SUPERGIRL 4.10 Review “Suspicious Minds”
This post contains spoilers for Supergirl.
Check out our last review here.
Full transparency: Supergirl’s return starts off slow. When Supergirl left the DEO, Colonel Haley expected her to keep her heroics to stopping runaway trains and saving kittens out of trees. While both totally noble ventures, someone’s got to pick up the DEO’s slack. As it happens, Haley might be mad about Supergirl’s involvement in this week’s particular mission for more reasons than alien interference.
“Suspicious Minds” kicks things off with a mystery. An invisible creature hijacks a Navy boat, and kills a Colonel. When the DEO finally arrives on the scene, Haley is less than pleased to see Supergirl already there. After her description of the creature leads to nothing, Supergirl is dismissed by an irritated Haley. Obviously, things don’t just end with the two parties starting their own respective investigations.
Supergirl continues to work to find out the species of the mysterious alien. Brainy and Alex do the same for a brief time, but they get hung up with Colonel Haley. Rather than help devote her resources to unravel the mystery of the other Colonel, Haley decides to focus on Supergirl’s identity. She believes that once she finds it out she’ll be able to keep the Girl of Steel on a leash. While she’s not technically wrong, she is still, absolutely, a dick.
Sensing that his friend is taking on too much by herself, Brainy starts on a side mission of his own. The Legionnaire is on a quest to get Supergirl some super friends. He starts with J’onn. It’s an easy acquisition, since she’s practically his daughter. An amusingly awkward situation over money ensues, and then Brainy goes after his next target: Nia Nal. More uncomfortable situations follow, as he doesn’t quite realize that he’s asked her out on a date. Though her story this week was short, it’s exciting to know that we’re finally taking baby steps toward Dreamer!
With J’onn starting his business as a private investigator, and Kara removing herself from the DEO, we can expect to spend a lot more time in J’onn’s new office. Though it’s new to the show, it’s got the comfortable familiarity that we’ve come to expect from a mentor’s abode. It’s like being back in Giles’ library, only with a Martian and some DEO files! Sadly, the comfort those places offer is usually met with equal heartache, and the Supergirl writers made sure to break this one in immediately.
Kara and J’onn discover that the creatures are called Morai. As their investigation unfolds, they find that the Morai came to Earth as children and were then kidnapped and trained as assassins for the United States government. The Morai remained faithful to the United States, doing their bidding after years of torture. That loyalty changed when the government tried to kill them.
It turns out Colonel Haley is what ties Supergirl’s two stories together this week. Not only was she involved in the scandal, but one of the aliens killed themselves at the mention of her name. When Alex confronts her, Haley basically gives the Colonel Jessup speech from A Few Good Men. But, monologue aside, she’s still scared. She gets the DEO ready for an attack, but her fear doesn’t stop her from continuing her mission to discover Supergirl’s identity.
Unfortunately for Kara and Alex, Haley succeeds on her mission. All of the agents who do know Kara’s identity dutifully vow to keep her secret, but there’s only so much you can do against a trained investigator. Supergirl finds out that Haley knows immediately after saving her life. The Colonel shows no remorse or gratitude; she simply informs Kara that she will now be under the government’s thumb. Should she stray from any order, her identity will be released. Haley even goes so far to point out what that information would do to her team members and colleagues. This earns her a very satisfying punch in the face from one Alex Danvers.
Sadly, much more must be done than a simple punch in the face. J’onn swoops in to save the day by erasing Haley’s mind, but he cannot erase her intentions. Even worse, Haley enlists the help of a Truth Seeker (it’s ultimately an alien truth serum). Anyone unable to completely forget Supergirl’s identity would be unable to lie when touching the creature. Which means anyone working at the DEO who knows Kara’s identity and isn’t Brainiac 5 will have to have their minds erased.
Supergirl has been full of heartbreaking moments over the past four years. Every week this season has been hard in its own right. Hell “Suspicious Minds” was already an emotional watch with the Morai storyline, but none of the tears of previous seasons could compare to Alex telling Kara that she’d have to forget that she was Supergirl. Their sisterhood has mattered so much more than any romantic relationship, and Kara’s identity has played a huge part in both of their lives.
All of that will come to play next week, as Alex starts to realize that pieces of her feel missing. So, I guess just join me in ugly crying until then? There’ll probably be new things to bawl about next week too. Anyone who needs group therapy after this week’s tearjerker knows their way to the comments section.
