Supergirl S03E13 Review: Pestilence

Supergirl, Season 3, Episode 13: Both Sides Now

Huh. This episode ends up being sort of a second mid-season finale as Supergirl went on another hiatus after this episode, which wasn't something I would expect. And it... it tries to end off on a cliffhanger, with Reign having 'obtained' Purity for the Worldkiller faction, Lena figuring out that Sam might be this mysterious Reign villain menacing the city, and also the fact that Brainiac and Saturn Girl are hiding their true, probably sinister mission from Mon-El. 

And this episode... does an adequate job to lead to it, I suppose, but at the same time there's so much in this episode that just doesn't work for me. The idea of rooting the conflict of the episode be an ethics debate between Alex and Kara. Alex asks the question about why they should show mercy and be naive and not just try and interrogate Purity, especially when they're on a crisis... whereas Kara is all like "no, the real Julia is down there somewhere, I believe it". It does show a degree of dumbness on Kara's part -- how hard would it be to add in a weak "help me" as Julia transforms into Purity, thus making Kara more of a fighter to save a trapped soul and less someone who's probably suckered by good acting? I mean, we, the audience, knows that Kara's right, but honestly? Looking at the events that transpired without the knowledge from Sam/Reign that the human persona actually does exist, it's really hard to make Kara seem intelligent in this conversation.

Oh, and Alex ends up being a Grade-A asshole to Purity because she's projecting her Maggie breakup problems. And... I really love Chyler Leigh. She's an amazing actress, and easily one of the reasons Supergirl even lasted as long as it did, and she tries her best to make this episode work... but no. It just doesn't work, and I just don't buy that Purity ends up causing Alex to go berserk because of some dumbass line about "I can see the hole she left in you" or whatever. It's particularly out of character for Alex to threaten Purity with torture and dissection, and it's really, really stupid to center this character flaw and sudden burst of pragmatism with her Maggie breakup instead of, oh, I dunno. Fear that Reign will kill Kara and the rest of the world? That would've been a far better leg to stand on, really.

Purity/Julia Freeman herself is decently acted, with the Jekyll and Hyde split personality deal being delivered relatively well, and it does sell how Supergirl has to save Julia... but at the same time, she does end up sitting in a cell for a good chunk of the episode, ends up going through a predictable "you are in there, fight!" bit before Reign shows up and essentially kidnaps her. Sure, Alex manages to get Julia to pop out of nowhere, but that's really a plot development that comes quite literally out of nowhere, and since we barely spend any time with Julia Freeman as a character, it's a shrug-worthy sequence.

At least we learn that the Worldkillers aren't all pure Kryptonians, because Purity mainly uses a Black Canary esque sonic scream as her preferred method of attack and seems to be immune to Kryptonite.

The B-plots of this episode don't stand out that well either. The Sam/Ruby/Lena stuff is perhaps the most compelling and most well-done of all the storylines in this episode, so of course that's the one with the least screentime. Lena's role has been all over the place this season, but supportive cool friend Lena has always been well-acted, so when she shows up to pick Ruby and starts piecing things together, and ends up confronting Sam (who leaves Ruby alone at the ice skating rink when Reign calls)... yeah, it's definitely a well-acted scene. And honestly -- what adult wouldn't be scared seeing poor Ruby suddenly confused and alone at the ice-skating rink?

The J'onn and Mon-El stuff isn't quite as engaging, and I honestly feel that it's particularly bad, approaching Season Four Arrow Oliver/Felicity plot tumour levels of bad. The scripting and the actors do their best to sell the fact that Mon-El's still in love with Kara, and is still super-conflicted about it. And that, in itself, isn't a bad storyline. You can't control who you fall in love with is an interesting romantic angle to explore, with Mon-El being married to Imra but still deep down carrying a torch for Kara. But then we learn that Mon-El didn't marry Imra for love? And Imra is keeping secrets for Mon-El?  It's way, way too convenient of a setup to return to the Kara/Mon-El OTP, and that's just silly writing.

DC Easter Eggs Corner:

• While the Worldkillers and the fact that they have different biology from Kryptonians do come from the comics, Purity and Pestilence are completely original characters to the show.