Recap: SUPERGIRL Season 1, Episode 11 “Strange Vistors From Another Planet”

Warning this review contains full spoilers.

In last week’s recap I said that the
series is at its best when it focuses on J’onn and Kara; this episode
definitely delivers. It seems that J’onn accidentally alerted the white Martians
when he was investigating Maxwell Lord a couple of episodes ago. What makes
this one of my favorite episodes of the season is that we get to see more of
J’onn’s backstory. We see flashbacks to Mars and he tells us what happened to
his people. Seeing what happened to the Green Martians reminded me of the
Holocaust, and you sense the anger in J’onn whenever the White Martians are mentioned. This was really well done, and they told Martian Manhunter’s origin
perfectly.

The secondary plot of the episode was
about Cat and her son Adam (Blake Jenner). We learn that Cat writes
letters to Adam but never send them out. She never had the Mother-Son
relationship with him, and she wants to get closer to him. Kara takes it upon
herself to finish the half written letter and send it to Adam. Later Adam
unexpectedly shows up to CATCO to see Cat. This leads to Cat and Adam going out
to dinner. Of course things go south when he realizes that Cat still hasn’t
changed after all of these years. Kara wants to make things right between Adam
and Cat so she decides to try to convince Adam to give Cat another chance. They
start talking and soon they begin to work things out. Adam decides to stay in
town a little longer so he can spend time with Cat, and go on a date with Kara.
This leads to even more drama because Winn still won’t speak to Kara after the
kiss in the last episode.

While it wasn’t as engaging as the rest of
the episode I thought that the Cat/Adam storyline was really well done. We see
a side of Cat that we rarely see, and I think it makes the character much more
likeable.

Back to the White Martian; we see J’onn
struggle to resist the urge to kill the Martian. This is another reason I loved
this episode. Seeing the struggle and the pain in J’onn really made the White Martians
seem like a real threat, even though it was only one Martian. Once J’onn and
Kara locate the Martian they go to rescue the Senator and Alex (again). The
battle between the White Martian, Martian Manhunter and Supergirl was really
well done. We see J’onn in full Manhunter mode, and of course seeing Supergirl
fighting a Martian is going to be a treat! Once they finally beat the alien
J’onn handcuffs Kara and goes to kill the Martian. Kara and Alex talk J’onn out
of it and they put the creature in a cell. While it talks to Kara it promises
that this isn’t the last time we’ll see the White Martians. There are thousands
more who want the last green Martian dead.

Overall I believe episode is the best
of Supergirl’s rookie season. We see more
character development for J’onn and Cat, along with an interesting and terrifying
antagonist. The last couple of episodes have focused on the secondary
characters, but next week is sure to be a big episode for Kara. We see the
Bizzaro in action for the first time! I can’t wait to see how this one plays
out, and I’m sure you are just as excited as I am.