'Supergirl' Season 5 Episode 10 Review: Kara and team struggle to cope with the complex life on Earth-Prime
This review contains spoilers for 'Supergirl' Season 5 Episode 10: 'The Bottle Episode'
'Crisis on Infinite Earths' ended with some major changes in the Arrowverse. Barring the formation of Earth-Prime, the Justice League, and the multiverse, it managed to get some personality change to the key characters as well. Jon Cryer's Lex Luthor winning the Nobel Peace Prize was an absolute shocker and that he was now a good man in the reborn earth is just beyond belief. 'The Bottle Episode' manages to explain some of the 'Crisis' aftereffects, but for a larger part, maintains the pre-'Crisis' storyline.
Lex Luthor still has the evil gene
Katie McGrath's Lena Luthor still remembers what happened to Earth-38 during the multiverse-shattering battle. In this new world, however, she is torn between making a choice to help Kara Danvers (Melissa Benoist) or Lex. And the whole Lena-Kara-Lex plotline just goes on to show one thing— Lena isn't backing down from 'No Nocere'. This was a plan meant to change humanity and now she has to choose a partner to do that wisely.
A bit of advice from her mother sees her finally take Lex's side, but not before she puts him through the wringer and the "evil" brother promises to not be the sly, scheming baddie bent on world domination. Well, that's a lie. Lena has no idea about his world domination plans.
Will the real Brainy please stand up?
Call it a meeting of the Brains when multiple versions of Brainiac-5 (Jesse Rath) pop up. There's a female Brainy in the mix and it is revealed they came through a wormhole that transported the AI's Bar patrons from different Earths to the Bar on Earth-Prime. There's also a sinister Brainiac who intends to open up one of the bottled Earths (A practice among Brainiac ancestors) in the middle of the AI's bar. While the threat is eventually thwarted, it ends sadly for Brainy as he heeds to the female counterpart's advice where he would have to side with Lex till the worlds are saved, resulting in a break-up with Nia (Nicole Maines).
The Leviathan and Andrea Rojas return
Cara Buono's Gamemnea is back, and so is Andrea Rojas (Julie Gonzalo). The former is introduced to the world as Gemma Cooper, Rojas' mentor and together they decide to use the Obsidian lenses to create a whole, new virtual world for the broken-hearted. It might be a Leviathan plan, but for now, it's safe to assume Rojas has no idea about the 'Crisis' and is pretty much mindwiped like the rest of the world except the Paragons.
The return of Jeremy Jordan's Winn Schott
To what degree? We don't know. But for now, he's key to defeating Leviathan.
Review:
In addition to dealing with the aftermath of the 'Crisis', there's more to look forward to and that's exactly what the post-crossover episode cements. Brainy's storyline was always more than just being a funny man. He was meant to be more than Nia's boyfriend, and for the better or worse, he sides with Lex which is sure to lend more complexity to his character. The episode does manage to weave in multiple story threads seamlessly and sets the tone for a rather serious post-'Crisis' second half. Thankfully, we don't have a superhero team-up just yet.
'Supergirl' airs Sundays 9 pm on The CW.
