Nine minutes actually. And oh, what a glorious nine minutes they were. (I actually edited out all the flashback bits for a few other people, but here’s a link to that file for anyone else who wants it)
But I AM gonna disagree with you on the episode as a whole, because I loved it.
Don’t get me wrong, it was really shitty writing, and it’s telling which characters this show chooses to kill off, but I really liked the character-building it did for young Kalex, and what it means for present-Kalex.
From a writer’s perspective, it’s given me a literal shit-ton of new bits and pieces to pull a hundred new story ideas from.
And from a fan’s perspective, I’m actually really glad the episode wasn’t just Alex being heartbroken over Maggie for forty minutes, and instead used that time to show us that their connection and their love for one another was something they wanted, something they chose.
Their relationship wasn’t built from the circumstances of their living arrangements.
Alex wasn’t just following her mother’s orders to love Kara.
And Kara didn’t find a home in Alex just because she was scared of being alone, and Alex was a convenient option.
I liked this episode because it reaffirms that Alex and Kara chose to be what they are. No body forced them, and it wasn’t reactionary.
They wanted this. They wanted them.
I just don’t think anything could’ve been more beautiful than that.
Plus it gave us this wonderful little exchange:
16-year-old Kara: “Normal for humans. I’m literally bulletproof.”
Eliza: “And you literally need to be educated.”