Supergirl S3E10 Legion of Superheroes starts off with comatose Kara receiving a visit from Braniac 5 in the loft of her mind following her defeat at the hands of Reign. In the real world, Braniac 5 keeps the team abreast of her condition while simultaneously keeping tabs on Kara and her mind. Reign seems unfazed by her brush with Supergirl and is trying the balancing act of her Reign duties and her mothering duties. Reign seems at ease taking her message of violent justice to the streets and with Supergirl out of commission she fights evil, her way, through most of the episode unchecked.

Mom-El takes himself and the legion off of the playing board because he doesn’t want to endanger thier mission and the timeline. The legion clues them in on what happens to the future with little insight into how to protect themselves besides the knowledge that Reign eventually leaves earth but, the earth suffers catastrophic losses and gets plunged into the dark ages.   Braniac tries to prepare Supergirl mentally for reentry into the real world so that she can help the fight against Reign but, since nothing ever goes according to plan, she doesn’t wake up,

Kara can’t find her way out of her mind and no matter how hard she tries to fight her way out, her emotions won’t allow her wake up and Braniac 5 doesn’t seem to be able to help her. Reigns attacks a methlab and the cops who show up. Back at the DOE the Legion goes into more detail about why they can’t interfere and explains that if they help and lose the future could be lost as well. J’onn J’onzz has to do friendship duties for Kara by being her doppelgänger so that Lena doesn’t catch wind that Kara is Supergirl, forcing him to endure girl talk from Lena who is having a bit of a dilemma with the start of her relationship with James. Luckily, the conversation ends in time for our favorite Martian to help the team with their plan to stop Reign.

With the help of a kryptonite necklace they momentarily are able to subdue Reign but, it doesn’t work for long and she escapes, injuring Alex in the process. Meanwhile back in Kara’s brain , her and Braniac 5 notice that there’s something off about her apartment and try to walk through her feelings and memories to figure a way out. Alex figures out where Reign is headed and the Legion decides to suit up and help the DOE take her on since Supergirl is still unavailable. When Reign hits the prison she runs into Supergirls former stan.

The Legion makes thier enterance to Bon Jovi’s Living on a Prayer, something a Jersey Girl like me couldn’t help but be impressed by. During the battle Braniac 5 multitasks, fighting the battle, helping Supergirl escape her brain and, doing a crossword puzzle. Kara eventually gets Braianc 5 to focus on the battle and his parting words are the key to her escaping her mind, which is evidenced by her finding a literal key shortly after his departure. The battle gets pretty intense and Reign has the super powered members of the team on the ropes as Kara awakes and heads out to join the battle despite the risk to herself. Kara is victorious after one good surprise hit and deals this battles final blow to Reign in the form of a kryptonite injection.

The episode wraps up with Mon-El and Kara having a sweet moment that hinges on goodbye , Jimmy and Lena having a heart to heart and one of the sweetest kisses I’ve ever seen and, Alex and Kara sharing some sister time. The wrap up was a perfect ending to  a stellar hour and, brought us back to the human element of the series which was the best way to end the teams involvement this time around. But, since the writers like to keep us on our toes, we get some stellar foreshadowing through a shot of the needle Supergirl used to “defeat” Reign and the mention of the team of Kryptonian powered allies that are ready to step out of the shadows to help help her on her purification quest.

Overall, this episode was a nice reentry into the Supergirl universe after a long break. There wasn’t a moment that wasn’t needed to propel the story forward and even with its ominous dark tone, it remained entertaining and fun. The writers have mastered good storytelling, mixed with just enough action, and the way they provide subtle character notes through short conversations, photos or moments keep us attached. There are so many ways the story can go now and I’m here for each and every one of them, with my popcorn at the ready.

Rating: 8.8