BWW RECAP: The Danvers Sisters Are Changed Forever on This Week's SUPERGIRL

Supergirl is back at it again after an excruciatingly long hiatus following the epic three-part crossover, Elseworlds".

Recently before the winter break, we learned that Nia is an alien, Lena is working on SUPERHUMAN experimentation to level the superpower playing field, and had to choose between leaving the DEO or giving up her secret identity. She chose to leave. In Elseworlds, we left off with a goodbye to Superman as he steps down as world protector, opting to protect Lois and his unborn child on the DL for the foreseeable future.

"Suspicious Minds" opens on a brief training scene in Russia as Supergirl's clone trains to combat missiles. That's... mildly concerning. Back in National City, Kara fakes a cramp in her ever-awkward way while exercising with Lena. The whole keeping a secret identity thing never stops - not even for CrossFit.

Supergirl finds a ship full of dead soldiers when she rescues a woman from a Shimmer - a refracting light alien. Even after destroying a bomb, the Colonel sasses her for getting involved and "contaminating" the crime scene that would have been destroyed mere minutes before.

J'onn found a home for his new PI practice where Brainy enlists his help with aiding Supergirl, as she's lost her resources at the DEO. Meanwhile, at the DEO, the Colonel is Hell-bent on discovering Supergirl's identity by any means necessary.

Supergirl and J'onn are on the case to find the origins of the shimmering alien and nonexistent cargo ship, discovering a government coverup. One name on the classified files? Colonel Haley.

The shimmering aliens, invisible to anyone without X-Ray vision, were found by the government when they were children. Of course, once Americans find someone they can exploit, the alien children were trained and used as assassins. After raising them for their own agenda, the President gave orders to "cut ties with alien personnel, and the decision was made to "neutralize" the tools they happily sharpened for their own purpose.

While SUPERGIRL tries to communicate with one of the injured Morae, he utters, "No DEO; no Haley" before turning his claw on himself with a killing blow. If that's not foreboding... When Alex confronts Haley she justifies her actions of trauma as a form of obedience by stating, "we knew that if they feared us, they would obey us, and the did."

As Alex gets ready to resign when she finds out Haley plans to abandon DEO policy and use lethal force on the Morae, she interrupts an interrogation. Supergirl's identity had apparently been shared with a handful of DEO agents we've never seen before, and one of them has spilled the beans.

After lasers and mist fail, the DEO goes on the offensive with paintball guns to determine the location of the Morae, who have infiltrated the building. SUPERGIRL saves Haley at the last second, flying into the building and tossing the Morae into a cell. As charming as ever, instead of a thank you, Haley threatens SUPERGIRL with her secret if she doesn't do exactly as she says.

Haley promptly steals Alex's title and blackmails SUPERGIRL into continuing service with DEO. Alex, tired of her tirade, decks her - consequences be damned. The duo call on J'onn to wipe Haley's mind. He acquiesces with reluctance, but J'onn being used to clean up big plot twists and OMG moments is getting kind of old.

Every time there's a big reveal, his shapeshifting power or mind wipe is consistently used to save the day. J'onn is more than a bandaid for problems and these huge exciting reveals become meaningless when they're all magically fixed. The show loses a little bit of its impact every time something like this is fixed so easily. There's always such a huge buildup for little to no final impact.

For a hot minute, it looked like things wouldn't be fixed so easily, as a Vertullarian - a truth-seeker alien - is brought into the lab. But as always, J'onn comes in to save the day, providing consenting secret identity erasure for the agents who know Kara's secret. This time, though, it's not as cut-and-dry. There's no way to fool a Truth Seeker. Alex has to be wiped, too.

"Who am I without you" is a question SUPERGIRL will have to answer when she has to save the world without the advice of her big sister.

Photo Credit: Shane Harvey/The CW

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