A shocking cliffhanger sends Supergirl barreling towards its final episodes

Welp, it turns out the one way for William Dey to finally earn my respect was to use his dying breaths to dictate a petty-as-hell subject line for an email to his overstepping boss. Buckle in folks, because tonight’s episode of Supergirl is a bit of a weird one. It starts out overly talky, gets kind of goofy for a moment, and then takes a decidedly dark turn at the end. In fact, watching Lex casually stroll back into a room to shoot William to death is one of the darkest things Supergirl has ever done. And while giving the Super Friends someone to avenge drastically raises the stakes for next week’s two-part series finale, it also speaks to some of the focus issues Supergirl is having as it prepares to fly off into the sunset.

On the one hand, spending extra time with William in this episode helps makes us feel the weight of his death even more. (He stands up to Andrea about journalistic ethics! He’s sweet to Esme as he gives her baking tips from his aunt in India!) But it also eats up a lot of screentime in one of the precious few episodes we have left in a long-running series that has a lot of main characters to check in with. I wonder if Supergirl would’ve been better served by killing off William earlier in the season in order to explain why Kara sees Nyxly as a threat beyond anything she’s faced before. Instead, placing his death as the cliffhanger of the antepenultimate episode runs the risk of making William too important to the finale compared to the role he’s played on the show has a whole. (Also, weird time to throw Andrea’s morality crisis into the mix too.)

We’ll have to wait and see, as I still have no idea what kind of shape next week’s finale might take or where it will leave its heroes and villains. While last week’s episode treated Lex’s love for Nyxly as a bit of a joke, this week’s episode really tries to invest in it as a major fulcrum point for Nyxly’s arc about her fear of trusting anyone lest they betray her. Again, however, it feels like a strange use of the show’s runtime this late in the game. Though Nyxly’s been a fun antagonist for this final season, she’s not the character I really want to be spending time with in the show’s waning days.

Thankfully, in between Nyxly’s hunt for the Truth Totem and the Super Friend’s various attempts to steal her totem collection from her, “Truth Or Consequences” at least finds time for some meaty conversations between characters I actually do care about. The thorniest of these is Alex and Kara’s fight over how to raise Esme. Kara is eager to share advice based on her own experience as kid with overwhelming powers who found value in using tools to help suppress them (like her lead-lined glasses). Alex, however, recalls the years she spent suppressing her sexuality and wants to ensure her daughter doesn’t ever feel like she has to hide who she is to fit in.

It’s a fascinating debate that reflects real-world issues of parenting kids who have different experiences than your own. And I’ll be curious to see if the show returns to it or if we’re supposed to think the whole thing has been resolved by Kara apologizing to Alex for overstepping. Because—with the caveat that I’m neither a parent nor a space alien—I actually kind of think Kara is in the right here. While Alex is drawing a metaphorical connection between her experience as a lesbian and her daughter’s experience as an alien, Kara has actually lived exactly what Esme is going through. And it feels like Alex should at least be open to listening to what Kara has to say, rather than immediately shutting her down.

Maybe that’s the point the storyline is building to or maybe the issue will never be brought up again! It’s hard to say on a season that’s had uneven levels of emotional continuity—especially now that Esme has been kidnapped, which is obviously a much more pressing concern. Still, it’s nice to see the Danvers sisters get some meaningful scenes together. Their conflict also allows for a few sweet Space Dad moments too, as J’onn points out that he and Kara are both protectors, and later encourages Kara to let loose at Alex and Kelly’s bachelorette party because he’s keeping a psychic watch on the city. (Although just ask William how well that one worked out…)

For an episode with some strange loose ends, the one absolute home run is Brainy and Nia’s throughline. After checking in with Winn in the future, Brainy is devastated to learn that the Legion of Superheroes need him to return to the 31st century to merge with the “Big Brain,” thus sacrificing his current corporeal form. Brainy really doesn’t want to say goodbye to his found family—and especially to Nia. But since it’s the only way to save the Coluan race from extinction (the Big Brain was critically damaged by an AI plague), he doesn’t really have much choice in the matter, devastated as he may be.

Jesse Rath is such a fantastic comedian that I sometimes forget what a great dramatic actor he is too. And giving him meaty emotional scenes is exactly what Supergirl should be doing at this stage in the game. “Truth Or Consequences” not only lets Rath put his tragic, tear-jerking romantic leading man chops to use, it also emphasizes his range as an actor in a scene where he gets to play against himself as a second, more logical iteration of Brainy. Of course, it helps that Nicole Maines is every bit Rath’s match too. There’s a lovely bittersweet quality to the way Brainy and Nia struggle to accept the idea that even though they love each other, they have different destinies in life. (“I hate the space-time continuum,” she sighs.)

In the end, Brainy and Nia decide it’s best to try to appreciate the time they have left together rather than mourn their future parting. That’s the mindset I’m trying to take with Supergirl too, as I truly can’t believe the show is ending next week. While “Truth Or Consequences” isn’t an episode that’s easy to love in its totality, in its strongest moments, it captures a lot of the character-focused kindness I’m going to miss most about this show.

Stray observations

• I know Nyxly has inspired a certain “carpe diem” attitude in the Super Friends lately, but based on Kelly’s comment that Esme’s rose tattoo wasn’t there at bathtime yesterday, are we supposed to think they’re having their bachelorette party literally one day after getting engaged??
• Speaking of which, everyone is serving lewks at that party!! Kelly, Alex, Lena, and Nia are in a close race for best dressed, but I also loved Brainy’s suspenders and the kind of nerd chic Kara brought to the affair
• The scenes with Kara and Esme are so sweet that I wish Supergirl had thought to pair her up with an alien kid before this. That could’ve been a great season-long arc.
• The way the Super Friends just kind of casually manage to steal the Dream, Truth, and Hope totems from Nyxly at various points throughout this episode is pretty anticlimactic, but I loved the shot of Kara using her heat vision to bust out of her Anti-Kryptonite suit.
• Seriously, sending his literal death video to Andrea with the subject “Here’s your real story” is maybe the most badass way William could’ve gone out.