Supergirl‘s newest villain took a major step in tonight’s episode, but could she have a completely different endgame?
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Spoilers for tonight’s episode of Supergirl, “Wake Up”, below.
Tonight’s episode followed Samantha (Odette Annable) as she began to realize the truth about her newfound superpowers. As she discovered, she’s actually a Kryptonian who has been engineered to become a Worldkiller. Her full powers were finally activated, turning her into Reign.
As some of Annable’s castmates recently hinted, Samantha’s transformation arc will take fans by surprise. With that in mind, we couldn’t help but wonder: could Samantha eventually be headed for a redemption arc? And could it turn her into Superwoman in the process?
While there’s just too little evidence right now to hint at Samantha doing so, it doesn’t feel out of the cards just yet.
Superwoman on Supergirl
For the uninitated, Superwoman has become a fan-favorite facet of the DC Comics universe, since her first debut in 1943. Quite a few characters have adopted the mantle, including Lois Lane, Lucy Lane, and most recently Lana Lang.
As of now, only one of those characters has appeared on Supergirl — Jenna Dewan Tatum’s portrayal of Lucy Lane. With Lucy being absent from the proceedings (largely due to the show’s move to The CW) since the end of Season One, it’s safe to assume she won’t return in a larger, Superwoman-centric role. But back then, Tatum was optimistic at the alter-ego factoring into the series.
“Superwoman was really interesting to me,” Tatum told ComicBook.com back in 2015. “It felt very strong and I felt like the comic audiences and viewers in general were going to be satisfied with this.”
Obviously, plans change, and it’s safe to assume that turning Reign into Superwoman wouldn’t be Supergirl‘s original, Season One plan. But with Reign bringing a pretty small amount of comic canon to Supergirl, there’s certainly a way to factor in a sort of Superwoman redemption arc, and the show might have already laid the ground work for it.
Plus, Reign is already set to function as an evil mirror to Kara Danvers/Supergirl (Melissa Benoist). Flipping that on its head, and having Kara sort of help Samantha become her own sort of hero, would be the best way to bring Superwoman into the fold. All the while, this would help Samantha become something that she brings up this episode — “just like Supergirl.”
Samantha’s Life
As fans have seen throughout this season, Samantha has had a rather unconventional path to becoming a big bad. Samantha has established a friendly rapport with many of the show’s characters, thanks to her job at L Corp and her daughter, Ruby (Emma Tremblay).
With that level of effort going into establishing Samantha’s real-world connections, it isn’t too hard for fans to want to see her overcome her worldkiller nature in one way or another. We suggested earlier in this season that a redemption arc could be in the cards for Sam, and it’s something that only seems to be more possible as the season goes on.
Samantha having those connections to Kara and Lena (Katie McGrath) could make her redemption arc possible, seeing both character’s nature to give people second chances. Helping Samantha break free from her evil tendencies, before helping her set up shop protecting another city, would certainly be the way to do that.
…That is, if those bridges continue to not be burned between now and the season’s end.
“I can’t imagine that it isn’t going to become difficult with Sam essentially being Supergirl’s arch-enemy and all three of us being friends,” McGrath explained during a recent set visit. “It’s got to come to a head somehow. But how and when? I’m not quite sure. You’ll just have to watch all the episodes.”
The Costume
While a lot of Reign’s future on Supergirl remains a mystery, fans have already gotten a pretty good look at her full costume. The ensemble has quite a lot to take in, from homages to the world of Superman to a lot of potential questions being raised.
In particular, the fact that Reign wears a mask is still pretty perplexing, seeing as she doesn’t wear one in the comic version. There’s a chance she could be hiding her face to hide Samantha’s public identity (but that’s unclear, seeing as Reign’s presence supposedly makes Samantha disappear), or to hide some sort of facial disfigurement.
Whatever option ends up being canon, there’d be a pretty easy way to carry that over into a Superwoman costume. Looking at the aforementioned Lucy Lane Superwoman costume is a pretty good indicator, as she’s traditionally seen in a hood.
As we mentioned, it’s far too early to tell exactly what’s in the cards for Reign. Fans will just have to keep watching her journey on Supergirl to find out.
Supergirl airs Monday nights at 8/7c on The CW.
