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Poor, poor Winn. He’s hopelessly in love with Kara, and the only one not privy to those feelings is Kara herself. Adding on to his emotional conflicts is his father (Henry Czerny), whom Winn only mentioned was in prison. In “Childish Things,” it is revealed that Winn’s father is the Toyman, a madman who uses toys as deadly weapons. Suddenly we are given a huge leap in Winn’s character, for better or for worse, which will no doubt shake things up for Team Supergirl. Before we look into Winn’s relationship dilemmas, let’s examine what the rest of the cast are up to in this episode.

Lucy Lane has been in and out character since her arrival — mostly just to subtly remind us that Jimmy Olsen still has a girlfriend and can’t pursue Kara while she’s around. We know she’s a hell of a lot more than pretty shoulder candy. Luckily, so does Cat Grant. Cat offers Lucy a job at CatCo, and she takes it. Meanwhile, Jimmy doesn’t seem too excited about this new development. At first we’re led to believe that Jimmy will no longer be able to steal tender moments with Kara with Lucy so dangerously close. That still might be true, but Jimmy ultimately confesses that he’s unhappy with his own position at CatCo — he wants to go back to photojournalism. This part of the episode wasn’t too crucial, but it was fun seeing Cat and Lucy get along better than with any other character on the show.

Elsewhere, Alex and Hank team up to find out what the heck Maxwell Lord is up to. If you remember from last time, he’s currently experimenting on a young woman currently codenamed as “Project Phoenix.” Alex pushes Hank into using his Martian powers to infiltrate Lord Industries, something he is extremely hesitant to do. He ultimately agrees to Alex’s plan, but it comes with a cost. He’s forced to mind wipe a guard, effectively erasing the guy’s entire life, including the memories of his wife and child.

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I’ve often pointed out that Supergirl’s messages of feminism were too on the nose, pointedly stating them rather than showing. It still happens — such as Cat advising Lucy that she’ll lose her mind (and sense of self worth) if she doesn’t find a job to occupy her time after moving to a new city for a boy. However, the show is getting better at how they present their social commentary. There’s a good amount of subtlety in Hank’s storyline this week. He swore never to use his powers after being hunted around the world for the past 50 years as J’onn J’onzz. He’s painfully aware that his very looks would cause the people of Earth to see him as some monstrous alien out to abduct them. Clark Kent and Kara Danvers are infinitely more powerful than the Martian Manhunter, but they’re lucky enough to look like attractive human beings. It’s impossible not to read Hank’s situation as a metaphor for all sorts of social ailments: bigotry, racism, and homophobia being the biggest examples. Alex and Kara both mean well, but they readily wave aside Hank’s well-deserved anxieties and try to impose their sunny optimisms. They wouldn’t know his struggles unless they’ve lived them as well. Something tells me they’ll get an idea soon, though.

Despite the intriguing new plot threads the writers of Supergirl just lied down, the main focus to this week’s episode is Winn Schott.

Since the beginning, all we really knew about Winn is that he’s the insanely adorable friend with genius-level technical skills. He was portrayed as the typical “nice guy” whom every pretty girl loves to hang out with, but just as friends. “Childish Things” peels away that layer a little bit to reveal a more complex Winn, one who is all-around angry and fearful. Most of that stems from his relationship with his father, Winslow Schott, Sr., aka the Toyman.

Schott, Sr. was known as the “nice guy” — the kind who avoided conflict rather than stand up for himself. But then he discovered that his boss stole a number of his toy designs and profited. Schott, Sr. snapped and ended up killing six people in an attempt to get back at his boss. Winn was 11 years old when his dad was finally caught. Since then, he’s had time to build himself a happy-go-lucky persona to help deal with his anger over his father. But all that anger resurfaces when Schott, Sr. escapes and is on the lamb.

Supergirl likes to deal with the subject of how family can shape who you are. The show often discusses Kara’s family situation, and we even got a taste of how Cat’s complicated relationship with her mother has shaped Cat to become the person she is today. Both deconstructions ended up in positive lights, but it’s a whole different story with Winn.

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Winn described his father as a really nice guy. They were extremely close in several different ways — they looked the same, they liked the same things, and they bonded closely over anything and everything. When Winn, Sr. snapped for no apparent reason, Winn, Jr. lives with the fear that he’s going to end up the same exact way. The thought worries him so much that he’s determined to distance himself from his father any way he can (other than changing his name, apparently). And after finally confronting his father in person, Winn is even more set on living a life that is the exact opposite from his father’s. That means being honest about his feelings rather than bottle them up inside a pressure cooker.

Winn’s parental woe is a tale as old as time, but the writers have a knack for taking the simplest of tropes and make it their own. Jeremy Jordon hit it out of the park this week in showing how much Winn hates his father, but still cares enough not to see him gunned down by the FBI.

Meanwhile, Kara tries to comfort her best friend through this whole ordeal, but the emotionally vulnerable Winn mistakes her attentiveness to her opening herself up for a possible relationship with him. As a result, Winn kisses her. Kara is freaks out and basically runs the other way. The whole thing turns into a painfully awkward situation. Winn finally admits that he’s in love with Kara, but Kara doesn’t want to change the friendship they already have with one another. The encounter leaves both parties feeling glum and unsure of the future ahead.

The episode overall wasn’t super heroic, but it we finally have a reason to care more about Winn. And how will this change Team Supergirl’s dynamic as a whole? I just hope it doesn’t peter out like in an ex machina-type device like what they did when Kara used J’onn’s shapeshifting abilities to convince Cat that she’s not Supergirl literally one episode after Cat uses her smarts to figure it out.

FINAL THOUGHTS: 

  • Anya from Buffy the Vampire Slayer (Emma Caulfield) plays the lead FBI agent after the Toyman! I hope she comes back.
  • Watching Supergirl fly alongside Martian Manhunter just made me giddy all over.
  • Ever since Jeremy Jordan’s character was announced, I have been afraid that Winn will someday go bad, just like his father. That fear subsided for a little while since the show started, but it’s back again. The show really wanted to emphasize that Winn, Jr. might be an exact copy of his father. Like maybe… I don’t know. Cloning isn’t exactly in Toyman’s skill set. I just want to know what he means already!
  • Toyman’s ultimatum to kill one man or kill a hundred might have been Winn’s darkest moment. I thought for sure that he’d snap right there had Supergirl not swooped in to save the day.
  • Alex “wines and dines” with Maxwell Lord to allow J’onn some time to find out what’s hidden in Lord Industries. Then! Max plants a camera to spy on Alex. In doing so, he unwittingly discovers that Kara is Supergirl. ANOTHER reason why superheroes should always dress out of their costumes the second before they re-enter their home. (The first reason is open windows and penthouse residents’ penchant for owning telescopes.)
  • Best line: “I’m not immune to he allure of James Olsen wearing a shirt that is unbuttoned one too many.”
  • Did we really need to see doppelgänger Maxwell’s eyes glow to know that he’s J’onn? The answer is no. No we did not.

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Christina E. Janke

Christina is the co-host of “Intro to Geek” on Shauncastic and Editor-in-Chief at Agents of Geek. Her love of all things Mass Effect knows no bounds. She also carries an obsession with comic books, video games, and quirky television shows. Her heroes are Tina Fey, Amy Poehler, and Gail Simone. She hopes to be just like them when she grows up.