Jon Cryer makes his “Supergirl” debut as Lex Luthor in “O Brother, Where Art Thou?” And you know what? He’s actually one of the most interesting, diabolical and compelling “Supergirl” villains to date! Who’d have thunk it?
With James’s life hanging in the balance, Lena is forced to make an alliance with the dying Lex Luthor to save his life. J’onn faces off against Manchester, while a wedge is driven between Alex and Kara.
In Times of Crisis | Almost immediately, this week’s episode disproves the naysayers of the much maligned casting of Jon Cryer as Lex Luthor by opening with a flashback to before Kara became Supergirl, as Lex has Metropolis held hostage and is showing off to Lena by murdering an entire fleet of police helicopters…. off screen, but still! In present day, Lex is dying after flooding his system with Kryptonite, for some reason, something to do with killing Superman, I guess. He is released from prison under watchful eyes of FBI agents at the Luthor mansion, working with Lena to test her superhuman serum, because in a shocking twist, he was the one funding her research.
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This is perfectly timed with James getting rushed to the hospital after being shot, the doctors telling Alex and James’s sister Kelly that paralysis is a possibility.
When J’onn and Kara leave the hospital to find Manchester, assuming that he shot James, Alex gets angry at Kara for abandoning James. On the plus side, Alex bonds with Kelly as they wait for James to undergo surgery. Sparks flying?
Race Against Time | For some reason, Alex is trying to convince Kelly to use Lena’s experimental and 100% unstable serum to save James’s life. Okay, ignoring the fact that this is coming from the same woman who has a heart attack every time Kara is around a crime scene, since when did Alex become convinced that the serum works?!!? As if to prove my point, Lena and Lex are still testing the serum on tissue samples to try to get it to not be lethal. In fairness, Lex comes up with the solution that makes the serum work and also tells a sweet story about meeting Lena’s biological mother, who was not only Irish, but a legitimately good and loving person.
Meanwhile, Kara and J’onn are trying to locate Manchester, who is bombarding J’onn’s mind with images of Kara and Alex dead and has also retrieved a Martian staff from a season ago that I honestly can’t remember what it does. Just as James is going into surgery, a power outage hits National City, threatening James’s life, as Supergirl and J’onn fly off to find Manchester attacking a dam.
A Madman Unleashed | As Supergirl tries to stop the dam from breaking apart and Lena arrives with the serum to save James, J’onn fights Manchester and takes the staff from him and uses it to disintegrate Manchester into nothing, which he just accepts, having got what he wanted. J’onn retrieves Brainy’s Legion ring- speaking of, he gets a smooch from Nia!- but walks away a changed man.
James is a-okay, but Lena returns to the mansion to inform Lex that she knows he pulled the power to National City in an effort to force her to test her cure. Even more troubling, he had James shot. You see, Lena’s serum can also cure whatever Lex is dying from, but she refuses to give it to him. And here’s where things go off the rails: Lex reveals that the FBI guy trailing him not only already gave him the cure, but is Otis Graves in disguise, and he also had sweet little Eve Tessmocker on his payroll the whole time, and he has her knock out Lena and hold her hostage in the mansion, which he somehow turns invisible so no one can find her, AND he slaughters the entire FBI team on his way out! If you saw any of this coming, you are officially a psychic! As Lex and Otis fly away in the helicopter, Supergirl arrives to stare him down…
“Supergirl” airs Sundays on The CW.