Wednesday, January 23, 2019

Supergirl Episode 410: Suspicious Minds

It has been a month since the Supergirl show has aired a new episode. But it went out with a bang, the Elseworlds crossover which was just unbelievable.

The question I had was what would I be feeling after the midseason break. Not only was the show going to have to overcome the inertia of no recent episodes, it was also going to have to deal with ending on such a huge high point. Almost any episode would feel lesser in comparison.

Well episode 410,  Suspicious Minds, was a very good episode. I enjoyed it very much. Congratulations to the Supergirl team for kicking off the second half of the season on a high point.

With Agent Liberty jailed, the Sons of Liberty plotline took a back seat here. We don't hear a thing about that hate group at all.

Instead, this episode focuses in on the DEO and the difficulties brewing in that organization. After setting me up with several episodes where it seemed like Colonel Haley was misguided and might be being swayed to the light, this episode paints her with a troubling persona. Suddenly, she is an 'ends justify the means' person, a 'safety is more important than freedom' person, and a 'I'll use people to achieve my goals' person. I no longer hope this is a redemption arc for her. I think she needs to be revealed just like Agent Liberty has been.

The episode also builds on many of the subplots which have been bubbling along. With half the season down, it's time to move these stories forward.

But if I have to point out the highest point of this episode, it was Jesse Rath as Brainiac 5. He has totally embraced this slightly odd, slightly off persona who is just socially awkward but with a heart of gold. Last season I wasn't sure about this take on Brainy. This season I am all in.

On to the show.


The show opens with the Russian Supergirl training in the icy fields, dispatching missiles, drones, and tanks with ease. There is a cold, emotionless feel to this Supergirl, completely different from our Supergirl. I love this. There is a sort of regal iciness here.

But there is more here.

The army says she is being trained and she will be controllable because of an unnamed 'she' who is working on this Kara.

Who is this mystery woman brainwashing this version of Supergirl?

I'd love it to be Psi.


Meanwhile, our Kara is in a spin class with Lena.

While I'm sure this will trigger many shippers, I liked seeing the two friends together socially.

It's also where Lena says she needs to patch things up with James. It is James who is her sounding board and moral conscience.


Meanwhile, Kara has to feign a cramp when she hears a cry for help. A 'Colonel McAllister' needs help.

Flying off to a military ship, Kara sees a nearly invisible alien slaughtering the troops. Kara can only save one. Things are even stranger when Kara discovers a bomb on the ship, a self-placed military bomb counting down. She throws the bomb overboard, saving the ship and the crime scene.

The DEO arrives and Colonel Haley orders Supergirl to leave and stop contaminating the scene. Kara reminds her that the only reason there is a scene is because she intervened with the bomb. She might not be DEO, but Supergirl is always a hero.

I do have to laugh at Haley ordering Supergirl off the ship. Can she order Supergirl any more? I don't think so.


One of the subplots of this episode was Brainiac 5 doing his best to give Supergirl a partner, a backup, given her not being in the DEO any longer.

The first person he approaches is J'onn who has set up a PI office. (It is a rather swanky place but I have to assume J'onn has accrued wealth over his centuries on Earth.) He even tries to pay for J'onn's assistance.

I like how J'onn returns the cash saying Kara only needs ask for his help.

But I think this whole thing is going to play out with Brainiac 5 ultimately becoming this backup himself.


Meanwhile at the DEO, Haley states her plan to begin interrogating every agent to see if someone knows any clue about Supergirl's secret identity. Haley would use that info to force Kara into serving without questioning.

One thing I have wondered is just how widely known Supergirl's identity was at the DEO. It seems like everyone knows Alex is Supergirl's sister. In a bit of a retcon, it turns out that only 5 officers do. Alex pulls them aside and pleads with them not to tell. All of them agree; they are loyal to Supergirl, even if it means disobeying orders.

This is a sticky ethical situation. The 'just following orders' excuse doesn't work well when you are doing something evil. And Haley isn't exactly taking the high ground here. But this also means Alex is setting up a conspiracy and asking these troops to take part in mutiny.

So what do people think about there only being 5? Seems like a gross underestimation given all we've seen over 3+ seasons.


We cut to the Danvers coach. God, I love these scenes.

Alex and Kara talk about the inconsistencies of the crime scene. No Colonel McAllister exists in the military database. The ship wasn't on the Coast Guard's sheets. This was a ghost mission of some sort. Kara is so frustrated saying no one can hide something like this for long.

But then Alex brings up Haley's quest to discover Kara's secret identity. Alex says what a hard time she has working for someone like Haley, hateful and fearful. But that is all the more reason for Alex to stay there. She needs to be the light in this darkness.


Back at CatCo, Lena and James rekindle their romance.

He admits that he was wrong to act morally superior when she admitted helping him. He compromised his ethics when he was willing to blow up the monument in the name of the Sons of Liberty. He can't chastise her for doing what he did.

Lena has always been this morally gray figure. It is clear she is willing to listen to James advice to steer her away from her brother's path. So she is thrilled that all seems to be better between the two of them.

I don't know if their actions were the same. I worry whenever a Luthor trusts someone so implicitly. Because eventually that trust is broken. And a Luthor always seems to go completely evil when they feel they have been fooled or insulted.

If I were James, I'd be very careful.


With few leads available, Kara decides to ask someone who was at the DEO before everyone. She heads to J'onn. And J'onn has physical copies of expunged files!

Now we could debate the ethics of J'onn keeping top secret government files in boxes in his office. But let's not.

The investigation leads to some startling information. Invisible aliens called Morai were utilized by the DEO. The project was under the leadership of Colonel McAllister, the now dead unknown soldier. But there were two more people involved: General Tan and Colonel Haley.

Suddenly that glimmer of hope about Haley is even dimmer.

I have to say I do like this new role for J'onn of friend and mentor rather than commanding officer.


Meanwhile, at the DEO, Haley continues to roll through the agents trying to uncover something about Kara.

Brainy has a decent trick. He can compartmentalize his memories and lock some down. He removes the information that Kara is Supergirl from his reachable data temporarily.

It again gives Jesse Rath the opportunity to shine. First we see this 'compartmentalized' Brainy laughing at the prospect that Kara and Supergirl are the same person; they don't even look alike.

But then the true memories kick back in.

Brainy does acknowledge how devious Haley is, comparing her interrogation to the ten-eyed Emerald Bloodeater from Venegar. Hmmmm ... and emerald eyed being from Venegar! Hooray for Legion references!


Despite the order for Supergirl to not work with the DEO, Kara joins Alex and J'onn in heading to General Tan's home. Tan, knowing that McAllister is dead, is packing and getting ready to run.

He reveals that the Morai were found as children and trained to become efficient assassins for the government. That's right Kara, they trained alien children to be killers. I love the disgust on Melissa Benoist's face.

With new anti-alien efforts in the government, the decision was made to kill the Morai. The Morai were going to be on that ship that was triggered to explode in the beginning. The government was going to simply erase the Morai, physically and from the record books.

Again, how can good people work for bad leaders? How do you just follow orders?


The Morai show up and luckily Kara can see them more as a shimmer. In a decent action sequence, Kara uses her super-breath to make them visible and attacks. One of the Morai gets wounded but the other two succeed, killing Tan.

As for the injured Morai, it won't be brought in to be tortured by Haley again. Rather than head to prison, it kills itself. How bad could the treatment be if death was a better outcome?

I do like how Supergirl is still Supergirl, reaching out to the alien, trying to reason with it and promising not to hurt it. But she also tries to inspire it as well to not resort to violence.


At the DEO, Alex reveals all she has learned about the Morai, including the death of Tan.

Once more, the descent into evil continues for Haley.

For her, the alien Morai were simply assets. She says, coolly and matter-of-factly that she used trauma for discipline and obedience.

So now Haley is a child abuser.

Remember just a couple of episodes ago when Alex and her seemed to be strategizing together and Alex saw something in Haley. Those days are gone.


Brainy continues to try and find Supergirl an ally. Earlier we saw him awkwardly ask Nia Nal out on what seemed to be a date.

At the fancy restaurant, he says it isn't a date. He wanted to have a meeting with her to try and lure Nia into the world of super-heroics. He wants Kara to have a super-friend.

Rath again does a great job being the most socially inept, semi-weird person he can be. In fact, despite the misconception of this date, he is oddly charming in his sincerity, enough to make Nia forgive him and roll with it.

But there are a couple of things I needed to mull over her.

One, Brainy says that he was on a dark path before he chose to be a hero and he hasn't regretted it. He is a Brainiac after all. Maybe, in some sort of timey-wimey time loop, it is Supergirl ... a Supergirl from her future ... who meets a nasty Brainy in his path and turns him towards good.

But then I wonder if he knows something that makes this mission of a Supergirl friend so crucial. And given his ability to package his knowledge, it seems clear that he is going to be that ally for Supergirl. As someone who ships Brainy and Kara, I only hope it brings them closer.


Remember how Kara says Alex is the moral compass of the DEO.

Well Lena has said James is her 'good angel' on her shoulder. The two have a 'stay at home' date with James making them a souffle.

Before the meal, Lena reveals that she is trying to give humans super-powers with her Harun-El experiments. Upbeat about the discovery, a 'penicillin moment', she asks James if she should continue. Remember, she is counting on his sound advice.

He pauses ... but then tells her to continue.

I think James here just didn't want to rock the boat of the relationship after just righting the ship. Scary.


Back at the DEO, one of the agents has fallen to Haley's tactics. Haley knows that Kara is Supergirl. The prospect is terrifying to Haley. A member of the press inside a top secret government black ops group?

Haley will bring Supergirl to heel with this information.

But before anything like that can happen, the alarms go off. The Morai are inside.


There is a ridiculous plan to use steam, lasers, and glow-in-the-dark paint balls to make the Morai visible but it doesn't really work.

In fact, Haley is about to get killed by one when Supergirl arrives in the DEO HQ and defeats it.

But this magnanimous act doesn't deter Haley. She goes on a diatribe of how knowing Kara's secret identity gives the DEO power over Supergirl. Supergirl will work for the DEO and obey unconditionally or else ...

And then Alex decks her. Woo hoo!


I love how Alex is disgusted at the prospect of working for someone like Haley. She couldn't imagine forcing Kara to do the same.

They call in J'onn to mindwipe Haley. He'll remove the knowledge of Kara being Supergirl from Haley's mind.

It is a bit of a left hand turn for the pacifist J'onn who doesn't want to do anything violent anymore. Forcing himself into someone's mind? That seemed a bit off.


But it isn't a cure.
The next day Haley brings in some Starro looking squid to act as a 'truth seeker'. She'll find out who Supergirl is.

The 5 DEO agents decide to have J'onn mindwipe the information from their minds willingly. They all want to protect Supergirl.

And Alex? She needs to stay in the DEO to try and keep it pure. She has to fight Haley's influence from within. She also will get mindwiped.

Now the Danvers sisters relationship is key to the show. And having Alex not know Kara is Supergirl is a crazy idea that I think could hurt the flow of the season. But I also have to question how Alex can survive such a rewrite of her life. It is one thing to have the secret removed from DEO agents who work with Supergirl tangentially. It is another thing to retcon an entire life of memories. Alex's brains are going to be scrambled!

That said, I wonder if Brainy knew this was going to happen. Maybe knowing that Kara's biggest support would be altered made him search for a replacement. It is clear, he has to become that person.

You know, after writing this review, I don't know if this episode was as good as I thought it was. But it was still a solid opening to the second half. I simply can't imagine how the Alex/Kara relationship will play out moving forward.

What did you think?

14 comments:

Anonymous said...

I think it was a great episode regarding the main plotline. Some truly excellent writing for Kara, Brainy, Nia and Alex.

I'm not really entertained by the CPR moments they did trying to keep the James/Lena-plotline alive while they run the DEO plot.

I thought it was a waste of minutes that would have been better used for the current plot. With that said, I do know that a lot of viewers tune in just to see Katie McGrath, so if it makes the day of those viewers I'm fine with it.

Anonymous said...

"Who is this mystery woman brainwashing this version of Supergirl?

I'd love it to be Psi."

We wish.

"While I'm sure this will trigger many shippers, I liked seeing the two friends together socially."

Shippers are the Bane of Fandoms. They don't have enough with enjoying their ship's fanworks, they DEMAND the showrunners cater to their overblown sense of self-entitlement and rewrite their plotlines.

(I mean, I'm a Kara/Querl shipper, but I'm aware that the show isn't under the obligation to make my ship canon)

Anyway, it was a decent episode. Intense, with several interesting developments, and Supergirl gets to kick butts and save the day.

I'm not sure of how the plot will proceed onward, but I never liked the idea of a Super working for a Government organization, so I'm okay with her not being an agent anymore.

I'm surprised nobody is bringing "Identity Crisis" up concerning Martian Manhunter mind-wiping people. Honestly I never had problem with heroes wiping their secret identities out of villains' minds.

Loona Zor El said...

me: I don't know why poeple leave so much long comments
also me: well this comment is going to be long anyways

I hope this comment will be first so you see how much I appriciate your reviews( sorry for the errors in advance)... Since I started watching supergirl it has thaught me alot of valuable lessons about life itself , but you where mainly the person who pointed them more clearly and made me realize what they meant. thank you so much. Also, I realy appreciate your outlook and perspective on each episode and your effort each time to right the best reviews out there for Supergirl. And also thanks so much.
I hope you see this.

FROM A VERY BIG FAN( and also 17 year old girl)

Anj said...

Thanks for comments!

Hoping we see Psi!

And thank you for wonderful compliment!

Anonymous said...

Well now at least Kara is out front under the overbearing shadow of her omnicompetent super sister, Alex. And we thought her long apprenticeship under Kal El's tutelage in the Silver Age was oppressive :)
I think having Kara mind wiped out of her life could be the making of Alex, maybe she could become a "Legend of Tomorrow" or something.
:)
I think a very effective team could be forged out of "Dream Girl, Brainiac Five and Supergirl" its an even better more creative set up than the DEO with all its bureaucratic and military mumbo-jumbo...but this will never supplant the current storyline who am I kidding?
I could take a lot more seriously the whole "Politics of Supergirl's Civilian Identity" if the concept hadn't been dealt with so cavalierly and haphazardly practically since the pilot circa 2015. The problem is as much "how many people know the secret and why" as "Why do certain people NOT know the Big Secret"?
But at least the creatives are trying to address the larger hazards of keeping a dual identity in an era of Obstruction of Justice Charges and Withholding Evidence Statutes.
So if the episode didn't quite connect all the dots it isn't due to the current writing or acting, its more attributable to decisions made some four years ago...

JF

Anonymous said...

Some random thoughts/agreements:

- I liked the episode a lot.

- Love every appearance of the Russian Supergirl. She looks as cool as Kara on an exercise bike. This is a plot on very slow burn, and it will be interesting to see when it becomes a major storyline. Maybe not even this season - which would be fine with me. Let them tease it out.

- Did anyone else notice it said "John Jones" on J'onns's license and painted on his office door? Has he used that name before on the show?

- DEO: if it can go away and never come back, won't be too soon for me. The TV show was probably trying to match the comic at first, where Supergirl was working with the DEO much earlier, way back in the "Final Days of Superman" story. But the comic has moved on from there. Maybe they can come up with some other support team. If Supergirl winds up in the Arrowverse next season, anything is possible.

- While it seemed many more than 5 DEO agents knew Supergirl is Kara Danvers - something that bugged me a lot - it's good that the show has at least nodded to the problem. People leave government service, people even betray their nations, so this was just a giant hole. One following in the tradition of Smallville (where people were CONSTANTLY entering the barn and surprising Clark, and he was always at risk of being overheard or observed); and the more ridiculous tradition in The Flash, where it's hard to think of anyone in Central City that Barry has not let in on his secret).

- Jesse Rath as Brainy is now truly fun and adds a lot to the show. He's probably growing into his role, and it's the kind of role where the writers also have to write to the actor's strengths.

T.N.

Mary said...

J'onn's wiping of Hayley's memories made sense to me, even with the change in his path. It's in keeping with his desire to protect Kara and Alex, since they have become family to him.

I don't think Alex will be without her memories for too long. If she changes the way she responds to Supergirl in a way that upsets Kara and J'onn is aware of it, he will restore them. She really only needs it to get past the Vertularian. After that, she should have them back.

As far as the other agents, the DEO still has that desert base that no longer is shown, where the rest could be at. Also if they have more than one or two offices (and really they should if they're looking out for the whole country), then it's possible that any other agents could be on a rotation in a different city. Agent Vasquez has been working under cover as Agent Piper for S.H.I.E.L.D. ;)

Supergirl doesn't really need the DEO any more and would be better off with just Alex, Brainy, Nia, and J'onn in whatever way he wants to help.

Anonymous said...

You are right, there is a large enough supporting cast, and don't forget James and Lena.

The members of the DEO are replaceable red shirts. (They killed off the one recognizable guy there, didn't they?) The DEO doesn't really match the kind of mission commands that Flash and Arrow have.

The Season 1 situation room that Jimmy, Winn and Kara used to meet in was more like those.

T.N.

Anonymous said...

Shippers are the bane of every fandom, entitled and disgusting. But as long as the show doesn't pander to them like one arrowverse show did, till then I am fine.

I did enjoy the show a lot this episode, Eric carassco did say that they were going to address this issue of many people in the deo knowing about kara's identity but apparently it was cut out. So who know how it would gone if it was there in the last episode as well. Crossovers which don't give Kara much to do and then short change her show, someone bring me Guggenheim.

I think the Alex mind wipe is being set up for a Kara vs Alex storyline. I for one can't wait to see that.

KET said...

"I don't know if their actions were the same. I worry whenever a Luthor trusts someone so implicitly. Because eventually that trust is broken. And a Luthor always seems to go completely evil when they feel they have been fooled or insulted.

If I were James, I'd be very careful."

Lena and James BOTH need to be careful; siblings are soon coming over to visit. :)

"Now we could debate the ethics of J'onn keeping top secret government files in boxes in his office. But let's not."

Not really a debate, but I would acknowledge that just about everyone around Kara was acting with slippery ethics in this episode. Not just Haley, but the whole mind-wipe thing with J'onn seems to be inadvertent consequences or punishment for protecting Kara for being so terrible at keeping her secret ID a secret. Alex volunteering to have her memories of Kara being Supergirl removed does upend the opening premise of the series in a huge way, but it may not last too long. Whether Supergirl ever returns to the DEO as an operative remains sketchy, as long as Alex and Brainy are still working there. However, morality among the principles seems overly selfish instead of empathic this time around, especially since none of the action this episode addresses retribution for the Morai's torture and subsequent plight. They end up merely being a plot device for the DEO mind-wipe endgame...and forgotten about after all.

"Again, how can good people work for bad leaders? How do you just follow orders?"

The usual answer in the military is, 'I was just following orders.' Because if this was a military drama instead of a superhero show, Alex should have been rightly court martialed for her various actions in this episode. But of course, Space Dad to the rescue (?).

Overall though, an excellent episode that surprisingly follows up nicely on Supergirl's Elseworlds installment. Now Kara is faced with a sister who doesn't know she's Supergirl, which sort of inverse parallels her dilemma on Earth-One, with an Alex Danvers who didn't have a sister.


KET



Nutation said...

Anj, you got Col. Haley's name wrong in several places.

As for Haley, that wasn't exactly a full heel-turn; she was already pretty unlikable. But, she had some admirable qualities before becoming this unthinking sadist. Now, I have to consider her a villain. Those scenes of Haley giving Alex thoughtful advice seem like wasted screen time.

Once Haley got the information she was after, I assumed the arc could only end in on of two ways, with her mind-wiped or dead. The show surprised me by coming up with a third alternative (for now). Good for them.

> While it seemed many more than 5 DEO agents knew Supergirl is Kara Danvers - something that bugged me a lot - it's good that the show has at least nodded to the problem.

Agree. Kara should compare notes with Barry and Oliver (moot, now, in Oliver's case) about being so sloppy. Maybe a lot of former agents have died, retired (likely on disability) or been transferred, but at least the problem is acknowledged.

> It is a bit of a left hand turn for the pacifist J'onn who doesn't want to do anything violent anymore. Forcing himself into someone's mind? That seemed a bit off.

I thought his original pacifist shift was peculiar. But, pacifism doesn't solve everything anymore than violence does. J'onn obviously has a bending point where enough people are threatened. I assume that if he had more time he could find another solution. He is the ideal espionage agent. But, the writers knew where they wanted to go.

As for Alex's future, I assume her shattered mind is a one-episode problem. After that, we just saw how an Alex without a sister behaves toward aliens, and it's not nice. A Supergirl-Alex conflict could go on for a few episodes (or a triangle including Kara), although that implies Haley staying around. I think Haley's shelf life is short.

Nia was looking at a blue costume sketch. A version of Dream Girl's silver costume (which was often highlighted in blue)? Or did Nura have an actual blue costume at some point?

Anj said...

Whoa ... I had Lahey on the brain.


All typos fixed!

Scrimmage said...

I think this episode was intended to address some problematic issues that have developed on the show over the years, which have now become too big to ignore; Kara's non-secret, secret identity, and her relationship with the DEO.

A big part of the superhero mythos is the notion of their Secret Identity. It grounds them in the “real” world, and gives their fans something about the character they can relate to, far easier than having “powers and abilities far beyond those of mortal men.” That is an element of Supergirl's character development that has been largely ignored since Season 2. Since then, it seemed as if practically EVERYBODY knew that Kara Danvers and Supergirl were one and the same, but thankfully, it seems the writers are finally taking steps to re-establish Supergirl's alter-ego as an essential element of her persona.

First, by reducing the number of DEO agents who knew the truth, and then erasing that knowledge from all of them, INCLUDING Alex, while at the same time making it an important plot device in the story, and a logical response to a threat, was a very clever, and reasonably plausible way of dealing with that problem. It also made good use of J'onn formidable psychic powers, which has not always been the case. Now we get to see Kara Danvers in a whole new light, as she protects her precious Secret Identity as SUPERGIRL!!

Of course, we'll have to ignore the fact that even the most primitive facial recognition software would match Supergirl's face to Kara's almost instantly, despite Brainiac 5's contention that they look nothing alike. I just tell myself that for some reason, wearing glasses drastically changes the way a Kryptonian face is perceived by humans, OR by our technology.

Scrimmage said...

Following Supergirl's dismissal from the DEO at the end of the last show, I think we are seeing the beginning of the end of Supergirl's relationship with an agency whose original charter was to defend the Earth from extraterrestrial threats... threats, which it appears, would now include Supergirl, herself, if Col Haley has her way.

From the beginning, I was never comfortable with the idea that Supergirl – the most powerful woman on Earth – was essentially a de facto member of the DEO, a covert, paramilitary government organization under the command of whomever the President put in charge. The only reason why she was there at all was only because J'onn recruited Alex to work there first, which he primarily did because he knew about her connection to Kara, long before she became Supergirl.

Now, without J'onn to protect Supergirl from being exploited by those inside the government who see her as a potential weapon, one that can either be used BY them, or AGAINST them, just like the Morai Assassins, the DEO has reverted back to its military roots. J'onn's efforts to restrict the DEO to non-lethal weaponry have been abandoned by the new regime, as the agency moves closer and closer to an adversarial relationship with Supergirl. Now we can understand why Superman was so opposed to the idea of the DEO having a large supply of Kryptonite, and an arsenal of K-weapons that could be used against him, or his cousin. Just imagine what Haley would do with that stuff if she could only get her grubby hands on it NOW!

Clearly, the line in the sand has been drawn. Kara now knows beyond a shadow of a doubt that Col Haley – and by extension the DEO – is her enemy. In the first half of the season, the bad guys were the Children of Liberty. In the second half, it's shaping up to be Supergirl vs the DEO, with a mind altered Alex caught in the middle.

I think Brainy's efforts to recruit Dream Girl and the Martian Manhunter to be Supergirl's backup are only natural for someone with his background. He's obviously trying to create a “Legion” of Kara's “Superfriends” to replace her support group from the DEO.

At first, she had Winn, Cat, and James at CatCo, with a little help from Alex at the DEO, then later, she worked almost exclusively FOR (not just with) Alex, J'onn, and Winn at the DEO, until recently, when public sentiment turned anti-alien in wake of several invasions and other attacks, along with the revelation that the Presidency had been illegally occupied by a shape shifting alien.

Now that the DEO has taken a more hard line stance in response to the political pressure in the wake of those alien threats, Supergirl could no longer continue to work with them in good conscience, but thanks to Brainy, it's likely that she'll have a NEW team to depend on, consisting of J'onn, Brainy, Dream Girl, and eventually Alex, who will either resign, or be court-martialed for treason, or mutiny, or for whatever the charge would be for hitting a commanding officer, conspiracy, and disobeying SEVERAL direct orders. I just hope her phone is encrypted, and that she decked Haley out of view of security cameras.

What was interesting about Supergirl's obvious outrage and revulsion at the idea of the Military training Morai “children” as invisible assassins, is the fact that, unbeknownst to her, that's EXACTLY what those dirty Russians are doing to her Doppelgänger as we speak. Kara's going to get an up-close-and-personal glimpse of what could've happened to her if someone other than her cousin was the first to find her pod. She could've easily been turned into a top-secret military project. Then, Superman's cousin really WOULD'VE been a “Secret Weapon,” which was Kara's thankless role in the comics for YEARS after her debut.