This week’s episode of “Supergirl” took a noticeable step backwards from last week’s jam packed hour. “Fight or Flight” pitted the Girl of Steel against Reactron, a former foe of Superman who is seeking vengeance for the death of his wife. As Kara ignores James’s warnings that Reactron is too tough for her to handle, Grant dishes out an expose on Supergirl.
The whole revelation that Kara’s aunt Astra is the season’s master villain took a backseat this week. While it’s not a new concept for a show to employ, returning to a monster of the week format so quickly gives viewers a bit of whiplash. (No pun intended given Melissa Benoist starred in “Whiplash”)
This week’s big theme was Kara wanting to take down the bad guy herself without any assistance, which was practically the only topic out of Kara’s mouth this hour. While you can understand where she’s coming from, the discussion simply wore out its welcome. James even says, “Stubbornness runs in the family” calling back to the well known (and well lampooned) fact that Superman accepts very little help. Which makes the twist of him saving Kara’s life slightly comical.
The hard fact is that Kara barely learns a lesson in this episode. James saves her life by calling Superman and she’s mad at him. She ends up beating Reactron on her own and James congratulates her and all seems well. There’s no moment of Kara realizing the moral of the day, which normally would be a cheesy scene, but here, it’s needed. At the end of the episode, Kara is practically the same girl from the start.
The episode has another few missteps as well. Maxwell Lord returns after a brief appearance in “Stronger Together” and is completely superfluous beyond being a hostage, although the banter between him and Grant indicates that there’s more to come. There’s also some far too on the nose hinting of a love triangle between Kara, Winn and James (Just once, can we NOT have a love triangle?) which is rarely sustainable for a season after being obvious from episode 3. And the reveal of Lucy Lane, Lois’s little sister, was obvious from a mile away.
“Fight or Flight” was a letdown episode with splatters of moments, including a touching closing scene between Kara and Alex, but had far too many missteps. It’s by no means a deal breaker, but every great show has a weak episode and this is “Supergirl’s” first.