“Myriad” is episode nineteen of season one of Supergirl.
In the previous episode, “Worlds Finest”, after Kara had helped Barry to return to his Earth, she had returned home. That night, she had started talking to James how she felt – which really wasn’t getting anywhere – and finally decided to just kiss him. His reaction was, well, non-existent. Then he turned and left the room without saying a word. Generally not a good sign. However, when Kara looked out of her window she saw what looked like the entire population of National City, including James, marching in unison. Still not a good sign, but in a different way. Non had spoken to Indigo, whose pieces he collected after Winn infected her with malware in “Solitude”, and said that Myriad is active.
This episode opens at the DEO and Lucy and three other agents are also moving in unison. Lucy asks Non, who is on the monitors, what his orders are. Non tells her to release the prisoners – well, all but the White Martian. For everyone’s sake Non thinks that one should be left be. Lucy starts the process to open up all the cells, which takes two minutes.
Lucy and the other agents then go to a cell where a woman is locked up. The woman announces that she is Maxima, queen of the planet Almerac, and Lucy should open the door to find out exactly what that means. So Lucy does just that. Maxima looks a little surprised at this – well, people rarely let you out of prison simply because you demand it – and knocks the other three agents down. As Maxima is holding Lucy by the throat, Lucy tells her that Myriad has begun on Earth and Non calls them to his legions. Swear fidelity to Non and they will be kings and queens of this world. Maxima replies that, since superman refused the honour of marrying her, she will pledge allegiance.
Before anyone can leave, Kara shows up and fights Maxima. Then Lucy and Vasquez shoot at Kara with Kryptonite ammunition. She has to use the engines on her pod to knock them down, and manages to cancel the prisoner release, before flying to the Fortress of Solitude. At the Fortress, Kara calls out for Kal-Ex, and asks where Kal-El is. The servitor tells Kara that her cousin is currently offworld.
Kara says to Kal-Ex that she needs to find out about Myriad. As did the construct of Kara’s mother, Kal-Ex replies that this construct is not authorised to discuss Myriad. Kara informs it that it is designed to serve the House of El and to preserve the memory of Krypton. Unless Kal-Ex overrides its orders, Myriad will destroy the House of El and the memories of Krypton will be lost forever. That Kal-Ex will fail in its prime directive.
Kal-Ex flies off, but a hologram of Alura appears. Kara says she just needs someone to help and Alura tells her that Myriad was developed on Krypton by her aunt to help prevent the planet’s imminent destruction. The politicians argued but could not agree on anything, so Astra developed Myriad to force everyone to her way of thinking. Her attempt to use it resulted in Astra and Non being caught and sent to Fort Rozz.
Kara realises that’s what Astra was talking about when she mentioned saving the Earth. Alura tells Kara that Myriad can enslave whole worlds at the touch of a button, and even knowledge of its very existence was hidden to prevent the delicate balance of power in the galaxy from being upset. And that, once Myriad is started, it cannot be stopped.
A bus is stopped by a police roadblock 30 miles outside Midvale. The police are looking for two fugitives – Hank and Alex. There is a blonde woman with a boy on the bus, and these are, naturally, Alex and Hank. Being a shapeshifter is a great disguise.
When Kara arrives at CatCo, everyone is typing like robots. And in Kryptonian. Kara is unable to get through to any of them. General Lane is on the news, and he’s saying that National City is effectively quarantined. Kara phones him and the general asks about Lucy. Kara replies that she’s alive and safe; General Lane replies that she’s enslaved too. Kara asks the general to keep everyone outside city limits, and he says that he will do her part and trust Kara to do hers. Probably the most polite and least confrontational conversation the two have ever had.
After hanging up, Cat’s elevator opens and Cat walks out of it. Perfectly normal. When she notices Supergirl, Cat asks if they had an appointment. Kara comments that Cat is not a mindless drone. Cat hasn’t noticed how everyone in the office is behaving; she merely comments that they do seem more quiet than usual. Then Kara gets a message to her phone and Cat says she does have a cellphone after all. And can she have the number. Kara replies it’s a message from Superman. And Cat asks for that number as well (Cat probably already has Supergirl’s number; it’s probably the same as Kara’s). Kara tells Cat that Superman is coming to help.
They look out of the window and, when Cat sees everyone marching in unison, she realises that something is wrong. Superman starts to approach – then falls out of the sky. Myriad is affecting him as well. So why not Kara and Cat? Cat asks if any of them are safe, if Superman can be affected. At which point Maxwell Lord appears, with a device on his head. Max had worked out that, when the Kryptonians attacked Lord Industries in “Hostile Takeover”, they were using his system to use his satellites to send neural signals straight into people’s minds. So he built a blocker.
Kara wants to know why Max didn’t share this technology with the DEO. With both Hank and Alex gone, Maxwell had no-one he could trust at the DEO. Cat asks why she isn’t affected, as she isn’t wearing a blocker. Maxwell asks if she’s wearing the earrings he sent her. Which have a blocker built in.
Max thinks Superman was affected because of nurture, not nature. He grew up on Earth which made him more human. Maxwell seems to be a bit flippant about it, and Kara tells him that everything he feared has come to pass, so why isn’t he more serious. Max says he cannot be more serious. He has also tried to reprogram his satellites, but can’t. He does have a plan though. It’s a nice, simple plan with few working parts – kill them all.
Non is talking to Indigo and tells her that nothing can stand against us now. As far as things not to say go, that ranks up there with ‘What could possibly go wrong?’ Indigo says that his niece can still stand against them. Non replies that, just like Astra, Indigo overestimates Kara’s power. Indigo points out that, since Non’s wife’s corpse is currently floating through space, perhaps both Non and Astra underestimated Kara. She says he can kill Kara today or fight her tomorrow.
At CatCo, Max is telling Kara that they are way past villains of the week and kittens stuck in trees, that this is war, when Non arrives. Non tells Kara he doesn’t want to kill her. She tells him that Astra didn’t want this. He tells her that she did, this is what everyone wants. So Earth doesn’t suffer the same fate as Krypton. Maxwell comments that mind control is the answer to global warming, why didn’t he think of that. Despite his flippant tone, it’s always possible that Maxwell is serious. Non has dedicated the brain power of everyone in National City to solving the world’s problems.
In order to convince Kara not to stand against him, Non has three of the controlled – which includes Winn and James – jump out of the building. Kara catches two of them. Non tells her to accept defeat. Once Non has left, Max explains his plan to her. There will be significant collateral damage. So, not a great plan.
When Alex arrives home with Hank, she says they are just there for supplies, as they are on the run. Her mother wants to know how they got out of National City; neither had seen the news. When Dr Danvers discovers that Hank is a real, live Martian she reacts by… asking him a whole bunch of questions related to his biology.
A cliff-hanger ending leading into the season finale, “Better Angels”.