TELEVISION EPISODE REVIEW: Supergirl S3 Ep19 (The Fanatical)

A young girl escapes a Kryptonian cult, but her captors aren’t so willing to let her go.

Supergirl – “The Fanatical”, Season 3, Episode 19
Airdate: May 21, 2018
Writers: Paula Yoo and Eric Carrasco
Production Company: Berlanti Productions / Warner Bros. Television

What You Should Know:

Supergirl and team were able to capture Reign and are currently holding her at L-Corp in the hopes of finding a cure for her alter ego, Samantha Arias. Meanwhile, the fanatical cultist Thomas Coville manages to brainwash more people into believing in a long lost Kryptonian myth in which the world is purged of unbelievers by vengeful god-like beings.

What You’ll Find Out (Spoilers):

Lena Luthor and the DEO team use the advanced technology owned by L-Corp to run a series of tests on Reign. She’s held in a sedate state by the use of Lena’s synthetic Kryptonite. Despite being unable to get free from her restraints, Reign repeatedly taunts Supergirl and the others, telling them that she will take pleasure in killing them once she’s free.

Despite their efforts, each attempt to purge the Reign persona from Sam’s body fails. Lena refuses to give up though, saying that she will find a cure but that time is their worst enemy.

While at Catco, a girl named Tanya asks to see James Olsen. She explains that she was once a member of Thomas Coville’s cult, but that she escaped. She tells James and Kara (Supergirl’s alter ego) that she is a language expert and that as a cult member, she helped the group decipher much of the Kryptonian language found within the Worldkiller’s books. It was only when she started translating more of the darker aspects of the Kryptonian religion that she realized that the cult was planning to do something terrible. She stole the book from the cult and made her way to James, hoping that he can give the book to Supergirl. She tells them that she thinks the cult is planning to create a Kryptonian bomb. Kara tells Tanya that she is a friend of Supergirl too and that she will get the book to her. Meanwhile, James tells Tanya to stay at Catco, where it’s safe.

Supergirl takes the Kryptonian book to L-Corp and shows it to Lena and the DEO team. Looking through it, they discover that one of the passages in the book just may give them an opportunity to finally free Sam of the Reign persona. Before going off on their individual assignments, Supergirl pulls Lena aside and tells her that she’s sorry for putting James up to spying on her and that she hopes she can forgive her and be friends. Lena tells Supergirl that they aren’t friends. She explains that the only reason why she’s working with her is to try to save Sam. She explains that she already has real friends who don’t keep secrets. This stings Supergirl, knowing that one of the friends she is referring to is her alter ego, Kara Danvers. This makes Supergirl contemplate telling Lena that Kara and Supergirl are one in the same.

Back at Catco, James is surprised to see Olivia, one of Thomas Coville’s former cult members. She tells him that she’s looking for Tanya and that she’s in grave danger. James tells her that Tanya is alright, but realizes that she’s not when he hears Tanya yell out for help. Turning, he sees that several cult members have grabbed Tanya and are attempting to take her away. Before he can do anything, Olivia reveals that she has a gun and tells James not to move. She fires several shots into the air, showing that she means business. Once they leave, James goes into the private company elevator and scans his thumbprint. Once the scan is approved, a secret door opens up to reveal his Guardian uniform.

Now dressed as Guardian, James chases the cult members holding Tanya to a warehouse. He manages to take out a few of Tanya’s captors and attempts to rationalize with Olivia to let Tanya go. Olivia objects and fires a round directly into Guardian’s face mask. The gunshot doesn’t hurt James, but it does manage to break the mask in two. Realizing that his mask is now on the ground and that his secret ID is exposed, a swarm of police officers invades the warehouse. They tell James to put his hands into the air. When Tanya tells them that they have the wrong person, that James tried to help save her and that they should focus their attention on the cult members instead, the police don’t listen. They insist James put his hands up, as the cult members run off and escape arrest. When James sees this happen, he releases a smoke bomb and takes Tanya to safety. Tanya is surprised to see that James is really Guardian, and lets him know that Guardian is one of her heroes, now more than ever.

Back at the DEO, Winn receives a message from the cultists explaining that if they don’t turn over Tanya by the end of the day that they will release a warehouse surveillance video showing that James Olsen is really Guardian. James tells the DEO team that he plans to have a press conference before that can happen, in which he outs himself as Guardian. Supergirl and team tell him to give them some time to find the cultists before he does anything rash.

Seeing how distraught he is, Lena pulls James aside and asks him what else is wrong. James explains that the city holds a respect for Guardian because he is faceless. He tells her that once the world realizes that Guardian is black, that they’ll turn against him. James then tells her a story of when he was young and police insisted that he was trespassing on hotel property. He explained that he and his family were staying at the hotel, but that they still treated him like a criminal until his mother stepped in. That past experience and the experience at the warehouse has reaffirmed the fact that things have not changed when it comes to race. Heartbroken, Lena tells James that she’s sorry that he had to experience racial hatred, and that no one deserves that. She kisses him, letting him know that she will stand by his side.

Still watching over Sam’s daughter Ruby while Lena and the DEO continue to find a cure, Alex is having a hard time getting Ruby to come out of her depression. She arranges for an outing at a local amusement park with her, Ruby, J’onn and J’onn’s father M’yrnn. Things don’t start out well as Ruby argues with Alex that she wants to go back home and M’yrnn has a mental break down in which he destroys a game at the park’s arcade. Ruby eventually talks to M’yrnn to see if he’s okay. M’yrnn tells her that things are tough for him, but knowing that he still has some of his memories and J’onn at his side, that things are not all bad. Taking his words to heart, Ruby apologizes to Alex and finally breaks out of her shell of depression.

Placing a tracker on Tanya, the DEO team arrange for Mon-El to go undercover with Tanya as she seemingly turns herself into the cultists with the book. After taking in Tanya and Mon-El, they manage to trace the location of the cultist base. Mon-El watches what is happening, biding his time to learn exactly what the cultists have planned before he reveals his hand. Once he learns that it isn’t a bomb, but a new Worldkiller that they plan to create, Mon-El changes into his Legion uniform and attacks the cultists in earnest. Seeing she has little time, Olivia quickly follows Tanya’s translation of the Kryptonian text to finalize the Worldkiller ritual. Holding the Worldkiller totem, Olivia is empowered with abilities similar to Reign.

Olivia uses her powers to subdue Mon-El. When Supergirl arrives, they initially battle. She soon realizes though that brute strength won’t win over Olivia to the truth. Instead, Supergirl begins rationalizing with Olivia to help her see that what she’s doing is wrong. When Olivia finally comes to her senses, she tries to release the totem, but it won’t budge from her hand. Supergirl uses her heat vision to destroy the totem, then her cooling breath to help stop the burning from hurting Olivia’s hand.

Returning to L-Corp., the Supergirl team are relieved to hear from Winn and Lena that they’ve managed to find a cure for Sam. They explain that they need a stone similar to the totem the cultists used, but that it’s ultra rare. Scanning space, they discover that there is a substance like it, but that it’s 3 light years away. Mon-El and Supergirl arrange to use J’onn’s spacecraft to retrieve the substance but are surprised to see that Reign has escaped from her bondage.

Lena explains that Reign must somehow be becoming resistant to the effects of the Kryptonite. She estimates that they only have a couple of days before she is strong enough to break out of her cell. Supergirl says that she will double their efforts, while in another part of town Thomas Coville reveals that his plans have only just started.

What Does This Mean for the Future?

It’s now a race for Supergirl to find the material needed to erase Reign’s presence from Sam’s body. But if she’ll manage to do that before Reign is strong enough to break out of her prison is the real question.

Also up in the air is Supergirl’s strained friendship with Lena. The young Luthor has made it clear that Supergirl is no friend of hers, but what will that mean once Lena discovers Supergirl’s secret identity and that one of her closest friends has been lying to her from the get-go?

Ruby has now expressed a concern that she too will develop an evil super persona, similar to her mother. Alex honestly tells her that she doesn’t know if it will happen or not, but that no matter what, she will be there for her.

Rating: 7/10
Final Thought: This was a decent episode. There was a lot of exposition of various relationships: Supergirl and Mon-El, Supergirl and Lena, Kara and Lena, Lena and James, James’ outlook on Guardian… Not all aspects have produced answers, but it’s nice to be able to walk through each one and come to a goal for each situation along with the show writers.

One thing that bugged me though was the Olivia character and something I couldn’t exactly put my finger on. Though the acting was a bit tepid, something was making me continue to watch that character with interest. It was only after Googling the actress that I had an a-ha moment. The actress who played Olivia is named Sofia Vassilieva. Turns out, she played the oldest daughter in the TV series Medium. While I loved her character in that series, in Supergirl… not so much. The character just isn’t fleshed out enough to really invest in, so the personal one-on-one between her and Supergirl at the end of the episode just seemed a bit lost on me. That said, I’m still rooting for you Sofia!