Supergirl Episode 410: Suspicious Minds

It has been a month since the Supergirl show has aired a new episode. But it went out with a bang, the Elseworlds crossover which was just unbelievable.

The question I had was what would I be feeling after the midseason break. Not only was the show going to have to overcome the inertia of no recent episodes, it was also going to have to deal with ending on such a huge high point. Almost any episode would feel lesser in comparison.

Well episode 410,  Suspicious Minds, was a very good episode. I enjoyed it very much. Congratulations to the Supergirl team for kicking off the second half of the season on a high point.

With Agent Liberty jailed, the Sons of Liberty plotline took a back seat here. We don't hear a thing about that hate group at all.

Instead, this episode focuses in on the DEO and the difficulties brewing in that organization. After setting me up with several episodes where it seemed like Colonel Lahey was misguided and might be being swayed to the light, this episode paints her with a troubling persona. Suddenly, she is an 'ends justify the means' person, a 'safety is more important than freedom' person, and a 'I'll use people to achieve my goals' person. I no longer hope this is a redemption arc for her. I think she needs to be revealed just like Agent Liberty has been.

The episode also builds on many of the subplots which have been bubbling along. With half the season down, it's time to move these stories forward.

But if I have to point out the highest point of this episode, it was Jesse Rath as Brainiac 5. He has totally embraced this slightly odd, slightly off persona who is just socially awkward but with a heart of gold. Last season I wasn't sure about this take on Brainy. This season I am all in.

On to the show.

The show opens with the Russian Supergirl training in the icy fields, dispatching missiles, drones, and tanks with ease. There is a cold, emotionless feel to this Supergirl, completely different from our Supergirl. I love this. There is a sort of regal iciness here.

But there is more here.

The army says she is being trained and she will be controllable because of an unnamed 'she' who is working on this Kara.

Who is this mystery woman brainwashing this version of Supergirl?

I'd love it to be Psi.

Meanwhile, our Kara is in a spin class with Lena.

While I'm sure this will trigger many shippers, I liked seeing the two friends together socially.

It's also where Lena says she needs to patch things up with James. It is James who is her sounding board and moral conscience.

Meanwhile, Kara has to feign a cramp when she hears a cry for help. A 'Colonel McAllister' needs help.

Flying off to a military ship, Kara sees a nearly invisible alien slaughtering the troops. Kara can only save one. Things are even stranger when Kara discovers a bomb on the ship, a self-placed military bomb counting down. She throws the bomb overboard, saving the ship and the crime scene.

The DEO arrives and Colonel Haley orders Supergirl to leave and stop contaminating the scene. Kara reminds her that the only reason there is a scene is because she intervened with the bomb. She might not be DEO, but Supergirl is always a hero.

I do have to laugh at Haley ordering Supergirl off the ship. Can she order Supergirl any more? I don't think so.

One of the subplots of this episode was Brainiac 5 doing his best to give Supergirl a partner, a backup, given her not being in the DEO any longer.

The first person he approaches is J'onn who has set up a PI office. (It is a rather swanky place but I have to assume J'onn has accrued wealth over his centuries on Earth.) He even tries to pay for J'onn's assistance.

I like how J'onn returns the cash saying Kara only needs ask for his help.

But I think this whole thing is going to play out with Brainiac 5 ultimately becoming this backup himself.

Meanwhile at the DEO, Lahey states her plan to begin interrogating every agent to see if someone knows any clue about Supergirl's secret identity. Lahey would use that info to force Kara into serving without questioning.

One thing I have wondered is just how widely known Supergirl's identity was at the DEO. It seems like everyone knows Alex is Supergirl's sister. In a bit of a retcon, it turns out that only 5 officers do. Alex pulls them aside and pleads with them not to tell. All of them agree; they are loyal to Supergirl, even if it means disobeying orders.

This is a sticky ethical situation. The 'just following orders' excuse doesn't work well when you are doing something evil. And Lahey isn't exactly taking the high ground here. But this also means Alex is setting up a conspiracy and asking these troops to take part in mutiny.

So what do people think about there only being 5? Seems like a gross underestimation given all we've seen over 3+ seasons.

We cut to the Danvers coach. God, I love these scenes.

Alex and Kara talk about the inconsistencies of the crime scene. No Colonel McAllister exists in the military database. The ship wasn't on the Coast Guard's sheets. This was a ghost mission of some sort. Kara is so frustrated saying no one can hide something like this for long.

But then Alex brings up Haley's quest to discover Kara's secret identity. Alex says what a hard time she has working for someone like Haley, hateful and fearful. But that is all the more reason for Alex to stay there. She needs to be the light in this darkness.

Back at CatCo, Lena and James rekindle their romance.

He admits that he was wrong to act morally superior when she admitted helping him. He compromised his ethics when he was willing to blow up the monument in the name of the Sons of Liberty. He can't chastise her for doing what he did.

Lena has always been this morally gray figure. It is clear she is willing to listen to James advice to steer her away from her brother's path. So she is thrilled that all seems to be better between the two of them.

I don't know if their actions were the same. I worry whenever a Luthor trusts someone so implicitly. Because eventually that trust is broken. And a Luthor always seems to go completely evil when they feel they have been fooled or insulted.

If I were James, I'd be very careful.

With few leads available, Kara decides to ask someone who was at the DEO before everyone. She heads to J'onn. And J'onn has physical copies of expunged files!

Now we could debate the ethics of J'onn keeping top secret government files in boxes in his office. But let's not.

The investigation leads to some startling information. Invisible aliens called Morai were utilized by the DEO. The project was under the leadership of Colonel McAllister, the now dead unknown soldier. But there were two more people involved: General Tan and Colonel Haley.

Suddenly that glimmer of hope about Haley is even dimmer.

I have to say I do like this new role for J'onn of friend and mentor rather than commanding officer.

Meanwhile, at the DEO, Haley continues to roll through the agents trying to uncover something about Kara.

Brainy has a decent trick. He can compartmentalize his memories and lock some down. He removes the information that Kara is Supergirl from his reachable data temporarily.

It again gives Jesse Rath the opportunity to shine. First we see this 'compartmentalized' Brainy laughing at the prospect that Kara and Supergirl are the same person; they don't even look alike.

But then the true memories kick back in.

Brainy does acknowledge how devious Haley is, comparing her interrogation to the ten-eyed Emerald Bloodeater from Venegar. Hmmmm ... and emerald eyed being from Venegar! Hooray for Legion references!

Despite the order for Supergirl to not work with the DEO, Kara joins Alex and J'onn in heading to General Tan's home. Tan, knowing that McAllister is dead, is packing and getting ready to run.

He reveals that the Morai were found as children and trained to become efficient assassins for the government. That's right Kara, they trained alien children to be killers. I love the disgust on Melissa Benoist's face.

With new anti-alien efforts in the government, the decision was made to kill the Morai. The Morai were going to be on that ship that was triggered to explode in the beginning. The government was going to simply erase the Morai, physically and from the record books.

Again, how can good people work for bad leaders? How do you just follow orders?

The Morai show up and luckily Kara can see them more as a shimmer. In a decent action sequence, Kara uses her super-breath to make them visible and attacks. One of the Morai gets wounded but the other two succeed, killing Tan.

As for the injured Morai, it won't be brought in to be tortured by Haley again. Rather than head to prison, it kills itself. How bad could the treatment be if death was a better outcome?

I do like how Supergirl is still Supergirl, reaching out to the alien, trying to reason with it and promising not to hurt it. But she also tries to inspire it as well to not resort to violence.

At the DEO, Alex reveals all she has learned about the Morai, including the death of Tan.

Once more, the descent into evil continues for Haley.

For her, the alien Morai were simply assets. She says, coolly and matter-of-factly that she used trauma for discipline and obedience.

So now Haley is a child abuser.

Remember just a couple of episodes ago when Alex and her seemed to be strategizing together and Alex saw something in Haley. Those days are gone.

Brainy continues to try and find Supergirl an ally. Earlier we saw him awkwardly ask Nia Nal out on what seemed to be a date.

At the fancy restaurant, he says it isn't a date. He wanted to have a meeting with her to try and lure Nia into the world of super-heroics. He wants Kara to have a super-friend.

Rath again does a great job being the most socially inept, semi-weird person he can be. In fact, despite the misconception of this date, he is oddly charming in his sincerity, enough to make Nia forgive him and roll with it.

But there are a couple of things I needed to mull over her.

One, Brainy says that he was on a dark path before he chose to be a hero and he hasn't regretted it. He is a Brainiac after all. Maybe, in some sort of timey-wimey time loop, it is Supergirl ... a Supergirl from her future ... who meets a nasty Brainy in his path and turns him towards good.

But then I wonder if he knows something that makes this mission of a Supergirl friend so crucial. And given his ability to package his knowledge, it seems clear that he is going to be that ally for Supergirl. As someone who ships Brainy and Kara, I only hope it brings them closer.

Remember how Kara says Alex is the moral compass of the DEO.

Well Lena has said James is her 'good angel' on her shoulder. The two have a 'stay at home' date with James making them a souffle.

Before the meal, Lena reveals that she is trying to give humans super-powers with her Harun-El experiments. Upbeat about the discovery, a 'penicillin moment', she asks James if she should continue. Remember, she is counting on his sound advice.

He pauses ... but then tells her to continue.

I think James here just didn't want to rock the boat of the relationship after just righting the ship. Scary.

Back at the DEO, one of the agents has fallen to Haley's tactics. Haley knows that Kara is Supergirl. The prospect is terrifying to Haley. A member of the press inside a top secret government black ops group?

Haley will bring Supergirl to heel with this information.

But before anything like that can happen, the alarms go off. The Morai are inside.

There is a ridiculous plan to use steam, lasers, and glow-in-the-dark paint balls to make the Morai visible but it doesn't really work.

In fact, Haley is about to get killed by one when Supergirl arrives in the DEO HQ and defeats it.

But this magnanimous act doesn't deter Haley. She goes on a diatribe of how knowing Kara's secret identity gives the DEO power over Supergirl. Supergirl will work for the DEO and obey unconditionally or else ...

And then Alex decks her. Woo hoo!

I love how Alex is disgusted at the prospect of working for someone like Haley. She couldn't imagine forcing Kara to do the same.

They call in J'onn to mindwipe Haley. He'll remove the knowledge of Kara being Supergirl from Haley's mind.

It is a bit of a left hand turn for the pacifist J'onn who doesn't want to do anything violent anymore. Forcing himself into someone's mind? That seemed a bit off.

But it isn't a cure.
The next day Haley brings in some Starro looking squid to act as a 'truth seeker'. She'll find out who Supergirl is.

The 5 DEO agents decide to have J'onn mindwipe the information from their minds willingly. They all want to protect Supergirl.

And Alex? She needs to stay in the DEO to try and keep it pure. She has to fight Haley's influence from within. She also will get mindwiped.

Now the Danvers sisters relationship is key to the show. And having Alex not know Kara is Supergirl is a crazy idea that I think could hurt the flow of the season. But I also have to question how Alex can survive such a rewrite of her life. It is one thing to have the secret removed from DEO agents who work with Supergirl tangentially. It is another thing to retcon an entire life of memories. Alex's brains are going to be scrambled!

That said, I wonder if Brainy knew this was going to happen. Maybe knowing that Kara's biggest support would be altered made him search for a replacement. It is clear, he has to become that person.

You know, after writing this review, I don't know if this episode was as good as I thought it was. But it was still a solid opening to the second half. I simply can't imagine how the Alex/Kara relationship will play out moving forward.

What did you think?

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