Supergirl Recap – “Pilot” AKA Kara versus the Patriarchy

Is it a bird? Is it a plane? Well, actually, yes. But we’ll get to that later.

We made it, folks. It took us a while – including a slew of franchises, adaptations and reimaginings – but we’re here. And it was worth the wait.

When Supergirl’s much-anticipated pilot popped up on torrent sites a full six months ahead of its official air date, eager viewers snapped it up – me included. Once the second episode went live, I watched the first one again, just as a refresher. And when I signed on to do these recaps, I plonked down to watch it a third time, because I realised I still hadn’t learned each character’s lines word for word. (That was a joke, ladies and gents. I’m here all week.)

Here’s the SparkNotes version: our leading lady, Kara Danvers (Melissa Benoist of Glee fame) is a coffee-fetching assistant at CatCo, one of the largest media organisations in the world. For some reason, she dresses like a librarian as part of her disguise, like if she dressed like a normal person people would automatically assume she was an alien or something.

What her co-workers don’t know is she’s a refugee from Krypton. (Yeah, that Krypton.) In an Einsteinian turn of events, her pod was knocked off course, and she was sucked into a ripple in space and time known as the Phantom Zone. (Wonder if ol’ Albert predicted that one.) After spending a decade or two bobbing around in an intergalactic purgatory, she finally made it to Earth – by which point her cousin, Kal-El, had become the star of his own show.

Ten minutes in, the episode feels kind of like an eHarmony commercial, complete with a cringe-worthy first date thanks to a prize d-bag whose name I’m tipping is probably Chad. But when news breaks that a plane carrying hundreds of passengers is moments away from plunging into the harbour, Kara has the perfect excuse to ditch Probably-Chad and get her hero on.

Sidenote: anyone else caught off guard by how fab Melissa Benoist’s long brownish-blonde locks are? She could be rocketing through the skies at supersonic speeds, and she still looks like she just stepped off the set of a shampoo commercial. Unbelievable.

At any rate, her antics attract national headlines, with blurry photos of National City’s newest caped crusader blanketed across newsstands on every street corner. None of this does much to excite her adoptive sister, Alex (Chyler Leigh) who has her own secret identity to protect – as an agent for the Department of Extra-Normal Operations, otherwise known as the DEO. Think SHIELD meets Law and Order: SVU.

Craving acceptance from someone, Kara reveals her powers to her best friend, Winn – short for Winslow, the sort of name that immediately makes you sound smarter than everyone else. Shout-out to the casting guy: Jeremy Jordan makes the perfect geek charming. Some might remember him from Smash, a two-season musical drama (not Glee, different show) which had even more costumes than Supergirl does. In that one, he played the bad boy skating along the wrong side of the tracks, but here, he’s the adorably awkward IT guy who spends 90% of his screen time making googly eyes at our leading lady. Like Benoist, he has a killer set of pipes, so if I don’t get a duet sometime in the future, I’ll be mega disappointed.

But uh oh, what’s this? Kara’s got her sights set on Jimmy (Mehcad Brooks), a photojournalist from The Daily Planet who sets Supergirl’s heart all aflutter with a flex of a bulging bicep. What’s more, he’s a personal pal of the Man of Steel, as revealed in a romantic rooftop rendezvous where he presents Kara with super-strength fabric from Kal-El’s space crib, perfect to fashion a cape out of. (Because humans make baby clothes out of indestructible material, too!)

A love triangle this early in the game? Oh, boy. Mercifully, there’s still plenty of comic book action to go around, with Supergirl bouncing back and forth between bank robberies, car chases and knock-down, drag-out brawls. Some of the choreography is clumsy, but that’s to be expected with a show as fresh-faced as this one. Looks like Kara’s not the only one learning the ropes.

Alas, just when it looks like she’s in a good place, surrounded by supportive friends and embracing her role as National City’s defender, we cut to a congregation of shadowy figures, one of which looks disturbingly familiar. That’s right, it’s – gasp! – Kara’s dear-departed mother. Or, actually, her evil twin, since she refers to Supergirl as her “niece.” Apparently there’s some Jerry Springer-style family drama going on there.

What does this mean for Supergirl? Will Kara ever dismantle the patriarchy? And will she prove that a girl can be every bit as heroic as the strongest man alive? Tune in next week to find out!