Supergirl (season 2)

File:Supergirl season 2.jpg Home media cover Blu-ray
Starring	Melissa Benoist Mehcad Brooks Chyler Leigh Jeremy Jordan Floriana Lima Chris Wood David Harewood
Country of origin	United States
No. of episodes	22
Release
Original network	The CW
Original release	October 10, 2016 (2016-10-10) – May 22, 2017 (2017-05-22)

The second season of the American television series Supergirl, which is based on the DC Comics character Supergirl / Kara Zor-El, a costumed superheroine who is the cousin to Superman and one of the last surviving Kryptonians.

The season was ordered in May 2016, and unlike the first season which aired on CBS, this season was picked up by The CW. While the first season was filmed in Los Angeles, beginning with this season filming relocated to Vancouver, to reduce the high production costs of the series. The season was filmed from July 2016 to April 2017. Alongside Melissa Benoist, who stars in the titular role, principal cast members Mehcad Brooks, Chyler Leigh, Jeremy Jordan, and David Harewood return from the first season, and are joined by Chris Wood and Floriana Lima. Former series regular Calista Flockhart returns in a recurring capacity.

The season premiered on The CW on October 10, 2016, and ran until May 22, 2017, over 22 episodes. It received overall critical acclaim, being viewed as an improvement over the first season. The series was renewed for a third season on January 8, 2017.

Episodes

See also: List of Supergirl episodes

Supergirl, season 2 episodes

No. overall	No. in season	Title	Directed by	Written by	Original air date	Prod. code	U.S. viewers (millions)
21	1	"The Adventures of Supergirl"	Glen Winter	Story by: Greg Berlanti & Andrew Kreisberg Teleplay by: Andrew Kreisberg & Jessica Queller	October 10, 2016 (2016-10-10)	T13.20151	3.06
22	2	"The Last Children of Krypton"	Glen Winter	Robert Rovner & Caitlin Parrish	October 17, 2016 (2016-10-17)	T13.20152	2.66
23	3	"Welcome to Earth"	Rachel Talalay	Jessica Queller & Derek Simon	October 24, 2016 (2016-10-24)	T13.20153	2.65
24	4	"Survivors"	James Marshall and James Bamford	Paula Yoo & Eric Carrasco	October 31, 2016 (2016-10-31)	T13.20154	2.22
25	5	"Crossfire"	Glen Winter	Gabriel Llanas & Anna Musky-Goldwyn	November 7, 2016 (2016-11-07)	T13.20155	2.47
26	6	"Changing"	Larry Teng	Story by: Greg Berlanti Teleplay by: Andrew Kreisberg & Caitlin Parrish	November 14, 2016 (2016-11-14)	T13.20156	2.35
27	7	"The Darkest Place"	Glen Winter	Robert Rovner & Paula Yoo	November 21, 2016 (2016-11-21)	T13.20157	2.61
28	8	"Medusa"	Stefan Pleszczynski	Jessica Queller & Derek Simon	November 28, 2016 (2016-11-28)	T13.20158	3.53
29	9	"Supergirl Lives"	Kevin Smith	Story by: Andrew Kreisberg Teleplay by: Eric Carrasco & Jess Kardos	January 23, 2017 (2017-01-23)	T13.20159	2.65
30	10	"We Can Be Heroes"	Rebecca Johnson	Caitlin Parrish & Katie Rose Rogers	January 30, 2017 (2017-01-30)	T13.20160	2.35
31	11	"The Martian Chronicles"	David McWhirter	Gabriel Llanas & Anna Musky-Goldwyn	February 6, 2017 (2017-02-06)	T13.20161	2.43
32	12	"Luthors"	Tawnia McKiernan	Robert Rovner & Cindy Lichtman	February 13, 2017 (2017-02-13)	T13.20162	2.52
33	13	"Mr. & Mrs. Mxyzptlk"	Stefan Pleszczynski	Jessica Queller & Sterling Gates	February 20, 2017 (2017-02-20)	T13.20163	2.24
34	14	"Homecoming"	Larry Teng	Caitlin Parrish & Derek Simon	February 27, 2017 (2017-02-27)	T13.20164	2.17
35	15	"Exodus"	Michael Allowitz	Paula Yoo & Eric Carrasco	March 6, 2017 (2017-03-06)	T13.20165	2.16
36	16	"Star-Crossed"	John Medlen	Katie Rose Rogers & Jess Kardos	March 20, 2017 (2017-03-20)	T13.20166	2.07
37	17	"Distant Sun"	Kevin Smith	Gabriel Llanas & Anna Musky-Goldwyn	March 27, 2017 (2017-03-27)	T13.20167	2.21
38	18	"Ace Reporter"	Armen V. Kevorkian	Paula Yoo & Caitlin Parrish	April 24, 2017 (2017-04-24)	T13.20168	1.80
39	19	"Alex"	Rob Greenlea	Eric Carrasco & Greg Baldwin	May 1, 2017 (2017-05-01)	T13.20169	1.75
40	20	"City of Lost Children"	Ben Bray	Story by: Robert Rovner Teleplay by: Gabriel Llanas & Anna Musky-Goldwyn	May 8, 2017 (2017-05-08)	T13.20170	1.88
41	21	"Resist"	Millicent Shelton	Jessica Queller & Derek Simon	May 15, 2017 (2017-05-15)	T13.20171	1.93
42	22	"Nevertheless, She Persisted"	Glen Winter	Story by: Andrew Kreisberg & Jessica Queller Teleplay by: Robert Rovner & Caitlin Parrish	May 22, 2017 (2017-05-22)	T13.20172	2.12

Cast and characters

Main article: List of Supergirl characters

Main

• Melissa Benoist as Kara Danvers / Kara Zor-El / Supergirl
• Mehcad Brooks as James Olsen / Guardian
• Chyler Leigh as Alex Danvers
• Jeremy Jordan as Winslow "Winn" Schott Jr.
• Floriana Lima as Maggie Sawyer
• Chris Wood as Mon-El / Mike Matthews
• David Harewood as J'onn J'onzz / Martian Manhunter and Hank Henshaw / Cyborg Superman

Recurring

• Andrea Brooks as Eve Teschmacher
• Brenda Strong as Lillian Luthor
• Calista Flockhart as Cat Grant
• Ian Gomez as Snapper Carr
• Katie McGrath as Lena Luthor
• Tyler Hoechlin as Kal-El / Clark Kent / Superman
• Sharon Leal as Miss Martian / M'gann M'orzz
• Helen Slater as Eliza Danvers
• Tamzin Merchant as Lyra Strayd
• Teri Hatcher as Queen Rhea

Guest

• Frederick Schmidt as John Corben / Metallo
• Rich Ting as Gilcrist / Metallo
• Lynda Carter as Olivia Marsdin
• Nadine Crocker as Scorcher
• Dichen Lachman as Veronica Sinclair / Roulette
• William Mapother as Rudy Jones / Parasite
• Dean Cain as Jeremiah Danvers
• Victor Zinck, Jr. as Phillip Karnowsky / Barrage
• Grant Gustin as Barry Allen / Flash
• Carlos Valdes as Cisco Ramon / Vibe
• Harley Quinn Smith as Izzy Williams
• Ian Butcher as Lionel Luthor
• Aidan Fink as Lex Luthor
• Peter Gadiot as Mister Mxyzptlk
• Kevin Sorbo as King Lar Gand
• Darren Criss as Music Meister
• Rahul Kohli as Jack Spheer
• Lonnie Chavis as Marcus
• Mark Gibbon as General Zod

Production

Development

On May 12, 2016, Warner Bros. Television announced that Supergirl had been renewed for a second season of 22 episodes and would move to The CW from CBS. Ali Adler and Andrew Kreisberg served as the season's showrunners. It was also announced that, beginning with this season, production would relocate to Vancouver from Los Angeles.

Writing

In the second season, Kara Danvers / Supergirl and James Olsen end their romantic relationship, in favor of maintaining a platonic one. Kreisberg said regarding this decision, "We realized that the best scenes between [Kara and James] were just the nice, sweet scenes where they were being friends." He also said that while the theme of the first season was "how does Kara become Supergirl?", the theme of the second would be "how does Supergirl become Kara?". Kriesberg said another theme of the season was "about coming into one's own and becoming who you are", such as Winn Schott becoming who he is by joining the Department of Extranormal Operations (DEO), and J'onn J'onzz embracing his Martian Manhunter persona, which he spent 300 years concealing, but does not have to any longer. The season is split in two-halves each with their own self-contained "big bad" story: Project Cadmus serves as the "big bad" of the first half, and Queen Rhea for the second half.

The season establishes that Alex Danvers is gay, with Maggie Sawyer being her partner. Chyler Leigh, who plays Alex, explained, "it's not like this thing that all of a sudden is just spilling out, it's a discovery for her". She added, "You have so many stories [...] where people are already established as gay, lesbian, bi[sexual]; these are people who are coming in like that" and described the second season as a "great opportunity to show somebody who's figuring it out, the light bulb moment and putting the puzzle pieces together." While the first season showed that the DEO operates in an isolated cave located "in the middle of nowhere", the second season shows that the DEO has relocated to their other base, a skyscraper in National City. Kreisberg explained that the creative team of Supergirl "fell out of love" with the DEO's cave setting, saying "It was cool in the beginning, and it just for some reason didn't feel like it was bringing everything together", hence the reason for shifting to the skyscraper setting.

Casting

Melissa Benoist, Mehcad Brooks, Chyler Leigh, Jeremy Jordan, and David Harewood return from the first season as Kara Danvers / Supergirl, James Olsen, Alex Danvers, Winn Schott and J'onn J'onzz / Martian Manhunter, respectively. They are joined by Chris Wood and Floriana Lima, protraying Mon-El and Maggie Sawyer, respectively. Harewood also portrays Hank Henshaw, who becomes this series' version of Cyborg Superman. The season establishes Olsen as the vigilante Guardian, unlike the comics where Jim Harper is the vigilante. The producers decided to depict Sawyer as a Latino for the series, unlike the comics where she is a white blonde; however, the character's homosexuality was retained for the series.

With the move of production to Vancouver, it was unclear if Calista Flockhart, who played Cat Grant in the first season, would remain with the series, as her original contract stipulated that she work near her home in Los Angeles. The CW president Mark Pedowitz said Flockhart wanted to remain with the series and that "We're in ongoing discussions... we're happy to have her in [in whatever capacity] works out." Flockhart ultimately reached a deal to be recurring in the second season. Andrea Brooks originally auditioned for the role of Sawyer, although she herself admitted that she did not feel that role was a "good fit". She was subsequently sent a further script to audition for the role of Janice. Having won the role, it was not until she received her first episode script that she discovered she would in fact be playing the recurring role of Eve Teschmacher. The character's name is a reference to a character of the same name played by Valerie Perrine in Superman (1978) and its 1980 sequel. Katie McGrath also joined this season in the recurring role of Lena Luthor.

Design

Tyler Harron worked as the production designer for the season. With the move of the production to Vancouver from Los Angeles, Harron decided to take elements from the existing sets and rebuild them in Vancouver from scratch, rather than pack the sets such as CatCo and Kara Danver's loft, ship them to Vancouver and rebuild them there. This was done due to the difficulty of having separate crews to ship the sets to Vancouver and unpack them there. Kara's loft was designed to look almost exactly as it was in the first season, while CatCo was substantially redesigned.

Filming

The second season was filmed in Vancouver, rather than Los Angeles where the first season was shot. This was done to reduce the high production costs of the series, one of the issues that made CBS wary to renew the series on their network. Kriesberg explained that it "would've started to feel very small" if production had continued in Los Angeles, and that they chose to relocate to Vancouver to shoot in its outdoor locations, rather than continue facing the constraints of shooting mainly inside the studio at Los Angeles. Pedowitz said the series' move to Vancouver made crossovers with another CW superhero series, The Flash, "easier to facilitate" as the series also films in Vancouver. Filming for the season began in July 2016, and ended in April 2017.

Music

The score for the season was composed by Blake Neely.

Track listing
No.	Title	Length
1.	"Superman"	2:17
2.	"Famous Cousins Working Together"	2:01
3.	"First Day as a Reporter"	2:14
4.	"Goodbye to Cat"	2:05
5.	"Fighting Fire with Fire"	2:45
6.	"Cage Fighting Aliens"	2:22
7.	"Mon-El’s First Day as an Intern"	1:19
8.	"Always a Sidekick"	2:17
9.	"Roulette / Thing from Another Planet"	2:46
10.	"Guardian"	2:37
11.	"Alex Tells Maggie"	1:32
12.	"Virus Threat"	3:07
13.	"Sense About Her"	2:46
14.	"Star-Crossed Martians"	3:14
15.	"Mind Meld"	3:15
16.	"The Luthors"	3:09
17.	"Mxyzptlk"	2:45
18.	"Duel with Mxyzptlk"	3:04
19.	"Cadmus"	1:39
20.	"All I Thought About"	2:53
21.	"Saving Her Sister and the Ark"	2:48
22.	"Mon-El’s True History"	3:58
23.	"Why Are You Doing This?"	2:58
24.	"Almost Losing Alex"	2:01
25.	"Jimmy Bonds with Marcus"	2:31
26.	"Daxamites Invade"	1:52
27.	"Forcing a Marriage"	1:54
28.	"Fighting Superman"	2:47
29.	"Releasing the Lead / Mon-El Says Goodbye"	3:35
30.	"I Am So Proud of You"	1:49
31.	"Thirty Five Years Ago"	1:23

Arrowverse tie-ins

The episode "Medusa" ends with a scene where Barry Allen and Cisco Ramon of Earth-1 arrive at Kara's loft enlisting her help with a problem on their Earth, thereby setting up the Arrowverse crossover event "Invasion!" that begins on The Flash season 3 episode 8, continues on Arrow season 5 episode 8 and concludes on Legends of Tomorrow season 2 episode 7. This scene is later repeated in the Flash episode of the crossover. Kara/Supergirl appears in all three episodes as a visitor to their universe due to Supergirl being set in a different Earth, referred to as Earth-38 by the inhabitants of the Arrowverse, and has been informally referred to as "Earth-CBS" by Arrow showrunner Marc Guggenheim, named for the network where Supergirl first aired. Similarly, the episode "Star-Crossed" ends with Music Meister hypnotizing Kara and fleeing to Earth-1 to do the same to Barry, thus initiating the events of The Flash season 3 episode "Duet".

Release

Broadcast

The season began airing on The CW on October 10, 2016, in the United States, and ended on May 22, 2017. It premiered on the same day as the United States in Canada on Showcase, and on October 24, 2016, in the United Kingdom on Sky One.

Home media

The season was released on DVD in Region 2 on August 21, 2017, on DVD and Blu-ray in Region 1 on August 22, and DVD Region 3 on August 23.

Reception

Ratings

No.	Title	Air date	Rating/share (18–49)	Viewers (millions)	DVR (18–49)	DVR viewers (millions)	Total (18–49)	Total viewers (millions)
1	"The Adventures of Supergirl"	October 10, 2016	1.1/3	3.06	N/A	N/A	N/A	N/A
2	"The Last Children of Krypton"	October 17, 2016	0.9/3	2.66	0.6	1.42	1.5	4.08
3	"Welcome to Earth"	October 24, 2016	0.8/3	2.65	N/A	1.37	N/A	4.03
4	"Survivors"	October 31, 2016	0.6/2	2.22	0.6	1.59	1.2	3.80
5	"Crossfire"	November 7, 2016	0.7/3	2.47	0.7	1.71	1.4	4.18
6	"Changing"	November 14, 2016	0.7/3	2.35	0.6	1.42	1.3	3.85
7	"The Darkest Place"	November 21, 2016	0.9/3	2.61	0.5	1.35	1.4	3.98
8	"Medusa"	November 28, 2016	1.1/4	3.53	0.8	1.76	1.9	5.29
9	"Supergirl Lives"	January 23, 2017	0.8/3	2.65	0.5	1.48	1.3	4.13
10	"We Can Be Heroes"	January 30, 2017	0.7/3	2.35	0.5	1.40	1.2	3.75
11	"The Martian Chronicles"	February 6, 2017	0.7/3	2.43	N/A	1.38	N/A	3.81
12	"Luthors"	February 13, 2017	0.8/3	2.52	N/A	N/A	N/A	N/A
13	"Mr. & Mrs. Mxyzptlk"	February 20, 2017	0.7/3	2.24	N/A	1.30	N/A	3.54
14	"Homecoming"	February 27, 2017	0.7/3	2.17	N/A	N/A	N/A	N/A
15	"Exodus"	March 6, 2017	0.7/3	2.16	0.5	1.28	1.2	3.46
16	"Star-Crossed"	March 20, 2017	0.6/2	2.07	0.6	1.43	1.2	3.50
17	"Distant Sun"	March 27, 2017	0.7/3	2.21	N/A	1.28	N/A	3.49
18	"Ace Reporter"	April 24, 2017	0.5/2	1.80	N/A	N/A	N/A	N/A
19	"Alex"	May 1, 2017	0.5/2	1.75	0.4	1.26	0.9	3.00
20	"City of Lost Children"	May 8, 2017	0.6/3	1.88	N/A	1.19	N/A	3.07
21	"Resist"	May 15, 2017	0.5/2	1.93	0.5	1.29	1.0	3.22
22	"Nevertheless, She Persisted"	May 22, 2017	0.6/2	2.12	0.5	1.19	1.1	3.31

Critical response

The review aggregator website Rotten Tomatoes gave the second season a 92% approval rating from critics with an average rating of 7.91/10, based on 19 reviews. The site's consensus reads, "The arrival of the more famous cousin in Supergirl does nothing to detract from the show's lead, who continues to deliver strength, action, and relatability." Metacritic, which uses a weighted average, assigned a score of 81 out of 100 based on 4 reviews, indicating "universal acclaim".

Jesse Schedeen of IGN rated the season 7.3 out of 10, giving the verdict, "In many ways, Supergirl improved in its second season as the show moved to The CW and bolstered its already solid cast with several new favorites. This season not only looked better, it managed to blend epic superhuman conflicts with very real, authentic character drama and a status quo marked by plenty of anti-alien sentiment in National City. But not every character benefited from the shake-ups this season, and not every lingering Season 1 problem was addressed. And while the season as a whole had more good elements than bad, the final trio of lackluster episodes managed to end the year on a real down note." Evan Valentine of Collider ranked the season at number 10 in his list of best and worst superhero television series of 2017, writing, "Supergirl is a stalwart within a sea of superhero shows, not necessarily standing out, but not ever being terrible. Melissa Benoist still does a fantastic job of portraying “the Girl of Steel,” but we are hitting Smallville-levels of drama with the rest of the characters". PopMatters writer James Plath rated the season 7 out 10 stars.

Accolades

Year	Recipient/Nominated work	Award	Result
2017	GLAAD Awards	Outstanding Drama Series	Supergirl	Nominated
	Kids' Choice Awards	Favorite TV Show – Family Show		Nominated
	Saturn Awards	Best Actress on Television	Melissa Benoist	Won
		Best Guest Performance in a Television Series	Tyler Hoechlin	Nominated
		Best Superhero Adaptation Television Series	Supergirl	Won
		Best Supporting Actor on Television	Mehcad Brooks	Nominated
	Teen Choice Awards	Choice Action TV Actor	Chris Wood	Nominated
		Choice Action TV Actress	Melissa Benoist	Won
		Choice Action TV Show	Supergirl	Nominated
		Choice Liplock	Melissa Benoist and Chris Wood	Nominated
		Choice TV Ship	Melissa Benoist and Chris Wood	Nominated
		Choice TV Villain	Teri Hatcher	Nominated

External links

• Official website
• Supergirl at IMDb