Penny For Your TV Thoughts?: Supergirl S1 Ep. 13 Top Moments

"For The Girl Who Has Everything"

In what I would confidently label as one of the greatest episodes so far in this season, we have a beautifully written story arc featuring Kara battling a more personal psychological battle via a parasite taking control of her mind as well as both Alex and J'onn taking on the threats of the world without the aid of Supergirl. So far the series has had its run of significant lows regarding villains, action scenes, and overall character development causing me to constantly question whether or not it was worth staying onboard with the show after all. However, after the reveal of the Martian Manhunter, there's been a sudden spike in the overall storytelling quality of the show especially when the focus is on J'onn J'onzz's story.

Unfortunately, I never found myself getting invested in Kara's story even though I've always felt her character to be fine for the most part. There was never anything that I found particularly captivating or interesting about her story until this episode finally shed some light on the more Kryptonian roots of her history and the psychological trauma of her being old enough to remember her life on Krypton before it was destroyed. So, with so many great moments and points of interest in this episode, let's pick out the top moments that really shined through this week.

1. The Black Mercy/Inception

It's pretty ironic that I so happened to have been watching Inception a few minutes before I began watching this episode as some of the concepts easily mirrored each other significantly. While Kara was under the influence of the Black Mercy, I was already admiring the visual aesthetics of the beautifully constructed Krypton in all of its shiny glory. As much as I've admittedly trash talked the visual FX on the show in past episodes, I've always took the time to give high praise to the scenes where you can obviously tell that a significant chunk of the budget was spent on the visuals. The shots of Krypton shown during the dream sequences here definitely deserves such praise.

Before I get into the Inception parallels, I definitely have to shine a spotlight over the Man of Steel himself for making a cameo here as a young Kal-El sporting a red shirt as well as the iconic "S" on the chest (the red color symbolizing his iconic red cape no doubt). This is probably the closest thing we will ever see of Superman on the show, so I really appreciated the inclusion of his character here. It also makes sense that she would see him in her fantasized dream world on Krypton as a young child as she'd be the one to protect and look over him as a guardian figure this time as it was supposed to be from the beginning.

It's actually a pretty heart warming scene yet very sad when you consider what's really happening on the surface which is what makes this specific storyline such a powerful arc for the character. Not only is it emotional for her to see Kal-El, but more importantly, her parents and aunt Astra who appears convincing her that she's been asleep suffering from a fever the entire time.

Now, I reference the film Inception specifically due to the premise of someone infiltrating someone else's dream in an attsempt to rescue them while being attacked by the dreamer's subconscious in some fashion. In this case, Alex is sent into Kara's Black Mercy controlled dream to rescue her by snapping her out of the parasite's manufactured fantasy world. What really made an impact on me during this scene was not only the science-fiction elements of the dream entering mission, but also the dramatic tension taking place on the surface after Alex tells James to make sure Hank doesn't interfere despite what happens to her. You can feel the intensity rising in the atmosphere once Alex is being attacked and her body reacts on the surface causing conflict between Hank, Winn, and James.

There's also the emotional and psychological drama taking place within the fantasy world itself as Kara slowly slips further and further away into the hands of the Black Mercy forgetting her life and friends back on Earth. Melissa Benoist's performance as Kara on the show has been serviceable overall, but has never been as dramatically strong as it was during the scenes taking place inside of her manufactured fantasy. You can actually feel the conflicting thoughts going through her mind whenever she would have problems remembering Earth or any of her friends while her family tried to convince her that she was merely sick with a fever.

Parallel to the scene in Inception where Ariadne is being attacked by Cobb's subconscious

There's actually something pretty terrifying about a parasite that can completely take control of your life by showing you exactly what you via a coma-like dream state while feeding off of you simultaneously on the surface. It's during these heartbreaking scenes of Kara not being able to recognize Alex's face that I completely forget the terrifying image that is the Black Mercy basically eating away at Kara's life bit by bit.

Whenever Kara's mother is smiling at her or convincing her that Alex is a spy sent to take her away, I had to remind myself that this was all the power of a grotesque plant-like looking creature that ambushed and attached itself onto Kara's chest in the real world. It's a bizarre and pretty creepy concept when you think about it making the Black Mercy arguably the best villain that has ever been introduced to the series.

Not only did the Black Mercy add yet another alien life form to the show's roster of weekly villains, but it actually brought forth its own story arc actually worthy of an entire episode adding layers to the main character's mentality and story. These are the types of villains that I'd like to see more of instead of the forgettable and easily expendable characters such as Livewire or that train bomber that basically showed up only to be defeated in the end and tossed to the side like yesterday's news. Not every enemy faced by Supergirl is expected to come equipped with a heavily dramatic and powerful story arc attached, but there should at least be something of an impact to the overall story in which the Black Mercy character does a fantastic job with here.

2. Astra's Inner Conflicts

I was pleasantly surprised by the way the show has treated the Astra character in the past couple of episodes showing her as a warrior hell bent on a mission with some sense of a conscience towards her niece. The first time she debuted on the show left me with a bad impression as I felt she was written out to be just an evil Kryptonian character who so happens to be related to Kara, whereas in the recent episodes focusing on her character, we got to see another side of her showing compassion as well as respect for Kara. These are the types of villains that I enjoy seeing in comic book stories such as Loki or Magneto where you'd have a powerful villain who every now and then would show some sign of redemption as possibly changing his ways for good.

Astra perfectly encapsulates this character trait here as we see her help Alex defeat the Black Mercy by explaining its power as well as eventually telling her how to stop it. What's great about this episode is that we get more scenes revolving around Astra and Non's relationship and how Kara's existence might be dangerous to their cause as a family related distraction. I've always seen Non as this powerful card that the writers have been patiently hiding up their sleeve waiting to lay it down in all of its glory.

"Is your heart in this war?" - Non to Astra

We always seem to get glimpses of his power as a warrior and a leader as well as his ability to take on Supergirl in a one and one battle and actually hold his own against her. Even though he does get tossed around a little in this episode from a very pissed off Supergirl, I'd be blind to let one battle paint the full picture of the character's true strength as I feel he may actually be able to kill Kara if Astra wasn't holding him back.

I'd say to any fan of the show to keep an eye out for Non now that he's free of Astra's specific rules to not kill Supergirl. Also, let's not forget about the solar storm situation taking place during this entire episode in which Non and his army is shown getting prepared to finally engage in their plans of conquering the entire planet.

3. Final Battle/Astra's Death

Despite the action not being the most visually entertaining, there were some great moments within the final battle of the episode showing two different confrontations taking place at the same time. We have Supergirl who has finally snapped out of the Black Mercy's influence and is now on a path of vengeance against Nom as well as Astra who is confronted by both Alex and J'onn while engaging in her planet conquering mission. Just the sight of the Martian Manhunter in his full outfit fighting someone as powerful as Astra was an amazing visual in of itself, but seeing him utilize his abilities such as phasing through Astra during their fight had my inner nerd smiling with excitement.

However, after Astra eventually overpowers J'onn (which is something that I always hated to see in the Justice League animated series as they always portrayed J'onn as a very weak fighter in need of rescuing), we get this awesome scene with Alex delivering the final blow to Astra via a Kryptonite laced sword. Honestly, this may have been the first time any human on the show became a badass in one single moment. First off, there's something pretty awesome about a Kryptonite sword (or military machete) to begin with and the fact that Alex has one in her arsenal is nice little addition to her character.

We're also given an emotionally impactful scene with Astra and Kara during her last moments as she warns her about Nom's power as well as Kara telling her that she appeared in her fantasy world as family instead of enemies. It was a pretty strong scene performance-wise and dramatically speaking especially considering the fact that Astra (aside from Kal-El) was the only remnant of her family left alive. It perfectly coincides with her Krypton based dream world really laying down the pressure of her watching her home planet getting ripped out from beneath her.

This actually leads to my favorite episode ending in the entire season so far where we see a recovering family-like relationship between everyone (especially Winn and Kara) coming together in the end. The best way that I can describe it is by presenting it as "the warranted happy ending" as it didn't feel force by any means and perfectly tied up every relationship related issue in a nicely presented package.

Not only is Kara's relationship with her Earth family at its strongest now, but we even get a great scene where Hank explains to Alex that she is Kara's hero which is why he took the blame of killing Astra in order to not destroy her sisterly image. Throughout these past few episodes, we've been seeing a strong father-daughter relationship forming between the three which to me was one of the most brilliant ideas I've seen on the show. You have two characters who lost their entire home planet as well as the human that brings out the good in each of them.

Bonus Content:

1. Alex's Badass Kryptonite Sword