Hopefully you paid close attention to Supergirl premiere, because the rise of a super villain was actually pretty lowkey. The cool Mom that Alex encountered discovered that she has some pretty cool powers — and then had a nightmare about Alura Zor-El, now played by Erica Durance? Weird. Who is Reign on Supergirl? Samantha's origin story started off with a bang.
In case you weren't keeping tabs on the Supergirl news this summer, Odette Annabelle is not only playing the DC comics character, but Reign is the baby in the pod from the end of last season. Her powers were accidentally activated when a groundbreaking reached the pod in question. We've all heard about mothers developing temporary superpowers when their children are in danger, but something slightly different happened when Samantha went to protect her daughter.
Is she Kryptonian? That seems like the most likely answer. In the comics, Reign is a "worldkiller," a biological weapon created on Krypton. How is she going to learn about her origin and (possibly evil) destiny? Morgan Edge has no idea what he literally dug up in National City.
None of this explains why she had that dream, though. At the beginning of the episode, Kara was fantasizing about herself, Mon-El, and her mother in a field together. That part makes sense. Kara misses her former flame, feels that she has once again been abandoned or left behind in some way — even though it isn't her or Mon-El's fault. It's a little weird for your mom to appear in a dream about your boyfriend, but even weirder to dream about a stranger's mom. Samantha's vision took place in the same field, but with a twist. Dream Alura (or was it Dream Astra) was evil this time, and screamed at her until she woke up.
Does Reign's mysterious mission have something to do with the former judge? Alura clearly had many enemies on Krypton. If only these aliens would stop blaming Kara for her mother's actions. Maybe the dream had something to do with Psi, the villain of the week in the next episode. The official description for "Triggers" teases that not only does Samantha start working at L-Corp, but that Psi is "able to immobilize people by tapping into their worst fears." Perhaps Samantha/Reign is subconsciously scared of Kara's Kryptonian mother. It is strange that her dream didn't just feature Kara. Maybe whoever sent that image to her didn't know what the grown-up daughter of Alura looked like.
When Reign left Krypton as an infant, a gaggle of hooded women blessed her with blood, and predicted that she would one day rule Earth. That's all the information we have so far on the show. The all-lady crew didn't say anything about taking down or demonizing the House of El in the process.
That's not the only thing that kicked off Season 3. The premiere also included a snappy comment about global warming from Press Secretary Cat Grant, Kara and Lena becoming coworkers after Mon-El's departure and the alien invasion left her in a pretty serious depression. She poured herself into being Supergirl rather than Kara, which is always a tricky balance to pull off. There were also some adorable wedding plans, and a lovely scene between Alex and J'onn J'onzz. Her Martion mentor is going to walk her down the aisle.
However, Reign's arrival is the most cryptic development of all. Lena Luthor may have escaped an evil destiny, but Samantha may not be so lucky. As much as fans may want to root for this plucky mom who's just trying to do her best, this is the start of something dark and twisted for sure.
