Supergirl recap: Don't toy with mechanical flying monkeys

Have you stumbled across any stories about hacked baby monitors or Ring cameras recently? Well, imagine if those monitors had lasers and Kryptonite and razor-sharp wings and you’ve got a taste of what Kara and friends face down this week.

But first, let’s check in on the “who’s playing whom?” crew. When the bio-link on Andera’s next-gen Obsidian Platinum lenses fails, Lena offers a neural network she’d been developing for the Pentagon. But Andrea turns her down, afraid of jeopardizing their newly on-track friendship (which Lena is, of course, faking).

When Lex hears Andrea turned Lena down, he offers to help, leading to this delightful sibling exchange:

“I don’t need anyone murdered, Lex.”

“I have other skill sets!”

So Lex approaches Gemma Cooper at a posh restaurant, compliments her on her taste in wine, horses, and business opportunities, and suggests that Luthor Corp could be a strong ally for Obsidian North.

Gemma, in turn, exerts her mentor pull over Andrea to get her to reach out to Lena … who secretly sabotaged Andrea’s tech in the first place to gain access to the massive Obsidian platform to distribute Non Nocere. What a tangled web!

While Lex, who’s got his eye on immortality this week (more on that in a bit!), smarms that he hopes to be Gemma’s friend “for a long time,” Gemma and old Leviathan lady drink to having the Luthors right where they want them and plan their report to the Anointed One.

Assuming I followed all of the plots within plots correctly, I’m going to assign the power rankings for this roundelay of rascals as Andrea < Luthors < Gemma/old lady < Anointed One, whomever that is.

Now, to the main plot of the week, which starts with karaoke flirting between Kara and William during Toto’s “Africa.” And look, say what you want about the potential Kara/William pairing, but I will never not love watching Melissa Benoist perform, and their harmonizing, air-guitaring, and wild dog calls were a dang delight.

Afterward, William asks Kara on an official date but is interrupted by Winn rushing up with a “Super… Kara! She is super.” He stammers out that her D-E-Oooold grandmother needs her, so Kara rushes off.

And indeed, drones are attacking the DEO courtesy of the evil Winn Toyman, who uploaded himself into the DEO system as a malevolent AI. Winn recognizes the code as the last thing his father was working on, and the DEO scrambles to keep Winn-Toyman from escaping the DEO’s firewall and gaining access to the World Wide Web, where he could weaponize the internet against everything from hospitals to air traffic to nuclear command centers.

Of course, Winn-Toyman threatens to turn all of their tech-equipped weapons on them until he’s set free, so Alex orders everyone to gather all the tech and remove the smart chips while Brainy confines the AI to a server on top of the DEO power core.

Amid the chaos, a landline rings and hilariously confuses everyone. It’s Lex, who reminds Alex that the DEO has Kryptonite safeguards that he won’t be turning off, so Supergirl will be a wee bit hampered. After everyone scatters to their tasks, Brainy gets Lex’s marching orders over the phone: copy Toyman’s code to allow them to beat Leviathan at their own game. Yep, there’s that immortality Lex is after. A clearly dead inside Brainy agrees.

Before Winn joins Supergirl to suss out the Toyman code in the servers, he asks Brainy if he’s got the Lex/Toyman situation under control. Brainy assures him he does. (Narrator: he does not.)

As they scan the servers, Winn admits he’s the one who came up with this AI code, which his dad swiped. Kara then admits to maybe liking William a little but is worried about starting a relationship based on a lie, what with the Lena situation. Which… fair.

Suddenly, there’s Winn’s dad’s face on a monitor! He’d 80 percent translated his consciousness into the code when he died, and when Winn-Toyman used the Obsidian Platinum tech to upload himself, it brought Dad-Toyman online, too. He swears he’s changed and offers to help against Winn-Toyman.

Kara points out that it might be worth trusting him; after all, J’onn and his brother were able to make peace with one another. But Winn just wants to smash that delete key on both dad and doppelgänger.

Upstairs, Brainy removes the spyware Alex has on her tablet to watch for Lex shenanigans so he can copy the code, but Alex busts him. She rightly says he’s been secretive ever since his personality inhibitors were removed, but he lies and says he removed the spyware so Lex wouldn’t catch her using it. I hate these secrets. What do we want? TRUTH! When do we want it! PREFERABLY IN THE NEXT EPISODE!

And oops, another secret: the DEO’s been harboring Lexosuits, which rumble to life with the Toyman code and start attacking everybody. To stop it, Winn uses Legion tech to enter the digital space, where he’ll physically (sort of) confront the two Toymen. “Don’t forget, I’m Computer Lad,” he tells Kara, referencing his Legion call sign.

In the digital space, Winn’s father’s locked out of the central room where Winn fights his evil twin to enter the kill code. Dad-Toyman reminds Winn that physics ain’t no thang in cyberspace, which frees him up to fight without the constraints of gravity. (Hey, fellow sci-fi fans: Anybody else get shades of the Battle Room in Ender’s Game with no up or down constraints?)

Dad-Toyman tells Winn that he read up on Winn’s heroism in the DEO files and is, in a word, proud. “You’re simply the best part of me,” he says. This convinces Winn to release his father to fight the Winn-Toyman while our Winn finishes entering the kill code. Shaken to learn that his father really did want to help, Winn executes the code and watches as his father blinks out of existence. Again.

In the DEO command center, the Lexosuits are tearing the place up and manage to hit Supergirl with Kryptonite. But they’re also not too bright and start to concentrate their fire on a flaming office chair. Awww, bless. This inspires Brainy to become the loudest, brightest target in the room.

He uncovers the lights on his chest and, with a cry of “Leroy Jenkins,” wildly flips around the room to draw their fire, allowing Supergirl to blow up a Lexosuit and join Alex in taking down the weaponized flying monkey toys. (Nightmare fuel, that.)

In the end, Alex delivers all the Kryptonite, Lexosuits, and lockdown shields from the DEO to J’onn to fly into the sun. Also, she quits her job as director and accepts J’onn’s offer to work with him in The Tower. I … have questions about compensation and benefits, but I suppose they’ll keep. Brainy, alas, has to stay on at the DEO to both monitor and work for Lex, and Lex promotes him to director for his troubles.

Having accomplished what he needed to accomplish, Winn prepares to head back to the future with a new codename: Toyman. This mission allowed him to make peace with his past, and now he wants to reclaim that moniker. Plus, Computer Lad’s a terrible call sign. Before he leaves, he advises Kara to see where it goes with William.

But when Kara approaches William at CatCo the next day, he gives her a puzzle to give to her sick grandmother because his own grammy enjoys them. Guilty over the lie, Kara tells William she doesn’t feel the same way about him and bolts. After she leaves, his confused expression clearly says, “Guys with my face and accent don’t hear rejection very often.”

In her apartment afterward, Kara frets to Alex that her relationships are doomed with deception and wonders what could’ve happened if she’d done things differently. Then a knock on the door reveals Mr. Mxyzptlk (Thomas Lennon, heck yes!), who’s presumably there to show her exactly what that might have looked like. Bring on the mischief, you weird little imp!

Snaps of the cape

• How fun was it to have Jeremy Jordan back on the show for a bit? And he brings all that Chemical Lad/Lightning Lass/Legion-y goodness with him. Come back any time, Winn.
• I love that The Tower has high-tech equipment all over but also couches and a reading nook. All in all, a superhero lair worth envying.
• Predictions on how Director Dox is going to do with the minions at the DEO?
• Until next week, friends, I’ll be dreaming about a future where eating virtual lobster provides nutrients but no pesky shell shards!

Related content:

• Supergirl star Melissa Benoist teases ‘fight for Lena’s soul’ in season 5
• Melissa Benoist talks ditching the skirt in new Supergirl suit: ‘It’s more adult’
• Supergirl star Nicole Maines reflects on her first year as Dreamer