I personally thought this was a pretty good episode for a season that started off rather slowly compared to the first one. I kind of understand why. The only spoilers here on out
The first season was about meek Kara Danvers/Zor-El becoming Supergirl and about building characters. The only plot points were Lord and the Kryptonians so they had a lot of room to bring in villains and make interesting episodes.
Season two brought in new characters, politics, furthered character story lines, and had Kara embrace being Supergirl. Kara spent most of the season being Supergirl, even when she was in her Kara persona. The only times she really let herself be Kara is when she was having emotional moments(girl talk; intimate with Mon-El, excitement over meeting the president etc; or when she was being a reporter. Otherwise she was 100% Supergirl; however, who can rally blame her? In the early episodes of season 1 she stated that true Kryptonian nature is to embrace team work and she did just that. But being the most powerful member of the team and with so many victories she started to need others less and less and became more like how she saw Superman, a loner and being biologically young she let it get to her head, which made her more arrogant, it took pep talks from Snapper and Maggie as well as Alex almost dying for her to see the error of her ways. That is a major reason why she contacted Lillian in this episode.
Human nature also played a much larger role in this season, but especially in this episode. It's why Lillian left Mon-El and Kara Stranded and why Kara went to talk to Rhea. Both women are destined to be who they are (Lilian is vile and Kara is overly optimistic). It is also human nature to seek guidance, in season 1, she had Kat to tell her when she was wrong or right. In season 2 she had to decide on her own and not having Kat's experience, she sucked at it that lead to her being arrogant.
The Kara in the season two episodes (arrogant to the point of being obnoxious) for the most part was nothing like Kara in the introduction sequence (a giant dork). In this episode, she is the same person only wiser and more mature. That is why she had a backup plan for getting Mon-El back home.
The similarities between this episode and the Series Blacklist are numerous: -Team of good guys teams up with a bad guy to get worse bad guy -Kat knows Kara is Supergirl and Supergirl knows it; everyone knew the relationship between Red and Masha -Bad guy does something to screw over good guys behind their back -Good guy seeks guidance from parent figure
Most of the other reviews mentioned some of the stuff I left out; I just wanted to mention a few things I thought were also important. I know they continue to play it off like Kat doesn't know, but Winn basically spelled it out for her. Speaking of Kat and Winn, when did she become so maternal towards him? She never called him by his actual name, let alone his actual name! That was basically my major critique of this episode and season. I think she only ever called him Winn one time in all of season 1. Though her sarcastic comments towards the president made me realize she was being sarcastic more often than I realized in season one, most noticeably when she acted surprised when she found out who Winn's father was.
The first season was about meek Kara Danvers/Zor-El becoming Supergirl and about building characters. The only plot points were Lord and the Kryptonians so they had a lot of room to bring in villains and make interesting episodes.
Season two brought in new characters, politics, furthered character story lines, and had Kara embrace being Supergirl. Kara spent most of the season being Supergirl, even when she was in her Kara persona. The only times she really let herself be Kara is when she was having emotional moments(girl talk; intimate with Mon-El, excitement over meeting the president etc; or when she was being a reporter. Otherwise she was 100% Supergirl; however, who can rally blame her? In the early episodes of season 1 she stated that true Kryptonian nature is to embrace team work and she did just that. But being the most powerful member of the team and with so many victories she started to need others less and less and became more like how she saw Superman, a loner and being biologically young she let it get to her head, which made her more arrogant, it took pep talks from Snapper and Maggie as well as Alex almost dying for her to see the error of her ways. That is a major reason why she contacted Lillian in this episode.
Human nature also played a much larger role in this season, but especially in this episode. It's why Lillian left Mon-El and Kara Stranded and why Kara went to talk to Rhea. Both women are destined to be who they are (Lilian is vile and Kara is overly optimistic). It is also human nature to seek guidance, in season 1, she had Kat to tell her when she was wrong or right. In season 2 she had to decide on her own and not having Kat's experience, she sucked at it that lead to her being arrogant.
The Kara in the season two episodes (arrogant to the point of being obnoxious) for the most part was nothing like Kara in the introduction sequence (a giant dork). In this episode, she is the same person only wiser and more mature. That is why she had a backup plan for getting Mon-El back home.
The similarities between this episode and the Series Blacklist are numerous: -Team of good guys teams up with a bad guy to get worse bad guy -Kat knows Kara is Supergirl and Supergirl knows it; everyone knew the relationship between Red and Masha -Bad guy does something to screw over good guys behind their back -Good guy seeks guidance from parent figure
Most of the other reviews mentioned some of the stuff I left out; I just wanted to mention a few things I thought were also important. I know they continue to play it off like Kat doesn't know, but Winn basically spelled it out for her. Speaking of Kat and Winn, when did she become so maternal towards him? She never called him by his actual name, let alone his actual name! That was basically my major critique of this episode and season. I think she only ever called him Winn one time in all of season 1. Though her sarcastic comments towards the president made me realize she was being sarcastic more often than I realized in season one, most noticeably when she acted surprised when she found out who Winn's father was.