What to Watch Verdict
Supergirl may have her own plan to get her and her father out of the Phantom Zone after she sees the creatures leave to attack Silas and her friends. But, for now, this is the Lena Luthor show. (And that might not be a bad thing for an episode or two.)
Pros
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💥 Lena. Luthor.
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💥 Lex's trial is every ounce as infuriating as it's meant to be.
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💥 Oh hi, pops.
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💥 Brainy's speech to Dreamer highlights what makes their relationship so great.
Cons
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💥 There's just no rewriting Andrea Rojas. Her newsroom moments are gag-worthy at best after everything she did to the paper.
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💥 The Phantom Zone story is more distraction than intrigue.
This post contains spoilers for Supergirl season 6, episode 2. Check out our review of Supergirl season 6 episode 5.
This episode is the call-back to A Few Good Men that you expect it to be, but mostly it's a highlight reel of everything that makes Lena Luthor one of the most exceptional characters in the Arrowverse. With Supergirl still trapped in the Phantom Zone, the team fights frantically to ensure her return to their world. While they handle that, Lena's forced to reckon with the power that Lex Luthor has amassed, even with the understanding that taking him down could ruin her as well.
With the help of a vampire-like alien named Silas (Claude Knowlton), the team sets to work on their plan to get Supergirl (Melissa Benoist) out of her prison. Silas has no connection to the team prior to the episode, but what he does have is a husband who was once ensnared by the Phantom Zone and the understanding that pulling someone out of the Zone does nothing to save their sanity. Still, Alex Danvers (Chyler Leigh), J'onn J'onnz (David Harewood) and the rest of the team aren't willing to just let Supergirl go. So far as things in the Zone go, well... Kara faces a couple of surprises of her own.
When the Girl of Steel wakes up, she's not alone. Zor-El (Jason Behr) awaits his daughter, but neither living members of the House of El expected to find each other in their prison. Zor-El barely holds onto his "humanity," while Kara is unable to so much as leave the cave they occupy without being taken down by the Phantoms. Her father has lost hope, but Kara still sees things with the same optimism she's known for. I'm always here for a Supergirl ready to take on the world, but her involvement mostly plays as a distraction in this week's story.
"A Few Good Women" sees Lena (Katie McGrath) put herself in the line of fire. Her war on her brother is so ineffective — Lex (Jon Cryer) boils both her and Eve's (Andrea Brooks) testimonies down to the words of "bitter women" — that it ends up labeling her as public enemy number one. Lex is freed, and it's Lena now under investigation by the district attorney. The Trump allegory of Season 5 continues, but this time the Supergirl writers know there's no need for the fantastical powers. Lex himself spits out a common phrase used to describe the disgraced former president. "People like to hear it like it is," he tells his mother. "You just have to get them to the point where they no longer know if you're telling it as it is or as you want it to be.
Andrea Rojas (Julie Gonzalo) insists that her friend's testimony wasn't for nothing and that CatCo will continue to go after Lex, but there's just one problem there.
CatCo has no weight under the "leadership" of Andrea.
While Lena Luthor has teetered on the edge of evil for the majority of her tenure on the show, Andrea played a different part. Not only did she commit crimes under the guise of her public face, but she also destroyed any credibility of the paper she's now trying to use to take down Lex. Her motives may have changed, but she still turned the most respectable paper in National City into a clickbait farm. All of her grandstanding means little when the words of her reporters are tarnished because of her actions. Her arc in "A Few Good Women" would have infinitely more weight if her realization of selfishness included her resignation. Then, at the very least, CatCo could have the weight she wanted it to when William Dey (Staz Nair) and Nia Nal (Nicole Maines) take on Lex in print.
By the time Team Supergirl has the portal up and running, they come to the devastating realization that Crisis destroyed the Phantom Zone differently than it did the planets. While all of the realities outside of the Zone condensed into one, it did the opposite. It's now fractured into pieces, and their chances of finding Supergirl just lowered exponentially.
The emotions on the team are all running high, but it's Brainy's (Jesse Rath) that shine through the run-of-the-mill wrath. Maybe it's because of his normally calm demeanor, but everything Rath does this week works. His furious grab of the pizza (thank you, M'gann) adds a level of unexpected comedy while his speech to Dreamer reminds us what makes the two's relationship so exceptional.
Supergirl may have her own plan to get her and her father out of the Phantom Zone after she sees the creatures leave to attack Silas and her friends. But, for now, this is the Lena Luthor show. (And I'm not necessarily mad about it.)
