Supergirl season 1, episode 2, “Stronger Together,” aired tonight. Read our recap and discuss the episode with fellow fans.
“Stronger Together” focused on Kara’s growth as a fledgling superhero — and all that comes with that in a media-driven society. Despite improving her public image with a little help from her friends, though, the DEO remained frustratingly impenetrable for Kara. Meanwhile, Cat Grant threatened to fire James Olsen if he didn’t get her an exclusive interview with Supergirl. Kara also came face to face with her aunt, General Astra.
Becoming a superhero
Kara learns pretty quickly that just putting on the S and a cape does not a superhero make. When trying to help stop a freighter from exploding when a fire breaks out at the pier, Kara moves the freighter… only to crack the hull, causing oil to leak into the water. This causes a media backlash against her. Cat Grant wants to control Supergirl’s narrative and so demands a sit-down interview with her. Kara, unsurprisingly, isn’t interested.
Instead, Kara decides to take Supergirl’s narrative into her own hands. She enlists James and Winn, and with their help, Kara starts taking on smaller tasks and repairing her image.
This is an interesting plotline, as we get more references to The Daily Planet and even name drops of Clark Kent and Lois Lane. But perhaps most interesting is bringing Kara’s story into the modern day. What happens in our social media-obsessed culture when a new superhero comes on the scene? She’s going to be a hot topic among the media. But the citizens are so used to Superman that they aren’t fazed by her existence.
Seeing Kara taking control of her own narrative is also empowering; rather than let everyone else determine what her image will be, she is going to do it herself. She does this both by scaling back on her superheroing as well as agreeing to do the interview with Cat Grant. That’s a great message to pass on.
James Olsen and his friend in blue
Cat Grant wants to take advantage of James’ friendship with Superman in the hope of getting an interview with Supergirl. James is clearly bothered by this, as he wants to be known for his own accomplishments, not his association with a superhero. It’s understandable — he even admitted in the previous episode that in his Pulitzer Prize-winning photo of Superman, Superman was actually posing for him.
Where James gave Kara advice last week, Kara serves as James’ sounding board in this episode. She tells him about the culture of Krypton in which asking for help is not weakness but worthy of honor. Kara encourages James to accept her help with the interview, and it’s clear he’s taken aback by the exchange. As much as Kara was clearly falling for James at first look in the pilot, James seemed to be reassessing his view of Kara after this conversation.
Found family vs. blood family
Kara comes fist-to-face face-to-face with The General — aka, Aunt Astra. After recognizing her niece’s strength — which she had underestimated — Astra decides she wants to recruit Kara, but Kara is loyal to her adopted home planet, particularly Alex, who is serving as bait. We get some pretty fantastic aerial fisticuffs between the two Kryptonians, but it is taking Alex’s advice from earlier fight training that helps Kara overcome Astra, at least temporarily. It’s not until Hank Henshaw arrives and stabs Astra in the arm with a blade of Kryptonite that she flees.
This runs parallel to Alex setting up a room for Kara in the DEO that contains an AI programmed to look like Alura from Kara’s pod; Kara wants nothing more than a hug from her mother, but the AI can only give Kara the information she needs.
These interactions with Kara’s Kryptonian family are part of a larger theme developing in this show of Kara’s found family (Alex, Winn, James, even Director Henshaw) on Earth and their impact on her versus the family of her blood (particularly Astra, whose first act of reunion is to soundly deck Kara). Kara’s priority during this confrontation is to protect Alex, her adoptive sister, who Astra is threatening.
Additionally, Kara gets emotional help in her growth as Supergirl in this episode from Winn and James while the AI system that looks like her mother can only offer intelligence. Kara’s emotional needs are being met by the family she is, by necessity, making for herself on Earth. That will no doubt continue to play a role as Kara’s conflict with General Astra unfolds.
Also worth noting
- There were definitely more uses of Superman’s name in this episode.
- We got our first look at Peter Facinelli’s Maxwell Lord. He was speaking out against Supergirl on television.
- Kara and Alex’s relationship remained at the core of the show. The two shared memories from just after Kara arrived on Earth, and Kara admitted that the approval she needed above anybody else’s was Alex’s. Seeing these two strong women open and vulnerable with each other is heartwarming. But even more than that, it shows younger audiences that women can be both strong and emotional.
- Hank Henshaw’s eyes glowed red at the end of the episode, hinting at his comics’ identity as Cyborg Superman.