Supergirl S02E13 “Mr & Mrs Mxyzptlk” REVIEW
Airing in the UK on Sky 1, new episodes every Tuesday
Writers: Jessica Queller, Sterling Gates
Director: Stefan Pleszczynski
Essential Plot Points:
- Starting off exactly where the last episode left off, Kara and Mon-El are interrupted by Mr Mxyzptlk who proclaims his love for Kara and asks her to marry him.
- Kara decides to stop Mxyzptlk so that she can go back to the budding romance between her and Mon-El, but it’s not clear how she’ll be able to do that.
- Winn meets Lyra, a survivor of Star-Haven who saves his life at the alien bar and asks him to have dinner with her in return.
- Maggie hates Valentine’s Day, but Alex wants to celebrate it with her. Kara suggests she reinvents the holiday so that they can have a good time, but this doesn’t go to plan.
- Parasyte returns to National City, but it turns out to be part of Mxyzptlk’s wooing. Mon-El reacts badly to Kara’s approach the fifth dimensional imp, and out of jealousy starts to say stupid things, resulting in them arguing.
- Mon-El decides to challenge Mxyzptlk to a duel, but when things go wrong for Mon-El Kara agrees to marry Mxyzptlk so long as the ceremony is at the Fortress of Solitude. There Kara tricks him to write his name backwards so that he goes back to the Fifth dimension.
- Maggie makes things up to Alex by holding a belated Valentine’s Prom for them.
Review:
Love is in the air quite literally this week at it’s not only Valentine’s Day in Supergirl but there’s a fifth dimensional imp flitting about trying to win Kara’s heart. Mr Mxyzptlk made his entrance at the end of the last episode, interrupting Kara and Mon-El’s would-be first kiss to ask the Girl Of Steel to marry him. Being the incredibly strong adversary that he is, it seems impossible to stop him from getting what he wants, but this doesn’t stop Kara from trying to find the solution.
Peter Gadiot’s performance as the crafty Mxyzptlk is undoubtedly the best part of the episode by far. He’s charming with his quick-witted remarks and unconventional take on wooing. From the get-go he conjures up candles, flowers and a band, and puts Kara in a Vera Wang wedding dress. What more could a girl want, right? He may think this will win her heart, but he couldn’t be more wrong. She’s not so easily swayed and has only just come to terms with her feelings for Mon-El, so Mxyzptlk decides that he has to turn things up a notch to prove he’s the better match for her.
Speaking of the alpha-male Daxamite, he’s not too happy that the fifth dimensional being has decided to show up. Having dealt with his ilk before, he decides the only way to get him to stop his pursuit of Kara is to kill him and this causes some problems for the pair’s budding romance. Believing that he’s right, and knows what’s best for Kara, Mon-El feels it’s his right to tell her what to do in order to protect her. While we’ve seen him grow quite a lot over the season, this is one time that we see that he hasn’t quite become the selfless hero Kara wants him to be. He’s driven by his jealousy and it causes him to make some stupid remarks and even worse moves. Mxyzptlk is a force to be reckoned with; he won’t let himself be pushed around by Mon-El and decides to take the fight to the stage – the stage for the musical Hamilton, to be precise – for a rather hilarious confrontation. It seems like there’s no way to stop him so Kara admits defeat, or so we think.
While Kara, in the end, is able to outsmart her cunning adversary, he’s still a brilliant “villain” to cross paths with her. Supergirl hasn’t had that many good opponents, with the series opting to provide a rinse-and-repeat method when it comes to the bad guys, but there’s something entirely different about Mxyzptlk. He’s a well-developed character and makes his mark on the show with great flair. Gadiot and Benoist work incredibly well together and their amusing interactions combined with the ones between Gadiot and Chris Wood make this episode one of the best of the series. Let’s hope this isn’t the last we’ve seen of Mxyzptlk.
With the episode’s focus on Valentine’s Day there were bound to be other storylines about affairs of the heart. The main, and best, one was the development of Alex and Maggie’s relationship. It provided some of the more heart-breaking moments of the episode, as Maggie revealed more about her past which left Alex in a bit of a bind. It was hard to see the pair argue, but their romantic date at the end of the episode was a very sweet way to round things off.
One thing that didn’t quite make sense, this week, was Winn’s sudden passionate relationship with Star Haven survivor Lyra. While it’s nice to see Winn back in the dating game after Kara rejected him last season, this new romance felt really disjointed and out-of-place in comparison to the other storylines. Perhaps it will make more sense later on in the series, but for now it doesn’t seem to fit.
The Good:
- Mxyzptlk. What, you want more of a reason? He’s the best adversary to go up against Kara yet – he’s funny, and he’s charming. What more can be said about him?
- The writers provided some interesting developments for Alex and Maggie’s relationship; it was especially great to see their belated prom date – so romantic.
- Mxyzptlk: “You know it’s funny. I’m all-seeing and all-powerful, but that’s one of the few things I can’t make you do. That and make you fall in love with me, and/or stop you from killing yourself, and/or make you drink orange juice for some reason.”
- Mxyzptlk: “I could have made you a god like me.”
Kara: “I don’t want to be a god, Mxy. I just want you off of Earth.”
Mxyzptlk: “You don’t get to tell me what to do until after we’re married!”
The Bad:
- Winn’s sudden relationship with Lyra seems out-of-place in comparison to the rest of the episode.
And the Random:
- When Mxyzptlk and Mon-El are duelling on the Hamilton stage, the former’s comment to Mon-El that he, “shouldn’t throw away his shot, because you only have one,” is a reference to the hit song “My Shot” from the musical.
Review by Roxy Simons
