One of the major focuses of Supergirl‘s fifth season has been the intersection of technology and everyday life, something that the show has centered round the use of virtual reality as an escape and the various problems and challenges that causes. Last week, that meant exploring the dark side of the virtual world with Alex having to rescue a man trapped in a VR prison of sorts, but in this week’s episode, it’s Alex’s turn to escape into a virtual world, one which sees her take on a whole new persona. Here’s what you need to know about this week’s episode, “Alex in Wonderland”.
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Warning: Full spoilers for Supergirl‘s “Alex in Wonderland” below.
The episode opens up with Kara preparing for Jeremiah’s funeral, but Alex is refusing to go to said funeral. Alex says that she doesn’t need to go to a funeral for a man who has been dead to her for years. She’s also angry that Jeremiah treated Kara differently than he did her. Left alone, Alex decides to try out the Obsidian Platinum lenses and disappear into a world where she’s Supergirl.
In reality, William goes to meet with Kelly for her help in investigating Lex as he’s been placing a lot of satellites into space. Kelly has her suspicions about Lex herself, though she’s not sure he’s messing with Obsidian. In the VR, Alex encounters another real person dealing with real life issues and saves a musician who doesn’t seem to be aware he’s really in a VR simulation and it’s revealed to the viewer that he’s one of the people the Leviathan lady has stored.
While investigating, Kelly discovers the failsafe glitch hasn’t been fixed and tells Andrea, though Andrea largely dismisses her concerns. In VR, Alex confides in the other real person she met, Tilly, about Jeremiah’s death and decides to head back to the real world. Tilly suddenly no longer seems to be aware there is a real world while the bartender seems to be in on it. In the real world, the old Leviathan lady shows up and collects Tilly, whose real name is Bonnie. She’s stuck in the VR world.
Super Alex reports to the DEO where “Hank Henshaw” has kidnapped Kara and is threatening to kill Kara if she doesn’t do what he wants. What he wants is revenge against Jeremiah Danvers. He’s going to kill everyone Alex loves. She defeats him. In reality, Kelly realizes that Lex is on the board of Obsidian which means he could be involved in the failsafe issue. Kelly gets a list of everyone who might be trapped in the VR. And Alex is about to be one of them.
In the VR, Alex encounters another Supergirl who makes her realize that things aren’t real. It snaps her out… except she’s actually still stuck in the VR. Getting out of the “fantasy” didn’t take her out of the fake world. J’onn calls on her and she zips off as Supergirl. In reality, Kelly finds Alex trapped in the Obsidian Platinum world, unresponsive on the couch.She hits her with adrenaline but nothing happens so Kelly goes in to get her, to no avail. Kelly decides to shock Alex with Alex herself, programming an NPC younger version of herself into the simulation. Alex ends up having to confront the reality that Jeremiah is dead. Alex ends the simulation.
Alex tells Kelly that several people were lost in the VR, specifically Bonnie and Derek. William gets information that all of the unreachable VR people are at one suspect address. Kelly reports the issue to Andrea, who asks someone to do a full workup on the code — the person she asks being Eve. William goes to the address he’s given but finds nothing. Leviathan has cloaked their operation. It’s literally right in front of him, but as he’s leaving he finds a major clue. Alex goes to her father’s funeral.
