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Supergirl: Reign

“This is your purpose. To fight the Devil.”

An episode in which a nemesis of Supergirl – in fact a nemesis of all of Krypton – starts making her presence known on Earth and especially in National City.

Supergirl’s in a funk. It’s hard for her to watch Mon-El with Imra. In typical Supergirl fashion she does her best with it, trying to keep the pain to herself. I admire this in a person. I also want to give the writers credit for making Imra nice, too – how could we admire Mon-El if he fell in love with a jerk? Still, this wallowing is making for slow episodes.

Alex is not totally happy either, as she expected to be spending her Christmases with Maggie, but at least she relieved some tension with Sara Lance during the crossover episodes.

Much of the episode felt rather slow, although there were some nice bits. Carl Lumbly just hijacks every scene. I also enjoyed the detective work in trying to understand the meaning of that symbol when it appeared, Kara going to the Alura hologram, Lena and James calling on Morgan Edge, and then Kara finally learning what she needs to know from the prisoner Colville. I must say that if the Alura hologram has knowledge from 28 galaxies, she really should have had the answer. Perhaps Alura only has the abridged version of the knowledge from 28 galaxies.

The investigations were pleasant, but the story still lacked emotional force. What we need is something for Supergirl to do, something besides mourning the end of her love with Mon-El. And eventually we get it through an existential challenge from Reign.

Reign is also known as Worldkiller. Why does she have two names, I wonder? Reign is from the DC Comics, but perhaps the writers were not sure if the audience would understand the significance of the word (and if they don’t watch with closed captions, they might think the word is Rain or Rein – ah, the curse of the homonym). Worldkiller is certainly more ominous! An evil name, Worldkiller! Reign seems to think, however, that she represents truth and justice. I did like how her trigger was seeing something on a screen about Morgan Edge, a pretty bad guy, and how she decided he had to die.

It turns out that Reign is really badass, and the fights between her and Supergirl are worth watching. For comic effect, I loved them battling through a Christmas party. But everything changed for me when I saw the blood on Supergirl’s forehead. I don’t know why it should shock me, but it did.

So this is the first Christmas episode of the season for Supergirl. There’s probably a second, given that we only had Christmas foreplay – various holiday parties – and that although we experienced Christmas Eve, we haven’t had much of Christmas Day. In fact the episode ends on Christmas Day with a sort of cliffhanger, as Ruby runs downstairs to wish her mother a Merry Christmas. But her mother, we know, is now a supervillain.

Title musings: The title for the episode, “Reign,” obviously refers to the name of the evil character and her intention to rule the Earth. I am at a loss to find layers of meaning in it, although perhaps the writers wanted us to remember how to spell the word.

Bits and pieces

Makes sense that M’yrnn J’onzz, a green Martian, would appreciate how Christmas uses an evergreen as its symbol.

I agree that there is chemistry between Lena Luthor and James Olsen and I sure enjoy watching Mehcad Brooks.

Like the fact that the S symbol means stronger together.

In an Earth with Kryptonian visitors, a lead-lined panic room is a necessity for any human criminal. Very prescient of Morgan Edge.

I described Reign as A nemesis rather than THE nemesis, because as everyone knows, superheroes often have many nemeses. (Remember what show we learned the plural of nemesis, folks?)

Quotes

Mon-El: Conflict is constant.

M’yrnn J’onnz: I do not know why you did not introduce me to this brown liquid first (he prefers hot cocoa to coffee).

Sam/Reign: I’m your mother. I know everything.

Lena Luthor: It’s just my quarterly assassination attempt.

Supergirl/Kara: The moment you start believing in something is the moment you give your power away.

Supergirl/Kara: Even though she looks like a Greek goddess, I can’t find any reason to hate her.

Supergirl/Kara: We’re just three good people stuck in a really crappy situation. But, at least, two of us get to be happy.

Overall Rating

At first I thought I was going to have to give this a low score, because despite everything being true to the characters (and I have to give a few extra points to the writers for having consistent characters) I was rather bored by the wallowing. It all seemed slow. But I was shocked by the blood on Supergirl’s forehead, and then, at the end, when her friends are not sure if she’s going to make it, tears sprang into my eyes. When my eyes prick with saltwater, the rating goes up a notch or two. Three out of four cups of hot cocoa.

Victoria Grossack loves birds, math, Greek mythology, Jane Austen and great storytelling in many forms.

4 comments:

  1. Reign is basically Doomsday. So far they are handling the storyline alot better than they did on Smallville.
    Also your not a superhero unless you take a beating just before Christmas.

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  2. Odette Anabelle has been fantastic as Sam...and she has now been part of yet another awesome tv fight scene...Check out Nola vs Burton on youtube if you haven't already.

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  3. I have to totally agree about the blood on Supergirl's forehead in the fight scene with Reign. She just looks at the blood, not quite comprehendingly, for a moment. She probably has a concussion. It was a bloody, brutal battle that was just incredibly troubling.

    I, too, prefer hot chocolate. ☕️

    - Deb

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  4. So Reign is so strong that she bypasses the immunity to damage without any kryptonite. That is scary. That also means that post Crisis on Earth-X episodes might also have a low presence of main characters to let them rest.

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