Wednesday, December 6, 2017

Supergirl Episode 309: Reign


Supergirl episode 309, titled 'Reign' represented the midseason finale and was one of the best episodes of what has been a spectacular season so far. I have been so impressed with this show this year as it really does a fine job of having relatively deep character plots playing out slowly. It is clear that this season's theme is Kara dealing with sadness, trying to shield herself from emotional harm, becoming a girl of steel, an alien. And throughout the episodes so far, we have seen that played out as her being trumpeted as a god. We have seen here embrace her humanity in her youth. We have seen her face off against Overgirl, a dark reflection of herself. And now we have her battling Reign, another Kryptonian super woman, this time with a very harsh agenda of justice via the lash.

And this felt like something big. This was a 'Death of Superman' style story with a Kryptonian created worldkiller battling and basically defeating the hero. This felt cinematic. This felt electric. This was sit on the edge of your seat time, especially the last 10 minutes. Incredible.

But this wouldn't have been nearly as effective without the small stuff that plays out during the hour. Here we see Sam becoming Reign while still wistfully reminiscing about her more human moments. We see the writers really lean into the history of this show, touching on moments and plots from prior seasons, showing the mythology this show is building. And we have the usual comic and movie flourishes.

I was very impressed. Very.

On to the show.


 The show starts with a POV shot of red heat vision burning into something. We know this isn't the blue beams of Kara or Kal. So it has to be Reign.

Then we jump to an exhausted Sam being woken up by Ruby in their home. I suppose Sam is exhausted from all her extra-curricular work as Reign, an idea which reminded me a bit of when Venom was hijacking Peter Parker for nighttime beatdowns of crooks. In fact, I wonder if Sam is even aware of her time as Reign as she has no recollection of the desert fortress or her actions.

And it seems like a very un-Worldkiller sentiment to talk about pancake-o-clock.

It is these warm moments with Ruby which humanize Sam and I suppose will be Reign's downfall. As Kara seeks to push humanity away, my guess Supergirl will need to push humanity back into Sam to make Reign vulnerable. And Ruby is the key.


 Meanwhile, at the DEO, we finally get some discussion about Mon-El and Imra.

We learn that in the 31st Century, inspired by Kara, Mon-El formed the Legion of Super-heroes. This team is battling the ever-growing darkness in their time.

Unfortunately, their ship got sent through a wormhole to 12,000 years prior. Mon-El put them into cryosleep with the plan to reawaken back in the 31st century but Edge's torpedo woke them too early.

Now as a long time Legion fan, growing up with Superboy being the inspiration for the team, having Kara be the symbol was just fantastic. I loved that.

And that 'growing darkness' line ... a hint at the Great Darkness Saga? I should be so lucky!


 It is the holidays and the Danvers sisters throw a holiday party at Kara's. Everyone is in attendance, including Sam and Ruby.

Ruby is a Supergirl-fan and Alex gets to answer all the young girl's questions. Here Alex talks about jumping out of a skyscraper while in a firefight, the excellent backwards jump while shooting guns scene we saw last season!

Again, it is small moments like this that build up the legend of this show. There is internal continuity here for long time fans.

But we also get J'onn and his father talking about Christmas Carols and hot cocoa. We get to see Winn and J'onn talk about Star Wars and the Star Wars Holiday Special. He even calls J'onn 'Papa Bear'. It is just a great scene.


 And at the party we see how Kara, Sam, and Lena are truly three best friends. There is a nice breezt chemistry here. Sam and Kara talk about the obvious sparks that are flying between Lena and James. And more importantly, Kara talks about how the friendship of these two has made her life livable this last year. It means that the ultimate reveal of Reign being Sam is going to be all the more devastating.

But as usual, Kara is called away with J'onn. The Reign ghostly S-shield has been burned into buildings and fields all over National City.


Kara recognizes the sigil as being Kryptonian but doesn't know what it means. The Alura AI gives a history lesson about how the true meaning of the symbol is lost but that it is known to be part of an early matriarchal religion which was polytheistic. But then the old myths were scrubbed away when Rao became the one god.

And no one will be able to tell her what it means. After all, this Alura has the knowledge of all 28 known galaxies.


Yep, that is a direct lift from the Marlon Brando Jor-El AI from the Donner movies. Nice deep cut.


 Without a clear understanding, Kara decides to see if anyone in the alien dive bar knows anything. Inside, she and Winn run into Mon and Imra. These two are all about the public displays of affection, wiping each other's mouths and doing everything but calling each other 'shmoopy'.

I was glad to see the alien bar, so crucial a site last season, come back into play. And Mon and Kara still have some vibes going, laughing about old times. They even talk a bit about his bartender time, something else which was part of last season. The time-wimeyness of this whole thing is crazy. To Kara Mon has just come back after a few months. For him it has been 7 years. He has lived a life basically. You can see they are just in two different places in regards to their relationship.

But again Kara is called away.


 Remember Thomas Coville, the Rao fanatic who said he didn't remember Kara's name? Well he does. He calls for her.

And he does a very solid info dump. Remember, he scoured the world for Kryptonian knowledge, even talking to the forgotten from Fort Rozz. He found a priestess who knew the old ways, who knew the legends of the pre-Rao Krypton.

The blasphemous sigil is the marker of the Worldkiller, the dark god, the devil.  It is Lilith of Darkness and teeth. And it will come in three phases.

First, the Mark of the beast, presumably the sigil blasted all over the city.
Then the Work of the Beast, the death of many.
And finally the Reign of the Beast, when a new god will emerge to punish.

Much like the Alex talk, Coville mentioning Fort Rozz, a huge plot point from season one, was very appreciated here. This is all one history.


Once again, we see how the motive and actions of Reign are keeping Sam from her motherly duties. It's Christmas Eve and Sam and Ruby are holed up in LCorp. Again, Sam softens retelling a tale of a tough time in their life when they were moving to Central City (Earth 38 has a Central City!!!) and sleeping at truck stops at Christmas. Despite those tough times, it was the best Christmas because they were together.

Sam gives Ruby her Christmas gift, a Supergirl pendant. She tells Ruby that the S-shield means Stronger Together, another nod to season one.

But then the darkness claims Sam. With Ruby gone, she goes out and slaughters a drug gang. We only see glimpses of her form as she tears through these guys, a very eerie scene indeed.

 But there is still some subplots to deal with.

Imra tries to have a heart to heart with Kara. She knows about the Supergirl/Mon-El history. Imra tells Kara that Mon-El stayed faithful to Kara for years in the future until returning to the 21st century proved futile.

It was nice to hear that Mon-El didn't just fall into bed with someone quickly. But it doesn't seem to matter to Kara.

I do love the pink sweater on Imra here, a nod to her Legion gear.

 Meanwhile, Lena is convinced that Morgan Edge is behind the sigils being burned. She and James confront Edge directly, then go nosing around his properties.

Edge, per usual, sends an assassin to try and kill Lena, one thwarted by James' Guardian shield.

I like that James has it with him even when in civvies. I can't believe I was happy to see the Guardian. But such a stressful encounter could only fan the flames of passion between these two.


 When Sam hears that Morgan Edge might have tried to kill Lena, she can't help but say 'he doesn't deserve to live', storming out and giving us a shirt-rip reveal.

You see, Reign is another foil for Supergirl. Reign is the truly alien, uncaring, Kryptonian. This is the end result of Kara shutting off her emotions. We are supposed to see the similarities but recognize the differences.

I guarantee there will be a speech at the end where Kara says to Reign that her loving, her emotions, her pain is what has made her the stronger.

But that's for the season finale, not the midseason ...

Inside the DEO, Kara can't believe that people think Coville is right. But the dead gang members where torched by heat vision. This villain is Kryptonian. In another nice nod to prior stories, Kara reminds everyone that she beat up Superman. She'll take whatever this villain has to give and defeat her. Awesome.

But first, more angst. Kara finally confronts Mon-El, telling him it isn't easy to see him with someone else. She can't deal with it. At least that is voicing her feelings rather than tamping them down. This was her at her most human.


 As for Reign, she heads to the Edge Corporation Christmas party and tears through the place. Edge only survives because he had a lead-lined panic room to hide in. I have to be honest, I love that Edge has a lead-lined panic room.

Once again, we only see fleeting glimpses of Reign, making her more spectral and more like a boogey man than real.

 With Edge everywhere claiming that Supergirl tried to kill him and with their own near death experience behind them, James and Lena give in and kiss each other.

This seems a little quick. I would rather have James still be on the fence about her being a Luthor and possibly evil. But I suppose the writing was on the wall.


And then we get to the finale.

Kara calls out Reign to fight. Reign obliges. Kara is about to fly off when Alex stops her. While Alex has been telling Kara to be more human this whole season, she reverse course. She needs Kara to be cold, alien, Kryptonian. She needs her to go full out in fighting Reign.

I am making another prediction. Whenever we get the rematch, Alex gives this speech again but in reverse. She is going to say that it is Kara's humanity that she needs to cling to. It is her feelings, her Earth side, her Kara-ness that will win the day.

Trust me.

 And then we get 9 minutes of nonstop brawling between the two. We are talking flying through buildings, fighting on cargo ships, throwing haymakers in the streets of National City.

It is the most intense, brutal, bloody throwdown I have seen on this show. It is evocative of the Superman/Doomsday fight from the late 90s. And it is clear that from a power point of view, Supergirl is simply outmatched.

I have no screen caps of the fight. Please, go out and watch these two hammer away at each other. It is simply incredible. It is awesome in the true meaning of that word.


But it ends with a bloody and battered Supergirl thrown into the pavement and left for dead.

And there is Reign saying 'All I am is truth, judgment, and death'. That is a far cry from help, hope and compassion for all.

Comic fans have seen this before.

It is the famous pose of the dead Superman after his fight with Doomsday.

The dying Kara is brought to the DEO where Alex works to resuscitate her. (The intubation from the side of the bed is not how that would go in real life ... but that's a quibble.)

What an ending.

Now we have to wait 6 weeks for more !!!!!

I was floored by this episode. The history. The plot progression. The tug of alien/human. The freaking fight scene.

This is clearly the best season of this show.

23 comments:

  1. Great episode. S3 is definitely the best season so far.

    "Now as a long time Legion fan, growing up with Superboy being the inspiration for the team, having Kara be the symbol was just fantastic. I loved that."

    I'm impressed. Both Superboy and Supergirl were the inspiration for the Legion in the old good days prior to the endless continuity reboots. I was afraid that Supergirl being one of their role models was forgotten nowadays, but the writers remember.

    May that age where the Super-cousins weren't important Legionnaires be over and gone forever.

    And Mon-El founding the Legion? That's... definitely new. Or maybe not. Post-Crisis he replaced Superboy, didn't he?

    "And that 'growing darkness' line ... a hint at the Great Darkness Saga? I should be so lucky!"

    I hadn't thought about it, but... Wow. The possibilities. Imagine Superman and Supergirl punching Darkseid in live-action.

    " The Alura AI gives a history lesson about how the true meaning of the symbol is lost but that it is known to be part of an early matriarchal religion which was polytheistic."

    Interesting. Of course, in the Pre-Crisis age, there were several Kryptonian deities before Rao became the only worshipped god.

    The brawl was impressive.

    A lot of people seems to have loved this episode. Over Reddit, many fans are praising the show. Unfortunately, shippers are being shippers, spewing garbage, cheering because the ratings are again down after the crossover and demanding "their" Supercorp/Karamel/Sanvers and the like, harassing twitter accounts with "Where's Maggie?" nosense and wanting to see the show cancelled if their "demands" aren't fulfilled. Sick of it.

    Anyway, did you notice this is Supergirl's 51st episode? Awesome.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. I too saw a lot of positive feedback all over the net and as far as the ratings go, we are doing absolutely fine- it was a total live viewership of 1.810 million viewers (which is bound to go up in January, if the finale is any indication) and we are only behind the flash in terms of viewers. Also we have a steady demographic of 0.50 between the ages of 18-49.

      As for the shippers, I generally try to block all those accounts, but this time their groaning is getting too much. All shippers think that they are the *only* viewership they prefer to stay in their echo chamber where they pat each other on their backs. Thankfully people on Reddit and YouTube are calling all those shippers out and dragging them left and right for just focusing on the shipping and ignoring such an awesome fight scene.

      Special mention to the sanvers shippers and their douchbagginess where they won't enjoy the show and won't let others enjoy the show as well.

      Delete
  2. I want to chip in a standing ovation for the makeup department. The way Kara looks at the end just breaks my heart, and the look Melissa has, still defying her to the last second is amazing.

    ReplyDelete
  3. I was cringing during the portion of the brutal Supergirl/Reign fight that crashed an office Christmas party. All those people at risk - normally, Supergirl would lead the fight back out into open air, but this must have been her callous Kryptonian thinking on display.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. I thought she did lead it back into the open space, since they went to the ship right after that. It was Reign who was dragging the fight back to the city.

      Delete
  4. This was quite literally Supergirl's Idea of "Clockwork Orange" and "the old ultra violence". And I perversely love how Alex's advice (go full Kryptonian!) is the worst possible stragey one that pretty much gets Kara all but killed in a gruesome fashion. Supergirl keeps trying to go cold "alien" but stuff keeps pulling her back from that brink sometimes its positive stuff from her sister and friends sometimes it's negative stuff...and the she is literally fighting the whole concept of "going Full Kryptonian" in form for Reign herself.
    Good cliffhanger BTW....

    JF

    ReplyDelete
  5. I agree that this was easily one of the best episodes of the season. It ramped up the suspense, the drama, and the intensity slowly, but in a very palpable way. Even before Kara was beaten to a pulp by Reign, she was battered emotionally, both by the return of a happily married Mon-El with his perfect wife (more on THAT later), and by the holiday season, which can be a depressing time of the year for anyone nursing a broken heart. At the party, Kara's declaration that she “loves the holidays” was so weak, I thought that someone spiked the eggnog with kryptonite. I DEFINITELY saw Alex spike it with about half a bottle of scotch! Merry Christmas!!

    Of course, even though Kara's weepy speech about how she would've never made it through this past year without her new “besties,” Lena and Sam was more than a bit contrived, it served its purpose of raising the personal stakes for Kara when she may have to choose between destroying Reign (and also Sam), or allowing her to continue her murderous rampage on a global scale.

    The climactic fight scene was excellent, although at times, it seemed as if Supergirl and Reign were simply trading punches, like two heavyweight boxers going toe-to-toe in the middle of the ring. It was all sheer brute force, with no finesse or technique. What happened to all of Kara's hand-to-hand combat training with Alex? Why didn't we see a few rapid-fire, super speed, jackhammer punches, or some “super-judo,” using a more powerful opponents' strength against them? It was obvious that Supergirl wasn't holding back, but it was equally clear that she went into the battle with a super-sized chip on her shoulder, but without a plan, or a strategy to defeat her evenly matched enemy. You'd think by now, Kara would've learned that she can't punch her way out of every situation, or that she shouldn't try to take out her frustrations with her personal life on every super-powered baddie that crosses her path. Her overconfidence in her abilities has been a recurring theme, and a major problem in her development this season, but after what Reign did to her, I don't think that's going to be an issue going forward.

    ReplyDelete
  6. One of several major flaws in this story is the way the DEO all but disappeared in this episode. Isn't their who reason for existence to deal with super powered, extra-terrestrial threats? Isn't that EXACTLY what Reign is? Why wasn't the Martian Manhunter teaming up with Kara against Reign? Where was Alex in her armored exo-skeleton, and her kryptonite blade? Did she give that to Superman to dispose of, along with all the rest of the DEO's kryptonite stash? Bad move in retrospect, since some of that green stuff would've come in pretty handy right about now, as a way to bring a quick end to Reign's shenanigans. Why did the DEO hang Kara out to dry, by letting her face Reign all by herself?

    Apparently, that's not the only area where the DEO has not lived up to expectations. It's bad enough that TPTB decided to make Reign yet ANOTHER Kryptonian survivor, as if she wouldn't have been just as scary as a menace from the future, or some alien world OTHER than Krypton, but to make matters even worse, they left it up to a self-proclaimed student of Kryptonian culture, Thomas (Chad Lowe) Coville, to play “Huggy Bear” to Kara's Starsky and Hutch, as the “magic” informant who inexplicably has all the answers.

    This may have been the most ridiculous plot device of the entire season. How is it that Coville was able to find some never-before-mentioned “disgraced Kryptonian priestess” among the so-called “Forgotten of Ft Rozz,” much less get her to teach him an ancient Kryptonian language that even Allura's AI, with all the “combined knowledge of the 28 known galaxies,” can't translate? Are those 28 galaxies inhabited by morons? Is there no intelligent life out there? If the Kryptonians valued knowledge gleaned from other worlds above all else, it makes no sense that she would be so unfamiliar with a language from one of her own planet's lost cultures. I would've found it hard to believe if they said that Coville came across an ancient alien BOOK that referenced the World Killer legend, but a Kryptonian PRIESTESS?? Oh, puh-LEASE!

    And how is it that the DEO doesn't seem to know anything about this Kryptonian priestess here on Earth? Who, and WHERE is she, and where are all these “Forgotten of Fort Rozz” people anyway? Shouldn't the DEO be keeping a close eye on criminals from a former ET prison? Again, isn't that their primary function?

    Why are they bothering to treat Kara's injuries with traditional, human medical techniques? We know from past episodes that they have a yellow sun radiation “tanning bed” that they've used to help stimulate Supergirl's healing powers, and regain her strength, just like red sun radiation was used for the opposite purpose during last week's crossover episode. Why wasn't Reign a bit more battered and bruised after her encounter with Supergirl. They seem to be pretty evenly matched until the very end. Once again, for dramatic purposes, they have lowered Supergirl's power level to accommodate the storyline, but by the end, I'm sure she'll recover her strength, and then some, just in time to snatch victory from the jaws of defeat, and save the day!

    ReplyDelete
  7. Agree, great last couple of episodes, and a great cliffhanger to keep us dangling till Jan 15th next year! The episode
    wasn't without it's share of plot holes and inconsistencies -- I'm especially curious about a) how Reign is judging
    "truth, judgement and death;" is there still a "fragment" of Sam inside her b) just HOW powerful Reign is compared to a
    solar-power Kryptonian and c) I'm wondering about this "disgraced Kryptonian priestess" Coville mentioned. Does that
    mean there's other Kryptonians hiding out on Earth(!) -- as usual, I'll just keep rolling with it and enjoying myself!

    The Christmas interpersonal scenes were a delight to watch, especially Alex swooping in and taking Ruby off Sam's hands
    with the line "Did I tell you I work with Supergirl?" Also liking Imra more and more, especially her accent and how she's
    not presented as another "Americanized" character. Personally I think it adds to her character and charm. I am wondering
    if any attention will be given to her telepathic powers though...

    Olsen x Luthor... "well shippers gonna ship" is all I can say. It's an interesting character development, I'll give it
    that, but I'm wondering how sustainable it is longer term. Olsen keeping his Guardian shield handy... well that put a
    silly grin on my face for sure!

    The Supergirl v Reign fight scenes were definitely the highlight of things! Raw, brutal brawling which riffed on Death of
    Superman and Donner-verse Superman 2... and TOTALLY was a Supergirl-only moment to shine. In hindsight, why the DEO and
    J'onn didn't scramble everything and pull out all the stops to help out, I'll never know, but again I'll just roll with it.

    The final scene of Supergirl lying there with her costume's S Shield burnt off, DEFINITELY punches up the emotional
    heartstrings of the moment!

    Here's hoping I can wait till Jan 15th, see everyone there!


    Regards

    ReplyDelete
  8. Normally, I would find it hard to believe that ANY woman could make Supergirl feel insecure, but one look at that screencap of Imra talking to Kara makes it easy to understand how that could happen. Since she's also a telepath, I'd be worried that she'd know what I was thinking when I looked at her, but the truth is, it wouldn't take a mind-reader to figure that one out! She may not be Supergirl, but she IS “Perfect Girl!” She's drop-dead gorgeous, with a figure that would make a Victoria's Secret model green with envy, and on top of everything else, she's got a charming accent with a voice as sweet as honey on a warm biscuit. If ALL the girls in the 31st Century look like her, I REALLY want to go there. Mon-El is a VERY lucky man, and I don't blame him a bit for moving on with THIS spectacular beauty from the future. Saturn Girl was NEVER like this in the comics! Wow!

    ReplyDelete
  9. It would be a complete bombshell if Mon-El (coming back from the FUTURE), looking back at Kara's history, and KNEW this would happen without saying anything. Maybe a 'can't mess with the timeline' excuse or something of that sort. Just saying it would be an interesting plot twist.

    ReplyDelete
  10. > Normally, I would find it hard to believe that ANY woman could make Supergirl feel insecure

    Turnabout fair play - Lucy Lane and Miss were made to feel that way comparing themselves to Supergirl / Kara :)

    > Maybe a 'can't mess with the timeline' excuse or something of that sort.

    I suspect that is how this is going to play out come Jan 15th and afterwards. We'll have to wait and see.


    Regards

    ReplyDelete
  11. *Miss Tessmacher

    Regards

    ReplyDelete
  12. Thanks for great comments.
    I wonder if the ‘accidental’ travel back in time by Mon-El was actually planned by him to help Iara. But he didn’t know the exact details of this so he couldn’t intercede.

    Great episode and great season so far.

    ReplyDelete
  13. Is it wrong of me to hope that the only reason why we saw Sam give the horribly miscast Ruby the "S" necklace is so they can identify her body from the charred remains later?

    I'm sorry, but this little girl can't act at all, and she has no business being on my television screen. I find it hard to believe that the same casting director who found virtual clones to play "Young Kara and Alex" for the "Midvale" episode is the same person who chose this kid for the role of Ruby. If she was the best out of all the girls who auditioned, I'd hate to see the ones she beat out. They must've been AWFUL! She has no resemblance to, and zero chemistry with the woman who plays her mother, Sam, and no discernible talent for acting.

    I'm hoping that Ruby dies, and that her death will have more dramatic impact than anything she could've ever contributed to the show otherwise. The alternative is almost too horrible to contemplate. If Ruby DOESN'T die, we could all be in store for..... (wait for it).....

    SuperRuby!

    Ugh! No! Anything but THAT!

    If Ruby shows up in spandex and a cape, "Supergirl" the series will have not only "JUMPED The Shark," but LEAPT over it in a single bound! I'd rather watch an entire season of "The Many Loves Of Alex Danvers" than subject myself to one episode of "The Adventures of SuperRuby." If they can knock off Kara's first junior high crush, then they can kill off Ruby, too, and the sooner, the better.

    ReplyDelete
  14. That's a little rough Scrimmage.

    ReplyDelete
  15. Scrimmage, you are 1/4 right as there are people who do not like Ruby and now that Sam has gone full-on terrorist, who are now FORCED to feel sorry for her...you don't get anything by forcing the issue.

    But then you go off on some wild tangent that just may have given the wonky writers ideas.

    I don't think you are playing with a full deck here.

    ReplyDelete
  16. Yeah Justine Bateman on "Family Ties" used to bug the heck out of me, at the end of the day she was merely the weak end of an ensemble...Ruby isn't even that quite frankly, she is a plot device in the making nothing more.
    Geez wishing death on the character is serious overreaction yo,

    JF

    ReplyDelete
  17. Thomas Coville spoke of the Worldkiller being a harbinger of the End of Times...so perhaps this is why Mon-El and Inra can't get back home to the future. Perhaps Reign's emergence has set off a ticking time clock...and time is now running out.



    "I'm hoping that Ruby dies, and that her death will have more dramatic impact than anything she could've ever contributed to the show otherwise."

    Not trying to spoil the suspenseful wait until mid-January, but...

    ...don't look if you don't want to be spoiled....




    ...the actresses playing Sam and Ruby did a silly selfie on Instagram just recently. The chemistry between them is pretty real. :)

    "Unfortunately, shippers are being shippers, spewing garbage..."

    LOL...enjoyed that Reddit shipper fan theory that Imra is mind-controlling Mon-El to imagine that they're married....yeah, like they're just going to travel back in time to somehow get an annulment. :)

    "Why wasn't Reign a bit more battered and bruised after her encounter with Supergirl?"

    Well, do devils bleed? Some gods do. Supergirl brought it on herself, as she refused to believe Coville's story and hardened her heart, in getting bad advice from Alex. They both should have known better. In essence, Supergirl was beating up on herself at the same time as she was battling Reign. Oh, and BTW, Supergirl didn't ask for backup from the DEO...so much for her usual "Stronger Together" mantra. She want to do it all by herself.

    "At the party, Kara's declaration that she “loves the holidays” was so weak, I thought that someone spiked the eggnog with kryptonite."

    That insane idea probably would have been an improvement. Perhaps the Danvers sisters should instead skip celebrating the holidays altogether. :)

    KET

    ReplyDelete
  18. The previous scene when Sam said that Ruby is her heart was a pretty strong foreshadowing that Ruby will be the one to stop Reign in the end. I think it's fair to guess that stopping her as her heart doesn't include punching her up as a mini-super. My guess is that Ruby will talk her down long enough for Reign to stop herself. Given that Samantha has gone Punisher on enough bad guys to spend an eternity in Prison, I don't see this ending well for her though. It would be pretty weird for to give her a pass because friends. Maybe if they ship her off to the future with the Legion. A thousand year in ice prison maybe is a loophole.

    Having said that - I would throw money at them if they made Midvale-Kara a minisuper, but they pretty much killed that possibility narratively, barring some legion adventures with accompanying mind wipe.

    ReplyDelete
  19. "Given that Samantha has gone Punisher on enough bad guys to spend an eternity in Prison, I don't see this ending well for her though. It would be pretty weird for to give her a pass because friends."

    ...except that seems to be the personal dilemma that the rest of the season appears to be building toward. It's similar to a situation Captain America and Falcon briefly debated in regards to The Winter Soldier....is Samantha someone who needs to be saved, or someone who needs to be stopped, when all becomes revealed? If anything, the revelations seem poised to rip the BFF relationship between Kara and Lena wide apart. Poor James is once again caught as 'the man in the middle' of what's to come.

    KET

    ReplyDelete
  20. Loved loved loved the fight scene. I was totally blown away, the fight choreography was really good and Reign phew! She did reign. I feel like this season has been more cohesive from all directions and I am all here for it.

    As for the Ruby thing, I understand scrimmages frustration because Ruby hasn't grown on me yet. But during casting calls there was that tidbit about how Ruby can come back for the next, ofcourse it will be all dependent on feedback regarding her in s3. If they really are planning to do a finale ending with how Ruby calms Reign down...I agree on the fact that as an actress, they should have chosen better. But she is still a kid, both the character and the actor so atleast here let's be civil regarding the language we use for a kid.

    I have to agree on the fact that I will throw all my money at CW if they bring back the actress who played kid Kara as Ruby next season, have to say, she's talented.

    I feel like Alex is definitely gonna adopt Ruby next season, they are pushing that angle pretty hard and with that if Ruby ends up having powers then that's the right home for her. They can do something with how kon is in the comics and how Kara and kal used to refer to him as 'it'.

    This season is full of suspense and action and I am totally loving it.

    ReplyDelete
  21. Anj was right, totally a mashup of Reign and Satan Girl, hence the horned mask and overall costume resembling Silver Age Satan Girl and all the devil references. It was a fun episode, but didn't like that Imra doesn't seem to demonstrate any powers or have a costume. But, I guess that will come later. I hope that The Great Darkness Saga is covered. If not and we have that nod, at least, I'm happy.

    Also, Scrimmage, was your SuperRuby idea based on that cosplayer who calls herself by that name?

    But, yeah, why not have J'Onn go after Reign with a gun full of kryptonite bullets or have Mon-El use his Legion flight ring to go help, along with Saturn Girl who could shut down her mind or something. Do we need to copy another Superman moment, his death (which gets covered too often) or even a nod to Kara's own death (again)? I suppose that's the whole tension and cliffhanger thing. Maybe Sun Boy is in the ship and he can help Supergirl recover. I think they should have had the solar radiation gurney going to her, unless somehow that equipment would work with her body. Maybe that was just a way to try to to make it look serious, like it's not just a simple time under a sun lamp but other equipment needs to be used also, as she's crashing in front of them. I don't know. But, nit picking aside, I liked the episode. "Crone Buddies" was hilarious, although it sort of goes back on the growth that occurred for Alex during Crisis. Oh, yeah, I thought Kryptonians weren't depicted as cold and Byrne era like.

    ReplyDelete