Supergirl season 3, episode 19 recap: Coville’s followers

Supergirl returns with “The Fanatical,” which brings back some of Thomas Coville’s followers. Check out our recap.

“Home by midnight, dad.”

Kara explains away why she can’t tell Lena that she’s Supergirl when she goes to visit James. This is right after Supergirl and Lena have a brief conversation about Lena’s new containment for Reign that makes it hurt when Kryptonians try to use x-ray vision.

Supergirl now has the dilemma of deciding whether or not she wants to explain to Lena why she had Guardian go to her lab. I understand that Lena knowing that Kara is Supergirl could put her in danger, but isn’t that the same for everyone else on the show? They might not be at Luthor status, but many of them are still important. She does end up apologizing to Lena, who says that the two of them don’t have a friendship.

Alex is taking care of Ruby now and Ruby isn’t up for much after finding out that her mom is Reign. It’s no surprise since that’s a huge thing to learn for a teenager. Alex is doing everything she can, which includes reading books on how to help Ruby through it. Alex, J’onn, M’yrnn and Ruby make a trip to the arcade, which doesn’t go well for Ruby or M’yrnn at first. Later, M’yrnn tells Ruby that he’s from Mars and tells her a bit about it.

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One of the other main storylines in this episode revolves around Thomas Coville. A girl named Tanya brings Coville’s journal to James at CatCo in hopes that he’ll give it to Supergirl. She also inadvertently learns that James in Guardian when he takes a bullet to the head and his mask flies off. This storyline has an added element to it, too, since Olivia and her followers know his real identity now. They’re threatening to expose him and after having the cops point their guns at him, that doesn’t bode well for him.

Back at the DEO, Lena finds out that what disintegrated a person was actually a reaction to heavy metal that came from Krypton. They can now use the metal and reverse it to cure Sam. James decides to hold a press conference and drops Tanya off at the DEO for her safety. He has a private conversation with Lena where we learn that cops first put handcuffs on him when he was 7. It’s an emotional moment for him and it’s one that really resonates.

Tanya wants to give herself up so that James won’t be outed as the Guardian. Tanya turns herself over and Mon-El hops in the van to join them. However, Olivia gets hold of the stone and has the powers of a Worldkiller in her hand. Supergirl is able to talk her down before things get too far out of hand.

As the storylines start to wrap up, James tells Kara how much she appreciates what she does to keep the ones she cares about safe. He also wants to come out as Guardian still, but on his own terms. Ruby apologizes to Alex for being rude to her, but everything she was going through was perfectly understandable and no apology was really needed. Ever since Alex told Maggie that she wanted kids, we get to see her shine with Ruby, even though she isn’t her own kid.

Winn is having fun geeking out over science with Lena this episode, which is wonderful. However, it’s quickly interrupted by Reign breaking free of her chains as she becomes immune to kryptonite.

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Thomas Coville is clearly going to be back again as he made an appearance in the final scene. It’ll be interesting to see what he’s up to next because it’s been nothing good for Supergirl every time he pops up.

This episode packs a lot into it between the progress Alex makes with Ruby (more like M’yrnn helps her make progress, actually), James dealing with being a black vigilante and how people would react to that and trying to stop Olivia and her followers from creating another Worldkiller. Plus, you have Supergirl trying to repair things with Lena, which doesn’t pan out just yet. Hopefully that’s something they’ll revisit again before the season is over. I’ll just continue to be annoyed that Lena doesn’t know Kara is Supergirl, even when she’s the smartest person on the show.

Supergirl airs Monday nights on The CW.