With Manchester Black still on the loose and James Olsen shot in the back, Supergirl and her friends already have their hands full. But as if all that wasn’t bad enough, Lena’s infamous brother Lex Luthor has arrived in National City. Lex’s physical body may be in terrible shape, but his mind is as sharp as ever. But can he be trusted to help his sister. “O Brother, Where Art Thou?” brings one the most classic villains in comic book history to the screen while juggling multiple stories. The attack on James and Manchester Black take up most of the time not spent on Lex, though every character gets some continuation on a piece of their story.
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The episode sets up a lot of interesting questions about the rest of the season as well as shows that not everything that’s happened up to this point is what it seems. David Harewood stands out with a powerful performance. J’onn’s obsession with finding Manchester Black reaches new heights and Harewood is more than capable of bringing J’onn’s struggle to life with a truly moving performance. Jesse Rath also hits new emotional heights for Brainy, showing new sides to the character and actually allowing Brainy’s usual comedy to take a backseat. Katie McGrath shines as Lena copes both with James’s shooting and Lex’s arrival.
As Kelly Olsen, Azie Tesfai fits in well with the rest of the cast. Melissa Benoist, Chyler Leigh, and Nicole Maines all showcase their characters beautifully. And Andrea Brooks gets to do quite a bit more with Eve than we’re used to.
But the star of the hour is unquestionably Jon Cryer as Lex Luthor, who is clearly having a ball playing the bald super villain. Cryer slips into the character as easily as Lex slips into a fine suit. Finding the perfect balance of cruelty, insanity, love for his sister, and awareness of his own faults, Cryer’s Luthor is something different than we have seen before. Cryer creates a villain that lives up to the character’s hype and long history and makes a Lex Luthor that the audience can easily love to hate, and hate to love as well.
With the season finale getting closer, Supergirl picks up speed with Oh Brother, Where Art Thou. The episode sets up a lot of interesting and exciting question to carry audiences through to the end of the season. As well as giving the actors quite a bit to work with and letting so many of them have a chance to show how talented they are. Now that the often mentioned Lex Luthor has finally come to town, Supergirl and her friends have their work cut out for them.
Supergirl airs at 8 p.m. ET/PT on Sunday nights, before episodes of Charmed on The CW.
