There is a little bit of everything this week on swing episode of Supergirl. “Manhunter” sets things up for the second half off the inaugural season of Supergirl as two of our cast members become fugitives and a new villain rises.
As the name of the episode suggests this is a very J’onn J’onzz centric episode of Supergirl. During a flashback we actually get to see the fateful meeting between J’onn, the real Hank Henshaw, and Jeremiah Danvers. It begins as all kind of silly as J’onn saves the senior Danvers from a snake. A big python like snake that Danvers has to really just crawl away from very slowly. What happened CBS, couldn’t afford some sort of jungle cat? Are budgets really that tight? Is that why you canceling Person of Interest? Anyway, J’onn saves Jeremiah and we see Henshaw try to kill J’onn, Jeremiah makes the save, gets himself killed, J’onn transforms into Henshaw and promises to protect Jeremiah’s little girls. And we have an origin, folks!
Meanwhile, back in the present, Lucy Lane and the newly introduced James Harper put both Alex and J’onn on trial. Harper isn’t the Guardian here; he’s just a giant military douche. Alex and J’onn both get arrested and taken to Project Cadmus. That’s right, super nerds…Cadmus! I must say it was really neat having James Olsen being the one to tell Supergirl all about Cadmus. After all, it was in “Superman’s Pal: Jimmy Olsen” that Cadmus made its comic book debut during Jack Kirby’s classic run on the title. With Lucy’s help, Supergirl rescues Alex and J’onn. Now Martian and big sister are fugitives from justice; this should be fun! And yes, J’onn digs deep into Harper’s brain and not only does it seem like Harper may be controlled by Cadmus, but it also seems like Jeremiah might be alive. Ooo, high stakes!
Back at Cat. Co, we get some more Siobhan action as she tries to break into the Cat Co. network and sends a nasty e-mail to Cat Grant as Kara. The whole thing backfires and Siobhan is now even more reviled by Cat. Siobhan’s boy toy Winn took the initiative and rats Siobhan out. The mean girl goes up to the roof for some booze, and when Winn confronts her, she trips and falls seemingly to her death. I think you see this one coming comic fans – all of a sudden she screams and the shockwaves from her voice save her. Welcome to the DC TV Universe Silver Banshee! It’s pretty cool that the series takes several episodes to set up the arrival of the Silver Banshee so the inevitable confrontation with Kara will seem like more than just a villain of the week sort of thing.
But, next week will be so much more than that because Barry Allen, the Flash, is coming to CBS to help Supergirl against her new foe! This should be fun.
3 ½ stars
