Supergirl 2×10 “We Can Be Heroes,” looked at what it means to be a hero as well as who gets to decide who is a hero.
“We Can Be Heroes” put James’s and Mon-El’s quests to become heroes on a crash course with National City’s resident hero. Kara gives Mon-El the go-ahead to go into the field with her while she discovers that James is Guardian. And, perhaps unsurprisingly, she isn’t particularly happy with either of them by the end of things.
Let’s start with James. I’ve been pretty dissatisfied with James’s treatment this season; after the sudden (and nonsensical) breakup with Kara, James was relegated to CatCo while the show’s narrative mostly moved to the DEO. He then decided to become a vigilante, working with Winn in secret, but Kara has been disapproving of Guardian from the beginning. He’s lost a significant amount of screen time and now it seems as though he’s being distanced even more from Kara as Mon-El admits his feelings for her.
(Yes, I still don’t love Mon-El. He makes funny quips now and then but otherwise, meh. He feels to me like he’s replacing James from season 1, and I’m not here for that.)
Anyway, when Guardian comes into a fight between Supergirl, Mon-El, some cops and a couple of fake Livewires, he protects a cop from an electric shock when Mon-El abandons the civilians to help Kara. He’s knocked unconscious, so Kara takes off the Guardian mask to discover her friend. This leads to an argument at the DEO, where she tells him that he is going to get himself killed because he’s a powerless human.
Let’s just ignore that Kara, not long ago, helped save Earth-1 alongside quite a few non-powered people.
I assume that she’s so worried about what will happen to him because she loves him (romantically or platonically is up to you), but she knows she can’t actually make him stop because he’s an adult. Considering how close they once were, I would have thought Kara knew James well enough not to be surprised he had something like this in him, but I wonder if she lost track of how he’s feeling because she’s been spending so much time at the DEO.
Considering the way she refuses to work with James and Winn at the end of the episode (which is counter-intuitive if she wants to keep her BFFs alive), I assume this will continue to affect her friendships with James and Winn.
They are both confident enough about what they’re doing (especially when J’onn compliments their team) to keep doing it with or without Kara. I hope she realizes that even if she doesn’t love what they’re doing, it will be best for everyone if they all join forces instead of being adversarial.
Side note: I would love to see James and Clark talking about James being Guardian and Kara’s reaction. Not that Clark’s opinion is more important than Kara’s; I’m just curious what he thinks about his best friend becoming a vigilante.
As for Mon-El, it becomes apparent to Kara — after James points it out — that Mon-El’s motives for being a hero aren’t pure. He’s interested in helping Kara because he has feelings for her, not because he feels the need to help other people out (something that James does feel). He acknowledges this but Kara remains unable to respond to his confession.
I’m not entirely sure how to read her; she seems genuinely affected by him having feelings for her, but I can’t tell if she’s unable to respond because she can’t figure out how to let him down (a la Winn) or if part of her does have feelings for him and she’s confused. Either way, she and Mon-El are going to continue working together.
Meanwhile in the DEO, M’gann suffers a psychic attack and falls into a coma. At first, J’onn just wants to let her die because she is a White Martian. But as death gets closer, he can’t do it. He links their minds so he can bring her out; at first, she believes she is caught in her memory of being on Mars.
She tells J’onn to flee because the White Martians will find him. She also admits that she refused to kill a Green Martian child and instead killed her own kind. That’s when she fled to Earth in reality, and J’onn has to remind her of that. He eventually grants her forgiveness for the actions of her people, and the two return to the real world.
I’m glad we finally got back to M’gann, who has been sitting in her cell for a while now. Letting anger and hatred stew has nasty effects on a person, so J’onn needed to confront this. Him realizing that M’gann was telling the truth about not being like the rest of her kind was a relief. They both deserve to have someone who understands what they went through.
However, M’gann reveals that the psychic attack she suffered came from other White Martians and they know where she is. They are coming for her, meaning the team will have to fight to protect her. Oh, and Livewire is on the loose again. It turns out she was kidnapped from her cell to be used for science experiments. Supergirl sets her free and convinces her not to kill anyone in exchange for a head start.
Watch a promo for the next episode
