Supergirl sees red, The Penguin's Strange days in Gotham and waiting for a second serving of Outlander

When it comes to Superman stories, certain plot points are expected to be touched on(evil genius enemy, love interest who works in journalism, deadly green rocks) and Supergirl is certainly not immune from hitting those buttons as well.

This week, Kara came into contact with red kryptonite , which tends to make folks like her turn bad to the bone. Red K outings do tend to be wicked fun in the Superman world as it allows our good as gold hero to cut loose and show off the potential damage he/she could do if not for being on our side.

Kara was quite amusing in bad girl mode as she played office politics(that resulted in getting her catty co-worker fired), dressed sophisticated sexy and made some serious moves on the newly single James. However, the fear factor came roaring in as Supergirl got sick of Cat Grant's lectures and tossed her boss over the side of that high rise building of hers.

Sure, Cat survived but was serious shaken up, causing her to warn the public about how dangerous Supergirl now was. Another consequence of Kara's brief reign of terror was that Hank had no choice but to reveal his true identity as the Martian Manhunter, surrendering himself to the authorities once Supergirl was no longer a threat to herself and others.

 As entertaining as it was to see Kara get her dark side of the force on, it's good that the show isn't simply treating this as a one time only-everything's back to normal event. Watching Kara learn from this close encounter with Red K and having everyone else deal with the aftermath as well is good story telling. Although, it was a little scary fun to see Cat take that high dive:

Times have been tough for our fiendish friend The Penguin on Gotham lately, as he has been spending time in Arkham Asylum in order to avoid a prison sentence for killing Theo Galavan.

What he thought would be a smooth ride became extremely bumpy as Dr. Hugo Strange(perfectly played by B.D.Wong) took an interest in "curing" Oswald with his gruesome techniques that make the ones in Clockwork Orange look meek and mild.

 Eventually, Penguin figured out how to play Strange's game but not without a new set of psychological scars to bear. Oswald did try to get some help from Jim Gordon(who barely escaped being charged with Galavan's murder) but was quickly refused. That's going to come back and bite Jim for sure, as Ed Nygma is revving up his Riddler engines to take Gordon down before he looks more into Kristen Kringle's disappearance.

With Oswald now released, it looks like he and his pal Nygma are planning to pay back Gordon together and that should be something to keep an eye on there. Of course, the big story line coming up for Penquin is being reunited with his long lost father(yay, Paul Reubens!) and his new family but I can't help wondering if Dr. Strange is somehow connected with that upcoming development.

Strange did say to his assistant Miss Peabody that he's not done with Oswald yet and still wouldn't tell her anymore than that. Hope that this engaging set-up will lead to something game changing here as Gotham does tend to not finish what they start with certain sub plots:

With some of my current shows taking mini-breaks at the moment, it's hard not to long for the quick return of Outlander, which is scheduled to begin it's second season on April 9th.

I've been reading Dragonfly in Amber(book two in Diana Gabaldon's epic series) and know so far that the main thrust of the plot here has Claire and Jamie stay in France for awhile, doing their best to prevent the Scottish uprising that will historically end in defeat. They make some new friends and allies,plus run into a couple of former acquaintances that they hoped to never meet again.

More than that,I will not say and not just because I haven't finished the book yet(it's a really long one,folks, like all of these books!). I am looking forward to seeing Claire in fabulous ball gowns while being the same sharp tongued kick ass lady that we all know and love her to be, not to mention checking out Jamie in French formal wear:

RANDOM NOTES:

HOW TO GET AWAY WITH MURDER: The season finale airs tonight and if I were Laurel, I would watch out. Not only did she inadvertently spill the beans on Frank to Annalise about his part in last year's major murder but her attention towards Wes seems to be pushing a few of his jealousy buttons: