WARNING: The following contains spoilers for Supergirl Season 6, Episode 6, “Prom Again!,” which aired Tuesday on The CW.
After a dramatic start that saw Kara trapped in the Phantom Zone and the Super Friends reeling from the emotional fallout as they struggled to find her, Supergirl Season 6 loosened up with “Prom Night!,” the first half of a two-parter that followed Brainy and Nia back in time to Midvale, 2009, to recover a piece of Kara’s DNA and, in the process, more or less relive the experience of being hormonal teenagers. The aptly-named Episode 6, “Prom Again!,” picks up from there, delivering an installment full of emotional closure, surprising origin stories and more cracks about the late 2000s — a distant era when everyone was really into jeggings and Lady Gaga — than one can shake a stick at.
“Prom Again!” kicks off with teenaged Kara deftly rescuing Brainy and Nia from their not-so-threatening captors Naxim Tork and Mitch, with Cat (sorry, CJ) Grant recording the whole thing with a drone camera. At first, all seems well: Brainy imprisons Naxim and Mitch aboard their ship and sets it to de-cloak in Uruguay in three days, restoring the timeline. He and Nia then begin preparing to blend in at Midvale High’s prom, though not before Nia has another dream, this time of an empty cage without the pink cougar she keeps seeing. Later that night, while Alex drops Kara off for the dance, the Danver sisters have a heart to heart moment. It’s one of many touching exchanges between characters in “Prom Again!,” an episode that also marks Chyler Leigh’s directorial debut.
Unfortunately, all the sweetness — including, a slow dance between Brainy and Nia aboard their vessel — is shattered when Cat releases Naxim and Mitch from their ship and the Kryptonite meteor starts plummeting for Midvale High, preventing Kara from telling Kenny the truth about her plans for next year. While Kara is able to stop the meteorite, injuring her hand as she was meant to, Naxim and Mitch show up demanding the planet’s Kryptonian reveal themselves, prompting Kenny to claim he’s the one they’re looking for. They capture him and throw him in a cell with Cat, but not before discovering he’s human and sending a message to all non-humans on Earth: either Kara reveals herself to them or they kill Kenny in the next ten minutes.
With Kara still weak from being exposed to Kryptonite but determined to save Kenny on her own, Nia stops her by knocking her out before locking her and Alex in a janitor’s closet and setting off with Brainy. Lucky for them, Alex learned about lock-picking at college (as you do), so the pair are quickly able to break out. Not long after, Nia unlocks some brand-new super powers as Dreamer when she captures the pink cougar in her dream and, without knowing how, unleashes it on Naxim and Mitch in the real-world. But just as everything seems to be going smoothly, the scheming villains make their way back to their craft, only for Kara and the others to inadvertently set some of their imprisoned aliens loose. If that wasn’t enough, the Midvale police come rolling up, with Cat ready to finally win her Pulitzer by revealing Kara to the world.
So, what now? Well, as Nia points out to a panicking Brainy, they have a time machine so… why not go back into the past far enough to fix everything that went wrong? It’s not a bad plan, given the circumstances, though it’s nearly derailed by Kara stowing aboard Brainy and Nia’s ship after overhearing them via her super-hearing. Thankfully, things go smoother from there: Nia destroys Cat’s drone and, upon crossing paths with her in the woods, convinces her she has a future outside of writing gossip columns for the Daily Planet. Never one to deny her own ambition, Cat — who no longer goes by CJ — quits her job and leaves Midvale in her rearview mirror, though not before scribbling “CatCo” and a drawing of the pink cougar down onto her paper napkin. (How’s that for a predestination paradox?)
Once the re-imprisoned Naxim and Mitch are shuttled off to Uruguay, “Prom Again!” ends on a somewhat more serious note. Kara, after punching the Kryptonite meteorite (technically) a second time, tells Kenny she loves him and their adventures in Midvale, but admits she got accepted into National City University and is uncertain about her future, including whether she wants to keep “supering” forever. (Les we forget, this is Supergirl‘s final season.) She asks Kenny to go with her, but he admits that after everything that happened this past week, he feels it’s time for him to figure out how to save himself on his own.
Elsewhere, back on their ship, Brainy and Nia head back to the present-day carrying the chunk of meteorite with Kara’s blood on it. Feeling much better than before, Brainy assures Nia she was great today and even gives her a kiss. When Nia notices he’s beginning to tear up, Brainy admits he had forgotten what positive feelings are like and says that might be the lesson of high school: learning to endure the bad emotions so you can appreciate the good ones, like his newfound sense of hopefulness.
Supergirl stars Melissa Benoist as Kara Danvers, David Harewood as Martian Manhunter, Chyler Leigh as Alex Danvers, Nicole Maines as Dreamer and Jesse Rath as Brainiac-5. New episodes air Tuesdays at 9 p.m. ET/PT on The CW.
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