Title: Supergirl Season 3 Episode 2: “Triggers”
Genre: Action, Adventure, Drama, Science Fiction, Superhero
Platform: TV – CW
Director: David McWhirter
Writers: Gabriel Llanas and Anna Musky-Goldwyn
Rating: TV-PG
Release: October 16, 2017
Cast: Melissa Benoist, Mehcad Brooks, Chyler Leigh, Jeremy Jordan, David Harewood
Feature image: Source
[Spoilers]
“Oh, you think you’re the cat and I’m the bird? You’ve got it backward.” Psi – Supergirl
The episode opens with a montage of Kara Danvers (Melissa Benoist) alone in bed; Alex Danvers (Chyler Leigh) and Maggie Sawyer (Floriana Lima) in bed together; Samantha Arias (Odette Annable) getting her daughter Ruby (Emma Tremblay) ready for school. The montage is set to the song “California”. In the car, Samantha and Ruby discuss Samantha lifting the tower off her. Samantha attributes it to ‘mama bear’ adrenaline. Lena Luthor (Katie McGrath) walks into CatCo and is met by Eve Teschmacher (Andrea Brooks). James Olsen (Mehcad Brooks) is surprised to see Lena. He didn’t believe that after Lena bought CatCo that she actually planned to run it herself. Kara is happy to see her. Maggie and Alex argue at the DEO about having either a band or DJ play at their reception. Alex and Maggie try to get Winn Schott’s (Jeremy Jordan) opinion. Winn: “I don’t think I should get involved.” Maggie: “Because you’re on my side, aren’t you?” Alex: “Oh yeah, right.” Winn: “Well…” Alex: “What? Wait, I saved your life!” Winn: “Yeah, but like so has everybody else here.” Hank Henshaw/J’onn J’onzz (David Harewood) sides with Alex, you can get ‘jiggy’ with a DJ. An unarmed blond villain who goes by Psi (Yael Grobglas) is robbing a bank. The guards aren’t trying to stop her and everyone is cowering in fear. Supergirl flies in and confronts her in the vault. Psi: “Oh, you think you’re the cat and I’m the bird? You’ve got it backward.” She puts the whammy on Kara. Maggie finds Kara pressed against the wall, terrified.
Hank scans Kara for psychic residue, he determines that Psi is a Metahuman. Samantha isn’t having that great a day either since she gets a call from Ruby’s school, she punched another student. Samantha doesn’t need this on her first day at a new job. Lena and James clash over her not involving him in a meeting. Lena wants to discuss an assignment with Kara but she has to split again. The DEO spotted Psi in a bank parking lot. She puts another psychic whammy on Supergirl; Hank tries to block it from the DEO but Psi overwhelms him. Kara mind goes back to the day she left Krypton. Her mother Alura Zor-El (Erica Durance) tells her that because of the yellow sun on Earth, she’ll do extraordinary things here. From her space pod she sees Krypton explode from space. Kara hears Alex on coms and wakes up on the parking garage floor.
Back at the DEO’s sickbay, Kara confides to Winn what happened to her. Along with seeing Krypton explode, she’s relived being in her pod all alone, confined, with the quiet of space, knowing she lost everyone and not knowing what is ahead for her. Winn diagnoses Psi is attacking people’s fear, using the fear centers of the brain. He will adjust the psychic dampeners for it. Kara hasn’t told Alex and Hank this because she didn’t want to worry them. She only told Winn so he can adjust the dampeners.
After talking to the school principal, Samantha and Ruby are back home. Ruby hit her classmate because when Ruby told her that Samantha had superpowers, she called Ruby a liar. Samantha tries to tell her the adrenaline story again, but Ruby doesn’t believe it. Samantha tells Ruby she is an ordinary person and tells her to let it go. Ruby won’t, she thinks Samantha is calling her a liar too, and she leaves the table.
“I didn’t spend $750 million on a company as a favor to a friend.” Lena Luthor – Supergirl
Kara is back at CatCo; Lena tries to find out why Kara keeps leaving work. Lena thinks it has something to do with Mon-El and offers Kara time off. Kara gets mad and tells Lena what is bothering her is personal and she only wants to discuss work issues at work; Lena obligates her request. Lena: “I didn’t spend $750 million on a company as a favor to a friend.” She tells Kara she can’t leave work whenever she wants or refuse assignments. Kara leaves to do the assignment Lena wanted to discuss earlier, an investigation of Morgan Edge. Alex calls Kara and tells her there is another bank robbery. When Kara gets on the elevator, she feels claustrophobic and has a panic attack. Kara eventually flies out of the elevator through the roof. When she gets to the bank, Psi has already left.
Winn examines Kara in sickbay. He tells her that this wasn’t a psychic intrusion from Psi. She has gotten into Kara’s head, but Kara just had a regular human panic attack. Kara won’t accept that ‘human weakness’. Alex walks in later and makes Winn tell her what is going on by only staring at him.
“If I don’t have Supergirl, what do I have?” “You’ve got me.” Kara Danvers and Alex Danvers – Supergirl
Kara tries to do a Kryptonian meditation at home to strengthen her mind. Alex comes home and they discuss how Kara is feeling. Alex: “Why didn’t you tell me that you saw Krypton? That you were having panic attacks?” Kara: “I didn’t want you to worry.” Alex: “You fight the most dangerous and evil people on the planet, so I’m kinda always going to worry.” Kara feels like part of her life is broken, she lost Mon-El. Lena is her boss and is questioning her whereabouts, she is afraid of losing being Supergirl. Kara: “If I don’t have Supergirl, what do I have?” Alex: “You’ve got me.” They share a big sisterly hug.
Samantha comes back home with pizza. Ruby has snuck out of the house and is eating pizza at a pizza parlor. Samantha texts her, but Ruby ignores the text. Across the street from the pizza parlor, Psi is robbing another bank. She makes the guards think that they are being attacked by bees. When the police arrive, she makes the crane operator think he is covered in snakes, in his panic he drops his wrecking ball on top of the squad car. Ruby watches this and sends a text to her mom, “Come save me.” Ruby leaves the restaurant and walks towards danger.
“Mind over matter.” Supergirl – Supergirl
The area is a war zone, the wrecking ball is wrecking the place. Samantha arrives to save her daughter. When it looks like the wrecking ball is going to crush them, Supergirl catches it. Kara goes to confront Psi with a psionic inhibiter ray gun Winn build to take her down. It doesn’t work on her. Psi’s psychic power knocks Kara a block away. Alex gets to Kara, she tells Alex that her vision from her pod wasn’t her, but Mon-El. She is sure she sent him to his death. Alex convinces her that she didn’t send him to his death, she did what Alura did for her, send him away to save him. That empowers Kara to take Psi on. Psi: “Fear is a powerful tool.” Kara is able to withstand her psychic attacks. Psi: “Why aren’t you scared anymore?” Kara: “Mind over matter.” [Kara head butts her.]
Alex recognizes Ruby and Samantha and tells Ruby that rubies are strong, Ruby adds that they are second to diamonds. Alex tells her she is strong and smart. Samantha asks Ruby why she wants her to have super powers so badly. She finally figures it out after Ruby asks her if Supergirl has a job. Ruby thinks that if Samantha had superpowers, she wouldn’t have to work and could just spend time with Ruby. She assures her daughter that she is the most important thing in her life. Maggie complements Alex with her abilities with kids. Alex thinks it will be useful with their kids. Maggie never thought of herself as a MOM. They hadn’t discussed having children. Alex: “That’s something we should talk about.”
Back at CatCo, Kara apologizes to Lena for her behavior. They hug and make up; who should walk in but Samantha Arias herself. Lena has hired her to run L-Corp while she is running CatCo.
The final montage, while putting up something, Samantha picks up a crowbar to see if she can bend it. She can’t. Alex and Kara are on the couch watching “The Wizard of Oz”. James and Lena stiffly say goodnight to each other. M’gann M’orzz (Sharon Leal) in Green Martian form sends a psychic message to J’onn, he must come back to Mars.
Kara is still feeling all of her loses, Krypton and Mon-El, and the last person she needed to be up against is Psi. Psi has psionic powers, and she can target people’s fears. Kara’s greatest weapon was Alex, she was able to give Kara the strength to fight Psi and win. Kara wasn’t having a lot of success on the employment front. She was basically the worst employee in the world. I give credit to Lena for not letting her friendship for Kara prevent her from acting like the boss. James and the audience knows why Kara is leaving whenever she wants, but since Kara won’t tell Lena she is Supergirl, Lena has a right to be upset. Their friendship is strong enough to deal with these little bumps, but how strong will it be when Lena finds out who Kara is. Cat figured out who she is, with Lena running CatCo, she has to figure it out too eventually. You’d think the hole in her elevator and roof would give her a hint. James and Lena aren’t getting off to a great start either. I don’t know what made him think Lena was going to spend $750 million and leave him to run it. She should have given him a heads up that she was coming, but he works for her now and he should buck up.
Hard to believe that Maggie and Alex never discussed having a family, but people do it all the time. Since we know that Floriana Lima is recurring this season, could this issue derail Alex and Maggie? Ruby doesn’t buy the adrenaline cover story, even with adrenaline, her mother can’t lift up a tower. Samantha doesn’t know she has super powers or her alien origin. It’s wild that the two Kryptonian women will know each other through Lena. Lena does attract beautiful alien woman. I should hang out with Lena.
Good episode, we see that the Samantha storyline is important this season, when she begins to learn about her origin, we’ll get to see what moves her from loving single mom Samantha Arias to supervillain Reign. This could be an exciting story if done correctly. Psi was a good villain, I hope she pops up again. The action was good but not as good as last week’s. The next episode finds J’onn back home in Mars. See you on the red planet.
Grade: B+
- Moon Knight: Steven Grant of the Giftshop - April 6, 2022
- Eternals: Through the Ages - April 3, 2022
- Shang-Chi and the Legend of the Ten Rings: Slackers - March 12, 2022