HELLO AND WELCOME TO THE RECAP OF MY NEW FAVORITE SUPERGIRL EPISODE.
Okay fine that’s exaggerating a little. But it was the best episode in a good long time and with the exception of a few things (some I’ll pretend never happened and some I’ll talk about) it was a really solid episode. And, by no coincidence, the episode was mostly about the ladies. Specifically, Supergirl, Lena, and Alex, but also the Worldkillers and their human counterparts, and even Imra. It was finale-esque in intensity, though we still have miles to go before we sleep.
When we last left our heroes, Team Supergirl discovered Lena’s L Corp Lab (say that five times fast) where she had been trying to cure Sam of her Reign affliction. But they swooped in just in time to see Reign take over again and get busted out by her sisters, Purity and Pestilence. So things don’t look great for Ms. Luthor.
The team takes Lena back to the DEO, and even though she’s technically sitting at a conference room table, it feels very much like an interrogation.
I personally have a lot of questions for Lena and at least half of them are just HOW DARE
While she tells them that she was just trying to help her friend Sam, that she figured out Sam is Reign/Reign is Sam, we flash back to Lena picking up the broken pieces of her lab, so, SO sad that she seems to have failed her friend.
J’onn asks why Lena didn’t come to them and she snapped that technically she shouldn’t even know they exist; she did an L Corp experiment and she doesn’t answer to him or to anyone.
Lena says she was trying to find the spark that turns Sam into Reign so she could snuff it out for good, but hadn’t quite gotten there yet. Supergirl asks Lena how she kept Sam contained when Reign took over, and Lena confesses… she used Lex’s kryptonite. It’s the first time Lena’s voice even almost wavers during the whole interrogation, and you can see that it’s warranted when Supergirl flinches at the word.
This would be like if Buffy was dating a vampire and wore a cross neckla—wait.
Meanwhile, in the Fortress of Doomitude, the Worldkillers’… mother? Maker? Momogram? Witch Doctor? The woman in charge, whoever she is, is pleased to have all three of her girls together, and she tells her Worldkillers that they need to kill their inner humans. Pestilence does it, easy peasy. Her human, Grace, just noped the fuck right out. The three of them hold hands to help Pestilence and Reign have their humans do the same.
I would see the Worldkillers in concert, just saying.
At the same time, in the ReignForest, Sam sees Grace dead on the ground. With the Worldkillers’ consciousnesses merged, she can see her fellow trapped humans. Julia is still alive in this shadow world, but she is BUGGING OUT. She is seeing visions of the people Purity used her body to kill and she is losing a sense of herself because of it. Sam tries to snap Julia out of it and pulls her to her feet and, together, they run.
After Lena is released from the inquisition, she calls James to confess everything to him, presumably so he didn’t hear it from Supergirl first. She says she gambled with everything that was important to her: her reputation as The Good Luthor, Supergirl’s Trust and Hopefully Lust, and also I guess this relationship based on nothing but other people saying they had chemistry.
“Is your refrigerator running?”
Supergirl finds Lena and she quickly abandons her phone call. Supergirl looks sad to have to do this, but she has more questions for Lena, like why she did this in secret, why she didn’t come to her for help, and Lena says that her friend came to her, and she had to help. Supergirl crosses her arms and asks Lena to level with her, and she looks so uncomfortable. Supergirl hates having to do this to Kara’s best friend. She hates not being able to put on her fake glasses and sit down on a couch with Lena and look her in the eye and ask her plainly for the truth. Instead she has to push her shoulders back and try not to scrunch her brow too much and asks her question with as much authority as she can muster over someone she doesn’t feel like she truly has authority over: Do you have any more kryptonite? Lena immediately says no, that she used the last of it to keep Reign at bay.
Before Supergirl can ask any more questions, a darkness starts to cover the sun and Supergirl passes out. She briefly ends up in the ReignForest, spotting Sam and Julia scurrying away, and when she comes to, Alex and Lena are standing over her.
If this were me, this face would mean *gay panic*
Kara talks of dark magic to Lena and Alex, of the ancient witches who formed some Worldkillers, the magic that’s likely causing the eclipse. She talks of Kryptonian fairy tales and the Shadow Valley, and Lena tells Kara about her own findings about the place Sam went when Reign was out. Supergirl realizes her dreams hadn’t really been dreams at all, so they go to Brainy to get him to help the girls use Supergirl’s link to this mystical place to all jump into it together like it’s a sidewalk chalk painting in Mary Poppins.
Every time these three were in the same frame, I gained a year of my life back.
Supergirl is hesitant about Lena joining at first, but Alex says they could use all the help they can get so go she shall.
“You already invited me in, there’s no getting rid of me now.” (Get it? Because she played Lucy Westenra on Dracu—oh, never mind.)
Also, one of Lena’s arguments is that Supergirl doesn’t know Sam, and maybe I’m projecting, but it almost felt like she threw it out there as a test, to see if Kara would come clean about being Supergirl or not. Almost daring her to. Kara gets the hint and agrees to let Lena come.
In the valley of death, Julia is starting to freak out again and Sam snaps her out of it by having Julia say her name and remember her parents and hum a song.
Nothing bonds two people together more than being stranded in a foggy forest in another dimension, amiright?
Sam forgets her daughter’s name for a minute and frankly I can’t even imagine because sometimes I panic when I can’t remember something simple like the word I’m looking for, or something stupid like the name of my high school science teacher. As soon as Sam remembers Ruby’s name, she shouts it, and then hands Julia a rock. Together, they write on the trees everything they remember, who they are and what they know.
Out in the real world, Kara flies to see James and tells him that she’s upset Lena would hold onto kryptonite for all those years. James points out that he treated Lena like a Luthor once, and Kara is the one who helped him see that she wasn’t her brother. But Kara is scared. She’s worried Lena is lying and that there really is more kryptonite, so she asks James to sneak into her vault and find out. I hate this a little because all of this could be solved by Kara telling Lena she’s Supergirl. Because Lena trusts Kara, and Kara trusts Lena, but since Lena doesn’t know Kara is Supergirl, Lena doesn’t trust Supergirl, so Supergirl can’t fully trust Lena. And especially in the wake of this Sam/Reign secret, Kara is spiraling, so she sends Guardian to double check. And James, still holding on to some of his original suspicions, agrees to do it. Neither one of them look 100% jazzed about any of it, but they both think it’s something they have to do.
Cut to the moment we’ve all been waiting for: BRAID. AND. TRACKSUIT. Eh hem. What I mean is, Lena Kieran Luthor (THAT’S RIGHT, HER MIDDLE NAME IS KIERAN*) is suited up in the DEO and talking to our favorite super-lesbian, Doctor Alexandra Fucking Danvers.
“Listen, they said there could only be one lesbian around here full time and it’s me, so stop hitting on my sister.”
*So, the Arrowverse Wiki lists Lena’s middle name as Karen, which could mean one of three things, each funnier than the last. 1) The person updating the Wiki assumed Katie McGrath’s accent peeped through and she was trying to say Karen. 2) Lena’s middle name is Karen in the comics but the show changed it to Kieran because of Katie McGrath’s very obvious Irishness. 3) That WAS Katie McGrath’s attempt at saying “Karen” and we all heard “Kieran” because that accent is truly unstoppable. And not in the bad “an onion has been within three feet of this” way, more like a “you can still tell the sun is shining when you close your eyes” way.
ANYWAY, Alex asks Lena why she didn’t come to her, because Lena knew Alex knew Sam. But Lena points out that Alex had secrets too—she didn’t tell Lena she was DEO, for example—but most importantly, it wasn’t Lena’s secret to tell. It was Sam’s. Alex, of all people, understands this logic and just asks Lena to promise that Ruby is safe, which she does.
So Alex, Lena, and Supergirl go inside the upside down. Together.
“Hey now, hey now, this is what dreams are made of.”
This is pretty surreal for Lena, but she takes it like a champ. Also a champ? Alex. She’s collecting sticks to use as weapons, and while Lena doesn’t believe they’ll get hurt here (she knows full well her body is safe inside a spaceship), Alex pokes her in the tummy with a stick to prove that it’s still not going to feel great if they get ripped to shreds so why take chances? Alex claims a stick of her very own and is pretty delighted.
“It feels a little ironic that you’re this excited about a stick, but you do you.”
In this world, whether it’s the inherent lack of sun of her real body’s exposure to the eclipse, Kara also bleeds like everyone else, so she’ll keep that stick after all.
I would watch an entire series of these three fighting things in the woods with only sticks and their wits as weapons.
They find Grace’s body and know they’re running out of time so they start to speed up. After a while, Kara starts to get out of breath (a feeling she’s unfamiliar with) and starts a relatable rant about not understanding why humans exercise. But then she uses this weak feeling as an excuse to take a jab at Lena, saying nothing is as bad as kryptonite poisoning and Lena all but rolls her eyes. Right now? In this dark magic world while they’re trying to save their friend? Again it was probably me projecting, but it had the aire of a couple’s fight to it.
Supergirl looks at Lena and says she doesn’t like secrets and Lena snaps back with, “Okay then, what’s your real name?” She doesn’t say it in a way that seems like she wants the answer—or frankly in a way that implies whether or not she already knows it—the question is a point she wants to make. Supergirl has secrets, so why can’t Lena?
Their conversation is then interrupted by Kryptonian Dementors, aka, as Alex puts it, the reason they have sticks.
I would follow these three into the fiery depths of hell.
Alex throws her stick at it like she’s an Olympic javelin thrower and they run to a door with the Worldkiller symbol on it. Inside, they find Julia and Sam, neither quite themselves. When Sam sees Lena, Alex, and Supergirl, she assumes that means she killed them, and her little voice apologizing to them broke my damn heart. They reassure her that they’re fine, they’re just here to help, and try to snap her out of it, but Kara is starting to be too affected by the eclipse to hold on much longer.
I think if I looked up and saw these three looking down on me it would cure my asthma.
Desperate, the three of them start to tell her things about herself, including about Ruby, and Sam remembers. She snaps back into her body and takes control long enough to send out a signal to the DEO.
The issue is, inside, our gals are now hanging out with Reign. Reign grabs Lena by the throat and Supergirl begs and pleads for her life in exchange for Lena’s. Reign laughs at her, saying Supergirl doesn’t matter to her at all. Only someone of equal strength could destroy her. Supergirl is not a threat to her. Lena on the other hand…
Luckily the DEO beams them up just in the nick of time.
In the Worldkiller Cave, Sam is so proud of herself, but Pestilence takes care of that by punching her to bring Reign back into her body.
“I’m not bad I’m just…lol jk I’m bad.”
And not a moment too soon, because the Legion ship is already at the cave, and the team is dropping in for a fight. Lena asks how she can help, and Supergirl tells her to stay on the ship to help Brainy. Before Alex joins Team Supergirl in the cave, Winn pulls her aside to give her a gift we’ve all been waiting for (though perhaps none so much as Alex): A NEW SUPERSUIT.
ALEX’S JOY IS MY JOY
It has hella strong magnets in the gloves and a new kind of gun with a new kind of bullet in it and Alex is SO FUCKING HAPPY. And frankly so am I.
And just when I thought I couldn’t get happier, Lena shoves Brainiac 5 out of the way, sits down in his captain’s chair, and OWNS that whole damn spaceship.
Sara Lance would be so turned on right now.
How does she know how to fly a spaceship? How does she figure out how to use alien technology from the future so fast? I truly don’t know and I truly don’t care because smart is sexy and also she does this eyebrow quirk that makes me forget what logic even is let alone how to apply it.
Also a thing Sara Lance would appreciate, tbh
The fight goes down in the cave, and despite being outnumbered, the Worldkillers are strong. They all use their best assets: Supergirl and Reign get into a beam-off, SpaceDad phases around, Alex uses her new gloves to call her gun back to her like it’s Thor’s hammer and it’s pretty badass but things still are looking overall pretty bleak.
They keep calling to Julia, telling her to rise up—they say it so much, I thought they were going to start signing Hamilton—and finally something new and fierce flashes in Purity’s eyes. Julia reminds Reign what she said about only someone of equal strength beating her, and suddenly Julia is back in her body with all of Purity’s strength.
:sings: There’s a heeeroooo if you look inside yourself!
Julia takes Pestilence down and saves the day, but not before Pestilence can stick her claws in her, and deep. They take each other down, and they both…ascend? It’s unclear exactly what happens but a glowy essence flows out of Purity and Pestilence and…into Reign. Which doesn’t bode well, but we’ll deal with that later I suppose.
And frankly I thought it was an awesome scene overall, and I’m glad it was Julia who saved them, both because Julia was a badass and Krys Marshall has been amazing this season, but also because it gave our team hope that Sam could still be saved after all. But I do so wish Julia had survived it. It was nice that Julia went out a hero, but I would have much rather her gone back to her simple, musical, beautiful life.
Anyway, Imra I guess missed the whole thing where the life essence of the two fallen Worldkillers seemed to be absorbed by Reign, so she thinks they’re free and clear. They came here to stop the Blight, and they did, so they can go home now. The Worldkiller fortress is gone, Reign is MIA, let’s just get outta here.
Kara isn’t sure what their next steps should be, but she DOES know that she loves her sister’s new look.
The Danvers Sisters are very important to me.
Somewhere amidst all this, James did what Kara asked and snuck into Lena’s lab, but when it came down to it, he couldn’t bring himself to break into Lena’s vault. (Which is probably for the best…I’d reckon it’s booby trapped up the wazoo.) Instead of telling Kara this though, that he trusts Lena and so should she, he lies and says he didn’t find anything, that Lena is telling the truth about there being no more kryptonite.
Supergirl goes to talk to Lena, thank her for her help, and assure her that they can save Sam. She apologizes for overreacting, and tells Lena that their slate is wiped clean. Lena understandably assumes this means Supergirl is finally taking her at her word and is pleased, and they shake on it.
“Weird, your hands feel vaguely similar to another hand I’m wont to hold…”
Then Lena goes to talk to James and they have a conversation that is weeks too late, but I’ll take it. If Lena and James had been coworkers and friends spending more and more time together and then this was the conversation that tipped them into a relationship, I never would have had an issue with the Lena/James pairing. (I would and will stand by the fact that Lena has more chemistry with Kara, but that is beside the point.) James comes clean to Lena about everything, that he’s Guardian, that he almost broke into her vault. He says that now he sees that Lena was serious about not being the person everyone expects her to be when they hear she’s a Luthor. She risked her hard-earned reputation to save her friend, and that’s an admirable thing to say the least.
Lena has a confession of her own…she did lie to Supergirl. It wasn’t Lex’s kryptonite she used, and she didn’t find it in her vault. It was hers, and she knows how to make it.
“Oh is this what proper relationship development looks like? Can…can I do it with Kara instead?”
And listen, I can’t fault her for it. I don’t believe she’s evil, I don’t believe she made it with the intention of hurting Supergirl, but I do believe she learned how to make it. Kara can call herself the Last Daughter of Krypton all she wants, Kryptonians have been dropping out of the sky left and right for YEARS. Plus, sure, Supergirl trusts her, but who’s to say Superman wouldn’t decide to turn on her on a dime because of some rumor he hears? What if Supergirl is possessed and needs to be restrained? I understand why Supergirl doesn’t want there to be kryptonite lying around; if it got into the wrong hands, it would be very, very bad. But I also understand why Lena would want some.
Though something tells me Kara will have a hard time seeing things from that perspective if/when she finds out.
Next week, Reign goes after Ruby, and I buckle up because there are still six episodes left and who the hell knows what will happen next.
I wondered if we’d notice the course correction…. I needn’t have :) That was a hard left turn if ever there was one! Gosh, this was fun and I’m excited to see what happens next, woo!
Also – Lena’s logic for not telling anyone about Sam was Very Gay and I’m counting it as her officially coming out, congrats on being canon bisexual Lena!
I really hope they work on the James/Lena chemistry if they’re truly sticking with that ship (I think James being a journalist/ethical watchdog is a better use of him but whatever) because they’re just…. really awkward currently.
Also really like that they’ve set up a conflict where Lena and Kara are both right in their own ways, with room for plenty of nuance and potential character development AND they’re going to let it be explored for more than just one episode! That’s a slam dunk storytelling choice for them, I’m so excited!
Kara being petulant and kind of ridiculous was fun especially as she’s basically all ‘my best friend shouldn’t have secrets from me!!!!!!’ and Lena’s all ‘I barely know you wtf?’ GOOD TIMES I enjoyed this dynamic, truly the best case the show has made for keeping Lena in the dark (I’m still breathlessly waiting for the Extreme Drama THE BIG REVEAL is certain to be though). Until the reveal keep bickering forever please.
Yeah, it seemed like Kara forgot momentarily that she’s pretending to be two people and Lena knows one better than she does the other.
I agree they’re awkward! Why are they doing this?? Is The CW forcing them to have a romantic through-line?
I agree on all counts, and I’m excited to see what they get up to next.
I honestly think they just want Lena to speak to someone on screen more than she speaks to Kara because of how they are Radiantly Gay whenever they so much as stand silently next to one another. Making James her boyfriend just gives Lena a confidant – which is a bad omen for Sam surviving I think and a sign of just how few uses they have found for James.
I disagree with that choice and think they should lean into the flirtatious and ridiculous friendship because I loved the heck out of that but given the horrible fandom shenanigans they’ve had to endure I’m not surprised they’ve decided to stear clear of it and can’t say I blame them.
Or there’s my simple theory that Kara is acting like little brat because she’s just jealous :) She was always defending Lena until Lames came around
Okay, somebody help me out. There was a third person in the dark valley with Sam and Julia at first and I couldn’t figure out who it was. It wasn’t Grace. Any guesses? Ideas?
This is far from my favorite episode this season, that honor goes to “Midvale,” with all its faults. There were some very good moments but the climactic battle just sorta landed with a “thud.”
Lena is being defensive and hostile because she knows she screwed up bad and nobody else is to blame. “I just needed more time” is not an excuse. Even if Lena is telling the truth about not having any kryptonite at the moment, she can presumably always make more. And why was she making kryptonite in the first place, for fun?
Kara complaining about exercise felt contrived since she’s been without powers before and knows what it’s like.
Kara could easily have told Lena, “Kara Zor-El,” which is her “real name.” That could have led to something.
I agree smart is sexy. Patterson from Blind Spot comes to mind. So does Dana Scully. But Lena taking over the Legion cruiser just requires suspending too much disbelief.
Finally, I’m glad someone else thought Imra was celebrating prematurely.
You leave Lena Luthor alone. I explained exactly why she’s making kryptonite, it’s for self-preservation. And science. She didn’t screw up, she did what she thought was best. She had no way of knowing the Worldkillers could find each other and would break Sam out. Otherwise she would have asked for help. She believed she could save Sam, and honestly, if she HAD more time, she would have.
And I’m pretty sure it was Grace with them.
In the canon of the show, Lena is 25. She met Jack Spheer when she was 19 and they tried to cure cancer using nanotechnology and this was after she’d graduated from MIT. So Lena ain’t dumb. Whipping up a batch of kryptonite to help her friend wouldn’t be a strain, particularly when she likely still has all of Lex and Lillian’s research on the subject. Until we find out that she started making it before the Sam/Reign problem, we don’t know that she was hoarding it.
And correct me if I’m wrong, it’s not illegal to have or make kryptonite, it’s just Superman and to a lesser extant Supergirl that get their knickers in a twist about it. As you’ve pointed out, Kryptonians keep dropping to earth practically every other day and if one of them ever went off the rails, having a little kryptonite lying around might be prudent.
For me, the crux of all this is lack of honesty and maybe even lack of trust. Supergirl immediately becoming suspicious about Lena’s reason for having kryptonite doesn’t sound like she has any faith in her supposed friend. And maybe if Lena knew Kara and Supergirl were the same person, the info that there’s more than one WK would’ve made her seek out some help.
Anyway, all of this could be moot depending where the writers go in the next six episodes. Stay tuned!
Presumably Lena made the kryptonite to use against Reign but she was very casual about making it. And she lied about it. Sure she did what she thought was best but it turned out to be wrong. That’s kinda the definition of “screwing up.” As you pointed out, she went in with incomplete information and bad assumptions, thinking everything would be fine because, hey, she’s Lena Luthor, girl genius! She didn’t ask for help for the same reason. And speaking of assumptions, we don’t know she would have been able to save Sam.
Lena Kieran Luthor – Space Pirate
This episode and your review had me grinning like an someone who had just gotten a new super suit. Well done!
I love the parenthetic aside about her middle name, although to be honest I was half expecting an entire paragraph consisting of the word “BRAID!” stretched out ad nauseam. Turns out Kieran is from the Irish “ciar” meaning “dark haired” which is fitting. The anglicized version is “Kiera” which is, as we all remember, what Ms. Grant called Kara all throughout season one. Probably just a coincidence…
So many Buffy jokes, so little time… did Alex name her stick “Ms. Pointy?”. Would Kara even understand that reference? Canonically she arrived on Earth in 2003, and Buffy finished its run in May of that year, and I like to think that Eliza would have grounded Alex for a month after finding out she convinced Kara that Buffy the Vampire Slayer was actually a documentary about the true high school experience.
I can’t think of the last time we saw Alex look that happy this season.
I’m hoping the big finale happens in the penultimate episode, and then the final episode is Supergirl popping over to Earth 1 and commissioning the Legends to tow the Legion’s ship back to the 31st century. But first, they take them to the gaylien bar for space drinks and karaoke.
…
…
…why does the Fortress of Doom have a door?
How else would the worldkillers get in?! haha
PS. BRAID
BRAAAAAAAAAAAAID!
Interleaved your hair waves,
Blow my mind your royal flyness I did your braid
BRAAAAAAAAAAAAID!
To drape over your shoulder,
To compliment the angle as you incline your head
Once with a girl y’all fell in love sometime ago now she had
BRAAAAAAAAAAAAID!
Is that from which your head hangs
You’re only capping this scene so you you can look at her braid
BRAAAAAAAAAAAAID!
Are like a pocket T-shirt
As casual as that while fully intentional…
(To the tune of “Bangs” by They Might Be Giants)
This episode had so many fun notes! And genuine emotional ones too.
Also, I was kinda hoping Alex would keep the stick, name it Ms. Pointy, and start moonlighting as a Slayer.
I’d watch that show.
I know this won’t be popular but I just don’t think Sam is a well developed character, they haven’t built her friendship with the others up enough for any of this to work.
I am now convinced Lena will be next season’s big bad, not cause she’ll suddenly become a villain, but they’ll end up on the wrong side of a disagreement and Kara will find out she has kryptonite and it’ll be some big confusion that means they end up on opposite sides of something – for a season! Also, you don’t discover how to produce kryptonite by accident
Gotta say I love Lena as a character and Katie is always brilliant
Oh and p.s. Kieran is traditionally a boys name so I really hope that is her middle name and not Karen :)
I will RIOT if Lena is the big bad though. She’s worked so hard to be good. Haven’t these people seen Wicked? Accusing someone of being bad enough times would turn anyone bad! I wish Kara would just tell her she’s Supergirl and they can find a new baddie to destroy.
I can easily see a big misunderstanding coming, maybe even at the end of the season. Especially with James on the middle, i.e., “You knew she was making kryptonite and you didn’t think to tell me?!” “But she’s my girlfriend!” It would finally give the writers something to do with James. I do not want to see Lena go evil though. One of the recurring themes og the show is redemption and Lena being a force for good is a big part of that.
I kind of hated this episode because of how hipocrite Kara is and how she’s giving Lena a hard time because of Sam despite all the secrets she has. And I hated how she was willing to doubt Lena’s intentions with the kryptonite when she never doubted Lena in several previous occasions.
Heather, I have to say that your recap made me wonder how good it would be if Lena joined the Legends! I really think she would be a great fit!
I figure Lena knew how to fly the space ship because it was based on L-Corp technology. Didn’t Mon-El say something about L-Corp coming up with a cure in the future so that he could survive Earth’s atmosphere. Not such a big leap in logic, in my opinion.
I was annoyed that they created a lot of interpersonal drama by having Kara be petulant. Not just this episode, but it feels like they’ve gone to that well a bit too much lately. She doesn’t seem to get to drive the narrative, but rather just be reactionary, but it’s not the worst the show has been on that front, and I can’t deny that that it was hella fun to have so many amazing women kicking butt on my screen.
I loved Lena sitting there giving the DEO what-for. In my opinion her statements about “my secret to tell” is the same reason she’s not revealing that she knows Kara’s identity: she’s allowing her to come out in her own time. She’s also a bit angry that it puts her at odds with Supergirl in these moments.
I consider Kara’s extreme distaste of Kryptonite a huge retcon of her 1st-season character, and I’m living with it, but it’s not something I enjoy, even if her reasoning is good overall. Particularly when it comes to Luthors and Supers. But the DEO used it to train her, presumably for medical treatments and stuff with her. There are a ton of reasons to have it around, especially since Krytonians keep popping up. Kara is right to be concerned about where it’s at and who has it, but she never seemed troubled by its existence at the DEO until Superman showed up in Season 2 and pitched a fit.
I liked the James and Lena stuff. I liked that he told her he was Guardian.
It was really bad optics to have the three white good women come in and vanquish the three bad women of color. Particularly when they all celebrated their actions, and didn’t really seem to give Julia much credit, even though she sacrificed her life for them all. I’m just saying. It didn’t mean I didn’t like the episode, or LOVE the stuff with Alex, Lena, and Kara working as a team. But I also want to expect more from this show. We can’t get better if we don’t talk about uncomfortable things.
There was a lot to like about this episode, but my main issue is that the writers used this ‘Reign Valley’ as a deus ex machina to get out of this mess they created with the legion, their ill planned Worldkiller scenario. If blight was so badass and dangerous, how was she dispatched so easily by Purity (morality lesson there maybe?) I think this episode had so many people out of character and I think when this season is rewatched in its entirety there will be very obvious and annoying plot holes. And Reign was so strong, almost killing Supergirl, then we are asked to believe that not only was Lena able to subdue Reign with technology, but she was also able to create Kryptonite strong enough to keep her subdued and do tests on her for 3 weeks? And then SG crashed into the lab and wasn’t affected by any of the super strong Kryptonite residue in the lab?
As much as I enjoyed many aspects of this episode, the plotholes felt like potholes. Also are they setting up Mon-El to “replace” both James and J’onn for next season? I saw something on IG from David that implied he isn’t coming back next season and honestly I am mystified as to why Mechad would want to return unless he contracted for longer than 3 yrs.
I think Lena was able to “subdue” Reign because she never was able to get out. That’s why we saw Reign and Sam in the same “valley”. I also thought the method Lena used to administer the Kryptonite was interesting: that button-looking thing. Could be that it shields the radiation that escapes (thus not affecting Supergirl because it wasn’t hooked up to her). Though I do agree: Kryptonite is always the biggest plot hole/convenience in that its behavior (not just here, but in the comics and throughout media) seems quite variable in how it affects Kryptonians, how strongly, etc.