written by Cara Russell
SPOILER WARNINGS ARE IN EFFECT
If you watched the Season Six premiere of Supergirl and were completely lost…well, join the club. This is the COVID-delayed Season Five finale, without much help to smooth over the gaps.
I tried to re-watch part of Season Five to catch myself up, but…we’re still in a pandemic, and “the digital world is a plague and works to divide us all from our basic humanity and personal agency” aged faster than a speeding locomotive. I couldn’t do it. That plotline was terrible.
Fortunately the season premiere is a Jon Cryer party, so we can sort of ride his glee for playing Lex and hopefully arrive somewhere better. Lex co-opted Obsidian to brainwash people into loving him, but is partially thwarted when mom tells him to play nice with his sister, and there’ll be no killing Lena lest Lillian turn on him, something he’s actually mortally afraid of. The super-gang, joined by the long-absent but still adored M’gann M’orzz, decide to fix Myriad (another digital brainwashing device) to counteract the effects. This requires J’onn and M’gann to link themselves to the Obsidian satellites and nearly fry themselves in the process before Myriad can take effect.
Supergirl offers herself up as bait, to trade herself for the controls to Obsidian, but it goes poorly for her when Lex shows up shooting Kryptonite from his hands. Fortunately, Lena was prepared for this, so while Lex is doing his victory dance set to Queen’s “We Are the Champions,” a flying sun lamp rejuvenates Kara and delivers her Kryptonite-proof onesie. From here, we’re given an all-out CGI super-smackdown as our heroes pile onto a flying Lex. He gets the upper hand, and while he loses his powers to some sort of sun dart from Alex, Lex still “wins” by sending Supergirl to the Phantom Zone.
…Or so he thinks, as Lena uses Myriad to remove the memory of Supergirl’s secret identity from him, Lillian, and others who would use it to harm Kara. At least Lena tells the team about it, though no one seems to have a moral objection to all the mind manipulation going on. With Season Six being the show’s last, I am hopeful it’ll stop being a recurring plot.
Oh, and lots and lots of character moments, but as I can’t remember who half these people are or what they were up to previously, many didn’t land with me. Your mileage may vary.
Supergirl airs Tuesday nights at 9 Eastern/8 Central on the CW. Cara can be found on Twitter @virtualcara.