BWW Recap: SUPERGIRL Questions 'Truth, Justice, and the American Way'

This week on SUPERGIRL, Kara's values come under questioning as she struggles with the idea of justice. The Master Jailer takes the fate of former Fort Rozz prisoners into his own hands, Cat gets a new assistant at the office, and Kara tries to deal her grief for Astra.

Kara is struggling to deal with her emotions after Astra's death. "I miss Astra," she tells Alex and says that she thinks with a little more time, she could have gotten through to her. Right as Alex is about to admit that she's the one who killed Kara's aunt, Non flies into Kara's apartment. But, false alarm, he's only come to invite Kara to Astra's funeral.

Non tells Kara, "She would have wanted you here." In Kryptonian custom, he explains, a surviving female leads the funeral rites. Kara recites the prayer, while crying, before Non tells her that he will observe the two week period of mourning. But then, he tells her, "The next coffin will be yours." I actually found this scene between Kara and her uncle to be quite touching; one thing I appreciate about Kara's family is that even when they're fighting, they respect what being family means.

Max Lord demands to see Kara and asks her why he hasn't been released in exchange for saving her. After quipping that he was given Netflix in return for his good deed, Kara angrily tells him, "Without you, the world is a better place." It's clear that Astra's death has hit Kara hard, because she isn't acting like herself.

When Kara returns to CatCo, she encounters a new problem: Cat has hired a second assistant. Siobhan is determined to show Kara up and Cat declares that Kara is "Assistant Number 2." (Honestly, Cat? Low blow.) Kara tells Winn that she isn't upset and that she wants to give Siobhan a chance...and then promptly accidentally crushes her desk phone. I guess hiding your anger is harder when you have superhuman strength.

Cat suspects that Max is missing, but James tries to discourage her from pursuing it. Cat dramatically declares, "It is up to me to save him...oh the burden of power" and sends Lucy and James off to research where he might be.

James asks Kara to talk to him and is interrupted by Siobhan hitting on him. That's what that was, right? It seems no woman on this show can resist James. He questions Kara on her decision to keep Max in the DEO prison, telling her, "He still deserves his fundamental human rights." When Kara responds that he should be locked up and tells him not to question the DEO, James says, "It's not the DEO's ethics I'm worried about." #ouch

Meanwhile, a Fort Rozz prisoner has escaped and DEO agents go to the prisoner's hiding place to bring him back. But before they can, they end up in a fight with a new monster who abducts the prisoner. Kara is upset that Hank didn't ask her to help with the mission.

The strange iron monster, Master Jailer, wants the alien to face justice. Though the escaped prisoner points out, "There is no death penalty on Krypton," Master Jailer beheads him with a fancy electric guillotine. Where did that come from? The French Revolution?

Hank and Alex pose as FBI agents and go to interview some local detectives who reveal that there have been five other kidnappings and killings. All the victims were beheaded and all were "weird," including one who had gills.

While Siobhan continues to antagonize Kara, even asking her what her relationship with James is, Lucy has an exciting lead on Max's disappearance. When she shows her evidence to James, he recommends that they don't pursue it and slips up and mentions the DEO. Lucy quickly realizes that SUPERGIRL must have told him about it and asks "How close are you two? Are you as close with her as you are with him? Or closer?" Honestly, I'm starting to question how long this Lucy-James-Kara thing can go on.

Alex and Hank realize that the Master Jailer is killing escapees in their prison number order. Kara tries to prevent him from abducting his next victim, but he manages to win their fight.

In a surprisingly touching scene between Cat and James, she tells him that journalism is never good until it becomes personal. She confesses that it's a lesson that she learned the hard way by not revealing a popular actor's abuse of his wife which may have prevented her death at his hands only months later. She tells James that they do what they do not only to be good journalists, but "because we also want to be good people." As much as I despise Cat's current treatment of Kara, I have to admit that she's a fascinating character.

James shows up to the DEO to try to reason with Kara about Max Lord. When he asks, "You're holding humans and you are completely unaccountable. Don't you see that this is exactly why Max Lord hates you?" Kara is highly offended. He tells her that her true battles against her enemies will always be about values. "Kara, I don't recognize you like this," he says and frankly, I agree with him. One of the things I love about Kara is that she has such strong morals and she's so inherently good even in the face of difficult decisions.

Alex and Hank match the DNA of Master Jailer to one of the detectives that they interviewed and Kara goes to stop them. But he manages to abduct her back to his creepy justice-lair. He traps Kara in a strange box that uses red light to keep her powers from working. The former prisoner he'd stolen earlier is trapped in a similar box beside of Kara.

The escaped prisoner explains that he became a drug smuggler to pay his wife's medical bills but upon coming to earth, became an astronomy professor because he wanted to do good. "One tragedy cannot be undone by committing another," he tells Kara. I think that's exactly what she needed to hear.

Hank and Alex put together that Draper, or Master Jailer, was a guard on Fort Rozz and is trying to recreate the prison (or rather, his idea of it) on Earth. Meanwhile, Draper tries to convince Kara to join him in his mission of carrying out her mother's work. He states, "Justice must be absolute."

As Draper is preparing to kill his prisoner, Alex and the other DEO agents break into his lair. He has almost forced Alex into his guillotine when she shoots at the red light in Kara's box, allowing her to be freed and save the day.

After defeating Master Jailer, Kara lets the professor-alien go. "You've already served your time and you have students to teach," she tells him. Then she lets Max Lord free as well...though Alex warns him that they have enough records to have him rearrested if he says anything about the DEO's existence. It was so good to see Kara return to her true values.

Office drama continues as Siobhan tells Kara, "I'm not here to make friends. I'm here to be the next Cat Grant." And when Kara goes to thank James for his pep talk, he asks her if he can tell Lucy the truth. Starting to wonder if Kara might have more luck at a different job...

Kara goes to question the A.I. holograph of her mother about something Non mentioned: Myriad. But it threatens to self-destroy if she continues talking about Myriad. Kara is still upset with Hank about him killing Astra. "I don't know how to work alongside you anymore," she tells him. I'm so worried about the truth of Astra's death coming out.

The shining star of this episode was, without a doubt, Mehcad Brooks as James. (Not that Melissa didn't kill it like she does every week.) He delivered an incredibly moving performance and even made me want to be a better person. My only complaint about the episode was that Jeremy Jordan was barely in it...

What'd you think of the episode? Do you hate Siobhan as much as I do? Let me know on Twitter at @nicoleackman16.

Photo Credit: CBS