Supergirl season 3: Is Odette Annable’s performance tops for Arrowverse villain?
Yet, even with this in mind, is Odette Annable as Samantha Arias / Reign on Supergirl delivering the best performance we’ve seen from a villain in this franchise to date? Judging from what transpired on Monday night’s new episode, we’re inclined to think so.
One of the wonderful advantages that Annable has in playing this part is that effectively, she’s getting two extremely-meaty roles at the same time. With Sam, she has a strong single mother who is slowly starting to break down. She’s afraid, she’s in pain, and she’s incredibly heartbroken over the fact that she’s kept in prison in order to ensure that she doesn’t harm anyone else. She has figured out a way in which to ensure her safety but, in the process, we’ve seen her completely lose all semblance of inner peace. Until there is a cure, there is nothing that she can do other than accept her position. You can see the pain in Odette’s eyes and the way in which her voice quivered throughout season 3 episode 15.
Meanwhile, there’s then the other side of this role where Annable is, effectively, playing a Terminator-like figure who executes on the basis of her own perverse justice. She is fearless, cold, calculating, and incredibly powerful. She gets to move with a methodical determination that you don’t see from many other villains. She’s not psychotic in that there is a specific rhyme and reason to some of her actions. She legitimately believes in her cause and her creation dictates her from being anything other than Reign. Annable plays this iteration with the utmost confidence.
Perhaps the best thing about this overall performance as a whole, though, is the simple fact that we’re not anywhere close to the end of the journey just yet. The lines are only starting to blur between Sam and Reign; as we start to get even more insight into precisely how Sam chooses to deal with her new diagnosis, there is a very good chance that her decisions are only going to become all the more gut-wrenching. The material, in turn, will only get stronger. Annable has the rare villain who viewers are really going to miss in the event she ever goes — she may be harmful to Kara and company, but you have still gotten a good chance to know the person under the mask and you like her very much.
Related – Be sure to get even more insight right now on tonight’s new episode
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