Supergirl: Non Deploys His Master Plan at a Crucial Time

[Warning: The following contains spoilers from Monday's Supergirl. Read at your own risk!]

It's one step forward and two steps back for Supergirl's Kara Zor-El (Melissa Benoist).

Barry Allen (Grant Gustin) accidentally ran his way into National City just in time to help Kara win back the city's trust and give her some much-needed romantic advice. It turns out that Barry was exactly who Kara needed to get her head back in the superhero game - and to finally make an affirmative move on James Olsen (Mehcad Brooks).

But just as Kara finally planted a smooth kiss on her office crush, her Uncle Non (Cliff Lipson) deployed Myriad, the alien technology that puts every human in National City under his control -- including James, who was unable to reciprocate his feelings for Kara before becoming a mindless zombie. "Kara finally realized that they had so many fits and starts throughout the course of the year. So much of it was because [she or James] just didn't stop talking and just act," executive producer Andrew Kreisberg explained at an episode screening event. "The idea of, just as they kiss, Myriad takes over, and doing the gag of, 'Was it good? Too good? Not good?'... and [James] has turned into a zombie just felt like the best [Joss] Whedon-esque pathos."

Supergirl bosses explain why crossover episode is more than a gimmick

Finding a way to stop Non and return free will to National City's citizens will be Kara's primary battle for the last two episodes ofSupergirl's first season. Up until now, Non has made sporadic appearances on the show but the penultimate episode and the finale will cement the villain's purpose and why this cause is so important to him and his murdered wife, Astra (Laura Benanti).

"Next week Non actually gives a speech about, what has your free will gotten you? It's gotten you a planet full of reality TV shows and politicians who can't stand each other and all of you are just standing by as global warming is coming to destroy your planet. What if everybody was working in lockstep? What if everyone was moving in the same direction? What if everyone was working together? Wouldn't that be better?" Kreisberg says.

The logic sounds twisted - it's from a super-villain is using it after all - but consider the evidence. "Obviously we can all talk about how that's horrible and you're losing your free will and we'll all miss our reality shows, but he has a point of view that you could argue. That always makes the most compelling villains." Also remember that Astra tried to do Myriad on Krypton and was arrested and thrown in jail. When she was released, Krypton was destroyed. "As far as Astra is concerned, she was right," Kreisberg said. "[Astra had] proof positive that, at least from her perspective, [her] plan might have saved Krypton and [her] plan can save Earth."

Supergirl: Kara is "desperate to win everyone's trust back"

The bigger problem for Kara is that her human allies are under mind control and the two people closest to her are on a mystery mission to find her adopted father. However, the crisis may bring back Alex (Chyler Leigh) and Hank (David Harewood).

"[Alex] is on a mission, but Myriad taking over the entirety of National City is going to put into question which mission she should be pursuing," Kreisberg teased. "Obviously she knows her father is alive and he's out there, but the entirety of National City has been taken over and there's going to be some discussions with Hank in the subsequent episodes about which danger is more immediate and pressing."

It also turns out that Kara will have some help from surprising sources inside the city. "She has a couple of surprising players who you wouldn't expect to be the two people who are unaffected by Myriad to help her," Kreisberg said.

Who wants to bet that even alien mind-control technology is not enough to take down Cat Grant (Calista Flockhart)?

Supergirl continues on Mondays at 8/7c on CBS.

(Full disclosure: TVGuide.com is owned by CBS)

VIDEO: Melissa Benoist explains what makes Supergirl crossover so special so special