‘Supergirl’ [2×13] “Mr. & Mrs. Mxyzptlk”

Supergirl finds herself the object of affection to a 5th-dimensional trickster and in a middle of one crazy love triangle.

Supergirl (Melissa Benoist) is courted by a 5th-dimensional trickster Mxyzptlk (Peter Gadiot) as he claims her to be his one true love. Right on the verge of finally being with Kara, Mon-el (Chris Wood) finds himself feeling jealous of the lengths Mxyzptlk goes to woe her and attempts to destroy him at all costs.

Alex (Chyler Leigh) is excited to spend her first Valentine’s day with girlfriend Maggie (Floriana Lima). The excitement is short-lived when it turns out Maggie vehemently hates everything about Valentine’s day. Ignoring the wishes of her girlfriend Alex tries to do something special but it backfires resulting into a confrontation between the two.

After nearly being jumped at the Alien bar Winn (Jeremy Jordan) is rescued by a bold new alien Lyra (Tamzin Merchant). Sparks fly between the two but Winn must navigate his feelings carefully after Lyra reveals she’s never met a human who truly had feelings for an alien partner.

This episode was filled with romance, crazy tricks, and Hamilton references? Let’s get into all of that!

I’ll fly you to the moon if you just say ‘I do’.

Let’s just rip the band-aid off shall we, after 7 or 8 episodes of will they won’t they, we still cannot see the appeal of Kara and Mon-el. We really wanted to like them and we gave them chance after chance to woe us and this episode confirmed what we first thought. We’re not buying the romantic relationship at all. Now we’ve said this before Chris Wood and Melissa Benoist do have chemistry, however, it plays more familial to us. The scene between Kara and Mon-el having a spat about how to handle Mxyzptlk in the DEO was truly funny. Wood still manages to bring a subtle comedy that we enjoy, and the banter itself was hilarious. In fact, this episode would have been immensely more enjoyable if it was played big sister, little brother. The big make out at the end we suppose should have made us ship it but instead fell flat.

Speaking of comedy and romance, we were delightfully entertained with Peter Gadiot who brought a quirky charm to intergalactic stalker Mxyzptlk. Don’t confuse that with us condoning or somehow pardoning his actions (Mxyzptlk was a real creep). More like we had several laughs at the insane fast talking one liners.

Mxyzptlk: “Oh I didn’t see you there tall, dark, and BLANDsome.”

The Hamilton style duel he forces Mon-el into was just one of the tickling moments brought to us by Mixy. The Superman fake out was another moment that had us laughing. All in all, Mxyzptlk thought he was entitled to Kara because he was lonely and took no for an answer and it was nice to see her outsmart him and send him away at the end. It’s also why it feels slightly unbalanced her attraction to Mon-el whose characterization consistently takes a step back. Is someone as strong and willed as Supergirl really falling for these barely there attempts at changing?

In the end, we feel this plot would have been better served if the Kara and Mon-el romance didn’t drag it down. Also, knowing what we know of Mxyzptlk from the comics, we don’t think we’ve seen the last of him. We can’t deny that we’d love to see Gadiot again and more of Mxyzptlk’s nefarious schemes.

A little bit of inter-species lovin’ never hurt anybody.

We were extremely pleased to see Winn get another shot at love after his last two attempts went so horribly wrong. When the show mentions humans dating aliens it’s hard to see the oddness when it features human-like aliens such as Kara, Clark or even J’onn in his Hank Henshaw body. So, we wanted to give props for keeping Lyra visually an alien. Nice job from Danielle Fowler and Lisa Leonard for their makeup work on Lyra’s scales.

What was especially welcomed was seeing the vulnerability in Lyra after she tells Winn that people date aliens as an experience or experiment. While not as jarring as being a whole other species, minority men and women have felt this same fear when stepping into interracial dating. The way Supergirl slips in socially relevant commentary like this is always refreshing to see.

We think it’s due time that Winn have a good story arc and this looks like a good one.

Valentine’s day, shmalentines day.

We’ve mentioned it in small parts but the relationship between Alex and Maggie has been a joy to watch. We’ve seen the positive impact it’s making on LGBT viewers and we can only hope it continues down this path. Chyler Lima and Floriana Lima have great chemistry with one another and it shows in every smile-inducing domestic moment.

We have yet to really learn much about Maggie so we were happy this episode gave us a little more background on her. We felt for both characters this time around. Alex has yet to really experience being in love and all the fun that comes with relationships up until this point. So, we could understand Alex wanting to have a little romancing on the most relationship based holiday of the year. Maggie’s explosion about being thrown out of her house when outed by a girl she liked on Valentine’s day crushed us. Kudos to Lima for playing Maggie with many layers.

Maggie: “It all makes me want to puke, I hate Valentine’s day”

In the end, we were happy that Maggie could get past her trauma regarding Valentine’s day and reinvent the holiday with happier memories. Maggie and Alex are a couple we want to see last and hope to see more us as the season progresses.

Final Verdict: This episode had all the parts to be great but the unnecessary pairing of Kara and Mon-el hindered it.

What makes Supergirl special used to be it’s bold theme of woman empowerment and the way it embraced both sides of the woman of steel as both a hero and a girl with emotions and agency. We’re afraid that is becoming lost in the shuffle this season as the emphasis on Mon-el and in some ways Guardian have pushed Supergirl to the background of her own show. Having other heroes on the show is nothing new for the superhero genre, just look at the CW’s other superhero titles. They all eventually form a team because no one hero can do it alone but unlike Supergirl, Green Arrow and the Flash are never second best, so why is Supergirl becoming an afterthought despite being the titular heroine. Writers Greg Berlanti, Andrew Kreisberg, and Ali Adler can make a great show, we saw it in season 1. For now we hope this latter half of the season finds itself at it’s best and it’s best is with Supergirl.

We also hope Mxyzptlk is not our only glimpse into the magic world of DC comics and his character could be used as a crossover character. Hopefully the DCTV runners take advantage of that character. Really enjoyed getting to see the Fortress of Solitude again and a comic cameo of Jor-el (Supermans father) in ice form was a nice nod to comic fans. The preview for next week teased the return we’ve all been waiting for with Jeremiah Danvers.

His appearance gives up high hopes for next week’s episode. We can’t wait to see how his return shakes up the crew.

QUESTION COMMENTS AND CONCERNS

• We wanted to comment on how lovely it was to see the normalcy of Alex and Maggie as a couple. Among other things, Supergirl has done a wonderful job with positive LGBT representation for their storyline.
• Promo’s teased Cadmus back in the picture will we be seeing Lilian Luthor again?
• Do you guys think we’ll see Mxyzptlk again?
• Will we ever see another Superfriend’s game night?
• Tweet us some of your predictions @TVAfterDark with the hashtag #Supergirl

You can catch episodes of Supergirl on Monday’s, 8/7c. Channel: The CW