Supergirl, Season 3, Episode 19: The Fanatical
It's actually somewhat interesting for me to realize that we have four episodes to go before the season finale. I was under the impression that when Reign was beaten down in the previous episode, we had around two or three more left and that was why a fair amount of plot points were wrapped up quickly, but it appears we've still got a fair bit off. It does feel like the story is paced extremely oddly, since the Worldkiller/Cult of Rao part of this episode really feels like it probably should've taken place relatively earlier this season. And honestly? It's pretty basic stuff. The cultist with a fair bit of screentime from earlier this season, Olivia, ends up chasing down plot-device-person-of-the-week Tanya, who can translate Kryptonese, in order to get her to translate a weird little witch recipe on how to create a Worldkiller.
I kid you not, we actually have a scene where the Cult of Rao stands around a metal cauldron and throws in random shit like something out of Macbeth as Tanya reads the instructions that sound like something out of a recipe book.
And yeah. Reign is still indisposed (although the Pestilence part is adapting to Kryptonite, apparently) so it's a bit of a breather for Supergirl and Mon-El as they crack down on the Cult... but the episode stars Guardian a lot. It's a bit of a shame, though, that after all the brief drama raised in this episode about all the secret identity stuff, it ends up not really mattering that much as Tanya gives herself up to the Cult anyway. James struggles with the whole drama of having to reveal his secret identity to remove the leverage that the Cult of Rao has over him, but is worried because he's black and isn't sure how the public would react -- especially when he recounts how he was arrested when he was seven while playing hide-and-seek in a hotel, as well as earlier in the episode when the police drew guns on him when he had his mask off. It's an interesting character beat, especially since James/Guardian has been easily one of the most mishandled character in this series, but ultimately it feels somewhat unfollowed-up on. The honestly shoehorned insertion of James's struggles with being a black superhero, while a great topic to explore, feels really out of nowhere and genuinely clashes with how Guardian is portrayed before. But eh.
The Supergirl/Lena drama continue to go on as Supergirl angsts about how Kara is friends with Lena, but Lena hates Supergirl.... but the breach of trust is, thankfully for the writing team, not repaired after a bit of an earnest smile and apology from Supergirl. Lena is 100% not willing to accept Supergirl in any way or form beyond "for work", and tells her in no uncertain terms to fuck off because she already has friends. Ultimately, though, I really don't think that this bit of storytelling is really enough to carry this whole episode on its own, and I'm left underwhelmed as a result.
We have a bunch of B-plots with M'yrnn's continued dementia and Ruby's depression and distrust of Alex, solved by having the two play foosball together. It's pretty sweet, even if the setup to lead to that payoff was pretty inelegant with the random "hey let's go to the arcade" idea.
Ultimately, it feels like a pretty underwhelming episode that tries to explore some really heavy stuff with the issues of racism and dual identities (and I guess you can throw in the whole blind faith bit into the Cult of Rao storyline) but ultimately fails to deliver any real engaging material with any of its chosen topics.
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