'Supergirl' Recap: 'Reign'

Written by John Edward Betancourt

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

Learning one’s purpose in life, is supposed to be a joyous occasion. Because in order to reach that point, someone spent months and/or years of soul searching and determination to build up the confidence necessary to chase their true calling, so why wouldn’t we celebrate such a powerful and wonderful moment? Well the answer to that question is simple, in that…unfortunately when someone finally discovers that their purpose in life is intended for evil, no one celebrates the pain that comes with that kind of epiphany and that darker side to this kind of discovery was put on full display in last night’s episode of Supergirl, ‘Reign’.
 
Because when we last left Sam on this show, she was standing inside her Fortress of Pain learning about her true identity and this episode picked up shortly after that revelation came to pass, with Sam completely oblivious as to what happened to her in the desert. But it doesn’t take long for injustice to bring out her fury and Reign slowly begins to remove ‘unsavory’ citizens of National City with extreme prejudice, even going so far as to target Malcolm Edge when he crosses Lena, and shortly after she begins her own vigilante brand of justice, she garners the attention of the DEO.  
 
Which puts Kara on the case and as she tries to figure out the meaning behind the Kryptonian symbols that Reign is burning into the landscape, she receives a perfectly timed phone call from Thomas Coville, who you may recall is the Religious Zealot that sees Kara as a God, and it turns out that he has some information for Kara regarding this mysterious new vigilante from Krypton and none of what he has to offer is good, since he lets Kara know that the arrival of this being, means that the end is nigh on Earth. Kara of course, takes little stock in the religious aspect of Reign’s arrival so as to not engender fear and instead, challenges Reign to a good old-fashioned throw down to put an end to this mess before it gets any worse.
 
That’s when the episode takes a turn for the supremely dark because the showdown between good versus evil does not go quite as planned, and in a stunning action sequence, one worthy of cinema to be quite frank…Kara finds herself overpowered and outmatched by the Worldkiller, and despite Supergirl’s best efforts to put an end to this, Reign wins the battle in epic fashion. Which leaves us with quite the sobering finale since the closing moments of this episode show us a battered and bruised Supergirl that is barely hanging on and that’s where the midseason finale leaves us, with a beat down reminiscent of The Death of Superman and the fate of the world in the balance.
 
So, if anything, I guess the best word to put to this one is wow. Just wow. I did not expect this one to have such a serious tone to it, especially with the Holiday theme hanging heavily over this one…but here we are. Supergirl is on death’s door, the whole world watched her get her tail kicked by a powerful Kryptonian and who knows where the story goes from here. I’m sure of course she’ll survive, but my main concern going forward is whether or not Kara’s psyche will be shattered further since her superhero persona was the only safe place she had mentally, and a beat down like that, will rattle anyone’s confidence and the world needs a fearless Supergirl now more than ever. Either way, this was a definitely an ‘edge of your seat’ style midseason finale and I’m already anxious for January 15th to get here to see how Kara will recover and put an end to Reign. Until next time. 

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