Supergirl Recap With Spoilers: Here's Everything You Missed In "The Last Gauntlet"

By Nicole Drum - November 9, 2021 10:28 pm EST

After six seasons, the end of Supergirl is finally here. The long-running Arrowverse series ends this week with a two-hour finale that kicks off with "The Last Gauntlet" and after the events of last week's "Truth or Consequences", the stakes couldn't be higher for the Super Friends. Lex Luthor (Jon Cryer) not only murdered William Dey (Staz Nair) but kidnapped Esme, Kelly (Azie Tesfai) and Alex's (Chyler Leigh) daughter as it turns out she is the Love Totem, something the Super Friends discovered at the end of the episode. Now, the team has to figure out how to save Esme even as they continue to try to stop Nyxly (Peta Sergeant) and Lex in their quest to assemble the All Stone.

With "The Last Gauntlet" being the second to last episode of the series, anything is possible when it comes to this high-stakes showdown. Need to get caught up on what happens in the episode before heading into the series finale, "Kara"? Read on for our recap, but be warned: MAJOR spoilers for "The Last Gauntlet" beyond this point.

Ransom

The Super Friends are stunned by William's murder and Esme's kidnapping when a recording of Lex begins to play. He tells them that Esme won't be harmed. He wants to make a trade: the five totems the Super Friends have plus the one still out there in exchange for Esme and he wants to meet them on essentially neutral ground, a bridge near the Fort Rozz crash site from Season 1. It happens to be a dead zone. The Super Friends fail and Esme will die.

Love (Totem) problems

The team gets into action trying to locate both Esme and the final totem, the Destiny Totem. Alex wants to give Lex and Nyxly what they want to get Esme back no matter the cost, but Kara tries to talk her down and reassure her that she will get Esme back. At Lex and Nyxly's hideout, Esme is distraught despite attempts to calm her. However, when Nyxly tries to activate the gauntlet for the Love Totem, it doesn't work and the totem itself starts to lose its petals. Lex wants to cut the totem out of Esme, but Nyxly refuses to harm an innocent child. She demands his word that he would never hurt the child.

Lillian's ultimatum

Andrea, as Acrata, enters the Tower and encounters Lena. Andrea tearfully insists that she's a monster and Lena asks her what's she's going to do about it. Lena tells her there is still time for her to be a better person. In the medbay, Kara struggles with William's death and talks to J'onn. Kara is ready to do whatever it takes to stop Lex and Nyxly. J'onn is with her on this.

At Lex's hideout, his mother Lillian shows up. She wants to know what his move is as reports that the murder of William and kidnapping of Esme have gotten out. He tells her about how he's in love with Nyxly. She's not impressed and demands he drop Nyxly. Lex chooses Nyxly when given an ultimatum. Meanwhile, Nyxly tries to win Esme's trust. She again tries to activate the gauntlet, but the totem continues to lose petals.

Family conflict

At the Tower, Alex has a breakdown about her missing daughter and Kelly reminds her of how much they love Esme and that they will get her back, whatever it takes. Brainy fits Nia with a special gauntlet for the Dream Totem and then he gives her a pep talk about how seeing the truth, good or bad, allows them to deal with things. She brings Brainy with her into the Dream Realm. They locate the Destiny Totem. It's in Prague, turns out it's connected to the Fates, specifically Clotho. Kara activates the totem and faces the gauntlet only for Alex to show up and take the totem from her. The sisters disagree over how to handle the situation and Alex leaves with the totem. She also takes the others to pay the ransom.

Lillian confronts Nyxly. She tries to plant seeds of doubt about Lex with Nyxly, telling her that Lex is just using her.

A (bad) plan.

Brainy has an idea about how they might be able to stop the All Stone. Using a special solar satellite, they can essentially supercharge Supergirl so that 5th Dimensional magic would be useless against her. However, it will also potentially be catastrophic to the sun and thus, life on Earth. Both options in this situation are potential global destruction.

The difference between heroes and villains

With time running out, Lex moves to get the Love Totem out of Esme. Nyxly runs in as he cracks open the orb and Nyxly realizes that Lillian was right. Nyxly's protection of Esme is what ultimately gets her the Love Totem and Nyxly takes Esme to give her back to her family - and breaks up with Lex. Alex and Kelly go to the bridge, backed up by Nia and Lena while J'onn sets up the satellite to charge up Kara. The exchange happens on the bridge and the All Stone forms. That's when Lillian and Lex show up to blow up the bridge. As Supergirl charges, the military shows up to stop her however, Supergirl calls for them to shut it down before it's complete realizing a power grab is what villains do.

The power of the people

At the bridge's remains, a fight breaks out between the heroes and Lex and Nyxly as they all try to get the All Stone. Esme ultimately grabs the stone and shatters it with Supergirl, Nyxly, and Lex all getting a shard with Nyxly and Lex pitted against one another. Lena uses magic to try to stop them, but Lillian gets caught in Nyxly's crossfire and is gravely wounded. Lex and Nyxly continue fighting as they transform into monsters while the world is drained of the elements the totems represented. Kara leaves the Tower to think. She hears someone telling people not to give up - it's Orlando. He's restoring hope. Kara now knows what to do.

Now that you're all caught up on the penultimate episode of Supergirl, you can check out the recap for the second part of the series finale, "Kara", here.