Supergirl is back from its first hiatus of the season! The Maid of Might is still recovering from a beating at the hands of Reign and needs some help… from the future.

Previously, on SUPERGIRL

When we left our hero, she had just been defeated by her Kryptonian counterpart, Reign. The beating left her in a coma and her other injuries were severe enough that her ex-boyfriend, Mon-El, woke up one of his friends from stasis in their time-lost ship to help bring Kara back to the waking world.

Brainiac 5, the Coluan from the 31st Century enters Kara’s brain and helps her work through the mental blocks that are keeping her from coming out of the coma. The pair spend most of the episode talking in a mental projection of Kara’s apartment, finding clues along the way that would release Kara and allow her to wake up.

The mental projection isn’t the only thing Brainiac 5 is doing this episode, though. He’s also helping Saturn Girl, Mon-El and Kara’s partners at the DEO to find a way to bring down Reign, who has taken it upon herself to “cleanse the world” of its bad seeds – along with the people who enable them. So, pretty much everyone… but she starts with the criminals. The DEO uses the Kryptonite they recovered from cult leader Thomas Coville, but Reign is strong enough to power through it. So the DEO decides to use more extreme measures – injecting the Kryptonite directly into Reign’s system. But without Kara, the team grievously overmatched.

Mon-El, Saturn Girl, J’onn and Brainiac 5 lure Reign to a prison, but can’t get an upper hand on her until Kara finally breaks free from her mental prison and goes to save her friends, grabbing the Kryptonite needle and jamming it into Reign’s neck, causing her to retreat to her Fortress. There, she learns that she doesn’t have to fulfill her mission alone, setting up future problems.

Elsewhere in the episode, Lena Luthor and James Olsen discuss their kiss, and what it might mean to Kara. Lena decides to visit Kara, who James says is home sick. The lie necessitates J’onn to shapeshift into Kara and talk to Lena about what was happening. The conversation led to the best line of the episode, later, as J’onn was extra motivated to go into battle.

I just had a conversation about James Olsen’s extraordinary kissing ability. This will be a cake walk.”

David Harewood is just fantastic.

Show Notes

• Saturn Girl uses Mon-El’s lessons about the modern era to convince him to join the fight against Reign. The Daxamite wants to make sure none of the Legion die to ensure the safety of the 31st Century. Saturn Girl asks him, “What about Tommy and Gina?” invoking Mon-El’s love of Bon Jovi by quoting “Living on a Prayer.” Brainiac 5 later blasts the song to kick off the prison fight with Reign in an awesome sequence. What the hell, let’s take another listen to the song!

• As Brainiac 5 tries to get Kara back into the right frame of mind, he references a photo of Kara as a kid with her cat, who was named Streaky. In the comics, Streaky the Supercat was a regular companion of Supergirl’s, a counterpart to Superman’s Krypto the Superdog.

• The Legion of Superheroes has a strong connection to Supergirl, as she travelled to the future during the Silver Age to become a member of the team, and she even fell in love with Brainiac 5. If the showrunners ever decide National City is getting too stale, they can now completely change the locale of the show to the 31st Century!

In the first half of the season, this is where the Power Rankings normally would be, but with the changes coming in the second season (no Legends of Tomorrow for a few weeks, until it takes over for Supergirl, which will come back in April), the logistics make it difficult. Hopefully, we’ll be able to do a full season of Power Rankings for the 2018-2019 season.

That’s all for this week! Next week, Supergirl tries to reason with Reign…

What did you think of this week’s episode? Let us know in the comments!