Posted in: DC Universe, TV | Tagged: cw, entertainment, HRL, melissa benoist, Odette Annable, Reign, supergirl, television

Supergirl Season 3, Episode 9 Recap: Reign

This article contains spoilers for the Supergirl season three midseason finale, 'Reign'.

Going to start with a pet peeve: this was episode nine of season three — the midseason finale. Yet they do 23 episodes, so it isn't really the middle of the season. Gotham, on the other hand does 22 episodes and their mid-season break comes after episode 11… but they call it their 'winter finale'. It may be different networks, but it's the same studio, right?

Okay, on to the show. The show picks up like last week never happened. Not a mention of the wedding they went to, asking how Barry Allen was (Winn and James met him), nothing. Right into Kara still being heartbroken while someone is leaving the equivalent of Kryptonian crop circles all over the place — a symbol Kara recognizes from a field trip to some ruins back on Krypton. The Allura hologram can't place it, though. Kara hosts a holiday party; thankfully, Mon-El and Imra decline to attend. But J'onn and M'yrnn are there along with Winn, James, Alex, Lena, and the late-arriving Sam and Ruby. M'yrnn has decided he prefers hot cocoa to coffee, and I couldn't agree more.

Sam has no memory of going out to the desert or awakening as Reign at the end of episode seven. We also get a pretty heavy-handed hint that there is some chemistry going on between Lena and James. It seems a bit out of the blue from earlier episodes where he only saw her as Lex's sister.

Kara gets a call from Thomas Coville in prison. She goes to visit and he explains that the symbol being burned in all over the city is the first sign of the prophecy that tells of the Worldkiller, the end of days, and how Supergirl must stand against Reign. Meanwhile, we get some backstory on Mon-El and Imra and find out about the Legion that Mon-El founded and used Supergirl as inspiration for the others. They still want to get back to the 31st century, and seeing them together continues to hurt Kara.

Sam sees something on local gang killings, and Reign pops to the surface of her mind and goes out and kills the gang. Lena figures Morgan Edge is behind the symbols and goes to confront him with James, but he denies it. Not to miss an opportunity, though, he sends an assassin to kill Lena and make it look like the killer. James saves her, he seems to carry his shield with him all the time now. Then, back at the office, James and Lena kiss.

Kara is tired of waiting; she calls out Reign by leaving her own symbols burned into the top of CatCo. Reign shows up and they have a few words, but it's obvious neither recognizes the other. And then they fight. And I call it a fight because Supergirl gets in a few good shots, but otherwise, Reign beats her to a pulp. It's not pretty; it's not controlled to protect innocent bystanders. It's an old-fashioned whooping that ends with Kara barely able to stand. And then Reign hurls her off a building and she slams into the cement hard enough to create a crater. James and Lena look on as Alex and the DEO team arrive to find Kara unconscious and looking to be that way for a while.

The episode itself was okay. There seemed to be some forced emotion like the 'best friends' speech between Kara, Lena, and Sam, which didn't feel earned yet. Between Lena and Kara, sure, but not the three of them. The James/Lena thing felt like they were going the other way — a showdown because of James's preconceptions at her being a Luthor. But J'onn and M'yrnn are still awesome. And where is Winn's girlfriend? She hasn't been mentioned or seen nor explained away.

The Kara/Mon-El thing is strong and the more we get to know Imra, the nicer she seems — which makes it worse. I know that some folks are huge fans of the Legion of Super-Heroes and even a glimpse of a flight ring gets them giddy. I'm not that guy, but I am getting excited to see what they're going to do with the Legion here, especially after seeing Kara get her butt kicked so bad.

Supergirl returns on January 15th and the trailer below, called Legion of Super-Heroes, shows us that Kara is still going to be in a coma while Reign continues making a mess. And we get a glimpse of three flight rings. That is also the episode where we meet Brainiac 5 played by Jesse Rath (Defiance). The question now is, who else will we see? Cosmic Boy? Lightning Lad? XS? We'll find out in six weeks.

https://youtu.be/PquHC-1DGtI

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