Into The Arrowverse: The return of Wally West!
By Ariba Bhuvad
Pictured (L-R): Jon Cryer as Lex Luthor and Melissa Benoist as Kara/Supergirl — Photo: Diyah Pera/The CW
Supergirl Episode 514: “The Bodyguard”
This week, Supergirl went from Kryptonian superhero to…bodyguard. It’s not the worst thing in the world to have her as your protector, but she certainly has better things she could be doing, just saying! I’m a bit let down, because Supergirl’s 100th episode had us all riding so high last week. Here, the excitement ratchets down a level. I know, I know, it’s harsh to except a series to keep the momentum going especially after hitting a milestone episode, but it just didn’t compare.
A lot of this season has been a metaphor for the dangers of advancing technology, aka Obsidian’s creepy contact lenses that place you in a way-too-realistic VR world. I’m pretty sure we’re headed that way in our reality, but Supergirl is trying to remind us of it any chance it gets.
Speaking of Obsidian, the VR contact lens is ready to launch and Andrea Rojas couldn’t be more excited. It’s finally happening for her, but her life hangs in the balance if she doesn’t stop it.
Meanwhile, Lena’s arc is getting progressively worse. I knew having Lex around would be detrimental for her, but ever since she learned Kara is Supergirl, she can’t help but feel rage. All that rage has turned into a thirst for revenge, and Lex is taking full advantage of that. It’s just a shame to see Lena lose all the fight in her to resist the bad side. She had been doing so well for so long, and now it’s all sort of falling apart. I hate when shows do that!
So, yeah, Supergirl was a bodyguard in this week’s episode. Lex appoints her as such for Andrea, his plan being to get the usual bodyguards away from her so he can get up to his usual villainous shenanigans.
And while we’re on that topic, he has Lena start testing Non Nocere on humans. As we know, the goal of this experiment is for humans to “do no harm,” which sounds great and all, but it completely backfires when it’s used on a prisoner named Steve who becomes extremely violet. Yes, it’s that Steve, the newspaper editor who hates Supergirl but loves Kara Danvers’ journalistic work. Funny how that works out.
So is Lena doing right or wrong here? I’d lean more towards wrong, because she’s letting her anger get the best of her, which has pushed her towards her evil brother.
Anyway, Lena tries to fix the inconsistencies with Non Nocere, which basically takes any negative feelings away from Steve, who just feels calm, collected and safe. He doesn’t feel the need to do anything horrible, because all those feelings have been taken away from him. This sounds pretty great, but it’s probably not going to be.
At the heart of this week’s episode is a widow seeking revenge against Obsidian for causing her husband’s death. He worked for Andrea but after stealing one of the prototypes, his addiction grew and eventually led to his death. His widow is trying to stop the launch, which Alex and J’onn figure out in the nick of time.
To be honest, the rest of the episode feels like it whizzes by at hyperspeed, and gives the viewers too much to process in a short amount of time. Supergirl tries to talk the widow down from wreaking havoc on the launch while Andrea (who has powers in a post-Crisis world, by the way), tries to convince the widow that Obsidian has helped people cope with trauma. It’s just her way of trying to help others.
Interestingly, that’s what Lena said, too.
I’m not sure what’s coming up in the episodes ahead, but everything seems to be all over the place. And Lex is growing more dangerous with every passing moment, with a manipulated Lena by his side.
This isn’t going to end well.
