Supergirl Season 1 Episode 5 Recap: How Does She Do It?

On this week’s Supergirl, we learn that Kara may be competent as an assistant and courageous as Supergirl but she’s a horrible babysitter.

We learned this when she volunteers to watch Cat’s son Carter so her boss can accept a media award out of town. But Kara is preoccupied trying to stop a series of bombs at various spots connected to Maxwell Lord’s tech company.

The alleged culprit is a distraught former employee named Ethan Knox, who looks to ruin everything the mogul has created to make him pay for firing him. Alex is on the case and gets to know Maxwell, who is gearing up to launch his super train.

Meanwhile Kara’s feelings for Jimmy get stronger, even though his former love, Lucy Lane, remains in town.

Alex feels if Kara hears Jimmy has relationship problems about Lucy she will be stuck in the friend zone. When Kara hears Lucy was the one who broke up with him, she thinks about making a move. The idea changes after she finds out Lucy ended things with Jimmy  because his obsession with helping Superman took up all his time. Lucy worries to Kara that she won’t be able to compete with Supergirl. Heh.

Feeling bad for Lucy, Kara puts in a good word in for her, saying to Jimmy that Lucy still loves him. It doesn’t’ seem to be enough. Lucy kisses him goodbye and heads to the airport…where a bomb is discovered! Jimmy gets the news and goes to find Lucy at the airport. He realizes he still has a thing for Lucy. The ordeal brings them together.

Kara asks Winn to watch Carter, but he gets away. The youngster is fascinated by Supergirl and goes to the train opening with hopes to meet her. There is a bomb believed to be on the train as well. Winn alerts Kara that he saw Carter on the train, but Ethan is also a passenger. Kara chooses to focus on the train, leaving Hank and Alex with the job of detonating the bomb at the airport. When Hank is alone, he reveals he has powers of his own and stops the device. He then tells Alex it was a decoy.

Supergirl tries to convince Ethan not to go through with his apparent plan by trying to get him to think of his daughter in the hospital. He presses the button on his vest, giving Supergirl a mere 30 seconds to save the day. She stops the train. From the initial look of things, the only casualty is Ethan after there is an explosion. Carter enjoyed watching the heroine in action up-close and tells Cat when she gets back that he wants Kara to watch him again.

Supergirl is suspicious and thinks there is more to the story. She confronts Maxwell about it. It turns out the bombs had fail-safes and everything was an ultimate test for Supergirl. He used Ethan and his need to help his daughter to get what he wanted. Maxwell basically wanted to get an idea of how Supergirl worked, including her strengths and weaknesses.

After this episode, we are starting to  see the villainous side of Maxwell. No doubt we have only scratched the surface of interactions between himself and Supergirl.

• Watch Supergirl Mondays at 8.7CT on CBS.
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