Supergirl season 1, episode 9, “Blood Bonds,” aired tonight. Read our recap and discuss the episode with fellow fans.
Faith in blood
In the main conflict of the episode, Non captures Hank and demands the DEO trade Astra for him. Before any action can be taken, though, General Sam Lane arrives with an order from the president putting him in charge of the hostage situation. Lane’s team refuses to negotiate and instead resorts to torturing Astra for the location of the Fort Rozz escapees’ base. She gives them a location but it’s a trap, and a large number of soldiers are killed.
Kara then takes matters into her own hands. After a crisis of conscience, she decides she needs to hear the truth that Astra has about her mother. It turns out Alura believed Astra’s claims about Krypton dying but still sentenced her twin to life in prison for murder. She, however, promised to continue fighting for Astra’s cause through peace and compassion. The realization that Alura never gave up on Astra helps Kara decide to go through with the prisoner exchange, as Astra says the deal will be above board. And when Non tries to double cross the DEO, Astra orders the aliens to stand down. At least for one night, there will be no more battles.
This development was interesting in that it flipped the dynamics that were being established previously. Alura perhaps isn’t as flawed as we were led to believe, and Astra might not be too far gone either. Things aren’t black and white for the women of the House of El (though they seem to be for Non). The moment Astra looks at Kara with tears in her eyes, recognizing Alura in her niece, is heart-wrenching. And, as Kara says before Astra flies off, it might not be a truce but it’s a start.
Kara vs. Cat
This episode picks up with last episode’s cliffhanger of Cat believing (correctly) that Kara is Supergirl. Kara continues arguing that she is not the Girl of Steel, but Cat — being the intelligent woman that she is — doesn’t buy her feeble excuses. Eventually, Cat decides that Kara being her assistant is keeping Supergirl from saving people so Kara either needs to prove she isn’t Supergirl or clean out her desk.
Kara, while under immense stress, quits. But when J’onn takes Supergirl’s shape, Kara and Supergirl appear in Cat’s office at the same time. This convinces Cat that Kara is not Supergirl, and things are back to normal.
On the one hand, this is a clever ploy to get Cat off Kara’s back about being Supergirl. The only way to suitably prove she isn’t Supergirl is to be in the same place as her at the same time — and now that she knows that truth about Hank/J’onn, his Martian abilities can help her out. Kara could have just quit her job and worked at the DEO full time (which Hank says he would have liked), but her job at CatCo with her friends keeps her human. She needs it.
On the other hand, this is rather disappointing, as Cat was right. And it would have been an intriguing dynamic for Cat to know her assistant is a superhero; it would give Cat an even more personal motivation to protect Supergirl’s image and give Kara more room to operate as Supergirl without having to make lame excuses for her numerous absences. Kara says she needs Cat now more than ever, and that’s true for Supergirl as well; it would be an interesting thing for Cat to be aware of too.
James vs. Maxwell Lord
The Scooby gang is suspicious when Maxwell Lord publicly covers up the attack by the Fort Rozz escapees, calling the incident industrial espionage. Because Kara has enough on her plate already, James and Winn pair up to investigate what Lord Technologies is hiding. James lures Maxwell out and the two have a not-so-friendly discussion about James, his friends in capes and the media before James is kicked out.
James, though, is ever intrepid and with Winn’s hacking skills to aid him, he sneaks into Lord Technologies. But around the time he comes across a room with increased security, Maxwell and a guard knock him unconscious. They tie him to a chair and threaten him. However, Maxwell doesn’t go beyond a few punches and lets James go. This only spurs the Scooby gang to deepen their investigation.
It was nice to see James and Winn working on a lead together. Usually they need Kara as a buffer, as she is what links the two men together, but at this point they’ve developed enough camaraderie that they can take on an investigation together, each putting their individual skills to use. And when James comes back with a split lip, it’s Winn bringing him an ice pack — giving us hope that the two will be able to develop a friendly relationship of their own down the road. That will only strengthen the team as a whole.
Maxwell Lord’s experiment
We see at the end of the episode that Maxwell Lord has had a young woman — who looks much like Kara — with brain trauma and no one to miss her brought to his lab. It looks as though he is experimenting on her. Based on the fact that producers have teased that we’ll be seeing a Bizarro in the second half of the season, it looks like this may be how we’re introduced to Bizarro Girl.