At a dance club, William approaches Dr. Niles Jarrod and says that blowing him off wasn't a smart move. Jarrod insists that he isn't interested, and William warns him that he's making a mistake. As Jarrod goes, a woman he was watching grabs him, shoves him into a bathroom, and pulls down the top of her dress. A spider crawls out of her tattoos, enters Jarrod's chest, and he falls over dead.
The next day, Kara, Alex, James, and Kelly are out walking and Kelly stops to give a vendor advice. Kelly rejoins her friends, and Alex notes that she should be careful with a shapeshifter still out there. Kara and James side with their respective siblings, and Kelly tells Alex not to worry so much and leave with James for their meeting. Once they're alone, Alex assures Kara that they'll find Malefic. Kara worries that she's having lunch with Lena for the first time since she told her that she's Supergirl, and Alex assures her that it will be fine before going back to the DEO.
Lena and Eve/Hope are working and the AI suggests that Lena lower the frequency of the Q waves. Her creator says that the transmitter will only let her to read the information, and if she augments it she gets a zombie effect. Hope impulsively hugs her, and Lena walks off. The AI apologizes, figuring that it must be difficult to trust someone in Eve's memories. Hope suggests that she uses Lex's research on Q waves, and tells Lena that they're in a secure vault at Fort Summit. The AI says that recovering them would be impossible, and Lena gets a reminder about her lunch date with Kara. She figures someone else might be able to recover them.
Querl startles Nia in her bedroom, reciting poetry. She thanks him for the 127th poem he's recited for her and suggests that he not overdue it. Querl agrees to move on to the villanelle, and Nia tries to blot him out by running her hair dryer.
At CatCo, Andrea calls her conference to order. Franklin mentions that Jarrod is dead, and Kara says that she interviewed him a year ago. Andrea wants more interesting deaths, but Kara points out that it's tragic and certainly worth a story. William dismisses it as sentimental trash, and Andrea agrees with him. He says that he looked into the story and there's nothing there. Kara monitors William's heart and realizes that he's lying.
As William leaves, Kara asks him why he lied. William tells her to stop humiliating herself and walks off. James comes out and asks Kara if she's okay, and Kara says that William is much worse than an ass. She tells James about Jarrod's death and how William knows more about it. James suggests that they investigate it and goes to check with his contact at the ME.
J'onn calls Nia to his office, and she gets a poem text from Querl. The Martian wants Nia to use her dream power to restore his missing memories, and figures that doing it organically should be safe. Nia wonders if he wants to take the chance, and J'onn figures that one of his missing memories should tell him what Malefic did and why he's coming after his loved ones.
Malefic, shapechanged into a fly, goes through Kelly's belongings and then takes on the form of a man, Pete Andrews, in one of the photos. He goes to Obsidian and approaches Kelly, who greets her "old friends". Pete says that someone posted something about her new job online and he came to check it out. Kelly excuses herself to meet with an appointment, and Pete tells her that he needs help. She asks him to meet with her later and goes.
Kara flies to Paris and gets Lena lunch, and Lena talks about the perks she missed having Supergirl as a friend. They talk about Andrea and Kara mentions William and his lack of integrity. She says that James is helping her figure out William's MO, and Lena say that she's been having nightmares since Lex. Kara suggests that she meet with Kelly, but Lena refuses and says that reading Lex's journals is the only thing that calms her. She says that the government has confiscated all of Lex's possessions, and Kara offers to get them from Fort Summit. James calls from the ME's office, and Lena thanks Kara for her help before Kara leaves.
At the ME office, James and Kara look at Jarrod's body. He apparently died of a heart attack, and Kara scans Jarrod's body with X-ray vision and sees a spider inside of his heart.
J'onn serves Nia a Martian drink for clearing the mind, and she probes his memories. His siblings are there in human form, and Nia is with him. J'onn in human form is there, and the children play hide and seek. Malefic can't connect to the hive mind, and telepathically attacks the children when he fails. When J'onn tries to defend them, Malefic attacks him as well. M'yrnn comes in and telepathically sedates Malefic, and J'onn realizes that Malefic was born with the ability to control minds but cut off from his own people.
M'yrnn and J'onn tells Malefic to look for H'ronmeer's teachings, and Malefic begs them not to leave him there. His father says that their god will never forsake him and they leave, and the door seals behind them. Later, an adult J'onn visits Malefic, and Malefic tells him that the White Martians are his salvation. M'yrnn then appears, begging H'ronmeer for forgiveness because he failed Malefic and his son was banished to the Phantom Zone.
J'onn comes out of the dream and figures that M'yrnn wiped both of their memories in his anguish. He blames his father for compounding the tragedy by erasing the memory of Malefic from the collective, as if he had murdered his younger son. J'onn is furious at M'yrnn's hypocrisy.
Kara goes to Alex's apartment and researches Jarrod's death. Alex wonders if William is trying to steal the scoop from himself, and asks how the lunch with Lena went. Kara insists that it went fine but Alex doesn't believe her, and her foster sister explains that she agreed to steal the journals from the Army. Alex advises Kara to tell Lena she's changed her mind, and Kara says that Lena deserves to heal. Kara points out that Querl hacked the surveillance cameras at the club, and notes that they learned the rule-breaking from Alex.
The video shows Jarrod with William, and then a woman with the spider tattoo leading Jarrod off. Alex tells Kara that she knows the tattoos.
Pete tells Kelly that Afghanistan took something from him, and something in his brain is broken. He asks Kelly if she can help him, and she says that they'll begin the intake process. When she warns that it will take a few months, Pete says that he'll hurt himself if he doesn't get a handle on it soon. After a moment, Kelly agrees to sneak him in later that night and get him some answers. Pete agrees to keep it secret.
Nia wakes up from a nightmare and tells Querl that it's nothing. He doesn't believe her and Nia asks him if he would tell someone something even if it would hurt them. Querl figures that the truth is best and offers to recite a poem to her left ear lobe. Nia tells him to stop and then says that there's something she has to tell J'onn.
At the DEO, Alex tells Supergirl and James that the tattoos are Aurafacian. The original host was transferred out of their desert facility by Lex. The Aurafacian can change form between its spider form and human. Alex brings up the footage of the woman at the club, and identifies her as Caroline O'Conner, a former special ops who is a sniper. She disappeared two months ago, and they figure someone hired her. They get an address, and Supergirl flies there. She scans the apartment with her x-ray vision and finds a flash drive. Christine comes in and pins Supergirl to the wall with webs. Guardian bursts in with a negator to stop her webs, and the two of them fight. Supergirl uses her heat vision to free herself, while Christine knocks out the negator, tosses a web into Guardian's head and runs out while he's distracted.
Supergirl takes James to the DEO and Alex uses a magnetic resonator to remove the ink webbing from his mind. Querl is analyzing the flash drive but warns that the encryption is more complicated than anything he's seen. Once Querl and Alex leaves, James says that he jumped in when a friend was in danger and he didn't care about the consequences. Supergirl says that she's leaving to help a friend.
Nia visits J'onn and shows him the rest of his dream. She warns that it will be painful, and J'onn agrees. She shows J'onn a memory of M'yrnn pleading to H'ronmeer. The young J'onn says that it's not M'yrnn's fault, but M'yrnn insists that he doesn't deserve to live because he failed his son. Young J'onn says that he needs him, begs H'ronmeer's forgiveness, and wipes M'yrnn's memories of Malefic.
J'onn comes out of the dream and realizes that he was the one who took the memories from himself and his father. Nia says that he did it to save M'yrnn, but J'onn realizes that he crossed an unforgiveable line in his culture. J'onn breaks into tears and Nia tells him that he did it out of compassion, and J'onn says that he did it for himself. He swears Nia to silence.
Kelly attaches the implants to Pete to read his memories so she can help him process them. She says that there's a lag, and they go to work.
Supergirl breaks into Fort Summit, avoiding the guards. Alex calls her and says that Christine's next target is Dr. Andrew Stern. They arrive at the hospital and find Stern, just as Christine throws a web into him. Supergirl arrives and burns it off of him, and then confronts Christine. They fight and Supergirl throws Christine to the atrium below.
Malefic loses his concentration and transforms briefly into his Martian form. He realizes that his inception power is back and brain-blasts Kelly. Nia senses it and warns J'onn.
Christine webs Supergirl, and Alex pulls the alien presence away with the magnetic resonator. She demands answers, but a form moves through at superpseed, rams a knife into Christine's chest, and speeds away.
Kelly reaches for the alarm, and Pete mentally controls her. He thanks her for restoring her memories and grants her a quick death, and makes her pick up a shard of glass to kill herself. J'onn arrives and attacks Malefic, but H'ronmeer's curse repels them apart. When J'onn says that he is to blame, Malefic accuses him of taking everything from himself and he brought it on himself. Guards come in and Malefic says that they're trying to kill him, and runs out. J'onn and Kelly go after him, and Kelly can see Malefic. Malefic mind-controls a guard into shooting her, and J'onn tackles the guard. By the time they recover, Malefic has escaped.
Later, the group get together. J'onn says that the release of Q waves interacting with Obsidian tech forged a link between Malefic and Kelly. Now he can force people to do things against their will, and J'onn warns that Malefic will come after Kelly. Kara asks if J'onn knows why Malefic is doing it, and J'onn says that he put Malefic in the Phantom Zone for betraying his people and his brother wants revenge. Alex says that they need to take Kelly to safety so she can focus DEO resources on finding Malefic. James insists on going with Kelly.
Nia returns to her apartment and says that what was going on with J'onn wasn't a big deal. She finally tells Querl to stop reciting poetry, saying that it's too much. Nia knows that he feels well and it's sweet, but it's too much. Querl says that she asked him to be completely himself with her, but now she tells him she doesn't want that. He warns her that he can only operate at 100% and it's his problem, not hers, and walks out.
William meets with a man and says that he doesn't know how long he can keep it going. The man wishes him luck, leaves a newspaper with an envelope inside of it, and leaves.
Supergirl takes the journals to Lena.
Kelly tells Alex that she was too open and too trusting.
Lena hopes that they haven't crossed any boundaries, and Supergirl tells her that for a friend like her, there are no boundaries.
Alex tells James not to say where he and Kelly are going. Kara gives him one of Lex's portal watches and says for James to use it. Meanwhile, Alex kisses Kelly goodbye. Brother and sister leave, and Alex says that Kelly being so open scares her. Kara tells her that it'll work out because it worked out with her and Lena.
Lena reads the journals, and shows them to Hope. They're encoded, and Hope deciphers them. They're about the use of Q waves for mind control, and Lena says that she knows what she has to do.
Written by Gadfly on Oct 21, 2019