Supergirl Season 3 Premiere Thoughts & Easter Eggs

"Girl of Steel"

Supergirl kicks off its 3rd season with surprisingly one of the show's strongest episodes yet succeeding on mostly everything that would generally make a great Supergirl episode. Yes, there are a few solid action sequences and the visual FX do continue to improve since the first season, but above all else, it's the noteworthy focus on character relationships that gives the show its wide appeal. Even someone like myself who primarily runs up to these types of shows for their geek out worthy comic book adaptations will admit that Supergirl in particular wins me over more with its development of bonds between its core ensemble above the others in the Arrowverse. So, with that said, let's dive into what makes the Season 3 premiere such a big success following what was a spectacular season finale.

I Dream of Krypton

First, let's talk about what I personally believe to be arguably one of the greatest openings to an episode with the superhero TV genre period. We have a visually beautiful dream sequence showing Kara's perfect life together with Mon-El as well as her mother on Krypton. What's absolutely incredible here is the transition from Kara then holding onto her mother in pure serenity to Supergirl silently hovering over the city at night honing in on the sounds of the environment. It's a profoundly quiet moment musically speaking as the only sounds heard are the city's chaotic noises and the howling of the wind carried by the fluttering of her cape. This was such a powerful way to introduce our hero artistically speaking and an impactful follow up to where we left things off dramatically in Season 3.

"Doesn't even stop for autographs anymore" - Maggie about Supergirl

Showing the girl of steel in a meditative-like state through the chaos was our first implication as to where Kara's mind was after Mon-El's exit which the episode would later magnify exponentially. We then get a pretty solid highway chase sequence with Alex and Maggie chasing down our new villain, Bloodsport, eventually needing Supergirl's help once the mercenary pulls out a gatling gun. Just like the previous shot of her flying over the city in complete silence, Supergirl quietly takes him down and saves a family from the fallout without ever acknowledging their appreciation with the usual smile. It is through solid visual storytelling that the opening brilliantly sets up Kara's depression without her ever having to say a word or drastically use body language. It's all done via the absence of traditional character traits.

"The Beginning of The Dark Days"

With a strong opening setting up a much darker tone for the show through the score (the title logo theme definitely felt a bit foreboding) and character presentation, the episode continues to show major changes in our titular hero. Yes, we have explored the popular concept of superheroes struggling to live double lives on the show but never on the magnitude shown here. Not only does Kara shut down her usual outlets for happiness and quirky remarks with her friends and family, but she flat out says that being Kara Danvers was a mistake. This is the first time that we've seen Supergirl acknowledge "Kara" negatively as a separate identity which is another indication that the series is beginning to explore new and profound ideas within its formula.

There's a couple of pretty emotional moments where Kara distances herself from both James and Alex almost completely cutting them off from her life as a "human". The idea that Supergirl is where she feels most effective as opposed to Kara was an interesting new direction to take with the character. What I really liked about her outbursts towards the two is that it showed us a larger than life person person who just lost something significant to their human side leading to the conclusion that there's nothing worth living for with that identity. This may be your typical dual identity dilemma, but I feel it's done on a much larger scale here conceptually speaking. We're not seeing a hero complain about living two lives, but actually wanting to kill off their non-superhero side altogether which is pretty bold for the show to imply.

"I tried to be Kara Danvers for 15 years, but I'm not supposed to be her" - Supergirl

Continuing on with this conflict is one of my favorite scenes between Supergirl and J'onn as he reaches out to her as the 3rd attempt of peacemaking with her identity crisis. I've always loved the way J'onn has been presented as a father-like figure to both Kara and Alex. What's great about this moment however is the way J'onn's approach to her leans more towards his alien background as, unlike the others, he can actually relate to her cosmic scope of issues. Instead of keeping distant from him, Kara asks him about remembering his family while referencing her dreams about Mon-El and her mother. It's an emotional scene as we see the the comparisons between their tragic history, but it's also nice to see J'onn eventually be the one to open her eyes towards the power of Kara over Supergirl.

Be Very Afraid of Reign: 

A Happy & Loving Mother

As a ceremony surrounding the unveiling of a Supergirl statue commences, we start to get more glimpses of a more positively enlightened Kara as Lena Luthor's speech shows the girl of steel's positive influence over the city. Unfortunately, things take a more destructive turn as Bloodsport attacks the city with an unseen torpedo. It's also during the ceremony where we're introduced to our season baddie Reign (although not the villainous introduction that we might've expected). It's interesting to see this character firstly shown to audiences as a seemingly happy and loving mother-like figure with her daughter at the ceremony. I love the idea that the person that we really should be feeling cautious about shows us absolutely no reason to even bat an eye at her.

There's nothing about her that points to any future predicaments...until we get our first tease of her strength. Reign (who isn't named yet) rescues her daughter from fallen debris by, to her surprise, managing to lift a large metal stand off of her. This is a pretty big deal as we've seen several aliens disguised as humans on the show yet her reaction seems to point to her possibly not knowing about her power. This villain introduction alone is refreshing as it goes against the show's traditional prepackaged powerful antagonist with a thirst for domination. You can mark this off as yet another new direction for the season that I really admire. There aren't many shows in this genre that makes you feel something for the season villain as a human before they eventually become whatever monstrous figure down the line.

The moments of destruction, citywide panic, and highly engaging action during the torpedo attack was done very well presenting the intensity of the situation. One of the biggest highlights here for me however comes with Supergirl's eventual victory over the submarine. It was an incredible superhero moment seeing her hone in on Bloodsport's heartbeat, dive down to confront the cloaked submarine, then eventually lift the entire vehicle over the ocean. I also loved the idea of her motivation being driven by a flash of Mon-El telling her to wake up after getting hit by the missile's explosion. That's another thing that the series succeeds at being its grand scaled superhero victories. The score is amazing during her struggle and triumph as well as the shot of her lifting the submarine.

Alex's Dilemma

Throughout the episode, we learn that Kara wasn't the only one having issues in life as Alex is revealed to be down out about the absence of her father at her upcoming wedding. This naturally puts a little heat on the Alex-Maggie relationship with Maggie assuming that the problem lies with Alex's thoughts on the wedding itself. As minor as this side plot may seem in the grand scheme of things, it is great to see relationship drama actually surrounding some form of a legitimate cause as opposed to having something forced or unnecessary highlighted. What I also admire about the bond that's been developing with these two characters is the fact that the majority (if not all) of their conflicts usually lead to an emotionally touching end with the two cheering each other up in some capacity.

One of the things that I've highly praised about the series despite my many nitpicks regarding certain characters or action scenes in the past is the way in which the writers convey rocky relationships. When looking at several other series within this genre, an argument between a couple can literally span the lifetime of 2+ episodes dragging down the pace of the season significantly. However, with Supergirl, the writers seem to understand the reality of couples making peace organically most of the time even if the popular thing to do on television is to prolong drama for the sake of doing so.

What this does is give credence to the couple in question which is why Alex and Maggie's relationship has so far been one of the strongest in the CW DC universe (or Arrowverse as it's officially called). When one says "I love you" to the other, it doesn't feel like a desperate attempt to grab hold of the female teen demographic by having two very attractive people show feelings for each other onscreen. Instead, it comes across as two human beings with a genuinely growing fondness for each other which is a huge accomplishment for any CW series to pull off.

"Stop. Don't cry. If you cry, then I'm gonna cry, and everyone here's gonna know that we actually can cry"

As I've stated earlier, J'onn has developed a father-like figure role towards the Danvers sisters during the course of the show. However, this concept truly gets its spotlight here as Alex's problem revolving around her real father's absence transitions to her asking J'onn to give her away at the wedding. Again, I cannot emphasize enough how well Supergirl executes their character relationships as I couldn't help but get a little shaken up myself seeing the two fight back their own tears. Take it up to great writing and performances to have a scene like this completely avoid feeling random, unnecessary, or forced. In such a dramatically heavy episode, this was both a beautiful and heartfelt moment that perfectly lightened things up.

Overall Thoughts

On the topic of lightening things up, the Season 3 premiere of Supergirl did an outstanding job at setting the stage for a much more darker season while at the same time appropriately inserting moments of levity. During the ending of the episode, we get a heartwarming scene with Kara coming to peace to a degree with Mon-El's fate and her identity as she joins her family in celebration. It's one of my favorite family centered moments on the show and it also calls back to the Season 1 finale where a tender family gathering led to an ominous character reveal. The reveal in question here is Reign seemingly having Kara's dream of seeing Alura yet with a visually nightmarish twist as she turns around in a zombie-like form yelling Kara's name.

What does this mean exactly? I'm not entirely sure, but this is definitely one for the books as far as crazy cliffhangers go. Supergirl opens up its 3rd season with an impressively delivered emotional joyride of an episode with a satisfying helping of geek out worthy attributes and appropriate quirkiness. If this is any indication as to what we'll be getting for the rest of the season, then, as surprising as this may sound, upcoming comic book shows will have quite a high bar of quality to measure up to. I'm happy to say that I'm super excited to see where the series go now that I have a legitimately fascinating season villain and the continued ensemble of beloved characters to look forward to.

Bonus Thoughts

Easter Eggs

1. Morgan Edge: Our New Corporate Douche Villain

What would Supergirl be without its lingering human threat to balance its cosmic antagonists? We're introduced to Morgan who was not only in allegiance with Bloodsport, but was attempting to buy out CATCO in order to exploit its editorial staff for his agenda. From that description alone, this may just be the first engaging human threat on the show for me. I also like the idea of him being Lena's nemesis giving her a larger role on the show.

2. Lena Buys CATCO

With Morgan's attempts to take over CATCO, Lena makes a desperate purchase of the company in order to fend him off. It's a nice new direction for the character as it puts her in the spotlight for Kara's story a little bit more. It also adds a new layer to her possibly making questionable decisions in the future giving the L Corp name its expected villainous twang. We do hear her reference Lex by stating how crazy it must seem seeing a "Luthor praising a Kryptonian" during her speech.

3. The Dream Sequence

Smallville fans must've freaked out and rejoiced at the Erica Durance (who played Lois Lane on Smallville) appearance as Alura Zor-El during the premiere's dream sequence. It's great to see more Smallville cast members show up, but what I really liked about this scene was the scenery of what appeared to be Saturn beautifully looming in the background over a majestic looking valley. Is this a rare look at Krypton's outdoor settings?

4. Press Secretary Cat Grant

We see Cat Grant making brief appearances on the news as the press secretary of the White House (which isn't too crazy to buy into considering our actual current president). We also get a quick mention of Snapper Carr who I'm assuming won't show up this season but will bet brief name drops at CATCO.

5. The Current State of National City

During the scene at CATCO with Jimmy getting the scoop around the city with his staff, we learn that crime went down 60% in the past 6 months. There'a also a nice shot of Supergirl in the background headlining the news with her heroism. What's great about this scene is how CATCO and James's new position is utilized to recap what has happened in between the Daximite invasion and now. That's 6 months of information brilliantly compacted into one simple line of dialogue and background imagery. Summary: Supergirl has been seriously kicking butt.

6. Robert Dubois: Bloodsport

During Winn's intel briefing on Bloodsport, we learn that he was ex-military and was the man behind a bombing attack on city hall years back. As far as villains of the week go, Bloodsport isn't exactly a memorable entry, but it is nice to have a minor human antagonist that perfectly plays out as a big side obstacle for our heroes to handle while dealing with other matters. I'm also curious to learn about his connection to Morgan.

7. The Doomsday Effect?

A mysterious alien pod revealed underground reminds me of Doomsday's awakening on Earth from the animated DC film, Superman: Doomsday. Now, how does this play out with Reign's character is questionable or whether or not this has any relation to her whatsoever is a mystery. What I'm hoping is that our season villain isn't just a coincidental mistake of events. Well, unless it's done in a believable enough way of course.

8. Winn: The Perfection of Inserting Levity

With such a darkly toned episode, it's great to see the writers still find ways to insert levity in places where it works. This mostly centers around the character of Winn whose quirky and funny remarks are always welcomed. His hilarious reaction to Kara using his keyboard, commentary on Alex's serious demeanor, and randomly tossed in statement during Alex and Maggie's make up were the comedic highlights of the episode. 

9. General Lane's Secrets

Although very briefly focused on, the alien ship that was firing at Supergirl during the warehouse scene is revealed to be a Daximite ship that was secretely under General Lane's supervision. With J'onn finding out a bit too close to the chest time-wise, it does bring forth the question as to what other mysterious alien relics might we find under the general's base of operations. This is one of those future plot point seeds being planted that I usually point out in my Gotham reviews. It's cool to see Supergirl potentially adopt this idea.

10. Underwater Battles

Something that we've rarely, if not ever, seen on the show is Supergirl having underwater battles as her character typically belongs in the sky or anywhere else above ground. What this underwater battle shows is that we possibly might be see our hero placed in new and refreshing situations. I also want to point out that the shots of her underwater were pretty impressive overall considering the show's constantly improving production value.

11. Supergirl's Statue

It's nice to see Supergirl finally get a visual embodiment of National City's appreciation for her countless acts of heroisms. This concept was previously shown on Arrow with the Laurel Lance Black Canary statue.

12. A Classic Superhero Celebration Ceremony

One of the highlights of the episode was getting to see National City's unveiling of the Girl of Steel statue as it played out as sort of a superhero holiday. This concept is actually pretty popular within the comic book genre as other heroes have been given similiar attention with imagery surrounding the character's emblem. The Flash series actually explored this ironically during its Season 2 premiere calling it "Flash Day". Both incidents lead to a minor side villain's attack.

Favorite Shots

Episode Rating: 9/10