Supergirl Drops the Best Video Game Reference in "Back From the Future, Part 2"

Supergirl returned from a brief hiatus on Sunday night, bringing a conclusion to its miniature "Back From the Future" arc. The stretch of episodes saw the return of Winslow Schott (Jeremy Jordan) from the 31st Century, and led to himself and Team Supergirl confronting his past in a major way. As with most Supergirl episodes, a battle ensued -- and it led to one of the most hilarious pop culture references the show has dropped in a while. Spoilers for this week's episode of Supergirl, "Back From the Future, Part 2" below! Only look if you want to know!

Towards the end of the episode, the DEO began to be infiltrated by robots orchestrated by Winslow Schott Sr. (Henry Czerny), which led to a pretty tumultuous fight for Kara Danvers/Supergirl (Melissa Benoist), Alex Danvers (Chyler Leigh), and Brainiac-5 (Jesse Rath). In one moment, Brainy decided to charge ahead and try to fight the bots himself, and passionately screamed "Leeroy Jenkins!" while doing so.

For Supergirl fans who are well-versed in the world of mid-2000s meme culture, that moment was probably a pretty familiar one. "Leeroy Jenkins" originated from a 2005 video of World of Warcraft gameplay, in which a paladin by that name completely missed the strategy that the rest of his group had concocted. Instead, Leeroy simply charged into the battle and yelled "Leeroy Jenkins!", before he and the rest of the group in his party got killed.

The video has gone incredibly viral in the decade-and-a-half since, which has sparked a discourse of exactly how the video originated. It was eventually revealed that Leeroy's voice was courtesy of a man named Ben Schulz, and that the moment might have actually been staged, as a way to poke fun at video game culture. Nevertheless, Leeroy gained a fandom all his own, with Blizzard creating multiple tie-in products inspired by the character.

"People can be mean over the Internet with no repercussions," Schulz said in an interview with Westword. "I wouldn't trade the good stuff for these minor annoyances. The trips, the people I have met, that cancels out the bad stuff."

Supergirl isn't the only current TV show to work Leeroy Jenkins into a fight scene, as Wynonna Earp had its titular character declare the same in a 2018 episode. Still, the moment is a pretty amusing one, which also showcases Brainy's pop culture knowledge in the process.

Supergirl airs Sundays at 9/8c on The CW.