Supergirl waited an extra week before dropping its Valentine’s day-themed episode, but it was definitely worth the extra wait. “Mr. and Mrs. Mxyzptlk” found plenty of success in exploring two of the show’s key relationships this season, while also throwing in a classic Superman villain and a Hamilton spoof for good measure. What’s not to love?

It was certainly a refreshing change of pace to have an episode where it felt like the villain mattered as much as the main cast. Even after a year-and-a-half, that’s not a formula Supergirl really seems to have cracked. It was equally refreshing to see a villain that allowed the writers to really lean into the campy source material. There was no attempt to water down Mr. Mxyzptlk (played by Queen of the South’s Peter Gadiot) or replace his back-story as a fifth-dimensional imp with something more grounded. Sure, he looked quite a bit more suave than the squat, garishly dressed Mxy of the comics, but otherwise it was all there.Compared to the likes of Cyborg Superman and the White Martians, Mr. Mxyzptlk made for a very fun and entertaining antagonist. It’s hard to go wrong with a character that can literally do anything and has such a flair for the theatrical. The only real way to screw up Mxy is to treat him as a malevolent, evil threat. He’s just a higher being who craves love and attention and gets his kicks by pestering the Superman family. So hinging the conflict out of Mxy’s desire to win Kara’s hand made a lot of sense. Between the Parasite kerfuffle and Kara’s battle with an animated statue of her uncle, Mxy’s powers allowed for some pretty memorable action scenes this week. And half the fun of an Mr. Mxyzptlk story is in seeing how the hero tricks the imp into returning to his own dimension. Kara’s solution didn’t disappoint.As it turned out, Mxy’s arrival was also the perfect catalyst to explore the relationship as it currently stands between Kara and Mon-El. It seems that Kara’s romances are never more fragile than that period immediately after both parties first confess their love for one another. But Mon-El managed to escape the pit James fell into at the beginning of the season. Maybe there’s hope for Karamel (as the shippers are apparently referring to them) after all.This episode did a fine job of both highlighting how far Mon-El has come since arriving on Earth and and showing how much further still he has to go. He’s doing his best to follow Kara’s example and become a more selfless and heroic person. At the same time, you can’t expect a hedonistic jerk to just pull a complete 180 in the course of a few months. Mon-El’s big struggle this week was moving beyond his own ego and recognizing that Kara didn’t need him to stand up for her. So even if the characters basically wound up exactly where they were at the end of last week’s episode, their big kiss felt that much more earned when it finally came.Pretty much everyone in the main cast got the chance to join in on the Valentine’s festivities. Except for James, but I’m sure he was off somewhere admiring himself in the mirror while wearing his Guardian costume. Maggie and Alex enjoyed the lion’s share of the focus, and rightfully so. Some of the best moments this season have involved these two characters as they’ve grappled with their mutual attraction and the perils and joys of new romance. Valentine’s Day turned out to be another source of quality character drama and charming romance, while at the same time playing right into the themes of trust and communication that fueled the conflict. Both the Karamel kiss and Alex and Maggie’s romantic date helped wrap the episode on a nicely romantic note.Winn’s subplot was somewhat less successful, mainly because his love connection with Lyra felt so random and underdeveloped. I’m not really sure how saving him from a bar brawl and talking about a book ignited such fiery passion between the two. Still, Winn deserves a chance to move forward after being thoroughly shot down by Kara. And with all the references to Starhaven and the Blight, hopefully we’ll get another good, alien-focused storyline out of this romance eventually.Finally, it seems worth pointing out that this episode marked the debut of writer Sterling Gates (working with Supergirl veteran Jessica Queller). Gates had a pretty lengthy tenure on the Supergirl comic but made his Supergirl TV debut tonight. This was easily one of the all-around stronger episodes of the season, and while Gates is hardly the only one who deserves credit for that, it does bode well for what will hopefully be a recurring presence on the series.