The good: Everything with Kara and the CatCo people, the missile interception, most of the things with Hank/J'Onn but without Alex, the Fortress of Solitude and its Key.
The bad: As usual, most things with Alex, most of the militaristic DEO things, negative Lucy Lane, a lot of the fighting with Indigo.
The neutral: Wynn and Siobhan the Weird, Indigo the wannabe Brainiac.
You never know what you're going to get. Will it be the frustratingly violent punch-fest episode, or will it be something special and unique to a Super-character? Will it be fitting to what makes these lead characters special, or not? To cut to the core of all the recent problems with interpretations of Superman: A hero is someone who saves people, and a warrior is someone who fights people. The overlap exists, but is hard to capture. To be explicit Superman and Supergirl need to be heroes, not warriors.
'Solitude' wins, on the whole, by virtue of the Key to the Fortress of Solitude. It's made out of collapsed matter and so dense that only a few people in the Universe could lift it, and is essentially a golden S-shield on a stick. For any one with even a passing knowledge of the old Superman comics continuity, it's the homage that finally tells you that this is a show that loves Super-lore. It's so cute that it's the same as a sign saying 'Welcome Home, Stranger, The Fridge Is Full'. Sadly, the next episode will throw it all away with some humdrum 'Red Kryptonite Turns Kara Bad' shenanigans, but for now we have the Key, and it is good.
We also have a great non-punchy Labour of Supergirl as she stops a runaway nuclear missile (sound familiar?), which is executed brilliantly, and some nice moments with James Olsen at the Fortress. James is really being played out well on this show, although his ascendancy is at the expense of Kara's other admirer, the now-rejected Wynn. As a result, we have a strange imbalance, with James being lined up as a Super-lover, and Wynn being set up as a partner to Cat's second personal assistant, the sadly ill-omened Siobhan, in order for him to not fade away out of the show completely.
If there's anything to complain about this time, it is again Alex, and I will not beat up the character at length, but merely say that she is from another series. Chyler Leigh is a fine dramatic actress, but she's not even remotely of the same comedic/hearty mold as everyone else and collapses down to flatness in comparison. On the other hand, David Harewood has steadily improved as Hank/J'Onn, especially as his real identity has emerged and been expanded upon. If he could only be extracted from the DEO, and instead be a straightforward mentor character, he would be perfect and actually collapse onto the character as he was in the 'Justice League' series by Giffen and DeMatteis back in the 1980s and 1990s. Oh, some of the stuff with the computer creature Indigo was not great, especially the technobabble, but they managed to avoid generic fights with her, so that was a partial success too. Lucy Lane's negativity was so annoying that it was a relief to see her break up with Jimmy Olsen, but that could be debateable. That's enough carping.
Yes, a definite hit. The Fortress of Solitude was great, the missile sequence was great, and the hand holding with J'Onn to mend the personal rift touching. Very solid episode. Only five to go until this iteration of the series is over, and we finish.
O.
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