Supergirl Season 1 Episode 19 "Myriad" Review and **SPOILERS**

Peace on Earth, or Else

Starring: Helen Slater, Chris Vance, Peter Facinelli et al.

Story By: Yahlin Chang & Caitlin Parrish

Directed By: Adam Kane

First Aired: April 11, 2016

**Non Spoilers and Score At The Bottom**

That was some humdinger of an episode of Supergirl last week, what with Grant Gustin from CW’s the Flash crossing over…as the Flash! So what do you think they’ve cooked up for us this week? A crossover into Modern Family where Supergirl saves Manny from getting his ass beaten by actual teenagers? Or perhaps Kara Zor-El could wind up on Doctor Who and become a companion. Heck, now that the barrier has been breached, I don’t see why Supergirl can’t crossover with popular films, like maybe she can show up in Batman vs. Superman now and be like, “Eww.” Or perhaps we could see Supergirl in the new Ghostbusters movie, all trying to punch specters and getting ectoplasm on her fist. The possibilities are limitless, and I can’t wait to see how they’ll top themselves in this episode…what? You say this is just a run-of-the-mill, National City is in peril type episode? Aw, nuts. Well, it could still be good, even if not “Flash meets Supergirl” good. Let’s give it a look, shall we? Read on for my review!

Explain It!

You’ll recall that we left last episode with Kara placing a gutsy smooch on James, who then spaced out and started walking to an unknown location with a city full of similarly-zonked people. Well, it turns out that the citizens of National City have been mind-controlled by Kryptonian widower Non, using Myriad, an initiative on Krypton to bring peace to the planet by forcing everyone to have the same opinion. Kara learns about this at the Fortress of Solitude, where a hologram of her mom tells her that she was against using it on Krypton, and arguably could be blamed for the resource depletion that led to its end. Now, that’s a pretty self-loathing opinion, don’t you think? It was the resource depletion, not the unwillingness to lobotomize almost everyone that caused Krypton to ultimately explode, those people doing the depleting could have just sort of backed off and exhibited some kind of conscience. Anyway, Non takes control of Lucy Lane and starts to release all of their alien prisoners—save for the White Martian, too devilish and crackerfied for even his nefarious purposes—but Supergirl keeps ‘em all locked up by knocking everyone out cold and then pressing the “abort” button just in the nick of time.

Supergirl zips over the CatCo, where her co-workers are all typing away at their terminals while Kryptonese scrolls vertically across their screens like the opening credits to the Matrix. She tries to snap them out of it, when Cat Grant saunters in all bitchy and dismissive as normal. Supergirl points out that her staff is acting funny, and Cat acknowledges that there does seem to be something funny going on, namely that productivity is up a thousand percent. Enter her brother Max Lord, also unaffected by Myriad because he built an awesome Bluetooth earpiece that blocks the signal. Supergirl is unaffected because she’s Kryptonian, but when her cousin Superman comes to town, he lands and falls in lockstep with the rest of the community because, frankly, he’s always been a bit more of a follower than a leader. So it’s up to Cat, Max and Supergirl to find the solution to this problem, and luckily Max has a great idea: detonate a Kryptonite bomb that will kill Non, make National City uninhabitable by Kryptonians for fifty years, and cause a fair bit of damage. I think he was also going to add a feature that would give Kara a “purple nurple” but he didn’t have the time. Meanwhile, Alex and Hank Henshaw aka J’onn J’onnz are still on the lam, but seeing how fucked up National City is, they make a pit stop at the Danvers household where Alex’s mom lives. They determine that Hank needs to head to National City and help the situation, and Alex demands to come along. Despite Hank pointing out that she will be vulnerable to Myriad, she insists, so Hank agrees to shield her mind if she’ll just stop whining for a minute. Has anyone on this show ever heard of the word “no?” Just, “No—you can’t come into this very hostile situation because you could compromise it. And since I am the one who can fly, you’re shit out of luck if you want to hitch a ride with me.”

Brainiac’s cousin Indigo has been putting a bug in Non’s ear that he’s thinking too small potatoes—he should have designs on ruling the galaxy, not a measly city or planet. And the best way to do that is to kill Supergirl? Why, exactly? Well don’t ask stupid questions, Non, just kill Supergirl and let’s get on with the party! At CatCo’s office, Non addresses them through other people, and as a display of power, he gets James, Winn and some rando to jump off the skyscraper—Supergirl is able to save two of the three, I’ll leave it to figure out who went splat on the sidewalk. Well, that’s very nice Non, but that’s not quite killing Supergirl, is it? Luckily, Hank and Alex show up, and after Indigo dispenses of Hank with…a bullet? She takes Alex back to Non HQ and Myriad mind-controls her for a nefarious reason. Back at CatCo, Cat tells Supergirl that her greatest power is hope, because that’s something you just tell people from Krypton now and again, and they decide they’re not going to abide by Max Lord’s plan, opting instead for the Care Bear stare. Max reluctantly agrees, and then Alex shows up outside with a Kryptonite gun and sword (and what looks like a Kryptonite suit as well) to challenge Supergirl to a fight to the death! This is what you get for denying Max Lord, people!

So this was an okay episode with some nice payoff for dedicated fans, but it seemed to drag in spots and, overall, the Big Bad isn’t really that big or bad. I’m more freaked out by Indigo, and not just because she’s blue but because I think she will go to dark places that Non won’t. The stakes seem really low in this episode and this show in general, which might be on purpose since it does skew to a younger audience than other shows in the Berlantiverse. All in all, there are worse ways to spend a Monday night, namely watching Gotham. Yeah, I said it!

Bits and Pieces:

Everyone in National City is mind-controlled, and now Supergirl will never convince them to give Adele’s music a try. The episode goes back-and-forth a bit too much for a situation that could adequately be described as “not a huge deal.” I mean, won’t cold water or a loud noise snap them out of it? I know it’s not good to wake sleepwalkers, but surely there must be dispensation for doing so when a whole town has gone under. Cool to see some guest stars, including Helen Slater, but overall this was a mediocre episode that I’m hoping has a much more exciting conclusion.

6.5/10