For the Girl Who Has Everything

"For the Girl Who Has Everything" is the thirteenth episode of the first season of Supergirl. It aired on February 8, 2016.

Synopsis
Kara’s friends must find a way to save her life when a parasitic alien attaches itself to her and traps her in a dream world where her family is alive and her home planet was never destroyed. Also, Alex, Hank and the DEO must fend off a Kryptonian attack while Kara is out of commission.

Plot
Kara woke up on a bed and was surprised by Kelex, who introduced itself as her medical attendant. Kara was confused by her surroundings. Alura Zor-El appeared, and when Kara questioned how she could be there, she said she's been staying with her while she recovered from "Argo fever". Kara refused to believe it, but Alura tells her she must have had hallucinations due to her illness. Kara looked out the window and was shocked to find herself on Krypton. Back in CatCo, Cat Grant demanded to know Kara's whereabouts. Winn Schott offered that the current solar storm may be interfering with phone signals. Cat determined that Kara was avoiding her due to her causing Adam Foster to leave the city. James Olsen had no idea what happened to her either, and the two mutually agreed to get Alex Danvers. Alex told them Kara was not on D.E.O. business, and when they asked if she brought a key to Kara's apartment, she broke down the door instead. They found Kara lying on the floor unconscious, an alien plant gripping her chest. Alex called in the D.E.O. and Kara was transported to the D.E.O. headquarters.

J'onn J'onzz was displeased that Alex brought Winn and James and ordered them to be taken out, but not before James vowed to come back if anything happened to Kara and J'onn said he won't stop him. Alex interrogated Max, who apparently did not have any idea about Kara's condition. J'onn pulled Alex off him when she became increasingly frustrated, saying Max is a survivor and he'd spill everything to save himself, but warned Max if they find out he's lying, he'll let Alex come back, alone.

The Kryptonians prepared for the next phase of their mission - "Myriad". Non revealed he had incapacitated Kara with "Black Mercy", thus technically did not disobey Astra's order for her to be unharmed, but she was displeased regardless.

J'onn and Alex attempted to rip off the plant with a titanium claw, but this sent Kara into violent convulsions. Alex was forced to stop the extraction when Kara briefly flatlined. They realized they cannot remove it by force without killing her.

Kara in her dream panicked as she did not have her powers or understand what's happening. She was distracted by a carving she made for Zor-El when she was eight, but was conflicted over her memory of leaving Krypton as well. She was determined to get to the bottom of the mystery and go home.

Winn was very worried of Kara, especially after what happened between them not long before, but James assured him she's going to be fine. They tried and failed to cover for her and Cat threatened to to fire her in one hour.

Alex convinced J'onn to masquerade as Kara, but he had great difficulty fulfilling her difficulties and said Cat made him miss his prison.

Alex attempted to get answers from the Alura AI in D.E.O. but the AI did not have information to share on the alien species, despite Alex's emotional outburst, when she admitted how she used to resent Kara.

Kara in her dream became more and agitated and struggled to remember Earth, while Alura dismissed it as a "primitive planet" she would never send her to. She ran through the halls but came across Zor-El along with Alura. She ran back to her room where they reappeared together. Reminiscing about a piece of furniture she cracked when playing with her aunt, she found herself face to face with Astra, which caused her to become upset and blame her and Non for trapping her in the dream. Zor-El told her Non has been sent to the Phantom Zone long ago, yet she insisted she fought both of them recently, but to her horror, she could not recall Earth any more, and could only recall glimpses of her flying. Astra told her they only fly in their dreams, but Kara said that she had friends and family to protect. She was finally distracted and placated by Kal-El, who asked her to open an intricate orb, and she did with familiarity. The orb opens a large holographic display of the cosmos. Kal-El pointed out Krypton and Kara quietly agreed with him that it is beautiful.

Alex was looking at a photo of her and Kara in the latter's apartment when she noticed Astra standing behind her in the mirror. She turned - allowing the framed photo to shatter on the ground - and fired at Astra to no effect. Astra overpowered her but told her she came to help Kara, not fight, and released her. Astra informs her that the creature that latched onto Kara was a telepathic parasite called "Black Mercy". It had trapped her in a hallucinated fantasy life that was becoming more and more real and can only be broken out of by Kara rejecting it herself. Astra told Alex she could help Kara, but Alex had a hard time trusting her. Astra noticed the family photos and Alex admitted she is Kara's sister, and Astra pleaded her not to let her hatred blind her. In the secret room at CatCo, J'onn brushed off inquiries of him shapeshifting into Kara, and was resistant to Alex's plan to enter Kara's mind due to its dangers. James and Winn were both concerned of what would happen to Kara after they pulled her out of her perfect fantasy. J'onn began to understand why Kara values them and allowed Alex to take them to D.E.O. while he dealt with Cat.

At Cat's office, J'onn, once again in Kara's form, apologizes to Cat, and while he was unaware of Kara's fling with Adam, decided to roll with it. Cat didn't buy it one bit and acidly told "Kara" to take the day off.

J'onn arrived back to the D.E.O. and warned Alex that the Kryptonians could predict the solar storms and the timing of the attack on Kara cannot be coincidental. Alex had agents bring Max out of his cell for help, as the VR tech would otherwise take days to become functional. Max attempted to bargain, but Alex convinced him pointing out the Kryptonians are his enemies as well.

Non and Astra briefed their soldiers, armed with anti-kryptonite suits, about their campaign they fought for on Krypton, now to be completed on Earth. After they left, Non questions Astra's whereabouts prior and her dedication to their war. Astra tensely affirmed it, and he apologized and left.

At the D.E.O., Alex privately asked James to stop J'onn from pulling Alex back before she could save her sister, knowing that J'onn would do so at the first sign of trouble.

Max casually brags about his brilliance in finishing the VR helmet and flippantly said he's not sure whether it will work.

Alex wakes up on Krypton, in the chamber where Alura sentenced Astra and Non to the Phantom Zone. An agent informs J'onn the D.E.O. satellites are offline and Winn suggested Non and the Kryptonians may have planned to use those satellites for their own schemes.

Alex moved through the halls on Krypton with an alien weapon until she found the chamber in which Kara's family were talking about her performance in court and interest in a Kryptonian man Del-Or. Kara has no memory of her sister when the latter tried to tell her what was really happening, and insisted she's home. Turning and nodding to her mother, Kara suddenly grabbed the sculpture from before and knocked Alex out.

In the real world, Alex started to twitch and J'onn ordered Max to pull her out, but James stopped him, leading to an argument between J'onn and James. James knew J'onn did not want to lose either of his "daughters", but insisted that Alex would always find a way and asked him to trust her. When Alex regained consciousness in Kara's hallucination, she had been taken back to the Phantom Zone chamber and handcuffed. Alura announced the High Council's verdict was to banish her to the Phantom Zone. Alex begged Kara to listen, and that they would be trapped in the hallucination until the Black Mercy killed them. Zor-El told Kara they would be able to be happy again once she was gone. Alex told Kara that she understand her loss but she knew deep down this was not real, and tried to fight free of the guards holding her while earthquakes shook the chamber. Kara hesitantly admitted she wanted so much for this life to be true, and finally rejects the hallucination, telling Alura that she taught her to be strong, but she told her she would never let her leave. Falling to the ground from another quake, Kara and Alex reached out to each other.

Alex woke with a start in the real world, and was outraged that her chance to save Kara was literally ripped away from her fingertips. Winn calmed her down, pointing out Kara was waking up while the Black Mercy slipped off her. Kara sat up but her expression was blank as she got off the table she was on. After a few long seconds, she demanded to know who did it to her, and asked for Non's location when Alex told her of the culprit. At the main chamber of the D.E.O. headquarters, Winn told the group he found some hidden transmissions that used Lord-based servers based on the same lab the Kryptonians attacked before, and they left a virus that allowed them to override normal control. J'onn sent out teams to Max's other similar labs while Kara told him she would handle Non.

Kara tackled Non was he was attaching something to a satellite dish and furiously pummeled him screaming about how he took her world away from her and thought he could do the same to Earth, but Non managed to activate his device. Astra was similarly distracted by Alex, who was shot out of the sky by her heat vision. Astra insisted she saved Kara out of her sense of duty, but Alex claimed her heart was not in the war any more because of her love for Kara, which causes Astra to force her over a ledge. Alex said she had plenty of chances to kill her or Kara but she had not because she didn't want to and asked her to help them instead, but they were interrupted by J'onn's (while Astra briefly thought it was Kara) arrival in Martian form. Astra expressed surprise at his survival as the last son of Mars and they battled each other.

Kara and Non continued to fight and Non claimed Myriad will "cure" Earth of humanity. Astra managed to install her device before J'onn surprised her with his intangibility, grabbed her and flew them both into a building, where she overpowered him and attempted to kill him, but she was impaled from behind with a kryptonite blade by Alex.

Non sabotaged the satellite dish and escaped while Kara caught it. Alex calld Kara to her. J'onn claimed that he stabbed Astra as he saw no other way. Kara told Astra that in her hallucination, she saw her not as an enemy, but as family. When Astra died, Alex told Kara they had to leave as Kryptonians descended from the sky.

They took her body back to their base, and a soldier informed that the Myriad is operational and she did not die in vain.

At the D.E.O., J'onn hands one of the devices Kara retrieved to an agent for analysis. Alex informed him that two squads never reported, and that Kara was taking Astra's death badly. J'onn said that she never stopped hoping for Astra's redemption, and that's the difference between soldier and hero. Alex asked him why he lied about killing Astra, and he said it's because she's Kara's hero and he didn't want that to change. Kara returned to his apartment to find Alex, Winn and James waiting for her. She wanted to tell her about why she imagined herself on Krypton, despite James's protests - that she was feeling lost, but she knew she belonged here with her friends and family, topped off saying "there's no place like home", laughed and high-fived Winn when he said she quoted a movie and affirmed their friendship. James announced he brought both pot stickers and ice cream - Kara's favourite. Alex decided to tell Kara something - that J'onn tried to cover for her at work, and Kara guessed correctly that it didn't go well, but James told her to save it for tomorrow, whipping out a bottle of alcohol. Kara complained that she couldn't get drunk, but they overrode her and Alex said they will.

Trivia

 * This episode is adapted from the classic Superman story "For the Man Who Has Everything" by Alan Moore and Dave Gibbons.