Supergirl Recap: Here’s Everything You Missed in “Fear Knot”

This week mark’s the midseason finale for Supergirl with the series going on extended hiatus until August and it’s an episode that will has some of the highest stakes of the season thus far. With Nia and Brainy having retrieved Kara’s DNA, it’s time for the Super Friends to try to rescue her from the Phantom Zone. They will only have one chance to do so or she’ll be lost forever and it comes with some pretty major risks. On top of that, the team will be presented with their own worst fears as they push forward, fears that could not only make them fail the mission but succumb to the Phantoms as well.

The episode is set up with nearly each character experiencing the same general “event” so this recap reads a bit differently as each of the Super Friends deals with their part of the mission. Need to get caught up on the major details and stories from “Fear Knot”, this week’s episode of Supergirl? We’re here to help. Here are the major plot points for “Fear Knot”. Warning: Full spoilers for the episode beyond this point. Read on only if you want to know.

Rescue plan

The episode picks up with Kara assisting her father away from the anchor as the region of the Phantom Zone they are in destabilizes. Kara is attacked by Phantoms and infected with their despair.

Two hours earlier. Brainy and Nia return with Kara’s blood from Midvale. The team got ready in their absence. J’onn reveals that the Tower is also a ship so they are ready to go. J’onn explains how the Phantoms work differently in the Phantom Zone. Kelly offers some techniques to deal with the fear that they’ll encounter. Lena has a device to recharge Supergirl. They get set up with their briefing and go. 

Alex’s Fear

They encounter a lot of turbulence, and quickly end up with a problem when the Phantom they have on board escapes his cell and injures Alex. Faced with having to go into quarantine until they can get home, Alex decides to lock J’onn up instead so she can save her sister.

Brainy realizes that Alex’s been infected when Phantoms start attacking the ship. Kelly says they have to turn back, but Alex decides to forge ahead alone. She sacrifices herself so the team can save Supergirl.

Lena’s Fear

10 minutes earlier. Nia and Lena chat, with Nia admitting that without her mom she has more questions than answers. They bond over their shared loss of mothers. As previous, the turbulence and power surges start again. Lena discovers a coolant leak and heads off to check. and she discovers an alien creature of some sort in the engine room. When she calls for help, no one replies. and she returns to the main deck to find everyone dead, drowining  except for Nia. The two run from the creature and Lena says it reminds her of something from a book of folklores her mother read to her as a child. Lena is horrified because it reminds her of her mother’s drowning. The creature then kills Nia in front of her. 

Lena then realizes that she’s in a fear vision and tries to use Kelly’s tips against it.

Kelly’s Fear

10 minutes earlier. Brainy talks with Kelly and tells her he’s glad she’s on the mission. Kelly admits she feels a little out of her depth. The power surge happens and this time, we’re dealign with Kelly’s fear. Kelly discovers something weird with the q-wave interface and Kelly, with Alex, goes to check with Lena. Kelly finds Lena and Nia possessed by the Phantom and, soon after, Alex. The posessed trio taunt Kelly for not being a superhero, saying she stands no chance. Kelly confronts the posessed Alex and snaps her out of it but Alex tells Kelly she has to use the escape pod which only has room for one. The Phantom escapes, re-posesses Alex.

Nia’s Fear

10 minutes earlier. Power surge again. This time, it’s Nia’s fear. She finds the Phantom is out of its containment cell. It’s a dream and she tells her self to try to decipher it. Brainy wakes her up, telling her the Phantom is contained and everything is back on track, but Nia insists something is wrong. She and Brainy go to check, but he’s not so sure about her being right, pointing out her lack of training. Suddenly, there is an integrity breach. The thimble she saw in her dream was her clue. She decides to sew the breach shut, but she fails. Nia not being able to interpret her dream cost them too much time.

J’onn and Brainy

10 minutes previously again. J’onn’s turn. We’re back at the power surge but he discovers the last ten minutes are unaccounted for and that the temperature is dropping. He discovers that the team is stuck in their fears. He and Brainy are the only two not impacted, though Brainy is seeing balloons. Turns out the power surge was just enough to let the Phantom’s power to leach out and more Phantoms are coming. J’onn goes to get the Phantom back into containment while Brainy handles the ship. The Phantom attacks J’onn, and he is able to see all of their fears, including Kara’s. He fights back, resisting the Phantom until it is back into containment. One by one, everyone faces their fear and wakes up.

Rescue at last

They get a lock on Supergirl’s location. With time and their shield running out, the team makes a final shot at getting Kara. In the Phantom Zone, Kara is declining, but Zor-El tries to get her to find hope. He tells her that she fixed him and he will not give up again, no matter what. It snaps her out of it. More phantoms show up then and the island they are on starts to come apart. They move to fight and just as they do, the Super Friends’ sun bomb detonates. The ship arrives and Kara, along with Zor-El fly to safety. They depart back to Earth in the nick of time but Nxyly also survived and hitches a ride back on the ship as well.