How Does the ‘Supergirl’ Movie Tie to “The Faithful?”

In “The Faithful,” tonight’s episode of Supergirl, the show introduced the idea of a Betahedron. What’s that? Well, it is a complement to the Omegahedron, an item introduced in the Supergirl movie and then used as the MacGuffin in season 1 of Supergirl.

The Betahedron has never appeared before, but the Omegahedron first appeared in the season 1 episode “Solitude,” in which Supergirl visited Superman’s Fortress of Solitude and found a number of DC Easter eggs and Kryptonian artifacts.

The Omegahedron originated in the 1984 Supergirl movie directed by Jeannot Szwarc and set in the world of Richard Donner’s Superman films.

Of course, the fact that Donner’s vision for the Man of Steel heavily influences Supergirl is nothing new…and neither, actually, is the fact that there would be a tie to the Helen Slater-starring feature film.

“That Supergirl movie obviously has its many flaws but when I was a kid, I didn’t realize those flaws as much and I used to watch it all the time,” showrunner Andrew Kreisberg told ComicBook.com in an interview back in season 1. “There’s a couple of shout-outs to the Supergirl movie coming up that I think the fans are going to be excited about.”

For those who haven’t seen the not-entirely-beloved film, The Omegahedron is one of two great power sources vital to Argo City in the Supergirl movie. Along with its partner, the Alphahedron, the Omegahedron powers the entire city, its devices and provides its people with light, heat, air, and all the things necessary to survive. Its power is seemingly limited only by the imagination of the user, and it can do things like creating a simulation of life, or bringing the greatest desire of the user into reality.

Here, they say that the Betahedron is basically a low-fi version of the Omegahedron — but given how powerful Kryptonian tech is relative to human tech, that still makes it a formidable power source and a potentially deadly item if weaponized.

Supergirl air on Monday nights at 8 p.m. ET/PT on The CW.