#particularly that she was relating herself to Superman at the end there is significant to me

[daydreamerdrew]

Action Comics (1938) #763 and Adventures of Superman (1987) #595 and Superman: The Man of Steel (1991) #117 and Action Comics (1938) #782

[storytime-reviews]

Supergirl Review-The Faithful

I absolutely enjoyed this episode, with all of the crazy involved with Chad Lowe’s character, leader of the cult worshipping Supergirl. Because of this, the episode was fun and entertaining, and I also enjoyed the reflections on faith by the various characters. 

Faith

This episode was entertaining in many ways, but especially through the strange kind of antagonist that Chad Lowe made as the cultist leader of a group worshipping Supergirl for saving them. In some ways it was truly hilarious, but in others it was also outright disturbing, indicative of the types of beliefs and attitudes that generally allow for various cults to thrive. Not only were these people willing to put their own lives at risk in order to join the cult, they were willing to put the lives of thousands at risk so that they too could become part of this new Supergirl worshipping cult. Also disturbing is perhaps how Chad Lowe’s crazed cultist leader Thomas Coville faces doubt over his faith, and yet, in the end it returns stronger than ever. At the same time, he is also portrayed sympathetically, blinded by faith but also motivated by the miraculous way in which he, and many others, were saved by Supergirl. Coville is not some innately evil cultist leader simply motivated by a desire to increase and manipulate his followers. He does not ask anything of his followers that he would not do himself. This is what makes him dangerous, that he cannot see the danger in which he puts them all because of his blind faith, but it’s also what enables him to be a slightly sympathetic character. Even when he has lost at the end, he cannot help but consider this an opportunity to do more, to even make Supergirl herself more faithful. It will be interesting to see whether Coville is significant later in the season, especially given that he knows Kara’s identity (as much as he said he doesn’t remember, it wouldn’t be hard to remember). Kara also perhaps needs to look at concealing her identity better-as this guy doesn’t know her but recognised her straight away. 

The way that this episode handled faith was particularly significant, especially in its relation to the various main characters. James himself perhaps lends the most sympathy towards Coville’s blind faith in Supergirl as a god, recounting the first time he was rescued by Superman, before he knew his identity. James makes a good point about Kara and Clark being miracles in this world. They may be flesh and blood like humans, but the fact of the matter is that they are also powerful in ways that humans can never be, and that makes them miraculous. They are also miracles in that unlike other gods, they seem to directly answer, and I thought James’ musings on the topic were particularly thoughtful. Faith is neither depicted as all good or bad, it is merely dependent on the individual, and it was interesting to see Kara’s renewed faith in this episode after her experiences with Coville. This episode was a good opportunity to explore just a little of the beliefs and convictions of these characters. That being said, I’ve seen some suggest that James’ words simply glorified what the cult was doing in terms of expecting Supergirl to always show up and save them and putting her onto a pedestal, and I don’t believe that’s the case at all. James merely emphasised why they had faith in her, why she might be regarded as a miracle by others. It doesn’t follow that this means he accepted the actions of the cult-because there is no way that James Olsen would be ok with people putting themselves in danger just so that they could be rescued by Supergirl. At the same time however, he can also understand their feelings on being rescued by her, as he was by Superman. 

Badass Ladies

I am very much looking forward to how Samantha’s relationship with Kara, Lena and the others develops this season, and how this affects her transformation into the villain Reign. Unfortunately, I think that this show has often suffered from boring villains with very little dimension to them, and I absolutely love villains that used to be friends or family of the heroes, so I can’t wait to see this unfold. Furthermore, I am really loving Samantha and can’t wait for more of her storyline. The very fact that she interacts with the heroes and has now become friends with them thanks to Girls Night means that she will be a much more developed villain once it comes to that, particularly because it seems that the writers are taking the time to set her up as Reign. We haven’t seen an ounce of villainy yet, so I will be interested to see how this comes to pass and what aspects of her life will be impacted. It’s also significant that Kara, Lena and Alex have designated themselves Ruby’s ‘cool aunts’ and that Ruby wants her mother to be a superhero-so for her to not only fight against her friends but be the opposite of what her daughter wishes will hopefully make for some good tv! Hopefully though, this also means that Samantha/Reign is a somewhat sympathetic and redeemable villain, who is perhaps manipulated by others but comes to do the right thing in the end. I know that’s what I want. I also hope that we’ll get to see more of these ladies hanging out together as friends. 

In the last few episodes we’ve seen Samantha struggling to juggle her career responsibilities with her role as a mother, and this is something she verbalises to Lena in this episode. And whilst Lena cannot completely understand what Samantha is going through precisely because she is not a mother, she can at least put to bed some of Samantha’s worries about being a terrible mother. Yes, it is not preferable that she cannot always be there for Ruby and will sometimes miss moments of her life, but as a single mother this is something she cannot completely change. As Lena emphasises, at the end of the day she is a loving mother, doing her best for her daughter, and showing her daughter what working hard is like. Lena knows better than anyone what having a terrible mother is like, and therefore is just the right person to not hesitate in reassuring Samantha.

Deal Breaker

It’s been difficult to watch Alex’s heart break over and over again throughout the last few episodes of Supergirl as she has watched her dreams of having kids with Maggie fall apart. Whilst I am sad that Floriana leaving means that Alex and Maggie must break up (the alternative being that Maggie is killed off), I have actually come to appreciate the way that the writers have constructed Maggie’s departure. On the one hand, it is important that Alex doesn’t give up what she wants just because Maggie doesn’t want the same things in a relationship, because Alex would clearly be miserable without the chance to have kids. On the other hand, I also love that this show has been unflinching in demonstrating Maggie’s lack of desire to have children, and that her feelings aren’t going to change just because she’s with Alex. As someone who has never desired children, I hate that in fiction almost every woman who has stated that she never wants kids changes her mind, usually because of her relationship, perhaps unconsciously implying that in real life this is also the case. So, even though Maggie is leaving, I appreciate that her views are unchanging on the subject, and also that Alex isn’t going to try to ‘change’ her (honestly I would find that incredibly insulting).  

Whilst the previous episodes showed Alex struggling with the idea of never having children, it is in this episode that Alex truly determines what she wants, though she isn’t sure what is going to happen with her relationship. After Alex’s lack of enthusiasm at Girls Night, I wasn’t surprised that the episode ended with her in tears over possibly never having children (on a side note I love that Samantha apologised for assuming that they would have kids, because I think it’s something we all need to stop assuming about women). It is the realisation that she will never experience what Samantha is experiencing with Ruby that changes things for Alex. The heartbreaking aspect of this realisation is that Maggie and Alex aren’t going to break up because they no longer love each other or want to be together, but because of their different attitudes towards having children. It will be interesting to see how the actual break up is handled later on, possibly in the next episode.