Supergirl #3.18 “Shelter From the Storm” Recap & Review

When Reign sets her sights on killing Ruby to make Sam surrender, Supergirl must work through her anger over Lena’s kryptonite to protect the innocent girl. Here is a recap and review of the Supergirl episode “Shelter From the Storm.”

RECAP & REVIEW:

While not as problematic as last week’s episode, this episode was also not one of this season’s best displays of plot or character. A generally underwhelming hour, “Shelter From the Storm” made little to no major strides in story progression, and much of the character drama felt recycled from previous episodes. What “Shelter From the Storm” did make apparent is how this season, and these past several episodes in particular, have barely scratched the surface of the deep well of commentary right within their reach that they could be pulling from.

“Shelter From the Storm” brings up several greater issues with the Worldkiller storyline this season. The writers could have shaped this episode more like a thriller or a chase film to create a natural and realistic atmosphere of suspense, even if we were almost certain that Ruby would make it out alive. Instead, this hour was closer to a “stand around and talk while we wait” film, which has been a trend since the midseason finale. Supergirl and the DEO have been minimally proactive in their pursuit of Reign, which does no favors to establish Reign as the fearsome threat we’re told she is.

Along those lines, this season continues to have a “show, don’t tell” problem, in which they’ve chosen to “tell” nine times out of ten. Hearing that Reign is perhaps the most powerful foe Supergirl has faced is not enough to understand the severity and urgency. We’ve only seen limited examples of the effect of the Worldkillers on National City and none beyond, which disconnects Supergirl from who she’s trying to save. When there’s no sense of loss, no display of the pain, there’s no sense of win. It keeps the story in a plateau both emotionally and narratively, and right now, we’re stuck in a narrative loop. They fight Reign. Reign escapes. They trap Reign. Reign escapes. They fight Reign… and repeat.

After Reign absorbed the other two Worldkillers’ powers, it was a chance to prove just how great of a threat she now is, but this storyline took a step backwards in an illogical arrangement of the Worldkillers’ to-do list. The point of the Worldkillers uniting was to become the strongest version they could be, but they couldn’t become the strongest version without first subduing their human counterparts. This should have at least been attempted upon Reign’s initial emergence, after which, Sam posed no revealed benefit to Reign. Keeping Sam around only increases the chance she can gain knowledge to fight back, which would have been a great struggle to include in an episode where Reign went after her strongest tie to humanity. But no such luck, as Sam remained MIA.

The episode begins with James and Lena enjoying the view from her hotel room. Lena didn’t want to establish roots in case the city rejected her, but maybe it’s time. Crashing through the window, Reign searches for Ruby. Unfortunately for her, James activates his beloved Guardian shield to deflect her advance, and Lena “I’ve never stood behind a man” Luthor whips out her own can of kryptonite mace.

That moment in which James looks away before replying that he, too, is glad Lena can tell him her secrets seemed more genuine than his actual answer. His honesty with Lena, and in turn, her honesty with him has awkwardly placed him in the middle of a conflict between his friend and his girlfriend, and this moment of hesitation indicates he may have doubts about the situation he’s found himself in and foreshadow upcoming troubles.

As powerful as it would be to see Supergirl and Lena work through their issues on their own accord, James also has the chance to play mediator, to help each woman understand the other’s point of view, although James later gets Supergirl’s reaction to Lena’s gesture of good faith so wrong, so maybe James also needs to work on reconnecting with Supergirl. I would like to seen him (and Kara as well) make an effort to harken back to the good ole days when they were friends and had an open line of communication.

Lena assures the DEO that Ruby is safe and reveals she used electricity to switch Sam into Reign. Supergirl and J’onn zip to protect Patricia Arias. Even though she knows Sam is Reign, Patricia refuses to leave, refuses to abandon her daughter again.

As soon as Lena mentioned using electricity against Reign, I expected Supergirl to express even the faintest glimpse of shock and disapproval at this torture method with real-world horror stories, but she says nothing and later uses this method capable of causing burns that make your skin feel like it’s searing off and nails are running through your veins. Doesn’t sound so different from kryptonite to me, just saying.

In protective mode, Aunt Alex rides to Lex’s invisible mansion, where a chatty Mrs. Queller watches over Ruby. Ruby demands to know what’s going on with her mom. She can handle anything, but Alex plays oblivious. Waiting to Reign to show up, J’onn confides in Supergirl about wanting to make his father feel useful to lift him out of his depression. M’yrnn’s past memories are so clear, but his present ones are chaotic.

As devastating as it is to see someone you love struggling with an incurable disease, it’s even more devastating to watch them surrender to their fate, to watch them refuse to fight because they’ve lost faith in their ability to make a difference. This was not necessarily intended to be a storyline about depression, but having a character sink into that depression where they believe they don’t matter and have nothing to offer is not exclusive to dementia and has an astounding universal appeal that was glossed over for a quick and pleasant ending.

When your entire cast has spoken out about the importance of mental health and the struggle with depression, you have the chance and the responsibility to depict the depths of this issue. Although depression is such an isolating, internal struggle, it has an effect on those around you as well. Both sides are worth exploring, and yet, this episode explored neither. It attempted to tackle the issue from J’onn’s perspective, but his entire reaction was logical, rather than emotional for someone loosing his father after recently reconnecting. I wish we could have seen J’onn having that moment where seeing someone you love struggle with depression shakes your entire opinion of their strength and their legacy, and then struggling with your own guilt for even allowing yourself to think that because it’s not their fault. It’s not their choice. It doesn’t diminish an ounce of their strength. And they deserve to know that.

Showing M’yrnn that he could still be helpful was a plausible way to boost his spirits, but this was only one variation that was too simple and automatic. It was depicted as a switch, as something he could put behind him with one morale boost, not the slow climb back to some semblance of “normality.” I wish we could have seen J’onn guiding his father through it, rather than trying to snap him out of it.

Dying flowers signal Reign’s arrival. She activates an Ariel glow in her throat and switches her voice to Sam’s before stalking through the house. Supergirl catches Reign with Winn’s electricity gadget, but Reign shrugs off the restraints, sonic screams J’onn out of commission, and slices Patricia with her Pestilence claw.

Other than this brief moment of Reign changing her voice, Reign has yet to use the duality of her body to her advantage. It makes Reign look less intelligent for not even attempting a ruse. Pretend to be Sam. Get Ruby alone. Kill her. Goal accomplished. But Reign’s sense of agency and ingenuity has been missing from the character. She’s almost been portrayed as a drone on autopilot, following the Dark Kryptonian’s orders, and that reduces any creativity her actions could have. I was so excited for the Worldkiller storyline at the beginning of the season, but this episode really highlights how underdeveloped their whole mythology is.

When there’s a limited amount of time per episode, it’s important to make every moment and every dollar count. Rather than spending time on Mrs. Q’s chunk of insignificant dialogue in the Luthor Mansion and spending money on a portrait of Lillian Luthor, it would have been more impactful and relevant to see a moment of Sam fighting to get to the forefront of her own body when Reign is trying to kill her daughter.

In the DEO med bay, Patricia dies once she finishes asking Supergirl to give Sam her apology. Doubting her ability to fight Reign, Supergirl received a reminder from J’onn that her secret weapon has always been her heart. It may not work this time, though, if there’s nothing human left in Reign. They ask M’yrnn how he reached the soulless White Martians. He appealed to their values.

Having stopped the Blight, the Legion sails away from Earth at a slow speed for a 31^stcentury craft. Brainy informs Mon-El that the DEO has a 51% chance of defeating Reign, but it significantly increases if one Legion member stays behind. Brainy has faith in Supergirl and so does Mon-El, so no one’s going back. Later, Imra urges Mon-El to go back to 2018 to help with Reign and to sort out his feelings. She wants him to choose her with a full heart… if he ultimately chooses her.

Brainy is an intellect. It’s understandable that he would cling to numbers and statistics, but this show has never been about looking at the odds. It’s been about beating the odds by broadcasting a message of hope to wake people up, by using people’s expectations that Supergirl is “just a girl” against them, by showing that goodness is powerful enough to win. Granted Mon-El’s return to 2018 was equally as motivated by his feelings as it was by his desire to fight Reign, it still sends a message that the Girl of Steel is not capable of beating the odds that were stacked in her favor anyway, and that is unacceptable.

Mon-El and Imra’s whole conversation about honor and their marriage was intended to show how far Mon-El has come from his frat-boy party days on Daxam, but it really just demonstrated how warped his idea of honor has become. Not cheating on your spouse is not something that deserves praise. It is not you going above and beyond in a difficult situation. It is you doing what you are supposed to do, doing the bare minimum. Their awkward and outdated mentions of honor and dishonor made it sound as if Mon-El was acting honorably in order to be perceived this way by the outside world. It wasn’t about how it could effect Imra, it wasn’t about not hurting her feelings, it was about a concept that made him “right.”

Following James’ suggestion and risking losing any remaining good will, Lena strolls into the DEO with her lead-lined briefcase of manufactured kryptonite. Supergirl demands she turn over the formula to Alex, surrender all Kryptonian artifacts, and never make kryptonite again. Lena argues that hundreds of things can kill humans, but they don’t ban or avoid them. Describing the searing pain of kryptonite, Supergirl won’t risk an accidental encounter. Lena says they need each other, so they must work through their trust issues.

The problem with this storyline, in addition to Supergirl’s newfound opinion on the topic of kryptonite, is that Supergirl still hasn’t made her argument in a valid way, and she does have a valid reason to be afraid of kryptonite. It’s been difficult to side with Supergirl, because it hasn’t been made into a balanced conflict. Now that she knows Lena created synthetic kryptonite, she could have brought up a concern about ending up in another situation where the kryptonite altered her personality like Maxwell Lord’s red k did. It would tie her fear of kryptonite to a fear of hurting others, not to her fear of being hurt since she’s placed herself in numerous painful situations. It would make her concern go beyond her own discomfort and more toward the greater good.

Alternately, Supergirl could liken kryptonite to assault rifles in today’s gun debate. She could argue that kryptonite only has one purpose, to weaken or kill Kryptonians, and thus it will only ever be used to harm. (I’m willing to overlook the fact that Kara and Alex used kryptonite to train in season one because I’m desperate for Supergirl to give any argument other than “because I said so.”)

The whole discussion about human versus Kryptonian suffering reminded me of a quote from Viktor Frankl in which he compares suffering to a gas that completely fills a human no matter the amount that’s pumped in or the size of the canister. Supergirl not wanting to risk an accidental encounter and implying that her suffering would be greater than anything a human can experience diminishes the very real and all-consuming pain that humans can suffer and places her further out of touch with humanity. Plus, arguing pain and mortality with a human who has a quarterly assassination attempt doesn’t work as a convincing argument.

This season was supposed to tackle the theme of “What does it mean to be human?” but right now, they’re tackling the topic of “What does it mean to be Kryptonian?” and the answer is having an automatic “rightness.” Kara started off the season by burying her human side, and it looked for a little while as if she was going to get it back, but now Kara has essentially vanished. What is the point of Supergirl establishing and cultivating a human identity and maintaining a job that connects her to the best and worst in humanity if it no longer has a bearing on her character? She’s always been stubborn and opinionated, but her work at CatCo has always enticed her to consider another perspective and understand why her hardheaded approach is not problem-free. While each episode is only capable of giving us a collective 42 minutes of the characters’ day or week or however long the episode spans, by not including any CatCo scenes and only minimal Kara Danvers scenes, they have noticeably disconnected Supergirl from Kara, disconnected her from her human side.

Stealing Alex’s phone, Ruby steps outside to call her mom. Floating above the city, Reign overhears and dives down. Surviving a barrage of bullets, Reign breaks into Alex and Ruby’s hiding space. Supergirl and Mon-El tag team the fight, during which Ruby sees a mask-free Reign. Supergirl appeals to Reign’s code of dispensing justice; Ruby is an innocent and doesn’t deserve to die. Dropping Reign off in Lena’s lab, Supergirl apologizes, adding that she does trust Lena, making this twice in as many episodes that she’s forgiven Lena only after everything turned out okay.

If Supergirl and Mon-El get to be overdramatic with their capes, then I get to be overdramatic about their capes. Why does Supergirl need cape tricks when she should have super speed? Sometimes brute strength is not enough to win, but she should be able to figure out a creative way to use nearly ever superpower under the yellow sun to subdue an opponent. Her cape started off as strategic; it aided with aerodynamics. Then, she discovered she could use it for protection, to shield Alex from explosions and contain explosions to protect the nearby vulnerable humans. This symbol of strength and security has now been turned into a weapon, and it’s touted as “fun.” It’s just one more example of every good thing being broken down or tossed aside this season.

In better spirits, M’yrnn informs J’onn about mixing the two brown waters into chococoffee. J’onn thanks M’yrnn for his advice, but M’yrnn doesn’t recall that interaction.

Alex realizes that keeping Reign’s identity a secret from Ruby was wrong and promises to be honest with her and keep her safe. Chyler Leigh oozes a maternal vibe in all of Alex’s interactions with Ruby, which is why this relationship is currently working for me. Headed to see Ruby, Lena jumps into an elevator with Kara for a ride more uncomfortable than Psi-induced claustrophobia. Lena wishes she wouldn’t have met her idol because Supergirl used her personal relationship with James against her like Lillian would. Now, Lena can never trust Supergirl. But enough about that. Lena brought a bunch of ice cream, so she hopes Kara brought her appetite. “You know me,” a shattered Kara says.

Lena was watching Kara like a suspicious and accusatory hawk, so she knows, right?! It was certainly a noticeable acting choice. In addition, Lena didn’t even mention Kara’s friendship with Supergirl, preventing Kara from perpetuating the lie. If Lena didn’t know, I feel like there would have been some recognition from Lena that she’s criticizing Supergirl to one of Supergirl’s good friends. I hope Lena knows and continues not to say anything because this creates the potential for dynamic scenes with so much subtext, and that is far more fascinating to watch than her obliviousness.

This scene did such a stellar job of giving Lena her own chance to perpetuate an appearance different from her reality. Lena was happy to see Kara until the elevator doors closed, at which time, she proceeded to criticize Supergirl. Once the doors opened, she snapped back into her chipper mode. If Kara is going to have two fronts, to act one way in public and one way in private, then so will she.

ODDS AND ENDS:

– While it’s nice to know that J’onn will be around in 1000 years, it also takes the tension out of any fight scenes or dangerous scenes with him from this point forward. We know he won’t die, so there’s no sense of worry or investment if he nears death. Unless, of course, the Legion changes the future with their present involvement in Reign’s storyline.

– I’m glad the Legion hasn’t gotten bogged down in the rules of time travel, but I wish there were some rules of time travel instead of having them do whatever they want unlike the Legends.

– Interesting how they remembered that Winn collects space rocks/dirt and Alex likes horror movies (or horror-comedy) and not (yet) that Eliza Danvers has a doctorate in astrobiology, which might come in handy to study Reign’s alien biology. I understand that actor availability is a factor, but it’s not beyond the range of possible to have a phone call, a Skype session, or simply a mention of Eliza emailing some notes to the DEO.

– Patricia: When we bury things, they come at you even harder.

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