she had been working on for the better part of a day. Presumably it only works for like, bank robbers or other forms of theft and not violent crimes like attempted murder or kidnapping, but even still it's weird that she's been Supergirl for basically two years now and no one's said...anything at all? 

2.) This episode is actually pretty tight in terms of subplots--basically just the Lena/Rhea story and the plot with Maggie/Alex/Kara.  It's a logical choice--usually subplots featuring Winn and James lean more towards the comedic and the tone of this episode would not have lined up.  It just would've been a case of mood whiplash the whole episode, to say nothing of ruining the tension as we watched the clock slowly run out on Alex's life.

3.) From J'onn being unable to read the criminal of the week's mind ("He's blocking me...somehow.") to their computer peeps being unaware that they were being duped by an IP re-route, the D.E.O. was borderline incompetent this episode.  It'd be fine if there were a line or two explaining this--"ARGUS got all the talented folks"--or something similar, but this was borderline embarrassing.  It was nice that the villain was just some dude from Alex's past but the work he put in really made me feel like maybe he should have been someone more noteworthy.  He figured out Kara's identity, tracked her down, knew about J'onn and his powers and could block his telepathy--that's not the work of a no-name, it's the work of a recurring villain.

4.) As much as I'd prefer her to be a Superwoman of sorts, Teri Hatcher plays a very believable villain and watching her and Katie McGrath's Lena Luthor go back and forth provided an interesting enough B-story to things.  I'm not sure why Lena would ever work with Rhea unless she was just convinced Rhea was a good person, but one plotline I don't want to see is Lena claiming that Kara never had time for her just because of a missed phone call.  Not when the previous episode is Kara saving her life.

5.) It was pretty cool to see Kara save the day by just being who she was: an optimistic young woman who believes that the good in people will win out.  With Alex kidnapped by the son of a convict who wanted to negotiate his escape, she didn't use her fists, or her speed, or even her super-hearing (much as that bugged me) to save her sister: she simply appealed to the better nature of his father in what was easily the most heartfelt speech I've seen all season.  It might be seen by some as a little corny, but from my end it was set up perfectly and the moment was actually earned.   With this episode even though she's a lot younger than Clark is, she's proven herself to be just as "Super" as her older cousin.