How Does She Do It?

"How Does She Do It?" is the fifth episode in the first season of the CBS television series Supergirl, which aired on November 23, 2015. It was written by Yahlin Chang and Ted Sullivan, and directed by Thor Freudenthal. The episode centers on Kara dealing with babysitting Cat Grant's son while on vacation while tackling a series of attempted bombings that threatens National City.

Plot

As Kara takes time off to fly around National City as Supergirl, a drone follows her and when she spots it, she out races it and destroys it. She suspects Hank is watching her but he denies it. Alex believes him and tells Kara to trust him. When Kara returns to work, Winn tells Kara that Cat Grant just received a award, except she has to go to Metropolis for the event. When Cat tells Kara that her mother refused to babysit her son Carter, Kara volunteers to take care of him. Meanwhile at the restaurant, James asks Lucy why she came to National City, but when she explains it was to see him again, James did not want to hear it. Kara then asks James about Lucy, with James saying that Lucy chose her career over him. When they hear a sound of a explosion going off, Kara races off to a skyscraper and saves it from destruction by using her heat vision to weld the girders back together, unaware that another drone is watching her. Back at the DEO, Alex tells Hank that the drone belonged to Lord Technologies. After taking care of the incident, Kara races off to Carter's school to pick him up just moments after Cat called to check in on him. At Lord Technologies, Alex and Hank confront Maxwell about the drone and bombs, but Maxwell claims his company was targeted by a shell company and is being uncooperative due to not trusting the government, prompting Hank to have Alex keep a eye on Maxwell, who asks her about why she works for the DEO and explains his dislike for Supergirl.

At CatCo, The news of Supergirl saving the building gets Carter's attention, as he is a fan and Kara is impressed, even as she shut down Winn after he makes a comment. Meanwhile, James is trying to juggle running the company while dealing with Lucy at the same, and Kara calms him down. Back at Lord Technologies, Max gets a call that a bomb is in the building and insists on defusing it, only to make the timer speed up, which prompts Alex to call Kara and she shows up as Supergirl to take the device out into the atmosphere, but the blast knocks Kara into the ocean. She eventually wakes up back at the DEO not knowing that Hank had his eyes glowing when she came to, but she realizes that she forgot about Carter during the time away. Kara returns to check on the others first by stopping to get lunch, when she sees Lucy, who asked if James is seeing another person, and Kara tells her no. Lucy then tells Kara that she broke up with James because of Superman. Kara later returned to the building to talk to James and to advise him on how to fight for love but James doesn't want to have his heart broken again. When Lucy returns to see James, the two talk it over, which ends in a kiss.

The DEO learns that the bombs were the work of a ex-Lord Technologies employee, Ethan Knox. When Alex learns that he plans to target his rail launching, Max refuses the DEO's help because of how his parents, who were scientists, were killed due to safety conditions. As Kara leaves Carter in Winn's care, she heads to the train station to keep a eye on it, while Winn keeps Carter company, only to turn around to see Carter missing, believing that he went to the event. However, it turns out that there are two bombs, as another is planted at the airport where Lucy is. With Kara fixated on tracking down Ethan as Carter is pushed onto the crowded train looking for his mother, James and the DEO heads to the airport, where Lucy sees him and he runs to her. When Alex and Hank arrive to see the bomb, Hank tells her to clear everyone and orders her to leave, then uses his eyes to defuse the bomb. He is cheered on by the crowd and tells Alex that it was a distraction to keep them away from the train, which is where Supergirl confronts Maxwell after she finds him with Carter, then orders him to take Carter and everyone else to another car after she spots Ethan, who's about to blow him and the train up because of his sick daughter, but when she tries to reason with him, Ethan follows through and starts the countdown, which leads to Supergirl to disconnect the train to save the passengers but is too late to save Ethan, who blows himself and the train up at the bridge crossing. Later on at the DEO, Kara helps Alex defuse the fail-safe from the bomb, leading Kara to be suspicious.

Back at CatCo, Cat learns that Carter has met Supergirl, but when Kara returns to ask Carter to watch him again Cat tells Kara that it won't be happening anytime soon and then lectures Kara. Kara then catches James and Lucy kiss. She also sees Maxwell on TV and after having Winn check on hospital records, she pays a visit to Maxwell's penthouse, where she suspects that Maxwell had not only been paying medical expenses for Ethan's daughter, but used the bombings and the drones as a ruse to test Supergirl. Maxwell denies this, but Supergirl tells him she will be watching him, and after she leaves, Maxwell's true colors emerges.

Production

This episode was originally scheduled to air November 16, 2015, but due to the November 2015 Paris attacks, it was pulled because the content in the episode was similar to the events.^[1] As a result of this move, CBS moved the episode "Livewire" up to November 16, 2015.^[2]

Reception

Jeff Jensen of Entertainment Weekly called the episode a "dud".^[3]

Cliff Wheatley of IGN gave the episode a 4.5 out of 10, saying, “'How Does She Do It?' is a pretty dull episode of television by any standard, and unfortunately Benoist and a few funny lines aren’t enough to save it. There are too many characters getting a lot of screen time (and Cat not getting enough) without enough presence to keep them interesting, storylines that we’re not invested in, and action that’s not exciting. This episode would have been better left unaired".^[4]

Stacy Glanzman of TV Fanatic gave the episode a 4.5 out of 5 stars.^[5]

References