We’re recapping Supergirl 3×22 “Make It Reign,” in which the Dark Kryptonians begin their assault on Earth.

As the penultimate episode of the season, “Make It Reign” is a bit difficult to review on its own because its purpose is to build up to the epic battle in the finale. The episode attempts to increase the stakes in the fight between Team Supergirl and the Dark Kryptonians by killing two named characters (Coville and Deimos), but these deaths are less powerful than the script wants them to be.

There are, however, two parts of this episode that work incredibly well: the dynamic between J’onn and M’yrnn as M’yrnn passes on his memories to his son before he dies and the bond between Sam and Ruby as Sam’s body weakens with the Dark Kryptonians reviving Reign.

And I cannot help but think of the famous poem “Do not go gentle into that good night” by Dylan Thomas when looking at these two relationships.

The poem is a plea from a son to his dying father not to simply accept his impending death but to fight until the very end. The son describes various types of men — wise, good, wild, grave — and why they have reasons to fight against death.

M’yrnn, I think, is a wise man. He was a scholar and theologian, after all. According to the poem,

“Though wise men at their end know dark is right,
Because their words had forked no lightning they
Do not go gentle into that good night.”

In other words, wise men know death is inevitable and part of life — just as M’yrnn has come to accept that his end is near — but they do not simply accept death because they have not done something great or world-changing, like forking lightning, yet.

These lines make me think of M’yrnn’s choice to stop the memory transfer and instead help J’onn protect his adopted homeworld. Stopping the terraforming that is occurring in order to end humanity and create a new Krypton would be a true example of an incredible deed.

So, rather than simply accept his death, as he had planned to do once the ceremony was complete, he will not go gentle into death, instead fighting for Earth — and his son.

Similarly, I see Sam as the good “man” in the poem:

“Good men, the last wave by, crying how bright
Their frail deeds might have danced in a green bay,
Rage, rage against the dying of the light.”

This stanza essentially says that good men fight death because they believe, had they been able to live longer, they would have been able to do even better things than the “frail deeds” they accomplished in life. Sam has so much more to do in her life, so much more to give the world — and her daughter — to die yet.

So, Sam rages against death. Before she is put under to look for a way to stop Reign in the dark valley, she tells Ruby not to worry because her mother is a badass. And she’s right; Sam will not die easily because she has far too much left to do and too much love left to give her daughter.

Not necessarily tied to the poem, but another parent-child dynamic in this episode is that of Alura and Kara. Using crystals to communicate with the DEO, Kara and Mon-El connect a portral from Kara’s father’s lab to the one in the DEO and use it to return to Earth. Alura follows out of concern for Kara and likely out of guilt she feels for her part in all those who died with Krypton.

A quick moment that I loved was Kara introducing Alura to Alex and Alura throwing her arms around Alex in appreciation for what her family did for Kara. I hope we get to see more interactions between Alex and Alura — and Alura and Kara’s other loved ones on Earth — though we don’t have much time for that this season at least.

Much like M’yrnn and J’onn, Alura is clearly thankful to Earth for taking in her daughter and becoming a home. She is thankful for those who loved and nurtured Kara when she could not. There are some interesting parallels between Alura and M’yrnn, so I hope that doesn’t bode ill for Alura. It would be incredibly cruel for both J’onn and Kara to lose their recently-discovered parents.

Going into the season finale, Supergirl and co. will have to fight Reign and the Dark Kryptonians, led by Selena, to prevent the destruction of life on Earth so it can be reborn as a new Krypton. Admittedly, this plot feels a bit too similar to the Daxamite invasion of season 2, so I hope there will be some surprises in the finale — and that season 4 will take an entirely different direction.