This week’s Supergirl begins with a flashback to the Phantom Zone where, seemingly, turbulence wakes a young Kara.

The scene jump cuts to present day, where Alex brings Kara breakfast but agonizes over whether to tell Kara her role as Astra’s true killer. We’ve seen Alex wrestle with the weight of her action practically since it happened, and it looks to be coming to a breaking point. The episode’s title almost more like a reference to Alex’s emotional isolation than to any particular plot line Kara has going on at the moment.

At CatCo, Siobhan is working her way ever closer to Cat. She used her feminine wiles to secure a package addressed to Cat from the mailroom so that she can personally deliver it. Kara tries to offer some advice, noting that Ms. Grant does not like packages to be delivered to her unopened, but Siobhan brushes off her experienced coworker’s words of wisdom. The plan doesn’t exactly go to her liking, however, and the content is revealed to be a flash drive with proof of an Ashley Madison-esque scandal.

Enter actress Laura Vandervoort (the second former Supergirl to appear on the show) as Indigo, a mysterious new hacker who offers that sensational story to CatCo by way of the above package. When Cat refuses to run the story, however, the Peroxide Avenger (another Cat-quip) taps into all of the screens in Cat’s main office and issues a warning about how computers control everything. After she cuts her broadcast, all of the traffic lights in National City go green, leading to a mad and dangerous vehicular situation.

Lucy, while no longer privy to the same governmental clearance she had while working with her father, is still proving to be a formidable sleuth. She tries to brainstorm with James about how to tackle the dangerous new hacker, but ol’ Jimmy wants to track down some “old leads” (a.k.a. Supergirl) instead. He promises to make it up to Lucy with a date at Noonan’s… buuuutttt then forgets all about it. Sure, he was at the South Pole scoping out Superman’s Fortress of Solitude (!!!) but that’s not really an excuse he can share. Kara tries to ease Lucy’s disappointment by offering a character witness for James, but she inadvertently reveals that Olsen has shared more familial information with her than he has with his own girlfriend. D’oh!

Indigo turns out to be Brainiac-8. Brainiac is of course one of Superman’s most iconic recurring foes in the comics, so it’s no surprise that a member of his clan has appeared in CBS’s Supergirl. She has a romantic past with Non, who—in a bit of a twist—is becoming slightly more sympathetic to Astra’s vision after her death. He’s by no means lining up to become Earth’s third Kryptonian champion, but he doesn’t seem to be as urgent with his total-annihilation-of-humanity plans. Myriad, whatever it turns out to be, is still his Endgame, but losing Astra is clearly having an effect on the cold and calculating extraterrestrial.

The episode culminates with Team Supergirl split into two factions: The D.E.O. plus Winn; and Supergirl, James, and Lucy. Kara still wants her space from J’onn, still believing him to be Astra’s killer, but the two sides aren’t working against each other. They’re just not working together. They manage to come to the same conclusion, however, and it’s that Indigo is targeting a nuclear launch site with plans to cause some serious destruction on the Western Seaboard. Supergirl doesn’t manage to stop the launch of a nuke, but she does reestablish communication with J’onn to use the D.E.O.’s resources to disarm the missile.

Winn manages to create a malware code to destroy Indigo, but not before she can reveal to Kara that she’s the reason Kara’s pod escaped the Phantom Zone and made its way to Earth. She was a prisoner on Fort Rozz and she used Kara’s pod’s destination to propel herself, and all of the others, outward to freedom.

Alex finally has her moment of truth and reveals that it was she who killed Astra, to protect J’onn. Kara, while obviously shaken, embraces her sister. Kara is finally realizing that mourning Astra’s potential redemption is not worth losing the family that she’s collected on Earth.

How did you feel about tonight’s episode? Sound off below!

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Notable Quotables:

“Hell is coming to Earth and when it does, only the Kryptonians and I will survive it. See you after the Apocalypse.” – Indigo

“To think, I was once a linked to the great Coluan Cyberconstruct. Now, I wander the same realm as Candy Crush…” – Indigo

“Anybody ever tell you that you’re a lot faster than your cousin?” – James Olsen
“No, actually.” – Kara
“Well, you are. But your turns are kinda sharp.” – James Olsen
“Hey, nobody likes a backseat flier.” – Kare

“You realize that I’m learning an alien coding language in the same amount of time it takes to watch an episode of Doctor Who, right? That’s like… that’s like, really fast.” – Winn Schott

“I am a god.” – Indigo
“No, you’re just a glorified Windows Vista.” – Winn

Listen for:

“Stressed Out” by twenty one pilots

“No One’s Gonna Love You” by Band of Horses

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Image: Darren Michaels/CBS