Category: Supergirl – Season 5

Lex has plans within plans, within plans in this revealing return episode for Supergirl!

Supergirl is finally back after quite a lengthy hiatus due to the global COVID-19 crisis. Melissa Benoist makes her directorial debut with this Lex-centric episode that takes us inside Lex’s mind once again. “Deus Lex Machina” reveals that Lex has once again been orchestrating recent events all for his own goals. While some could argue that this is too similar to last season’s Lex arc, Jon Cryer plays it so well that I’m willing to forgive this.

This crazy episode opens in the present day (aka ninety days after post-Crisis On Infinite Earths). Margot (guest star Patti Allan), Leviathan middle management agent, is dead on the floor of a complex where the comatose Obsidian Platinum users are being held. Lex is found at the scene by Supergirl and J’onn, who immediately questions his involvement. Luthor and others claim that he saved them all from Margot and a gun went off in the process. Lex also tells them that Margot was working with Amy Sapphire, who previously tried to destroy Obsidian Tech out of revenge for her husband’s death. To everyone, it seems that Lex was a hero in the situation! However, we all know better.

Next, after seeing some exciting Crisis moments, we are transported back to the day after the Multiversal reboot. Lex wakes up and is in shock that not only is he alive, he finds himself in a new world in which he had a hand in creating. Before accepting his Nobel Peace Prize, he visits his mother (guest star Brenda Strong) to inform her of this new reality. Lillian tells him that he must remain calm and cool-headed if he is to succeed in this new world. He must not make the same mistakes. This time he must make Lena his ally by setting his Super-vendetta aside for now.

Next, we return to several key points over the course of this season. First, we flashback to Lex’s first meeting with Lex post-Crisis. He delivers his allies speech to her and as we see it is successful. She also tells him of Leviathan and Eve’s involvement. Lex decides right there and then that he will eliminate them. From there we return to the Toyman crisis, in the chaos, Lex gains access to the Legion’s ship where he learns more about Leviathan and its leadership. He uses this information to track down Eve, whom he finds in mid-assassination. Eve is shocked to see him. Lex knows her history and uses it to recruit her to his cause. Leviathan killed her father in order to force her to work for them. Luthor offers to protect her mother and do Eve’s dirty work, if she will be his eyes and ears in the organization. After he kills her target, Eve agrees. Lex places ex-Mossad agents outside Teschmacher’s home and arranges for Eve to be part of the Obsidian Platinum project.

This is only the beginning of Lex’s latest master plan. Eve informs him of the glitch in Platinum, which it turns out is his doing. He tells her that she must make sure that it is not fixed. With the glitch in place, Leviathan will come to Lex to cover it up so that people will continue to use the product. Ultimately, once they trust him, he hopes to gain access to their ship. Once there, he will use the reengineered Toyman code to make Leviathan mortal thus easier to kill.

Lex then puts the next part of the plan into motion. He finds and puts pressure on Richard Bates, the man who built the VR torture chamber to torment his wife’s online lover.
Now, forty-three post-Crisis, Lex uses Eve’s infatuation with him to get her to help Amy Sapphire attack Obsidian HQ using special gauntlets he made. Lex also shows her that using Q waves, he can make a mouse disappear. Eve then brings him to the warehouse where Margot is keeping the comatose VR users. As a token of appreciation, Lex gives Eve a vial of poison to use on the man who murdered her father: a Leviathan hitman who is currently posted in the Peruvian Andes. However, Lex gives her a file on Jeremiah Danvers!!

While she goes off to carry out her revenge, Lex sets out on his Obsidian world tour. Meanwhile, we see flashes of the Danvers sisters learning of Jeremiah’s death, Alex’s adventures in VR, and William’s discovery of the ID bracelet.

Lex’s plan hits a snag however when Lena visits Kara expressing her condolences. She also apologizes and offers a book to help with the grief. Lex watches angrily from afar. Lex vents to Lillian while they play chess (two days ago). Frustrated, he hatches another plan. He feeds William the information concerning the medical ID bracelet. Dey brings this to Alex, Kelly, and Kara. Alex and Kelly immediately recognize the name and start putting the pieces together concerning the missing VR users. Meanwhile, Eve records this from afar and gives it to Lex, who then shows it to Gemma (guest star Cara Buono). Gemma reveals that her plan is to gather humanity into VR then kill them all with one flick of her wrist. Lex, however, warns her that Kara will soon expose this and put an end to it all. He asks to fuel public fear as it will distract from the real plan

He lies to Brainy about his involvement with the missing VR users and suggests that Team Supergirl use Myriad to track the Q Waves in the users VR lenses. Kara journeys to the Fortress Of Solitude to use Myriad, which gains the attention of a hurt and angry Lena. She shows up at the Fortress and confronts Kara calling her two-faced. Unbeknownst to her, Lex sent a Leviathan agent a cloaked Morae along with her to cause a disturbance at the Fortress. After Lena leaves, Kara detects the creature, but their struggle accidentally unleashes the Sun Eater from its cage. As a result of the danger, Obsidian sends out a prompt to all users instructing them to go inside VR to get away from the danger.

While the Sun Eater rampages, M’gann (guest star Sharon Leal) suddenly arrives to aid Team Supergirl. The duo along with Kara in a lexosuit stop the creature and thus save the sun.
With the day saved, we return to the events at the top of the episode. Lex maintains his hero status and has everything nicely tied up. However, Gemma is not pleased with Margot’s death. She briefly assumes her true computer tech based form and attacks him with lightning. Lex convinces her that he protected them by pinning the VR stuff on Margot and Amy Sapphire. He also commits to her VR plan, but they must first eliminate Supergirl. This does not worry Gemma as she claims she will not fail.

With all this in place, Lex returns home where he is greeted by an overly excited Eve. He greets her love with callousness as he nonchalantly breaks her heart. He claims that love is a weakness that he can not allow. He casually reveals that the supposed Mossad agents are awaiting the order to kill Eve’s mother if she fails to stay in line. In addition, he also reveals that he never found the man who killed her father and that the man she killed was in fact Supergirl’s father. He further threatens that if she breaks rank, he will send footage of her killing Jeremiah to Supergirl herself. A distraught Eve angrily declares that Lex is worse than Leviathan. He smuggly replies: “Not worse, better.”

With everything in place to wipe out all of his enemies, he travels to the Fortress of Solitude and gleefully looks around.

“Deus Lex Machina” was yet another strong episode of Supergirl. Melissa Benoist does an incredible job directing this Lex-centric episode. It is truly fascinating to watch Lex outwit those around him. Jon Cryer’s stellar portrayal has also made him one of the best Arrowverse villains in my opinion. I once again enjoy the use of the flashback storytelling device as a way to show the events of the season tying together. I also was surprised to see Sharon Leal’s M’gann M’orzz again. While I loved seeing her in action again, I wish she would’ve had more to do in the episode. Hopefully, she will stick around and help the team further. With only two or three more episodes, it will be interesting to see if or how things will wrap up this season.
For more recaps & reviews of Supergirl and the rest of the Arrowverse shows, stay tuned to Earth-9!

Alex takes a trip into VR to deal with some devastating news in this well crafted episode of Supergirl!

The VR plot thickens as “Supergirl” and the crew begin to discover things aren’t exactly going smoothly as they thought with Obsidian Platinum. This week’s episode sees Kelly (Azie Tesfai) and William (Staz Nair) team up to investigate the failsafe glitch and Lex Luthor’s ties to it if any. However, the central focus of the episode is Alex Danvers. Chyler Leigh delivers an incredibly powerful performance as Danvers deals with the devastating news of her father’s passing. Both storylines are woven together well and begin to set the stage for the endgame of the season. Let’s recap!
This well crafted hour begins with Kara and family preparing to leave for Midvale to attend Jeremiah’s funeral. However, Alex refuses to join them. Jeremiah had a heart attack while helping displaced aliens in the Peruvian Andes. While Kara is at peace knowing Jeremiah loved them, Alex is still angry at him for leaving them. She lashes out at them saying he cared more about Kara than herself. She feels that he never had the time for her and has never forgiven him for always leaving “to protect them.”

Alex kicks everyone out including Kelly, who tries to comfort her. Once they are gone, she decides to use the VR to escape her pain. Choosing the “Supergirl” simulation, Alex finds herself as National City’s #1 hero sporting a nice black and blue suit (with a black wig as well). At the mall, she is recognized by a fellow user who introduces herself as Treasure Hunter Tilly aka Bonnie, who gives her the low down on the simulation. She explains that aside from them and Derek (who is currently playing guitar on stage) is a non-player character. This is a product of Alex’s brain mapping which populates the world with familiar faces and places. The duo quickly bond over their desire to escape real world pain. Bonnie reveals that she uses VR to deal with her sister having cancer. While Bonnie seems to realize that she is in a simulation, Derek on the other hand has no idea. In reality, he is currently wrapped in foil like a burrito in Leviathan’s secret lair tended to by Margot (guest star Patti Allen).

As a helicopter whisks “Tilly” away, the mall is attacked by a large dragon alien, but it is no problem for Alex or should I say Supergirl. With the day saved, Supergirl gets bombarded by the press and adoring fans. Following her victory, she goes out to what looks like the alien bar for pancakes. There she reunites with Bonnie, who now seems to have no recollection of her real life. In reality, she is found in her RV by Margot, who takes her to the warehouse holding the other red eyed VR users.

In the real world, Kelly teams up with an equally concerned William to investigate new satellites recently pushed through by Lex, who now finds himself on the Obsidian Board. These thirty-two devices are being placed above each city that Lex travels to as part of his Obsidian World Tour. William becomes even more suspicious of Lex when Kelly brings up the failsafe glitch/loophole. He wonders if Lex had something to do with that as well. They ultimately find no connection to Lex, but Kelly does discover that the glitch still has not been fixed despite the patch being ordered. She brings this to Andrea, who doesn’t seem too concerned. Rojas simply assures her that it will be fixed and that there is no need to inform users of this issue.

Back in the VR simulation, Alex is called to the DEO featuring NPC versions of Team Supergirl where she is given a new urgent mission. NPC-J’onn informs her that Hank Henshaw has kidnapped her sister Kara and demands them to hand over a missile. If they fail to do so, he will kill them all and expose Supergirl’s identity. NPC-J’onn urges Alex to not let her emotions cloud her judgment as she rushes to engage Henshaw. She saves the day once again tricking Henshaw and overcoming his Kryptonite powered shackles. Despite the victory and happiness, Alex begins to sense that she is forgetting something. NPC-J’onn brushes it off saying it is nothing. He takes her to celebrate at the bar where they enjoy some karaoke. As she begins to feel comfortable, Alex’s lenses in the real world turn red!

Meanwhile, in the real world, Kelly and William, feeling that some users could be trapped in their experiences, decide to check up on the nearly five hundred people who have been using for the past forty-eight hours or more nonstop. When Kelly gets no response from Alex, she begins to suspect something is wrong with her as well.
Back in VR, Alex runs into another woman claiming to be Supergirl (wearing the OG suit no less), which confuses her. Her NPC-DEO companions suggest that she return to the DEO with them. However, Alex begins to realize that this isn’t real. She then wakes up in her apartment, seemingly in the real world. She takes off her lenses and goes to respond to Kelly’s messages. However, before she can, she gets an urgent call from J’onn, who says that Psi is attacking the city and making everyone question reality. Alex suddenly rushes into action as Supergirl, this time without the wig.

In the real world, Kelly finds and unresponsive Alex in her apartment. Olsen tries to revive her with her adrenaline, but to no avail. She then decides to enter the simulation to save her. Once there, she tries to reason with Alex, but the NPC-DEO squad (who have become increasingly villainous) convince Alex that Kelly is a victim of Psi’s attack. Realizing her efforts as futile, she exits the VR and brings this to the attention of Andrea. Rojas suggests that Kelly use something unexplainable and undeniable. Ultimately, Kelly decides to introduce Alex’s teenage self into the simulation to confront Alex with reality. Despite the NPC-DEO team trying to distract her, Alex finally accepts her father’s death and that she can’t repair their relationship. The younger Alex reminds her grieving counterpart that Jeremiah’s life was a result of his own choices. Even though he is gone, Alex still has people who love her. With that, Alex wakes up in the real world and takes off her lenses.
Alex quickly apologizes to Kelly for the way she treated her earlier. She confesses that she was not angry at any of them. In actuality, she was mad at herself for being able to save her father. Alex also tells Kelly about Bonnie and Derek, who were becoming trapped in the VR. Kelly assures her that she will do everything in her power to fix this and save them. First, they need to join the others in Midvale for Jeremiah’s funeral.

This emotional episode concludes with a revelatory montage. First, William follows a lead from his NSA contact which leads him to the warehouse where Leviathan is holding these trapped VR users. However, just as he arrives, Margot engages a cloaking device which hides their presence. Dey does, however, find an hospital ID bracelet which should help greatly in his further investigation. At Obsidian, Andrea demands that the glitch be fixed. The employee she orders to do this: Eve!!!!

In the end, Alex joins her family and friends as Eliza (guest star Helen Slater) eulogizes her late husband.

This episode gives Alex a truly compelling storyline, something that has been a bit lacking this season in my opinion. Chyler Leigh does an incredible job conveying Danvers’ grief and desire for happiness. It was great to see her front and center and getting to truly let loose and have fun as VR Supergirl. This storyline also featured a fantastic performance from David Harewood, who got to play the villain again as Hank Henshaw. I also really enjoyed the investigation subplot as well. Azie Tesfai has been underutilized in my opinion so it was great to get to see her be more of a focus this episode. Overall, this episode was another great chapter in this series.

Stay tuned for more recaps & reviews for Supergirl and the other Arrowverse shows here at Earth-9!