Recap / Supergirl (2015) S5E13 "It's a Super Life"

Mr. Mxyzptlk returns and gives Kara a chance to Set Right What Once Went Wrong on her relationship with Lena.

Tropes

• Alternate Timeline: We see four, one for each different point Kara chooses.
• An Aesop: Two of them:
  • You can't change the past; if you made mistakes, all you can do is live with them and try to do better in the future.
  • People are responsible for their own choices, and blaming yourself for what other people do is unhealthy.
• The Atoner: Mxyzptlk has to atone for his mischief.
• Bad Future: Each branch of possible timelines has increasing degrees of this, though this is more a threat, since we only see them progress up to points equivalent to the present.
• Badass Fingersnap: How Mxyzptlk activates most of his powers.
• Bait the Dog: In the third timeline, Lockwood holds up his end of the bargain and spares Lena and Coville after Supergirl reveals her identity. Once her identity is out in the open, he and his followers hunt down and kill all of Kara's loved ones anyway.
• Be Careful What You Wish For: Each time Kara decides to tell Lena her secret, while it negates various disasters, it also causes even worse ones to occur.
• Beneath the Mask:
  • Pay close attention to Lena's face during the final conversation with Kara. You can see a moment of sadness appear when Kara tells that she will be there for her but will treat her as a villain otherwise
  • Knowing Kara's powers, Lena still keeps her window open, hinting that perhaps subconsciously, she is still literally leaving the door open for Kara into her life.
• Bittersweet Ending: Kara admits she was wrong to lie to Lena, accepts responsibility and is able to let go of her guilt. Sadly, she's forced to make clear that if Lena is still determined to hang onto her anger and continue working for Lex, then Kara will have no choice but to treat her as a villain and the episode ends with the future of their friendship still up in the air.
• Blessed with Suck: No matter when Kara tells Lena her secret identity, it doesn't end happily for either of them (Kara dying in one, Lena in another and all Kara's loved ones murdered in another).
• Brainwashed and Crazy: In the fourth timeline, Lena rewired Brainy to be her loyal enforcer.
• Brought Down to Normal: In the final hypothetical timeline, Mxy loses his powers and has to find a source of 5th dimensional energy elsewhere, in the form of the Hat's bowler.
• The Bus Came Back: Chris Wood (Mon-El), Odette Annable (Sam/Reign) and Sam Witwer (Ben Lockwood/Agent Liberty) all return. Also, Mr. Mxyzptlk, though he's portrayed by a different actor this time. Jeremy Jordan (Winn) appears at the DEO in the darkest timeline. Robert Baker cameos as Otis Graves and Chad Lowe also returns as Thomas Coville.
• Butterfly of Doom:
  • No matter when Kara tells Lena her secret, the changes end up making things worse. In the first timeline, Kara dies; in the second, Lena, Mon-El, and Sam all die; in the third, all of Kara's loved ones are killed; and in the fourth, never meeting Kara leads to Lena becoming a fascist dictator.
  • In most of the potential reveals Lena still takes the truth about Kara badly although she eventually ends up coming around without turning against her. The only exception is if Kara had told her at the very beginning of their friendship as Lena is happy Kara trusts her when they barely know each other.
• Chekhov's Boomerang: The Hat's eponymous item comes back in this episode as the sole source of Fifth dimensional energy remaining in the last timeline that Mr. Mxyzptlk can use it to set everything back to normal.
• Co-Dragons: Reign and Brainy for big bad Metallo!Lena in the fourth timeline, who has somehow managed to bring them both under mind control.
• Composite Character: In the darkest of the timelines, Lillian did her Metallo experiments on Lena after Lex blew up her helicopter.
• Continuity Nod: In the fourth timeline, J'onn uses the Staff of K'lar to disintegrate Reign, the same way he did with Manchester.
• A Day in the Limelight: While most of the current cast and many former cast members appear, the episode is a showcase for Melissa Benoist and Katie McGrath.
• Drama-Preserving Handicap: Mxy and Kara are accidentally drawn into the fourth timeline, where she and Lena never became friends at all, because in that timeline Lena devised a way to draw upon the Fifth Dimension to power her Hope drones, which disrupts Mxy's powers until he can find an alternate source.
• Evil All Along: Subverted. Despite some fan speculation that the episode would show Lena is destined to become evil In Spite of a Nail, this only happens in one reality (and possibly in the real world). Not that the other realities give a happy ending.
• Fake Better Alternate Timeline: This episode has Kara, with the help of Mr. Mxyzptlk, go over various possible alternate timelines of her past related to her friendship with Lena Luthor, which by now has turned to Lena seeing her as the enemy after learning that she had been hiding her secret identity from her. In one such timeline, Kara tries revealing it to her when they first meet. At first, this one seems downright utopic, with the two of them working closely together and stopping several threats. Unfortunately, Lena ends up kidnapped by this timeline's version of Agent Liberty, who blackmails Kara into revealing her identity to the public and proceeds to lead his organization in killing all of Kara's friends and loved ones.
• Foreshadowing: Mxy leaves Kara one more video which she hadn't viewed yet.
• Good Feels Good: Mxy tells Kara that it felt really good helping her.
• Heel–Face Return: Partially justified with Mr. Mxyzptlk, as he apparently got captured by Fifth Dimensional authorities and is required by their law to make amends for his past villainous actions by using his powers in a restitutive way towards those he had wronged. Even so, he does genuinely seem to be remorseful for his past actions and is a much kinder person than he used to be.
• Hope Spot:
  • The second timeline seems to end perfectly, with Lena forgiving Kara and managing to suppress Reign. Then Reign retakes control of Sam's body, kills Lena, and goes out in a Mutual Kill with Mon-El.
  • The third timeline seems to be going great, with Kara and Lena becoming a perfect team. Then Ben Lockwood shows up.
• "I Know You're in There Somewhere" Fight: Nia towards Brainy, in the fourth timeline. Unfortunately, it doesn't work.
• Innocently Insensitive: Mxy is a little too giddy while watching the cruel twists of the alternate realities alongside Kara.
• In Spite of a Nail: In the third timeline, despite all the changes, Pete Lockwood still dies (though this time, he takes his daughter-in-law and grandson with him), Ben still becomes Agent Liberty, still becomes a pawn of Lex Luthor's, and still murders people out his hatred for an alien.
• In the Back: How Lena tries to save Patricia, Kara and Mon-El from Reign. Unfortunately, Reign gets back up and returns the favor to Lena, lethally.
• Irony: In the base timeline, Pete Lockwood was an anti-alien bigot who died during an alien attack. In the third altered timeline, he became a pro-Kryptonian zealot who killed himself in a vain attempt to meet Supergirl. Both timelines result in Ben Lockwood developing his own anti-alien ideals and becoming Agent Liberty to carry them out.
• It's a Wonderful Plot: As per the title it's based off of, this episode depicts what would have happened if Kara told Lena she was Supergirl at different points during the series.
• La Résistance: Kara's friends in the last timeline.
• Mythology Gag: Mr. Mxyzptlk has been conspicuously bareheaded in this adaptation. This episode's climax is dependent on Mxy getting the Hat's hat, a fifth dimensional artifact, which also looks like the derby he usually wears in the comics.
• The Nth Doctor: Mxyzptlk is played by Thomas Lennon, succeeding Peter Gadiot. He explains that his earlier handsome form was simply meant to charm Kara and this is his true appearance (or as "true" as he can be in our dimension).
• Never Trust a Trailer: Or in this case early synopses that described the episode as showing the history of the show if Kara had told Lena her secret from the start. The episode actually shows what would have happened if Kara has told Lena at various points and we see 4 different futures from those points.
• "Not So Different" Remark: Mon-El compares himself to Lena, as both of them had their families betray them.
• Not So Similar: As Mon-El tells her, despite the fact that she also kept secrets from Lena, unlike Lillian or Lex, Kara kept Lena in the dark out of love, while the Luthors lied to her for their own gain.
• Offscreen Moment of Awesome:
  • A bleak and villainous one; in the third timeline, Lockwood and the Children of Liberty manage to kill all of Kara's loved ones, which is no small feat.
  • Another villainous example, Lena in the final timeline had managed to control both Brainy and freaking Reign to serve her.
• Oh, Crap!: Mxy in the fourth timeline, when his powers aren't working.
• Old Friend: The Hat is an old acquaintance of Mxy, having won the bowler in a game of poker from the imp. Kara and her friends have to retrieve it in order to escape the fourth timeline.
• Out of Focus: Kelly appears for less than a minute. Nia doesn't fare much better, and neither appear until the dystopian timeline.
  • Alex and J’onn get sent to a paintball match while Kara goes through the rewind.
• Powerful and Helpless: Kara failing to save Ben Lockwood's wife and son in the third timeline. She may be powerful, but even she can't be everywhere at once.
• Putting on the Reich: Lena's outfit in the dystopian alternate timeline evokes Nazi imagery.
• Screw This, I'm Outta Here: Kara attempts to leave the last timeline immediately after entering it and finding the wreckage of her apartment. Unfortunately she's too late, Mxy's powers have already been drained.
• Shout-Out:
  • Supergirl says "Beam me up Mxy!" with the latter even being disappointed that she doesn't have her own catchphrase.
    • The episode also plays out very much the same way "Tapestry", an episode of Next Generation where Q gives Picard the chance to change something about his life and live out the consequences.
  • The program Mxy is running his alternate reality simulations with is called "Myxflix".
  • When Myxflix starts buffering endlessly, Mxy switches to Betamyx tapes, which are all titled in the vein of Friends episodes' Idiosyncratic Episode Naming. This counts double, since Team Supergirl often refer to themselves as Superfriends.
• Spinning Paper: Mxy uses a number of these to show Kara how her choice to tell Lana her secret earlier ended up affecting the timeline, accompanied by him reading the headlines like an old fashioned radio announcer, until Kara asks him to stop.
• So Proud of You: Kara towards Mxy at the end, when he tells her how good it felt to help her.
• Stopping the Blame Game: Subverted. At the end of the episode, Kara informs Lena that while she accepts responsibility for having led Lena on for so long, she's done blaming herself for any of Lena's choices from here on out and that if Lena wants to continue down the villainous path she's started on, then she will be dealt with as any other villain would be.
• Superman Stays Out of Gotham:
  • Seemingly none of the other timelines involve Kara getting any help from the other Arrowverse heroes. Not even the one where an anti-Supergirl zealot targeted her loved ones or the one where National City became a full-on dystopia. It makes sense though. Mxy exists outside of continuity and therefore was unaffected by the Crisis. He is able to show Kara events of the original timeline prior to the creation of Earth-Prime. This also fits the narrative that neither Kara or Lena have any memories of the new history and only know what transpired pre-Crisis.
  • All the timelines are alternative futures based on the show's original pre-Crisis timeline. Therefore, in the 3rd timeline (where all Kara's friends are killed) Superman would be on Argo and in the final timeline, Superman would again either be on Argo (Lena was captive during the time of s3 in this timeline) or already killed by Lena (or unable to get close to her due to her being powered by Kryptonite).
• Take That!:
  • Mxy says that they can forward through the tapes showing most of the events of season 3. An acknowledgment of the plot inconsistencies, the out-of-character actions, and the general poor reception to that season's inconveniences.
  • In the 3rd timeline, a cult worshiping Kara and Lena is formed. Wonder which part of the fandom they could be based on?
• Take Up My Sword: Or shield, in this case. In the fourth timeline, Kelly seems to have fully taken up James' identity as Guardian.
• Tempting Fate:
  • While watching the third timeline, Kara expresses her glee at a timeline where everything works out. Mxy shows her how everything goes to hell a minute later.
  • Also in the third timeline, Winn tells Kara to go ahead and save Lena, as the rest of Supergirl's loved ones can take care of themselves. They all die after Kara outs herself.
• Then Let Me Be Evil: Partial inversion. The episode ends with Kara telling Lena that her (Lena's) choices are her own to make and if she chooses to be evil, then she will be treated just like any other villain.
• True Companions: Kara and Lena in the 3rd timeline. Although it ends in tragedy for Kara.
• Unwitting Instigator of Doom: Despite Coville being less of a zealot in the third timeline, the Cult of Rao he created ends up spreading far and wide, inspiring people to endanger themselves as Coville's followers did in the base timeline, which leads to the deaths of Ben Lockwood's family and causes him to become Agent Liberty and slaughter Kara's loved ones.
• We Used to Be Friends: Kara tells Lena that she is no longer treating her as a friend and how their relationship goes is entirely on her.
• What Happened to the Mouse?: In the fourth timeline, Lena mentions that Lillian converted her into Metallo, but Lillian's status afterwards isn't mentioned.
• Woobie, Destroyer of Worlds:
  • Ben Lockwood in the third timeline; he lost his entire family because of the Cult of Rao, which leads him to become Agent Liberty to take revenge on Supergirl, whom he blames for the whole thing.
  • In the fourth timeline, Lena nearly died from Lex's attempt to assassinate her, and Lillian turned her into a Metallo to save her life. The pain and suffering Lena endured drove her over the edge, and she became a merciless dictator who takes over National City in the interests of keeping people "safe".
• You Are Better Than You Think You Are: Mon-El tells Kara that she deserves the same compassion she shows others.
• You Can't Fight Fate: Downplayed. In the darkest timeline, Brainy still ends up working directly for a Luthor and broken up with Nia, similar to the base timeline.