With Supergirl in a coma, Reign continues to dispense justice, forcing the Legion to step up and fight alongside the DEO. Meanwhile, James and Lena navigate their new relationship. Here is a recap and review of the Supergirl episode “Legion of Super-Heroes.”

RECAP:

Returning from the midseason break, Supergirl delivered a generally enjoyable episode, but one without much forward momentum or monumental moments, which may have been an intentional decision to benefit those who forgot the show came back this week and missed this episode. The plot of “The Legion of Super-Heroes” was largely stagnant, and the character moments were underdeveloped and filled with untapped potential. Luckily, we are early enough in Reign’s reign as judge, jury, and executioner and in James and Lena’s newfound romance that a lack of revelations and an extra week spent navigating the situation is not necessarily a problem with the storytelling, but rather a consequence of a network show’s high episode count.

A critique that can be traced more directly to the show itself was the tonal choice. While the introduction of Brainiac 5 was charming, his endearing nature contributed to a surprising, and somewhat unfitting, light-hearted vibe for a story where the Girl of Steel remains in a coma. Granted Supergirl often exists in a more light-hearted space than say, Arrow, but Brainy’s general lack of concern and the other characters’ muted reactions to the severity of the situation diminished the tension and prevented a sense of engaging anxiety.

Overall, “The Legion of Super-Heroes” was an episode with surface level fun, but problems upon further examination.

The episode opens with Kara waking in her sunshine-filled loft to a knock on the door. It’s Querl Dox, aka Brainiac 5, or Brainy for short. He’s a half-computer, half-organic 12^th level intellect who’s here to make sure Kara’s neural pathways are a-okay while she’s in a coma she didn’t realize she was in. While Kara’s subconscious roams around her loft, her body heals in a water tank on the Legion ship because having to see one Danvers sister in a water tank wasn’t traumatic enough.

It’s perplexing that the writers chose to make Kara’s loft, not CatCo, the physical manifestation of where her subconscious feels the most comfortable. While it’s certainly the safest location, free from villains and dangers of the outside world, and as Brainy suggests, it could have been Kara’s attempt to protect herself from getting hurt again, having Kara essentially choose to hide away in her loft directly contradicts who she is at her core. When she lost her powers in “Human for a Day,” she didn’t retreat to safety. When she had no powers in “Supergirl Lives,” she didn’t stop fighting. Kara chose to be a reporter because she has an innate need to help people with or without her cape, so CatCo represents Kara’s human life more than her loft ever could. CatCo is where Kara became friends with Winn and Lena without them liking her for having superpowers. CatCo is where Kara learned to own her power and stand up for what she wants and believes in without punching her way through the situation. CatCo is where Kara proves that anyone can make a difference if they just believe in themselves. It should have been that drive, that human life, which woke her up rather than a cat that reminds her of being an outsider.

In dramatic slow-mo fashion, Ruby runs from Sam, who’s in stalker mode. Turns out, they’re just playing with Nerf guns. When Ruby leaves for the movies, Reign arrives at her Fortress of Sanctuary, where she learns it’s time to deliver “the Awakening,” which is bad guy code for cleansing the world of sinners and those who harbor them.

Reign’s mission to force society to see the problems that they’ve long ignored comes at such an important and relevant time in our own country with #MeToo and Time’s Up forcing problems into the light and demanding justice be served. In a story where the hero and villain are both female and essentially want the same thing just through different means, it provides a unique and profound opportunity to delve into the meaning of “justice” and provide a variety of voices on beneficial courses of action. Although this season has been less political than the previous, Supergirl has never shied away from tackling topical issues, so it will be interesting to see if the series chooses to make this connection more obvious.

Meeting James in his office, Lena hopes that Kara can track down the MIA Supergirl, but Kara’s not at work. When she arrives, Lena wants the three of them to have a candid chat about kissing to pre-emptively prevent herself from going down the lying path like the rest of her family. A criminal comes flying through the CatCo window, courtesy of Reign, who promises the city she’s here to help.

Winn suggests using the literal Legion of Superheroes they have standing before them to protect the city until Supergirl wakes up. Despite Imra’s desire to help, Mon-El refuses to get involved. The Legion hid in their DNA the key to stopping “the blight” that destroys one of their friends planets, so if they die, it endangers the future. Good news: Supergirl will live and Reign will eventually leave. But bad news: Mon-El has yet to prove himself as a character who deserves to be heralded as a hero.

It’s frustrating as a viewer to watch a character who wants to be a hero, who considers himself a hero, who helped form a Legion of SuperHEROES have to be told more than once that he should go out there and help people. Part of being a hero is having to make the tough calls, but standing by and watching a city you once called home be destroyed because you’re concerned about dying does not qualify as making a tough call. Supergirl, Mon-El and the Legion’s inspiration, would have found another way to preserve the information hidden in their DNA in the event that they died, but there was no discussion about finding alternate means or ensuring their future survival. Their lack of action and empathy made the team as a whole look ineffective and unqualified.

To defeat Reign, J’onn prepares to activate the Sundown Protocol, a contingency plan capable of incapacitating Superman if he ever turned against them. Before they do so, Alex wants more information from Thomas Coville about how to defeat Reign, but he now worships Reign and awaits her success.

The more we see and hear from Thomas Coville, the less sense he seems to make. His introduction this season in “The Faithful” added a new and interesting element for Supergirl to fight against, having to change a congregation’s belief system rather than just having to capture a bad guy. However, his belief system switching so quickly from worshiping Supergirl to worshiping Reign under the guise of it all being Rao’s master plan makes his loyalties look too convenient for the sake of drama. A foremost expert on the beast, he could give Supergirl and the DEO useful information, but he doesn’t because that would make things too easy. But what’s most bothersome about Coville’s continued inclusion in Supergirl is why he’s even important. Why is this random human an authority on a Kryptonian teaching? Is he really human? Why would Reign and the Dark Kryptonian in the Fortress trust him and/or need him?

Despite Coville’s shortcomings as a character, his scene provided Chyler Leigh with the opportunity to show off the fierce, confident, unwaveringly loyal side of Alex that we saw in Crisis on Earth-X, but haven’t been privy to all that much lately, and while just a short scene, it was stellar. Even with Kara in a coma, her confidence in Supergirl reminds us just how strong and admirable the bond between the Danvers sisters is and creates a desire for these scenes to return to the forefront like they once were. In addition, Alex’s attempted team up with an antagonist harkens back to the DEO’s temporary truce with Cadmus for the sake of the greater good and makes me wonder if they will try something of this sort again. If not with Cadmus, maybe Lena can access the weapons in Lex’s vaults capable of stopping a Kryptonian. It would bring Lena into more of the main storyline while also teetering her on the edge of embracing her inner Luthor, which the show never lets her forget.

After publishing a press release, James touches base with Lena, who squirms away from his physical contact because maybe they’re not a match. James says “no” so many times the awkward is palpable and blames his weirdness Kara. She has the flu – a really, really bad case of the flu. Lena’s offended she wasn’t told earlier and immediately heads out to comfort her BFF. J’onn flies into the loft and shapeshifts into Kara just in time for Lena to arrive with soup. Lena admits she kissed James and now he’s acting weird because she’s a Luthor, but Martian Kara assures Lena that not everything is about her last name.

The number of times that Lena brings up her last name is almost the same as the number of times she brings up that Kara and James used to date, even though they never actually went on an official date. Regardless, I love that Lena, a woman who proclaimed she wasn’t used to having friends, is well-versed enough with the girl code to know she needs to make sure Kara and James are okay with this new relationship. As lovely as it was to see Mehcad Brooks tackle lighter material and to see Lena in a situation we usually don’t see her in, it was problematic that these two powerful characters’ entire storyline this episode was about romance. Lena runs two multimillion-dollar companies. James co-runs one of those companies and spends his nights as a vigilante. They both have a deep well of stories to pull from, and yet this one came across as so surface-level, hasty, and thoughtless. We never saw James’ side of the discussion or even James and Lena having an actual conversation before something interrupted it or Lena jumped to conclusions. It would have been more interesting to see them blending this discussion with actual work, which I’m sure they had plenty of given that a rogue Kryptonian is still on the loose.

After finding no mold or rats or other signs of damage in Kara’s subconscious, Brainy believes she’s ready to wake up. The tank drains, signifying her body is healed. Now all Kara has to do is walk through the door, but even her super strength and laser vision can’t crack it open.

When Reign arrives at a bank robbery, the robbers remove their masks to reveal it’s a DEO trap. My OTP (Alex and high-powered weapons) makes another appearance as Alex tosses a red sun grenade. Other agents fire sound canons and drop a Kryptonite necklace upon Reign’s shoulders, but Reign takes Alex down with a lasso to the leg and flies out of there. With Brainy fitting her broken leg into a cast, Alex suggests injecting concentrated Kryptonite directly into Reign’s bloodstream, but first, Supergirl needs to wake up.

Back in her coma-created loft, Kara realizes her subconscious wants her to find something – her childhood cat. Kara recalls how she practiced being gentle so she could pet Streaky and feel human. Brainy reminds her that Kara Danvers, not Supergirl, is Alex’s favorite person, so Kara puts on her glasses and wakes up. Kara immediately wants to get out there and fight Reign, and Alex is super blasé about the whole thing, not even giving her sister a hug upon her re-entry into consciousness.

With a little help from Bon Jovi, Imra convinces Mon-El to make a stand against Reign. They meet the DEO, minus Alex, at Reign’s next target, Albatross Bay Prison. Imra keeps the good guys in the fight until Supergirl arrives with a surprise stab of Kryptonite to Reign’s jugular, but Reign still manages to fly off.

Supergirl’s coma provided the perfect opportunity and conveniently timed superhero void for the Legion to demonstrate their abilities. Unfortunately, their involvement in the fight against Reign came too late and was too short-lived to give a proper exhibition. The bits we did manage to see – Imra’s telepathy and Brainy’s control of the ship – while impressive, did not work to create the feeling of the Legion being an established team. Mon-El and Imra felt like a due (moreso than a married couple), but their general lack of communication with Brainy and absence of asking his opinion on whether or not to fight Reign made them look disorganized and lacking trust, when it could have been a wonderful opportunity to redeem themselves from not wanting to get involved earlier and show how strong and lasting Supergirl’s influence truly is.

Lena finds James finishing an article on Supergirl’s return and admits she’s used to people reflexively hating her because of her last name, so she’s sorry and doesn’t want to push him away anymore. James is glad because he really likes her, Luthor name and all.

After signing Alex’s cast, Kara gets a kick out of imagining J’onn talking to Lena about kissing James. Even though Alex didn’t show it, she was truly worried about Kara not waking up. Kara now understands that everything she’s been through will make her stronger in the long run, even if it still hurts right now.

Back on the train of untapped potential, Alex’s fear and guilt over Kara’s coma barely made it into the episode. Alex Danvers, a woman who would risk dying in a black mercy-induced dream world to save her sister, a woman who would risk dying in Nazi headquarters to save her sister, does nothing more constructive than sit at Kara’s bedside and apologize for pushing her into the fight. While it was an emotionally poignant scene, it made Alex’s lack of action all the more noticeable, and she’s not the kind of person who would wait around for something to happen. Where was her attempt to link into Kara’s mind? Where was her threatening and motivating speech to Brainy?

Reign recovers in her fortress, when Thomas Coville informs her that he can help her find the others like her.

Last episode, we learned that Reign’s agenda would be to dispense justice. This episode, that agenda was ever so slightly expanded on to explain that justice would be served in regards to both the perpetrators and the society that allowed these crimes to happen – an notable clarification, but not one that provided any new, real information about the character. In fact, it made Reign’s methods look less logical. Going after criminals (and groups of criminals) on an individual basis does not seem efficient. Her success is going to take quite some time since she’s trying to solve a large-scale problem with small-scale methods. Here at the end, we learn that there are other worldkillers out there who would be able to help Reign cover more ground, but if the future episode descriptions are to be believed, another one won’t show up until 3.13, so I’m curious to see how they fill the gap between now and then. We can only watch Reign go after random criminals so many times before it gets repetitive.

ODDS AND ENDS:

– Why hasn’t Winn or another tech savvy National City resident developed software that replaces Reign’s mask with a projection of what her face would look like without it?

– Ruby: Any dietary restrictions I should know about?
Sam: I’m allergic to bad food.

– Alex: Never underestimate Supergirl.

– Kara: The brain originally is like an empty little attic, and you must stock it with such furniture as you choose.

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