Supergirl Episode 315: In Search Of Lost Time

"In Search of Lost Time", the fifteenth episode of this third season of Supergirl, aired earlier this week and was one of the more emotionally heavy episodes for this title. At time it was heartbreaking.

Of course, I have been watching this whole season trying to figure out how each episode ties into the major theme of Supergirl rediscovering her humanity while Sam loses hers to Reign. I have said from the beginning that it will somehow tie into Sam's love for Ruby that will ultimately lead to Reign's defeat.

The title here tells us what we are dealing with. The main plot is on M'yrnn J'onzz suffering from dementia. He is slowly losing himself, losing the experience of his life. Meanwhile, J'onn knows that he and his father need to accept this even though they have just been reunited. They are searching for time, but they have lost the future.

But that isn't the only play on the title. Sam, under Lena's care, learns she is Reign. She learns what she has been doing during her blackouts, her lost time. But more importantly, she knows, for safety reasons, she cannot be with Ruby until she is rid of the Reign persona. She is losing time with her family.

And lastly, there is a scene which Mon-El haters will love where Kara finally confronts him about how awful he actually was last season. She realizes that she has romanticized their relationship in her mind, forgetting the bad when thinking about him through the haze of grief. Maybe she wants to go back to that lost time but she can't. She sheds herself of romantic feelings for him. And he acknowledges that the Mon-El from seven years ago (his time) was as awful as she says and apologizes for his actions.

All these show people either sacrificing part of themselves for the good of others or recognizing when they have hurt someone else and asking for forgiveness. It all fits the theme. And it is this slowly building premise that has made this the strongest season for me so far.

On to the show.

Transforming into the ‘other’, medically induced coma.Ending sedation to get conscious. Sam/Ruby picture.

The show opens with Lena caring for Sam who is in a medically induced coma to stop her from mutating into 'the Other'. But Lena knows she needs to confront her friend. She turns off the drip.

Meanwhile, the rest of the gang, including M'yrnn, are at game night at Kara's playing charades. There are some nice barbs here. Winn calls M'yrnn the Martian Manfather. J'onn talks of his imaginary 5th dimensional imp friend Zook (a deep DC cut).

But the game is interrupted by an alert. Kara needs to spring into action. She slowly unbuttons her top rather than rip it off drawing odd looks from her pals. She retorts that she likes that shirt. That is a great line.

At the alien bar, a Kalnorian woman named Finhead has gone berserk and tosses patrons and Kara around. (Of course, Despero from the comics is from Kalanor, so nice pull there as well.)

The fight smashes a video game (one Kara had the high score on). The fight ends when Supergirl drags her opponent into a photobooth leading the funny moment above. Reminds me of a classic riff in Superman III as well as Batgirl #14. This whole opening is pretty funny, a stark contrast to much of the rest of the show.

At the DEO Supergirl wonders why Finhead went 'Roadhouse'Bar on her and J'onn wonders if since Kalanorians are psychics that she was effected by some astronomical configuration or other psychic attack.

Meanwhile Sam wakes up to find herself trapped in this medical bay, a force field keeping her trapped.

Lena has figured out that Sam is Reign, putting together a timeline of Sam's blackouts and Reign's attacks. Moreover, Lena says Sam mutates into Reign. Reign is a separate entity, a separate form. That's why Sam can get hurt and is kind. It is only when Reign manifests/mutates that she is in control.

This does open the door for some sort of splitting of the character. Perhaps Sam isn't going to die but somehow, instead, shed herself of Reign.

Meanwhile, Mon-El begins training Kara looking at how Reign attacks and how that style opens her up to attackes.

I do like how Reign is described as all power and all aggression, brute force with no finesse. Again, this makes her sound monstrous, like a force of nature, rather than a human being. It emphasizes that.

At their home, M'yrnn is using a Martian game to focus his thoughts and try to preserve his memory. But this takes a tremendous amount of psionic energy. J'onn wonders if M'yrnn and this meditation is what triggered Finhead to go mad.

You can see that both of them are dancing around the topic a bit. At some point, M'yrnn and J'onn need to accept what is happening and figure out how to move on rather than deny it or cling to some false hopes. In particular, David Harewood is amazing this episode. You can see the pain on his face when he thinks about this but also the love and respect he has for his father. It is amazing.

Sam can't believe she is Reign and certainly doesn't believe she has DNA that rewrites itself. In a cutting barb, she says 'Ask a Luthor (about your problem), and they say you're a supervillain.'

Lena here is actually losing time as well. She has dedicated herself to Sam's care to the point of foresaking the rest of her life. And James won't let that happen coming to LCorp to check in.

Lena confesses that she is helping a 'friend' who won't acknowledge they have a problem. James gives an anecdote about a troubled person in his past who eventually had to confront by 'holding up a mirror'.

I am very impressed with Lena here. She is sacrificing her time and life for a friend. Even the Luthor has humanity.

At the DEO, Mon-El dons his old costume which has been repaired by Winn. He shows off his cape, a form of Kryptonian smart cloth. He tries to train Kara but she can't get it.

Meanwhile, M'yrrn begins meditating again and the waves of telepathic power buffet the DEO, making everyone angry. Kara lays into Mon-El. And Winn and a DEO agent turn on each violently. The agent thinks Winn is a 'son of a serial killer' who only got where he is because he is friends with Kara. Winn pulls a gun on this guy.

Things are about to get really ugly when M'yrnn stops praying and everyone calms down.

Alex and Kara head to check on Finhead, walking through the DEO prison where we see prior bad guys from earlier episodes like Draaga and Mandrax and even a white Martian. In her cell, Finhead is seizing, gibbering in Martian. The two have a clue.

This confirmed the dramatic rule of 'Chekov's prison walk'. If you see super-villains in cells in act one, you can be sure they will break free in act three.

Back at LCorp, Lena does provoke Sam into becoming Reign. She is outright mean to hear, talking about how Sam must have loved ripping apart the bodies of drug dealers. How Lena could never let a monster like Reign be near Ruby. How Sam will never see Ruby again.

Sam's eyes go read and she sinks into a dream state. Initially it is idyllic, like the dream Kara had about Mon-El in the first episode. But then that world fades into one of ash.

When we next see Sam, the room has been battered and she sees film of her shooting heat vision and ripping the place apart. She is baffled and sad.

Again, in a great moment, Lena drops the force field and goes in and hugs Sam. That takes serious guts! And we learn that Lena has a sample of Reign's DNA now. Hmmm ... how will she use that?

J'onn finally admits to Alex and Kara about M'yrnn. His father has been moving memories from one area of his mind to another to preserve them but that takes tremendous energy and is no doubt why people lost their minds.

He could dampen his father's telepathic abilities to help everyone else but it would doom his father to a more rapid decline. Moreover, it would rob his father of the one thing which kept him sane during his time of torture on Mars. There is some tough talk here, between family, about living with dignity and how initially becoming 'the parent' is hard. J'onn cries about how he just got his father back, that implied lost time between them.

But he has to protect everyone. So J'onn tells his father he has to be put on dampeners. His father, despite these efforts, continues to lose his memory. Angrily, M'yrnn lashes out saying J'onn hopes to cage him.  The psychic storm is even more powerful.

Kudos again to David Harewood. Unbelievable stuff.

And that psychic storm effects everyone there.

It is here that Kara finally unloads on Mon-El calling him out for being a womanizer, a slacker, a vain Prince, and just about everything else that was wrong with him last season.

It ignores the meager growth he had as a character. He was different in the finale than he was at first. But all the warts that anger people about him so much are voiced by her.

And he appropriately takes it. His Legion ring protects him from the telepathic attack. But he knows he can't defend himself from this.

This is a brilliant move by the writing staff acknowledging the 300lb elephant in the fandom's room and moving past it. Brilliant.

But she isn't the only one effected. M'yrnn is powerful enough to overpower J'onn. The blasts from his mind blow open the doors of the cells (see I told you) and the aliens rush out. Meanwhile, like a bad Star Trek episode, the DEO agents are all attacking each other. Luckily, Alex is there wearing the psionic shield they used against Psi and handing out more to anyone near her.

In the midst of the battle, I had to chuckle when Winn is singled out by Pam from HR. (Pam from HR is a callback to a line from last season I believe.)

During the fight, Mon-El catches and RPG in his cape. Kara masters a cape trick. And J'onn leaves his father briefly to fight a White Martian.

So it is up to Supergirl to talk down M'yrnn who finally relents and lets J'onn put a psionic dampener on him. This set up of him realizing the damage he is doing is well shot. We get shaking cameras and dutch angles and extreme closeups of M'yrnn. But this is a sad moment, not a victory. M'yrnn has accepted he will soon lose himself.

There is nothing left but the wrap-up.

Sam calls Ruby and says she is sick with something contagious so they have to stay apart. And Sam tells Lena not to let her know where Ruby is. She wants Ruby to be completely safe.

Meanwhile M'yrnn apologizes to the DEO staff.

And James brings Lena dinner. She has been wrapped up with her 'friend'. In a nice nod, James talks about how he knows friends who work so hard to save the world they forget to take care of themselves. I actually like Lena a lot here. Nothing nefarious at all. Although hiding Sam from everyone else could be a problem.

But moreover, I am actually starting to like James and Lena as a couple. Their interactions this episode are much more natural. There is more chemistry.

And Kara and Mon-El head out on patrol.

She admits that  she romanticized their relationship, making it bigger and better than it was. She only remembered the good parts. She says now that she knows it, there is a weight off her. I suppose that means she has no feelings of love for him anymore. Ouch, that stung even me. But their romance did seem overly fast and somewhat simplistic last season so it was a decent line which made sense story-wise.

And he, much like he just took her hard words, acknowledges her feelings. He says it isn't news that he was a jerk when he was with her back then. He apologizes. 

As they fly on patrol, birds begin to drop from the sky.

Pestilence has arrived.

Nice hook. 

So lots of emotional hooks here. This was, in many ways, a sad episode exploring loss. But now that the post-hiatus table has been set with these last two episodes, time to bring back the World Killers.