The Geekcap: Supergirl "Manhunter"

Kara mournfully watches the news with a reporter presenting the failing image of Supergirl. Since her rampage on the city, both criminals and citizens alike are terrified of Supergirl arriving to the scene. While people, including CatCo, have implied that Supergirl was altered mentally when she attacked, but few believe the story and fear what would happen should it ever happen again. Cat is furious at the city’s inability to have faith in Supergirl, especially with crime rates up 40%, but still believes that there’s a chance that the hero can win back the city’s good faith. She asks for Kara, but Winn informs her that she took a sick day, which, shockingly, lasts a whole day.  Before Cat can protest, Winn receives a text from Siobhan and rushes out the room, leaving James to answer the phones for Cat Grant. The news also reports on the strange new alien monster spotted on the scene.

"If Mel Gibson can present at the Golden Globes, then Supergirl can win the city back."-Cat

Winn talks to Siobhan who’s suffering from unemployment. No other news system will take her after Cat’s disapproval, and all Siobhan can blame is Kara, especially since it was her dream to work in news. Winn tries to comfort her saying that she can accomplish anything she wants which Siobhan takes to heart. Meanwhile, Alex moves to talk to Hank, who is still be held prisoner by his own organization, by offering chocolate cookies, his favorite. Hank advises Alex to abandon her dedication to him and instead say he betrayed the group. Alex refuses to do that, but Hank warns her that they will do worse things to her if she stays by him. Alex agrees to lie but refuses to abandon Hank.

At the DEO, the army led by Lucy Lane and Colonel James Harper, the newly-appointed head of the DEO, come in to question J’onn J’onzz. Off the back, Col. Harper is immediately distrusting of the organization and plans to find out everything he can about the new alien. The military takes Hank into a fortified room containing a stasis field that prevents J’onn from using his powers as well as from Kara listening in on the conversation. Hank agrees to their interrogation nevertheless.

Ten years ago, Hank Henshaw led the DEO on a mission to the Peruvian Andes where the organization has been tracking an old alien fugitive, a manhunter. Hank advises the team to quickly swarm and destroy the creature, but Jeremiah, Alex’s father, wonders what they could learn from this alien who has been on the planet for so long. Hank still denies that curiosity, stating he is only interested in the color of its blood. In the Andes, the group wanders about the area, accidently losing Jeremiah on the mission. When a wounded Jeremiah is almost attacked by a boa constrictor, J’onn comes to his rescue.

Both Alex and Kara are desperate to hear the conversation, but Alex understands that they could be implicated in the act. Kara states that they couldn’t hold her back anyway. The interrogation continues with Lucy and Col. Harper finding it hard to believe in J’onn’s story. J’onn still denies killing the real Hank Henshaw.

In the past, Jeremiah and J’onn talk through the night over a burning fire, though J’onn is a little apprehensive about it. He reveals to Jeremiah that his planet burned and that he is the last survivor of the planet Mars. Jeremiah is fascinated by J’onn’s history, noting that J’onn is more of a refugee just like his own daughter. He shows him pictures of Kara and Alex which touches J’onn as he had daughters of his own who did not survive off Mars. With their connection, Jeremiah promises to protect J’onn, but unfortunately he is attacked by Hank. Hank shoots at J’onn with a special gun designed against the Martian’s regenerative abilities. Jeremiah pleads with Hank to stop, but Hank is insistent on killing the alien that even Superman considers the most powerful being on the planet. Desperately, Jeremiah tackles Hank, and the two fight until Hank stabs Jeremiah, causing Jeremiah to toss Hank off a cliff. With his dying breath, he asks J’onn to take care of his daughters. J’onn then proceeds to return to the DEO as Hank in disguise.

J’onn insists to Col. Harper that he has dedicated himself to the DEO and has prevented many real alien threats. Col. Harper instead believes that J’onn was planning to infiltrate the United States system and possibly raise his own alien army with the prisoners, an insult to Hank’s legacy. J’onn remarks that he brought honor to Hank’s name since the original one was a sorry excuse for a man. Col. Harper fires back that Hank Henshaw was his best friend, leading Lucy to end the interrogation. The military leads J’onn out the facility to a new secret location much to Alex’s arguments. Because of her connection, Alex is next for interrogation.

Cat leaves her office while speaking with Kate Middleton when Siobhan sneaks back into the building. She finds Kara’s desk and breaks into her laptop. With Kara’s laptop, she proceeds to compose a grating letter to Cat, posing as the assistant. Meanwhile, outside Alex’s interrogation, Supergirl is even more eager to hear the conversation. She pleads an agent to lower the field to allow her to listen. The agent states that she refuses because Col. Harper has a mission to complete but secretly leaves a listening device for her.

Alex’s interrogation begins with Col. Harper and Lucy asking Alex what she can tell them about Hank Henshaw. She claims that whoever he is, he has saved her life more times than she can count. Three years ago, Alex was partying at a club, wasting her life before being arrested for public drunkenness. Hank came to bail her out, revealing that he knows about her scientist background, her love of watching stars, and, more importantly, her sister. He understands that growing up with Kara must have caused her to feel inadequate, leading to this lifestyle. In addition to bailing her out of jail, Hank offers her a spot on the DEO to put her knowledge to good use. Upon arriving at the DEO, Hank states that she will begin a strict training regime to become a field agent.

While Alex claims that she did not know that Hank was an alien, Lucy nevertheless claims that she’s lying to protect J’onn. With that connection, the military then transfers Alex with J’onn to a place they call “Project Cadmus.” Kara rushes to James to inform him what happened. James informs him that Project Cadmus is a place where aliens are experimented on to be weaponized for military purposes, the main reason why Superman doesn’t work with the government. Since neither Superman nor James know where Project Cadmus is, they have to look for other sources to save J’onn and Alex.

James invites Lucy to Kara’s place where he’s pretty interested in seeing that she returned to the military. Lucy, however, is a little bothered that James is once again with Kara, but this situation is more important. Kara then reveals to Lucy that she is, in fact, Supergirl in order to try and gain her trust. Lucy admits that she feels as though she always knew but still feels apprehensive about trusting Supergirl as well as any alien. Kara beseeches her by stating that when you are transported to a whole new world, fitting in becomes a desperate goal.

Twelve years ago, Kara and Alex attended the same school, but Kara’s abilities prove to be a little difficult for her in hearing every little sound and seeing through people’s skin. She can hear several girls commenting how weird the situation is with Alex sharing her life with a stranger. While Kara’s preoccupied, an older boy comes by and invites Alex to a beach party. Alex says she can’t go without Kara, but the boy lets her bring Kara along anyway. At the beach, Kara marvels at the seagulls flying around her which the others think is a little weird. Alex advises her to stop, even though Kara notes there were no birds on her planet. Alex says that she’s going to have to stop acting that excited about Earth things if she wants to blend in on the planet. Suddenly, Kara hears a cry for help. She quickly runs over to a burning, over-turned vehicle. Using her strength, she rips open the door and pulls the woman trapped underneath along with her baby. The other kids finally catch up and witness Kara somehow save the two before the vehicle explodes. Later on, Jeremiah speaks to Kara about her abilities, that in order to blend in she will have to hide her powers. Because the world has a Superman, all she has to do is be Kara Danvers. Fortunately, he developed a pair of lead-lined glasses to help her control her super-vision in public.

"I’m sorry, we didn’t have birds on my planet."-Kara

A few years pass, two years ago, and Kara goes in for an interview to become Cat Grant’s new assistant. She bumps into and meets Winn who’s instantly smitten, especially after Kara’s firm handshake. When a prospective assistant leaves the office crying, Kara already feels a little nervous, but Winn advises her to be herself. Kara enters Cat’s office who immediately despises Kara for appearing as an optimistic millennial who has a high opinion of herself. Kara, however, surprises her by claiming that there’s nothing special about her, that she’s completely average. While this initially catches Cat off-guard, Kara goes further by stating she can be helpful in picking up prescriptions and replacing pens (which she notices thanks to her X-ray vision). Cat seems subtly accepting of Kara but states that someone would have to be completely dedicated in order to be her assistant. Kara is initially distracted by seeing a forest fire on TV but stands firm that she is dedicated.

Kara tells Lucy that she understands J’onn’s desperation to be accepted in as well as Lucy’s, the reason she returned to the military. However, she states that if Lucy stood by while they tortured J’onn, then she will never truly accept herself.

While J’onn and Alex are being transferred with Col. Harper in a truck at night, two motorcyclists ambush the vehicle. When a soldier tries to fire back, the bullets bounce off one of the cyclists. The other fires back at the truck’s tires, causing the vehicle to stop. The soldiers fight back, but the cyclist proves to be too fast and strong from them. It’s then revealed that the motorcyclists are Kara and Lucy disguised to rescue their friends. In the fight, Alex manages to disable the stasis field, giving J’onn his powers back. He fights against Col. Harper but stops from killing him. Instead, he begins to erase his memories of the past few days. However, while looking in his mind, J’onn sees Jeremiah inside of Project Cadmus. He informs Alex that her father may be alive. Kara insists on helping, but Alex states that the city needs her. Besides, since Hank and Alex are both fugitives, they may as well go on their own to find Jeremiah. The two say a tearful goodbye before going their separate ways.

Cat invites Siobhan for a talk in her office to talk about Kara. Cat states that she has received an e-mail from Kara which she found curious. She then informs Siobhan that she had a Kara-expert, Winn, research further into it, finding that while the system of typing didn’t match Kara, it perfectly matched Siobhan. Cat then kicks Siobhan out of the building, stating that if she ever comes back or tries another stunt, she will call the police.

"I just want to be useful to somebody. I want to be worthwhile."      

-Kara  

Supergirl and Lucy return the DEO to await further orders from Col. Harper, only to learn from an agent that Col. Harper had resigned a while ago. Likely thanks to J’onn’s influence, Col. Harper has designated Lucy as the new head of the DEO. In the midst of this, an agent informs Supergirl that there is a bank robbery downtown with no real alien threat, but Supergirl should probably go to help. Lucy advises her to go, but Supergirl doubts that the city would be on her side. Lucy states that if Supergirl could somehow convince her to trust an alien, the city shouldn’t be too hard. With that, Supergirl returns to the city.

Siobhan stands on the top of a roof shouting with a bottle in her hand. Winn runs up to stop her from jumping, but she rebukes him stating she has too much self-esteem to kill herself, though she blames Winn for betraying her. Winn nevertheless rebukes her since she threatened one of his best friends despite believing that deep down she is a good person. Filled with anger, Siobhan shouts that she has no job, no friends, and all she wants to do is scream. She then falls off the side of the building but manages to save herself by demonstrating a powerful scream.

Super-Notes

• Project Cadmus makes its first mention in the series. Cadmus was previously referred to in Arrow as the organization that employed Amanda Waller, but in Supergirl, it's referred to by its original form by being a government facility that experiments on aliens and other genetic research.
• The title "manhunter" that Hank gives to J'onn J'onzz is an obvious reference to J'onn's superhero name the Martian Manhunter.
• Siobhan debuts the first of her powers as Silver Banshee through a sonic scream, but eagle-eyed viewers will note that her full name, Siobhan Smythe, actually comes from the New 52 interpretation of her character.
• The Flash arrives in National City next week! Let's hope they recreate Superman and the Flash's famous race to see who's really the fastest person alive!