TV Review: Supergirl – Season 1 Episode 12 “Bizarro”

Last Updated on August 2, 2021

EPISODE 12: "Bizarro"

SYNOPSIS: Kara faces off against Bizarro, the reverse version of Supergirl. She also gets closer to Cat's son, Adam.

REVIEW:

Tonight's episode of SUPERGIRL features a villain I have been hoping to see since CBS first announced Kara Danvers was getting her own show, Bizarro Supergirl. Unfortunately, the utilization of the character was anticlimactic, making all of that anticipation built up over the past few episodes completely wasted. SUPERGIRL took an interesting character and made her a villain of the week instead of a menacing big bad that could have done serious damage throughout season 2. Why spend time building up to Bizarro's appearance when you are going to dispose of her so quickly?

Let's backtrack. Picking up right where we left off last week, a new Supergirl is in town, who looks identical to Kara, but is making her look bad. Who is she and where did she come from? Well, it all comes back to the "Jane Doe" Maxwell Lord was keeping under lock and key in his laboratory. While the girl was in a coma, Lord infused her with Supergirl's DNA and used brainwashing techniques to get her to hate the hero. "Bizarro" (as coined by Cat) is as strong as Supergirl, but her powers are reversed. This means instead of freeze breath, Bizarro has fire breath and instead of heat vision, she has freeze vision. I wonder what she has instead of X-Ray vision?

Bizarro also talks like a cave woman, or as Kara says "talks like Cookie Monster", and gets strength from Kryptonite instead of being weakened by it. The team learns this the hard way after the villain captures Kara while she is on a date with Adam. An obviously stronger Bizarro has Kara on the ropes until the DEO swoops in, firing tanks armed with Kryptonite ammo. But instead of weakening her, the Kryptonite increases Bizarro's strength; the one downside is it strips her of her likeness to Supergirl, making her more resemble a zombie. Now the DEO scientists have to go back to the drawing board and create a reverse Kryptonite that will weaken Bizarro. But does that also mean it could be used to strengthen Kara in later episodes? Supergirl steroids?

Weakening Bizzaro isn't enough to assuage Kara's fears. She wants Maxwell Lord taken into custody as well. Because Bizarro recognized Kara outside of her superhero suit, she knows Lord is aware of her true identity and that puts her friends and family in danger. Kara's fears are realized when Bizarro captures James, leaving the two Supergirls to battle it out in a pretty great fight scene. Whereas some earlier fights looked exactly like people fighting on wires, the show made this scene look a bit more believable. And I also enjoyed watching each woman's competing powers battle for dominance. But again, Bizarro bests Kara and just as she starts to choke her, Alex and the DEO arrive with their new reverse-Kryptonite darts. This ammunition finally brings Bizarro down, and the DEO puts Jane Doe back into a coma.

Meanwhile, Alex takes matters into her own hands and arrests Lord, putting him in an underground DEO cell indefinitely. His threats of telling the world about Supergirl's alter ego will go unheard. But Henshaw isn't thrilled about his new prisoner as it compromises the security of the entire DEO mission. After all, Lord is a billionaire whose absence will not go unnoticed.

In love interest news, Winn and Kara still have yet to speak about his declaration of love and "the kiss". And he and James get super weird when they talk about Kara's new relationship with Adam. Winn acknowledges that he is stuck in the friend zone, but wonders why James isn't doing more to win over Kara if he does indeed love her. It takes a run-in with Bizarro for James to finally admit to himself that he does love Kara, despite still being in a relationship with Lucy. But do they really expect us to root for this? Not only were Winn and James talking about Kara like she was an object, but James HAS A GIRLFRIEND. Yuck.

Meanwhile, Kara and Adam (who are married in real life) take their relationship to the next level with their first kiss. But as quickly as the relationship began, it all takes a sudden turn after Kara's run-ins with Bizarro. Because she had to leave two of their dates early to deal with her doppleganger, Kara wonders if she is really ready for a relationship. The fact that Adam doesn't know Kara's alter ego makes the situation even more difficult. So, Kara decides to end the romance before it even gets started. And that's fine with me. The stakes were not high at all since the show hardly developed Adam's character, nor did it give us enough time to root for the relationship. I also found it slightly creepy that he was still "into" Kara even after he found out she wrote the letter pretending to be his mother. With nothing keeping him in National City, Adam goes back to his home in Opal City, promising to come back to visit Cat whenever possible.

Speaking of Cat, it's unbelievable to me that she still is convinced that Kara isn't Supergirl, especially now that a lookalike is on the scene. This could easily explain how Kara was in two places at one time. Of course, J'onn J'onnz helped convince Cat that Kara wasn't Supergirl, but it seems that the wheels still should be turning in Cat's brain. This is supernatural National City, after all.

The episode ends with Kara arriving back to her apartment. But something isn't right. She looks on her coffee table and sees a strange-looking egg that has obviously been opened. When she goes to investigate it, an alien that resembles the ALIEN facehugger, jumps down and attaches itself to Kara. And according to the previews for next week, it looks like this will create major issues to Kara's psyche.

FINAL VERDICT: