Kara’s got it under control. All of it. Everywhere. Jimmy’s settling in at the Planet, Alex is getting used to being in charge of the DEO and everything’s fine. Until the Graves siblings, Mercy and Otis, put their plan in motion…

Supergirl’s exploration of the dichotomy between her alien and human natures continues this season in some surprising ways. The best of these is the moment halfway through the episode when she, again, plays down a hate crime and J’onn calls her on it. Kara’s lucky. She passes for human. Many other aliens on Earth aren’t so lucky. The second comes at the end of the episode where she admits she has no idea how to fight something so big.

Good question isn’t it?

J’onn’s answer is great too. That a symbol of hope and kindness is exactly what she needs to be.

I wasn’t expecting any show this year to distil the concept of white privilege, the horrors of trying to engage with anything right now or the struggle to maintain hope in the face of seemingly accelerating dystopia. But if any could do it, it’s Supergirl and it does a good job.

Especially given how much other stuff there is to enjoy here. In addition to the show taking ownership of its politically charged central narrative there’s a train crash, a more than solid fight scene, a chase through the woods, a presidential assassination attempt, a killer ending and the other Kara revealed to be responsible for one of the disasters Kara Prime stops. In addition we get some lovely Alex/Brainiac stuff (I especially like how everyone calls him Brainy) and some excellent Luthor material as well as a hint of one of the several bad guys to come.

Verdict: Deceptively leisurely paced, this is a complicated set up for what looks to be a hell of a season. Or in Kara’s case, perhaps a season in hell… 8/10

Alasdair Stuart