SUPERGIRL 6.11

 

RECAP - SUPERGIRL  6.11:  "Mxy in the Middle"  

We continue on the Girl of Steel's final flight this week with the dangerous and evil Imp, Nyxly, having trapped Supergirl in ice, and making sure her magic (for which ALL Kryptonians are susceptible to), to keep her powerless, as she destroys a building Supergirl was trying to save, all the while making sure the Maid of Might had to watch it's destruction, before Nyxly went and destroyed our heroine of National City.  But as we saw at the end of last episode, Supergirl made a desperate cry for help....by calling out her own Imp-ish friend:  Mxyzptlk.  Mxy does appear, and we get to see this week what HIS involvement in the Superfriends' issue with Mxyly entails.  Also...Lena finally returns home to solve the mystery of her mother's past in order to move forward....and finds something interesting as a result.

Supergirl has, more often than not, been screwed over by appealing to the good nature in those who've been cast in a dark light, or are just flat out evil.  Nyxly was wronged by her own family, mounted an insurrection against her family, was found out, captured, and sent to the Phantom Zone as punishment.  All those years trapped in that prison has given Nyxly A LOT of anger to build upon...and her lust for revenge is her ultimate craving.  Supergirl was misled by the sinister Imp in the Phantom Zone...and Supergirl defeated her attempts to escape by breaking the mirror that would've led them all back...because our heroine cared more about the safety of Earth than she did her own desire to get back home.  Nyxly took that as betrayal.  So, she used Nia Nall...who's been struggling with her own personal demons, as she's constantly been driven to want to see her mother again---if only to train and understand her powers---as a pawn to escape Nia's dream realm that she managed to get trapped in, by making a devil's deal with her:  Nia got to spend one day with her mother, and Nyxly got to leave the dream realm...so she could go home.  Now that she's loose, she's got a much more grandiose plan in mind than just getting revenge on her father for banishing her....she wants to control the universe.  But for that....she needs these different totems, which have been scattered about the galaxy, in order to put them together, and control the universe as we know it.

But getting back to Kara Zor-El here, she's tried a plenty to appeal to Nyxly's good nature, only to find out that the Imp is, indeed, truly and evil bitch.  And, had it not been for Supergirl calling upon Mxy for help, Supergirl would've been destroyed.  But here's where things get interesting:  turns out that AFTER Mxy saves the Girl of Steel, and they head back to the Tower, Mxy tells the long, sad tale of Nyxly, and her plot to take over the 5th Dimension....which he does in song.  He speaks of these totems for which she needs to obtain universal power, and she's going to go after them one by one, as they're scattered about everywhere.  Supergirl says there's one in South America, and she's off to find it before Nyxly does, and we also discover that if Mxy uses his magic, Nyxly will be able to find him, and capture him.  So, he's TRYING to be helpful, but without being able to use his magic...he proves kind of useless the entire episode for the most part....usually getting in the way of everyone else trying to build a device to stop Nyxly.  As they go to stop a threat in town, which is caused by Nyxly, who uses a giant cat to stir up trouble and get the attention of the Superfriends.  The part of Supergirl using her heat vision like a laser pointer to distract the giant furball was cute....they take care of the cat, and Nyxly says she wants Mxy...she needs his power in order to further power her orb, and to find the other totems.  They have two hours to deliver him.  She also tells them that he was actually part of her little plan to overthrow her father, until it failed, and he backed the King once again---proving that Mxy was only out for himself...so he's not an innocent here.

And while the team is trying to save Mxy AND stop Nyxly, Nia has been tortured the entire episode about admitting to Kara that she screwed up, and was responsible for letting Nyxly out.  Brainy tries to reason with her to fess up, and it doesn't take until into the show's final act that she tells Kara the truth.  Worried that she'll hate her, Kara instead tells her that she gets it...she was fooled by Nyxly too.  And while Nia screwed up, it's what they learn FROM their mistakes that will ultimately save the day.  Mxy had come up with the idea of creating a duplicate version of himself to get absorbed into the orb to fool Nyxly, but it fails.  However, Nia feels that if SHE disguises herself as Mxy, and gets close enough to Nyxly, they can put the power dampening cuffs on her in order to stop her.  Sadly, once she and Supergirl arrive in the park where Nyxly had them meet her in that 2 hour deadline, the orb messed up the image inducer, the the ruse was rooted out.  While Nyxly sent monsters from the 5th dimension to destroy the Superfriends, it was Mxy himself that decided to sacrifice himself to save the team.  So, he gets absorbed into the orb, and Nyxly takes off to who knows where.  Nyxly returns to Rich's ship....as he had to escape prison again, and wanted her help in gaining power himself, but she wanted nothing to do with him.  At the end of the episode, however, she sees some use in him, and he's going to help her with her plans for universal conquest.  Nia has another dream about Mxy being inside the crystal orb, but she knows they're looking for another totem, and they need to get to her fast.  Supergirl says they will...and THIS time...no holding back.

While the Superfriends were busy battling Nyxly, Lena returned to Newfoundland to gain more insight on the history of her mother, Elizabeth Walsh.  She gets to town, and all seems pleasant at first, until she mentions Elizabeth being her mother to the innkeeper.  Then, things seem to go from bad to worse for Lena, as the more she learns about her mother, it isn't pretty.  The barkeep, a woman named Peggy, tells Lena that both their mothers were part of a coven with a third woman, and that they were responsible for the murder of her father.  Her mother stayed behind to clean up the mess that Lena's mother and this other woman had escaped from.  Lena is content to just leave the past in the past upon hearing all this bad stuff about her mother, but Andrea, being a good friend, and had uncovered the picture of her mother and her two friends, urges her to find out more about what happened with the death of Peggy's father in order to put this story to bed.  So, Lena manages to find the woman, Florence, in a secluded place, where she still practices magic.  She tells the story of how her, Lena's mother, Florence, and Peggy's mother, Margaret, had formed a coven.  And it turned out that Margaret's husband had been physically abusing her, and they all decided to cast a spell to stop him, but it went awry, and he was killed in a fire.  Florence and Elizabeth ran away, while Margaret stayed behind to shoulder the blame.  Now Lena finds out about the truth of what happened because Florence uses her witchcraft to help Lena see story as it transpired.  Now Lena is a woman of science, and hasn't believed in magic (though, as Peggy had mocked her about earlier on...she hangs around an alien with super powers, but doesn't believe in magic), but Florence drops a bombshell on Lena:  she has her mother's gift for magic.  Lena doesn't want to believe it, but Florence says it's true.  This will give something new for Lena to ponder on as she returns home.  

This episode helped set up the final battle looming ahead between Nxyly and the Superfriends, as she tries for her universal power-grab.  And while I can see Nxyly as a major pain-in-the-ass for Supergirl...if SHE is the ultimate "final villain" for the Girl of Steel...I'm gonna be sad.  Kara Zor-El deserves a bit more of a better send off than an evil Imp from the 5th Dimension with delusions of universal power.  For a final season, Supergirl deserves to go out on an epic note...something that will give us a smile at the end of it.  This season has been OKAY...but for a final season....it's just still NOT quite hitting those highs we need to be able to feel GOOD about Supergirl's send off.  

It was great to see Thomas Lennon return as Mxy.  He's SO phenomenal in that role, and plays it to perfection.  A lot of that has to do with Lennon's pure comic genius, but he also plays that character with heart---and you can't help but feel sympathetic to Mxy.  So, the recast of this character for this show was the right move.  Lennon is charming, funny, and quirky, and grasps the character quite well.  And his chemistry with the cast is superb.  So, glad we're getting some of him before the show goes off the air.

Nia's issues seem to be sorting themselves out---but they're dragging it along.  Look, I get the guilt of the mistake of letting Nyxly out---and she DID come up with a good idea to try and stop the evil Imp, though it DID backfire, but she's GOT to stop having all this guilt on her shoulders.  Knowing the mistakes Supergirl has made in HER time, Nia needed to see that even HER hero is not perfect, and Kara tells her so.  Also, now that we got the mommy issues out of the way, she needs to resolve the issues with her sister as well, and I hope they put THAT to bed before the show disappears.  Need to tie up loose ends...and that is one of them.  For Dreamer to be a better hero, gotta jettison the unwanted guilt that's not needed, and has held this character BACK the last year or so.  I want her to move FORWARD...and NOW is the time!  

We definitely got more into the history of one Lena Luthor this week...and it's a doozy:  her mom was a witch, and had magical powers.  So much so, that she's managed to pass it along to her daughter.  Now, it's quite interesting to see the dichotomy of Lena at work here:  A woman of science who can believe in things when she sees them first hand, and can PROVE their existence.....but NOT believe in magic.  For a woman that has seen Supergirl interact with Mxy himself...who IS a magical being...it's kind of funny how she can NOT believe in something like magic.  She can believe in aliens, is best friends with an alien, and has seen many people with superhuman powers....but can't explain or believe in magic.  But to know she's CAPABLE of wielding magic....THAT creates an interesting dynamic for her now.  She will now have that ability to harness it, and be MORE of a team player for the Superfriends, AND it might come in handy here against a magical being LIKE Nyxly.  There's a prospect there to be mined...the writers just have to USE it.  

So, how did YOU all rate this episode?  What do you think of Lena's revelation?  Subscribe to the blog, and leave your comments below.

Until next time....Up, up, and away!