Someone from Kara's past has kidnapped Alex and is threatening to drowns her unless Supergirl breaks someone out of jail. Meanwhile, Rhea approaches Lena with a business offer.
Tropes in this episode include:
- Abusive Parents: Rick's mother verbally and physically abused him, while his criminal father did his very best to look out for Rick upon finding out about him.
- Adaptational Villainy: Richard Malverne was friends with Supergirl's civilian alter ego in the comics; here, he's a villain forcing her to break his father out of prison.
- Apologetic Attacker: Rick bears no ill will against Alex or Kara; for him they are just the means to get his father out of jail. At one point, he even begs Maggie to help him save the people they both love.
- Asshole Victim: Rick claims that the people his father killed had it coming. Rick's obviously biased, though, and the episode doesn't answer the question either way.
- Badass in Distress: Alex, the show's primary Badass Normal, is held captive most of the episode.
- Blatant Lies: Rhea lies about where her proposed transmatter technology comes from. It's pretty obvious that it's beyond the capabilities of any Earth technology, but Lena believes that she developed it herself and doesn't even question it until after she figures out Rhea's not human.
- Beauty Is Never Tarnished: Alex is trapped in a Drowning Pit for over four hours, and looks gorgeous all throughout.
- Both Sides Have a Point: During the argument in the beginning about the hostage situation, both Maggie and Kara bring up valid points for their respective positions.
- Call-Back:
- Kara saving the family from the crashed car as a child is how Rick knows she's Supergirl in the present.
- Rhea offers Lena the transmatter portal technology from "Supergirl Lives" and "Distant Sun".
- Lena uses the alien identifier from "Welcome to Earth" to confirm her suspicions about Rhea.
- Camera Spoofing: Maggie swipes a holographic generator from the DEO which creates an image of an empty hallway in the prison, allowing her to break out Peter without being seen. On the way back out, she just shoots every camera in sight.
- Can't Kill You, Still Need You: Maggie tries to invoke this, telling Rick that allowing Alex to die would rob him of his only bargaining chip, and since he's already been arrested that would spell the end of his plan. Rick doesn't fold, betting that Maggie will give into his demands since he's now sure Kara won't.
- Crazy-Prepared: Rick has been planning his father's breakout for over a year and has accounted for nearly every possibility. He has scoped out Alex's life extensively and knows exactly when to grab her, has figured out a way to block her Tracking Device, knows about J'onn's powers enough to mount a Psychic Block Defense and anticipate his shapeshifting, routes the feeds from his cameras and Alex's phone through multiple servers to evade electronic tracking, and has her hidden somewhere that no records anywhere link him to and which Supergirl can't hear from within the city. The only thing he fails to anticipate is his own father foiling his gambit.
- Dramatic Irony: Lena says she and Rhea could be good friends, but it is obvious Rhea is using her.
- Drowning Pit: Alex's cell is rigged to pump in water until it overflows, drowning her in four hours if Supergirl doesn't meet the deadline. The cell's open top is covered by chain-link fencing, allowing the water to rise above the area Alex can access and preventing her from climbing or swimming out.
- Even Evil Has Loved Ones: Peter Thompson isn't a particularly nice man given his criminal record, but his love for his son is never indicated to be anything but genuine. He's honestly surprised that Rick is behind the attempt to break him out, and Supergirl's speech about him being a good father convinces him to give up where Rick is hiding Alex.
- Evil Former Friend: Rick was friends with the Danvers sisters in high school. In fact, he was the boy Alex was dating in a late Season 1 flashback.
- Exact Words: Most everything Rhea tells Lena is true, but devoid of context, in order to make Rhea out to be the innocent one.
- Fanservice: Alex is stuck in a Drowning Pit. Naturally the Sexy Soaked Shirt appears, and she takes off her pants to make a floatation device, and for one last breath before she nearly succumbs to drowning.
- Fan Disservice: There's a scene where Alex cuts the tracker out of her skin with a broken credit card.
- Freudian Excuse: Combined with a Motive Rant in Rick's case, when he explains what a horrible childhood he had thanks to his abusive mother, how he was rescued by his father and how he now wants to rescue him from prison in return.
- Godzilla Threshold: Maggie decides to break Peter out of prison when the deadline nears. Supergirl catches her in the act and talks her down, then convinces Peter to give up where his son hid Alex.
- Good Parents: Peter Thompson may be a killer, but he was a genuinely kind and caring parent to his son. He even helps Supergirl find Alex, so Rick won't become a killer like him.
- Graceful Loser: Surprisingly, Rick doesn't undergo a Villainous Breakdown or anything after his plan is foiled. Instead, he actually seems impressed by Alex's survival.
- Hypocrite: Rhea talks of being the victim of "lies" and "betrayal", both of which she is indulging in with Lena. Lena is quick to point this out.
- Innocently Insensitive: Mon-El, as usual, but this time Kara joins him as well, both saying that her breaking through a National City monument and beating up criminals is better than trying to talk them down.
- Just Think of the Potential!: Lena is excited about the humanitarian applications of the portal technology. It's clear Rhea has grander designs in mind from her comment that there are already such portals on her world.
- Laser-Guided Amnesia: Once Alex is saved, J'onn decides to wipe Rick's memory of Supergirl and the DEO. Alex punches him in the face first, and tells J'onn to make sure he remembers it.
- Leeroy Jenkins: Kara acts pretty headstrong throughout the episode, and Maggie is not afraid to call her out on it. Switched around toward the end when it's Maggie who goes Leeroy, and Kara has to talk her down with the arguments Maggie made against her earlier in the episode.
- Love Makes You Crazy: Rick is willing to resort to kidnapping and attempted murder if it means getting his father out of prison.
- Manipulative Bastard: Both Rhea and Rick are very good at playing people.
- Metaphorically True: Rhea gives a rather skewed account of her family troubles to Lena, which, while not actually untrue, leaves out huge amounts of information in order for Rhea to paint herself as the wounded party.
- Moral Myopia: Rick idolizes his father for taking him away from his abusive mother and giving him a decent upbringing. He believes the man can do no wrong, to the point where he shrugs off Maggie pointing out that Peter killed two people with a callous "They had it coming."
- Ms. Fanservice: Alex is shown taking off her pants and drowning.
- Mythology Gag:
- When people see Supergirl coming to get the criminals at the beginning of the episode, someone shouts "Look, up in the sky"!
- During Kara's argument with Maggie, Kara says that she stands for "hope and help and compassion," a reference to her motto from the comics.
- When Kara receives the first call from Alex's kidnapper, he says that everyone around her thinks she's just a "mild-mannered reporter," a phrase often used to refer to Clark Kent.
- When confiding in J'onn about her fear that she can't rescue Alex, Kara laments that she can't fly fast enough to turn back time. It could also be a reference to Barry being able to do that by running fast enough.
- Malverne calls Kara a "girl scout," much like Superman is often called a boy scout.
- "Not So Different" Remark:
- Rhea tries to evoke sympathy from Lena by bringing up her own horrible family situation (which, unbeknownst to Lena, she caused herself).
- Rick tries to play this on Maggie, saying that they both want to rescue people they love.
- Oh, My Gods!: Rhea says "Thank the gods" during dinner with Lena, which outs her as an alien (or at least raises Lena's suspicions) since no one with her purported English/American upbringing is likely to use that expression.
- Out of Focus:
- Mon-El again, who has dinner with Alex, Maggie, and Kara, then just a few brief lines throughout the rest of the episode.
- James is once again completely absent.
- Pet the Dog: In the end, Peter tells Kara and Maggie where to find Alex.
- Police Brutality: Early on in the episode, it's mentioned that the criminals Kara helps take down have been using injuries sustained from battling her to mount defense on brutality. Maggie calls it the "Supergirl defense."
- Poor Communication Kills: After finding out Rhea is an alien, Lena calls Kara to ask for advice about whether to trust her anyway. Kara, fully focused on Alex, asks her to call back later, and by the time they talk again Lena has made her decision and decides not to bother Kara with it.
- Psychic Block Defense: Rick has devised a way to shield his thoughts from J'onn, though it's not enough to keep J'onn from erasing his memories once the crisis is over.
- Rage Breaking Point: Kara and Maggie both hit theirs over Alex's kidnapping.
- Riddle for the Ages: We never find out exactly how Malverne managed to block J'onn's mind-probing.
- Rousing Speech: Kara appeals to Peter's love for his son to get him to reveal Alex's location, lest the son make the same mistakes his father did.
- Sadistic Choice: Either Supergirl breaks his father out of prison or Rick kills Alex. When Rick realizes Kara isn't going to comply, he gives it to Maggie instead, who is willing when it comes down to the wire.
- Saying Too Much: Rhea's Oh, My Gods! expression, coupled with her portal technology requiring non-terrestrial elements, convinces Lena that she's actually an alien.
- Secondary Character Title: The tile directly refers to the Deuteragonist.
- Security Cling: Kara and J'onn do this to each other over their mutual fear for Alex.
- Spot the Imposter: J'onn tries to impersonate Peter, but Rick knows about J'onn and knows his father well enough to see through it.
- Swapped Roles: Throughout the episode, Maggie calls Kara out on her rash and headstrong attitude, only making things worse. In the end, she is the one to break Rick's father out of prison and Kara has to talk her down.
- Unwitting Instigator of Doom: Because Kara is too concerned about her sister to be there for Lena, Lena ultimately decides to trust Rhea, which Kara definitely would have prevented otherwise. And since Lena has decided to go ahead with the partnership, she doesn't think it worth elaborating to Kara after everything's said and done.
- Used to Be a Sweet Kid: Kara notes that Rick was a nice guy in school. Rick points out that he was 14 at the time, then explains his abusive family life to give context for why he'd go to such lengths to free his father.
- Vigilante Man: Deconstructed. Maggie tells Kara that due to the latter's habit of bursting into a crime scene and beating up bad guys, evidence gets obscured or destroyed, public buildings get broken, and criminals can plead that excessive force was used.
- Voodoo Shark: With J'onn reading Peter's mind early in the episode, it's then obligated to explain why he doesn't do the same to get Alex's location from Rick, and J'onn says that Rick is blocking him somehow. Unfortunately, it never gets around to actually explaining that beyond just being a generic part of how Crazy-Prepared he is. This is made worse at the end of the episode, where J'onn says he's going to wipe Rick's mind and seems perfectly confident he can pull it off with enough precision that Rick will remember Alex punching him in the face, which makes one wonder why he couldn't just push harder and break through the block.
- Wham Line: From the kidnapper: "I know you're Supergirl."
- What the Hell, Hero?: Maggie lets Kara have it, both after the hostage situation and especially after Kara's Leeroy Jenkins attitude drastically shortens the time frame to rescue Alex.
- Your Princess Is in Another Castle!: Alex manages to plug her subdermal tracker into the camera in her cell, allowing it to link up with the DEO. When Supergirl flies over and rips open the lead plate where she thinks Alex is hidden, all she finds is a computer showing the cell and a timer which jumps ahead to four hours, triggering the Drowning Pit trap.
- You Said You Would Let Them Go: Discussed. Maggie isn't convinced Rick will honor his end of the deal, since Alex is his only leverage.
