Supergirl came back from a short hiatus on Sunday night but while the episode brought a conclusion to Winn’s return from the 31st century with the second part of its “Back From the Future” arc, it also saw some changes for Supergirl’s team in the present. While Winn (Jeremy Jordan) had to face off with one of his biggest fears, Alex (Chyler Leigh) found herself at a crossroads in her professional life in the new, Earth-Prime reality. By the end of the episode, Alex had made a difficult choice and it amounts to not only a major status quo change for the character, but for those around her as well.
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Spoilers for this week’s episode of Supergirl, “Back From the Future Part 2” below.
One of the things that has been troubling for Supergirl and her allies since the events of “Crisis on Infinite Earths” is Lex Luthor (Jon Cryer). In this new reality he’s presented as a good guy and has his fingers in a lot of pies, including the DEO. It’s a situation that Alex and Supergirl just do not trust and it prompts Alex to attempt to use some spyware to figure out what Lex is doing. However, by the time we get to the end of the episode — after all of the issues that technology posed thanks to the AI Toyman situation that turned technology against them — Alex decided that the best thing she could do was leave the DEO.
Alex resigned from the DEO and went, instead, to work with J’onn at the new Tower. However, that’s not the only shift at the DEO. Alex’s departure fulfilled something that Lex wanted — he had tasked Brainy with ensuring that Alex wasn’t a threat to their operation — and in her absence he decided to promote Brainy to director instead. Of course, Brainy is also having concerns about his alliance Lex and while he isn’t jumping ship just yet, he tells Alex that his remaining at the DEO will offer the heroes eyes and ears there as to what Lex is up to.
It’s a surprising shift for the characters, but Alex’s new role at the Tower goes a long way towards establishing that location with all of its comic book connotations, something that J’onn actor David Harewood previously spoke a bit about.
“I think J’onn has always been a very courageous and honorable character. That’s sort of how I try to play him. I don’t think that’s a big change for J’onn, and I think it’s kind of business as usual,” Harewood told ComicBook.com. “But I do think, post-Crisis, working together with all the other supers. You’ll see this very much on Sunday — working together with all the other supers has inspired J’onn to create a space himself outside of the DEO. We have a brand-new location that we’ll be introducing on Sunday, a new space called the Tower, which really is sort of an extension of J’onn working with the Justice League and working with the other supers.”
Supergirl airs Sundays at 9/8c on The CW.
