This week Supergirl season 3 delivered a fun episode featuring the delightfully trashy guest star Chad Lowe. Lowe was the absolute perfect person to play Thomas Coville, the leader of a cult that worships Supergirl.
Coville went off the rails and decided to plant a bomb in the city. His line of thinking was that Supergirl would save everyone, creating a whole city of believers. I enjoyed how cooky and over-the-top this was. The cult angle gave this episode a nice distinctive feel while still hitting the Supergirl episode formula. It was a good in to explore questions Kara Danvers is generally too humble to face about what she is in relation to humans.
This episode very abruptly presented a close friendship between Kara, Alex Danvers, Maggie Sawyer, Lena Luthor and Samantha Arias. I would’ve liked the series to develop the group becoming friends a little slower. But, this is the kind of thing Supergirl can get away with. Sweet friendships are part of the appeal. Seeing them all treat Samantha like an old friend did warm my heart, as unearned as it was.
Personally, I think Samantha’s plots have been a bit repetitive. They continually hit the note of her balancing work with mothering instead of answering burning questions about her. I did enjoy that in this episode Lena pointed out that she is very far from being a negligent mother. But, it seems like next week they’ll start really diving into her story.
Meanwhile, Alex continued to feel conflicted about Maggie’s disinterest in having children. This whole plot just feels rushed. The engagement plot already felt hurried. But, at least it was sweet and watchable. But, forcing a conflict that could’ve been avoided if the relationship had been more fleshed out and well-paced is annoying.
This episode also had a weirdly long scene where Samantha’s daughter Ruby Arias sang “Pure Imagination.” Other than reminding Alex how baby crazy she is, it didn’t fit the rest of the episode at all.