Supergirl Season 3 Episode 23 Review/Recap 'Battles Lost and Won'
Empty Lighthouse is a reader-supported site. This article may contain affiliate links to Amazon and other sites. We earn a commission on purchases made through these links.
The final episode of Season 3 of Supergirl aired this week and it featured the final battle between Supergirl and Reign. Despite being a season finale, the episode itself was not as action-packed as the mid-season finale that aired last December.
My favorite Season 3 episode of Supergirl so far was the mid-season finale where Reign and Supergirl fought in an epic battle all over the city. It reminded me of the epic fights that featured in the movie Man of Steel.
Sadly though, 'Battles Lost and Won' is kind of anticlimactic because we don't get to see a huge showdown between Reign and Supergirl like we did earlier in the season. The fights in the Season 3 Finale were surprisingly very short.
Before we get to see them fight, Reign is still attacking the Earth's core in order to cause a huge cataclysmic event.
Earthquakes are happening all over the world and soon a huge tidal wave will be raining down on the city.
The only character that can stop the cataclysmic event is M’yrnn who uses his powers to fuse with the Earth to make it heal again.
Supergirl and the others do their best to save people from disasters and the CGI effects look decent for the most part.
However, the exciting parts don't last that long because M’yrnn actually saves the Earth in less than five minutes.
I was expecting the dramatic action sequences would have lasted a bit longer than that, but everything solved itself far too quickly for my taste.
Despite the Earth being saved, Reign is still alive and Selena and her witches are still wanting to make a new Krypton.
Supergirl may have to kill Reign, but she still wants to follow her own no-kill policy and would love to have no casualties.
The only person that can stop Reign is Samantha who heads back into the Valley of Juru. It's here we she can awaken her powers by drinking from a fountain in order to get stronger to defeat Reign.
Thomas Coville (the former cult leader) sends a distress signal and the DEO finds out the location of Selena and the witches. All of the heroes go there in order to defeat Reign and take the witches to prison.
At this point of the episode, I was hoping it would have been a huge showdown with a lot of action.
However, this wasn't the case because the witches are apprehended very quickly without putting on much of a decent fight.
While Supergirl and Reign have a better fight, their encounter was cut very short and was not as exciting as their mid-season finale battle. Basically their fight ends when Samantha comes from behind and stabs Reign.
Supergirl chucks Reign into the cauldron, but in her anger Reign uses her laser eyes to kill off Samantha, Mon El and her mother Alura. This caught me off guard and shocked me a lot.
Well instead of giving fans a dramatic and tragic end, Supergirl conveniently grabs Mon El's Legion ring so she can go back in time and defeat Reign properly without the deaths of her friends and family.
Supergirl goes back in time and tells Samantha not to stab Reign or else everyone will die again. This time, they use the Black Kryptonite on Reign forcing her to go inside the Valley of Juru.
Samantha forces Reign to drink from the weaker side of the fountain and this plan works. Some ghosts consume Reign and she is now gone for good leaving Samantha to be normal and free from her evil side.
I thought Reign's death seemed kind of cheap and too convenient.
I was hoping for a big battle so this finale felt very anticlimactic. On the plus side though, the rest of the characters are still alive thanks to Supergirl thinking of redoing the final fight by going back in time.
The rest of the episode felt more like a Series Finale rather than a Season Finale because a lot of changes are coming to the show. First of all, Winn and Mon El aren't staying because they need to save the future with Imra.
I'm kind of shocked Winn agreed to go because he has been a series regular ever since the first episode.
Winn is actually getting replaced by Brainiac-5 who is now staying at the DEO. As for the DEO, Alex is promoted to be the new director. As a director, she can boss people around without the worry of risking her life of going into the field all of the time.
J’onn/Martian Manhunter is retiring and wants to live a normal life.
It's unknown if he'll be back for Season 4, but from the looks of things we won't be seeing the character anytime soon. Supergirl's mother Alura goes back to Argo with the witches going to prison for their crimes.
Jimmy Olsen does something brave and admits to the entire world that he's Guardian. He's still staying in the present and will now be a superhero that's unafraid of showing his real identity.
Despite feeling like the last episode of Supergirl ever, the show will be back for Season 4 later this year but with a lot of changes.
The only tease we get for next season is that Lena Luthor may have been responsible for creating a clone of Supergirl.
I don't mind changes, but Season 4 of Supergirl is going to feel a lot different compared to the past three seasons. It will be interesting to see if the changes improve the show or not.
Overall, the season finale was kind of disappointing because the fights were way too short and did not feature much exciting action. Let's hope The CW allocates a bigger budget for Season 4 because the Season 3 finale was kind of underwhelming.
Wanna read more on this? Check these out: Supergirl Season 6 Premiere Date Revealed (more); Superman & Lois Teaser Trailer Revealed (more); Sixth Season Of Supergirl Will Be The Final One (more); Supergirl Season 4 Episode 14 Ended On A Huge Cliffhanger (more).
And here are some more related articles: Supergirl Season 4 Episode 13 Review: ‘What's So Funny About Truth, Justice, and the American Way?' (more); Supergirl Season 4 Episode 11 Review: ‘Blood Memory' (more); Supergirl Season 4 Episode 10 Review: 'Suspicious Minds' (more).
A few more: Supergirl Season 4 Episode 9 Review: ‘Elseworlds Part 3' (more); Supergirl Season 4 Episode 8 Review: ‘Bunker Hill’ (more).
The CW