SUPERGIRL S1E9 - "CHILDISH THINGS" REVIEW

                                               

After a week off, Supergirl is back with its tenth episode called, “Childish Things”. It starts with a prison escape, in which a detainee kills two guards. We get to see Kara and J’onn fly together. I can’t tell you how glad I am that Hank isn’t a bad person. Kara tries, in vain, to get Hank to embrace who he really is but he has little interest, believing the world needed his alter ego more than it did the Martian Manhunter.

We next cut to Cat and Lucy, the latter of whom divulges that she’s not close to her famous sister (Lois). It looks like Cat is offering Lucy a job. While Jimmy quietly urges Kara to eavesdrop on the conversation, the attention soon turns to the TV, where it’s announced that a prisoner escaped. It clearly effects Winn. If you remember, during the Thanksgiving episode, he reveals to Kara that his father is in prison.

We get some much needed insight into Winn’s background. He’s kept himself pretty guarded up until this point so it’s nice to see him opening up to Kara, or anyone really. He speaks candidly about his father and what led him down the path he’s currently on. Winn had told the FBI that his father hadn’t tried to contact him, but the truth was that he had sent him a toy doll asking to meet up.

Back at the DEO, Alex tries to convince Hank to come out and help using his true abilities (against Maxwell Lord), but he shuts her down. When she mentions how much people love her sister, who is also an alien, Hank retorts with her physical appearance versus his natural one. He believes he looks like a monster and people would quickly reject him, as they had for so many years prior to his assuming the Henshaw identity.

Lucy and James are talking about the potential life-changing news and while James appears happy for her, Lucy isn’t certain that he is. Winn agrees to meet with his father. They have something of a heart-to-heart, if you want to call it that. The FBI barge in and after a brief standoff, begin shooting, only to find that his father wasn’t really there. Reminding his son that he wanted him to be there alone, he releases poison gas. Luckily for everyone, Kara had been there and turns into Supergirl just in time to suck up all the gas.

Kara and Winn have a serious, real heart-to-heart moment. I’m glad that we get to see this side of their friendship, instead of just the unrequited love aspect. Their talk is cut short because Cat wants to see Kara right away; she wants an exclusive on Winn but Kara shuts her down immediately. She also wants Lucy to say yes to the job and Kara isn’t hesitant, thinking it would be awkward for James. However, Cat, as observing as a hawk, knows something about James and Kara.

Alex and Maxwell Lord are out on a date (mainly to get him away from his building long enough for Hank to infiltrate) and she is doing her best to get to the bottom of his anger towards Supergirl. I was a little surprised that she actually told him that she works with Supergirl. He’s going to end up finding out about the DEO at some point. We cut to “Maxwell Lord”, who totally is Hank and is totally not a good Maxwell Lord at all, but one of his assistants buys it. Hank, as Lord, sneaks into that special room. He’s stopped by a guard and to two briefly tangle until Hank using his abilities and overpowers the guard.

Once Kara and Winn figure out where his father might be, Kara rushes to his old shop. She’s outsmarted by the Toyman, who has also taken what she believes is a young child hostage. Once she escapes the quicksand she fell into, she rushes to save the child, only to find that it was a doll. The guard that Hank had wrestled with doesn’t remember anything because Hank had his memory tampered with. Even though Hank had erased the security footage, Lord had backups in place and they see Hank shifting.

Winn’s biggest fear is ended up like his father, losing his mind. They continue their heartfelt conversation from before, with Kara trying her best to be reassuring. Winn decides, for reasons, that now is a good time to kiss her and it ends awkwardly. As he’s leaving, he’s abducted by his father. His father is convinced that the man who caused him to snap (his old boss) is the real enemy and tells Winn that he’s going to have to kill him. While Winn initially refuses, his father gives him an option that he can’t really refuse: either kill his father’s old boss or a bunch of random bombs go off at the toy convention.

Just as Winn is about to shoot, the FBI shows up, as does Supergirl. She manages to stop the bombs by using her cool breath. Lucy and James have a serious moment. It looks like she’s accepted the position and James comes to the cold-hard truth that he isn’t happy with his job; he misses being out on the field.

So about that kiss. Winn finally opens up to Kara about how he feels. She wants things to go back to how they were, but he’s not of the same opinion. He doesn’t want to be like his father, keeping his true feelings to himself and then letting them explode. At the moment, their relationship is in flux.

Back at the homefront, Alex and Kara have some much-needed sister time, where they talk about the men in their lives: Winn, Hank, and Maxwell Lord. Unfortunately, while Alex is convinced that she can see him coming a mile away, the truth is he bugged her. Now he knows the truth, that Alex and Kara are sisters. I don’t like this one bit.

Supergirl airs Mondays at 8pm Eastern Standard Time on CBS.