Supergirl Episode 319: The Fanatical

Supergirl episode 319, titled 'The Fanatical' came out this week and was an decent episode. This one pushed the season long plot of the World Killers forward a bit. We learned of a possible solution to Reign, one that would save Sam. We revisited the Coville cult and saw how people can define themselves by their faith. And, given the name of an upcoming episode, we are that much closer to seeing Erica Durance as Alura.

But the main thrust of this episode was character growth as once again we see how the events of this season are bringing people together or driving them apart. Every member of the DEO team is struggling a bit these days with some personal crises. And as a result, everything seems a little uneasy. Supergirl and Lena are bristling with each other. Mon-El is dealing with his conflicted feelings. J'onn is dealing with his father. Alex is trying to mother Ruby. James is pulled between alliances. All this while their friend is captured and threatening the world. Add to this a relatively heavy dollop of political sentiment and you get an episode more memorable for character moments than for punches.

While I love the cast and the well developed characters, this is another episode where Supergirl seems like part of an ensemble show instead of a lead. J'onn and Alex carry the emotional heft here. James is the political figure crying out for social justice. Mon-El gets most of the action.

Hopefully when all this plays out, Supergirl is the center of all the action and the actual hero of the day.

We start out with the Reign back in Lena's cage. We get a lot of comic book science talk from Lena. She can try to inject a heavy metal vector into Sam's blood to stop the Reign DNA overwrite but every thing she has tried hasn't worked. Appropriately everyone is worried. I don't know if I followed all the science steps but it is clear, a novel heavy metal is required to complete a possible cure.

While the group muses, Reign opens up. She let's loose a wonderful venomous tirade of how she is going to rip out Lena's spine and crack the world open once free. As I have said before, Odette Annable is really killing it in this role, switching from loving mousy Sam to the monster Reign fluidly.

Not needing to hear the rant, Lena brings up a force field which blocks all of Reign's super-senses, inflicting pain on Kryptonians who try to use Xray vision on it. It is another piece of tech designed specifically to stymie or hurt Kryptonians. Once again, Kara is miffed. But Lena won't have any part of it. She coldly brushes off Supergirl's concerns, crossing her arms defiantly, a visual closing off of any reconciliation.

I tell you, Lena is the big bad in Season 4.

Back at CatCo, Kara asks him how he could open up to Lena about Supergirl asking him to break in. She effectively states how confusing her relationship is with Lena now with Luthor hating Supergirl and being friends with Kara. In a nice touch, Kara remembers Lillian's warning. When Lena learns of this betrayal, she will never forgive. Everything is simmering.

Their talk is interrupted by the young woman who stole Coville's journal at the end of the last episode. Her name is Tanya, a linguist who cracked Kryptonian and helped Coville. She had been saved by Supergirl and in the beginning felt Coville had a good message to deliver. It felt good to connect to people. But now, the group is worshiping Reign. The members now are seemingly building a bomb from instructions in the book.

This idea of connecting to people, to feeling part of something, to loving and helping each other has been part of the underlying theme this season. Here we see it as something which can be twisted.

Meanwhile, Ruby is in Alex's care and clearly depressed.
We see her sullen on the couch, in pajamas, and not motivated to do anything.

And Alex? She is acting like the divorced parent who sees their kid once a month, promising rides on motorcycles, letting Ruby dye her hair blue, buying her a cat, or just playing games.

It is clear that Alex has good intentions. But superficial stuff like that are simply band-aids. Ruby's mother is a mass murderer hellbent on destroying the world. A kitten won't solve that.

With the location of the cult divulged by Tanya, Mon-El and Supergirl go to investigate.

They find the place a mess.

In a nice creepy image, we see the equivalent of an atomic shadow on the wall, a pile of ash before it. A necklace is fished out of the dust. This was a person, somehow vaporized by what the group was experimenting with.

I have to say, this is pretty dark for a show like this. Hit home nicely.

Members of the cult arrive at CatCo with the aim of kidnapping Tanya. They still need her to translate the book. Firing their gunsand led by Olivia (one of the faithful from Coville's group earlier this season), they drag Tanya into a luxury sedan. With Supergirl and Mon-El away, the only one close enough to help is James who suits up as Guardian and gives chase on a motorcycle.

Ending up in a conveniently abandoned warehouse, James skirmishes with the thugs. We see some of his Guardian gear like a throwable Denver boot (which stops their car), a grappling gun which ties up someone else, and the usual shield.

In the battle, his helmet is shot off at close range. And when the police arrive, they assume James is villain of the peace. They aim their guns at him while the cult members skulk off. Not willing to be captured, James smoke grenades his way out with Tanya in tow.

So here is the political message of the episode. James is black and therefore the cops assumed he was the villain. Tanya says her father and her brother both have had cops draw guns on them.  James wonders if the world is ready for a black superhero.

J'onn and Alex are able to commiserate about their problems.
Alex has been reading books about raising children exposed to trauma. J'onn is still trying to figure out how he can help M'yrnn. M'yrnn is still struggling with his issues of dementia.

Both seem pretty depressed about what is happening. In a dim locker room, they sit, shoulders slumped. They are separate here too, not hugging or leaning into each other. There is a sense of individual problems here, problems each person needs to solve on their own.

J'onn decides that perhaps 3-dimensional video games will help M'yrnn concentrate so they decide to go on a field trip to an arcade. Hmmm ... seems a bit contrived but okay.

In what I think is the best scene in the episode, Supergirl decides to extend an olive branch to Lena. Supergirl says she can sense the tension between them and she would rather it all be out in the open.

With an icy stare, Lena shuts down the idea. She doesn't need to be friends with Supergirl. They are working together on a problem; it's business. She cannot abide by people who scheme and lie. And she certainly won't enter a friendship with someone who breached her trust.

It is an effective door slammed in Kara's face. This won't be easily patched up. The ending shot, the two small and separate gives that sense of distance nicely. This is a very nice shot.

Even at the arcade, Ruby mopes. Alex tells her that she can either sink in the quicksand of despair or elevate with those who love her. This is very similar to the 'rise up' mantra we have heard in the last couple of episode.

Can I say out loud that bringing a demented Martian with unstable mental powers to an arcade isn't the best idea.

Unhinged by the noises, lights, and electronic gunfire, M'yrnn loses control and smashes a game.

It is insane for me to say this but Mon-El acts pretty mature in this episode. He tells Kara that she can't be everything to everyone. She can't please Lena. And revealing her secret to Lena is almost selfish. The secret is there to protect Kara's friends. Holding on to it is almost a sacrifice. I don't know if I 100% agree with the sentiment but it at least shows another angle to consider.

Meanwhile, the cult continues to push forward. They have footage of James unmasked and will send it to the media if he doesn't turn over Tanya.

As for the remains of the person in the cult headquarters? The ashes had a heavy metal not of Earth. The book talked of the rock of Yuda Kal, the Kryptonian goddess of life. Somehow it means that the cult is hoping to utilize Kryptonian science to create a fourth World Killer.

For a comic guy like me, used to hearing of five World Killers, this was pretty cool.

But even better, Lena figures that the idea could be retrofitted to be a cure, a way to unmake a World Killer and save Sam.

I said it before and I'll say it again. Sam/Reign is going to die at the hands of Lena. This will drive the final wedge between Supergirl and Lena.

In an effort to get ahead of the story and with the location of the cult members unknown, James decides to hold a press conference and reveal he is Guardian.

When asked if he should be Lena, he talks of how he has to. He needs to control this. And he needs people like him see that there are heroes who are similar.

He then tells a story of being handcuffed as a seven year old by police at a hotel. 'Racism is the oldest form of bullying.' I don't know if I needed both Tanya and James to have police brutality in their family backgrounds to get the point across. I don't know if I need all police portrayed this horribly. But for the drama of the episode, this adds some grist for the mill. Plus, Mehcad Brooks just nails the monologue.

With J'onn dealing with the arcade fallout, Ruby and M'yrnn can talk.

These two have a lot in common. M'yrnn had to deal with the loss of his family. He had to overcome that pain. He needed faith to do so.

Ruby sees that perhaps she can get past this and survive. Maybe she needs some faith and some support, but it can happen.

I hope we see more of these two together. I like the idea of them helping each other out.

Of course, this means J'onn and Alex are missing out on all the awful current events because they are at an arcade. Doesn't anyone think the head of the DEO should be aware of a potential new World Killer?

One thing I like is Tanya saying that she will turn herself in rather than make James reveal himself. She needs to stand up on her own. Perhaps she is motivated by James? Even more than by Supergirl.

She is thrown into a van at the drop spot. And who jumps in by 'Mike', Mon-El's human identity, pretending this is his Lyft.

With little choice, the cult members grab him as another hostage and head to the rendezvous point.

For me, this makes Mon-El the hero of the show. Why couldn't Kara get in the van?

Now this is where things get a little more wonky.

At the new cult setting, the experiment continues with Olivia taking the lead. She has the rock of Yuda Kal, the key ingredient. She has Tanya reading the chemical equation out loud from the book, adding the ingredients as needed. She will become the fourth World Killer and finish Reign's work!

In the background, "Mike" becomes Mon-El and begins taking out worshipers while also signalling the DEO.

Tanya reads the 'recipe' and the new World Killer begins to form, glowing with red energy. Why did Tanya read it correctly?? Why not replace 'nitrogen' with 'water'. Why actually give them the secret? Hm ...

We then get a nice shot of the battle.

Supergirl and the 4th World Killer are in the foreground fighting.
James as Guardian is behind the glyph screen fighting others.

This 'two layers' of fighting worked very well as a visual.

Kara grabs the rock but it seems to overwhelm her with power, maybe trying to turn Supergirl into a World Killer? Maybe this is the 'you need something as strong as a World Killer to kill a World Killer' answer. Kara levels up with this in the finale?

Throughout the season, Kara has said that she wants to talk villains down before lashing out. Here, with the new World Killer crackling with energy, Kara is able to reach her human side. Supergirl says that Olivia doesn't need to live Coville's life. She has "more to offer than just this."

But the new World Killer wonders who she is without this faith. It is all she has. Now that is interesting. Maybe that is how they can reach Reign, remind her of all the other things in her life.

While she wants to power down, the Yuda rock is fused to Olivia's hand. It takes a blast from Supergirl to knock it loose.

I'm glad we got to see Supergirl's inspiration help this woman. We have been waiting for this!

Nothing left but the wrap-up.

James felt powerful when he was thinking of revealing his identity. He knows when the time is right, he'll be ready.

Ruby is out of her doldrums with blue hair ends. She is ready to move on a bit.

Mon-El feels he should tell Supergirl about his feelings for her. But he won't. That would be selfish on his part. He is listening to his own advice.

And their wasn't enough of the heavy metal in the small Yuda rock. But there is a lot 5 million light years away on a meteor. We know what this is ... Argo City!!! Hello Alura!

Mon-El and Kara jump into J'onn's ship and fly off.

But even that cliffhanger wasn't enough.

We see Coville at the site where the fourth World Killer was almost formed. And he seems happy.

Remember, in the comics, there were FIVE World Killers. Maybe Coville makes himself the fifth. Maybe Sam redeems herself by dying in battle with him. Hmmm ....

So another decent episode. I wasn't floored. I find the Lena/Supergirl scenes the most intense and entertaining. And I think we got enough plot progression to make me smile.

Four episodes left!
Coville