Posted in: DC Universe, Movies, TV | Tagged: Alex Danvers, bloodsport, cw, entertainment, HRL, Melisa Benoist, morgan edge, Reign, supergirl, television

Supergirl Season 3, Episode 1 Recap: The Girl Of Steel

This article contains spoilers for the Supergirl episode 'The Girl of Steel'.

Supergirl returned for her third season (second on the CW) last night with a really interesting episode. It starts off with Kara having a dream of Mon-El and how he is in this beautiful location along with her mother, giving us our first look at Erica Durance as Alura. We then see her in action, stopping Bloodsport from killing Alex and Maggie, even though he got away. They are able to identify who Bloodsport is by the blood he leaves on Kara's hand.

Everyone has noticed that Kara is distancing herself from her friends and family. They want to give her time to grieve the loss of Mon-El. We then meet Morgan Edge, who is going to be a thorn in both Supergirl and Lena Luthor's side this year. He wants to revitalize the harbor district, but Lena and James Olsen are against it. So Edge tries to buy Catco — but Lena buys it instead.

The reason Catco was open for a takeover is because Cat Grant is now the Press Secretary for the President. Both James and Alex try to get through to Kara — but she refuses, telling James she quit and telling Alex she isn't feeling anything because she's better than human.

We find out the U.S. government has a Daxamite spaceship hidden away. They figure out Bloodsport was creating a cloaking device and is likely to attack the Girl of Steel statue dedication ceremony at the harbor. We learn that Edge is the one backing Bloodsport, who uses a submarine to attack the harbor.

During the chaos, we are introduced to a woman with a teenaged daughter who shows incredible strength trying to save the girl… this is Reign, and she's surprised at her own strength. Supergirl tries to stop the sub, gets knocked unconscious, and Mon-El's voice tells her to wake up. She does, lifts the sub up out of the water, and saves the day.

When Edge, angry at losing out on Catco, goes to threaten Lena, Supergirl arrives and flies off with Edge. She leaves him on a sailing cargo ship after telling him that she knows he was the one backing Bloodsport. We end with Alex asking J'onn to give her away at the wedding and Kara coming around and returning to being her old self. Oh, and there's something under the water… maybe J'onn's dad?

The episode was solid. It showed the real, lasting ramifications of the choice she made last season. She was ignoring the pain by diving into being Supergirl — the type of thing a lot of people do. It was also a good introduction to Edge, Reign, and possibly setting up the return of Mon-El.

Where the show faltered a bit was in their portrayal of Bloodsport. He was basically just a hired goon that got very little screen time — not worth wasting an actual comic villain on. If this was just a one and done villain of the week, then it was a waste. The Alex and Maggie wedding stuff was good, but also seemed a bit rushed. We only got to see Alex hesitate once before Maggie started asking her if she really wants to get married — I think we needed one or two more moments to set that up right.

Melissa Benoist carried herself with a lot more confidence in this episode, and it works. The episode had a good balance of action and drama, and it felt like it continued the story forward. A lot of season premieres feel like setups or resets, more worried about the long term. This was the writers acknowledging that you don't just send your boyfriend off into space and feel fine after.

And next week we are introduced to the villain Psi, a character created by Paul Kupperberg and Carmine Infantino in the pages of Daring New Adventures of Supergirl #1 in 1982. She's appeared a few times, fighting Supergirl originally, joining the Suicide Squad for a mission and dying — and then being resurrected as part of the Black Lightning Corps. She also shows up in the New 52.

Psi most recently appeared in the digital Adventures of Supergirl series last year. In the comics, she's a pretty powerful psychic who can manipulate people and move objects. She could create a sort of force field around herself, deflecting Supergirl's punches. How much of that ability they use in the series remains to be seen.

https://youtu.be/mFKr6nFz0LY

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