‘Supergirl’ 2.14 Recap: “You’re Either Part of the Family or You’re Not”

Jeremiah Danvers returns to his family and friends in the latest episode of ‘Supergirl’. But is he the Jeremiah that everyone knows and loves?

In perhaps one of the biggest surprises so far in the series, it’s revealed at the beginning of this week’s entry that Kara and Mon-El actually spent the night together. (They were last seen making out on Kara’s couch, but I honestly didn’t expect it to go further. I guess the Girl of Steel really is fast!) Mon-El wakes up in Kara’s bed alone, and she shows up shortly thereafter with flowers and coffee for him. Kara wants to keep their relationship on the low-down for now, but when they head off to the DEO, Mon-El isn’t in the building for more than 30 seconds when he blurts out to everyone that he and Kara are now an item.

The DEO is alerted to a convoy coming out of Cadmus. A big semi-truck is escorted by a number of SUVs. Supergirl and Martian Manhunter fly off to intercept and get shot at (yeah, like that’s going to work) as they approach. The two of them stop the truck (Supergirl actually disconnects the trailer from the cab) and open the back to find Jeremiah (Dean Cain) chained up inside.

Jeremiah is reunited with his daughters and his wife, Eliza (Helen Slater). He reveals that Cadmus has used Supergirl’s heat vision (a sample of which was taken in an earlier episode) to create a nuclear fusion bomb. While everyone is happy to have Jeremiah back, Mon-El is suspicious as to why he reappeared at the exact same time Cadmus has created a weapon.

During a reunion dinner that night at Kara’s place, Mon-El once again voices his distrust of Jeremiah and promptly gets kicked out of the apartment. Seeing him out, Jeremiah tells Mon-El that he knows who he really is. What that means for future episodes of the series is anyone’s guess, but it seems that Mon-El may be hiding a secret about himself.

Mon-El then enlists the aid of Winn to keep tabs on Jeremiah, who has been invited back to the DEO full time by J’onn. They catch Jeremiah looking up files in the DEO computers and take the information to Kara. When the three of them confront Jeremiah about it (in front of the others), he claims he was just looking up old files on his daughters to see what they’ve been doing while he was gone. Winn confirms that these seem to be the files Jeremiah accessed.

Kara’s new suspicions about her adoptive father put a rift between her and Alex, who remains loyal to Jeremiah. Meanwhile, the DEO picks up a radiation signature from Supergirl’s heat vision that they believe will lead to the location of the nuclear weapon. However, when the DEO team gets there, all they find is an empty warehouse. This seems to have merely been a distraction. Back at the DEO, J’onn realizes that he can’t read Jeremiah’s mind and goes after him to find out why. The two get into a fight, where it’s revealed that Jeremiah has a cybernetic right arm. Knocking J’onn (in his Martian Manhunter form) out, Jeremiah downloads files from the DEO computer and takes them to Lillian Luthor (as well as Cyborg Superman).

Supergirl and Alex show up to try and stop them, but when Cyborg Superman blows up the tracks on a train suspension bridge, Supergirl has to fly off to make sure a train gets safely across and leaves Alex to confront her father alone. She manages to get the drop on him, but when Jeremiah explains that he’s doing all this for her, she can’t shoot him and lets him escape. Back at the DEO, Winn reveals that the files Jeremiah took were the complete national registry of every alien. The episode’s final shot has Lillian and Jeremiah overlooking a large spaceship.

Episode Verdict

This is a pretty strong episode, although it remains to be seen if Jeremiah is a good guy, bad guy, or something in between. Given the current real-life political climate, it’s pretty obvious that future episodes plan to give us a Super-allegory about the deportation of aliens. That’s a little bit too on-the-nose for my tastes, but we’ll see how it’s handled. At the very least, it appears that guest-star Dean Cain will be around for at least one more episode, so that’s good news. I just hope the writers don’t ruin his character. I’m already a little wary about him having a cyborg arm, considering the amount of super-beings already on this show.

Also, no Jimmy Olsen once again this week. I’m starting to wonder if his character is even necessary to this series. I’m not sure that he is.

2 comments

  1. Guy

    Over on Arrow, Willa Holland and Paul Blackthorne have both been absent for several episode stretches each. In the case of Willa, I saw an interview with a producer that mentioned she was contracted for fewer episodes this season. That’s undoubtedly a cost-cutting measure to accommodate the expanded ensemble that show has this season. I wouldn’t be surprised if Mehcad Brooks is in the same situation with James this season on Supergirl. Gotta make up for the CBS-to-CW budget cut and building/rebuilding all those sets somehow.

    Frankly, if hard decisions must be made, I’d rather have James around than Mon-El.

    • Shannon Nutt
      Author

      I agree it’s probably just a contract thing, where Mehcad is only signed for 16 episodes and the show shoots 22 per year. The Walking Dead is a good example, where I think ALL the actors are signed up for 16 episodes, which is why even star Andrew Lincoln doesn’t appear in all the shows.

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