“Survivors” is episode four of season two of Supergirl.
In the previous episode, “Welcome to Earth”, Kara told the Daxam, Mon-El, that Daxam still existed, unlike Krypton – but was a wasteland. This episode opens on Daxam, the day that Krypton exploded. Large chunks of rock are falling from the sky and laying waste to everything. Mon-El is with someone, who he calls ‘My Prince,’ saying that they need to get him out of there. He leads the prince to a Kryptonian pod – the Kryptonian military are gone – but the prince says he doesn’t know how to programme a destination. Mon-El gets in the pod to programme the destination – and the prince seals him in, saying that those dying or his people, let him share in their fate.
Mon-El is in the DEO, testing his powers. He has just told the others – Hank, Alex, Kara and Winn are watching – what happened. It seems he was a member of the royal guard of Daxam. Kara says that the royal family of Daxam were the worst, and the prince was rumoured to be the worst of the worst – the frat boy of the universe. Mon-El comments that he had his good points. Winn realises that the two planets didn’t get on that well. Kara and Mon-El agree on that. They haven’t received any reply from the message Mon-El sent to Daxam either.
Mon-El wants to know what they do for fun. No, they don’t have the game he mentions, which Kara describes as soccer with dragons (shame that). But they do have PlayStation. Mon-El wants to leave but is told he can’t for now. He needs to remain at the DEO for his own protection and so they can test his full range of powers. Hank has somewhere personal he needs to be and leaves; Alex didn’t know he had anything personal. Hank has not shared with the class that he met another Green Martian, a woman, M’gann M’orzz. Alex gets a call from Detective Maggie Sawyer, who leads with the enticing line of ‘Want to see a dead body?’
The dead body is a dead alien in the boot of a car. Kara flies in at this point. The alien has months of scar tissue on his hands; he appears to have spent a lot of time fighting. His race, however, is peaceful. They don’t fight, according to Kara, they barely even argue. The dead alien was killed by another dead alien, as there was something stuck in him. Alex and Maggie are clicking along nicely to the degree where Kara is feeling left out of the conversation.
At CatCo, Snapper tells Kara she was supposed to be working on figures about pelican deaths after trash dumps. Kara says she was excited about that – she’s probably lying – but she has another story. Alien on alien violence. A dead alien, another alien did it, Snapper doesn’t see a story. Plus Kara hasn’t got a whole bunch of information Snapper lists. She hasn’t got a story, she has a half-baked idea. Bake it fully, then they’ll talk.
Hank has gone to the bar to see M’gann M’orzz. He has questions about how she survived. She was in an internment camp, a bad one, when one of the White Martians refused a kill order. Something they are not known for doing. The White Martian smuggled M’gann off world and that was 300 years ago. Hank wants to do the Martian bond, sharing minds, but M’gann refuses.
Winn is still testing Mon-El when Alex enters. What was stuck in the dead alien was a thorn, a biological defence mechanism from an alien, a brevakk, one of which is registered in National City. Alex declines a strike team, calling Maggie instead, and they confront and subdue the brevakk. Then Maggie is stunned, a net is thrown over Alex and some men bundle the brevakk into a van – against his wishes – and drive off. At the DEO, Alex tells Hank that the attackers were combat trained, not low-rent thugs. Hank is a bit off so Alex and Kara want to know what’s wrong; Kara threatens to pout. Hank explains about the other Green Martian and how she wouldn’t bond with him – which is a Green Martian way of sharing minds. There are no secrets, no lies. Which suggests that M’gann – Megan, Hank translates this as – has something to hide.
Kara is talking to the hologram of her mother about how she is doing with reporting when Mon-El enters. She tells him it’s private and isn’t he supposed to be working? Winn apparently told Mon-El to chillax for 5 minutes. Not that Mon-El knows what that means. When Daxam is mentioned, the hologram of Alura starts saying less than complementary things about the planet until Kara shuts it off. Although Mon-El says she isn’t wrong. Mon-El understands that Kara talks to the hologram because it makes him feel less alone. And calls Alura a babe. Winn told him that’s what they call beautiful women on Earth; Mon-El is sensing that isn’t right. Kara suggests not letting Winn teach him about women. Mon-El suggests Kara could; she declines.
Maggie calls Alex – again – as she has a tip. To meet her somewhere, and to where something nice. This, when Alex arrives, includes a mask. Maggie explains that the place is where National City’s wealthiest – who are all masked too – come. Then a woman (Dichen Lachman) enters and tells the waiting people that aliens came to the plane to entertain. In a no-rules cage fight. Between the brevakk and, not exactly a surprise, Miss Martian, the Last Daughter of Mars. M’gann M’orzz. That’s what she didn’t want Hank discovering.
Security appears to have noticed Alex and Maggie and Maggie wishes they had called backup. Alex has – Kara. Who enters into the cage and the woman running the event, Roulette, sicks Draaga on her, a 7′ tall reptilian. Kara does not come out of the fight so well but Alex shoots her way into the cage. Back at the DEO, Hank says this is a new level of humans exploiting aliens – and Alex and Kara have something to tell him.
Winn is still testing Mon-El. Who has no heat vision or X-ray vision, but is strong, although not as strong as Kara. No freeze breath and no flight, but Winn says that Mon-El’s leaping is fantastic, as in leaping tall buildings in a single bound (which is what Superman was only capable of before he gained the power of flight). Mon-El really wants to go out of the DEO and, despite Winn’s refusal, you can just see them going out. And one drink isn’t going to stop at one drink.
Kara’s relationship with Mon-El is better than it was but she realises that it could be better. She is also working on developing a story that Snapper actually agrees with. He may not be the most pleasant of bosses, but it seems that Snapper knows his stuff and sets a pretty high standard for accuracy. Hank has to deal with his relationship with Megan as well. And what about Maggie and Alex? Could there be something there?