Supergirl S03E18 Review: Reignfall

Supergirl, Season 3, Episode 18: Shelter From The Storm

Huh, that was... unexpected. I certainly didn't expect Reign to fall down in this episode, and certainly not in the way that she did. And that the Reign stuff really didn't feel like it was the sole focus of the episode. If there was a focus in this episode, I honestly would say that it was the Lena/Supergirl dynamic, where Lena works through her whole "Supergirl doesn't trust me!" conflict to finally show up with Kryptonite, leading to Supergirl exploding at how much of a betrayal it is... leading up to, of course, the Kryptonite being instrumental to take down Reign, Supergirl apologizing... but Lena later confiding to Kara that she has lost all respect and trust in Supergirl thanks to her attempted espionage at sending James to infiltrate Lexcorp. There's a neat way of threading in Supergirl's god complex, a theme that ran for a bit in the first half of the season before it kind of petered out, without being too obvious about it. 

The main storyline in this episode revolves around Reign being single-minded in tracking down Ruby Arias to take out the one tether Samantha has, while Ruby's stashed in an invisible, anti-Kryptonian Lex Luthor mansion. Alex going into the mansion causes the naive Ruby to get a phone to try and call her mommy, but this ends up causing Reign to breach the mansion, leading to a fight between her, Supergirl, J'onn and Mon-El, where Mon-El uses a gatling-gun and Kryptonite dust to take out Reign.

(Side-note: I really love the corridor scene where Reign just walks and shrugs off all of Lex's silly anti-Kryptonian attempts. Very Golden Age.)

But the way that the episode leads up to this climax is really interesting. The ongoing storyline of M'yrnn's dementia ends up being instrumental when J'onn and Kara asks him about how he managed to appeal to the White Martians' lawful evil mentality, leading Supergirl to be able to get Reign to halt later on in the battle when she appeals to Reign's self-proclaimed crusade as judge, jury and executioner, when Ruby Arias is a sinless child. Poor M'yrnn is still forgetting things, though, and more than anything those scenes are really hard to watch. Good job on the show for actually having the balls to continue with this storyline instead of reverting the condition, which might be easily taken as making light of actual people's struggles with dementia. 

Meanwhile, after a fun bit of Brainiac-5 and Winn interacting, the Legionnaires return to the future, because time-travel apparently works differently in this universe and we're not getting a Flashpoint timeline... but the Blight has been cured from the other Legionnaires (that they apparently bring and stuff in pods just to confirm if the Blight is cured?). Irma tells the conflicted Mon-El to go down and help Supergirl, and to follow his heart wherever it may go. It's a bit clunky, honestly, but I've always thought that the whole 'detached Irma' bit was just an obvious way to inevitably bring Mon-El and Kara back together. 

Oh, and the second act ends up with Samantha's mother Patricia being killed by Reign -- a surprisingly permanent casualty. Sure, Patricia isn't a character that I personally care about, but that ended in a pretty dark moment that really ramps up the stakes. Overall, the episode's really strong and manages to tie multiple plot lines together pretty elegantly with a ribbon on top. A neat episode.

DC Easter Eggs Corner:

• While he's not seen, the shape-shifting Legionnaire Chameleon Boy (referred to as just 'Chameleon') is one of the Legionnaires placed in the stasis pods in the Legion's ship. 
• The scene of Reign hovering above the city and using her super-hearing to look for a specific part is a homage to a similar scene in Superman Returns .