SUPERGIRL 3.16 Review “Of Two Minds”

This post contains spoilers for Supergirl.
Check out our review for last week's episode here.

Things are continuing to amp up as Supergirl nears its season finale. The show has had to make up for a little bit of lost time after taking such a long hiatus, but they’ve managed to pack a lot into a few episodes. Not everything since their return has been their best, but they’ve done what they needed to remind viewers of their main World Killer Arc and everything that’s going on with the Legion of Superheroes.

One of the things they struggled with after such a long break was the stakes that come along with the World Killers. When they had their midseason finale, they had Reign nearly destroy Supergirl. With the way the season structure panned out later on, there was no big moment to keep their strength in the front of your mind. “Of Two Minds” aims to act as that reminder.

The plot of the episode splits off in two directions. Lena is still trying to treat Sam, and Supergirl and the DEO are trying to find the final World Killer, Pestilence. In the theme of duality, the episode title refers to two contrasting mindsets. The first is between Reign and Sam as they battle for dominance of her body, but the second is the primary struggle. Imra believes that she needs to kill Pestilence to stop Blight from coming to her world in the future. Obviously, Kara’s not down with that plan. She does her best to show Imra that her way is the right way, but she didn’t bank on the last of the three World Killers inhabiting a terrible human. With no empathy from Pestilence, or the human doctor she inhabits, Kara has a bit of a crisis. Thankfully for the Girl of Steel, she gets infected and doesn’t have to grapple with that reality for very long (this week).

Through the majority of “Of Two Minds”, it seems that the aliens are immune to Pestilence’s virus. Kara’s not infected long, but it’s long enough to drive home the fact that no one is safe. Said virus brings out some of the best and most intriguing moments of the episode as well. Winn and Jimmy’s tearful hospital scene gives both men the opportunity to show some real emotions. We just had a thoughtful story arc with Winn, but James Olson is so rarely given the opportunity to do anything other than be the stoic boss who occasionally punches stuff. Meanwhile J’onn has to reconcile with the thought that he might lose his daughter while his father slowly loses his mind.

Then there’s the fact that said virus leads to Imra having no qualms with straight up trying to murder Pestilence.

Imra’s difficulties are understandable, but not quite acceptable. She explains to Kara that she lost a sister to the virus in her future near the end of the episode. Losing a sister to an unstoppable illness is enough to drive anyone to extreme means, so she wins Kara’s favor with the explanation. Unfortunately it doesn’t appear that the same can be said for her husband. There’s no conversation between Imra and Mon El, but they take the time to focus on the distance between them before ending the episode.

While everyone at the DEO deals with the two World Killers at large, Lena desperately tries to pinpoint how to stop Reign from taking over Sam. All of that’s well and fine, since you know going into the story that she will fail, but the emotions that come out of it are worth the brief aside. Supergirl is a show built on girl power and female friendships, and Sam has been an exceptional addition to that on all fronts. They all became fast friends, and the speed of which those friendships were won won’t do anything to dull the pain of it all being ripped away. Lena tearfully tells Sam that she will not let Reign get to Ruby and that she’s going to save her. While that may end up being true in the end, it’s certainly not the case in “Of Two Minds”.

Things come to a close with all of the World Killers reuniting in Lena’s lab. And with Supergirl learning just what Lena’s been hiding. Since things happen so quickly, we won't be seeing the fallout of that until next week. If the last two episodes have been any indicator, things will probably get a little emotional. Perhaps Lena will finally learn that Kara is Supergirl? One thing’s for sure: an eclipse is coming, and that doesn’t bode well for a hero who gets her powers from the yellow sun.

You know what to do if you had thoughts on this week’s episode while you wait!