SUPERGIRL - SEASON 5.7

REVIEW:  SUPERGIRL - SEASON 5, EP. 7:  "Tremors"


Well...the title for this week's episode of our Girl of Steel is rather appropriate--both literally AND figuratively.  We finally get to meet those behind Leviathan, which causes a LITERAL shakeup for Team Supergirl...and a literal one---where the moment we were anguishing over finally happens.

We begin by watching a sequence of J'Onn and Supergirl training, getting prepared to face whatever Leviathan is.  However, it seems that our duo is a tad off their game---obviously distracted by other things.  For J'Onn--the guilt over his brother Malefic, and for Kara---having stressed over hiding her secret ID from Lena.  While discussing their mutual woes, J'Onn gets hit with a mental surge and collapses.  

We check in with Lena, who is at home, with the medallion now around her neck, when the lady known as Margo from Leviathan enters the premises, looking to re-acquire the medallion from Lena, but as she goes to shoot Lena, she hits a shield that Lena has constructed in her home to protect her from threats.  Hope helps send Margo packing, and warns Lena about what Leviathan is capable of.  Lena is unfazed, and wants them to come---after all---she'll have Supergirl save her.

Alex and Brainy check on J'Onn back at the DEO, and offer to have Kelly help him, but J'Onn refuses.  Says he feels Malefic, and must be able to deal with this guilt, and will do so the Martian way.  He heads off.

Margo returns to Leviathan, and reports that she failed in her mission, that Lena is smarter than she looks.  The man in charge---a man named Rama Khan, who's been around for centuries and had come to Earth and swore to defend it from those who would try to destroy it ecologically, gave a gift to humanity, who in turn squandered it.  He wants the medallion back.  He has a blonde lady companion who offers up her help with the technology she has at her disposal, but he feels he needs to do the job himself.

We then see Lena atop a mountain area, discussing an L-Corp initiative to ensure the environmental safety of the area, and preserving it when Rama attacks, seeking the medallion.  As he begins shifting the earth beneath him, Lena uses her signal watch to contact Supergirl, who is at the DEO.  Lena leaps off the cliff, and Supergirl arrives in time to nab her.  Rama attacks them, as Supergirl tries to ward him off with heat vision, but to no avail.  They make their escape.  

Back at the DEO, the team goes over what they just experienced, and Brainy discovers that he knows who Rama Khan is.  He's been responsible for some of the world's greatest disasters such as Pompeii and the like.  His name is rampant throughout religious texts, but not scientific ones.  They discuss how they could stop him, and Lena suggests that some of Lex's weapons designed to kill Superman are at the Fort, but Supergirl says some of Lex's more lethal ones are at the Fortress of Solitude, of which Lena has never heard of, but is obviously curious.  Supergirl agrees to take her there to find the weapon to stop Rama Khan, while the others try to pinpoint his location.  

J'Onn is at home, performing a Martian Ritual to bring his father's spirit to him.  They discuss J'Onn's transgressions against Malefic, and his father understands.  He says that J'Onn has two options---either banish Malefic to the Phantom Zone forever---or try to save his soul.  He tells his father that he feels he's close, but that can't be because of the Phantom Zone.  His father reveals that Malefic is actually close by.  When J'Onn asks where, his father says he needs to find out for himself.

Alex and Brainy track a lead that leads them to a pier, where they find the dead body of Riproar...however, he's wired with explosives, and they barely avoid getting killed.  Brainy suffers a cut, which hits one of his cortexes, but he manages to fix it.  Alex, however, suffers and injury and collapses.  

Supergirl and Lena arrive at the Fortress, and immediately upon entering, Lena is contained because she is a Luthor, and the Fortress has a protocol to destroy Luthors.  Supergirl deactivates it, and apologizes.  Lena says she understands, regarding the relationship between Superman and Lex.  She also takes time to point out how she used to save Kara before she knew she was Supergirl (kind of jabbing at her a little bit).  They begin to head towards the armory to find a weapon to help take down Rama Khan.

Alex wakes up in the infirmary of the DEO.  Kelly is there, visibly upset.  Alex tries to reassure her that she will be okay.  She suffered a concussion.  Alex wants to get back to work, but Kelly says she will do no such thing, she needs to rest.  Alex relents and agrees.

While going to the armory, Lena continues to plot her little jabs at Supergirl, and they finally make the armory, with the various weapons Superman took from Lex over the years.  But Lena spots another weapon, and asks what it is.  Supergirl tells her it's a weapon called the Myriad that her Aunt Astra created to control people.  It gets Lena's curiosity up real fast, but switches over to finding a weapon that will instead take down Rama once and for all...one that will disrupt his atoms and keep him off balance.  When they find what they look for, Supergirl goes to contact Brainy and Alex, but Lena wishes to do it.  Supergirl...all too trusting...let's her.  Lena does her thing, and they're off.  

Meanwhile, Rama isn't thrilled that he failed in his attempt to get the medallion.  He also can't find Lena nor Supergirl anywhere.  His companion offers up her technological expertise yet again, but he figures out that they're not on actual earth soil.  He now knows where there is alien soil.  At the Fortress of Solitude, Supergirl sends information the Fortress has on Rama to the DEO.  It tells of a planet that was a sister planet to Krypton but was destroyed before Krypton.  And the one alien that came to Earth, had the ability to bend the planet to his will.  That is Rama Khan.  

J'Onn...having anguished over the decision he's had to make in regards to his brother Malefic's future, grabs the Phantom Zone projector, and finds his brother contained in Lena Luthor's lab.  His brother sees him with it, and figures he's there to finish the job.  But J'Onn sets it down, instead pleading with his brother for forgiveness, expressing his guilt and sadness over having betrayed his brother---out of fear.  He tells his brother to look into his mind, and see that he is speaking the truth.  At first, Malefic wants nothing more than to kill J'Onn...send him into the Phantom Zone, so J'Onn could experience the pain and suffering Malefic did.  As Malefic looks into his mind, he sees J'Onn's thoughts---seeing that his brother is, indeed, speaking the truth.  He pulls back, seeing the look on his brother's face, and Malefic understands.  He sees the guilt, the pain, the anguish that J'Onn is experiencing for having done what he did.  He relents, and the brothers embrace.

Brainy, trying to locate Leviathan's HQ, has something of a glitch going on...but he corrects it, and instantly has a breakthrough as he pieces together the metal from Riproar's body and outfit together to get the Leviathan seal...and helps him locate where their base of operations are at.  From there, he contacts Alex, who has to go, even though Kelly is about to tell her that she can't handle Alex's dangerous life, and wants to break it off with her.  She tells Alex to go, and Alex promises to be back.  Brainy and Alex arrive at the location, which looks like a rundown home from the outside, but has a secret elevator once inside.  Brainy and Alex make their way down into this tunnel, as the blonde haired woman uses her magic to see Alex and Brainy snooping around, having had security measures in place.  

Rama makes his way to the North Pole to the Fortress of Solitude, where he and Supergirl do battle.  And while he says he can bend the Earth, he forgets that the Fortress isn't from the Earth---it's Kryptonian, thus Supergirl has the "home field advantage".  She fights him off, and freezes him.  And just as he's about to use his powers on her, Lena comes out and blasts him with the weapon she said would alter his body.  Supergirl blasts him with super breath again, but he escapes.  As Supergirl goes to check on Lena, she sees that Lena has the Myriad.  It is here that Lena finally reveals to Supergirl that she played her--faking the friendship the whole time.  She talks about how she killed Lex, and that, as he was dying, told him the truth that Kara and Supergirl were one.  She reveals that she trusted no one when she came to National City, but Kara opened her heart---only to crush it by betraying her by lying.  Supergirl tries to reason with her, and make her understand, but Lena presses the button on the console, and initiates the protocol to trap Supergirl.  She reversed it.  As Supergirl is trapped, she asks Lena why she didn't expose her at the awards ceremony---Lena says she wanted her to suffer like she did.  She's not a killer, or a villain---but Kara made her out to be one.  With that, Lena portals herself out of the Fortess...leaving Supergirl to weep, while trapped.

Alex returns to Kelly, and Kelly expresses her fears about Alex and her life.  Alex totally understands, and tells her that when they met, she was getting over someone, and then she came along and fixed her.  Alex wants to help Kelly get over her anguish.  She feels at home with Kelly, and Kelly expresses the same, and they kiss and embrace.

We end with one last look at Supergirl....trapped, sullen, and crying in the Fortress alone.


Well...another episode with an emotional tear jerking at the end.  I liked that we finally got some answers to Leviathan, and their intentions.  We finally know the man's name from last episode.  Rama Khan seems to be a tough cookie to crumble, and a being that the team will have to face once again.  We know know the old woman's name, Margo, who's been the go-between for Riproar and for Andrea.  The intentions of this group is A LOT more clearer now:  eradication of humanity for destroying the Earth.  

Kelly looked like she was about to bail on Alex, thus having yet ANOTHER relationship fall by the wayside here on the show.  Bad enough Kara's been through James and Mon-El, Lena and James, and the issues from time to time with Brainy and Nia.  But for Alex to have another girlfriend bail on her like Maggie is just lazy, and rather unfair.  So, I'm glad that Alex was able to reason with Kelly, and their relationship stands on firmer ground.

J'Onn's relationship with his brother Malefic.  Is it finally repaired, or is Malefic willing to string J'Onn along until he exacts his revenge?  It seems that, after going into J'Onn's mind, that he discovers the truth, and the feelings J'Onn has over the affair.  And it seems that while Malefic is finally willing to accept J'Onn's apology, how much of it is truth?  Hard for me to trust Malefic right now.  Another couple of questions stem from this situation as well:  Will Malefic tell J'Onn about the Monitor, and what's going on?  We have had ZERO references to CRISIS on Supergirl, and I feel that, with the crossover about to happen very soon, that we need to start getting some traction on this from the Maid of Might's end.  We have Ollie running around doing the Monitor's errands, Barry having the Monitor tell him of his fate, but NOTHING from Supergirl.  It's been rather disappointing from that aspect.  The other question I have is this:  J'Onn found his brother in Lena's lab as her pet monkey---does he relay this information to the rest of the team?  Will Malefic tell J'Onn of Lena's master plan?  Questions that I hope are answered in two weeks.  

Finally...Lena plays her hand, and right at the Kryptonian doorstep.  If it's one thing that Kara Zor-El is---is naive.  I know that, like her cousin Kal, she wants to see the good in everyone.  But Lena pulled the Luthor Special---gain the trust of those around you, and manipulate them to your will and do your deeds---until they become expendable.  In Lena's case...her anger over a white lie, that had good intentions, causes her to go into revenge mode, and put her master plan into place.  For all her bluster about betrayal and not being the one who was hurt, she didn't even want to listen to Kara's explanation.  Didn't want to discuss it---because it didn't matter.  The revenge....the willingness to make Kara feel as she did, is more important than being rational...the sign of a true villain.  They said this season was the fight for Lena's soul---and that fight begins NOW.  Lena has her final puzzle piece to complete her plan of controlling the evil, violent, and horrible attributes of mankind, but it means practically enslaving the race to do it.  She feels she is doing this for the good of humanity...that she is not a killer NOR a villain.  This is why she refused to kill Supergirl.  She just wants her to suffer---and have her OUT of the way while she initiates her plan to fruition.  Once Kara DOES get free....she's going to have to make a tough choice---in much the same way J'Onn did---risk possible exposure of her double life, risk her very life, because I feel Lena will put her in that position, take her friend down LIKE a criminal...or do everything in her power to try and make Lena understand her side.  Lena, for all her strength an assuredness as a woman and person...is still fragile emotionally.  And she reacts negatively when she feels hurt or betrayed.  She doesn't allow logic and reasoning to enter into her head.  Once you wrong her, you're either OUT of her life for good, or she's going to get her pound of flesh.  

Either way, we get another good episode, and hopefully, will resolve some of these issues before CRISIS---and we NEED the Monitor to pop his head into Earth 38 before this crossover kicks off.  

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