Supergirl S3 Ep. 12 Quick Thoughts & Easter Eggs

"For Good"

This week's episode of Supergirl was a pretty solid follow up to the previously set up Lena Luthor arc back in Episode 5. It's interesting seeing this character evolve over the course of the series despite how uninvested I originally was when she first debuted. Without diving into the episode too much, I do like the fact that we get to see her utilize her "Luthor smarts" so to speak to take down Morgan Edge (who has essentially been Lena's villain for this season). The confrontation with her mother both prior and during the final action scene was a nice base in setting up just what type of character Lena aspires to be in the grand scheme of things.

Will she utilize her brother's technology or perhaps develop her own to help the DEO fight off alien threats in the future? We've seen this during the Daximite invasion in Season 2, so it's not completely out of the question. There's the obvious lingering question left intentionally dangling in front of us now which is "What's in store for Lena Luthor now that she's fully and positively embraced her Luthor roots?". It's a question that I believe will have some intriguingly surprising answers in the near future. There's also her relationship with Jimmy which thankfully isn't thrown into our faces in an annoyingly constant manner, and again, I do wonder how her newfound epiphany will affect everything going forward. A Guardian suit upgrade via Lexo suit features? Probably not, but it is a cool thought.

Friends till the end right? Right? Now, go watch my daughter while I kill some fools

So, aside from the entertaining enough Morgan Edge/Lena "who shot first?" conflict (although I prefer the more cosmic stories of the Supergirl mythos), we have Sam's ongoing identity crisis. Alright, during the last episode, I was sure that we'd get the big Reign reveal here where Alex and the DEO finds something in Sam's body that connects her. Apparently, I was wrong and the writers decided to stretch out the lead up just a bit longer which is fine I suppose. However, there is the troubling issue about how long do you keep this identity situation a secret. The Flash suffered in the past from the whole villain secret identity trope, so I'm hoping that Supergirl doesn't undergo a similiar issue. With Edge out of the way for now, there should be a high tailing pace in regards to the world killer story. 

No more filler or stagnant storytelling from this point forward.

Overall, with the exception of a twinkle of impatience starting to come down on myself after watching this episode in regards to Sam's character, I'd say this was a pretty solid episode. You have a surprising and badass looking comic book villain of the week in the form of the Lexo suit, a satisfyingly engaging Lena story, and your series' traditional emotionally touching character discussion scenes. Yes, the Sam and Ruby angle is starting to show its degrading shelf life as a central plot point in the season, but hopefully, we're gearing up towards a major pay off with the world killers arriving.

Speaking of which, I'm still a bit disappointed in the aesthetic choice for the world killers. Are we seriously leading up to black suit wearing humanoids as our planetary dominating cosmic experiments? Let's hope that the producers are at least saving up something visually spectacular for the finale and are successfully keeping things under wraps. Remember, this is the same series that gave us mostly solid looking alien creatures almost on a weekly basis. Let's not take the safe route here where potentially standout season villains are concerned and actually do something creative with these colorful characters.

Bonus Thoughts
Easter Eggs

1. Superman's Whereabouts?

While on the hunt for Reign and the world killers, Wynn states that the only Kryptonian signatures appearing are that of Kara and her cousin, Superman. There's a funny recurring joke surrounding Wynn's fanboy reactions whenever Superman is concerned that is hilariously injected here. However, it does pose a glaring issue. Where's Superman? If there's Kryptonian enemies threatening the planet, wouldn't the Man of Steel show up?

2. General Zod Returns...Eventually

Aside from Superman getting a namedrop, we also have Zod who Mon-El claims to be an enemy of the Legion in the future. How does General Zod get resurrected? Will we see this take place or alluded to in the present day during Supergirl's timeline? We've seen Zod during Superman's silver Kryptonite hallucinations, so it's not as if he hasn't been casted. How will Kal-El react to his? So many questions that will probably never get answered. For crying out loud, we know that Superman fights Reverse Flash at some point. Let that soak in.

3. Lexo Suit

Despite not being the biggest fan of the Lillian character simply because I feel that she hardly brings anything compelling for the villain roster except for her connection to Lex, we do get to see something incredible through her. The Lexo suit is something that I wasn't entirely sure we'd ever get to see even though it's been referenced in the past. The suit looks incredible here both design-wise and CGI-wise. Definitely a step up from Alex's kryptonite battle suit. Will we see this armor again in the future perhaps worn by someone more...I don't know...badass?

4. Kara Saves Lena

In an easily but not to be brushed off scene, Kara risks her secret identity of being Supergirl by desperately flying off with a poisoned Lena to the DEO. Is this setting up the idea that Lena will find out that her best friend is the girl of steel sooner than we think? Also, did no one else see this in National City?

5. Guardian's Back! Yay?

It's easy to forget that Supergirl has its very own masked vigilante patrolling the streets. Well, that's probably due to the fact that we hardly see him considering James' role at CATCO. This makes me wonder if the Guardian character will simply be tossed in for mini plot convenient appearances in the future or will the series take him serious again. I actually like this character, but that's just me.

6. Vision of The World Killers

During the beginning of the episode, Kara wakes up from a nightmarish apocalyptic vision showing the world killers' potential destruction of the planet. It's a visually impressive sequence artistically speaking, but unfortunately, it reminded me just how much I dislike the lackluster design of the world killers. I've ranted about this already, but seriously, considering the show's gallery of alien creatures, can we not have a more imaginitive adaptation from the comics?

Episode Rating: 8/10