The beginning of the end is near with the second half of Supergirl Season 6.
The midseason premiere picks up with Kara’s return to National City after being banished to the Phantom Zone by Lex Luthor.
It’s nice to see Supergirl and her super friends (as Andrea Rojas affectionately calls them) back together again for the first time this season.
But while Kara is thrilled to be back at home, she’s also dealing with some PTSD involving phantoms, which becomes even more intense when she learns that during one of the super squad’s rescue missions, phantoms escaped and attacked the citizens of National City.
Kara feels guilty, but there’s really no reason for her to wallow in the past, so the storyline kind of falls flat, just like her writing assignment for CatCo.
I love that Kara questioned how she still has a job after being gone for so long because honestly, that would never fly in a major city at a media company that is struggling to stay afloat.
I guess it helps that Kara was supposedly working on some profile for Cat Grant, but Andrea is quite chill when she informs her that the story just fell apart. In this day and age, you’d think Andrea would just be able to make a call to Cat, but whatever, I understand that isn’t the point of the show.
Bottom line is that CatCo is struggling, which doesn’t sit well with Andrea.
Like most media editors, she’s gunning for the next story that will help CatCo soar to the top of the charts.
And there’s no one better at soaring than Supergirl. I’m sorry, that was cheesy.
Andrea requests that Kara leverage her friendship with Supergirl for an exclusive interview about defeating the phantoms. Kara isn’t into it, so she suggests that Andrea give coverage to piles of garbage left behind by Lex Luthor and the DEO polluting the oceans.
Andrea is hellbent on getting a hit piece on Luthor to expose him for the global threat that he is, but William isn’t able to make such a connection.
At this point, Lex is probably like “why are you so obsessed with me.” I’m ready to abandon the Lex Luthor storyline already.
But Andrea isn’t willing to give up just yet, so she taps into Acrata to sneak into Luthor Manor and dig up some dirt. Instead of finding any incriminating evidence, she finds profiles on Supergirl and super friends, who she is determined to thrust into the spotlight.
Now, I’m all for the rest of the super squad getting as much facetime as Supergirl because frankly, they deserve it.
If Kara struggled so much to write about how she defeated the Phantoms, she could’ve easily written about how her friends did and gave them the recognition they deserve.
Also, how does National City not know about Supergirl’s team? Dreamer isn’t exactly hiding in the shadows.
On the flipside, profiling the rest of the super squad could potentially reveal their identities.
To be quite honest, I’m not surprised how Andrea and William didn’t make the Kara is Supergirl connection when she looks just like her (sans the glasses) and has the same first name. The file outright said “Kara Zor-El.”
It doesn’t take a rocket scientist… but maybe that’s why CatCo is on the downswing.
Supergirl — “Welcome Back, Kara!” — Image Number: SPG608fg_0019r — Pictured (L-R): Melissa Benoist as Kara Danvers, Jason Behr as Zor-El and Nicole Maines as Nia Nal — Photo: The CW — © 2021 The CW Network, LLC. All Rights Reserved.
Amidst adjusting to her normal life, Kara gives her father, Zor-El, a glimpse at what it’s like to be human.
I know that the series wanted to make this reunion between Kara and Zor-El special, but his presence felt like an afterthought.
And maybe that’s cause I couldn’t fully trust him until the very last moment. He always looked like he was up to something shady, so part of me thought that maybe Zor-El wasn’t really who he said he was.
He was also too adamant about preventing Earth from suffering the same fate as Krypton, which made things worse.
The Kelex robot that he reprogrammed and named Oscar (after Sesame Street’s Oscar the Grouch) ended up turning against them and growing into an oversized trash monster.
Seriously, these are the villains that the show has been reduced to? A parasitic trash monster just felt so silly. At times, it almost felt like a middle school PSA for recycling.
Brainy, Lena, and Zor-El put their heads together to conjure up a virus that would destroy Oscar before he consumed enough energy and exploded.
When they succeeded, Zor-El realized that he was making the same rash and careless mistakes on Earth as he did on Krypton. By avoiding the past, he ran head first into all his old mistakes. Therefore, he said his goodbyes and jetted off to Argo.
It was a short-lived reunion, but in a way, he also overstayed his welcome.
The only thing I really did like was that Zor-El reminded Kara that it’s okay to be human sometimes. She’s dedicated so much of her life to being a superhero that you have to wonder if she even enjoys her life. Her cousin Kal-El has managed to tap into both his human and his superhero side, so it would be nice if Kara found that balance in the final season.
Her first step was making amends with William, who she kind of ghosted when she was banished. He didn’t seem all that upset as he informed her that he’s seeing someone.
My guess is that he’s going to unsee someone very soon now that Kara is back, and they’ll end up together by the end of the season.
When embracing your human side is brought up, it’s almost always keyword for “find a love interest” even though Kara has done quite well without putting all her stock and value in a relationship. I hope that never changes even if she does fall for William.
Seeing Kara and her father reconnect definitely took its toll on Nia and Lena, both of whom wish they could have another chance with their parents.
It even help Lena understand her hallucination with the Kelpie following Supergirl’s rescue mission, and she realized that she could no longer let guilt consume her. Instead, she decided to go back to where she was born to find out more about her mother.
While it felt like a character exit, I love this growth for Lena and hope we can see more of her journey to finding herself.
And while Supergirl thought that her Phantom Zone problems were in the past, Nia had a dream about Nxyly! Is she in trouble?
What did you think of the midseason premiere of Supergirl?
Let us know in the comments below!