“We Can Be Heroes” starts out with a bang, well a punch actually, as Team DEO is training Mon-El to use his powers for good. There’s a tender nice moment between Mon and Kara when she lets him know he’s almost ready for the big show. We also got to see the chink in Guardian’s armor, he gets shot while out on patrol. He manages to gift wrap the bad guys despite his injury and Winn is done with being overworked. Jimmy agrees to come clean to Kara on the heels of finding out that Mon is ready to get in on the hero game. The only female White Martian on earth is under psychic attack and J’onn is having no part of trying to save her. All of the intrigue packed into the first 10 minutes of this episode pale in comparison to the reveal that Livewire is back and Kara’s number one nemesis’ only want to watch Supergirl fry from the inside out.

Kara is taking Livewire’s escape pretty harsh. It’s rattling her cage pretty hard and her leaning on Mon-El as backup makes Jimmy feel undervalued and makes him nix his reveal about being Guardian. Livewire attacks as the will they or won’t they couple share an awkward moment. But,  it seems that it’s a nice little set up as Livewire uses her “fans” to deliver the electricity.  Mon-El feels useless as Kara tries to fend them all off and Guardian ends up protecting the cops on his place which leads to the biggest secret of season 2 being revealed when his mask is removed.

Kara and Jimmy have it out when Kara tries to call him off of his Guardian duties. J’onn is not enjoying being linked to our fave White Martian and feels guilty about having romantic feelings towards someone from a race that has done irreparable harm and destroyed his race. We also discover that Livewire is a victim and J’onn does the right thing for the win. Inside J’onn’s mind meld they come to an understanding and their friendship gets back on track. Love and compassion really do top hate!

Livewire is still being held captive and experimented on by the evil doctor which means Guardian goes out on a rescue mission with Mon-El coming in for the assist. But, the rescue mission goes left since the mad scientist has a little bit of power up his sleeves as well. Sadly, the two are caught off guard while engaging in a package measuring contest and they get captured. Winn lets Kara know about the boy’s predicaments since he’s the most sensible person in the series and Supergirl shows up to save the night. Kudos to the writers for having Livewire make a feminist comment about how the guys can’t get out of the way for a real hero just because she’s a girl. And, in a wonderful moment of sisterhood Livewire and Supergirl join forces to bring the justice and the pain. Supergirl and Livewire have a moment and reach a sort of agreement and she lets her get away for a bit in exchange for putting the “Doctor” behind bars instead of in a grave.

The episode wraps itself up nicely, bow included. Winn and Guardian get a stay of execution on the hero front from J’onn. Kara comes to terms with the fact that people aren’t all evil or all good. Jimmy, Winn, and Kara come to terms with their relationship as it is now by drawing her line in the sand and refusing to support them as they have always supported her. It’s a nice change of gender roles as it is usually a man issuing that kind of ultimatum which is nice to see because it forced her to be less damsel or all good and gave her a bit of an edge. Mon-El and Kara have a heart to heart that seemed sincere and we all waited, breath held, to see what her response is. Mon-El has no desire to make it weird and seems Ok with Kara’s decision to keep it all business which is evolved and beautiful. The way the writers handle Kara breaking the hearts of her male costars is beautiful and set a nice precedent for other writers to do the same and get rid of the dreaded friend zone and the antiquated media notion that men deserve any woman that they want. We also find out that the White Martians know where Miss Martian is and they’re coming for her, leaving us all in for next week because this show has gone from guilty pleasure to must-see TV.

Overall, this episode was full of mansplaining, male egos, “friendzoning” and, strutting. So much testosterone in a lady led show could have gone so wrong in so many ways but, the writers were great at doing what they do best, making sure Kara isn’t a trope. Thanks to the writers the male characters competing for Kara’s attention come off as human, expecting and somewhat entitled. They portray them as real people with emotions, needs, and desires but, are clever enough to make them aware that they have no say in who Kara picks or what she wants. They allow her to maintain her agency and not have a cliched love story or shipping that could bring down the show. I like that they made Jimmy’s reason for becoming Guardian about him and not about him trying to impress Kara which is in contrast to Mon-El who is doing it to impress Kara.

The White Martian, Green Martian tension is well crafted and poses the question of what do you do when your enemy might not be your enemy and you realize that all people who look like those who hurt you aren’t the same? This question is especially important in light of current events, as we watch the country potentially slip into a hate filled space, what some of us see on the horizon seems to run parallel with the way the White Martians acted and that runs parallel to Hitler’s regime. The writers handle this tension in a way that shows compassion without going full on All Lives Matters, it gave a sense of hope and compassion for your enemies and those that have harmed you with a strong message of, you can fight back.

We didn’t get as much Maggie and Alex as we would have liked but, what we did get was well played. Supergirl is more than just a fun girl power show, it’s great at bringing current events and real world issues into to fold and using them as teachable moments making it more like actual comic books in their message delivery than anything else out there.

Overall: 8.9