Review: Supergirl “Bizarro”

Supergirl is shocked to see herself on the news, or rather, someone who looks just like her.  Maxwell Lord has created a human-hybrid clone of Supergirl in an effort to stop the hero once and for all.  Supergirl quickly realizes that Bizarro is her exact opposite but they are equal in terms of strength and abilities.  Maxwell Lord and Bizarro have now put the ones Supergirl loves most in danger.

The Positive

Melissa Benoist shows her acting abilities in pulling off three unique characters in this episode.  She is the heroic Supergirl, the mild-mannered and smitten Kara Danvers, and then she is Bizarro.  She manages to give a completely different performance as Bizarro than she would as Supergirl.  When the two first meet, even at a glance or during a fight we can manage to tell them apart.  Although another actress is credited as Bizarro, it’s clearly Benoist in the beginning when they share a face.

Bizarro makes for a strong opponent to Supergirl.  The writers are taking the modern version of Bizarro into account in this episode.  She has opposite powers, freeze vision, heat breath, and has the villainous determination to go further, trying to kill Supergirl in each encounter.  I enjoyed seeing Supergirl continue to try and save Bizarro instead of just trying to destroy her, even at the end Supergirl comforts her while they put Bizarro back into a comatose state.

Bizarro is a good foil, but the real villain here is Maxwell Lord.  We have seen hints of evil rising over the season and here he finally gives us the full extent of how far he is willing to go.  It’s clear that the creators are making him the Lex Luthor-archetype to Supergirl, but he still feels like his own character and not a copy of what has come before.  He doesn’t seem to have any larger goals of world domination (at least not yet) and instead just seems to be distrusting of the aliens that have come to Earth.

I’m glad that they have Maxwell Lord locked up and Bizarro is still alive, it sets up a lot of conflicts for the show’s future.  Plus having Maxwell Lord know Supergirl’s secret identity sets a lot of interesting pieces in motion for later.

The Negative

As soon as Kara and Alex realize that Maxwell Lord knows the truth about them, Alex says that they need to stop him once and for all.  She is told that they can’t do that by Henshaw.  However, later in the episode, she does just that and Lord is put into a cell with seemingly no repercussions to Alex.  I’m glad they left Lord locked up, but it feels weird that she should go unpunished by acting against orders, it’s like the previous orders were forgotten or ignored.

It’s a minor nitpick but I thought it would be fun to hear the classic “bad means good” style of Bizarro speech.  Bizarro does have the very childlike, broken way of speaking which does match the original character, but I would’ve liked to hear the classic way of speaking that is so associated with Bizarro.

The Verdict

This episode had a lot to enjoy, good performances from Melissa Benoist as Supergirl and Bizarro, and a pair of really good villains in Maxwell Lord and Bizarro.  The love stories are even being handled well as Kara is forced to make those difficult decisions between living her own life and shielding those she loves.

Supergirl as a show is really coming into it’s own since coming back from the winter break.  In this episode, they managed to avoid falling into a lot of pitfalls that could drag down a superhero show.  Supergirl continues to fight for saving and protecting even when it’s clear that Bizarro is out to kill her and won’t seem to stop until Supergirl is dead.