The Girl of Steel has to fight for her life against the Kryptonian worldkiller, Reign, in the show’s mid-season finale!
Previously, on SUPERGIRL…
The first part of Supergirl’s third season has carefully arranged all the pieces for maximum impact, both for this particular episode and for the season going forward. And while we still haven’t hit the official (numerical) mid-point of the season, the CW advertised this as Supergirl’s mid-season finale, and you knew something significant was going to happen. Thankfully, the show delivered in a major way.
Supergirl and the DEO spend much of the episode investigating the weird symbol that has been cropping up over National City. The symbol is Kryptonian, but it is so old that neither Kara nor her mother’s artificial intelligence data banks recognize it. The only person who does know the meaning of the symbol is Thomas Coville, the leader of the cult Kara took down in THE FAITHFUL. Kara visits Coville in prison, and he tells her about the prophecy of the worldkiller, Reign, and that Supergirl is the only thing standing in Reign’s way of destroying Earth. I’m going to assume that Superman is off-world somewhere, or he would otherwise help out…
Reign – the new evil alter-ego of L-Corp head (and one of Kara’s best friends), Samantha Arias – is discovering the extent of her powers here and causing as much damage as possible to make her mark. After Reign murders gang members who were trying to kill James Olsen and Lena Luthor (more on that later), Supergirl decides to call Reign out, leading to one of the most brutal fight scenes the show has ever had. While Supergirl took the fight to her fellow Kryptonian, Reign’s pure malevolence was too much for Kara, who ends up beaten and bloody on a caved-in sidewalk.
Meanwhile, at CatCo, Lena Luthor is convinced that her business rival Morgan Edge is the man behind the symbols, and she brings Olsen along first to confront Edge and then to meet up with someone who could help them bring Edge down. The latter is a set-up, and Olsen gets to use some of his Guardian gadgets to take the crook down before he and Luthor have to run from the gang. The near-death experience gets both of them going and they end up finally acting on the sexual tension they’ve been sharing the last few episodes.
Before Kara gets to the fight with Reign, she has to deal with Mon-El and his wife, Imra. We learn that after Mon-El got sent through the wormhole to the 31st Century, his tales of Supergirl’s exploits inspired Imra to start a group of like-minded heroes, who call themselves the Legion. Imra’s slight hero-worship of Kara does nothing to ease the hurt Kara feels at seeing Mon-El with someone else, though.
The first part of Supergirl’s season three has been really uneven so far, with a lot of what felt like filler, but the cast and crew managed to put together an amazing episode to end its first half here. It’s got me pretty excited to see what else the show has in store for us.
Show Notes
• The shot of Kara on the ground after Reign defeats her invoked the image of Superman lying dead on the ground after he stopped Doomsday in the iconic Death of Superman story, fitting since we just passed the 25th anniversary of that major comics event.
• The CW shows have not been afraid of referencing properties owned by the competition, and they do so again here in the opening scene, a holiday party for the DEO gang. When Winn hear’s J’onn’s father mention the Martian holiday LIFE DAY, Winn goes into a rant about the Star Wars holiday special, before realizing M’yrnn has no idea what he’s talking about. He assumes J’onn also has no idea what he’s talking about, but it turns out the J’onn considers EMPIRE STRIKES BACK to be one of the greatest movie sequels of all time. Winn decides he loves J’onn that much more, while M’yrnn wants to know what a sequel is.
• Before she goes on her Reign killing spree, Samantha reminisces with her daughter about a job she had back in Central City. Supergirl may be on a different Earth from the other ARROWVERSE heroes, but the world seems to have the same geography.
• While talking to her mother’s hologram, Alura tells Kara that she has all knowledge of the 28 known galaxies, which is the same thing that Jor-El tells his son in 1978’s Superman: The Movie.
The Super Cinco
- Samantha Arias / Reign – National City’s new Big Bad does a lot of damage here, and it’s hard not to see that she’s going to be a tough opponent for Kara throughout the rest of the season.
- Kara Danvers / Supergirl – Despite being beaten nearly to death at the end of the episode, Supergirl had her working cape on as she sought information on Reign before calling her out. And the fight between the two at the end of the episode was intense.
- James Olsen / Guardian – Lena Luthor brought Olsen along on her quest to take down Morgan Edge, giving the CatCo editor the chance to save the damsel in distress and he even got the girl in the end. Though you have to wonder what his best pal Superman would think about him dating a Luthor…
- Alex Danvers – Kara’s sister once again serves as the family’s emotional center when things get crazy, as she urges Kara not to let her human side take over while fighting Reign, so her humanity wouldn’t get the better of her.
- Winn Schott – While his most significant contribution to the episode may have been instigating a conversation about Star Wars and the Earth culture of sequels with two Martians, Winn is also the first to utter the phrase, “Legion of Superheroes” on Supergirl.
That’s all for the first half of the season! SUPERGIRL is due back with the second half of the season on January 15!