‘Supergirl’ season 2, episode 9 review: Slaver’s Moon and the many woes of Winn Schott

Allow us to open tonight’s “Supergirl” review talking about how Winn Schott may be our favorite character of the entire DC Comics – CW Universe. there’s something about him that is so earnest in terms of both his abilities, and also his fears and what he struggles to bring to the table. He wanted to help Guardian to be the best vigilante he could in the streets, but in the opening minutes of tonight’s episode he saw precisely how quickly things could turn around in a very bad way. He was knocked on the ground and threatened with a gun, and were it not for James Olsen, he would have been dead before the story in “Supergirl Lives” even started to progress forward.

Later in the episode, we saw Winn confess to some of those fears as he had to go out in the field once more to resolve the latest mission: Kara’s disappearance. She had gotten a tip while at her job about a missing girl, and this led to her discovering that someone was using a research front to lure people over to another planet in Slaver’s Moon, one where bodies were being used for human trafficking and where Roulette was the woman running things behind the scenes. More on that soon.

For now, let’s just say that Jeremy Jordan (a.k.a. “I am not a redshirt”) is incredible, and let’s move on to the many trials and tribulations for Kara this week.

Life on a red sun – This was the biggest problem that Kara faced tonight, given that after she and Mon-El (who seemed to be reluctant to be a hero at any point other than when Kara didn’t want him to be) were trapped in a place where they couldn’t actually use their powers. Also, there was a Dominator present over there. These people suck.

Thematically, what we really liked about this story was that it was about wits and intelligence above superpowers, though ironically it was a Yellow Sun Grenade (when did the DEO have time to make that?) that helped things turn the tide so that Alex, Winn, and the rest of the team could bring Supergirl home with both Mon-El AND the missing girl.

Also, Winn beat an alien in the face with a rock. Badass.

When it comes to what didn’t work in the episode, Roulette really seemed like a waste given how little we actually saw of her. Meanwhile, most of Hank’s role in the hour was talking about the Yellow Sun Grenade and reminding us that through something in the atmosphere on the planet a.k.a. a convenient story choice, he could not travel to this other planet.

Your Alex / Maggie update – At the start of the episode, they were better than ever! Alex even contemplated missing part of work for the first time in forever. Unfortunately, when Kara went missing she blamed herself for it, which caused her to pull away from her new girlfriend. She realized at the end of the episode with a little help that this was a bad move, but the more that she does this, the more likely it’s going to be that eventually the relationship falls apart completely. Luckily, for the time being Maggie is patient knowing that Alex is not altogether familiar with the concept of relationships.

Overall – “Supergirl Lives” was a lot of fun, and it managed to do that despite not having much of a compelling villain at the center of it. Giving Winn so much great material is always going to get us on an episode’s side, and then add to that some sweet moments for Alex and Maggie and you’ve got yourself a winner. We also have Mon-El finally wanting to become a hero! It’s about time. It’s too bad that there are still some aliens tracking him down… Grade: A-.