As Kara reels from losing her connection to Alex, she discovers the truth about Nia’s past and the Sons of Liberty begin to rise again.

Just as Black Lightning is at its best exploring family and legacy, Supergirl is at its best when it focuses on the emotional bonds between its characters. That’s tested two different ways here, firstly through Kara and Alex, and secondly through Kara and Nia. Booth work perfectly. Benoist and Leigh are a big part of the reason the show works and they both turn in excellent work here. Alex can tell something isn’t right, and the show cleverly uses her own talents to raise the threat level and push the plot along. Alex inadvertently becomes everyone’s own worst enemy as she, straight out of the gate, figures out (mostly) what happened. As Kara dances around that, and her own anguish need to reach out to her sister she gets caught up in the complexities of Nia’s life and that’s when the show really kicks into high gear.

The show takes Kara’s isolation, Nia’s complicated family dynamics, the truth about Nia’s powers and the way her family has adapted to her transition and combines them all into a remarkably powerful and untidy narrative. There’s resolution here, but there’s also escalation and the emotional reality of family’s tested three different ways. It all works and works very well precisely because it’s untidy. The real world often is and by the end, while Kara and Nia are on the same page they also still have problems to deal with.

Verdict: The end result is an episode that does everything this show does best; character, emotion, the complex collision of ideals and occasional punching. A real season highlight to date. 9/10

Alasdair Stuart