The Fanatical

"You know how old I was the first time cops put cuffs on me? Seven. I was seven years old. My family and I were taking a vacation. We were staying at this nice hotel and, uh, my cousins and I, we decided to go out on the grounds, and play hide-and-go-seek. One minute, I'm trying my damnedest not to be found, and in the next, I'm shielding my eyes from police lights. And these four huge cops, they came and they pulled us out of our hiding places. And the whole time we're saying, "Wait, what are you doing? We're staying here." But none of them believed that we were supposed to be there. None of them believed that we belonged. So my oldest cousin must have been about 11, and I was the smallest. But they slapped cuffs on all of us anyway, and my arms were so little they had to put them around my forearms. And then they marched us into the hotel lobby like a bunch of criminals. And my mom was there. And then they believed us. She kept yelling, "Get those cuffs off my boys." Those cuffs."

—James Olsen to Lena Luthor the reason why he can't reveal himself as Guardian.

"The Fanatical"
Information
Season 3 » Episode 19
Episode number	61 of 126
Original airdate	May 21, 2018
Written by	Paula Yoo & Eric Carrasco
Directed by	Mairzee Almas
Guest stars
Carl Lumbly as M'yrnn J'onzz Chad Lowe as Thomas Coville Emma Tremblay as Ruby Arias Sofia Vassilieva as Olivia Nesta Cooper as Tanya Spears Andrea Brooks as Eve Teschmacher
Chronology
Preceded by	"Shelter from the Storm"
Followed by	"Dark Side of the Moon"

"The Fanatical" is the nineteenth episode of the third season of Supergirl, and the sixty-first episode overall. It aired on May 21, 2018.

Synopsis

When Tanya, a disciple of Coville's, escapes from what’s left of his cult, she gives Kara and James a journal that could hold the key to saving Sam. Someone learns Guardian’s identity and threatens to expose James if he doesn’t do what they ask. James contemplates what it means to be a black vigilante without a mask in America.

Trivia

• In the beginning of the episode, Lena mentions the ability to override genes in crops through a biolistic delivery system by coating particles of heavy metal in DNA and delivering them into the cells' interiors. This exists in real life and is also known as a gene gun.
• The arcade that J'onn, Alex, Ruby, and M'yrnn go to is called Fun Centre. The Canadian spelling is a nod to the fact that the show is filmed in Vancouver, Canada.
• The getaway car that the cult members use to kidnap Tanya has a license plate reading "590 WUG". Tanya is a linguistics professor, so this is likely a reference to wugs, small cartoonish birds used in a #Children's_learning_of_English_morphology%E2%80%8D%E2%80%94%E2%80%8Cthe_Wug_Test famous linguistics experiment] on child language acquisition that are popularly used as a symbol for the field of linguistics.
• When James considers revealing his identity as Guardian at a live press conference to throw off the cult's plan, Winn likens it to the 1996 film Ransom, in which the main character turns the tables on his son's kidnappers by using the ransom money to place a bounty on their heads on live television.

Gallery

Videos

Supergirl - 3x19 Deleted Scene James