Even superheroes have moments of weakness; Kara Danvers’ Supergirl doesn’t break that mold. Pushing through panic attacks and the tragedies of her past, Supergirl conquered fear itself in the form of a cat metaphor-loving metahuman.
This story contains spoilers for Supergirl Season 3, Episode 2, “Triggers.”
The baddie of the week, Psi (portrayed by Jane the Virgin’s Yael Grobglas), summons a person’s worst fears to the forefront with a mere tip of her head. Kara is caught wholly off-guard inside a bank vault by her own fear, which is later revealed to be about the destruction of Krypton and her time spent inside that compact spaceship.
The fear morphs, though, as Kara suffers generic, run-of-the-mill panic attacks (a bit of a shock for a superpower Kryptonian). They’re the kind that leave her gasping for breath, the world reeling around her. Kara, who’s expected to struggle with her dual-sided identity in Season 3, grows frustrated that Psi can influence her even when she’s in full, determined Girl of Steel mode.
“I can feel strong even though a huge part of me feels weak,” Kara tells Alex. “And she’s taking that away from me. And if I don’t have Supergirl, what do I have?”
“You got me,” Alex replies expectedly, holding her little sister together.
Kara’s fear morphs, though. Suddenly, rather than being terrified for her past self and reliving the horrors of being trapped with no planet or family, Kara is reminded that Mon-El (Chris Wood) — her lost love — is currently in the same situation. She suffers through her strongest panic attack yet, gasping for breath as she tells Alex over and over that she killed Mon-El by putting him in that spaceship.
Again, Alex is the one to pull her out. Kara returns to defeat Psi with a renewed lease on life. Let’s just hope that sticks around. It seems Season 3 will focus on Kara’s slow road to recovery as she beats down one baddie at a time and prepares for the season’s real challenge — an earth-shattering character who we’ve already met.
Supergirl airs on the CW on Mondays at 8 p.m. EST.
