Supergirl S01 Finale, "Better Angels" Recap & Thoughts

Recap

When last we left our intrepid hero, she was about to fight a mind-controlled Alex. We do get a little bit of a cool fight, but then J’onn shows up with Dr. Danvers. She manages to sweet talk Alex and it works. At Cat’s station, Max techno-babbles on why broadcasting hope should work, and Supergirl proceeds to give a Cat-esque speech. It works and Myriad is defeated! Well that only took 8 minutes! Shortest finale ever! We’re done here folks, pack it up...

Or not. Indigo convinces Non to nuke humans and take their show on the road.

Back at Catco, James tries to talk about “the thing,” and Kara apologizes for kissing him without consent. James says he was mostly in his right mind when it happened, so it’s cool.

At the DEO, Lucy and dad disagree about J’onn being cuffed. Kara and Alex tell their mom that Jeremiah is alive. Max appears to tell them that this isn’t over, and Myriad’s been amplified to pop everyone’s heads. He privately expresses feels to Supergirl that he’s worried about her fighting Non alone.

Despite incoming melon explosions, Kara decides to head to work, where she proceeds to say goodbye to Winn, James, and Cat, and then J'onn back at the DEO. I mean, sure, you haven’t been officially renewed for Season 2 yet, but come on!

Max tracks Myriad to Fort Rozz in the Nevada desert and J’onn insists he’s going with Supergirl. Indigo and Non show up for a fight, although not before explaining that the fort itself is the power behind Myriad, so Supergirl can’t just smash it to bits to stop it. Queue the fight music! J’onn literally rips Indigo apart, while Non and Kara have a staring contest. I ain’t even joking… Non blinks.
Blink and you'll miss it...
After Indigo’s dying words, Supergirl decides to carry Fort Rozz into space, even though it means she’ll die (???). She says goodbye to Alex, then lifts the station through the stratosphere. When it seems like she’s going to perish, Alex shows up in Kara’s pod to bring her back down to Earth. Hurray, all the goodbyes were for naught!

Back at the DEO, General Lane reports that Madame President (that will never get old) has granted J’onn a full pardon, and reinstated him to Director of the DEO. Looks like Lucy lost her job. But wait… J’onn wants to keep her on the team!

At Catco, Clark lets Kara know she’s a badass, as if there was any doubt. Cat suddenly packs Kara’s stuff into a box, apparently firing her, but they bypass the elevator into a shiny pristine white office. Kara has gotten a promotion! Even sweeter? Cat actually gets her name right! Woah!

Time to celebrate! The Danver ladies, J’onn, Winn, and James are having a celebratory dinner and champagne. James and Kara share a kiss, but before we get too sappy, what’s that noise? Champagne bottles popping?

That is a neat party trick, Kara!
Nope! It’s the sound of a season cliffhanger!

Look out for Season 2, folks… we’ve got a new Kryptonian in town.

Thoughts
I’m not entirely sure resolving the mind-control crisis in the first 8 minutes made any sort of sense. It neutralized the threat completely, thereby transforming the seasonal big bad (Myriad) into a waste of everyone’s time. This is what all the Kryptonian robots and holograms were afraid of?

I felt that, for a finale, this episode was a bit weak, and rather anticlimactic. I think I was supposed to have lots of feels during the goodbyes, but my husband and I were both quite bored. They might have generated more feels by having Supergirl say her goodbyes to Cat, and then maybe leave notes for Winn and James. Bidding J’onn farewell was pointless; there is no way he wasn't going to fight by her side. The only goodbye to provoke genuine feels was her radio chat with Alex, which was reminiscent of Captain America and Peggy Carter's most memorable scene.

Speaking of pointless, I mentioned in my last review how I felt like Clark’s shadow over this show had long overstayed its welcome, and nowhere is this more obvious than in the infirmary scenes when they show his red boots more than once while he is passed out on a stretcher at the DEO. There was a throwaway line about “why is Superman down when the rest of us aren’t?” with an accompanying “I don’t know, let’s talk about something important” answer. Seriously, this is beyond silly now.

To be honest, despite adoring this show overall, I felt like this episode was one of its most disappointing. It didn’t really keep me engaged. Non was a weaksauce villain. He had zero focus and never seemed to know what he actually wanted. I was confounded by the suggestion that Supergirl would die in space; I suppose that after years of watching Superman fly effortlessly through space in nearly every one of his incarnations (be it comics, movies, or cartoons) this struck me as an odd bit of canon to change.

On the positive side, the Nevada fight scenes were fairly thrilling. It was nice to see J’onn hulk out on Indigo as he doesn't get many chances to show off his powers. Supergirl had some exciting moments with Alex and Non as well. And Melissa Benoist has never looked better, in costume or out—I am insanely jealous of her perfect hair. She has truly warmed up to this role and owned it, and she and Calista Flockhart have fabulous chemistry. Moreover, this was the first time I actually felt like “Kimmy” (Kara + Jimmy) were the real deal; I just hope it doesn't ever come to Ollicity levels of contrived drama. I am excited for season 2 and Kara's new challenges.

What did you think of Supergirl's season 1 finale? Sound off in the comments below!

Ivonne Martin is a writer, gamer, and avid consumer of all things geek—and is probably entirely too verbose for her own good.