Supergirl recap: Double the Jeremy Jordan, double the fun

Winn Schott’s back, baby, and he’s got an evil doppelgänger to contend with.

The trouble begins when a leather-jacketed Brainy pulls a literal “come with me if you want to live” on the Winn double newly arrived on Earth and escorts him to Lex’s limo, where the worst Luthor makes bad Winn a proposition: hit the National City ToyCon and make Chester Dunholtz pay for what he did to Winn’s father. (In case you don’t recall, Dunholtz was Winslow Senior’s boss, and Senior tried to force Winn to kill Dunholtz at a previous ToyCon. For real, why do people still attend the National City ToyCon?)

Remember that Brainy’s only working with Lex because his new logic-only personality says it’s the smart play. Lena, too, is warily partnering with Lex, but only after he promises not to hurt anyone and offers her future access to Q-wave technology. And we all know how much Lena Luthor loves her Q-waves.

To hold up her end of the partnership, Lena apologizes to Andrea for the situation with her mother’s medallion and tries to pump her for information about Leviathan. But on this Earth, Andrea hasn’t been activated yet, so Lena pulls the “you jump, I jump” card and makes Andrea promise to call her if she hears from Leviathan. Ice cold, Ms. Luthor.

At ToyCon, which seems to be held in a parking garage basement and attended by a crowd of dozens, Kara and William arrive to cover the release of Lex’s action figure. But William has no chill and jumps right in with pointed questions about Russell’s death.

Lex pulls Kara aside, asks, “Why did I just get Frost/Nixoned by a Boy Scout?” and warns her that if she doesn’t shut down this Lexposé, he’ll straight-up murder William. Good likeness on the action figure, though.

In short order, those dang cymbal monkey bombs march onto the convention floor and detonate, forcing Supergirl to shield attendees from the blast. Then bad Winn shows up to open fire at Dunholtz.

For some reason, Supergirl watches aghast as the bullet rockets toward Dunholtz instead of, you know, speeding over to stop it. Thankfully, that’s when our Winn enters the scene in his embiggening Legion ship, which deflects the bullet and saves Dunholtz’s life. Good thing, too. Winn is desperate to keep his doppelgänger from killing anyone, as the time cops in the future believe he’s the murderer. If Toyman Winn commits any crimes, our Winn stands to lose his wife Ayla (Lightning Lass, is that you?) and their daughter Mary.

While Brainy skulks off to cover up the images of him lurking near Dunholtz on the security footage, the Danvers sisters are thrilled to reunite with their old friend. They take him to J’onn’s, where they’re greeted with a recently installed secret elevator. It whisks them to The Tower, a new superhero lair since the DEO isn’t safe anymore. You know, it’s like S.T.A.R. Labs or the Arrow bunker — or what Winn knows in the future as the Hall of Justice. (How you doing, comic fans? Between the name-dropping and J’onn superhero call panel, this whole scene was a delight!)

While they’re there, J’onn uses his powers to restore Winn’s memories of a time when Lex wasn’t a hero, and Winn adjusts pretty well, all things considered. Plus, it explains why they didn’t take his Legion ship to the DEO but instead sent it to a secret government black site…

… which of course Brainy tells Lex about. Lex bribes his way in and pulls out a memory cube that allows him to identify Gemma/Gamamnae through an old oil painting of her and Rama Khan. Having gotten what he was after, Lex tells Brainy he’s on his own to stop Toyman. Then he gives the cube to Lena so she can access its Q-waves. Efficient!

Bad Winn’s been busy and hacks the airwaves, as supervillains are wont to do. He tells the people of Earth that he’s out to avenge the harm done to his family and encourages them to “like me, subscribe, share, follow me” — you know, as supervillains are wont to do. When he reaches one million followers, he promises fireworks.

Nia, who’s been extremely calm and reflective about her breakup with Brainy, arrives at The Tower to dream what she can about Toyman’s location, but she only dreams about Brainy turning into a white tiger. (Her nickname for him was the Speed-inspired “wildcat,” after all.)

She and Winn step out onto the balcony (because of course The Tower has a balcony for discussing feelings), and Winn gives her a lovey pep talk. In the future, he’s besties with Nia’s descendent Nura, who imbued his Legion ring with dream powers. He assures Nia that she’s a powerful woman in the future and gives her some of Nura’s advice: “Never let anyone make you question your own worth.”

Then Winn and Kara have a heart-to-heart about the joys of parenthood. He tells her that Kara’s a popular name in the future because so many parents name their children after the heroic Zor-El. Awww! That truly made me melt a lil’ bit. But Kara’s grappling with betraying her journalistic ethics or putting William in danger. Winn assures her, “You’re Supergirl. Being in your orbit, it’s inspiring.”

Then they realize that Toyman’s probably seeking his own inspiration in the old toy company warehouse. There, they find a newspaper clipping of Andrea and her father and realize Toyman’s going to target Andrea at National City University, home of the tigers, where William’s covering her launch of the VR platform Obsidian Platinum. Geez, that VR breakthrough didn’t take long to engineer.

Sure enough, Toyman’s there and wearing NCU’s tiger mascot costume. He unleashes a streak of robot tigers on the crowd, and the soundtrack launches into “Eye of the Tiger.” Winn impresses Nia with how he uses the dream powers, while Brainy watches with concern in case she gets hurt.

The Winns finally come face to face, and the good one encourages the bad one to create his own legacy. But bad Winn racks up the million likes and detonates the bomb. Our Winn shields himself with dream energy, while Supergirl — who was too slow to stop a bullet earlier in the episode — whisks multiple humans to safety before the university auditorium is destroyed.

Luckily for Winn, they kept his evil double from committing murder, and the future bounty is no longer on his head. He tries to convince Brainy to come with him to game night at Kara’s, but Brainy tearfully confesses what he’s been up to, including unleashing Toyman so Winn would arrive from the future and bring the ship and its memory cube with him. “I’m terrified that I’m becoming the bad guy,” he said. Despite Winn’s forgiveness, Brainy stays behind to count all of his regrets, chief of which is breaking up with Nia.

But they’ll have a new face at game night after Kara convinces William — whom she’s now calling Will — to team up with her to investigate Lex and to join her friend hang. Alex notices one of the many long moments of eye contact Kara and William share as they play Jenga and drink to old friends and new ones.

Finally, at the government black site, a briefcase that’s part of the Toyman evidence pops open and plays a pixelated video of bad Winn. Maybe he’s not as gone as we thought…

Snaps of the cape

• Lex Corp DEO employees get stock options and four weeks paid vacation. Ahh, the tangible benefits of evil.
• William truly did have the saddest sandwich I’ve ever seen.
• Can 2126’s anti-trolling legislation get here faster, please? Forget about World War III, we’ve got nastiness to hold at bay right now.
• Anybody else hoping we get to meet Nura sooner rather than later? Bring us more Legionnaires!

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• Supergirl star Melissa Benoist teases ‘fight for Lena’s soul’ in season 5
• Melissa Benoist talks ditching the skirt in new Supergirl suit: ‘It’s more adult’
• Supergirl star Nicole Maines reflects on her first year as Dreamer