'Supergirl' The Faithful: Recap

This episode of Supergirl begins with a plane plummeting toward Earth with failed engines. We get a view of what happened inside the first plane Supergirl ever saved. After a rocky landing, FBI Agent Alex Danvers hops up to assure everyone. A passenger looks outside and locks eyes with a woman standing on the wing before she launches into flight.

Three years later, a singing woman approaches Samantha at Ruby’s soccer game to announce that Ruby is chosen. She gives Samantha a pamphlet and invites them to join their community.

Later that day, Lena takes Kara to Samantha’s office to discuss a big merger. They insist that Samantha come to girls’ night at Kara’s. Then Kara spots the brochure. Recognizing a religious symbol from Krypton, she takes it and decides to go to the meeting. At the meeting, a young woman named Olivia greets them and describes her first meeting as “transformative.” Then the man from the plane steps to the pulpit, Thomas Coville. We have a quick flash of Kara’s mother reciting the same words to Rao, and then Coville invites Olivia up to speak. She talks about falling off a roof and getting rescued by Supergirl.

That evening, girls’ night gets awkward fast. Samantha brings up Kara’s dating status and then refers to Alex and Maggie having kids someday. Kara watches Alex’s face twist as Maggie says they’ll be the cool aunts someday. Then a police siren pierces the night, and Kara leaves.

After she rescues a man who’s about to plummet through the collapsing roof of a burning building, Olivia rushes over to congratulate him on joining the Children of Rao. Kara realizes people are intentionally endangering themselves to be saved by her and asks Maggie to stop Coville, but Maggie reminds her that the First Amendment is still a thing.

Kara interviews Coville about his group endangering themselves. Coville calls it a test of faith and then asks if Supergirl is there to test his faith, telling her he recognizes her. He promises to keep her secret and help her if she’s lost. Then he pulls out a Kryptonian relic containing Rao’s word, and Kara whips off her glasses to say that if she is a god, he has to do as she says: Stop the meetings and quit putting people in danger. After she leaves, though, Coville walks into the next room, where he’s stashed a large, glowing alien object, and promises to serve Supergirl.

At L-Corp, Samantha’s too busy fighting off hostile FTC actions from Morgan Edge to help Ruby practice her song for the school recital, and by the end of the day, Samantha saved the merger, but Ruby’s asleep on the office couch. When Lena comes in, Samantha cries and says she feels like a terrible mother. Lena, who knows from terrible mothers, points out that not only does Ruby know she’s loved, but she fell asleep watching her mom work hard on a task that only she can fix.

At the same time, James and Kara bond over religion. Coville’s service reminded Kara of how important Rao’s teachings were to her, like church was for James. Kara admits that she doesn’t know how to combat Coville’s blind faith in her. As he fell, he prayed for someone to save him. And suddenly Superman was there to grab his hand.

James accidentally activates the obelisk’s recording. Kara realizes what it is and rushes to the DEO to ask Winn to track a Betahedron signature. Betahedrons powered the probes that Kryptonian scientists would launch into space full of records of their planet’s history, religion, and so forth so other worlds could learn their culture. Kara realizes that Coville must have one of the probes.

Kara flies to the stadium, while Alex zips behind on her motorcycle. Coville is beyond excited when Supergirl arrives, even when she tells him that his plan is an insult to Rao.

Just as Alex is learning that they can never evacuate everybody in time, Kara realizes that there’s Kryptonite in the probe. She stumbles and intentionally cuts her hand, using her blood as proof that she’s no god.

Her veins and eyes begin to glow green as she begs Coville to deactivate the probe. He tries and fails, so when Alex makes it to the basement, Kara gasps out instructions for her to toss the Kryptonian soil sample as far away as possible. Kara’s too weak to fly the probe way, but she is able to burn a large hole in the ground so Maggie and Coville can push the probe in.

Later, Kara, Alex, and Lena sneak into Ruby’s school recital at the last minute, where they find a troupe of girls all dressed as Supergirl performing a dance routine. “They’re not worshipping you. They’re inspired by you,” Alex whispers.

At the end of night, Samantha is getting ready for bed when she looks in her mirror and finds symbols all over her face. A cloaked figure appears, her face twisting between demonic and human, to hiss. Samantha cowers on the floor until Ruby snaps her out of it and she finds the writing gone.

In the final moments of the episode, we see the probe falling through the hole and hitting the water, activating various machines and a large, red illuminated tube, where something stirs and a hand slaps against the glass.