Supergirl season 3, episode 4 review: The Faithful
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Reviewing Monday’s episode of Supergirl.
Episode 4 of Supergirl, The Faithful, begins with the introduction of Thomas Coville. In a flashback to the pilot episode of Supergirl, Coville is a passenger on the flight that Supergirl saves from crashing. This leads him to start a church praising Supergirl. Apparently in order to be a part of this religion, you would have to have been saved by Supergirl, which is why a mysterious woman hands a pamphlet to Sam saying “Ruby was chosen”.
At L-Corp, Lena and Kara visit Sam to invite her to girl’s night when Kara notices the pamphlet on the desk. She is immediately suspicious when she recognizes the symbol of Rao, the Kryptonian god, and decides to attend the meeting with Winn and James. What she sees at the “cult of Supergirl” completely freaks Kara out.
Once Coville approaches the podium, everyone takes their seats. He begins to recite the words of Rao and praises Supergirl as the savior. A woman named Olivia joins Coville at the podium and tells her story of the moment when she lost all hope and Supergirl saved her after falling off a building. Kara looks around the room from her seat and whispers to Winn and James “I remember saving them all”.
Kara returns to Coville’s church to speak to him alone as a reporter. Angry about how he has twisted Rao’s words, Kara wears her emotions on her face while investigating Coville. No matter how hard she tries to convince him to stop putting people in danger, it’s not enough as Coville recognizes Kara from that night the plane crashed and believes that Supergirl is testing him. As a last resort, Kara removes her glasses and speaks to Coville as Supergirl, “if I am a god, do as I say”, before taking a Kryptonian artifact and storming off.
After a heartfelt conversation with James about religion, Kara realizes how Coville knows so much about Rao. When she asks Winn to scan for Kryptonian probs, it becomes very clear what Coville plans on doing in the name of faith. Supergirl and Alex must hurry to the National City hockey stadium before the probe blows up potentially taking thousands of people with it. Supergirl finds Coville and his followers in the basement of the stadium, but she grows powerless against the probe. As her veins and eyes pulse electric green, and she begins to fall to her knees, a quick x-ray vision confirms that there is Kryptonite inside the probe.
The followers flee the scene for their lives and Coville’s faith is chattering as the time bomb ticks away. Luckily Alex makes it in time to dispose of the Kryptonite, allowing Supergirl to use her heat vision to melt a hole in the ground to the center of the Earth. Alex and Coville work together to push the probe into the hole. The explosion from the probe causes a small rumble that shakes awake a dormant Kryptonian ship off the coast of the waterfront from the first episode of season 3.
Meanwhile, Sam continues to juggle her mom duties and work. When she feels like she’s failing as a mother to Ruby, Lena is there to tell her she’s not the worst mother she knows. Sam’s relationships with Kara, Lena, and Alex have evolved to where they are now considered Ruby’s aunts. That’s fast! However, I feel that it’s vital for the complexity of Rein’s story.
The episode ends with Alex breaking down to Kara about wanting to be a mom and will her love for Maggie be enough for her to let go of her dream of being a mom. Sam gets some scary visions as she prepares for a bath later that night. Her skin is covered in symbols and a hooded woman with a demonic face appears. By the way, I would not suggest watching this scene in the dark. Sam is quivering helplessly, but the visions stop when Ruby comes into the bathroom to ask if she’s okay.
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The criticism when it comes to Supergirl is that with god-like powers, there’s never any risk of her dying. What I liked about this episode, and feel that the writers of the show did an amazing job exploring, is maybe the risk to Supergirl isn’t physical but emotional, or in the case of this episode, spiritual. This aspect of emotional risk is more relatable to the audience, as we face it everyday and find ourselves constantly questioning ourselves and our faith. If the writers of Supergirl continue to explore these moral questions, I think they might find their own show worshipers. The Faithful did very well and deserves a 4 out of 5.