Supergirl Episode 202 Recap: Metallo Gets Twice as Nasty

Things are strained at the DEO. Kara and Clark are having a lot of fun being Supers together, but Hank is still furious at Superman and is having a hard time putting that aside. Alex is starting to feel ignored next to her sister’s blood relation, especially when she invites him to sisters night, when Clark tells Kara he has to go back to Metropolis. Sisters night is cut short when a news report shows a jumper on a bridge. The cousins fly off to save the day. The jumper is John Corben, Metallo, very powerful due to a metallic endoskeleton and a kryptonite power source. He reveals his kryptonite power core and shoots back at Superman. He seems intent on killing Superman; he just swats Supergirl aside. The trio fight, but before Metallo can land a devastating blow on Supergirl, Superman knocks him into the next time zone.

At the DEO, Superman confronts Hank about the kryptonite, which was supposed to be entirely stored at the DEO. Hank admits that a shipment went missing four months ago. It had to be an inside job, but everyone on the transport detail was cleared. Before they can come to blows, the video screens are hacked and a masked figure appears, introducing them to Cadmus. They are scientists hell-bent on taking planet Earth back from the aliens by showing them what humans are capable of.

Superman got a sample of Metallo’s skeleton, so he and Hank begrudgingly agree to work together and head out to the Fortress of Solitude, where they discover the metal is made of prometheum, the strongest metal known to man. While the boys are gone, Kara tells Alex she is thinking of moving to Metropolis with Clark. Alex uses this time to unload about how ignored she feels, about how her entire life has been devoted to protecting Kara. Their fight is interrupted by a call from Clark. Regrouping at the DEO, Winn finds the prometheum radiation signature in the industrial district. The Supers head out there and find Metallo. They beat him up, threaten to kill him, but Metallo doesn’t care: “If you are here with me, you are not in Metropolis for him.” Superman realizes it is a trap.

The Cadmus doctor decided it was time to move to phase two, and that required her colleague to be dragged off against his will and be transformed into Metallo 2.

By the time the Supers land in Metropolis, the place has been torn apart. Superman, unsurprisingly, feels guilty for not being there. Frankly, he should: it doesn’t take two Supers to put out a building fire and stop an armed robbery, which is what he and his cousin have been up to.

There is a weird side story here, where Alex suddenly realizes that kryptonite leaves a radioactive signature on whatever it touches. She and Winn race to the locker room with a Geiger counter and scan until they find one with a reaction: Miguel. He is the mole, the one who sold the kryptonite to Cadmus. I don’t know why Alex didn’t think of this months ago. She confronts Miguel with a new assignment: to prepare some kryptonite for transfer. He does so, but Alex set him up to catch him in the act. Cadmus agents are there, kill Miguel, and threaten Alex. The head doctor thinks Alex is a traitor to her species and wants her to join Cadmus. A big fight breaks out, but Supergirl flies in and saves Alex, effectively ending their fight. This gives Supergirl an idea. “They think we are divided; but we are not.”

Winn does a rush job on new armor for the Supers: basically a little shield for their S logos. It is kryptonite-proof, a condom for their logos. Then they split up: Superman goes back to Metropolis to fight Metallo 2 while Supergirl stays behind to battle original Metallo. The fights seem pretty even – until the Metallos realize that they can break the S condoms. J’onn J’onzz reveals that he was the little girl hiding off to the side and aids Superman while Alex, in a bionic suit, jumps to Supergirl’s help. It is two against one in each team. J’onn rips the kryptonite core from Metallo 2, and Alex runs traditional Metallo through with a big pipe. Before he dies, Corben insists that Cadmus is not over.

Some personal bits to tie up: Kara starts her first day as a reporter, discovers her humorless boss, Snapper Carr, doesn’t want her and “unhires” her, sending Kara to whine to Cat. Cat tells her to put on her big girl pants and get the job back herself, then reveals that she is taking a leave of absence from the company. James is taking her place. Kara goes back to Carr with a report on the Metallo fight, and when he rejects her, she threatens to take the piece to another outlet. Carr relents and brings her into the team. Hank gives Superman all the kryptonite on Earth in a lead box and lets him do with it what he will. Superman seems to leave it in a dumpster before returning to work in Metropolis.

In our final scene of the night, Supergirl sits at coma guy’s bedside, pledging to remain with him until he wakes. Of course, she doesn’t know that he is waking up right now, and going to do so by grabbing her neck into a vice grip.

Check out a preview and photos for next week’s episode, titled “Welcome to Earth.”