Supergirl season 2 episode 18 review: Kara, Lena, and the Biomax crisis

Supergirl season 2 episode 18 had some romantic undertones. However, in the end what we ended up seeing was a story more about heartache for one Lena Luthor.

With the arrival of her old flame Jack Spheer back in town, she obviously wanted to think that everything that he said about his feelings for her were genuine and that he regretted the decision to not come with her to National City. Yet, he had spent his time away from her coming up with his Biomax nanotechnology to effectively dismantle current medical practices as we knew them. He could have easily been a hero!

Well, here’s the problem — journalist Kara, and not Supergirl, managed to figure out that the majority of the trials that he was undergoing were not ones to be celebrated at all. There was no control group — instead, he was simply injecting himself and seeing the results. When people attempted to rat him out on the truth, he went and murdered them … or so it seemed. When Lena went and confronted Jack about it after Kara clued her in (following a very awkward and funny dinner moment with herself and Mon-El in attendance), Lena realized that Jack really wasn’t in control. Instead, it turned out that it was Jack’s own CFO (hey, it’s Claudia Doumit from Timeless!) who proved to be the responsible party. She moved forward with the trials, and in the process he lost the majority of his free will.

Basically, what we saw here was Jack being more of a puppet than the villain, which was a rather interesting twist on the character. Supergirl arrived to save the day, but as the nanobots attacked her Lena had to choose between saving him and potentially dooming Jack for good.

As a result of everything that happened, Lena was understandably crushed — luckily, Kara was there for her, and with that we’re sure that the Supercorp fandom out there loved the consolation scene.

James Olsen’s new operation

We got a brief glimpse of what Guardian was up to during one of the more lighthearted moments of the episode. Also, we saw what Winn was up to while Guardian was off fighting crime — making out with Lyra. Clearly, they’ve moved on from the whole issue of shady dealings. Unfortunately, Lyra went a little too crazy, and as a result of that they had to fire him. Winn having to fire Lyra from the job proved to be rather challenging.

Ultimately, James realized that he probably could’ve handled the whole situation better, but maybe some good came out of the conflict. It ultimately caused James to open up about how lucky he is that Winn is in his life, and it also caused him to extend the invitation to Lyra once more.

Overall

“Ace Reporter” was an important episode in showing off the value of journalism, since most of Kara’s work in the episode came outside of the costume. Kara’s getting her old job back at CatCo, and with that, her professional life seems to be getting shored up. This was a powerful episode, one that was funny at times and inspirational by the end credits.

Oh, and speaking of that, what about that appearance from Rhea in the closing minutes of the episode? What does she want with Lena? Grade: B+.

Where does the story go from here?

If you want to head over to the link here, you can get some further news regarding what is coming up for a big Alex Danvers episode airing next week. (Photo: The CW>)