‘Supergirl’: How “The Faithful” Connects To The Show’s Pilot

Supergirl debuted a new episode tonight, and it contained a pretty big callback to the show’s beginnings.

Spoilers for tonight’s episode of Supergirl, ‘The Faithful’, below.

The episode began by establishing the origins of Thomas Coville (Chad Lowe), a leader of a cult called the Children of Rao. Coville was shown on an airplane, conversing with someone seated near him. His rather snarky conversation was soon interrupted, however, by the plane malfunctioning.

Coville and the other passengers panicked as the plane’s engines failed, until the plane ultimately hit the water. Suddenly, Alex Danvers (Chyler Leigh) stood up from her seat and began comforting the other passengers. Coville looked out the window and saw a woman dressed in black, standing on the plane wing.

As some Supergirl fans will remember, this scene played out from a different angle in the show’s pilot episode. It was the first instance of Kara publicly using her powers in National City, as she saved the plane after realizing that Alex was on board.

As this episode indicates, some of the passengers on the plane took the event a little differently. Coville took the opportunity to form the Supergirl-focused religion, with some very dangerous qualifications to get in.

Supergirl airs Mondays at 8/7c on The CW.