Brainiac 5, Mon-El, and Imra get their Flight Rings
Kara, still struggling for her life after her defeat, must awaken as National City is now at Reign's mercy.Tropes in this episode:
- Adaptation Dye-Job: Streaky is portrayed as a black cat in this episode. In the original comics and most adaptations that feature him, he's orange.
- Bait-and-Switch: During their first scene, it seems like Ruby is running away from Samantha in terror. Turns out they are only playing a game of Nerf hide-and-seek.
- Bank Robbery: Reign responds to a bank robbery in progress, only for it to turn out to be a trap, with many of the people inside (robbers, clerks, customers) being DEO agents in disguise.
- Barrier Warrior: When Reign tries to freeze Mon-El with her ice breath, Imra shields him with a telekinetic bubble, resulting in him being stuck in a shell of ice.
- Battle Theme Music: The Legion gets Reign's attention by blasting Bon Jovi's "Livin' on a Prayer" from their ship's speakers. He probably took a page out of Star-Lord's book.
- Brutal Honesty: Brainiac 5 is very blunt.
- Clark Kenting: No one recognizes Reign as Samantha, even though she stands fairly close to some of her friends. Then again, Supergirl manages to pass as Kara with just a pair of glasses. At least Reign has a mask with a voice filter, ties her hair back, and does a 180 on her personality.
- Cliffhanger Copout: The previous episode ended with an ominously-still Samantha ignoring Ruby as she spoke to her and drew closer, then Samantha suddenly spinning to face her. And then...presumably that was the start of their game, because it isn't mentioned again.
- Cool Starship: The ship used by the Legion is raised up from the water in order to bring its heavy weapons to bear on Reign.
- Didn't See That Coming: Reign is caught off guard by the presence of other heroes than Kara herself.
- The Dragon: Coville submits to Reign, becoming her right-hand man.
- Electronic Telepathy: A piece of 31st century technology is used to allow Brainiac 5 to enter Kara's mind. He's even able to do that while far from Kara's physical location.
- Emergency Impersonation: J'onn has to pretend to be a flu-stricken Kara to keep up the ruse for her absence from work. Hilarity Ensues when Lena Luthor comes to check in on "her."
- "Eureka!" Moment: The moment Kara realizes that she needs to be Kara Danvers rather than Kara Zor-El is when she finds the key out of her coma.
- Excuse Me While I Multitask: During the Legion's fight with Reign, Brainiac 5 splits his attention between helping Kara find a way out of her coma and flying the ship. When Kara figures it out, and he starts dropping things in her mind, she tells him to leave her and focus all his attention on the battle.
- Face–Heel Turn: Thomas Coville is disappointed with Supergirl's failure to stop Reign, so he decides that he will follow Reign instead.
- Foregone Conclusion: Despite the Future Imperfect situation (see below), what Mon-El does know about 21st century history indicates that Supergirl lives through her fight with Reign, and that Reign will eventually leave Earth. On the other hand, it's pointed out that this doesn't mean that she won't kill thousands of people in the meantime.
- Forgot About His Powers:
- Apparently, Mon-El forgets that he has Super-Speed, as he runs towards Reign at a fairly leisurely pace, even for a human.
- J'onn, again, forgets that he has powers at all. His first line is that he doesn't think they have a chance at beating Reign without Supergirl. Except that, as we've seen, J'onn by himself is easily a match for a Kryptonian. This is somewhat justified considering that Reign is on a whole different level. When they actually battle, Reign defeats him after a short struggle.
- Future Imperfect: According to the Legion, at some point in the future, a terrible catastrophe will befall humankind, resulting in much of knowledge and history being lost. Thus, only bits and pieces are known, and Mon-El is responsible for reintroducing some of the cultural knowledge in the 31st century. For instance, they seem to treat Bon Jovi lyrics as words of profound wisdom (he's mentioned in tandem with Aristotle and William Shakespeare).
- Genetic Memory: Apparently, Brainiac 5 devised a means to fight the Blight, but in order to keep the knowledge out of enemy hands, it was split up and encoded within the DNA of each member of the Legion. This initially leads to Mon-El's reluctance to help DEO fight Reign, as the death of any member of the Legion could spell doom for the 31st century.
- Healing Vat: Kara is kept in one aboard the Legion's ship for half the episode, while recovering from Reign's beatdown.
- Hero on Hiatus: Alex is out of the action after Reign breaks her leg.
- Horde of Alien Locusts: The Legion reveals they were fighting the Blight back in their time, after the latter consumed a peaceful farming planet.
- Intangibility: J'onn uses it to bring Reign underground, hoping to trap her there. It fails, and he is seriously hurt in the process.
- Journey to the Center of the Mind: Using 31st century technology, Brainiac 5 is able to connect to Kara's mind and help her out of her coma.
- Know When to Fold 'Em: Reign retreats when the DEO and later Kara attack her with Kryptonite. She may be more resistant to it than normal Kryptonians, but it still weakens her enough that she could be killed.
- Mind over Matter: Imra uses her telekinesis to hurl weights from a workout bench in the prison yard at Reign, although Reign casually blasts them all apart with her Eye Beams.
- Movie Superheroes Wear Black: As opposed to their more colorful and wildly individualized costumes in the comics, the costumes Mon-El, Imra, and Brainiac 5 wear here have a unified black color scheme with muted color highlights, though their outfits still sport individualized designs.
- Multinational Team: So far, the known members of the Legion include a Daxamite (Mon-El), a Titanian (Imra) and a Coluan (Brainiac 5). During the fight with Reign, they were also working with a Green Martian (J'onn) and a Kryptonian (Kara).
- Mythology Gag:
- As a young girl, Kara had a cat named Streaky. He helped Kara feel more human since she had to learn to control her powers to pet him without harming him.
- Ayla Ranzz (Lightning Lass) from the Legion of Super-Heroes, planet Winath and the Blight exist in this continuity.
- It's revealed there actually are several more Worldkillers.
- New Era Speech: Reign arrives at Cat Co and makes a speech about the future of the city with her as the protector, in front of the staff and a live cam.
- No-Sell: Reign towards Red Sun grenades and Kryptonite. Only when it is directly injected into her bloodstream is she truly affected, but she can still use her flight power and overcomes it relatively quickly on her own.
- Ring of Power: Mon-El and Imra use Legion Flight Rings to levitate. Brainiac 5 has one, too, although he doesn't actually get to use his this episode.
- Screaming Warrior: Brainiac 5 is clearly taken aback when Kara tries to blast the mental manifestation of her front door with her Eye Beams, while screaming at the top of her lungs. Naturally, it doesn't work, as the door isn't really there.
- Sesquipedalian Loquaciousness: Brainiac 5, as befitting for a 12th level intellect robotic being. Even his signature on Alex's plaster is a binary code.
- Socially Awkward Hero: Brainiac 5 is a little like that. He even does a super-nerdy thing in signing Alex's cast in binary.
- There Is Another: Reign's fortress tells her that there are others like her, and didn't share this information until it was sure she was ready for it.
- With Us or Against Us: For Reign, there is only her way of justice or death. That includes cops.
- The Worf Barrage: Kryptonite affects Reign, but not nearly to the extent that it does normal Kryptonians. It doesn't stop her from using her powers, and even when injected directly into her neck, her system neutralizes it eventually.
