For her part, Kara’s struggle here is that she’s trying to do too much balancing between Kara the person, Kara the assistant, and Supergirl. She ultimately gets to learn a valuable lesson from Cat in one of the episode’s few standout scenes, but otherwise it’s an uncomfortable mix of being a DEO lapdog, being a terrible babysitter, and giving longing looks in James’ general direction. The one element of Kara’s story here that worked was her relationship with Carter, Cat’s son, who clearly has a crush on Supergirl. It’s a little creepy that Kara seems to enjoy his affections, but also not unreasonable if you consider how hard a time she’s been having winning over the public.
The series started strong in giving Benoist a stage to be charming, but “How Does She Do It,” like “Livewire” last week, there are too many plates spinning to give her many chances to show her stuff. The beat where Supergirl is nearly blown to bits fails to land because Kara is hardly off her feet for more than a minute and the rest of the episode follows suit. We don’t really get any time to consider how Kara feels about the things she’s doing, let alone why she’s doing them. Benoist is still magnetic and really the only reason to suffer through this episode, but the potential is so much more.
A bulk of her attention is directed toward James and Lucy, whose overwrought relationship elicits only groans every time they appear on screen together. The setup itself is fine – a returning ex-girlfriend to complicate our hero’s affections – but the on-the-noise dialogue between the former lovers is increasingly cliché. We’ve barely had time to really invest in Kara and James as a (potential) item, especially after James botched the whole Reactron thing, so introducing a wrench at this stage just seems premature. Since there’s no investment in either relationship, all of these scenes fall flat and feel like they are taking up time from something more valuable.
developing the villain, for instance. A mad bomber is at large with some connection to Maxwell Lord, and the show tries to give the bomber a Sandman-esque backstory -- a sick daughter that he’s trying to save -- but it’s so convoluted that we barely care. The action scenes themselves aren’t even exciting; the finale lacks tension thanks to the rushed nature of the pacing, and the stakes feel low even when the characters are trying to tell us otherwise.
Even when it’s revealed that Lord is the mastermind behind the whole thing, positioning him to be the Lex Luthor to Kara’s Supergirl, we’re too distracted by Peter Facinelli’s scene chewing that we’re taken out of the moment and unable to really appreciate the potential. I did like how decisive and confident Kara was in her scene with Lord, once again proving that Benoist, even when the show is at its worst, is a star.
Lord’s interactions with Alex are no better, as the two engage in semi-flirtatious dialogue about their lives and histories that not only feels horribly unnatural but also confirms that there is zero chemistry between the two actors. The scenes are a slog to endure, and the worst part is that they’re often followed by a scene with James and Lucy.
There are some redeeming moments to the episode, however. Lord’s inside baseball Batman joke about orphans not getting over things easily made me chuckle, as did Winn’s insistence that the items on his desk weren’t toys, but rather adult collectibles. I also think the show is doing a great job of slowly revealing what Henshaw’s deal is, even go so far as to show him using powers but still not explaining it. It’s the one real element of mystery the show has going for it, and I thought the swapped viewing order actually helped this element of the show quite a bit.
