Supergirl season 3 episode 2 review: A Psi showdown; Samantha’s powers

The story of Supergirl season 3 episode 2 kicked off in an interesting way, largely because we got a chance to see a story of many different women waking up to start to day. You had Samantha Arias and her daughter (who apparently has a better phone than we do — and very much remembers her mother’s superhuman skills), Kara Danvers trying to get herself back together, and Alex and Maggie had some time to themselves.

Then, we saw the arrival of one Lena Luthor to CatCo, where she is going to take up shop there full-time. Even though she may own L-Corp, she doesn’t need to be there much of the time. Let’s just say that James was surprised to see her show up, and even more surprised that Kara knew that she was coming over and she didn’t clue him in on it.

To make matters worse between James and Lena, he got upset when she toured around and got a sense of things at CatCo without him around. He didn’t trust her and it was pretty clear why — her family history.

The bigger surprise of the episode came a mere matter of minutes later, when Kara learned that there was a mysterious new force in National City, one who was able to capitalize on the fears of others to do more or less whatever she wanted. She could immobilize her opponents thanks to her own psychic abilities — hence the nickname Psi. She’s almost a little bit like Scarecrow meets Kilgrave and she can frighten even the Girl of Steel. She walked in and out of the bank without any trouble at all. Kara tried to present herself as unfazed, which is why she went after her right again when the opportunity presented itself.

Unfortunately, this time around Psi took some of her psychic powers to another level and trapped Kara within an even larger nightmare, one where she saw her mother and a bigger part of her past. She confided in Winn, hoping that he would come up with a way to repair things.

Kara’s workplace drama

Kara is trying her best to keep everything together, but it’s proving to be rather difficult with Lena around. She’s not in on the Supergirl secret (somehow), and therefore finds it odd that one of her employees is running around and missing work without explanation. This, coupled with the trauma brought on by Psi, started to cause her to have a bit of a breakdown.

Eventually, Winn (never one to keep a secret) ended up folding to some pressure from Alex to clue her in as to what was going on with Kara. This, in turn, meant that she could be able to help.

Samantha’s struggles

This was a tough installment for Odette Annable’s character. Her daughter Ruby got in a physical altercation at school and she and the principal could not figure out why … at first. In a conversation back at home she figured out why the fight was started, and it had to do with Ruby insisting that her mother had superpowers — something that she insisted she did not.

After Ruby went missing following the argument between her and her mother, the stories for the episode all came together: Ruby texted her mom after seeing Psi out, probably hoping on some level to see her with powers again. That didn’t happen so much, but we did get an awesome confrontation where Kara (aided thanks to Winn’s advancements) managed to show up and take her down, with her effectively conquering her fears in the process. The city was saved again, and the same goes for Ruby and her mother.

What’s so interesting is that Alex handling children brought out one of the first major points of contention for her and Maggie — we’re not so certain that Maggie wants to have children.

The aftermath

Kara covered her bases with Lena, making it clear that their conflict was her fault and she would try to do better. Also, it turns out that it is Samantha who will be taking over at L-Corp with Lena working over at CatCo. Surprised?

As for Samantha she can’t quite get her powers to work, and the big cliffhanger right now is related to J’onn — M’gann “appearing” in Martian form to tell him that he needs to come to Mars.

CarterMatt Verdict

This episode of Supergirl is probably our favorite episode 2 of the entire series. Annable is proving to be an excellent addition to the show, and to go along with that these characters are all very much in their groove.

What’s next on Supergirl season 3 episode 4?

Then be sure to head over here right now! This is going to be a big episode for Maggie and Alex.

Also, you can like us on Facebook if you do want to score some other insight on this show and other ones we cover. (Photo: The CW.)