Supergirl is forced to do battle with an unexpected foe and must risk everything—including her life—to prevent Non and Indigo from destroying every person on the planet.
Tropes in this episode:
- Almost Dead Guy: Indigo sticks around just long enough after being ripped in half to gloat about how Myriad can't be stopped.
- Actor Allusion: Cat refers to the ending as Kara's Working Girl moment. Harrison Ford, who was referred to in the previous episode, starred in that movie (and is married to Cat's actress, Calista Flockhart).
- Arc Words: "Stronger together" and "Blood bonds us all" return from their respective episodes.
- Artistic License – Physics: Kara saves the day by carrying the source of the Myriad radio wave out of atmosphere. But as all good humans should know radio waves are very good at traveling through and into atmospheres, this is how we communicate with space shuttles after all.
- Awesome Moment of Crowning: J'onn is pardoned of his crimes and reinstated as director of the DEO. Or, rather, he's finally officially promoted, as Hank Henshaw was technically still the director during J'onn's tenure.
- Bait-and-Switch:
- James gives Kara a wall frame which he says has his best picture of Supergirl. When he turns it around, it's a picture of her as everyday Kara Danvers.
- When Cat plops a box down on Kara's desk and starts throwing her things into it, Kara is understandably distressed. It turns out she's getting promoted and moved to a new office, not fired.
- Beam-O-War: Kara and Non's fight finally climaxes with an intense Eye Beam battle. Kara wins, apparently burning Non's eyes out and blinding him.
- Big Damn Heroes: Alex pilots Kara's pod into space to rescue Kara after she traps herself to get rid of Fort Rozz.
- Book Ends: The season started off with Kara being sent to Earth and her pod being opened by Superman. It ends with another Kryptonian pod landing, which she opens to find something shocking.
- Breaking the Bonds: J'onn demonstrates to General Lane that he was a Play-Along Prisoner the entire time when he appears having snapped the chain of the handcuff that was supposedly holding him to a gurney. When Lane ruefully orders the cuff removed, J'onn simply snaps it into pieces.
- Chekhov's Gun:
- In "Worlds Finest", Lucy mentioned several people who had been hospitalized as a result of electrical imbalances in the brain. This episode shows that not only was Myriad definitively responsible for that, it can be dialed up to cause death.
- Kara's pod sees use once more.
- Convenient Coma: Superman is in a coma for the bulk of the episode and only contacts Kara via instant message in the end.
- Deadly Euphemism: "We stopped Non" (by burning his eyes out and tearing his girlfriend in half).
- Do Not Adjust Your Set: A heroic version; Cat and Max rig up Cat's old broadcast station to put Kara's message on every TV and phone in National City.
- Eye Lights Out: Indigo's death has her forehead lights go dark.
- Eye Scream: Non has his eyes burned out when he loses the world's most dangerous staring contest with Kara.
- Face Death with Dignity: Kara. Well aware she may not come back from fighting Non and Indigo, she makes sure those she cares most about know how she feels about them before leaving.
- Foreshadowing:
- When Supergirl asks why they just left Fort Rozz there, General Lane responds, "You try moving a one million ton alien spacecraft." At the end, Supergirl does just that.
- Kara's escape pod is emphasized near the end of the episode. In the very last scene, a Kryptonian escape pod once again crashes to Earth.
- Give My Regards in the Next World:
- Non, via Alex before having her try to finish off Kara, tells her to give Astra his love.
- He and Kara later exchange these in person. See Pre-Mortem One-Liner.
- Half the Man He Used to Be: J'onn rips Indigo in two. This actually seems to kill her.
- Heroic Sacrifice: Kara flies Fort Rozz into space to stop the Myriad signal, fully prepared not to return home. Fortunately, Alex isn't having any of that.
- Hidden in Plain Sight: The Kryptonians' base has been Fort Rozz this whole time.
- Idiot Ball:
- The US military couldn't move Fort Rozz, so they activated its stealth systems and declared the area a nuclear test site. Fair enough. The problem arises in that they didn't leave any guards behind, and never considered the possibility that the Kryptonians might be using this Kryptonian prison as a base. Everyone else facepalms at the stupidity of this.
- After Kara narrowly averted the prison break in the last episode, it's shown here that the DEO under Non's control still have the run of the place, which raises the question as to why he didn't just have them release all the prisoners after Kara left. An Idiot Ball and Villain Ball in one convenient package.
- "I Know You're in There Somewhere" Fight:
- J'onn flies Eliza into National City to talk down a Myriad-controlled Alex.
- Kara gives a wide-scale one to National City through her TV broadcast.
- Kill All Humans: Since humanity won't be controlled by Myriad, Non and Indigo figure that hey, humanity won't kill the Earth if there's no humanity left to kill it.
- Let's You and Him Fight: Non sends a mind-controlled Alex—wearing Kryptonite-enhanced Powered Armor—to kill Kara. Because of the Kryptonite and Kara's unwillingness to kill her sister, Alex nearly wins.
- Malicious Misnaming: For the very first time, Cat stops this and pronounces Kara's name right.
- Moment Killer: Dinner at Kara's place is ruined by the Kryptonian pod showing up.
- Mythology Gag:
- Supergirl (1984)'s Omegahedron.
- A Kryptonian and a human armed with Powered Armor and Kryptonite weapons are manipulated into fighting.
- Alex's Powered Armor looks a lot like Lex Luthor's (see Stealth Pun below).
- J'onn is put in handcuffs by a fearful military, and eventually causally snaps the handcuffs to show he was only staying in custody to be polite and help them trust him, much like Superman in Man of Steel.
- Maxwell Lord is given the power source of a Mind Control device. In the comics, Mind Control is his superpower. This may also be Foreshadowing.
- No Endor Holocaust: If everyone on Earth suddenly gets a painful, disabling headache due to Myriad, this should lead to loads of car crashes and other accidents, with thousands of casualties, yet nothing like this is implied to have happened.
- Not Quite Dead: J'onn's still up and about despite Indigo's attempt to kill him, though he has to take some time to recover. A second stab to the gut is treated even less seriously.
- Official Couple: Kara and James graduate to this by the end of the episode.
- Oh, Crap!: Whatever is in the Kryptonian pod that crashes on Earth visibly freaks Kara out.
- Patrick Stewart Speech: J'onn gives an epic one.
- Play-Along Prisoner: J'onn shows General Lane (via easily broken handcuffs) that he was only staying in custody because he was being polite.
- Pre-Mortem One-Liner:Non: Tell your parents I said hello.
Kara: Tell them yourself! - Pre-Sacrifice Final Goodbye: Before going off to fight Non and Indigo, Kara gives one each to Winn, Cat, and James, unnerving each of them to different degrees, as they don't know that Kara's about to go into a fight she knows she may not come back from. Alex gets one just before Kara takes Fort Rozz into space, as Kara thought she might lose her nerve if she said goodbye in person.
- Put on a Bus: Max, Lucy, and General Lane disappear after this episode and haven't been back since.
- Rank Up: Cat gives Kara a promotion. She gets her own office now! Granted, her pay will be the same, and she'll have to earn a window.
- Season Finale: The very first one.
- Sequel Hook:
- Another Kryptonian pod crashes on Earth. Kara looks inside, whispers "My God," and the season ends.
- For the second episode in a row we sorta-kinda see Superman. Word of God (the producers, in an interview published after the episode aired) is that having Superman appear in full has not been discounted for a future episode. The same thing was said regarding the Flash crossover, and it happened.
- Subverted with General Lane giving Max the Omegahedron Core, which has enough energy to power a city even though it's the size of a baseball. As both characters didn't return for Season 2, this was obviously dropped.
- Ship Tease: While awaiting their imminent deaths, Max and Alex hold hands.
- So Proud of You: Clark praises Kara over IM for her actions.
- Stealth Pun: A-Lex in kryptonite-powered armor fights a Kryptonian.
- Surprisingly Realistic Outcome: For the first time in this series—and for the first time in any live-action production related to Superman—we learn that Supergirl can't fly in the vacuum of space (due to requiring "thrust") or breathe without an atmosphere, while most Superman-related media allow Kryptonians to fly through space and at least hold their breath far longer than any normal human. This is fairly close to the Man of Steel portrayal, in which Superman has similar though not explicitly spelled out limitations.
- Talking Is a Free Action: Justified when Kara says farewell to Wynn, James, and Cat, since the source of the Myriad signal hasn't been found yet. Not so much for Kara's conversation with Alex just before her attempted Heroic Sacrifice, flying Fort Rozz up into space. They're seconds away from the messy death of every human on the planet... so she stops for a long chitchat.
- The Unreveal: A new Kryptonian pod, identical to Kara's, crashes on Earth. Kara opens it. "Oh my god"... and... the episode ends.
- Villain Ball: Non puts all his forces in stasis prior to Kara and J'onn showing up, making her job of stopping him much easier than it would have been.
- What Happened to the Mouse?: A pretty big mouse: no more is said of Max's Plan B from last week.
- You Are Too Late: When Kara and J'onn show up to destroy the Omegahedron Core, Non just gives it to them, as he's already used it to power up Fort Rozz and has wired the signal to the ship itself, ensuring Kara can't dismantle it.
- You Called Me "X"; It Must Be Serious: Cat finally pronounces Kara's name correctly, after promoting her.
- Your Head Asplode: What Myriad's intensifying signal will do to every human on Earth.
