“Strange Visitor From Another Planet” pitted Henshaw against a White Martian, a member of the race that extinguished his family, forcing Henshaw to make a difficult decision. Grant tries to reconnect with her son Adam with Kara’s help.
This episode notably put all of last week’s developments on hold to focus on two very specific storylines: Henshaw’s struggle with the White Martian and Grant’s conflict with Adam. What’s funny about this is that almost every other character takes a backseat this week- Lucy gets one line and Winn, on the heels of his fantastic performance last week, gets two. It’s frustrating in a show that so far has put a lot of effort into moving the characters and story along at a breakneck pace. Taking a break from these plot threads so soon feels a bit disappointing.
On the plus side, Henshaw got some good material this week with some pretty great acting from David Harewood. The flashback scenes to Mars were also visually impressive with very convincing effects. The only downside was the villainous White Martian herself. At first, she was a cartoonish jerk and near the end, when she went into full monster mode, she hammed it up big time. It would’ve been nice for the villain to be more menacing given how much it tears up Henshaw.
The whole Adam subplot really served to give Kara yet another love interest- Does she really need more?- and that’s a problem. Grant didn’t get the greatest deal of development, given most of it was back in “Hostile Takeover” when Adam was first brought up. Blake Jenner is great as Adam and his chemistry with Kara is palpable, but when the show takes up half an episode to solely introduce love interest #3, something’s wrong.
“Strange Visitor From Another Planet” was a mixed bag. Henshaw’s emotional arc was well done, but practically everything else fell by the wayside. Though every other episode has been fairly solid, this one was a definite downgrade. But again, it’s only the second letdown episode and the season’s more than halfway through.
Supergirl airs Mondays on The CW.