In the ‘Supergirl’ recap, Kara finds out there’s a cult worshipping her work as Supergirl, Samantha draws nearer to her destiny and Alex realizes an awful truth…
By Damon Martin — Editor/Lead Writer
Part of the concept behind ‘Batman V. Superman: Dawn of Justice’ was that after Superman revealed himself to Earth that there were hordes of people who began worshipping him as some kind of deity.
Now the inherent danger with that also comes the opposite reaction, which is what spurred on Batman to tear down the false god by proving that Superman wasn’t a savior but rather a charlatan. Of course there are scores of other problems with that movie but the basic concept was the hero worship heaped on Superman after he helped to save the world.
In the latest episode of ‘Supergirl’, Kara finds out that her heroic acts have inspired one particular follower to build an entire religion around worshipping her along with the teachings of her home planet of Krypton and their god Rao.
Considering the amount of lives that Supergirl has touched in National City, it was seemingly only a matter of time before somebody perverted her acts of kindness into some sort of cult mentality and that’s exactly what unfolded this week.
Meanwhile, Samantha Arias continues to evolve towards the eventual revelation that she is an alien known as a Worldkiller and will be opposing Supergirl at some point this season as the powerful ‘Reign’. And finally, Alex faces the harsh reality that there is a chasm in her relationship with Maggie that may cause the end of their relationship.
With that said, let’s recap the latest episode of ‘Supergirl’ titled ‘The Faithful’…
Cult of Personality
The episode begins with a flight coming into National City and a rather inebriated passenger telling another passenger about how his life fell apart just recently when he discovered that his wife was cheating on him and the infidelity cost him his family. It’s an out of context rant until the plane he’s on starts vibrating rather violently until two engines explode and it’s clear they are going down.
A few moments later, the plane lands safely in the National City harbor and agent Alex Danvers stands up from her seat a few rows in front of this passenger and announces that everything will be OK. The man then looks out the window and sees the woman responsible for saving his life — it’s Kara Danvers on the day she decided to become Supergirl when she rescued a plane to help prevent her sister’s death.
Fast forward two years later, Supergirl has been saving lives for quite some time now and National City is rather thankful for her arrival. Right now, however, Kara is palling around with her best friend and boss Lena Luthor as they pay a visit to her old office at L Corp and her new CFO Samantha Arias.
Samantha is in the middle of a big merger and struggling to balance work life with home life as she’s been ignoring her daughter Ruby a lot lately trying to get work done. At her soccer game earlier that day, Samantha was fielding calls while trying to root on her daughter when a stranger handed her a pamphlet for a meeting taking place later that night and how she should really consider attending.
When Kara spots this pamphlet on Samantha’s desk, she recognizes the symbol on the front immediately — it’s the sign of Rao, the Kryptonian god she grew up worshipping alongside her family. Kara takes the pamphlet to do some further investigating after drawing in James and Winn, who follow her to this meeting.
When they arrive, the three are shocked to find an entire congregation devoted to worshipping Supergirl as their savior while praying to the Kryptonian god named Rao. The man leading the proceedings is Thomas Coville, the same person who was on that plane two years ago when Supergirl became Supergirl.
As much as it creeps out Kara that an entire religion is being built around her image, she’s even more disturbed that Coville seems to be misinterpreting the teachings of Rao for his own agenda. To make matters worse, Supergirl gets called into action the next day to rescue a man on top of a burning building but when she takes him back to the ground, he’s ecstatic to be alive but only because she saved him.
It turns out this guy set the fire himself with faith that Supergirl would save him so he could be indoctrinated into this hero worshipping cult.
Unfortunately when Kara pays Coville a visit, he gets the better of the exchange when he sees right through her glasses and calls her Supergirl by name. He says he’ll never forget the eyes of the person who saved him, which is why he knew she was Supergirl the minute she walked into the building.
Coville promises not to reveal her true identity but Supergirl’s best attempts to get through to him to stop misleading his followers isn’t working. She then orders him to stop because she is a god after all, but Coville remains devoted as ever and even shows her a Kryptonian artifact where he got the idea to follow Rao’s teachings in the first place.
Supergirl has no answers, especially considering the blind faith this man and his followers are showing her.
Hero Worship
Back at CatCo., Kara is trying to figure out a way to break through to Coville when she has a heart-to-heart with James. Both of them grew up following religious figures but then he explains how he first met Superman back in Metropolis.
It turns out James was rescued by Superman after falling off a crane trying to get the perfect shot for the Daily Planet. When he opened his eyes and saw Superman carrying him to safety, it felt like his prayers had been answered. James then explains to Kara that people can see what she does and what Superman does to save the world. That’s tangible evidence that miracles do exist, which is why it’s so easy to see them as deities.
James then accidentally turns on the Kryptonian artifact that she took from Coville that displays a hologram and she figures out what’s been going on.
It seems Krypton’s scientists used to send out probes all over the universe to try and reach other civilizations. In those pods, Krypton’s leadership would include books, music and even teachings about their god Rao, which is what Coville has been studying this entire time.
Unfortunately there’s also some bad news because the probe’s power source has corrupted and is now scheduled to self-destruct in a matter of hours. To add onto the disaster, Coville has taken the probe with him to a hockey game along with all of his followers, convinced that Supergirl will show up to save the day and he’ll get even more conversions after the entire arena is rescued.
Supergirl rushes to the arena where Coville rejoices because his plan is coming to fruition. Unfortunately, Supergirl won’t be able to save anybody after she tumbles over in pain after getting too close to the probe. It seems that Kryptonian scientists also included soil samples on these probes, which means there’s a canister of Kryptonite radiating from this pod.
Coville continues to drone on and on about how Supergirl will save them and this is just another test of their faith, but she cuts her hand open (thanks to the weakened state from the Kryptonite) and then shows it to the congregation to prove she’s no god. They all flee the arena but the probe is still going to blow up and there are 15,000 people watching hockey upstairs.
Alex arrives and they convince Coville to turn off the probe, but his attempts fail and the meltdown is drawing near. Supergirl comes with an alternative plan as she burns a giant hole in the floor as Alex and Coville push the probe in. As it tumbles down the hole, the probe explodes but no one is harmed and Supergirl once again saves the day.
Reach Out and Touch Faith
Kara goes to visit Coville in jail after he’s been arrested and asks if he’ll keep her secret or plans on telling the world her true identity. Coville says he honestly can’t even remember what she said her name was when she introduced herself because he knows she’s truly not that person. Instead, Coville suggests that she’s really Supergirl and Kara Danvers is the act she puts on everyday in public.
Corville then tells Supergirl that when she first rescued him, her eyes were clear and focused on the task at hand. Now he’s seeing her judgment clouded by pain and loss and he’s going to pray for her to gain the clarity she needs to realize she’s more Supergirl than Kara Danvers. It’s a creepy suggestion but then again Corville may not be entirely wrong considering what Kara has been suffering through lately with the loss of Mon-El.
Following a hard day’s work, Kara, Alex and Lena go to the local school talent show where they join Samantha, who is awaiting a performance from her daughter Ruby.
The school puts on a Supergirl themed song — which Alex notes proves that they aren’t worshipping her as much as being inspired by her — and then Ruby performs “Pure Imagination” from Willy Wonka as a solo. It’s a touching performance but one that makes Alex run out of the theater in tears.
Kara runs after her and Alex admits that she wants children and Maggie doesn’t and that might be a deal breaker for their relationship. Alex is torn between the woman she loves and the family she’s always wanted and she’s not sure how this will play out.
In the end, Kara goes home and reminds herself of the teachings she once learned from her mother about Rao as she says a prayer for the first time in forever. Alex lays in bed with Maggie, unclear about their future together. Coville sits alone in his cell, still praying to the god of Supergirl.
And finally Samantha Arias is ready to unwind with a hot bath when she’s stunned to look in the mirror and see her face and body covered in some sort of weird Kryptonian scripture. A moment later a strange cloaked figure, switching between human and demonic, tells her that an awakening is coming and soon she will reign.
Ruby comes into the bathroom and wakes her mother up from this strange trance but it’s rather obvious that Samantha’s transformation has already begun.
That will only evolve further after we see a flashback to 22 hours earlier when Supergirl dumped that Kryptonian probe down into the ground where it exploded. It seems the explosion jarred that rogue ship we saw back in the premiere — the one that was accidentally uncovered by the torpedoes being fired at the shore —and now power has been activated. In fact, a hand reaches up and touches the glass in one of the sleep pods in the ship.
It appears we are headed for another Kryptonian being revealed on Earth but this one’s purpose isn’t to preserve life. The person from this ship will want to wake up Reign and make sure everybody on Earth worships her instead.
‘Supergirl’ returns with a brand new episode next Monday night at 8pm ET on the CW
