‘Supergirl’ 2.11 Recap: “I Can’t Imagine My Life Without You”

The White Martians finally come for M’gann while Kara deals with some quality-time issues with sister Alex in this week’s so-so episode of ‘Supergirl’, which is full of action and loaded with angst.

Things get underway with Kara visiting the alien bar where Mon-El works. It’s still obvious that she has feelings for him, but Mon-El has totally tuned her out because she told him that she just wants to be friends. (Pointer for the ladies out there: If you tell us you’re not into us and you actually are, we’re never going to know!). However, Kara is excited because it’s her “Earth Birthday” – the 13th anniversary of the day she landed on Earth – which she always spends with Alex. Unfortunately, things turn sour when Alex tells her that she’s going to a Barenaked Ladies concert with Maggie instead.

M’gann is working her shift at the club too. When she goes into the back alley to take out the garbage, she confronts a stranger who has been following her. But it’s just J’onn disguised as a homeless guy. He’s been keeping his eye on M’gann because he’s worried about the White Martians finding her. Not long afterward, a White Martian does show up to fight them, but Supergirl soon joins in, driving the alien away.

Later when she’s alone, M’gann gets a visit from her White Martian (disguised as a human) ex-husband Armek (we learn later in the episode that it was an arranged marriage), who gives M’gann an ultimatum: Turn herself in and return with him to Mars, or watch the people that she loves die.

The best part of this week’s episode is the middle portion, where J’onn takes M’gann to the DEO for protection and the gang there (which includes Kara, Winn, Alex and a few other DEO members) encounter a second M’gann. After one of the M’ganns morphs into his White Martian form and attacks J’onn, the dust settles and everyone in the room realizes that the White Martian has changed into human form once again… but which one of them is it?

Borrowing (stealing?) a scene from 1982’s ‘The Thing’, J’onn puts the base on lockdown and has everyone place a hand in front of a flame, which will reveal the White Martian’s skin underneath. This leads to a nicely tense scene between all the participants and a sense of paranoia that’s really fun to watch. It’s too bad that the writers only make this a brief part of the episode, because a whole story based on this could have really given all the characters a chance to voice their true feelings about one another.

Anyway, it turns out the White Martian has taken the form of Winn. Once he reveals himself, he goes running off deeper into DEO headquarters, resulting in J’onn and the others splitting up into two teams – one with J’onn and M’gann and the other with Supergirl and Alex. It isn’t long before J’onn comes across the cocooned body of the real Winn… along with the cocooned body of Alex. Not only are there two White Martians in the building, one of them is the “Alex” with Supergirl.

As is par for the course in most of these episodes, the climax here is a lot of fisticuffs. M’gann eventually kills the White Martian that used to be her husband and the real Alex shows up to zap the Martian who had taken her form.

The final scene has M’gann telling J’onn that she’s headed back to Mars in the hopes of converting some other White Martians to her cause. Of course, this happens in the same episode where J’onn finally opens up to M’gann and admits his feelings for her. I have no idea if this is an excuse to dismiss the actress from the series for a while or if viewers will actually see what she’s doing on Mars, but I’m guessing it’s the former and we won’t see M’gann again until perhaps the end of this season (if even then).

Alex comes over to Kara’s place with a cupcake (hey, at least it’s not potstickers… some of you will get that) to celebrate her Earth Birthday. They talk a little about Kara’s feelings for Mon-El. The next day, Kara goes back to work to find Mon-El and Ms. Teschmacher heading out on a date together. Maybe it’s time for Kara to turn her attention back to Jimmy (who doesn’t appear this week, by the way) again.

Episode Verdict

This is another average episode of the series. Once again, David Harewood gives a solid performance as J’onn, but the episode never really lives up to the ominous threat by the White Martians, which had seemed to be building up over the past few episodes. The Kara/Mon-El on-again/off-again romance is getting kind of boring too, especially since Kara went through almost the exact same thing with Jimmy in Season 1.

This series really needs to get back to Kara’s search for her father and perhaps even the return of Non and the other Kryptonians. I feel a bit of a stumble here in the middle of Season 2, as if the show-runners aren’t quite sure where to take things or what characters to focus on. Am I wrong, or does everyone else feel the same?

2 comments

  1. Alex says she’s been into Barenaked Ladies since college. No double meaning there… :groan:

    What was with all the BNL talk this episode? I expected the band to make an appearance at the end, but no.

    Kind of a clunker episode. Very blatant ripoff of ‘The Thing’. The part about the White Martians needing to keep the humans they’re imitating nearby makes no sense given that neither J’onn nor M’gann has ever done that when impersonating humans. And M’gann’s last-minute decision to return to Mars seems like a quite contrived excuse to write the actress off the show for a while.

  2. Nagara

    It sucks that Megan is leaving. She was one of the bright points of The second season. Just like the first season, the best parts are when there’s no action set pieces being thrown in.

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