Recap: Supergirl 1.17 "Manhunter"

"Manhunter" begins with Supergirl majorly down in the dumps. Her Red Kryptonite Extraganza from last week has led to the people of National City losing trust in her. So, she's pouting by eating donuts while half-wearing her hero outfit. As one does.

*sad trombone*

We also get a flashback of little Kara. There is one awful moment where, when she had first arrived on Earth as a young girl, Kara saved a family from a burning car. Jeremiah (Alex's dad) had told her that the world already has Superman and that she needed to hide her powers. And, my heart breaks for every little girl who has had her ambition and potential stifled.

BUT anyway.

Things aren't so great with Hank, either, as he's been put in the DEO Bad Alien Jail for having revealed himself as an alien. The military has taken over the DEO and is conducting an investigation into Hank's alien identity. Also, Lucy is back in the military. Apparently you can be in the military, go AWOL/corporate for a few weeks, and then just be back in the military again with minimal hassle. 

Dressed like a woman.

During the investigation, we get a flashback of (the real) Hank Henshaw and Jeremiah Danvers (Alex's dad). They apparently hunted J'onn J'onnz, thinking he was a dangerous alien. However, we learn that J'onn had actually saved Jeremiah's life. And, Jeremiah, in turn, had learned that J'onn wasn't actually dangerous, but was a refugee from Mars. Jeremiah then killed (the real) Hank, when defending J'onn. From then on, J'onn shape-shifted into Hank, stole his identity, and ran the DEO. I hope that made sense. Stolen identity/body switch plots are hard to describe, it turns out.

Overall, Lucy seems to become more sympathetic to Hank/J'onn's story than the authoritarian anti-alien military dude who's leading the interrogation. (I don't know his name, so let's just call him Colonel Bannon.) The Colonel thinks J'onn should be locked away forever for being an enemy of the state. Supergirl and Alex, however, are not having it. So, good luck, Bub.

#Resistance

Alex is then hooked up to a lie detector machine and interrogated about whether she knew Hank/J'onn was an alien. The first question asked is, "Is your name Alexandra Danvers." Alex clarifies that it's just "Alex." Because of course it is, honey.

Alex then free-form narrates the tale of how she first met Hank/J'onn. And, I just don't think that's how polygraph tests work, but then again, everything I know about the topic comes from Homeland so whaddoIknow.  We're also treated to clips of a femmed-out Alex downing shots and dancing in a club, just before Hank recruits her into the DEO. With last week's Dark Supergirl Red Kryptonite Extravaganza, I'm realizing that drinking + sexy dancing is like the obligatory way that TV Shows Featuring a Strong Female Lead show that a "good girl has gone bad." (See also, Buffy 4x16).

ANYway, during her interrogation, Alex tries to lie, saying she didn't know Hank was an alien, but Lucy knows she's lying. The DEO transports Alex and Hank to something called Project Cadmus. In response, Kara outs herself as Supergirl to Lucy, hoping to sway her to release Hank. I guess Kara's speech works because like 10 seconds later they're on motorcycles together wearing matching black outfits, on a covert mission to free Hank and Alex. That is some serious U-hauling ladies. I mean, hauling ass. And, it works. They free Hank and Alex.

El mayarah

Hank and Alex then flee, since they're fugitives now. Nooooooo! When Supergirl and Lucy return to the DEO, the "Alex's Ex" agent tells them that Lucy has been named the new Head of the DEO.

In Siobhan news, she's back to hating Kara, since Kara got her fired from CatCo. At a certain point, she sneaks into CatCo when no one else is there (whu? how?), gets on Kara's computer (which apparently is not password-protected), and sends a mean email to Cat, "from Kara." However, Cat doesn't fall for it, and she tells Siobhan to scram.

Also, PS: Siobhan is an alien or something. BYEEEEE!

Deep Thought of the Week: What's Carter been up to? Why are all the kids different in each National Lampoon movie? Did Cousin Oliver on The Brady Bunch turn out okay? When is there going to be a re-boot of My So-Called Life, except where they're all adults?

I'm here to ask the important questions, friends.

 [Note: In November 2017, CW/Supergirl Executive Producer Andrew Kreisberg was suspended after allegations of sexual harassment.]