Editor’s Note: This post contains spoilers for Supergirl. Proceed at your own risk if you have not watched yet. 

If you thought the Alex subplot didn’t get enough attention on Supergirl last week, settle in, because she took up a lot of well-earned screen time on this latest episode. Aside from Alex finally coming out to Kara, “Changing” was peppered with, well … changes for several characters. Mon-El learned a thing or two from Kara, James took on a new persona, and J’onn was saved by M’gann. We have a lot to get through, so let’s get started!

The episode kicked off with a literal cold open at a research facility in the arctic, where Doctor Rudy Jones and his team were researching climate change. When one of his colleagues called him over to check out a wolf that had supposedly been under the ice for 5,000 years, he found that it was still warm. Curious to learn more, Jones stuck his hand in a hole in the wolf’s body and it grabbed hold of him.

When the DEO learned of the facility later on, it was thanks to an SOS from the lab. With only Jones still alive, Alex and J’onn took the jet to the lab to check it out. Kara, however, wasn’t along for the ride… because she was too drunk (thanks, Mon-El). After the rest of the squad collected the doctor, they brought him back to the DEO for observation. Controlled by a strange parasitic alien, the destruction of the environment was his main focus.

The team didn’t realize what really happened until they witnessed Jones claim another victim on the research facility’s video footage. Alex and Supergirl found out the man was infected the hard way when they went to the lab he was supposed to be working at and found a dead man with the life sucked out of them. Like a parasite, Jones gains power by draining their blood. By the time Kara arrived, he was incredibly powerful. When Alex tried to shoot him, the bullets bounced right off.

But bullet-deflecting aliens weren’t the only thing Alex was worried about last night. After all but coming out last week to Maggie, Alex took the plunge and told her sister. Though Kara’s reaction wasn’t exactly what she was hoping for, Alex looked relieved to get her feelings for Maggie off her chest. She also detailed previous feelings she may have felt for her high school best friend. It scared her that she had feelings for another woman before they inevitably drifted apart.

Fast-forward to the present and Alex is finally ready to embrace her sexual identity. Kara was a little hesitant at first, but later, in a touching conversation with her sister, she apologized not only for her reaction, but for not creating an environment where her sister felt comfortable enough to talk about what was really going on. As Kara explained, their late night chats were always about her secret identity as Supergirl. Kara further explained that she knows how lonely it is to keep a secret about herself from others. Just when the pair were starting to open up to each other, however, they were interrupted by a call regarding an alien threat. While Alex was left to go out and get the girl, Kara took off to investigate.

The “threat” ended up being Mon-El exploiting his powers for money. It seems his good alien training session with Kara at the beginning of the episode didn’t inspire him to do good deeds. Rather, he took those skills he learned and used them to earn a quick buck, going against everything Kara stands for in the process. This obviously led to harsh words and a spat between the duo.

As the stakes continued to rise with Dr. Jones on the loose, James was impatient for Winn to finish his suit. He settled down a bit when Winn told him that giving him his suit now, before it was ready, would probably get him killed. As his pal pointed out, that would defeat the purpose of him wanting to get out and save lives immediately. Before finally presenting Mon-El with the suit, Winn offered him a friendly reminder: his life will change once he puts on that suit for the first time. But since meeting Clark, James has been ready to embrace the world as a hero (aptly named Guardian), and later dons the suit to help his friends out.

Meanwhile, Kara and Alex were back on track with figuring out what to do with the mutated Dr. Jones. After an unfortunate showdown with the hostile alien, both Kara and J’onn lost a lot of blood and were basically comatose. When Alex showed up, she realized that the doctor had mutated. While Kara was set to recover in a short amount of time, J’onn wasn’t so lucky, and required a blood transfusion from the only other martian he knows: M’gann. Though hesitant, she ended up following through with the procedure.

Unfortunately, draining the aliens only added to Jones’ power. He was ready to wreak havoc on the city. Thankfully, Kara recovered quickly enough to stop him. She used his own power against him and used a device to blast him with power. It worked and he crumbled. When she finally took him out, she thanked the disguised James (a.k.a. Guardian) for helping out.

After the events, Alex thought she would celebrate by going on a date with Maggie. But as her rotten luck would have it, Maggie was only interested in friendship–which shattered Alex’s heart. When Kara found her at the end of the episode, she was inconsolable. Despite feeling like she humiliated herself, Alex realized that Kara has her back no matter what.

In the last few minutes of “Changing” we saw that even Mon-El was ready to change his ways. When he stopped to help a beggar man, he was stunned and shoved into a van by… Cadmus! We can’t wait to see what happens next week.

What did you think of tonight’s episode? Are you excited to watch Alex, James, and Mon-El’s respective transformation. Let us know in the comments below!

Images: CW