Supergirl Season Finale Recap: “Better Angels”
And so we’ve come/to the eeeeeend of the roooooad/Still I caaaan’t leeeet goooo … Here we are at the end of Season One of CBS’s Supergirl. In Episode 20, Supergirl faces off against Non and Indigo for the last time (hopefully?). But not before making taking a Goodbye Tour and visiting her closest friends. You know, just in case. Welcome to the last episode of the season, “Better Angels.”
**THIS IS A RECAP – SPOILERS ARE PART OF THE TERRITORY.**
S1, Episode 20 – The Recap
When we last left the Girl of Steel she was about to fight Alex, who was under Myriad’s thrall. Non had given her a choice: “kill Alex, or let Alex kill you. Either way, you lose.” What Non didn’t realize is that there was a third option: snap Alex out of her Myriad-induced trance. J’onn flew to Midvale and brought back Eliza to get to Alex through Non’s programming. It works, and Alex is broken free from Myriad.
Now, Supergirl—with the help of Maxwell Lord and Cat Grant—attempts to do the same for the people of National City. Since Myriad affects the part of the brain where we keep our hope feelings and is being transmitted digitally, Team Supergirl attempts to piggyback on the frequency while broadcasting using analog signals to send Supergirl’s message and symbol of hope to the brainwashed masses, encouraging them to listen to their “Better Angels,” so to speak. Slowly, people in National City start snapping out of it, until eventually the people are free! The day is saved! Right?
Well, not exactly, because Non and Indigo get so pissed that their original Myriad plan didn’t work that they decide to go off and enslave some other world. But not before they kill all the humans on this one. As Maxwell Lord explains to the celebrating DEO, they’re slowly increasing the frequency of Myriad. If they can’t brainwash humanity, they might as well explode their brains. Supergirl and J’onn are the only ones unaffected by the Myriad signal, but J’onn was weakened from his fight with Indigo, so Supergirl may have to face Non and Indigo and save the world alone, with no guarantee of getting out alive. From the moment Lord tells them this, they have 4 hours to save the world.
Which is great, because now that she might, you know, die, Supergirl wants to tell the important people in her life how much they mean to her. She tells Winn she values his friendship. She tells Cat that she values her as a mentor. She tells James that she cares about him, and that maybe now’s not the best time to get a relationship started. And she tells J’onn that she’s ready to go if she needs to. Ready to save the world, and ready to join her mother in Rao’s light if need be.
Lord tracks Non and Indigo to—get this—Fort Rozz in Nevada. Yeah, General Lane’s army couldn’t move the thing from where it landed, and no one ever thought to, you know, check it or anything. So yeah, that’s where the Kryptonians have been hiding out this whole time. Awesome. By this time, J’onn has healed a bit, and he insists on going with Supergirl to confront Non and Indigo. Which is good, because Lord does not know how to give pep talks, and she could use all the help she can get.
As the Myriad frequency rises and people’s heads start feeling like they’re going to pop off, Supergirl and J’onn arrive at the Fort Rozz site and face off against Non and Indigo. Supergirl asks them to please not kill the humans and turn off Myriad, but Non laughs and throws their power source, an omegahedron (shout-out to Supergirl: The Movie!), at her, it having already served its purpose. FIGHT! FIGHT! FIGHT! It’s the usual match-ups. Indigo vs J’onn and Supergirl vs Non. It takes some doing (and lots of heat vision), but both Non and Indigo are defeated (J’onn rips Indigo in half!). Time to celebrate, right?
NO! Because there’s still the problem of the omegahedron having been used to power up Fort Rozz, which is powering Myriad. There’s no way to turn it off. It needs to be removed from the planet, Supergirl volunteers. She calls Alex to tell her what she’s doing, and Alex protests (because, you know, SCIENCE like Hey, you won’t be able to generate the thrust you need to get home, for starters), but again, Supergirl is prepared to give her life to protect Earth.
Supergirl successfully hauls Fort Rozz off the planet and into outer space, saving the world. Then Alex, flying Kara’s pod, goes into space to save Supergirl.
Oh, and by the way, Superman has been lying unconscious on a table this whole time, because he’s useless.
At the DEO, as Kara recovers, she and Alex tell Eliza that Jeremiah is still alive, and that they’ll be working on a mission to rescue him from Project Cadmus. Hank is reinstated as head of the DEO. And later, when Kara is back at CatCo, rather than getting fired like she thinks she is, Cat gives Kara—yes, Kara. Not “Kira”—a promotion. It doesn’t involve more money, of course, but it does mean that Cat respects her, that Kara is no longer her assistant, and that she can be anything she wants to be at CatCo.
The episode ends at Kara’s apartment, with Alex, Eliza, J’onn, Winn, and James (who seems to be Kara’s new boyfriend! Oooohhhh!) gathered for a celebratory dinner. They share a toast “to family,” and it’s the perfect way to end the episode….
… that is, until the CLIFFHANGER, where Supergirl and J’onn respond to a strange sound they hear out the window, and it leads them to another Kryptonian pod that has crash landed, and when Kara opens the cockpit, we don’t see who’s in there, but she goes, “Oh my God!” and then END OF SEASON.
S1, Episode 20 – The Review
If this were a random, middle-of-the-season episode, I might be a little hard on it. The plot itself was the most by-the-numbers plot ever, and the resolutions for each section of the problem were too pat. As an End of the Season episode on a show that isn’t sure they’re getting a second season, however, the episode seems perfect. It allowed for each of the characters to express their true feelings for the people in their lives. It allowed the characters, especially Kara, some sense of closure, and it was celebratory.
I love that Cat finally called her Kara. I love that Cat basically gave Kara the office she was using anyway for Team Supergirl. It’s almost as if Cat knows that Kara is Supergirl! I love that Kara and James are finally giving their relationship a try.
I also noticed as I watched the episode that a little while into it, I felt like I was reading a comic, and I loved that. The simplicity of the plot coupled with the pacing made this feel like it could be an issue of Adventures of Supergirl.
What I loved most was the vibe at the end of this episode. Gone is the feeling that there’s a pro-Supergirl and anti-Supergirl argument to be made. Everyone, as J’onn pointed out, is on the same team.
Well, enough of me! What did you think of this, the last episode of Season One? Let’s chat about what we hope for regarding a second season of Supergirl in the comments below! And I want to thank you for reading along this season! It’s been a fun experience!
Supergirl airs Mondays at 8PM ET/PT on CBS. For more Supergirl fun, check out The House of El—March’s video is up now, and April’s video (the last House of El of the season!) will go up on Thursday the 21st.
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