Supergirl Season 1, Episode 1: Pilot

“I’ve always felt the need to help people and tonight I finally got that chance”

Supergirl is a show that first aired on CBS in 2015 starring Melissa Benoist in the titular role. Along with Melissa Benoist as Kara Danvers, the show also stars Mehcad Brooks as James Olsen, Chyler Leigh as Alex Danvers, Jeremy Jordan as Winn Schott, David Harewood as Hank Henshaw, and Calista Flockhart as Cat Grant. This episode, and most of the series, takes place in the fictional city of National City, California. Episode 1, titled Pilot, aired on October 26, 2015. The brief plot synopsis, provided alongside the dvd release of season 1, reads; “Superman’s cousin, Kara, finally embraces her superhuman abilities to become the hero she was always meant to be”. While this synopsis covers the basis for the plot, it leaves out a lot from this densely packed episode.

The episode starts with a monologue by Kara Danvers as she explains her life from the day she left Krypton up until the present day, this origin includes her being trapped in the phantom zone, her arrival long after her cousin, the introduction of Jeremiah, Eliza and Alex Danvers, and her “normal” life of being Cat Grant’s assistant. The episode then shifts to a day in the life for Kara as she navigates being Cat Grant’s assistant and coworker to Winn Schott. She then meets new employee James Olsen who gives her a print of the first ever photograph of Superman. We cut to later in the day as Kara is getting ready for a blind date with the help of her sister Alex who is about to leave for a flight. On Kara’s (poorly matched) blind date, she overhears a news story of a plane about to crash and she realizes this is the plane her sister is on. While somewhat of a bumpy ride, she does successfully save the day and enter the public’s eye as Supergirl. Kara is ecstatic at the thought of saving lives and helping people, but her sister doesn’t think so highly of it and a brief fight ends the night for these 2 sisters. Cut to the next morning and CatCo is a buzz with the news of a new superhero in National City. Cat Grant’s is instructing her team to find out anything the can about this new heroine and afterwards Kara takes Winn up to the roof to reveal to him that she was the girl who saved the plane. We then go into a montage of her and Winn working on her costume and her preforming heroic deeds. As this is going on we’re introduced to Vartox, the villain of this episode who witnesses the saves of the maid of might and sets out to go attack her. We then jump to Kara suiting up as Supergirl to go save the day when suddenly she is taken down by kryptonite. Kara wakes up in the DEO and is met with Director Hank Henshaw. To Kara’s surprise, she also sees that her sister is part of this organization that hunts down aliens. Kara is once again told to stop fighting crime as Supergirl, but she refuses and storms off. She then hears a high pitched message that only her superhuman ears can hear and she follows the message to meet and face off with Vartox. Vartox easily takes out Supergirl, but before doing so, he informs her that he was a prisoner of Ft. Rozz and was sentenced there by Kara’s mother Alura. Before Vartox is able to make the killing blow, the DEO steps in to get her to safety. Back at the DEO, they study a shard of Vartox’s axe that got stuck in Supergirl’s arm. Feeling defeated, Kara returns to her apartment and is ready to give up the heroic life when Alex shows up with a Kryptonian hologram of Alura. This message from her mom gets Kara fired up and ready to go back into action. In the rematch fight, Kara is once again overpowered, but with a plan formed by Alex and the rest of the DEO, she is able to take Vartox down. The next day after her success she meets with James Olsen who informs her that he knew she was superpowered and tells her that her cousin Superman sent him to National City to check up on her. James also comes with a gift of the blanket that Superman came to earth in. This extra bit of motivation further elevates Kara to know that she’s doing the right thing in being a hero.

There is quite a lot in this episode and it very easily could’ve been spread across a few episodes, maybe the first episode would just be her saving the plane, then an episode of her and Winn working together on a costume and doing small saves, and then the Vartox episode. While this approach would’ve worked and I think it could’ve been good that way too, I’m glad it’s all in this first episode because it really helps give a feel for the series. All of the main cast is given something to do and they all play a part in the progression of Kara becoming Supergirl. Winn is a huge support with Kara starting out as a hero, James is mostly keeping to the sidelines but casually supporting Kara stepping up, Cat Grant is Kara’s boss but also helps Kara by often giving her words of advice and speaking up for Supergirl, Alex starts off rather wary of her sister stepping into danger but eventually gets more comfortable and sees that together they can make great things happen, Hank Henshaw seems the most underdeveloped in this episode and is mainly just there as the hard edged and disapproving military agent trying to keep Supergirl out of the skies.

I really love how this show approaches the girl of steel and I feel like Melissa Benoist really nails the role. The idea of a girl sent to protect her baby cousin but getting there too late and not having a purpose in life is an interesting approach to the character. Kara is shown as someone who really wants to be a hero and save lives but doesn’t know how. This lets us see a superhero who is just starting out, but isn’t new to her powers like so many other superhero shows of the time were doing. Instead of learning how to fly, we see her learn how to save the day.

I really enjoyed revisiting the pilot to this series and it made me really want to dive in and look back at the rest of the show. If you enjoyed my thoughts or have anything to add to the discussion feel free to send me an email at daringnewblog@gmail.com. Thanks so much for reading!