Am I the only one who thinks Supergirl came back sooner than expected? Don’t get me wrong, I’m happy that one of my favorite shows is back on the air, but since the other DC shows — namely Flash, Arrow, and Legends — don’t return until the week of January 19 I assumed Supergirl would be joining them then. Also doesn’t help that there isn’t a new episode next week either. Still, Supergirl is back — for this week, at least — and they pick up right where they left off before Christmas.

In the aftermath of their super fight above Lord Technologies, Non takes Hank hostage and speeds away. Maxwell Lord retrieves his anti-Supergirl gun and gives Alex the cold shoulder. Looks like Lord doesn’t want the DEO’s help in trying to understand why a band of Kryptonians just destroyed one of his laboratories.

Back in the DEO Cave, Alex has been named interim director, and Kara questions her aunt on the whereabouts of the Evil Kryptonian lair. Over the video feed, Non contacts Alex and proposes a prisoner exchange: Hank for Astra. Alex considers it, to the shock of Supergirl who still isn’t aware of Hank’s alien roots. Before they can agree to any exchange, General Lane enters the picture and takes over the operation on orders from the president.

Because Kara wouldn’t torture her aunt to get answers earlier in the episode, we get a scene of the sadistic General Lane going Gitmo on Astra and injecting her with some sort of Kryptonian liquid, and Laura Benanti sells it with the most blood-curdling scream.

https://49.media.tumblr.com/b99a388e691434661869f8888ff454c3/tumblr_o0j7mdT2ZG1r67186o1_540.gif

Also, @laurabenanti… that scream. You were really not on top of your voice. Don't break that beautiful instrument! 😉 #Supergirl

— Jeremy Jordan (@JeremyMJordan) January 5, 2016

Yes. Save it for the eventual musical episode with #Arrow and #TheFlash! #Supergirl https://t.co/nBKrQ5IHkd #SupGirl https://t.co/M8fEhZeTP8

— The Nerds of Color (@TheNerdsofColor) January 5, 2016

Of course, the information they Krypto-waterboarded out of her leads Lane’s men into a trap that nearly gets everyone killed. Instead of giving up Hank’s whereabouts, Astra gives them the address of an empty warehouse. Hanks’s “bio” signature is found inside a shipping container, but instead of the real Hank, it’s just a hologram concealing a bomb. Luckily, Supergirl was there with her bomb-proof cape(?) and saves Alex and a rando Army guy.

http://legendsofdc.tumblr.com/post/136660007208

At CatCo, James is watching Maxwell Lord on television cover up the alien encounter at his company as an act of corporate espionage. James thinks something is fishy and pays Lord a visit. When he doesn’t get any answers, he and Winn team up to break into Lord’s office and find evidence of wrong doing. Pretty sure nothing bad will come out of that. Not at all.

Also, Kara tells Winn and James that Cat has figured out her secret identity. Rather than letting Cat in on the secret, the writers have decided to keep her in the dark, which in my opinion is the wrong move. I really enjoyed the scene between Melissa Benoist and Calista Flockhart last episode, and thought it had a lot of potential storywise. Not sure how good idea it is to throw that development away, no matter how cool a gimmick it generates for the viewer (but more on that later).

http://accioflarrow.tumblr.com/post/136049457964/i-was-also-thinking-about-livewire-about-how

Eventually, Cat gives Kara and ultimatum: either she admits she’s Supergirl or she’s fired. All of this despite the fact that Kara basically already admitted she was Supergirl last week, but whatevs. When Kara returns to the Super Friends office, she finds a bloodied and beaten James. Turns out he got caught snooping around Lord Tech after all. Kara is about to go Bad Supergirl on Maxwell Lord when her Super Friends remind her that isn’t who she is.

Instead of burning down Lord Tech, she goes back to the DEO and confronts her aunt one more time. We then flashback to Astra’s sentencing on Krypton. We learn that she and her men were sent to Fort Rozz because of unspeakable crimes they committed as eco-terrorists. Alura believed Astra’s claims about Krypton’s doomed future but didn’t approve of her methods. And I can’t help but wonder how Jor-El fits into this. Will they reveal Jor-El was in league with these radicals? Could be an interesting twist. Anyway, Astra, Non, and company get sentenced and transported to the Phantom Zone and nary a phallic symbol was in sight.

Reason #2,777,633 why #Supergirl is better than #ManOfSteel: their Kryptonian prison isn't made up of space dildos. pic.twitter.com/lsseFTSDFe

— The Nerds of Color (@TheNerdsofColor) January 5, 2016

Armed with this new info about her aunt and mother, Kara has a renewed belief that there is still good in Astra and agrees to the prisoner exchange (against General Lane’s wishes). When the exchange goes down, Non — as expected — plans an ambush and dozens of Evil Kryptonians fly in ready to attack. But Astra, true to her word, calls them off and everyone lives to fight another day.

Now that Hank is back, they let Kara in on his Martian secret. Mostly because Supergirl overheard Alex tell Hank to “transform” forgetting about her sister’s superhearing. Her reaction to Hank’s origins is priceless.

http://dailysupergirlcbs.tumblr.com/post/136649810440

Of course, now that she knows she has a shapeshifter in her midst, we now have a resolution to the Cat Grant issue. And this is the moment they were building up to.

Kara’s moment of truth arrives and she goes to Cat’s office to tell her once and for all that she is not Supergirl. Of course, Cat doesn’t believe her and is about to fire her when in the window flies in Supergirl?

Seeing Kara standing side by side with Supergirl convinces Cat that she was actually wrong about her assistant. And the status quo is maintained.

Again, I know why they’re going this route, but I’m still disappointed. I thought it was ballsy to have Cat figure out Kara’s secret on her own, and I wish the writers would stick with that. But the gag was too good to ignore, I suppose. Oh, what gag?

http://avahda.tumblr.com/post/136727685670

I guess I’ll forgive Cat’s character development regression if we get more scenes of J’onn in action.