In Review: Supergirl – Stranger Beside Me

Synopsis: Supergirl, Alex, and Brainiac thwart an alien attack while William investigates Kara. J’onn J’onzz and Kelly use Obsidian tech to solve a problem.

Review: Supergirl picks up the story started last week and runs with it, but more focus seems to be on the romantic relationships in this episode.

The Story

Having fought with his brother in last week’s episode J’onn J’onzz falls victim to a Martian Curse, which effects Green Martian siblings when they fight. The result of the curse is extreme pain, which effects both siblings after the fight.  In order to help ease J’onn’s pain, Kelly Olsen uses Obsidian Technology to help J’onn walk through his memories and find what has caused the trauma. While inside his head they learn why knowledge of his brother was wiped from his mind.

Elsewhere, Lena Luthor is trying to reverse engineer her Obsidian Contact lenses in order to help her in engineering a more trustworthy human race. In order to do this, she has her computer A.I. Hope, map out the brain activity of a captured EveTeschmacher as a means of executing the first stage of her mad plan.

When J’onn J’onzz’s brother attacks Alex. Supergirl and the team battle against him in a fight, which romps on through the city. The near-death experience brings Alex and Kelly closer together.

The Acting

David Harewood gives the standout performance this week as a somewhat tortured J’onn J’onzz. The scenes where he walks through his mind with Kelly were a great plot device, which helped the plot move forward, but it was a device that might not have worked so well in the hands of lesser actors.

Also continuing to impress is Julie Gonzalo as the manipulative and power hungry Andrea Rojas. She has a great scene where she confronts Lena Luther about trying to reverse engineer Obsidian Tech. We still know very little about this character, but it will be fun learning more about her. May she be somehow be involved with Leviathan or might that be a little too obvious.

Overall

This was a fun episode, which once again avoids the politicking that was so invasive to the series in last seasons story arc.

The plot involving J’onn J’onzz and his brother is intriguing, but I can’t help but feel that it is only there to service the Crisis on Infinite Earths storyline, which we’ll see play out in December.

The cute relationship happening between Brainiac and Nia Nal continues to be fun and all very cute, but I’d like to see more of them in their more heroic roles.

I’m also a little concerned about the direction they are taking Lena Luthor in. I mean it would be too easy for them to have her break bad, which seems to be where things are going. It would also be a waste of Katie McGrath’s talent by having her play the villain again after so much work has been put in to get her away from being stuck in that kind of persona.

Overall. An okay episode.