Headscratchers / Supergirl (2015)

New entries on the bottom.

Why don’t the villains know about Kara's presence on Earth?

• When Kara reveals herself to the world, the Phantom Zone escapees don’t know who she is and resort to deduction to piece together that she must be Alura’s daughter and that she escaped Krypton the same way Kal-El did. But they should know all this already considering that their prison fortress followed her ship out of the Phantom Zone. At the very least they should be already aware that there's another unaccounted for Kryptonian somewhere on Earth.
  • Even if they knew there was another Kryptonian on Earth (and they did seem to) there would be no way of finding her anyway. They had to lure her out, but in a way that wouldn't cause Superman to catch on to them.
  • Given they were in the Phantom Zone, they were likely unaware of Kara's presence until her ship escaped and pulled them with her. If she was in stasis, likely so were they, so they wouldn't have realized Kara was a thing until they crashed on earth and got released.
  • The episode "Solitude" offers a possible explanation. It was Indigo (aka Brainiac 8) who detected Kara's pod and took it upon herself to reactivate its navigation systems and link Fort Rozz's systems to it so that they all could get out of the Phantom Zone. Indigo is also shown to have kept her distance and hidden from the other escapees as long as Astra was alive. Its very likely that Indigo never bothered to consult with any of the other inmates at Fort Rozz about her actions or to inform them afterwards. So they wouldn't know about Kara and her pod until later.

Why did Vartox run away?

• When Vartox has Kara at his mercy, Alex in a DEO gunship fires a rocket that doesn't even come close to him, and than he decides to run away instead of taking the five seconds to chop off a helpless Kara's head or even destroy the gunship despite it posing no real threat to him or otherwise they would have used something else than ineffective rockets.
  • First off, the rockets may very well have been able to hurt him. None hit him, so we can't know. Second, the rockets meant he was discovered. He doesn't care about casualties, but probably doesn't want to have to fight off hundreds of agents.
  • Strong enough to curbstomp a Kryptonian generally = stronger than some missile.
  • The DEO was able to take down Kara by themselves. They're clearly formidable opponents.
  • They still had to use Kryptonite to do that. There might not be an equivalent of Kryptonite for Vartox's species.
  • Lets remember that Kara had never been in a fight and was a significantly smaller combatant compared to, say, Superman. Vartox being able to beat her doesn't really mean he's that strong, otherwise he'd have likely picked a fight with Superman in the past, and as such, he's not necessarily strong enough to take on the DEO (who, let it be noted, spend their time hunting aliens just like him and are enough of a threat he resorts to sabotage to take them on). There's also the fact that the aliens want to keep a low profile and operate in secret; he sticks around long enough, they're going to get a look of his face and probably be able to track him later.

Where did Fort Rozz crash-land?

• We see Fort Rozz crashed in a desert landscape somewhere, presumably on Earth. Just where could it have crashed that nobody has noticed it and the military hasn't moved to attack it? If it's somewhere else (like Mars) then how do they get people to and from Earth? I doubt a prison has handy spacecraft available for prisoners to make use of.
  • Who says the military hasn't done anything about it? All we know is that some prisoners managed to escape after the crash.
  • I'm pretty sure its long since been dealt with; its not likely that the prisoners are using it as their base of operations for obvious reasons (least of all being how the DEO has access to their databanks), so the DEO have likely taken it apart.
  • Answered in the Season 1 finale: Fort Rozz crashed somewhere in Nevada, 500 miles from National City. And the escapees have been using it as their base. The US Military just turned on the stealth feature and left it there unguarded.

Why the separate ships?

• If Kara was sent to earth to protect Kal-El, then why did they use separate ships? Wouldn't it have been easier (and safer) to put Kara and Kal-El into the same ship?
  • Probably because the ships were too small. These weren't official missions; it was just one extended family deciding to send off their children. They didn't have enough resources or time to construct a two-person escape pod.

Superman a bad cousin?

• Ok, so in the pilot, Kara asks James what Superman is like in person, implying that she's never met Superman herself. So, what, Superman hasn't bothered to visit his cousin in the however many years it's been since he found her? That doesn't sound like something Superman would do.
  • He didn't want to pressure her into choosing superhero-ing. If he showed up, he likely would have influenced her in some way. Also, he's pretty busy and he can't exactly tell the world, "Hold up, I have to go visit my secret alien cousin. Don't try any major crimes while I'm gone."
  • Still, thinking of it from his perspective, even if he believed his reasons for not visiting were valid (and I'm not saying they are or aren't, that's a separate debate), it still seems hard to believe that he wouldn't visit his cousin for 12 years (Or so the main page says). She's not just his cousin, after all, she is, as far as he knows, the only other Kryptonian in the universe apart from himself. Think about it this way: This guy's been on Earth 24 years, and if we assume he may have only learned of his true heritage at 13-16 years old (that seems to be the age range most adaptations have), then that means he's had around 11-8 years of lamenting how he's the only Kryptonian in the universe, plus a possibly hard childhood of getting used to his powers, and the around 4 years (assuming he started being Superman at the age of 20) of being apparently the only superhero on earth. Not to mention his very existence inspired the creation of a group of people who are ready to kill him, and any other aliens like him, should he (or said aliens) make one wrong move. Then suddenly this girl comes along who is not only Kryptonian, but his cousin to boot. Which makes her not only the only other member of his species that he's aware of, but also the only member of his biological family he may ever know of. Under those circumstances, it's hard to imagine that Superman would be able to resist visiting her, even if he thought he should.
  • He's also spent years building up an impressive Rogue's Gallery who probably wouldn't hesitate to go after her. It's Not You, It's My Enemies
  • You bring up a good point. He probably couldn't visit her as Superman due to his enemies, but then, isn't that the point of having a secret identity?
  • Superman is a rather restrained person who's gotten used to playing a role. Even if she's met him, it's quite possibly she doesn't really 'know' him. Related, there's also the possibility she's met Clark, but never met him as Superman (for the above reasons).
  • Its shown that they do regularly message one-another and she knows him as Clark Kent, so its likely the two have visited one-another in the past. Its just also likely that, being a full-time reporter and superhero (and, assuming by the setting of the show, likely a husband as well), he doesn't have tons of free time to go hang out so she's not seen him for some time.
  • Does he at least have the time to help her fight her aunt when they're fighting in the middle of a city, in broad daylight, on national television? Or at least come see her AFTER the fight to see if she's okay? Because a GOOD cousin would do that.
  • He promised that he wouldn't help her out anymore so that she could be respected as her own superhero; the entire episode was about creating confidence in her ability to protect the city without her strong cousin having to bail her out. I presume it's a kind of understanding they now have that he will leave her battles to her unless she requests his help, but she knows he'll be there instantly if she asks.
  • This being the pilot, it seemed more likely that she was hiding her identity from James for now, just asking him the question everyone probably asks him. If I recall, at that point, Kara didn't know that James knew about her.
  • Well, at least he didn't leave her at an orphanage, that would have been a bad cousin. But of course Superman never would do such a thing.
  • She may also have been curious how her cousin seems to someone who isn’t Kryptonian, an everyday Earthling.

The Cape

• If Kara's cape is Kal-El's baby blanket then what is he using as a cape? I always thought his cape was his baby blanket?
  • Kal-El is a grown man, and (presumably) quite a bit larger than Kara. Or he just gave it as a sentimental gesture and has replacements.
  • He's actually only four inches taller than her. He's six feet even in this universe (without boots). Quite a bit broader, though.
  • In some continuities his cape is his baby blanket, and thus is invulnerable, and in others it's made of regular earth material, which is easily torn and has to be repaired (his suit itself also tends to be either the former or the latter, with the latter type of suit being invulnerable due to a bioelectric aura that his skin generates). So it's possible that he did use his baby blanket as a cape, but then gave it to Kara and switched to a cape made from normal earth materials. This isn't a huge problem because, as shown in the pilot, the cape's function is aerodynamics during flight, not to be durable.
• In "Fight or Flight", Kara uses her cape to deflect Reactron's nuclear blasts. Did I miss something, or was the cape ever explained to have such powerful energy-absorbing qualities?
  • In case the show didn't, the cape is made of Kryptonian material so it's just as invulnerable as Superman/Supergirl.
  • Jimmy gave her the cape in the Pilot episode and told her it was Clark's baby blanket, so it is Kryptonian in nature and would have special attributes.
  • Given that he has the Fortress of Solitude, almost certainly he has access to other Kryptonian capes.

No such thing as aliens

• Winn's Establishing Character Moment is his excited claims that a man with horns is at large in the city, to which Kara responds "There's no such thing as aliens." Except this is a world where Superman has been active for a good decade. If it's public knowledge that he's an alien, then Kara's claim doesn't make any sense. If it's NOT public knowledge, then why would a mysterious horned man be assumed to be an alien, and not just a metahuman like Superman?
  • This follows comic book tradition where you will still sometimes have a civilian make a comment about not believing in aliens despite the fact that in the classic Justice League lineup you have Superman (known to be an alien), Martian Manhunter (ditto), and Green Lantern (hangs around with aliens all the time); repeated alien invasions of Earth; and random aliens dropping by on a regular basis.
  • But in this world, it may not be known that Superman is an alien. And GL isn't around (presumably), and the only ones who know about J'onn are the Danvers, Superman, and DEO members.

Flying out the window in costume

• At the end of Episode 3, Kara flies out her window in full costume. Isn't that like announcing to anyone outside "Hey! Supergirl lives in this building!"?
  • Well, Superman does it himself all the time.
  • Given how she always checks who's at the door before answering in her suit, she probably does the same thing to make sure no one in the immediate vicinity is within eye-shot of her window when she leaves. Also, given the speed at which they fly, Kara probably moved too fast for anyone to notice who wasn't already watching and waiting.
  • Kal, in the comics, checked before doing so. Kara might also be going too fast for people not outside the fourth wall to see.

Eliza talking to Kara in English upon the young girl's arrival at the Danvers residence

• Upon Superman's and Kara's arrival at the Danvers home, Clark introduces the Danvers couple and his cousin to each other and Eliza says "I know I'm not your mom sweetheart, but you're safe here." The problem is, shouldn't Kara still only speak Kryptonian at that point, so whatever Eliza said to Kara she actually didn't understand.
  • This does happen in real life when trying to keep someone calm who doesn't understand you. We even do it to animals, so it's not that odd.
  • Maybe Kara got English lessons (and if so, probably every other Earth language) during her trip?
  • It is even possible Kara had lessons before her trip. As seen in flashbacks her mother was aware of the doom to come. She and her husband had time to prepare Kara not only for her trip but the language of the land they where sending her too.
  • Given that no Kryptonian ever seems to have trouble with the language when they come to Earth, it may just be that by an astonishing coincidence, both of their languages are exactly the same.
  • You also assume that Clark took her there straight after rescuing her from the shuttle. He probably let her hang around the Fortress of Solitude a bit, learn of Earth culture, customs, and language, then sent her to live there.
  • This last point at least has been Jossed, as when visiting the Fortress in episode 15 "Solitude" Kara mentions she had never been there before.
  • Given that Kryptonians were a space-faring race and dealt with other aliens on a fairly regular basis, this is likely to be a simple case of Translator Microbes.

Is Supergirl > Superman?

• Clark's been using his powers being Superman for awhile, and it's implied he uses them pretty frequently, as he doesn't just help with normal crime fighting, but also defending against natural disasters, such as the volcano eruptions. Meanwhile, Kara's been hiding her own powers ever since she's been on Earth. So is it possible that Kara, at least in the beginning of the series, actually has more solar energy stored up in her then Superman does as this point, which would make her more powerful than him?
  • That's like saying people who don't exercise are more physically fit than people who exercise regularly.
  • Um... No it's not. Kryptonian powers don't work the same way that human muscles do. They're more like solar powered batteries. More solar energy stored = more power. Using said power drains said solar energy, so theoretically if two kryptonians, Kryptonian A and Kryptonian B, are on Earth and Kryptonian A uses his powers and the Kryptonian B doesn't, then Kryptonian A is going to be more drained and have less solar energy then Kryptonian B and thus be weaker.
  • You assume that the solar power they absorb is stored until it's used. That's not likely the case, given the implications this would bring (how would she store all this excess energy? Do Kryptonians have an unlimited 'storage space' for solar energy? Wouldn't it build up and become a problem?). Most likely, Kryptonians have a set limit to how much power they can store, and when they get to that limit, they either stop absorbing energy until they have 'space', or the energy is released (IE, body heat, fuelling mundane bodily functions, etc) to make room for more energy.
  • While I won't dispute the science behind that explanation, nor can I prove that's not how it is in the show, in the comics, there's no limit to how much solar energy that a Kryptonian can absorb. There are instances where Superman spends time inside the Sun (which makes him a lot more powerful) which would probably kill him if there were a limit, since that would mean there's a limit on how great his durability can get. Though it's true they may lose it in small amounts through body heat and other things, the same way we do, that amount can't possibly be more than the amount lost doing the things that Superman does daily. As for the implications, Superman's powers (and by extension, Supergirl's) never really made much sense scientifically.
  • Superman's had up to adulthood to store solar energy. Supergirl's has a decade (I think). Even if we accept that Superman drains some of his power in his everyday heroing, he has a vastly greater reserve.
  • Jossed in the show...Kara burns out her batteries pretty easily later on. While not explained, it's probably that Kryptonians have to 'exercise' their ability to absorb solar power.
  • OP here. I wasn't really expecting her to be more powerful. I just remember in one episode (can't really remember which one) where one of the kryptonians (I think it was the one we now know as Non) was concerned about Superman, and when he brought up the idea that Superman would be more of a threat, Astra says (paraphrasing) "Don't be so sure." So I was just looking for some kind of edge that Supergirl might have over Superman (other than the obvious "she's a girl" thing) and when I thought of how her heat vision is blue, I thought it might be because hers is hotter (as blue fire is to red) so maybe she's just got more juice, which got me thinking that maybe all her abilities are likewise suped up (it would also help to explain why Supergirl could beat Reactron, but Superman couldn't), which seemed like it could be reasonable due to my initial reasoning above (especially since we haven't really seen Superman do anything to compare with).
  • That can be seen in a different light. The question here relates to Supergirl being more of a threat, not more powerful. This could be because of Kara's close connection to Astra, her reckless desire to prove herself to the world, or her inexperience making her unpredictable. Any smart martial artist while be more wary of a novice than a master. You have an idea of how someone with training will fight because they've had their bad habits beaten out of them and taught to fight strategically. A novice has no idea what they are doing, so you can't know either. They also haven't learned any control or how to coordinate their movements. It's the real life version of button mashing.
  • In one episode, Superman mentions that Supergirl is faster than him. Maybe they have their own specialities? Of course this troper may be wrong(In which case feel free to edit this out) as this troper cannot seem to find that one line now.
  • Probably because JAMES said that, not Superman. And I don't trust his word at all.
  • Some sources have speculated that Supergirl may appear more powerful than Superman because she's had less practice with her abilities; basically, where Superman has spent years training himself not to use too much power in case he kills his opponents, Supergirl is sometimes portrayed as lacking that expertise, so she uses more raw power by relative accident.

"...as someone who's been to twelve different planets..."

• Is interplanetary travel a common activity for kids on Krypton? (I'm seriously asking this, as someone with little familiarity with the Superman comics or DC comics in general). Because I'm thinking that's the only opportunity that Kara would have had to travel to other planets. After all, if she'd done it after coming to Earth, her absence certainly would have been noticed, at least at CatCo.
  • It was definitely before she came to Earth. Krypton was always a space-faring power, though the species had entered its twilight and withdrawn back to their homeworld by the time they blew themselves up. Her travels probably had something to do with the fact that her mother was an important judge.
  • That brings up a wrinkle in the Superman/Supergirl origin. If space travel is commonplace, then why would Kal-El and Kara be sent to the Kryptonian equivalent of the middle ages in a third world country? I think when John Byrne rebooted Superman 30 years ago, he made leaving the planet impossible for Kryptonians (with the exception of Kal-El, who'd been "cured" of the restriction).
  • Earth just gives Kal-El and Kara the most options all around. They can hide among the humans indefinitely, or become a champion of the planet, or just fly off to more civilized parts of the galaxy. Sending them anywhere else would have made them stick out like a sore thumb, and that's assuming any other worlds would have been willing to host Kryptonian children anyway. We don't know the nature of the wider universe, and how they felt about Kryptonians.

Controlling Red Tornado

• Morrow reveals that he controls the Red Tornado through the cerebral matrix on his headgear. But if he's fighting Alex, wouldn't that disrupt him from controlling Red Tornado properly? I assumed that because Morrow synchronized his brainwaves to Red Tornado, so it should be pretty tough to fight Supergirl and Alex Danvers at the same time.
  • That's assuming it's one-to-one, rather than mental command. The drone probably interprets commands then acts on them, so Morrow only has to feed it "kill Supergirl".

Tell Clark about Astra!

• Kara's been sitting on some pretty major information for quite a few episodes now: The head villain of the group the DEO is having to fight off is a KRYPTONIAN. Not only that, but she's Kara's AUNT. These are two big details that basically make this knowledge entirely Clark's business (even if Astra is probably only extended family). Not to mention Astra nearly killed Kara when they first fought, and the obvious ever present threat she poses to the Earth. I can get why the DEO hasn't mentioned this to Superman due to their mistrust, but KARA of all people should have mentioned this to Clark first chance she got. I feel like "Evil superpowered relative from my home planet in charge of a prison full of aliens" would probably take priority over whatever nonsense he's involved with off-screen to keep him out of the plot.
  • That's assuming that whatever he's doing is "nonsense". We've already seen some of the villains Clark has had to face (Reactron; the army is developing weapons to match him), and he's had a lot longer to make enemies than Kara has. And Astra presumably has thought her plan through; who's to say she doesn't have Fort Rozz aliens attacking Metropolis to keep him busy?
  • If that were happening, there should be at least some expository dialogue about what Clark is doing. Especially if it IS aliens, in which case the DEO would probably be able to identify if they're fighting Clark out in broad daylight. And even then, that's even more reason for him to know about Astra, seeing as she's the cause of all this.
  • We've seen them text each other, so it's entirely possible she has done so. As for Clark not helping, Kara may have been outmatched in that fight, but not by much and Henshaw has access to kryptonite. She may simply have told Clark that the situation is in hand, which would be consistent with her character. How was she supposed to know Astra has several more Kryptonians?
  • If she HAD told him, what was stopping the writers from having a small line of "well, I told my cousin and he said I can handle it", or something along those lines? And even if they have Kryptonite and Kara MIGHT be strong enough to take her, why risk it? Clark would be a HUGE addition to their fighting strength and Astra's forces are the biggest threat to the Earth's safety at the moment. He has no reason to not help them, and if there is, why haven't we heard about it?
  • You're approaching this from the wrong direction. It's not "he said I can handle it", it's "I can handle it." If Kara really thought she needed the help, then she'd be asking for it. The DEO has already made it clear that Superman doesn't want to work with them, and Kara's made it clear she doesn't want his help unless she absolutely needs it. It isn't complicated. Clark has his own things to deal with, and Kara isn't going to involve him just because.
  • And again, I ask: WHY RISK IT? The lesson in Episode 3 of him fighting off Reactron for her was meant to show how sometimes she DOES need help, and her ego getting in the way doesn't help. Why NOT just have her swallow her pride so that they can nip this EVER CONSTANT GLOBAL THREAT in the bud that much quicker? What does Superman have on his plate that is more important than stopping aliens from taking over the Earth? And if the DEO has a problem with it, they can take it up with her AFTER she and Superman save them all from Astra.
  • Because that marks her as the weak link and destroys the world's view of her. She's also not learning how to handle things herself for when Superman can't be there. If Kara were an employee that always had to be kept under supervision, you'd replace her for someone that could do the job with only the occasional check-in. By constantly running to her cousin, she never learns what she's capable of, so every situation will always start off with "maybe we need Superman." And then everyone is screwed when something comes up, and the world doesn't listen because she doesn't have Superman to hold her hand and give power to her authority.

So about those Neural Inhibitors... (Unmarked SPOILERS for Human For A Day)

• Henshaw says he didn't let Alex come because it was too dangerous, as proven by Jemm killing the two other agents. This is to build tension before The Reveal that he's actually Martian Manhunter. But how did the other agents' Neural Inhibitors get knocked off? If Henshaw knocked them off himself, he would still have killed them.
  • Henshaw disappeared briefly, which gave Jemm the opportunity to move in stealthily, mess with the inhibitors, and then telepathically toy with the soldiers. As for why Henshaw disappeared in the first place, presumably he wanted to try and find and fight Jemm himself without getting anyone else involved (going out by himself in the first place would have been too suspicious).
  • OP here. Thanks; I also just realized that even if Jemm mostly uses telepathy, he is still superhuman physically.

Why Jimmy Olsen?

• & why not Ron Troupe, a black, headstrong journalist from the Planet who has a thing with Lucy Lane?
  • Because Ron Troupe is much less well-known.
  • Plus Ron Troupe doesn't have the connection to Superman that we know Jimmy Olsen (Superman's pal) does.
  • What is so essential about Jimmy Olsen's personality that he can't be black? What's so essential about his personality that he can't grow up now that he's older?
  • It's not him being black that's the issue. It's the fact that A) he's built like a football star and B) has very little in common with Jimmy Olsen in terms of personality. His fearlessness is too general a trope and he doesn't care enough about being a photographer. This guy looks to be a better fit for John Henry Irons, AKA Steel.
  • Quite possibly because Jimmy Olsen is probably a lot better known than Steel.

Kryptonite doesn't kill?

• The use of Kryptonite in this show has been dubious from the pilot, with low doses of it somehow only working as power inhibitors, even though it should be poison in any dosage, and Red Sunlight is the thing that only takes away powers. But Episode 9 has General Lane injecting Astra with a vial of concentrated Kryptonite and the only thing it manages to do is make her glow green and tucker her out a bit. By the end of the episode, she's already back to full strength, even after having handcuffs laced with the stuff until a minute prior. Is there ANY actual longterm danger to exposing this stuff to Kryptonians now?
  • This is not much different from how it's been portrayed in the comics and movies, with it representing different threats in different stories. In some cases, mere exposure to even a small amount is fatal within minutes, while Superman's power is otherwise mostly the same as he's dying. In others, he's seriously weakened to ordinary human levels (or below) and can be kept that way for an extended period of time by continued exposure. In some cases it takes time for him to recover, in others as soon as he's protected from the radiation he's back at full strength. It's been shown as harmless to humans, and as causing cancer in humans if they are exposed to it unprotected for extended periods (such as what happened to Lex Luthor at least once). So there's nothing saying that kryptonite must act a specific way, since from the time it was dreamed up there has never been any consistency other than representing a danger to Kryptonians.
  • In the comics, we have numerous types of kryptonite with different effects. And my idea is specifically based on red kryptonite - each piece has a different effect, suggesting that despite the color of the piece/visible light emitted being very similar, the key radiation that affects kryptonians is very different. Perhaps it's similar here. Different samples of kryptonite have effects despite all being green/emitting green visible radiation. The question then becomes how are the users able to categorize "lethal green" from "depowering green"? Does the government have a kryptonian held hostage that they test each sample on?
  • Dosage matters, just like humans and regular radiation. A certain amount of exposure is easily recoverable from, a higher dosage is dangerous, a still higher dosage is lethal. When Alex starts training Kara in that Kryptonite room, explicit mention is made of the level the emitters are working at (18%, if memory serves). But Kryptonians have something humans don't have: a solar-powered Healing Factor. Even if a very low (depowering) does of Kryptonite radiation would cause long-term damage or eventually be lethal, as soon as the Kryptonian is away from the radiation and starts soaking up Earth's solar rays again, all that damage is healed.

Why is Clark REALLY not helping?

• Now that we know that Astra and Non have at least half a dozen Kryptonians at their disposal (as well as several other unidentified species), why is Clark so dead set on not intervening? We don't exactly have a clear picture of the worst he's dealt with during his 12+ years fighting crime before Kara arrived and the other 12+ years after, but this is basically an entire invasion force led by HIS OWN PEOPLE, and his cousin, the only other living relative he has that ISN'T trying to conquer the planet, is having to deal with it without him. WHY? Are her feelings and ego really of more value than the billions of lives at risk while Astra, Non and their group are still around? And even disregarding the physical threat those guys pose, why can't he drop by to just console her about the problems of balancing a "normal life" while having these powers? He's literally the only other person on the planet who could possibly understand what she's struggling with and his only contribution to her life is an occasional IM chat. I want to believe there is more of a plan to this than just Executive Meddling.
  • There are several possible reasons.
    1. First of all, he presumably doesn't just spend his time kicking back drinking milkshakes all day. Even if his villains are slightly less dangerous, they still need to be stopped.
    2. If Superman suddenly showed up in National City, he would be noticed. Which would mean the alien invasion would be noticed, which would set off widespread panic.
    3. Kara said she was fine. And clearly she is, because she's been handling it. If Clark really thought Kara was unable to beat Astra on her own, he would have helped.
  • Let's not forget that Kara has the full support of the DEO, who have proven more than capable of fighting Kryptonians on an even level. Yes, Superman could help, but it's not such an emergency that he needs to abandon his own duties.
  • To address all of those points:
    1. How is this NOT that kind of emergency? Until we're told otherwise, we can pretty much assume this is the worst threat this DC Universe Earth has faced in its history. Would that not then demand that they use EVERY superpowered individual at their disposal, including the most experienced and most powerful one they have, being Superman? What logic is there in him making his cousin, who put on the cape only a few months ago (compared to his over two decades experience) fight several members of their people, including her AUNT? Unless the police, fire fighters, and so on have vanished entirely from the earth or somehow not learned how to deal with his regular human bad guys in the 10+ years he's been fighting them, FIGHTING ALIENS AS STRONG AS HIM is the job that is kind of his area of expertise. This is like dropping a final thesis paper on a Freshman in college.
    2. And last we checked, he doesn't wear the blue tights 24/7. Clark Kent can go anywhere he damn well pleases without being noticed. If Kara can stop in Chicago to get her sister her favorite food truck meal, Clark can go from Metropolis to the DEO base in no time. Even if he doesn't fight, he no doubt has plenty of experience with Kryptonian tech and possibly enough recovered history to be able to tell things about Astra, Non, Fort Rozz, etc., that the DEO might not, which he is not telling them for no apparent reason.
    3. Was Clark fighting off invasions in his first year? Because if not, he has no reasoning to think this is something Kara can handle on her own. Regardless of what Kara SAYS is going fine or not, the reality is that for every day Clark isn't helping, Astra and her group get another day to plan and scheme and put more people in potential harm. With that in mind, WHY WAIT? It seems like this whole conflict could be over in a week tops with two good Kryptonians (and a Martian) on top of the DEO's resources, and the only thing stopping it from being over is Clark's unwillingness to get involved.
  • So far Astra and her group are content to remain mostly in the shadows, operating at night, doing whatever it is they're doing. Kara and J'onn can handle them at the moment. There's no need to escalate the conflict by bringing in Superman, who's got kind of a reputation for killing Kryptonian generals that try to get all up in his grill^note Depending on the Writer—he subscribes to Thou Shalt Not Kill in many continuities. As long as Astra and co. don't just decide to go apeshit and killing people in the streets or some shit, Kara and J'onn have the potential to end the problem before it really begins, with a minimum of innocent casualties.
  • Fighting out in BROAD DAYLIGHT (as seen in Episode 8 with Astra against Kara) is not "operating in the shadows". And considering Astra says in Ep 9 that "Kal-El doesn't have the stomach" for interrogations and the like, it's safe to say he has no such reputation. Also, as mentioned, fighting is not nearly the only thing he can contribute to the conflict, so at the moment, it just seems like the main cast is simply refusing a very convenient asset out of pure stubbornness.
  • One person fighting out in broad daylight is not the same as having your entire army going out and attacking en masse. Superman has a reputation for being a boyscout, so he would be averse to using force to get information out of someone. That doesn't mean he's got a reputation for being a pushover when it comes to protecting people. He's Superman, not Ineffectualman. If not fighting, what exactly is he going to contribute to the conflict? An in-depth psychological analysis of an aunt he never met? Perhaps he can talk her into surrendering, you know, because she clearly respects him so much. Perhaps he can get a pair of pom-poms and go RAH RAH SIS BOOM BAH! KICK THAT ASTRA IN THE CRAW!
  • Is there not compromise between "general killer" and "Ineffectualman"? He's not just a flying brick, he's also a hero veteran with over a decade to figure this stuff out, as opposed to Kara, who started maybe a month or two ago, story-time. And AS STATED ABOVE, there are multiple ways he can assist without taking the lion's share, or even any of the fighting. What does he know about Kryptonian tech or history? There's no way Kara is the only one who got a "Dead Parent AI Database" and who knows how much another one of those could help. It doesn't even need to be about Astra because, last we checked, she's not the only threat. Or if Kara's priority is looking for the base, maybe he takes care of the minor nuisance aliens under the radar so she can focus or take care of her own stuff. And before you go on about the limits of his time or power or life, the thing is...we know next to nothing about this version of him. All we DO know about him is that he's Clark Kent, apparently really great at being a superhero, is the only one in the public eye, and he's been doing this for 12 years, likely more. With only that information in mind, and the main characters dealing with the forces of Fort Rozz, which is (as far as we know) the GREATEST THREAT their planet has ever faced...there is no logical reason for them not to either reach out to him for help, or for him not intervening. The show needs to properly illustrate why he can't or won't get involved, and "well, my cousin with less than a quarter of a year's experience says she's fine" is not it.
  • I'm not convinced Clark's knowledge of Kryptonian tech or history would be of any help. It wouldn't make any logical sense for him to know more about Krypton than Kara. She grew up there and has actual memories of the planet and the people. Clark was an infant and grew up in Kansas
  • Welcome to the point. He's a veteran hero, well known for kicking ass and taking names, even if non-lethally, still experienced and powerful. So if you're a megalomaniacal Kryptonian general, convinced of your own rightness and opposed by your niece and some schmoe earthling whom you know you're stronger than, that's nothing. You'll continue along your course. But all of a sudden they call in this vaunted hero. Strong, effective, indomitable. All of a sudden your plans aren't looking so secure. Time to shake things up a bit. Distract him by having a few mooks go out and attack people or some shit. By calling in Superman Kara would escalate the conflict, forcing Astra out of her position of presumed superiority. While she's playing at being Orcus Kara has the potential to convince her to stand down without any unnecessary casualties.
  • Except people are already being killed by stuff Astra sends out. The Hellgrammite in the second episode and Jem from the seventh being prime examples, and there will likely be more. So him being around really wouldn't really escalate things on that front. And even if that WERE a reason to avoid Superman's inclusion, why isn't the show bringing that up somehow through dialogue or action? Surely Astra could have mentioned it when she was captured, or Non when they were fighting him. And again, we have no idea if this version of Superman who prefers talking over fists, so it could be just as likely with the info we DO have that he'd be willing to talk them down too. Plus the yet again restated fact that he doesn't need to be involved publically or in the fighting to actually help out with the conflict.
  • People get killed. That sucks, but it happens. Now imagine how many people will get killed if Astra turns to her 20 Kryptonian lackeys and says "Go kill a bunch of people to distract that chode Kal-El while I do villain stuff and take over the world." or something along those lines. Compare and contrast sending out the odd alien or two to test the waters, raid a corporate building or two under shadow of night, that sort of thing. A few people die and that's unfortunate, but Superman's presence wouldn't prevent those deaths any more than Kara's has. Once again. Needless escalation of the conflict. And to reiterate, he has nothing to contribute to the conflict other than fighting. Whether he's more likely to talk than fight is immaterial, because it's not about him, it's about Astra. If she thinks she can sway Kara to her side that's one thing. But if a highly visible heroic guy who fights the bad guys and doesn't afraid of anything shows up to oppose her, she's going to know the jig is up and she'll have no reason to show any restraint.
  • It would probably be easier to imagine that as Astra and Non's "in case of unplanned Kal-El involvement" plan if the show had hinted that as a possibility at all. Granted, we're only halfway through the first season, but these are the kind of things that need to be established early on like any similar show has done. Why doesn't Agent Carter ask for Captain America's help? Because he's in the ice. Why don't Daredevil and Jessica Jones ask for the Avengers? Because they don't know them. Why didn't the Birds of Prey (from that short lived 2002 series) ask for Batman's help? Because he disappeared. What is, so far, the only STATED reason Supergirl doesn't ask for Superman's help? Because...she's really stubborn. If there's any actual stated reasoning for him not being involved later on, that'll change things, but as of now, there isn't nearly enough to go on to justify it from either the hero or villain sides.

J'onn's transformation includes accessories?

• In episodes 9 and 10 of the first season, when J'onn transforms back to Henshaw, Henshaw is wearing military clothes with some accessories attached to them, like his gun... Now, I can understand that it's convenient Henshaw isn't naked when J'onn transforms into him; maybe J'onn's shapeshifter skills include the capability to emulate fabric, so Henshaw's "clothes" are really just part of J'onn's body. But what about those accessories? Are they part of J'onn's body too, or are they real? Can Henshaw use the gun on his belt? If they're not real, why does J'onn bother emulating them? And if they are, where do they disappear between his transformations?
  • It might be the other way around. The accessories are real, but he hides them when he transforms into someone else.
  • If that's the case, where exactly does he hide them? Inside his body?
  • Sure, why not?

Max Lord's security system

• In "Blood Bonds", Winn hacks into Max Lord's super secure security system, so that Jimmy can get inside his lab. Why is the lab's security system connected to the general Internet to begin with? If Lord wants to keep the lab as secure as he does, why isn't it a closed system that you can't hack into from the outside?
  • Didn't James place some sort of wifi bug so that Winn could hack into the system? There was something that James had to do before Winn could hack, pretty sure.

What did Maxwell Lord hope to learn by bugging Alex in "Childish Things"

• Why did Lord plant a camera on Alex in "Childish Things?" Sure, he gets Supergirl's identity out of the deal, but there's no way he could have predicted that. He only knows that Supergirl is an ally to the DEO, not that she has any personal relationship to one of their agents. And suppose that Alex went home and immediately put her bag in a closet instead of tossing it aside and sitting down to chat with the sister Lord didn't know existed prior to this moment? My point here is, there are a lot of things Lord didn't account for in this "plan" of his, which seems uncharacteristic of him.
  • This wasn't some grand masterstroke that he'd been setting up for weeks. He just had an opportunity to get a bug on an agent, took it, and it paid off. If he hadn't gotten anything useful out of it, he would have just shrugged and moved on. Even if she had discovered the bug it would have been irrelevant, because she already sees him as an enemy.

Putting on the suit in "Human For A Day"?

• When James is about to fall from the elevator cables and Kara gets the adrenaline rush that reactivates her powers, where does her suit come from and how/why does she put it on so quickly? I know that the cape "aids with aerodynamics," but it's not as if she can't fly without it, and with James about to fall to his death, why take the time out to put her suit on?
  • Kara has been shown to wear the suit under her normal clothes (sometimes at least), and certainly would carry it with her to work. The cape was probably only a few feet away in her bag.

Love is stored in the genes?

• In "Bizarro", the Bizarro Supergirl kidnaps James for no obvious reason. She tells him she did it because she knows Supergirl loves him. He asks Bizarro how she knows that, and she says it's because she's the same person as Supergirl. Now Bizarro was cloned from the genes of Supergirl, but just like any clone, she does not have the memories nor the experiences of the original. So are we meant to believe that Supergirl's love for James is genetic?
  • It's likely that Bizarro already knew that James and Supergirl had a connection thanks to Lord, and assumed that Supergirl had feelings for him based on her own impression.
  • Plus, strangely enough, according to these various articles, phobias may be inherited and shared through genes (the last one even talks about identical twins, who have the same DNA, like clones would). So perhaps the same applies to other emotions, like love, if only for Kryptonians.

The weight of the Fortress of Solitude's giant key

• James told Supergirl that only a selected few can pick up the giant key because it weighs a million tons worth of condensed dwarf star matter. If that's the case, how did the heavy key not crack the top of the ice floor, let alone sink into the centre of Earth from its own colossal mass?
  • Maybe the structure of the fortress is a lot stronger than normal ice.
  • He wasn't being literal. He just meant "million tons" as in "really really heavy." Note that while Kara clearly feels the weight, she's also not visibly straining, despite the fact that a million tons is way beyond what she lifted when Max Lord was testing her with the collapsing building in "How Does She Do It."
  • While the key is clearly not a million tons, apparently that much weight is not out the question for a Kryptonian to lift. In Better Angels, Kara lifts Fort Rozz – stated to (much more believably) weigh one million tons) – into space.

Master Jailer is kind of an idiot

• Why did 'Detective Draper' hint to Alex and the DEO that those deaths were suspicious? That's the main reason he ended up being discovered, and predictably so.
  • Actually he was really smart. The FBI already know about his alter ego so logically they are tracking him down. If they ask around enough they will figure out about his victims. However if he controls the narrative he controls where and who they look into. But acting really helpful he guides the investigation and lays suspicion on his partner. Later he conveniently leaves a baton with his partners DNA at a crime scene. When they swoop in on his partner he gets to blindside them while they are focusing on his partner. Which he did .

Maxwell Lord in the episode "Falling"

• First of all, he claims that it wasn't his plan to turn Supergirl evil, but rather to set a lethal trap for Non and his crew, and it actually seems like he's telling the truth once all is said and done. However, given that Maxwell Lord is basically an Expy of Lex Luthor, it seems unlikely a brilliant scientist like him would make such a mess like this on accident—up until now, his only real intellectual missteps have been perhaps underestimating the moral lengths the DEO will cross in order to get to him. Secondly, the end result of Supergirl turning evil and becoming a pariah seems very in line with the ultimate goal he has striven to attain over the course of the series. However, not only is he not happy about it, but willingly comes to the DEO to work on a cure for it. Why? He despises Supergirl and WANTS the city to hate her. Why is he trying to reverse this? This seems extremely out of character for him, given what we know about him already.
  • Just to possibly submit an answer to my own question, but I'm wondering if it's maybe to try and protect his own reputation. He may realize the DEO will eventually uncover that he was responsible for the mess and will publicly expose him for it. As much as he hates Supergirl, he realizes that maintaining his own reputation is far more of an important goal, especially because this mess would effectively violate the tenuous "truce" he developed with the DEO and Supergirl last time. Plus, while he does hate Supergirl, he doesn't seem to want National City to actually suffer, and will do anything to protect it. Still, he could at least sabotage the gun to actually fire green Kryptonite at Supergirl (if he ultimately succeeded in developing it), thus saving the city from Supergirl's rampage and achieving his goal of killing her.
  • Sabotaging the gun goes back to that "reputation" thing. If that gun had done anything other than worked as intended, Alex would have ruined him. And since Lord knows that there are other, far less scrupulous Kryptonians out there, maybe he's treating her as the lesser of two evils for now.
  • More than just his reputation is at stake. If Supergirl is acting on her most negative thoughts, then who's to say she won't eventually turn her attention to killing Lord? Having people think she's a dangerous alien serves his interests, having her actually be one puts him in the line of fire. As for not sabotaging the gun, he hadn't actually succeeded in developing green Kryptonite yet (by all appearances) and time was a factor.

Reactron

• From what I can tell in the comics he is basically Supergirl's arch enemy especially during the events of the New Krypton. So why is he basically a one episode villain and not the Big Bad instead of creating a female General Zod? especially confusing as in universe he is a Superman villain who is just out for Revenge by Proxy instead of Supergirl's own villain. Why not have it so the accident that mutated him and killed his wife was somehow connected to Kara arriving on Earth and he blames her instead of Supergirl. I can realise if they made Kara's aunt a villain for some family conflict but why do this to who is a personal nemesis in the comics?
  • First, and probably most important, "guy who stuck himself to a nuclear reactor" - while dangerous - is neither terrifying nor compelling in the way a Big Bad should be. Also, it's exceedingly unlikely anybody who would do such a thing would have minions of their own, and even more unlikely they'd be smart enough to a Big Bad. Also, at some point it gets ridiculous that the DEO or J'onn don't just rip the reactor off.
  • Well he could have been something like a Dragon-in-Chief to Lord or even General Lane just like in the New Krypton Storyline. They could have built up Reactron finding resources to build his armor and increase his power (if they gave him radiation powers like in the comics). I understand your point but I think they could have used him like if maybe have him and Hank form a team up with Hank if they used him as the Cyborg Superman as they planned at the start before realising his actor could play the Martian Manhunter. Not saying I hate him having to have been the Manhunter but it was something they could have done like having the team up between Reverse Flash and Grodd during Season One of the Flash. Just saying they could have done a little more with him than just making him a Superman bad guy out for revenge.

Silver Banshee has super-strength?

• In "World's Finest", Silver Banshee punches Supergirl, which clearly hurts her and sends her flying across the air. The episode never says she has any other superpowers than her scream, but presumably an ordinary human couldn't punch Kara like that... So does he have super-strength too?
  • Technically Silver Banshee's power isn't that she has a sonic scream, it's that she's slowly being possessed by a banshee. So the real question is whether or not banshees have super strength. Apparently, they do.
  • This may actually be a clever bit of Fridge Brilliance. One of the classic Kryptonite Factors of Kryptonians (aside from, well, Kryptonite) is magic.
  • The way it usually goes is that (green) kryptonite hurts them, red sun radiations take their powers away and magic works on them the same as it works on humans. In that logic, just being magical shouldn't be enough for that punch to work. Silver Banshee would have to cast some sort of weakening spell on Supergirl through her fist.
  • Not if her strength was magically enhanced, so that it's not just "magic increases her physical strength" but "magic acts in a way to simulate purely physical strength". So Kara isn't getting hit by someone with super strength, she's getting hit by magical force.

Why Siobhan Smythe rather than Siobhan Mc Dougal?

• I get the concept of a Composite Character but really other than the name the TV Siobhan Smythe has almost nothing in common with the comic version - different personality, job, nationality, family history, morality and even powers. If they were going to have an outright villainous Silver Banshee why bother keeping the name of Kara's New 52 BFF while abandoning every other aspect?
  • Siobhan Smythe sounds cooler.
  • Perhaps she'll get a redemption arc later.

How did Barry get to National City?

• Barry appears in National City following his use of the tachyon device on his Earth, just in time to catch Kara as she falls out of the window at Cat Co. He later looks up and finds that Kara's Earth has a Central City, "but no Cisco Ramone or Harrison Wells [etc]." Since the Speed Force Time Travel is not in space as well as time, how did he know Kara, who is in National City, was in trouble since he was in Central City?
  • Bear in mind that this isn't time travel, he's ripping a hole in the multiverse and hopping to another one rather than going back in time in his own dimension. If you rewatch that episode, he pops out on a street in National City, close by the Cat Co building.

Maxima, Queen of Almerac

• If Maxima is a queen, then why hasn't the rest of Almerac reacted to the fact that their ruler is being held prisoner on another planet?
  • Considering the personality Maxima displayed in her one appearance and the one she has in other continuities, it's possible the Almeracians are all too happy to have their capricious queen gone and somebody more reasonable acting as regent. A coup by omission in you will.

Why doesn't she just fly away?

• In the final scene in "Myriad", mind-controlled Alex appears, and Non says he's gonna force her to fight Supergirl until one of them is dead. Supergirl says she doesn't want to fight Alex... and then proceeds to attack her!? Why didn't Supergirl just fly away? She has superspeed and National City is big, so it'd be pretty easy for her to go somewhere Non/Alex can't find her.
  • Because then Non/Alex would walk into the building, kill Cat and Max, and destroy any hope of stopping Non's plot.

Kara and Lord's conversation in Better Angels

• Didn't Clark fly into National City in the previous episode? Why didn't he come up with Kara and Lord were talking about how Kara was completely on her own? Couldn't he have helped?
  • They mentioned several times that Superman fell unconscious after the broadcast; you can see his boots when he's lying on the table in the sick bay with J'onn. They're not sure of the cause, but it probably has something to do with the Myriad's increased signal (which they discover a few minutes later). Which brings us to the second point: Even if he had woken up, he would have been just as vulnerable to Myriad's signal as a human, and his head would have exploded from getting too close.

Non The Genius

• If Non and Indigo really wanted to squash Kara as a threat, why not send Superman? He's obviously stronger, he's completely under Myriad's control, and he's not gonna get taken out by a sappy speech from Helen Slater. Plus it's not like he (or any of the other people under control) are being used for any other purpose than to stand around. How is it that Zod-esque and Mystique-lite didn't think to use the most powerful asset gained in this whole plan?
  • Using Superman wouldn't be a better option. Even if Superman is stronger, two Kryptonians slugging it out is going to take a while, and Kara wouldn't be nearly as concerned about hurting him. Strapping Alex into that kryptonite suit forces Kara to worry about hurting her squishy human sister while being weakened by the kyrtonite and thus being easier to kill. Non was also doing it as revenge, so picking Superman doesn't work quite as well as someone Kara sees as a sister.
  • You know what would be a more effective revenge? Sending the only person on the planet who could easily kill Kara and doing just that. Why make her worry about killing someone when you can put her in a position where she isn't even sure she'll survive? And it's not like Non was on the clock either, since the only urgent priority he had after activating Myriad was taking care of Kara, the only real threat to his plan. So, it sounds like that WOULD be the better option.
  • Non didn't want to kill Kara. He stated that outright multiple times. There's some implied last wish stuff going on here—Astra didn't want them to kill Kara, so he won't unless he absolutely has to. But he's more than happy to leave her alive but wishing she was dead. Making her kill her sister fits in that (and if she lets her sister kill her, hey, that's not his fault), as does killing everyone on the planet but her.
  • Then he could use Superman to kill Alex right in front of Kara. Kills two birds with one stone and doesn't make him look like he's wasting a huge resource.
  • The show did establish that a sufficient mental "shock" of emotion could snap people out of the mind-control. It's possible forcing Superman to do something so OOC might cause him to snap free too. Limiting the number of pissed-off Kryptonians facing you is usually a good idea.
  • But it's not like they couldn't have made a contingency for that. For one, they clearly still had a buttload of Kryptonite left, so if at any point Superman rebelled, they could always kill him to make sure he didn't interfere (and it wouldn't effect them because they apparently can shield themselves from it easily). And even if he didn't get involved in the fight with Kara, there had to be SOMETHING important for them to use him for.
  • But why use a contingency if you don't have to? Mind-controlled Alex with a Kryptonite sword is both highly likely to kill Kara and not much threat to Non and his troops. Mind-controlled Kal may be able to kill her, may not, and if he gets free, he's much more of a threat.

Kryptonians can't fly in space?

• At the beginning of "Myriad", the robot says that Superman is attending to a matter off-world, implying that Kryptonians can fly in space. So why couldn't Kara fly in space?
  • He has a working pod just like Kara does.
  • The pod...he came to Earth in as an infant?
  • Kara's was built for a pre-teen, but that didn't stop Alex from flying it. The man has an advanced fortress in the arctic and an freaking robot with all the knowledge of Krypton. It's not out of the question that the pod could be remade to hold an adult, assuming the original wasn't just an adult-sized one modified to hold an infant (kinda hard to tell from the pilot).
  • Just like it wouldn't be out of the question that he just held his breath a really long time?
  • Kryptonians can't fly FTL in this universe anyway, so even if he could hold his breath for a long time, it would take him literally millenia to reach anything at all.
  • Considering physics is already incredibly liberal, it's rather hard to say for sure what Clark can or can't do compared to Kara until we actually see him in action. If he's able to take care of situations "off-world" as an afterthought, there's not really any clear limit for him in this universe. Aside from brainwaves, I guess.
  • The above assumes as a premise that he flew there under his own power. There is no reason to think that Kal can fly to other planets under his own power, considering literally no other Kryptonisn or other race has shown that ability. Using a spaceship would let him go off-world without having to assume there's no limit.
  • Just as the comment above this assumes Superman uses a ship to leave the planet. Pretty much everything about Superman in this series has to be assumed at this point in time...aside from being able to fly independent of gravity, which every on-screen Kryptonian has managed multiple times.
  • "Every" one except for this show. There is absolutely no reason to think that Superman is so much more powerful than every other Kryptonian in existence that he can fly to other planets by himself, when literally every other alien of any kind has had to use a ship.
  • No, I'm referring to this show specifically. We've seen Kara, Astra, Non, numerous unnamed Kryptonians in Ep 9, and even Superman himself flying without any interference from gravitational pull in this show. Therefore, flying through space is not an issue. And how do we know that he can't? The only reason Clark and Kara took ships to earth was because they hadn't absorbed yellow sunlight yet. Non and Astra were stuck in Fort Rozz, and the only reason they wanted to keep the ship was because it has Myriad on it. The only reason being in space became a risk for Kara in the finale is because this show is crazy inconsistent with its physics and Kryptonian physiology (one example being Astra surviving Kyrptonite to the bloodstream easily but not being stabbed by a blade made of the stuff).
  • Neither of those examples shows inconsistency. Also, there seems to be some misunderstanding about what "Kryptonians can't fly without gravity" means.
    1. Kryptonian physiology. The dagger Hank used to stab Astra had much more Kryptonite that a syringe filled with a Kryptonite-liquid solution would have. Obviously, more Kryptonite means more danger.
    2. Flying in space. There seems to be a misunderstanding of what role gravity plays. It's not that Kryptonians would have to contend with gravity in space. While in other media Kryptonians can fly in space, it's been stated they can't in this show. The only plausible explanation for this is that Kryptonians fly using gravity: they manipulate gravitons (the theoretical particles that control gravity) to fly. In space there are fewer gravitons, and therefore nothing for them to manipulate.
    3. Superman's powers. While it is true that other versions of Superman can fly FTL in space, we have not seen any being of any kind exhibit this ability. We can't assume that Superman can do something in this show just because he can in other media. For example, we don't assume that Kara can destroy planets in one punch even though comic book Kryptonians can.
  • One of the episodes in the Fortress (I forget which one) briefly shows a Legion ring. It's entirely probable he's using that to fly in space.

Non and Indigo's final plan makes no sense

• In "Better Angels" Non and Indigo set Myriad to kill all of humanity. The countdown to extinction is still going on, when Kara and J'onn come to stop Myriad, and Non and Indigo are there waiting for them... So they clearly expected that the heroes might arrive in time to stop them, yet Non says all the other Kryptonians have been put to cryosleep. Why? Kryptonians are immune to Myriad, it would do no damage to them, so why exactly are they sleeping? Non and Indigo know Kara and J'onn are formidable enemies, ones who've managed to defeat them before, so why not have all of Non's men fighting by their side? This way they could ensure everything goes according to their plan. There isn't really any reason why the other Kryptonians are put away.
  • The others were asleep so that they could go off to conquer the galaxy right after Myriad went into effect. As for why Non and Indigo were awake, somebody needs to pilot the ship.
  • But why would they need to be asleep in order to do that? And wouldn't Non want to have some insurance security after his Plan A failed? Heck, why not just take over Earth the old fashioned way, with a forceful takeover? They obviously outnumber Clark and Kara in terms of Kryptonians, as well as those Kryptonite shields, so they can use what would normally be a weakness as a major strength. The only reason they didn't do this in the first place was because Astra wanted to try Myriad, but that is clearly a bust. So, why not just have Myriad's potential brain frying as a distraction for Kara, and then when she's taking care of that, unleash every Kryptonian (all hiding in another location with similar cloaking tech) and seize control?
  • Non just isn't very smart.

Why was Alex arrested for lying purely on Lucy's say-so?

• Back when Alex was being interrogated about whether she knew J'onn's true identity, she beat the lie detector through an application of Exact Words, but Lucy isn't fooled, declares her a liar, and has her detained. Cool and all, but here's my problem: It was only a reasonable suspicion at that point, yet Lucy and everyone else involved in the investigation took it to be an absolute fact. So, do military organizations not trouble themselves with confirming their suspicions about things? Because that seems like a bad way to conduct business.
  • I'd put it down to a combination of Artistic License – Law and extremely unusual circumstances. Also, most of the military brass we've seen so far really seem to have it out for the DEO.

What is Cadmus' deal?

• It's understandable to want to protect Earth from powerful beings who would try to harm it- S1 was all about that, but why go after the few aliens who are strong enough to fight back? And how is purposely destroying public property and putting innocent people in danger saving them? Is Cadmus just filled with a bunch of Fantastic Racist nutjobs?
  • Yes. They're terrorists; terrorists rarely make sense. As for why they go after the most powerful ones, the show explicitly answers that question: they see them as a danger. Obviously, aliens who can be taken down by a SWAT team are much less dangerous and likely to set themselves up as gods than aliens who can hold up skyscrapers.
  • To be a bit more accurate, terrorists only make sense to themselves and to those who think like them. Unfortunately, the mindset of most terrorists is rather twisted, so it doesn't make sense to us.

Kara tampering with Luthor alien detection technology

• In order to avoid being exposed as an alien, Kara scorched the alien detector with her heat vision. Yet not a single burnt mark or smoke is on the device, so how exactly did the machine malfunction without being too obvious that it's been tampered by heat vision?
  • Kryptonian super powers, what are you gonna do? Seriously though, I seem to recall reading somewhere that Clark is capable of pinpoint precision with his laser vision, so one has to imagine that Kara can do the same. Her lasers didn't look pinpoint, but that's one of those Show, Don't Tell things, I guess.
  • It's possible she fried the part that sense alien DNA so that it basically just became a finger scanner. As to how she knew which part did that...

Do the aliens have legal rights or not?

• In "Welcome to Earth", the president grants all aliens who are staying illegally in the US amnesty, which would allow them to officially integrate into American society. But in the very next episode, "Survivors", Roulette can't be charged for his alien fight club, because it's said the law doesn't recognise aliens as legal subjects. How can they be granted amnesty if they're not even recognised by the law? Wouldn't the whole point of the amnesty to be to give them a legal status as residents of the country? And it's not like (all of) the aliens in the fight club are illegal ones who refused the amnesty... The reason they were able to track the Brevakk who killed the other alien was because he had accepted the amnesty and was therefore in the DEO's register.
  • They do have legal rights. Roulette is a Politically Incorrect Villain who believes aliens aren't people. The reason she can't be charged is because technically they all agreed to it – or at least the living ones did, and the dead ones were likely disappeared.
  • That's not really true, the Brevakk (who's explicitly told to be one of the aliens who accepted the amnesty) is kidnapped and forced to take part in the fights, and all of this is witnessed by both Alex and Maggie Sawyer. And Roulette also forces Supergirl and J'Onn (both of whom presumably accepted the amnesty too) to fight each other. Shouldn't this be enough to charge her for kidnapping and other crimes? But nothing or no one in the episode seems to disagree with Roulette's claim that aliens aren't recognised by the law, and therefore have no rights.
  • That's also just not how laws work. The real reason she was untouchable is because she has friends in high places.
  • That's not how it was explained in the episode though. It was made clear that she couldn't be legally charged for exploiting the aliens, so they arrested her for selling alcohol without a license, and it was those charges that her friends in high places helped to get dropped.

does Superman have a rogues gallery in this universe?

• This has been bugging me for a while but does Superman have any recurring foes or faced any super foes himself in this universe? Livewire, Bizarro and the Silver Banshee are all Kara's foes in this show. Plus Metallo only gets his origin during the season 2 so he was not an old foe of Superman like I assumed. Plus Parasite will be fighting Kara in this show but it's probably going to be his origin. I think the only foes we know he has fought in this verse without kara are Reactron, Lex Luthor and Maxima. Maybe Lobo if that reference from last season was to him and it was Superman who took care of him instead of the DEO.
  • Apparently he does have some villains, but we likely just haven't heard about most of them. Alternatively, he's just so good at his job that most villains are taken down after one encounter.
  • This was addressed with Reactron. Reactron is a Metropolis villain who ended up in National City. Supergirl didn't want Superman helping out because then his rogue's gallery would come to National City because it was easier pickin's. Now, the rogue's gallery of Superman don't because she's just as difficult. I'm sure your real complaint is why do they keep borrowing from Supes' villains to use - they attempted having Supergirl have unique enemies (such as Astra) and Max Lord (which is a JLA villain), but the move to CW scuttled a LOT of plotlines.
    • Pre-Crisis, from what we see and hear, Superman's Rogues gallery likely included but was not limited to Lex Luthor, Reactron, General Zod, Doomsday, Lobo, and Bruno Manhiem. Not very extensive, but each of them are pretty heavy hitters in terms of villainy, so they're probably just the most notable. We also know he met The Legion of Super-Heroes before Kara, and there's also Darkseid and (regular) Brainiac that the show hasn't used. Plus, since Superman and Batman appear to have been the only heroes on Supergirl's earth before Supergirl and her allies became active, there are plenty of other DC villains this version of Superman has had to tackle.

Luzano's drug smuggling in "Truth, Justice, and the American Way"

• Going back to Season 1 for a moment, in "Truth, Justice, and the American Way", Master Jailer deflects Luzano's claim that he's harmless by bringing up the addicts who suffered as a result of his drug smuggling. The thing is, Luzano mentioned to Kara that he was caught on his first smuggling job, which would imply that he never actually succeeded in smuggling any drugs anywhere. So who were these addicts who got hooked on the drugs that were, one assumes, taken into the custody of the Kryptonian authorities?
  • He could have successfully smuggled the drugs, but been caught partway through or after having smuggled them.

Why does the real Hank Henshaw refer to himself as Cyborg Superman?

• True, Hank Henshaw is Cyborg Superman in the comics. But this version has a different origin. The comic Cyborg Superman was attempting to deceive people into believing he was Superman. This Hank Henshaw's origin has nothing to do with Superman and is pretty much on a "kill all aliens" agenda.
  • Maybe it's ego. He hates Superman and wants to replace him.
  • It still doesn't make much sense that a guy who's stated motive is that he hates aliens, and that he wants to kill all of them, would take the name of the most famous alien on Earth. It's like Hitler taking a Jewish name or something.
  • He's of the opinion Superman is an alien, not a man (ie, human) and therefore undeserving of having such a title.

Why are humans immune to the virus in "Medusa"?

• I mean it's a kryptonian virus to kill aliens. From the kryptonian perspective humans are aliens.
  • The episode specifically mentioned Cadmus having altered it not to affect humans, just like Eliza later modified it to only effect the White Martian cells in J'onn.

The name "Medusa"

• Why is a Kryptonian biological weapon named after a mythological being in Earth's history? It can't be a question of Translation Convention either, unless by some amazing coincidence Krypton just happened to have a similar being in its own mythology, so that its name could be translated into "Medusa" without the word losing its original meaning.
  • It almost certainly is Translation Convention. Whether or not Krypton had an equivalent monster to Medusa, the computer needs to call it something. It might just select appropriate names for Kryptonian names with no local equivalent.

Barrage was never evil

• Whatever your opinion of a superhero murdering people, why do the characters consider Barrage evil? It seems hypocritical with Oliver and Barry and the Legends murdering bad guys galore, and while you can say Supergirl has a different view, that's not even right. Supergirl, Alex, and John have all killed before! Even with the D.E.O letting them, Barrage has killed nothing but criminals, and not even minor criminals. So it comes off as hypocritical for both James and the show to just say Barrage was evil for doing stuff almost every single character has done before! Hell, Oliver probably killed more people then Barrage ever has, does that mean Guardian should arrest him?! If not, he's a hypocrite! Can someone explain why? Also, the 'clear the name' doesn't even count, that was not Barrage's fault at all.
  • Superheroes typically have a clear ethical code about killing: it's only acceptable when there's no other alternative, i.e. when it's done in self-defense, or defending the lives of others. Which is also when the law says you can kill. However, Barrage was seeking out criminals and murdering them in cold blood, which is both illegal and against the aforementioned superhero ethic. So there's nothing hypocritical about them considering Barrage to be evil. Also, it's quite likely that Guardian or Supergirl would've been against Ollie's killings in the early days of Arrow's career, but that's a completely moot point, because Ollie lives in another universe, and at that point no one in Supergirl's universe even knew he existed. By the time Supergirl met Ollie, he has already switched to non-lethal methods, so Kara probably doesn't even know what he used to do to criminals. And James knows even less, just what Kara has told him about Ollie.
  • True, they never knew. What I mean is hypocrisy, is the show itself for calling out Barrage when he has done stuff Oliver has done. While seen as bad, it was always considered necessary. What makes guys like Vigilante or Huntress different from Barrage was how they would hurt innocent people, but the only person Barrage hurt who was innocent was Guardian... A guy attacking him. Plus, and this is a question I ask of superhero media and not just Supergirl, is the whole 'stop the man murdering criminals.' I get why they do, but is he really high priority when you are usually in a city with such horrible criminals that warrant such guys like him or even you? Plus, why not even try to recruit Barrage? If his methods are so awful, why not recruit him instead of just kick his ass?
  • The last time Barrage was in a government outfit (the Marines I think) he got back and decided the best way to assimilate into and help society was not to join the police or the FBI, but to put on a hockey mask and shoot random people. That doesn't sound like the kind of person the DEO wants on their payroll. Plus, National City isn't actually that bad. The real problem is the ultra-high-level criminal activity and the alien criminals, both of which random vigilantes are totally unprepared to handle.
  • Barrage was going after criminals who got off on technicalities, including those who weren't doing anything illegal when he caught them, nor against whom he could claim self-defense. Legally what he was doing was killing people that the law considered innocent of the crimes he was killing them for, in the sense they hadn't been convicted of them. And at what point would he have stopped? Truly innocent people also sometimes get off on technicalities before they are unjustly convicted (or after), even though most people at the time might consider them guilty as well. The main difference with Oliver was that Oliver was initially working off a list of people he knew were involved in a conspiracy to do harm to others and the city, because one of the conspirators (his father) gave it to him.

Guardian is useless

• Now this isn't a dig at James being useless as a superhero. What is useless about him is he is a superhero... In National City. Before you say he does the street level stuff, then why not call in Winn to call Supergirl? Guardian could get himself killed fighting a gang Supergirl could barely sneeze at. This isn't like Batman and Superman who live in different cities. Calling in Supergirl would take seconds. Why doesn't James fight in a city that would actually NEED the likes of him, instead of a city which frankly, doesn't even have such a problem that requires multiple heroes like Gotham or Star City. It'd be like if in The Flash, Oliver hanged around in Central City. Oliver is useful, but he would be redundant with a city that has a super speed hero. So why is James even Guardian in National city, when he could be literally anywhere else, helping people?
  • Well, because he lives in National City. That's the practical reason. There's also the fact that James clearly desperately believes he needs to be a hero, for some reason. It's pretty clear he's not doing all that much (especially since he seems to choose literally only cases Kara was already on); he just thinks he is, so he keeps doing it. Notice he's basically the only character defending Guardian.
  • As the newest episode after the winter break showed, even Supergirl can't be everywhere at once. Guardian and Winn caught the two robbers who got away from her.
  • How "useless" was Guardian in "Exodus"?

Coworker romance resulting in sexual harassment seminar

• Why would only involved employees have to attend sexual harassment training? Isn't that an issue relevant to any agent of any relationship status?
  • You've obviously never seen the aftermath of an office romance breakup. There's a reason many companies don't want married couples working together.
  • Plus, I think technically Kara is Mon-El's boss, not to mention much physically stronger than him (and just about literally everyone else). The DEO has to make absolutely sure that nothing going on could even be construed as harassment or coercion. Though I question why a top-secret government black-ops facility that apparently doesn't "officially" exist cares about liability.
  • They still presumably care about their employees' emotional health and well-being.

Kara and Alex work schedules

• Do Alex, and Kara work 24/7? I feel like they're never shown having days off.
  • Considering that for a while Kara had two full-time jobs — one of which also required a lot of out-of-office work — she's not really going to have much time off, but yet we do still see her dating, having game night, making casual visits to friends, spending time with her family. A lot of Alex's storylines are about her life outside work, as well, even more so than Kara, though she too has a full-time job as an on-call on-duty top secret federal agent and covers this up by doing FBI and cop work, as well as being an alien handler and biogeneticist, you can imagine she shouldn't get much free time, even though quite a bit of her screen time is dedicated to family, dating, and occasionally making friends. So they are shown with time off. Most adults with jobs don't regularly take days off work (they'll have evenings and weekends), which your question seems to assume, and most jobs don't allow more than a couple of weeks unless you're sick. And, still, there was an episode where Kara was made to take some time off from CatCo. I don't think this is really a founded question, as they shouldn't be expected to take masses of time off work, and there's always time in the show dedicated to showing their personal lives as well.
  • It feels like, towards the end of Season Three, Alex was shown NOT working (or surfing "Buy A Baby" websites) more than she was working.
  • There's also the Law of Conservation of Detail. Sure, Kara and Alex may have time off work, but let's face it, how many people want to watch Kara and Alex snuggled up on a couch watching The Princess Bride? Their jobs are what provide the majority of drama.

Mon-El's parents age/appearance

• So, Mon-El is about 25. Krypton blew up 37/38 years ago (24 years Kara was in the Phantom Zone + about 13 years she's been on Earth). Since Mon-El became trapped in the Phantom Zone and only left 9 months ago (as revealed in 'Star-Crossed'), he's chronologically 63 years old. Presuming his parents were around his age when he was born, they'd be about 90. They haven't been stuck in the Phantom Zone, as far as we know, and have just been searching for him for years. Why do they look so young? Like, really, his dad looks 45-50, his mom 40-45.
  • Rhea says the trip back to Daxam takes several years. Presumably whoever wasn't necessary to keep the ship functional would go into some sort of stasis while they travel.
  • Also, Kevin Sorbo is 58, Teri Hatcher 52. Some people age well.
    • In addition, it has been established that post-pubescent Kryptonians age at a slower rate than humans in this universe. Who's to say that the same doesn't apply to Daxamites, who are, for the sake of argument, essentially the Romulans to the Kryptonians' Vulcans anyway?

Mon-El Contacting Daxam

• Why would Mon-El contact Daxam if he was trying to get away and hide from his parents? Early-Installment Weirdness?
  • Out-of-universe, probably. In-Universe, he was emotionally distraught, and might have thought they were dead.

In-universe reactions to President Marsdin's reveal?

• I understand that the main characters are very much agreement with the President's politics and that Kara especially looks at her as an icon but surely they should have had some reservations over Marsdin's non-human nature, if only of a 'are we sure we can trust her' nature?
  • Most of the main characters aren't really the type to be unduly prejudiced against aliens: J'onn and Kara wouldn't be, for obvious reasons. Maggie and Alex both have experience with aliens and know that they aren't necessarily bad. Ditto Jimmy, given his experiences with both Superman and Kara. Cat has known Marsdin since college and is a pretty good judge of character. Unless she gave any of them a reason not to trust her, why would they have doubts?
  • But she (Marsdin) deliberately kept everyone in the dark until she had absolutely no choice to reveal her origins. She had many opportunities to reveal herself to J'ohn or Kara at least who as you say have no anti-alien prejudice for obvious reasons. Setting aside the fact that Marsdin's election itself is illegal as she is not a natural-born American citizen (and possibly is not a citizen at all as she presumably forged her details to get into college) she intentionally misled the American people to enact a political goal. That goal ('aliens are people to') is something the main characters can agree with and the viewers too but her methods were deeply dishonest.
  • J'onn's, even ignoring his own legal status before being outed, was running a (previously secret) organization that for years was interning people (albeit non-human) without trial or legal representation, and Alex was likewise working for him for years, not to mention Alex's family harbouring an undocumented alien who was also provided with a false identity. They are really in no position to complain. Cat is the type of person to not really care, as long as Marsdin isn't a Republican.
  • Except neither J'onn's nor Kara's positions require them to be born in the US, nor do either of them make and have to deliberately make decisions about national or global economic policy. It doesn't matter if *THEY* don't care (in fact it makes them look worse for not caring), it violates institutions that they, Kara and Marsden included, claim to be fighting to protect but very clearly aren't.

Lyra's species

• Is Lyra's species a Human Alien, Humanoid Alien or a Starfish Alien taking A Form You Are Comfortable With (a la Saya no Uta)? Could her species return in a future episode?
  • It's pretty clear she's some sort of Rubber-Forehead Alien.

Fake Guest Star

• Considering that the Luthor family are important to the Story Arc, why are they credited as Fake Guest Star, rather than credit-only (credited even if absent from episodes), like Better Call Saul). Is this SAG rules, or money-saving?

Did Kara get weaker since Season 1?

• In the climax of "Damage", Kara struggles to support the weight of two halves of a crashing airplane, one of which has Lena in it and the other of which has a dangerous batch of chemicals that will poison millions of people if it lands in the water (basically, a classic Sadistic Choice). Only thing is, it shouldn't be a sadistic choice. She can lift the key to The Fortress of Solitude, which weighs in at 500,000 tons, so holding up that plane should be a cakewalk for her. Did she get weaker between seasons?
  • Strength level is tailored to the plot. Kara didn't get weaker, she just needed to not be as strong for the sake of drama.
  • The weight of the plane didn't seems to be the problem. After the plane broke in half, we are shown the metal frame bending in Kara's hand, probably as a result of the continued downmard pressure the still-running propellers were exerting. It wasn't that she couldn't lift the plane; it was that attempting to just fly the sections away from the reservoir would have resulted in the airframe sections breaking apart and scattering the barrels of toxin and/or Lena across the landscape.

Conversely, If Kara tried to adjust her grip on either side of the plane, she might easily have broken the barrels open and let the liquid spill out of the unsealed cargo door; or she might have shaken the unsecured Lena around in the forward section like an egg in a coffee can. Scrambled Luthor.

Telling Lena to climb up so she only had to worry about holding the rear of the plane was probably the best option.

How could they keep Kara's powers a secret after 'Midvale'?

• I mean, Kara blasted a big freaking hole in a wall and overpowered a corrupt officer by herself, who I'm sure would be happy to testify and kick-start an investigation (despite his own murder charge). How could you explain that away to the public?
  • Perhaps J'onn hushed it up. It's not like in the pilot where everything happened in public with the media on scene to catch the whole thing. There's only one direct witness, and he could probably be persuaded or "persuaded" to remain silent.
  • The sheriff got hit in the head by a section of concrete wall before he even saw Kara and was unconscious (and probably concussed) immediately. All Kara had to do was quickly repair the wall (fast drying cement and a little heat vision) and claim she hit him in the head with a random chunk of concrete she found when she saw him pointing a gun at her sister. Voila.

My president is an alien!...and I'm weirdly okay with this?

• Are we just supposed to see an alien as president as a good thing in this show because she's played by Lynda Carter and friends with Cat Grant? It's good that she resisted against Rhea's invasion, but what is the show trying to say? "Aliens who invade forcefully are bad but ones who disguise themselves as humans to take the highest office illegally are totally fine"? It kind of puts morality of Kara, Cat, and the rest of the cast who know this into question if they just accept this without any acknowledging of the legal issues of this.
  • How about "Immigrants and refugees aren't automatically criminals and terrorists just because they come from somewhere else"?
    • How about "You have to be born in the United States to be eligible to run and be elected President"?
    • No, you don't. You have to be born, in the most accepted and standard interpretation, an American citizen. Assorted Birther nutcases aside, you don't have to be born in the US: John McCain, for example, was born in Panama, and Ted Cruz in Canada.^note Which is why the birther nonsense about where Barack Obama was born is really dumbass. Not even they question the fact Ann Dunham is his mother, and as she was an American citizen, he was automatically an American citizen when born, regardless of where on the planet it might have been.
    • Which doesn't change the fact that she was born off-world and so were her parents, so regardless of the interpretation, she's still ineligible.
  • Do we actually know that she's not eligible to be President? Many alien species are shown to be incredibly long-lived; even if Marsden wasn't born in the US (which she may well have been), she could have been here when the Constitution was signed, which would make her eligible.
    • She straight up says in S2 EP 21 that she was born on a planet called Durla, which she uses as an example of a planet allowing invaders to take over without retaliation. She is, by her own admission, ineligible.
  • Note that there's nothing saying that the US Constitution of Earth-38 has a "natural born citizen" clause. The requirements for the presidency might be similar to those for a senator, which only establishes that someone has to be a citizen and reside in the United States for a given length of time.
    • And there's nothing saying they don't either. Plus, I don't imagine any functioning First World government that has existed alongside aliens for as long as they have would be cool with someone running for office hiding their species from the public.
    • J'onn hiding his shapeshifting ability for as long as he did doesn't seem to support the "We're okay with aliens hiding in our government" theory.

Why does Kara suddenly refer to Livewire as her arch-enemy?

• I know this is nitpicking, but I'm somewhat confused over this. In 2x10 "We Can Be Heroes", Kara complains about how Livewire is her "arch-enemy" and how she hates having her as one, building up how much they both hate each other. The thing that confuses me is that Leslie and Kara only fought a few times and, while she is one of the few recurring villains faced in the show, they don't have much of an actual rivalry or history together. So, why does Kara believe that she's her arch-enemy when they don't have enough history or hatred of one another to call each other that?
  • Maybe Kara's being over-dramatic?

Brainiac

• Why hasn't anyone mentioned the similarity between Querl Dox and Indigo? They both even call themselves Brainiac.
  • Brainiac is a class/species, and these two aren't even from the same clan. It would be like comparing someone from Africa to someone from China; sure there are plenty of similarities, but there are enough differences so that it's not worth bringing it up. All the main characters known enough about the Brainiacs to know those differences.
  • Brainy does mention that he started out bad, mentioning some kind of legacy. It was only after the Legion captured him that he decided to use his gifts for good, making him The Atoner.

Lead Poisoning?

• Wouldn't a device capable of pumping lead throughout the entire atmosphere be harmful to people, too?
  • Yup. Season 3 Episode 5 deals with children getting lead poisoning.
  • Not exactly. The episode revealed that the lead only has an impact on Daxamites through some kind of manipulation on the part of the device. The children were poisoned by Maxwell Lord so he could play the hero trying to get Lena locked away or murdered.
  • Not true. Maxwell Lord disappeared from the series after season 1. I think you mean Morgan Edge.

Why is Superman completely left out of the situation with Reign?

• Look, I get it; this show is Supergirl and Reign is meant to be her villain. The thing is, they don't even give any Hand Wave as to why Clark doesn't lend a hand. It would be kind of silly if they just said he was MIA, or off in space, or hunting down an escaped Lex Luthor, but it'd be better than ignoring that there's another Kryptonian on Earth who could at least attempt to stand in Reign's way.
  • And even if he actually isn't as strong as her (which is suspect at best), he's still pretty damn close. He'd at least be able to put up a good fight, and there's no way Clark would turn down a chance to help people even if he couldn't beat her.
  • In the first minute or so of the Season Three finale, a TV broadcast announces that "Superman Saves Madagascar!"... and that's the last we hear about him. Did Superman stay there or should we assume he was busy elsewhere during the big fight?
  • He seems to have been Exiled from Continuity, since Warner apparently wanted to just have the Henry Cavill version then.

Kara, Kryptonite, and Batman

• Word of God holds that the vigilante that James mentioned back in the first season is none other than the Dark Knight himself. If he's anything like other versions, he'll have some kryptonite squirreled away somewhere (whether Clark gave it to him or not is beside the point) and J'onn would know this because he's mentioned meeting Bruce Wayne. Given how Kara seems to think that all kryptonite needs to be either in her hands or destroyed outright, I can see why both Clark and J'onn might hesitate to bring this up, but Kara has fought other Kryptonians before (including an alternate version of herself), and should at least be open to the idea that she and/or Clark might go all Knight Templar and need to be stopped.
  • This isn't really a headscratcher. It's more of an assumption that Batman must have kryptonite and questioning why this character's supposed stash of it has gone unmentioned, even though said character was nothing more than a Shout-Out and we know nothing about this version of him. Until the show says there's no more kryptonite on Earth, bar Lena's recreation, then there simply isn't until we are told otherwise. This is like saying "Well, we know Themiscyra exists on Earth-One, so how come Wonder Woman's invisible jet hasn't been referenced as a device the character's know about?"
  • Furthermore, this theory assumes that Superman and J'onn not only know about it, but would likely use Batman as a positive example of who should have kryptonite...but if Kara is put off by someone she considers a friend having some, her opinion wouldn't be changed by being told that the strange man who dresses like a bat and has not met in person has some. If anything she'd be more pissed off, especially because it would suggest Clark lied to her about destroying it because Batman thought she might be someone he'd need to kill someday!
  • Later turns out Batman does have Kryptonite, but we don't know if Clark gave it to him or if he manufactured/stole some himself.
  • "That's right Kent, Kryptonite, it took a fortune and a lifetime but I had both!"

Lena had a point about the Kryptonite

• Two out of three seasons have had Kryptonian invasions. EVERY Kryptonian, including Superman and Supergirl, have been "evil", even.if it was only temporary. Supergirl had no problem with Ollie using a Kryptonite arrow against an evil, alternate Supergirl. If Lena didn't have that Kryptonite aerosol, both her and James would have DIED. Supergirl wasn't coming to save them. So then... Why does Kara think she should be the sole arbiter regarding the use of Kryptonite? It makes her look a bit hypocritical.
  • Yep. Lots of people complained about that. But for an in-universe reason, it was hypocritical. Lena complained about it more than once. Kara was so focused on how much Kryptonite hurts her, personally, that she failed to consider how useful it is against people who are like her but lack her morals. Apparently being affected by Kryptonite is like being tortured.

Tell Clark about Argo City?

• So, Kara's discovered a city of Kryptonians, Kryptonian culture and found her long-lost mother. She visits twice, taking Mon-El with her each time. Why didn't she think of telling/bringing Clark?
  • Answered in season 4: She does tell him, he goes there for a vacation, and she covers his duties while he's gone.

The D.E.O. and gun control

• Putting aside the fact that the would-be assailant didn't require any special weapons for his plans, does J'onn/the D.E.O. have the power to announce that they're going to stop using guns in lieu of nonlethal weaponry?
  • And with both J'onn and Winn leaving at the end of Season 3, will new D.E.O. Director Alex follow her predecessor's plans or will this be conveniently dealt with/forgotten about before Season Four starts?
  • Perhaps the DEO's weapons will simply "replace" the guns with some kind of sci-fi "stun ray" that changes nothing about the fights save for the implication that those that DEO agents shoot are just, well, immobilized instead of injured.

Sam's powers

• Why does Sam become human when Reign is defeated? I'm not saying she should be able to do the extra stuff that Reign can do, but isn't she still from Krypton?
  • Magic. Magic suppressed her powers until she was an adult, magic gave her more powers on top of the normal Kryptonian ones, and magic took all of them away when Reign was exorcised.

The micro-Author Tracts

• There were a few obviously political potshots in the third season that just... didn't make sense in-universe. Cat refers to global warming as the greatest threat of our time, for instance. Okay, true on our world, but in-universe? Dude, your planet has been invaded twice in three years. And apparently they're building a wall to keep out the Mexicans? Regardless of how you feel about that IRL, it's kinda weird to see it in a universe that, again, has periodic alien invasions. From a Doylistic perspective, it's probably just the show's creators have a little bit of a small Author Tract, but how is this supposed to make sense from a Watsonian perspective?
  • The global warming bit isn't that weird. Alien invasions can be fought off, and they have superheroes to help with that. The Mexico Wall is possible if Congress is further right than it is in the real world.
  • Or they're talking about building a wall to keep out the Mexicans, but no one is really spending money on it because they have actual space aliens to worry about. Maggie's dad was likely just exaggerating for effect. Hearing people talking about building a wall to keep you out hurts even if you know it's never going to happen.

J'onn's power getting nerfed

• OK, so J'onn was able to take down Red K!Kara in about thirty seconds, if that. Superman calls him "the most powerful being on Earth." He does pretty well against the White Martians. And then he gets beaten up by a human with a robotic arm. And then, when there are a bunch of rogue Kryptonians running around, he seems pretty helpless. Have I missed something here? Is there any reason given for why he doesn't just take down all three in an afternoon?
  • Same reason why the Flash just doesn't automatically win against any villain that doesn't have super speed. If they did use their powers properly,the episode would end in five minutes.
  • I know, I was hoping for an in-universe reason. Oh, well.
  • Martians have a lot of powers, however their weakness (fire, and intense heat generally) is incredibly easy to come by. While they can trade punches equally with a Kryptonian, heat vision will take them down pretty fast.

Let's talk about Eve Tessmacher. WARNING: HERE THERE BE UNMARKED SPOILERS!

• So, how long did Eve say she'd been on Lex's payroll? (Eve: Forever.) Right, so what was the purpose of taking a job at CatCo, a business that, at the time, had no connection to Lena Luthor? If we're supposed to understand that she's been working for Lex since her introduction as a character, what part of his plan involved Cat Grant?
  • Apparently, it was solely to keep tabs on James Olsen. The fact she got in with Lena was just a happy accident.
  • Actually, as shown in one of the last scenes from season 4 episode 22 The Quest for Peace, Eve Tessmacher has only been on Lex's payroll this whole time, not because of her love for him, but because she is also working for an organization called Leviathan. The revealing scene goes like this: Eve, in a dark wig, is trying to slink out of town when she’s stopped by an older woman who tells her that the work she did with Lex may have failed to move the needle, but Eve is still needed. “Leviathan is everywhere. Leviathan is everyone. And Leviathan is coming,” she tells a nervous Eve. So we have a lot to look forward to in the upcoming season 5. I'm not sure if this Leviathan will be season five's big bad, but hopefully the writers will let us take a peek into Eve's mysterious past.

More kryptonite

• So J'onn handed all of the DEO kryptonite to Superman for disposal. Lena learned to make more but hasn't told anyone how to do it. So where did Lex get it? And what about President Baker?
  • The key word there being all of the DEO kryptonite.
  • Given that President Baker was working for Lex Luthor, it seems likely the pieces in the White House were from Luthor's private stash. What do you think the odds are that Lex didn't at least two dozen vaults full of Kryptonite he kept off the books "just in case?"

Kaznia

• Okay, so Kaznia is supposed to be an ex-Soviet republic, located in Siberia. Based on the map they had the general point to, it's pointing to an area just north of Mongolia, which is landlocked. Where in the hell would Kaznians have gotten an aircraft carrier? And why would a single carrier be a threat to the most powerful military in the world? Hell, Kaznians probably wouldn't even have enough troops to occupy the entire United States.
  • For the second part, that's directly addressed in the show. Lena states Kaznia attacking the US would be like "a child throwing rocks at a tank," i.e. completely hopeless, ineffective, and likely to get you blown up if the tank decides to get annoyed at the pathetic plinking noise. For the first part. . . well, they could have bought an aircraft carrier from someone else, and while being landlocked would make maintaining it very difficult, it might have been worth it to have some ability to project force beyond their borders. Or maybe they have a treaty with someone else so they can dock their carrier at the ally's port.

Lex Luthor knowing Kara's secret identity

• So Lex's arrogance won't let him believe that Superman has a secret identity, but he is perfectly OK with his cousin having one? Or does this version of Lex also know that Clark Kent is really Supes and just doesn't care?
  • Most versions of Lex are at least aware that Superman has some secret identity; it was only one specific incarnation who refused to believe it entirely. Either Lex never figured out Clark was Superman, or he figured it out but never found a good time to make use of it. Hell, he knew Kara's identity for years and took advantage of it at least once (bringing Red Daughter to her apartment) before he dropped the big reveal on Lena, so it's entirely possible that he has been doing something with Clark's identity that Clark never noticed.
  • Crisis on Infinite Earths confirms he truly, honestly can't believe Earth-38/Earth Prime Clark could be Superman, even after encountering another Superman who is Clark Kent. It's kind of silly, yes, but that's the explanation we've been given.
  • May tie in to Lex being a sexist on top of his other issues; he may at least believe that a woman might 'need' a cover identity where he can't accept that someone as powerful as Superman would bother with one.
  • Seeing as Clark and Lex used to be friends, it's entirely possible that Clark did the Obfuscating Stupidity act so well Lex could never believe that his Clark is a Kryptonian superhero. He doesn't have any preconceived notions of Kara Danvers, though, so it's easier for him to believe she's Supergirl.
    • This is supported by Superman and Lois, where Lana—Clark's ex-girlfriend—doesn't recognize Superman as Clark even at close range in broad daylight.

Micro author tracts, part 2

• There's a lot of bellyaching about how the problem with those darn kids these days is that we're always looking at our screens instead of paying attention to the real world. Except... the makers of these shows presumably want us to continue to watch their fictional shows on our TV screens. You can't have it both ways!

WTF, villain costuming department

• How come in the season finale, Rama Khan wears civilian garb instead of his costume? A brown jacket doesn't exactly say "I'm the supreme badass who's actually behind half the "natural" disasters in your history books and I'm here to bury you next," and all the rest of Leviathan are fully suited up.

Did Kara really find that cage comfy?

• How the hell was Kara contained in that cage in "The Darkest Place" if she still had her powers? Yeah, they say it was indestructible Nth metal, and presumably that applies to the locking mechanism, too, but couldn't Kara just fly through the floor, or fly up and rip the cage out of the floor? And if the cage had six sides and is built into the floor (which doesn't seem to be the case, given how we see it was removed without disrupting the floor at the end of the episode) why not just grab the bars and fly in one directio, and fly out the the building, to the DEO with the cage? Wounldn't be Mon-El's most comfortable flight, but he's nigh invulnerable. And even if she couldn't get out or move, she could still use her heat vision to threaten Rhea and the guards when they came in? And even if Kara won't kill or even torture to save herself and her friend, and Cadmus is certain of this, couldn't she at least stop Rhea from shooting Mon-El? Yeah, plot convienence, but they could just have had them under red-solar lamps or kryptonite, and aside from having to rewrite the introduction of Mon-el's weakness and Kara risking her life for him, little in the plot would change.
  • It's an easy way out, and she performed a similar trick before. Maybe she being unable to come with the plan this time, has something to do with her hair color.

Where the hell is Clark during Lex's new reign of terror?

• With Kara and her friends scrambling to deal with Lex's attempts to control the world and Leviathan's attempts to destroy it, why haven't they asked Clark for help? He can be there in literally a second if they need him, and he'd be more than happy to lend a cape, so why haven't they?
  • Same reason as always—the writers don't like having him around because he's too much of a story-breaker.
  • Season two of Superman and Lois reveals the answer: Clark is on another Earth.
  • Didn't Clark and Lois move to Argo City?
  • Temporarily, since Lois was pregnant and didn't want to deal with solar-powered Kryptonian babies in her human womb. The ending of Crisis implies that they're back on Earth, though (however, given the above reveal, it's a little unclear whether the Superman and Lois one is "our" Clark, or if it's a different Clark entirely).

What's the DEO doing?

• So, Alex and Brainy finally leave the DEO, eventually joining J'onn in his own private superhero business alongside Kara. ...What happened to the DEO afterwards? Yes, Lex was in charge before, but it's still a government agency. Are they still going around rounding up alien criminals? Do the remaining staff have any animosity with Alex? Is Lex still in charge?
  • Apparently, it still went on working for a while, then Rama Khan destroyed it, and then J'onn and Alex reform it at the end of the show.

J'onn J'onz: Private Eye?

• Is J'onn still a PI? Once Alex and Brainy leave the DEO and the Superfriends set up shop in J'onn's super advanced attic at the end of Season 5, we rarely get to see the first floor of J'onn's shop again. Presumably this is how he makes his living now? How much is he charging, though, in order to build his super-attic AND pay Alex & Brainy living wages? After all, neither Alex nor Brainy have secondary jobs to help pay the bills like the rest of the group does.
  • Well, given all of his powers and experience, we can presume he's probably pretty good at it, and having spent over two centuries on Earth, it's safe to assume he has a fair bit of cash stowed away. Also, it's possible Kara helps support Alex—they share an apartment, after all, and it's doubtful Kara makes her sister pay rent. It's unclear whether Brainy is living with Nia; if he is, again, she won't be charging him rent (and Brainy could always hack an ATM if he wanted to). As for building and maintaining the super-attic, it's possible J'onn "acquired" some DEO tech before he left.

Running timeline?

• Has Word of God stated what the timeline is for the 2020/2021 seasons of the Arrowverse shows? I don't think it's ever stated exactly how long Kara was trapped in the Phantom Zone, but soon after escaping she mentions Iris' article about the Mirror Dimension, which means that plotline and the Leviathan/Lex plotline happened more or less at the same time. Does Superman & Lois take place after this show's Season 6? Is that why Diggle is completely healthy when he left the Flash feeling horrible headaches and vision flashes?
  • The headaches and visions were strongly implied to be the Green Lantern Corps summoning him, but sometime between his appearance on Flash and this show, it's implied he formally rejected the offer, so presumably the Guardians left him alone afterwards.
  • Season two of Superman and Lois reveals that the show is set on another Earth.

Bank of all of Krypton's knowledge

• Kara's dad says that the computer at the Fortress of Solitude has all the remaining knowledge of Krypton. Why didn't Clark use it to learn about the Eradicator or his evil uncle? Why wasn't Jor-El's crystal hooked up to it or another Kelex?
  • Superman and Lois, Diggle cameo aside, has had so many continuity snarls and retcons that it's pretty much its own show.
  • Presumably, it's a repository of publicly available knowledge (like super huge encyclopedia). It's likely a lot of the Eradicator research was kept private, and so was never collected.
  • Season two of Superman and Lois reveals the answer: Clark and the Eradicator are on another Earth.

Kara's DNA

• In Season 6, they needed a sample of Kara's DNA to locate her in the Phantom Zone. It is implied that they can only get it is from the "digital life force" she left in a crystal, which was later erased in favour of finding the Chrysalis, which held the souls of all the people taken over by the Prime Phantom. Did Kara never use a hairbrush?
  • Kryptonian hair; it can be cut with heat vision or pulled out with superstrength, but probably doesn't fall out as easy. Where Kara cuts her hair (obviously not at a normal barbershop) and what she does with if afterwards is another question. Maybe the Red Daughter incident convinced her to dispose of any bio-waste immediately GATTACA style.
  • One possibility is that Kara uses a special red-sun room at the DEO for purposes of hair care, manicures, etc. This might also explain a scene from the Earth-X crossover where Kara startles a manicurist whose equipment shatters against Kara's invulnerable nails; Kara just forgot that she was still powered up at that point.

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