Supergirl
Episode 1.5 “How Does She Do It?”
Directed by Thor Freudenthal
Written by Yahlin Chang, Ted Sullivan
Created by Greg Berlanti, Andrew Kreisberg, Ali Adler
Starring Melissa Benoist, Calista Flockhart, Chyler Leigh, Mehcad Brooks, David Harewood, Jeremy Jordan, Helen Slater, Dean Cain, Peter Facinelli, Chris Vance
CBS
Air date: Monday, November 23rd, 2015, 8:00pm ET

Last week’s Supergirl was switched with this week’s, in light of the Paris attacks, which was considerate. However, it gave us a few spoilers, but not any horribly crucial ones. The main one is that James Olsen and Lucy Lane (Mechad Brooks and Jenna Dewan-Tatum) were already back together in this episode, to the disappointment of Kara (Melissa Benoist) and James. So “Livewire” focused on one of Cat’s (Calista Flockhart) disgruntled employess, who got demoted to weather duty, and then struck by lightning via a Supergirl conduit. It was also the Thanksgiving episode which found foster mom Helen Slater (I don’t know why emphasizing foster mom bothered me), Alex (Chyler Leigh), Kara, and Winn (Jeremy Jordan) at a tense family dinner. It ends up okay though, with the exception of the reveal that Hank Henshaw (David Harewood) was involved in Alex’s dad’s disappearance.

Spoilers below.

Supergirl 1.5 “How Does She Do It?” recap/review: The title says it all. Something drone-y is spying on Supergirl. Alex deems it advanced Earth tech – not alien.

Lucy makes an effort to get back together with “Jimmy.” James says she wants to “win” everything.

Lucy Lane asks her for relationship advice about Jimmy. Awkward!

So Kara talks to James about Lucy. Super awkward! But whereas I thought Dewan-Tatum was going to be reduced to arm candy, possibily bitchy arm candy, based on last week. This week showed that maybe she deserved James.

Alex warns Kara not to go to the “friend zone” with James. I can’t buy this chemistry. I am sorry. I like both of them, but she has more with Winn.

Kara is babysitting Cat’s son, who is a shy boy with a Supergirl crush.

A bomb detonates in a building, but it is from the same people. Maxwell Lord is a suspect. But he would be too obvious, and Alex is left behind to protect him. Now that is a couple I can get behind. There are some little sparks! And I don’t mean the ones that are going to blow them up if they cannot figure out how to disarm the new bomb that is threatening them.

Don’t worry. Kara saved the day just in time, but she really is frazzled, spreading herself too thin.

Lord keeps going on with a train launch. We know there is always mayhem at events on these shows. It gets really exciting when everything goes completely wrong. It starts to go really fast. Cat’s son gets on the train, to try to find Supergirl. She scans it and finds no bomb on train, but a bomb found at airport. Supergirl goes to the airport. James also runs to the airport because Lucy is there. Winn runs to catch the train, then watches it take off. There he sees the disgruntled employee bomber on it.

Kara saves the day once again. The danger passes, and there is a twist to the motivation.

Did I mention that Kara saw Henshaw’s red eyes? She must have thought she was dreaming though.

Calista Flockhart and Peter Facinelli were the standouts. Flockhart was not even in this episode that much, but she stole every scene she was in. I especially enjoyed watching her be a mom, adding even more layers to this complex character. Facinelli is slowly revealing the dark side of Maxwell Lord.

Supergirl airs Mondays at 8pm ET on CBS.

CBS’s synopsis:

“How Does She Do It?” — Kara’s two identities are stretched thin when Supergirl must protect National City from a series of bombings and Kara is tasked with babysitting Cat’s son, Carter, on SUPERGIRL, Monday, Nov. 23 (8:00-9:00 PM, ET/PT) on the CBS Television Network.