Among its many other strengths, Supergirl has been a real boon for fans of Lois & Clark who miss seeing Dean Cain running around the DC Universe. Heck, the show hasn’t even gotten around to adding Teri Hatcher to the mix yet. This week’s episode was heavy on Danvers family drama as it brought Cain’s Jeremiah Danvers back into play in a big way. Unsurprisingly, that made for a strong and very emotionally charged conflict.

Supergirl: "Homecoming" Photos 19 IMAGES

It was easy enough to predict the broad strokes of this episode ahead of time. Of course Jeremiah’s sudden return wasn’t going to be what it seemed. His most recent appearance in “The Darkest Place” was plenty suspicious already, as he conveniently showed up just in time to free Kara and send her on her way. So it was never really a question of whether Jeremiah was a Cadmus spy, but only when and how his true motives would reveal themselves.But if anything, that predictability only helped this episode. There was plenty of tearful, heartfelt emotion to go around in the early scene as the Danvers women reunited with the long-lost Jeremiah. Knowing that it would only be a matter of time until the other shoe dropped just served to make those scenes that much more sad and poignant. Even though Supergirl is a relatively optimistic and upbeat series compared to its fellow Arrow-verse dramas, Kara never seems to have much in the way of lasting good news in her life.Jeremiah’s return served as the catalyst for some great character drama this week. Certainly, it was the perfect means of testing Kara and Mon-El’s fledgling romance. Mon-El seemed to be the only one detached enough from the situation to notice how suspicious Jeremiah’s return was. Which doesn’t speak very highly of J’onn’s competence as DEO commander, but it seems even he can be blinded by sentimentality now and then.At this point, Mon-El might just be the most complex and, frankly, most interesting character on the entire show. I’m very happy with how his character arc has been handled all season long. He doesn’t fall as neatly into the hero or villain category as anyone else. He clearly means well, and he’s come a long way from the boorish, interstellar frat boy he was early on. But at the same time, he’s still wrestling with a lot of emotional baggage. He’s still trying to pass that hurdle where he’s serving as a superhero out of a selfless desire to protect others rather than a selfish need to be closer to Kara. And as his brief standoff with Jeremiah reminds us, there’s a lot he’s still hiding about his journey to Earth. The Kara/Mon-El romance may have weathered this particular obstacle (and possibly emerged even stronger as a result), but I doubt he’ll be so lucky whenever this dark secret reveals itself.On that note, if I had to guess, I’d speculate that either A) the Daxam empire isn’t as destroyed as Mon-El would have everyone believe, or B) he’s not actually a Daxamite at all.There was also a strong dose of sister drama this week as Kara slowly, reluctantly came around to Mon-El’s thinking while Alex refused to entertain the notion of her father being a traitor. The Kara/Alex bond is essentially the bedrock on which the entire show is built, and any villain that can threaten that bond is one that truly stands out. In that sense, Jeremiah is probably the best “villain” the show has this season. He’s certainly divided Team Supergirl in a way that characters like Lillian Luthor and Cyborg Superman never could.The final showdown between the two factions was a little underwhelming, with the Cadmus crew playing the oldest card in the supervillain playbook (threaten innocent civilians and then skulk off into the night). Supergirl’s struggle to save the train didn’t really measure up to the much stronger action sequence at the beginning of the episode. But the showdown was worth it solely for the dramatic confrontation between Alex and her father. Both Chyler Leigh and Dean Cain were especially strong in that scene, which made it clear that not all of Jeremiah’s humanity has been stripped away. That’s one thing he and Mon-El share in common, really. For as much damage as Jeremiah did to his friends and family this week, he doesn’t easily fall into the “villain” category. Where Lillian Luthor claims to be pursuing the greater good, she rarely comes across as anything other than a preening supervillain. But Cain retains enough warmth in his performance that it’s clear he is greatly conflicted by his actions and the harm he’s caused his daughters. Whether that’ll be enough to redeem him in the end remains to be seen.