Supergirl Recap: “Triggers”

Last week’s premiere finished with Kara taking her first steps out of grief but “Triggers,” makes it clear that she still has a long way to go.

However, the episode balances her sadness with everything else this week that it’s not as disheartening as “Girl of Steel”. With a compelling villain and well-paced narrative, the show seems like it has finally found its footing on The CW after a rocky Season Two.

Yael Grobglas makes her debut this week as the villain Psi, a metahuman who enhances fear in her victims. Like a leather jacket wearing Scarecrow, she’s marching through National City robbing banks with no one to stop her. Supergirl jumps into action quickly in “Triggers,” but finds herself crippled by fear just like all of the other victims. At first, it’s just a claustrophobia-induced panic attack, but then in a second encounter, it turns into the childhood memory of Krypton exploding. Kara is still trying to cover up her emotional state but she does confide in Winn because she knows it will help him create a device to stop Psi. While it isn’t much, it’s nice to see Supergirl touch on the friendship between those two characters especially since it was overlooked a lot in Season Two.

Speaking of relationships, Lena gets a new one with Kara in “Triggers”. After buying CatCo last week, the younger Luthor is trying to become the best CEO possible as well as a new boss. Since Kara is busy dealing with Psi, she gets to spend most of her first day working alongside a passive aggressive Jimmy Olsen. There have been rumors that the two of them will be heading in the direction of a romance which has been met with a lot of apprehensions by fans. However, Mehcad Brooks and Katie McGrath do have an interesting chemistry and their interactions this week does seem like it confirms their antagonistic relationship could blossom into something more. Yet, Lena doesn’t have time to deal with romance when she’s busy trying to forge a boss/employee dynamic with her best friend. She reminds Kara that she didn’t just buy CatCo as a favor to a friend and forces her to track down a lead.

On her way to go meet up with Lena’s contact, Kara has a panic attack in the elevator. While Winn is able to distinguish that it’s just a “good old-fashioned” panic attack, she’s still left shaken. After a bit of intimidation from Alex, he ends up spilling all of Kara’s secrets to her sister. Supergirl promised that Season 3 would refocus on the sisterhood between the Danvers sisters and “Triggers,” finally delivers. Barging in on her sister’s Kryptonian meditation, the two get to have an honest conversation that finishes with a cute hug on the floor. It’s a big step from last week’s fight and feels like the showrunners heard a lot of the criticism for the series’ decision to focus more on romance than family bonds. It’s just the first of two critical Alex pep talks, with the second coming in the middle of a fight with Psi.

Kara reveals that it isn’t her in the pod throughout the fear sequence, but Mon-El. She’s sure that he’s died because if he had survived then he would have found a way to contact her by now. The scene is terrifically acted by Melissa Benoit but it also explains why she’s had so much trouble recovering from his loss: because every day her fear deepens.

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However, with Alex’s help, she’s able to overcome her fear to defeat Psi with a triumphant head bump. Not everyone is happy in “Triggers,” with season villain, Sam, having a bit of difficulty with her preteen daughter, Ruby. After pulling up the metal beam to save her daughter at the waterfront, Ruby is now convinced that she has superpowers. In typical pre-teen angst, she sneaks out of the house after a grounding to throw herself into harm’s way with the hope her mom’s powers will have to resurface again.

Of course, the episode’s end shows that Sam is actually powerless (for now) and if it wasn’t for Supergirl than the two girls would be crushed to death. Luckily, Sam does make a new friend when it’s revealed she will be taking over L Corp while Lena is working at CatCo, thus forming a relationship with many of the main characters.

With “Triggers,” showing Kara that she can’t just hide behind Supergirl as a way to avoid her grief, it seems like she has made another big step out of the darkness. It’s a fun episode that sets up quite a few storylines for the rest of the season.

Next: Supergirl Season Three Premiere Recap: “Girl of Steel”

Other than ending on Miss Martian’s request for J’onn to return to Mars, there’s definitely going to be trouble in paradise for everyone’s favorite engaged couple. Considering Floriana Lima is confirmed to be departing the series this season, it only makes sense that the two would have to separate but it’s still sad to see the couple beginning to dissolve.