Kara thinks this is the only way, going face to face with Lex to distract him while the Martians stop the satellites, and she thinks it will be worth it. Lena reminds her what Kara already knows, that Lex will play dirty, that he’ll get mean. Kara is ready though. Kara starts to get Lena set up with Myriad and Lena starts to thank her again for the trust she hasn’t felt she’s earned.

“Forgiveness. Can you imagine?”

And Kara says, and I quote, “You’re the only person in the galaxy I know would do right by it.” IN THE GALAXY. You can’t call me delusional when it’s all right there on the page.

And the little “c’mon” Kara gives her after this is perfect.

Meanwhile, Andrea goes shadow hopping to Buenos Aires to use her father’s money to buy stock in Catco to save it (I think? I barely know how the Animal Crossing Stalk Market works, but either way she saves it) and then disappears back into the night.

Once Alex and Lena are all set up with what they need, Alex tells Kara she’s going to borrow a portal watch and Kara says it’s fine as long as she returns it, and they have an adorable little moment of sister banter re: Alex stealing Kara’s t-shirts in high school.

Love this sisterly moment, so great to see them laughing, hope it doesn’t mean we’re about to endure an unbearable pain!

As their laughter fades, Alex tells Kara she’s glad to see her and Lena made up and Kara admits there’s still some mending to do but she agrees, it’s nice to have her second favorite scientist back. Alex and Kara exchange, “I love yous” trying to trust they won’t be the last and when Lena rejoins them I can’t help but agree with Alex that it’s nice they can all three be together without the tension and distrust.

After Alex and Lena leave, Kara sets up a crystal and starts to make what almost seems like a knowledge will, just in case Lena is right and this does end up being a suicide mission. And for all the times this show has wronged me, that scene right before it was a reminder of how good it can be, and so Kara starting a legacy download — just like her mother once left for her — made me emotional.

Lena takes Myriad to her lab, where Brainy is looking at the Non Nocere code and talking about how fucking terrifying it is and Lena is like, “Yeah, my bad on that one, actually.”

“I know, I know, I’m so smart it even scares ME sometimes.”

And Brainy looks at her with a mix of awe and fear, which feels like a healthy combination of feelings for him to have toward her. Brainy promises he didn’t know Lex’s plan and really thought he could stop him before he did any real harm, but then Brainy was so afraid of becoming a villain himself that he lost track of the plan. He wanted to save the world but is afraid he made things worse. And no one in National City can understand that feeling better than Lena Kieran Luther.

The fact that Kara forgiving her is allowing her to start to forgive herself fills my heart right up.

And she tells him so. She sees what he was willing to sacrifice, and that she finally sees now that in her confidence that she had all the answers and she was the only one who could fix humanity, she became more like Lex than she’d care to admit. She smiles a sad smile and says that hubris runs in the family.

Brainy asks what they do now that they’ve crossed these lines and Lena says the only thing they can do is try to cope. Make up for the mistakes they made, and appreciate that their friends are still by their side. Also, they can work together and save the world.

Speaking of said friends, Kara is about to start Volume 2 of her crystal autobiography when Lex shows up. Instead of having a civil conversation, Lex jumps right to beaming Kara in the chest with concentrated Kryptonite. She’s running out of time.

Alex and Nia find the bottle they’re looking for, but unfortunately they also find Otis and Lillian guarding it.

Blue is the badassest color.

Luckily they are badasses and make quick work of Lex’s lackeys before using the portal watch to gtfo.

While that’s happening, M’gann and J’onn merge with the satellites, and push through the pain long enough to blow up all the satellites at once, meaning it’s safe for Brainy to un-brainwash people, which he does.

Alex and Nia bring Lena the bottle, and she immediately starts working on making its contents into a weapon to kill Lex, and they hope it’s not too late for Kara.

In the Fortress of Literally-Never-Solitude-Anymore, as Kara crumples to the floor, Lex wonders why she isn’t giving him one of her classic speeches. He hisses at Kara about her and her team manipulating people, bending people to their agenda, and it seems he truly does not see the irony through his ire. Instead of using the example of the millions of people he literally brainwashed, Kara’s mind goes first to Lena and how he pitted Lena against Supergirl, against Kara.

Kara points out the irony he so obtusely missed, especially since he now has literal alien DNA in his veins. He’s not here to look inward though, so instead he pumps more kryptonite into her until she seems to stop breathing and he’s satisfied that she’s dead. As soon as he leaves the room, however, the control panel flashes that the Lena Luthor Protocol has been enacted; a little drone of sunlight flies in and a patented Lena-designed supersuit covers Kara’s body.

“You are my sunshine, my only sunshine…”

Lex is having a Risky Business/Home Alone party with his new toys in the Fortress’s armory, ready to tear it all down from the inside, when suddenly Team Super shows up.

“Surprise, bitch. I bet you thought you’d seen the last of me.”

He’s confused; he was sure he bested her this time, but Kara says that he was so predictable that Lena was able to prepare for his every move.

Kara says, “Welcome to mortality, Lex” and Dreamer tries to shoot the Lexonite at him but her gun jams and he starts to fight back. Lex is powerful, knocking people over like it’s nothing, shattering Kara’s supersuit, and Lex takes this as a gift, to be able to take out most of the team at once instead of having to hunt them down one by one. But one thing he didn’t count on was that they are stronger together and Kara gets Alex the crystal, and she calls forth a new Lexonite gun with her magic glove.

Alex is ready for a bank heist.

Lex shoots a weird weapon he found at the same time Alex shoots her gun and the beams collide, leaving Lex mortal, but also yeeting Kara into the Phantom Zone.

Unfortunately whatever Lex used to open the portal to the Phantom Zone is broken so they can’t reverse the yeeting, and even though Lena offers to open a portal there herself like she’s done before, Brainy points out that they would need Kara’s coordinates for that.

Dreamer finds the Legacy Download but Alex gives that a hearty “abso-fucking-lutely not” because Kara is not dead. They will find her. She will bring her baby sister home if it’s the last thing she does.

Lex may be immortal but he is still an imbecile and won’t admit defeat. He threatens to reveal Kara’s identity if they lock him up, which might not matter for Kara anymore, but could mean trouble for Mama Danvers or Kelly Olsen.

And then Lena punches him square in the face.

She immediately looks apologetic, but not at or for her brother. No, the only guilt she feels is that maybe Alex wanted to take that swing and Lena stepped on her moment. But Alex is perfectly fine with this. “Family first,” she jokes.

“That was hot.”

After they take Lex away to be arrested, Lena looks to Alex in surprise and asks if Kelly really doesn’t know Kara is Supergirl. Which is fair because it’s a question we’ve also all been asking. (I was so sure she knew.) And maybe something she should have been told before Lena and Kelly spent some period of time alone in the Tower together. But Alex shakes her head no and looks like she’s going to defend her decision but instead Lena HUGS ALEX. Throws her arms right around her!

:slaps my own wrist: NO, Valerie! No shipping AgentCorp when you already ship SuperCorp and Dansen! Bad lesbian! Down girl!

I love how Lena looks like even she was surprised by this hug.

Lena has come so far and grown so much and I love her to pieces and I’m so, so, so glad she’s back on Team Super where she belongs.

The next morning, Andrea tells her staff that even though Obsidian North folded, by some miracle that had nothing to do with anyone who can hop between shadows like a 6th level monk in D&D, Catco is safe and will continue to grow and thrive, especially now that it has her undivided attention.

Andrea asks after Kara and Nia tells her that she’s off with Cat Grant on a story. William is butthurt that Kara left National City without saying goodbye, but Nia and I literally could not care less about his feelings.

Bruh you should just…give up. Maybe date Andrea instead?

Lillian visits Lex in jail and before they can hatch another dastardly plot, Lena and Myriad show up. And maybe a less trusting person would think she was abusing her powers, but I knew better.

Nia goes to talk to Brainy again and return his Legion ring. Brainy blames himself for Kara being disappeared, but Nia reassures him that they’ll get her back. Nia also tells Brainy that she still cares about him, even if it’s not logical, and that if Brainy’s willing to be open and honest with her, and not treat her like someone who has to be protected, they can start to work on their relationship again.

It is so incredibly rare for me to care about a m/f pairing but HERE WE ARE. I can’t help it, these sweet soft bbs have my heart.

He says, “You’re a woman who stops tidal waves and dreams impossible things,” and she tells him that she’s also a woman that loves him. It’s all VERY cute.

Alex is eyeballing the Legacy Download crystal when J’onn comes back to tell Alex that he and M’gann are still following leads to find someone who can maybe help them get to wherever Kara is in the phantom zone. Alex looks at her Space Dad and says she needs her sister, and he tells her of a woman he once knew who stood guard, who protected. A woman they called Sentinel. So he gives Alex the name and symbol of this hero he once knew, adding a button to the Tower so she can be called when she’s needed, too.

Alex Danvers, The Girl Who Waited

J’onn promises they’ll get Kara back as soon as Melissa Benoist is back from maternity leave, and until then they’ll keep the city safe. Together.

Lena returns to the Tower with Myriad in tow, and fully admits right away that she used it one last time, but in a way she thinks they’ll approve of: she wiped Lex and Lillian’s mind of Supergirl’s identity. To keep everyone in Kara’s life safe. Lena understands now, truly, fully, why Kara had to lie to her for so long. But at the same time, she still wishes she was told earlier. So she turns to Alex and says that she really needs to tell Kelly the truth. Before Alex ends up in an epic lover’s quarrel like Lena and Kara did.

“She’s your person,” Lena says. And she wants Alex to have someone to lean on while she’s hurting, so she doesn’t end up isolating herself the way Lena did when she was in pain.

“Take it from me and my fortress of little boxes that has tumbled down around me.”

And, unsurprisingly, Alex agrees with the smartest woman she knows.

The episode ends with peek of Kara in the Phantom Zone, seemingly unconscious and with a bunch of Gentlemen Gremlin Putty Patrollers descending upon her.

This episode had a lot of work to do to both wrap up the last season that was forced to end prematurely because of COVID, set up a new season, maybe a span of time without Melissa (and I joked about maternity leave but it looks like Melissa is in the next episode too despite being in the Phantom Zone so maybe they just fully delayed til she was back) so it was a lot of lore dumps and neat fixes as far as overarching problems go, but on a character level, I loved it. It reminded me of everything I’ve always loved about the show; it was teamwork, it was sisterhood, it was forgiveness and trust and growth. Plus a superbattle. It focused on Kara and Alex and Lena and Nia, even a bit of Andrea, Kelly and M’gann, and I truly hope this last season continues to keep its women in the spotlight, because that’s why we’re all here.

It’s good to be back in National City with you all for one last season. Let’s have some fun! See ya next week.

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