Luthors

"Luthors" is the twelfth episode of the second season from The CW television series Supergirl, which aired on February 13, 2017.

Plot

In a flashback, Lionel Luthor introduces his adopted daughter Lena to his wife Lillian and their son Lex. Lex then asks her if she wants to play chess with him, and Lilian muses that having a sister might be good for Lex.

In the present day, Kara is finding herself distracted by Mon-El and the news story involving Lillian's trial, while James and Winn are surprised by Alex, now revealing that she and Maggie are now a couple, although J'onn had known beforehand. On Alex's advice, Kara visits Lena and learned that Lillian asked Lena to visit her, and Kara suggested she does. At the prison, the meeting between Lena and Lillian becomes tense for a moment until Lilian reveals the truth to Lena that Lionel had a affair with a woman who turned out to be Lena's birth mother and that Lionel was Lena's birth father. Lilian tells her that it was to protect her from Lionel, and is hoping that Lena would give her a second chance. At the same time, one of Lillian's Cadmus subjects, John Corben, still infused as Metallo, receives a envelope containing Kryptonite. The next day at the trial, Corben is asked to testify against Lillian, only to become unstable while under oath; he then uses his powers on the Prosecutor and flees with Lillian. When Kara arrives Metallo uses a crane to target bystanders and Kara ends up saving them instead as her arch enemies escape successfully. At the DEO, Maggie believes that someone helped Metallo with getting Lillian out of prison, and Lena is now under suspicion. Kara visits Lena to get the truth, but as she is put off by this accusation, Maggie arrives with evidence from the prison that she gave Kryptonite to Metallo, and Lena is arrested. At CatCo, Kara fails to convince James that Lena is innocent, as he approves to put Lena's face on the cover of the company's magazine. James tells Kara that he'll prove it to her. Afterwards, Kara learns that Eve stopped seeing Mon-El because he kept talking about Kara. Later on, Guardian arrives just in time to stop Metallo from breaking Lena out of prison. During their battle, Metallo defeats Guardian but suddenly he becomed unstable. Corben leaves Guardian alone and escapes with Lena.

Back at the DEO, James tells Kara that Corben is not stable, and with Lena a fugitive, even Alex is starting to believe she is guilty, despite Kara coming to her defense, and takes her frustration out on both James and Alex by pounding on brick walls. When Mon-El sees Kara, he tells her that she believes in people that are good even if others don't. Kara then apologizes to Mon-El about Eve and he forgives her. Meanwhile at a secret location, Lillian tells Lena that because they're Luthors, the public will always look at them as criminals, and convinces her to join Cadmus. At the same time, Metallo is starting to notice that his veins are turning green. When they arrive to Lex's warehouse, Lillian asks Lena to unlock a storage with her DNA but after she refuses Cyborg Superman takes her hand and places it on the device, which opens up a suit that was stored inside. Winn learns that Hank hacked into the L-Corp surveillance mainframe to alter Lena's events in order to make her guilty, and discovers that the synthetic Kryptonite that powers Metallo is becoming highly unstable. Unless it is removed quickly, it will turn Corben into a living bomb that could spew poisonous Kryptonite dust if he explodes. As Kara races to the warehouse, she is met with weapons, even as Winn warns her about Corben. Both Lillian and Henshaw escape, although Hank does knock Lena out. As J'onn arrives to help Kara, they save Lena and escape moments before Corben explodes.

The following morning, Kara, having been convinced that Snapper was right all along, informs James that Lillian and Henshaw have disappeared. The two agree to be friends again. Kara then visits Lena, who thanks Kara for standing up to her. After Kara leaves, Lena looks at a chess piece, as flashbacks shows her playing chess with Lex in which she beats him. Later that evening at Kara's apartment, Mon-El shows up to talk to Kara, who admits that being a superhero and her refusal to become vulnerable was the reason she didn't want to start a relationship with Mon-El, but is ready to start. As the two are about to kiss, a mysterious individual, Mr. Mxyzptlk, suddenly shows up to declare his love for Kara, and asks her to marry him.

Reception

This episode received excellent reviews. Cliff Wheatley of IGN gave the episode a 9.1/10, stating "As strong as Supergirl has been this season, it's often struggled to make Lillian Luthor and Cadmus feel like worthy villains. This episode made great strides in that regard as it explored the Luthor family dynamic and suggested that Lena, not Lillian, might be the real key to the Cadmus conflict. Coupled with some enjoyable character drama, "Luthors" proved to be one of the stronger episodes of the season so far."^[1]

The episode received an A- from The AV Club.^[2]

References