'Supergirl' Recap: 'Distant Sun'

Written by John Edward Betancourt

THIS IS THE EMERGENCY SPOILER ALERT SYSTEM...YOU ARE ADVISED TO READ AT YOUR OWN RISK...

One particular element of storytelling that always turns out to be fascinating and downright enthralling, is the origin of a villain. After all, there's something extremely compelling about discovering the reasons as to why a particular person let the darker parts of their soul take over completely to the point where nothing will stop them from getting exactly what they want in this life and last night on Supergirl, we were privy to that exact journey because 'Distant Sun' is a story that gave birth to a brand new villain for the Girl of Steel to face off against. 

However, rather than do this in strict classic fashion, where say the villain has an encounter with the hero and feels slighted or betrayed before becoming evil and dedicating their future to making life hell for the hero, this time around the show found a way to honor that vintage style of creating a monster but added a new wrinkle to the fold, in that...our new baddie was a touch evil to begin with, this particular tale merely unleashed their long term potential and it made for quite the enthralling storyline because Kara is going to be in for one heck of a challenge in taking on the new villain in question...Queen Rhea of Daxam. 

Yes, as it turns out, Mon-El's mom is about as evil as it gets and I guess we should have seen this coming from the get go when it comes to this episode, because early on, things were certainly out of place when Kara found herself duking it out with a random alien who at first appeared to have come to National City to cause all kinds of trouble for no reason at all. But Kara was his target all along because someone, her majesty specifically, put out a lucrative bounty on Supergirl's head to get her away from Mon-El and despite the fact that Mommy vehemently denied being tied to the bounty, eventually one of the hunters that came to Earth to collect was more than happy to reveal the truth to Mon-El and Kara. 

It led to a confrontation where Supergirl hoped to talk some sense into dear old mom, but rather than chat and find a way to resolve the issue peacefully, Rhea broke out her Kryptonite blades and went after Kara, forcing Mon-El to finally acquiesce to her demands and offer to go back to Daxam to spare Kara's life. But Supergirl wasn't content to let her newfound love simply fade away into the night and in one incredible final battle, Mon-El was finally granted his freedom by his father. But...not quite content to let her son walk away, Rhea shocked us all by stabbing her husband for betraying her before declaring that she wasn't done with Earth just yet, and just like that...our new villain has been born and she will clearly stop at nothing to exact her revenge on Kara's new home...

When all is said and done however, this was truly an awesome origin story and credit is due to Director Kevin Smith for making this story work so well, but what really impressed me about this tale, is just how evil Rhea turned out to be. I mean come on, she put a hit out on her son's girlfriend, and had the guts to stab her husband for not honoring her wishes. It's clear that her life of privilege has warped her mind and with Daxam in tatters she truly sees no point in diplomacy or royalty anymore, she just wants what she wants and that makes her extremely dangerous since now...she has nothing to lose and who knows what kind of fury she is about to unleash upon the world, and sadly we will have to wait a little longer to see what evil plans she's drawing up because Supergirl is headed into its spring hiatus so mark your calendars for April 24th, because that's when the Wrath of Rhea, gets underway. Until next time.

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