What to Watch Verdict
The COVID gap definitely hurt Supergirl's premiere, but the human moments do their best to make up for the awkwardness.
Pros
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💥Jon Cryer's Lex Luthor jamming in the Fortress of Solitude to Queen is a series all-timer.
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💥Brainy and Lena will always be this series' most underrated scene partners.
Cons
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💥There are some rough acting choices this week.
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💥The unintended finale/premiere delay remove any kind of stakes for Supergirl's fate
This post contains spoilers for Supergirl.
Supergirl season 6 kicks off with what should have been the final episodes of Season 5, due to pandemic rescheduling. Unfortunately, because the stakes that lead into these moments happened so long ago, everything in the first half of the episode feels disjointed. It’s because of this awkwardness that the quiet moments far outshine the big finale-level punches.
At the end of last season, Lex Luthor (Jon Cryer) put a plan into motion that would result in the transfer of Leviathan energy that would make him a kind of god. His plan is successful and phases two and three aren’t any better for humanity. With the help of Lena’s tech, Lex is able to brainwash half of humanity to believe that he can do no wrong. In true Lex Luthor fashion, he intends to wipe out the other half via satellites programmed to detect the brain waves of those affected by the lenses. Phase 3? Well, that involves his very own Crisis.
In an effort to stop that, Supergirl (Melissa Benoist) offers herself up as a sacrifice. She knows that Lex will kill her, but she needed to buy M’gann (Sharon Leal) and J’onn Jonnz (David Harewood) time to override the satellites before they could slaughter half of humanity. Lex’s murder of Kara is easy, but Lena (Katie McGrath) had other plans. She programmed the Fortress to send in a sun-droid that would blast the kryptonite-infused hero with rays of the yellow sun in an attempt to bring her former best friend back to life.
What Team Supergirl wasn’t prepared for was Lex snagging the Phantom Zone Projector and blasting Kara into the zone in tandem with Alex taking away his superpowers.
The struggle here is that this moment was meant to be followed by a months-long hiatus that would give it an emotional impact. We’re not going to spend the final season of Supergirl without the Girl of Steel herself, so the gut-punch here is just more of an annoyance than anything more profound.
Unavoidable situations aside, both Lena and Brainy (Jesse Rath) get countless moments to truly shine in “Rebirth.” Both their despair over past mistakes is perfectly portrayed by both actors, right down to their heartfelt scene where they discuss culpability. Outside of the sadness, Lena gets to clock Lex in the mouth and officially uses Myriad one last time in order to wipe Supergirl’s identities from the minds of anyone who would use it to harm her friend.
Despite the emotional punches and a strong showing from team Supergirl, the best moment of the episode (and possibly season) go to Jon Cryer’s Lex Luthor jamming out in the Fortress of Solitude to “We are the Champions” after he believes he’s killed Supergirl. I don’t make the rules!
