Line #37 Recap/Supergirl2015S3E6Midvale


1	In the wake of Alex's break up with Maggie, the Danvers return to their hometown and the history between the sisters is revealed.
2	----
3	!!Tropes in this episode:
4	* AlmightyMom: Eliza is fair but firm with Alex and Kara.
5	* AlmostKiss: Kara and Kenny nearly kissed, but she felt awkward and pulled away.
6	* AlphaBitch: Alex was revealed to be this in high school (crossed over with AcademicAlphaBitch) along with her friends, including Josie. After her adventure with Kara in solving Kenny's murder, however, she takes Kenny's place on the totem pole as a social outcast -- not that she really minds, in the end.
7	* ArmorPiercingQuestion: When Kara tries to comfort Alex by saying her grief will get better over time, Alex just rhetorically asks her if ''she'' is feeling better.
8	* AsianAndNerdy: Kenny Li bonds with Kara with his stargazing hobby. He's even smart enough to store pictures of galaxies in his laptop.
9	* AssholeVictim: Both the pot-smoking bully and the pedophile teacher were not guilty of killing Kenny, but their legal repercussions were still deserved.
10	* BigBrotherWorship: Well, more like big/little cousin worship. Kara is shown to idolize Clark/Superman as a teenager, and initially openly wishes she could live and fight evil with him and not the Danverses.
11	* BitchInSheepsClothing: Sheriff Collins sure seems like a friendly, helpful, and considerate small-town lawman at first, doesn't he? Turns out he's anything but.
12	* BookEnds: The episode opens with the sisters going to their childhood home to help Alex cope with her breaking up with Maggie and ends with them heading back to National City. Outside of that, the episode is entirely a flashback.
13	* CallForward: Sheriff Collins wonders if Alex ever considered a career in law enforcement, an occupation everyone knows she takes in the present day.
14	* CombatPragmatist: Young Kara was an advocate of the "knocking them out from behind before they know you're coming" approach.
15	* ContinuityCameo: J'onn uses his powers to disguise himself as an FBI agent who looks like Kara's mom in order to try to dissuade her from using her powers. He changes back when nobody's looking.
16	* ContinuityNod:
17	** The girls borrow J'onn's car/ship for their trip home.
18	** J'onn is shown keeping an eye on Kara and Alex, taking the form of an FBI Agent identical to Alura to help her through her problems, honoring his promise to Jeremiah to watch over the Danvers.
19	* ADayInTheLimelight: Not a character, but the first episode in a long time to fully focus on Kara and Alex's sisterhood.
20	* DirtyCop: Sheriff Collins, who's selling drugs on the side -- and killed Kenny to keep him quiet.
21	* DisappearedDad: During their high school years, Alex's dad is still presumed dead at the time. She blames Kara for it.
22	* DrivesLikeCrazy: Kara, according to Alex. Alex even calls her a crazy driver.
23	* FantasticRacism: Both in the flashback as well as in the present during her chat with her adopted mother, Kara still shows light signs of this, insisting that she isn't human and showing mild contempt for humanity.
24	* FatalFlaw: Eliza points out that Kara's inability to show weakness to her loved ones in the face of tragedy is hers.
25	* {{Foreshadowing}}: The song "Fake Do-Gooders" by The Eames Era plays during a montage of Alex and Kara competing with each other. "Fake Do-Gooder" turns out to be a rather appropriate description of [[DirtyCop the episode's villain]].
26	* AFormYouAreComfortableWith: J'onn disguises himself as an FBI Agent that looks exactly like Alura so Kara can open up about her struggles more than if he were Hank.
27	* TheGhost: Kara mentions Clark's friend Chloe, and is in contact with her during the investigation of Kenny's death, but she is neither seen nor heard.
28	* HeroOfAnotherStory: One of Franchise/{{Superman}}'s encounters with ComicBook/LexLuthor is talked about.
29	* HeKnowsTooMuch: Poor Kenny got killed over blackmail material of the sheriff dealing drugs.
30	* HumiliationConga: The JerkJock is overpowered by a girl half his size in front of his teammates, is forced to admit to using pot, and gets suspended for it (and likely kicked off the football team).
31	* InVinoVeritas: Alex gets very [[BrutalHonesty blunt]] and downright mean while drunk.
32	* ItsAllAboutMe:
33	** Teenaged Alex acts this way, blaming Kara for everything wrong in her life. Given that she is dealing with a new sister and the (presumed) death of her father, this might be justified or at least understandable. She gets better.
34	** Sheriff Collins, who thinks that he is entitled to get more than he makes in his job and thus turned to drug smuggling. Since he's an adult, it's considerably less justifiable.
35	* JerkJock: Kara flat-out states that she ''hates'' the school's football players. They hardly do much to invalidate such an opinion.
36	* LittleMissBadass: Kara as a 15-year-old is quickly able to save Alex from being killed by Sheriff Collins. She also easily overpowers a jock whom she suspected of murdering Kenny.
37	* MatchCut: The first scene of the flashback transitions from the last scene of Kara and Alex going to sleep, and does the same in reverse when it ends.
38	* MundaneUtility: Kara uses her SuperSpeed to get first dibs on the bathroom before school.
39	* MythologyGag:
40	** Kara mentions [[Series/{{Smallville}} Clark's friend Chloe, who's into weird tech stuff and has a "Wall of Weird"]].
41	** Although the whole episode is a {{Prequel}} named after the city where the hero grew up, just like ''Smallville.'', the entire setup-Kara Zor-El adopted by the Danvers and hiding her powers as growing up in Midvale, the whole time wishing she could live with her cousin and be a hero-is taken from the [[UsefulNotes/TheSilverAgeOfComicBooks Silver Age]] ''ComicBook/{{Supergirl}}'' stories.
42	** Superman once foiled Lex from selling PoweredArmor and was pretty angry about the affair. This is more or less the plot of the first episode of ''WesternAnimation/SupermanTheAnimatedSeries'', which ended with Superman giving Lex a DeathGlare and a stern warning.
43	** Superman is said to wear red underwear over his pants. While this version of Superman is shown to be wearing a different suit in the present, the implication is that, at one point, Superman wore the classic suit, complete with red trunks.
44	* NotSoAboveItAll: Kara finally allows herself to intentionally be vulnerable with Alex and acknowledges that despite her brave face, she still misses Mon-El.
45	* OriginsEpisode: The beginning of Kara and Alex's sisterhood is the focus of the episode.
46	* PowerIncontinence: When Kara goes into the woods at night, she hears a twig snap behind her. She whirls around and blasts a tree next to Alex with her EyeBeams. She then apologizes, explaining that it sometimes happens when she's startled.
47	* RedHerring:
48	** Samuel Bernard, one of Kara and Alex's teacher's, is set up as the villain and while he's definitely guilty of statutory rape (presumably, the age of consent in the state Midvale is in is 18), he's not Kenny's murderer. That would be [[DirtyCop Sheriff]] [[BitchInSheepsClothing Collins]].
49	** Earlier, Kara suspected the JerkJock since Kenny had something on him. It turns out he was smoking pot and only threatened to beat up Kenny if he told anyone.
50	** She also briefly suspected Kenny's dad due to his behavior while being questioned.
51	* SecretKeeper: Chloe is implied to be this for both Clark and Kara.
52	* SecretSecretKeeper: At the end of the episode, one of Kenny's telescope images reveals that he knew Kara was an alien, having caught her flying one night, and that he didn't care. When Kara learns this, she admits that if he were in front of her right now, she'd kiss him. In the present, Kara even calls him a "keeper of secrets".
53	* ShipTease: Kara and Kenny shared an AlmostKiss, and it's implied that Kara's awkwardness was ''not'' because she didn't return his feelings for her. Unfortunately, Kenny's death means nothing ever comes of it.
54	* ShoutOut:
55	** "[[WesternAnimation/SouthPark They killed Kenny!]]"
56	** J'onn's fake FBI agent is played by Creator/EricaDurance, who played ComicBook/LoisLane on ''Series/{{Smallville}}'', and is named Creator/NoelNeill, the name of the actress who played ComicBook/LoisLane on ''Series/TheAdventuresOfSuperman''.
57	* SiblingRivalry: As teens, Alex and Kara had a very ''frosty'' relationship. It got better. It shows that, while Kara aced calculus and science, having studied them as a child on Krypton, and gym (by using her SuperStrength), she doesn't know much about American history, as she doesn't feel like she needs to learn that.
58	* SpeakIllOfTheDead: Kenny gets badmouthed in his death by his classmates, some even seeming to be happy he's dead. Kara is very justifiably pissed.
59	* StarterVillain: Chronologically, Sheriff Collins is this to both of the Danvers sisters.
60	* TeacherStudentRomance: Deconstructed as the teacher promptly goes to jail for statutory rape. Josie, the student in question, tried to justify the relationship to her soon-to-be-former best friend Alex by claiming the age gap (ten years) isn't that large and that no one will care in five years when she's older. What Josie fails to realize is that in five years, it's assumed she'll be mature enough to realize a guy that old who is willing to have a relationship with a teenager (his student, no less) is a sexual predator. It's also implied that in the state where Midvale is located, the age of consent is 18 (it varies between 16 and 18, depending on the state).[[note]]Midvale is mentioned as being near the US-Canada border, so assuming the ages of consent are the same as in real life, this would place it in either Idaho or North Dakota.[[/note]]
61	* ThreePointLanding: Kara had already mastered this landing pose when [[https://2.bp.blogspot.com/-er9cwycDiMU/Wg19rYnyF5I/AAAAAAAAxCc/TRm1qcI88CE149ulyrbfzk5aOR_zuE_eQCLcBGAs/s1600/9.jpeg she was a teenager]]. In fact, she does it ''repeatedly,'' maybe even beating Iron Man's ''own'' "Iron Man Pose per story" record.
62	* TookALevelInKindness: Alex ditches her AlphaBitch personality by the end after learning just how horrible her "[[KidsAreCruel friends]]" truly are.
63	* TragicKeepsake: Kenny's telescope, which was left as a gift for the Danvers' and still remains in their home.
64	* TheUnFavorite: Alex felt like this as a teen due to the fact Eliza kept forcing her to watch over Kara and excusing any of Kara's transgressions on the basis that she's not from Earth.
65	* UngratefulBastard: Overlaps with NoGoodDeedGoesUnpunished. Kara and Alex expose the JerkJock quarterback is using pot, that the history teacher is a sexual predator, and the sheriff as corrupt and a murderer and what's the reward? Being social outcasts in the school. However, Mr. and Mrs. Li are grateful, so they rewarded Kara and Alex with Kenny's favourite telescope.
66	* WatchThePaintJob: J'onn texts Kara at the end of the episode, warning her not to scratch his car.
67	* WeHardlyKnewYe: Kenny Li, Kara and Alex's mutual high school friend, gets two scenes before his death.
68	* WholeEpisodeFlashback: Other than the BookEnds, the majority of the episode is a flashback to 10 years prior.
69	* WholePlotReference: The entire flashback is essentially ''Series/{{Riverdale}}''.
70	** On a Supergirl-related note, the plot of the flashback also has quite a few passing similarities to the 2016 story ''ComicBook/SupergirlBeingSuper''.

Context Recap / Supergirl2015S3E6Midvale