“The Adventures of Supergirl” is episode one of season two of Supergirl.
This episode begins before the end of the season one finale, “Better Angels”. Everyone is in Kara’s apartment when they hear the sonic boom and see the fireball heading towards the ground. Hank – in his Martian form – and Supergirl head out after the crashing vehicle. Hank says that they need to stop it or there will be major casualties. Kara touches the craft but gets hurt by it and the pod clips a window cleaner platform on the side of a building. Hank tells Kara he has the craft and she catches the platform. When the craft crashes, Kara says that it’s a Kryptonian pod, one that’s identical to hers. She opens it up, although Hank warns her to be careful, and finds an unconscious man inside.
Hank and Kara then fly to a skyscraper in Central City. She asks where they are and Hank replies the DEO. Kara is not happy, finding out that, all this time, the DEO had a facility in a skyscraper with, as he puts it, glass and views, and Hank made her fly to the cave every day. Hank replies that the DEO has several facilities; Kara complains that a bat bit her in the last one and Hank calls her a whiner. Alex greets Kara, who asks if she knew about this facility as well. Alex tells her yes; it’s only a block from her apartment.
The unconscious man from the pod is still unconscious. Kara is sure he must be from Krypton. According to Alex, the man’s breathing is normal and his vitals are stable; he’s just comatose. And they can’t learn anymore because needles snap on his skin. Kara says that proves the man is from Krypton; Hank corrects her, saying it only proves he isn’t human. Frankly, it doesn’t even prove that really. There are human superheroes, and villains, who are pretty resistant to damage (even if none have appeared in the series).
Alex suggest that Winn helps with the pod, because he reads Kryptonian. Winn, who is also there, says that he got bored and decided to learn a new language. Hank tells Winn to prove his worth by finding something his highly trained team of alien experts can’t. Winn accepts the challenge.
Alex asks Kara is she’s going to watch the Venture launch tonight. Kara says that she and James are going on their first date because they are finally free and clear. And goes on about it. Alex simply says okay. Which Kara says she does when she isn’t okay. To which Alex replies that’s because Kara is doing that thing where she acts super overeager – when she actually isn’t. Kara continues trying to convince Alex but is interrupted by a text message from Cat.
At Catco, the news is on and a reporter is saying that the Venture is the first commercial spacecraft that is a suborbital transport. Cat arrives in her private lift and says she was offered a seat on the Venture but turned it down because she had nothing in common with the passengers, rich people in search of meaning. Which brings Cat to Kara’s new job. For, in the previous episode, Cat promoted Kara and gave her an office. To do… something in. Kara was to decide – and Cat showed she actually knew Kara’s name was Kara, not Kira.
So Cat wants to know what Kara’s new vocation is. Kara replies that it’s only been 12 hours since the offer and she spent most of them asleep. Cat says she has offered Kara the keys to the kingdom and she went to sleep. Kara mumbles that it was night-time. Cat tells her that she got two hours of sleep the previous night, because sleep is for slackers. So Kara says she did an online quiz that said she was best suited to marketing. Cat is not impressed – well, she says that’s the most pathetic thing she’s ever heard, which certainly does not sound impressed.
Cat continues, saying that Kara cannot find her calling through an internet search. Then uses Supergirl as an example, saying that she isn’t a hero because flying is one of her skills, but because she need to help people and protect the plant. So Kara has to figure out what she needs to do (which is actually the same as Supergirl, but presumably there will be a second calling). Cat gives Kara two days to figure it out and she should not come back with the results of a Rorschach test. Then calls for her new assistant. Cat is also not impressed with the new assistant and asks where Kara found her and if she’s the best she could find. Kara replies that she’s sweet and intelligent and went to Yale. Cat’s response to that is that so did George Bush.
Back at her apartment Kara is trying many dresses on for her date but still hasn’t decided when James arrives. James likes the dress Kara is currently wearing. He wasn’t sure what Kara wanted to do, so brought her favourite food. James is surprised that Kara isn’t watching the Venture launch, given that she’s a big fan of space. Kara tries to insist that she isn’t that bothered and James tells her that it’s okay, she can put it on. So she does, but without sound.
Of course, there is a problem. The Venture is in space when an engine explodes and catches fire. With rather more sound than you’d get in a near-vacuum. Back on Earth, outside the Daily Planet building, a man wearing glasses is talking on his mobile to Perry White. After Perry hangs up, the man sees a news report about a possible explosion on the Venture. This is being watched at the DEO and Catco as well. One reporter hopes that, wherever he is, he’s watching this. And he is. The man with the glasses is, of course, Superman. The first time he’s actually been seen in the series. Not as a face blocked out by sun glare, as a distant figure falling out of the sky or as a pair of boots, but an actual person. Perhaps they couldn’t decide who was going to play him. Another reporter is saying that they pray she’s watching this. This ‘she’ is Supergirl.
Supergirl holds onto the nose of the plummeting craft as Clark shows up. She says that this may need both of them. Clark puts out the engine fire and grabs the rear of the craft and both bring it down into a safe landing in a field. Kara tells Clark that this was awesome. Well, terrible, but they’ve never saved anything together before. As three kids on bikes approach, Kara tells Clark that she usually says ‘Hi’ and he replies that he does the same. So they say hi and Kara tells the kids she used to change Superman’s diapers. Clark says to her that he isn’t sure she had to tell them that; she tells him that she really did.
Kara arrives at the DEO with Clark and introduces him as her cousin, starting to say Superman before concluding that they probably already know who he is. After all, Superman is kind of famous. Hank asks Alex if she knew Kara was bringing Superman back. She didn’t, and asks if there is a problem. Hank doesn’t say that there is, but he doesn’t look terribly happy. Kara introduces Clark to Winn, who starts babbling. Then Clark greets Hank, as J’onn, and Hank says it’s nice to see him again. Clark replies that he won’t be staying long. Kara says she brought Clark back to take a look at their mystery guest.
Kara asks Alex what’s with them, as Clark and Hank leave, because there’s definitely tension between the two. Alex doesn’t know, but says Kara’s cousin smells terrific. Winn has deciphered some of the material on the crashed pod and discovered it passed through a region where Kara says that time doesn’t pass. Also, the explosion on the Venture happened when it reached low orbit insertion – and this should have happened earlier in the flight. Clark is going to stay around to have a look into it. Alex tries asking Hank what is up with him and Superman, but Hank says nothing and walks away, ending the conversation.
Kara tells Clark that he might want to steer clear of Cat because she is in some sort of mood but Clark replies that he has sway with Cat. At Catco, when Cat sees Clark outside she gestures to Kara to come into her office. She asks if Kara knows Clark Kent, and Kara mutters about not her as well, for Cat is clearly in a bit of a tizzy regarding how she looks. When Cat greets Clark, she asks if he’s still with Lois, or whether that fizzled out as she predicted. Because she never received the money from the pool. Clark replies that it’s still going strong and Cat asks if Lois is still hung up on Superman. Clark replies that Lois has worked out how to have them both in her life, which Cat says is modern. Of course, they are both the same person. When Clark said he had sway with Cat, he meant she was infatuated with him. According to James, Cat sent Clark a drunk text message once.
On the Venture, one passenger apparently didn’t show up for her assigned seat; Lena Luthor, Lex’s sister. With Lex in jail, Lena is running Luthor Corp and has moved to National City. So she is, of course, a prime suspect. Elsewhere, a man is being sold a drone, a very advanced one. He asks the man selling it how the targeting works. Unsurprisingly, once told, the man uses the drone to kill the person selling it to him. If you’re selling possibly dodgy advanced killing technology to someone who is probably criminal in nature – don’t arm the thing and give the controls to the killer. Who is apparently working for the Luthors.
Alex has a poke around to see what caused the frostiness between Hank and Superman. Clark and Kara go and speak to Lena, who claims she is nothing like her brother. Cat gives Kara some advice on finding her passion and Clark gives advice on how to juggle different lives. Cat herself seems to be trying to decide to do something. There’s another reference to Project Cadmus and the episode isn’t around the mystery man in the Kryptonian pod, but the explosion on the Venture.