After experiencing the relentlessly dour, grim, and downright depressing big screen meeting between Batman and Superman this past weekend in Batman v Superman: Dawn of Justice, this hour of Supergirl felt like the perfect antidote coming at just the right time. That mentality speaks to how this show along with The Flash on the CW Network is fundamentally built: fun, light, and optimistic. Supergirl is especially driven by this overall tone, while The Flash has been recently wading into darker territory with its second season.

              

 

That's not the point. Looking at only what happens in this show, it pulls off the heavily-hyped, much-anticipated crossover event with amazing ease. Sure, the story could have easily been a one-off type of endeavor, but it nicely folds in what's been happening in National City recently. Effectively, Supergirl is still reeling from the reign of terror she briefly brought upon the citizenry due to the effects of the red Kryptonite from "Falling." Nothing she has done to try and rehabilitate her image as god-like alien gone rogue has been able to stop people from fearing her. Then her rival Siobhan directs her high-pitched screams at her, causing her to nearly fall to her death.

 

So she's not in the best of places mentally when Barry "The Flash" Allen shows up literally out of nowhere to save her from falling out of the CatCo building. They both don't immediately cower in fear at the sight of each other. Kara doesn't think of Barry as another potential villain, or freak out that he's from another universe, and Barry doesn't seem fazed at all by the fact that she's an alien with the superpowers of strength, speed, and flight. Indeed, that's part of what makes this whole enterprise so much fun. It's like all of the characters in this episode are in on the joke, and what makes it all so funny. The reality is that something like this should be impossible to do in this age of television. Having a character from another show on a different network appear while both shows are running concurrently? It's too delightful a prospect to even believe.

 

 

That sense of delight and joy permeates the entire episode, or specifically the parts that have to do with Barry and Kara interacting. Why is Barry wearing a tachyon device? It'll be concretely explored on his own show, but here, it's explained in a succinct and sensible manner: He's working on becoming faster, which ties into the season-long narrative that has been going on inThe Flash. He goes so fast that he accidentally ends up on another Earth. All of the scenes with Barry and Kara flow effortlessly, even when Kara introduces Barry to her world at CatCo. Of course Winn would want to be Barry's best friend. James would totally be jealous of Kara's geeking out over Barry (her giddy reaction to Barry getting her ice cream is perfect, encapsulating why Melissa Benoist has nailed the role of Kara Danvers/Supergirl). And Cat would see the Flash as another opportunity to get a news story out of powered individuals constantly invading National City.

 

I particularly liked her meta reference to everyone looking like the cast out of a CW show, and her brutal takedown of Barry's suggestion that the new hero in town be named the Flash, which does sound like a guy who exposes himself to others. When the characters all enjoy this kind of thing, they're inviting the audience to enjoy it too. Yes, some of it is corny, but it's so likable that the corny factor becomes an afterthought. Barry is able to give Kara advice without it feeling like he's taking over her world. He can relate to some of the things she is going through, from the public turning against heroes, to having unresolved feelings for an unrequited crush, and so all of their conversations feel genuine instead of forced.

 

The weaker aspects of the episode entirely lie with the villains. Where there is a team up of superheroes, there also has to be a team up of villains to match them. The latter is not as brilliantly executed as the former. Livewire comes back into the picture after being locked away in the DEO prison for fourteen episodes. She's recruited to take on Supergirl by a transformed Siobhan, who now fully embraces her screaming power and becomes (a rather goofy-looking) Silver Banshee. Their motives are little more than wanting to eliminate Supergirl so that Siobhan can finally get her revenge on Kara so it's hard to really be as invested as the continued interactions between the Flash and Supergirl. I would totally be happy if the episode just focused on the two crossover heroes rather than shoehorning the villains.

 

It's necessary only to demonstrate the fact that Supergirl has only been about protecting the people of National City from danger. That goes to the core of what the Superman, and by familial association Supergirl, mythos is about: Keeping humanity from being harmed by alien species out to destroy them. That is literally shown here, at the point in the faceoff between heroes and villains where Kara takes on Livewire's lightning so that a helicopter doesn't fall to the ground and potentially kill scores of innocent bystanders. She shows the people of National City that she is willing to sacrifice herself -- to die even -- so that no one will be harmed. That earns her the protection of the people along with a saving assist from the same firefighters that she saved before being infected by the red Kryptonite in "Falling."

 

The episode is able to get in most of the show's general themes, advance the story somewhat (that final bit about Myriad and turning the populace into mindless, speechless drones begs for more explanation), and wraps up every remaining story thread with a neat little bow. We get to see an actual foot race between the Flash and Supergirl, which results in her literally throwing Barry back into his own universe. What a capper to a stupendous episode. It was well worth the wait, and very much lived up to the hype.