Supergirl Episode 321: Not Kansas

Supergirl episode 321, titled 'Not in Kansas', aired earlier this week and was a good chapter in this season's overall arc. We had progression of the Reign storyline with one of the best action sequences I have seen on the show. We had Kara realizing that maybe you can't go home again. We had some progression in J'onn and Alex's subplots which seemed like organic progression for their characters. And we had enough names dropped and homages to make this fanboy happy. Plus, there are a lot of callbacks to things from earlier in the season giving this a feeling of strong continuity. And those things really helped this episode rise up.

That of course means that there were a couple of things about this episode that potentially could have weighed it down. And there were. For one, the romance angle with Mon-El is here in full force and I honestly wish it was gone completely. He should have left in episode 318 but has instead stuck around. I actually had a visceral response to him later in the episode. And when an old man like me gets that fired up about a romance plot angle, you know things are going wrong.

And, I'll say again, the politics of this show are often delivered in a ham-fisted, preachy way that somehow takes me so out of the story that it is hard to get back in. This episode had a message about gun control but used actual guns and gun tech to discuss it. It is so obvious that it was a bit too on the nose. Comics and sci-fi work best when they use allegory to teach. Super-powered mutants can be used to discuss racism and prejudice. Prime directives can be used to teach about colonizing. This could have been a plot about plasma rifles or red sun grenades. It would have been less glaring.

It doesn't help that this gun subplot is crowbarred into an episode where I really want to spend time with Kara, on Argo. She is why I watch the show.

Still, I am going to give this one an overall thumbs up for the great stuff it did do. Settle in, this is a long one. On to the episode.

The show opens right where the last one left off, with punches being thrown. While Mon-El and Supergirl fight Reign to a standstill, Lena works feverishly to incorporate the Harun-El stone into a cure.

People are thrown through ceilings and walls. Mon acts as a living shield for Lena. Capes are used like lassos. And then, Lena slides to cure to Mon-El who injects it into Sam's neck.

In a great shot that many anticipated (given the 'Black Kryptonite' feel of the Harun-El), Sam and Reign split into two beings. The Reign aspect explodes into flame. Just like that Sam is cured.

This was a brief but very frenetic opening scene with great effects and choreography. This felt like the desperate battle it should be. Just fantastic. My one nitpick is that it is Mon-El who injected the cure. Why not Supergirl?

Of course, given this 'cure' was sent to Earth by Selena, I didn't believe for a second it would last.

With Sam cured, Kara gets to discuss her time on Argo. Her first request? Ask Lena to try and manufacture more so Argo will be safe.

But next is to have a heart to heart with Alex. She is going to go to Argo ... maybe for good. She has never felt like she fit in on Earth. Argo felt like home. Alura is there. They will keep in touch. But she has to go. And Alex is supportive, realizing that it is time for Kara to have some time for herself.

I can completely understand Kara wanting to go back and be on Argo and spend time with her mother. I just don't know if her comment on never fitting in makes sense given what we have seen.

But this is another one of those moments which resonates with this season's theme of humanity. Is there more powerful a statement about denying her humanity than Kara heading back to Krypton (albeit a chunk of it)?

We get a nice scene where the DEO wishes her well. All the agents raise their glasses. J'onn talks about the agency trying to live up to Supergirl's standards. And Kara gives a nice voice over speech about how everyone helped her fill a void and be accepted.

I was very happy that the CatCo side of things was also handled, albeit in a few seconds. Kara Danvers will be 'going on assignment' and therefore be away from the place for a while.

For a longtime fan like me, hearing the DEO talk so highly of her and hearing Supergirl herself talk about her life made me very happy.

Mon-El asks Kara to use Argo tech to send a signal to the Legion to pick him up on Earth. She instead invites him to join her. She could use his friendship. Now, just as he should have left in 318, Mon-El should do the right thing and say he better stay on Earth. And he should. With Supergirl's absence, Earth could use another hero. And it would be a little sacrifice on his part. Plus, you know, he'd be faithful to his wife. Instead he joins her.

And on Argo, they are accepted into Alura's home. And Kara meets up with her old friend and now Chief Peace Officer Thara Ak-Var.!!

Okay, can I just say that I can still be stunned at things like this. I live in a time where Supergirl is so wide-known that I am seeing a live action Thara. Unbelievable.

But time has passed. Thara is a wife and mother now. It isn't easy to go home.

Meanwhile, on Earth, Myr'nn tells J'onn that his lifetime is almost up. They will need to perform The Reach soon, a Martian ritual where the elder generation passes on their memories.

I have been very impressed with both David Harewood and Carl Lumbly this season. This discussion by Myr'nn catches J'onn off guard and you can see how painful and confusing it is to him. He doesn't want to let go of his father.

Back on Argo, Mon-El and Kara walk through the street market and run into the now cured Val again.

Then, a crane carrying building material malfunctions, almost crushing Kara. It seems to convenient for it to fail just at that moment and Kara is suspicious, especially when she sees a cloaked figure run away from the scene.

For me, I wonder if this scene was the writers playing off the title 'Not Kansas' as it seemed ripped right from the Wizard of Oz. How I would have loved a Yuda witch to say to Kara 'you have no power here. Be gone before someone drops a house on you.'

Argo has had nothing but peace for years so the idea of this being a murder attempt seems ludicrous to both Thara and Alura. But Kara knows, at least on Earth. things rarely happen by accident.

It's like I always say 'you can take the girl out of the DEO, but you can't take the DEO out of the girl.'

Believing Kara's instincts to be true, Mon-El gives her his Legion flight ring. At the very least, she can fly away from danger.

Hoo, seeing Supergirl wearing a Legion flight ring. That hit me right in the feels!

Then realizing there is engagement/wedding vibes? Gut punch!

Meanwhile, on Earth, the gun control plot is shoe-horned in.

The Guardian is attacked in a parking garage by someone with an assault rifle, right down to the slow-mo dropping of the bullet casings a la The Matrix.

The weapon is a Heel-15 (close enough to an AR-15), a rifle sold to the DEO under proprietary technology from a gun manufacturer. (And it can't be a DEO weapon. He has them all tagged since Winn's mother stole one earlier. That closes that plot loophole.) J'onn feels strongly that this isn't a weapon needed outside the military and wonders how it ended up in the hands of a criminal.

This leads them to the CEO of the gun manufacturer, your standard money-grubbing, 'safety be damned' white male complete in room adorned with historical guns and a cowboy sculpture. The Heel-15 can be sold to civilians as a hunting rifle. But a bump stock can make it an assault weapon. But that isn't his fault. The CEO recalls going shooting with his grandfather, a loving time. And after all he needs to make a buck.

All he needed was a mustache to twirl.

Listen, this is a serious topic and I want stronger gun laws. Trust me. I recently priced Kevlar backpack inserts for my kids. I am scared beyond words. But this seemed all too real (especially things like bump stock talk) to feel natural in a Supergirl episode. Make it a plasma rifle, talk in metaphor, and this would have seemed like a teaching moment and not a sermon.

Back on Argo, Kara confronts a cloaked figure while at a restaurant. She feels it is the person from the marketplace. But Thara says the woman is a well-respected citizen. Everyone thinks Kara is stressed out. And Kara seems a bit bored with Thara's talk about furniture arrangements. Again, it isn't easy to go home.

Alura tells Kara that she needs to leave her time on Earth as a warrior behind her. This is Argo. She is home. It makes me feel like maybe Kara has some mild PTSD from her heroics. She tells her mother she will try to care for herself but she follows her intuition which tells her things aren't right.

Oh my god ... super-intuition!!!!!

These are crazy days!

The gun subplot continues.

The DEO realizes how hard it is to track who buys guns in this country. James wonders why people think guns make them safer. At least Lena gives another side to the argument. She has a gun which she has for self-defense and which she has used for self-defense. (Of course, she also used it to threaten Morgan Edge). But this could be the first wedge in the Olsen/Luthor romance. When she goes full on evil, remember this moment.

Finally, the DEO tracks down the shooter from the earlier scene. He has posted a manifesto on his social media that he is going to kill people at his old law office, Vang and Morales. The DEO gets there in time for J'onn to talk him down.

Again, Harewood gives a powerful performance. He talks about how the gun brings fear not respect. He talks about how bullying doesn't defeat a bully. This all sounds very timely and important. I especially liked this shot with J'onn holding his hand to the barrel, almost Christ-like. We have seen similar hand shots in the past.

And similar scenes in the past. Remember when a powerless Kara also talked someone out of shooting? That's from way back in season 1. I can't help but think this was another callback. Especially that shot.

Walking in a garden, thinking about her new life on Argo, a veritable paradise, Kara wonders if she'll be able to get accustomed to things.

And then that Mon-El moment.

He arrives, in khakis and a button up shirt (when did J. Crew come to Argo). It matches their outfits from the dream sequence earlier in the season. I looked at the youngest Supergirl and said 'if they kiss, I will vomit.' Honestly, I shouldn't be that bilious about a relationship on a show. But this is ridiculous.

He talks about how he stayed around to come to grips with his feelings for her. And she strokes his beard. They are surrounded by the lush foliage like a wedding picture shoot.  It looks like a kiss is going to happen. I ran for a barf bag. For Rao's sake Kara ... he's still married!

But then a Kelex arrived and attacked them.Someone is after Kara. And she and Mon-El catch the cloaked figure who ran away from the market and the restaurant. It is that same woman.

She straight up tells them all that she is a witch of Juru. Selena is their high priestess. Their goals will happen.

J'onn's ship is gone. The Reign glyph burns on the Argo plain.  Mon-El and Supergirl are trapped.

That is ... until they signal the Legion to get them.

Still, this woman gave up the goods pretty easy. She must be pretty confident.

Nothing left but the wrap-up.

Given recent events, J'onn wants the DEO to convert entirely to non-lethal weapons. Half the troops walk out. The truth is if he meant what he said about Supergirl being their inspiration, this makes sense. And maybe we won't see Alex shoot people in the face and throat in next year's crossover. But it is a stretch for a military outfit to not have high ordnance.

J'onn also realizes he needs to move on with his father's wishes.

Lena is now working with Miss Tessmacher .. a Luthor/Tessmacher team again! And Lena recognizes that the Harun-El has properties she wasn't expecting.

And Alex is missing Ruby. In a bold move, she puts down the glass of booze and looks at adoption sites! Perhaps we will finally get the 'Alex has a drinking problem' plot. I was so happy to see this!

Sam and Ruby play around in their house reunited. But Sam suddenly seems seized by some force.

Look at the movie they are watching! It's Barry's favorite.

But here it is 'Singin' in the REIGN!'

Nice sight gag/movie pun!

And J'onn's ship returns to Earth carrying the three witches. Thomas Coville is there waiting for them with a Kryptonian crystal. Selena puts the crystal into the ground creating another evil Fortress.

Bring it on!!!

As you can see in this review, lots of links to prior reviews. The writers have really layered things nicely. We got Thara and super-intuition! We got a Wizard of Oz and a Singin' in the Rain visual pun. And that opening fight! Unreal! Plus we got plot progress.

So I'll put aside the heavy-handed gun plot and the ickiness of Mon-El. This was very good.