'Supergirl' recap: 'Ace Reporter'

Supergirl returns from its break this week with “Ace Reporter,” in which Kara uses her journalism skills to investigate Lena Luthor’s ex-boyfriend.

To quickly recap since it has been a month, the last episode of Supergirl ended with Mon-El’s mother Queen Rhea killing his father Lar Gand. It also featured both Maggie and Alex (sanvers) and Kara and Mon-El (karamel) growing stronger in their respective relationships after resolving some conflict. This episode focuses more on the close friendship between Kara and Lena and a side story with James, Winn, and Lyra.

Supergirl begins this week with Kara flying to work, ready to take on the world, but nothing is happening in the city. Disappointed, she goes home and is stress cooking when Lena shows up. Lena tells her about an event being held to introduce new technology from Lena’s ex, Jack Spheer. Lena talks about the relationship and Kara wants to support her friend, so they decide to go together to the event.

At the event, Kara runs into her old boss Snapper Carr and the two exchange barbs before the show starts. On stage, Jack Spheer introduces himself and his CFO Beth Breen to the crowd before cutting his hand. Beth releases nanobots and they fix his cut. Lena tells Kara this is part of the research she worked on with Jack years before. After he tells the crowd about the nanobots, he asks for questions. Kara is picked first and asks about regulations while Snapper tries to interrupt.

After the event, Jack rushes to find Lena and she introduces him to Kara, saying she is a great reporter. Kara giggles embarrassingly at her friend, then leaves the two to catch up. Jack invites Lena out to dinner and is interrupted by his CFO Beth before she can respond. A man stops Kara and tells her to meet him later as he has information about Jack.

Meanwhile, James is fighting bad guys as Guardian. He goes to the surveillance van and finds Lyra there with Winn. Lyra tells him she wants to help fight crime, James does not want her help but relents when Winn begs. Later, he goes to stop a crime and finds the perpetrator is a kid. Lyra jumps in and starts attacking the boy before Guardian stops her.

Kara meets with her source, who tells her he worked for Jack’s company but was fired. He tells her he believes the human clinic trials were faked. He is unable to tell her anything else, as the car explodes due to the nanobots and he is killed.

The next day at CatCo, Kara asks James for help but Snapper arrives and the two argue again. Kara leaves but eavesdrops on Snappers conversation as he tells James about his source.

At L-Corp, Lena is hard at work when Jack arrives and the two banter and talk about the past. He then invites her out to dinner again.

Supergirl follows Snapper to his meeting with his source. The source tells him he signed up for the trials, but never underwent any kind of testing. The nanobots arrive yet again to destroy evidence, killing the source before Kara can save him. She freezes the nanobots with her breath and rescues Snapper.

At her apartment, Kara expresses her frustration and anger to Mon-El about not being able to save either source and her belief that Jack is evil. Mon-El tells her Lena called and said she is going out to dinner with Jack. Kara immediately tells her boyfriend they are going to go rescue Lena.

The two arrive at the restaurant and invite themselves to dinner. Kara starts grilling Jack immediately about the nanobots. He tells them how he got the nanobots to work, letting Lena know how much he missed her after she left. Lena tells them she would like to talk to Jack alone and the two get up to leave. Mon-El pulls Jack into a hug and says they should spend some time together. He stole his key card so he and Kara can break in and find evidence of wrongdoings.

Lena and Jack talk at her office about their relationship. He apologies for asking her to choose between their relationship and her family’s company. The two start kissing after. Meanwhile at Jack’s office, Kara and Mon-El look through his files and find a video of him injecting himself with nanobots. Jack stops kissing Lena, looking sick he tells her he has to go to the office. Kara and Mon-El take the video and get out just in time.

The next day, Kara arrives at Lena’s office and tells her about Jack. Lena does not believe Kara at first, but after seeing the video she asks who knows. She asks Kara to let her talk to him before alerting anyone, but Kara says it is not safe. Lena tries to hide her despair and Kara tells her she is sorry about everything.

At the alien bar, Winn gifts Lyra her favorite food before telling her she went too far on their last patrol. Winn tells her they do not want her to be a part of the team. She gets angry and breaks things and tells him to leave.

Kara brings her information about the nanobots to Snapper at CatCo. She apologizes for her story on Cadmus and admits she did get lucky. He accepts her apology and the two talk about the lack of human trials. They discover Beth signed the checks for the human trials and could lose a lot of money.

Lena goes to confront Jack and discovers Beth is behind everything. She controls the nanobots inside of Jack and made him kill people. Beth gives away her master plan to sell the nanobots to the world. She tells Lena she will not kill her, she wants to inject Lena as well and control L-Corp. Supergirl arrives just in time to save her and Lena tells her to keep the nanobots distracted. She then fights with Beth. Beth kicks her and tells her that she has a black belt. Lena punches her, quipping “Did I mention I was a Luthor.”

Kara continues to fight the nanobots as Supergirl but they pin her down. Lena destroys the tech Beth was using to control Jack and he tries to tell her how to stop the nanobots. Beth tells her what she is doing will kill Jack and Lena elbows her in the face. Lena chooses to save Supergirl. Lena tells Jack she is sorry and holds his hand while he dies.

Kara goes to L-Corp and brings Lena flowers. She tells her Beth is in jail. Lena says she is not feeling much, except for when she thinks about Beth dying. She worries about the person she could become. Kara holds her and tells her she will always protect her and be her friend.

James apologizes to Winn about the conflict with Lyra. He calls Winn his brother and tells him he is glad they work together. He opens the door further and shows Winn he brought Lyra along. As long as she listens to him, he is open to her working with them fighting crime.

Kara brings Snapper some fresh croissants she baked and finds out they both enjoy baking. Snapper gives her the latest CatCo magazine and shows her she is credited for the story. He thanks her for her work and tells her he appreciates her search for the truth. She is officially hired back as a reporter for CatCo.

Lena is working late at L-Corp when Queen Rhea arrives. She is dressed in Earth attire and tells Lena her first name when asked. She then says she has a business proposal for the company.

I loved most of this episode. I like Lena and I love the friendship between her and Kara. There are also great moments for supercorp fans. A slight negative was that I missed J’onn, Maggie and Alex, though next week is Alex-centered. The side story with James, Winn and Lyra was not very enjoyable with the crazy girlfriend trope as I am not a fan. Jack (Rahul Kohli from iZombie) was charming and entertaining. Also, it was entertaining to see Katie McGrath’s accent come through in when interacting with Rahul. Lena got most of the good lines this episode, particularly in the conversation with Beth. Overall a great Lena episode.

Supergirl airs at 8 p.m. Monday on The CW. Check out the preview for the next episode below.