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The CW‘s Supergirl is poised to go out in grand fashion with back-to-back episodes airing this Tuesday starting at 8/7c.
As we superspeed towards the big finale, Katie McGrath has one last wish for her character, Lena Luthor: That she finally becomes at peace with who she is as a person.
“When I spoke to the showrunners [about the final season], I said, ‘I actually don’t mind what you do with her — she’s yours as much as mine. What I would really love is, whatever happened to Lena, for her just to be finally OK with who she is,” McGrath tells TVLine. “She’s had such a battle with being a Luthor and being a woman and having people’s expectations of her and putting her in boxes. I just wanted for her to be like, ‘You know what? I’m good. I’m happy with who I am.’”
Lena first appeared in the Arrowverse series’ Season 2 premiere as a controlled, almost-invulnerable figure fighting to change the Luthors’ reputation amid her brother Lex’s many atrocities. Through her friendship with Kara and the rest of the Super Friends over the last five seasons, and especially in the final season with her magic, we’ve seen the former L-Corp CEO evolve into someone much more nuanced and accessible.
“She’s a powerhouse to start. She walks in and she owns everything, and as you get to know her, you realize how scared she is [but] she doesn’t want to show it,” McGrath explains. “I don’t think Lena really was able to connect with anybody in the show or make any true lasting friendships until she was able to be vulnerable and show people that she is scared [and] nervous, that she’s not sure and all these things. That’s what’s been so amazing for me, is to be able to see, [from the] start of Season 2 to her last scene with Kara [in the series finale], the difference in those two conversations. The difference is she’s able to be honest and vulnerable, and I think that’s true friendship.”
Lena wasn’t the only Luthor to take on an interesting new path in Supergirl’s final season. Season 6 also introduced a different side of Lex, who fell in love with Nyxly in the future and traveled back to the past to win her over and save her from dying. If seeing the cutthroat villain try to woo the Fifth Dimensional Imp seemed strange at first, you weren’t alone.
“It was super weird,” Jon Cryer, who plays the bald baddie, tells TVLine. “I was kind of afraid when [showrunner] Jessica Queller actually broke it to me. She said, ‘You’re gonna fall in love.’ I was like,“Why? Why would Lex fall in love?”
Since Lex has been portrayed throughout the series as someone who is virtually incapable of love, Cryer was initially confused as to how a romance with Nyxly would play out on screen.
“I said, ‘Are they going to ‘meet cute’? Are they going to be both walking their dogs in the park and the leashes get intertwined? How are they gonna do this?’” he recalls. “She didn’t have answers for me at the time, but I thought what they came up with was really fun and allowed a lot of the relationship to have happened off screen.”
Cryer admits he was “really kind of scared of it, because I thought, ‘I don’t want Lex to lose his menace. I don’t want the dark side of him to be lost.’ And I knew they wanted to have some fun with it, so I said, ‘OK, it’s gonna be tough to have the comedic moments but also have Lex be scary,’ so we just took it moment to moment.”
When it comes to Lex’s feelings for Nyxly, though, Cryer says Lex justified it because “Nyxly is so powerful that, once he finally met a being he felt was worthy of him, it really is just a function of his ego that he fell in love with her.”
Everyone knows how they want Lena’s story to end: Holding hands with Kara as they look for a nice loft to move into together. But somehow, I don’t think it’s going to happen.
Maybe they could pull a “Legend of Korra” and have them step through a portal, heading off on some new adventure together, with the specifics left up to the viewer’s imagination.
I don’t think most people want it to end like that.. wouldn’t make much sense either in the `context of the show.
Are you sure we are watching the same show?
They have never been more than friends.
Yes, I suppose there is a big difference between discussing the ‘context of the show’ and the ‘subtext of the show.’
Shippers love that sweet, sweet subtext.
“shippers” have been the death of so many good tv shows.. they just need to go away.
I don’t think that shippers have ever killed a show – their enthusiasm only contributes to making it more popular overall.
The endless bickering between different shipper factions (and non-shipper factions) can really ruin the online experience for other fans, though. Supergirl has definitely seen plenty of that over the years.
I’m not familiar with the term “shippers”. What is that?
Since you asked:
“Shipping” (derived from the word relationSHIP) is a specific type of fandom where the fan’s enjoyment becomes heavily/exclusively invested in one particular (usually romantic) pairing on the show.
Sometimes this enthusiasm is directed towards an established couple, but often it can be purely hypothetical and grounded only in hazy subtext and wishful thinking.
Shippers often declare their chosen ‘ship’ to be a character’s OTP (One True Pairing), meaning all other ‘ships involving that character are inherently inferior. Bickering often ensues.
I’ve always believed that writers should make the show they want to create and ignore shippers. If they have even a shred of writing ability they can easily craft a show that everyone will feel satisfied with by the end.
Google the phrase “Supercorp” and you’ll see exactly what show a lot of fans are watching.
Yeah, that ship is pure fan fiction. I don’t even know where it came from? For the five seasons Lena has been on this show, there’s nothing to suggest that. TPTB writing that in, in the series finale would be ludicrous. The Lex and Nyxly love story is dumb, too. There’s not even enough time to even make that believable. They also made sure Kara never
got laid again after S2. Did she even have sex in S2? 🧐 SG really dropped the ball over the years.
Are you saying that Kara not getting laid enough hurt the quality of the show, or were those two separate thoughts?
The series had various issues over the years. That’s one of many. It’s not even the biggest one. It’s just one of many.
I think more probably want a Kara/Alex sister moment.
That would be kind of an odd and unsatisfying way for Lena’s story to end
:P
Uhm, no. Not everyone. Apparently, two women (or two men) can’t be great friends anymore without people having to read into it more than what was ever there. The writers have not one time shown the two of them as being romantically interested in each other. They have only ever been shown as being interested in men. So, what, women can’t be best friends anymore? There has to be some romance to it? Why would they drop the two of them hooking up in any way in the finale when they have never hinted at the two of them being romantically involved at all. Any type of romance should be organic. I certainly hope they don’t drop something random like that. There’s no need to pander to the “everyone,” especially since it’s not really everyone who wants to see them together. They have never been anything but friends. We should all be satisfied with all of the female empowerment on this show. Kara is a superhero. Alex was able to be true to herself and is getting everything she wants in marrying Kelly and raising a daughter with her. Lena is finally feeling comfortable in her own skin and is happy with who she is. They’ve all come so far. Just let them be powerful women who’ve followed their own paths. Putting Kara and Lena together would not fit the story that’s been created. In terms of the worst case of ignoring character development for the sake of the finale, it would only be second to having Ted end up with Robin on How I Met Your Mother.
Nah, those two flirt. Their eyes and body language when they’re sharing a scene, it’s like, just make out already, god! Melissa and Katie should have played it differently if they didn’t want people to talk. People are just responding to what they see on the screen. The writers certainly never put it on the page, I agree. But Melissa and Katie put it on the screen.
Then maybe people should expect Katie and Melissa to make out and be endgame since it wasn’t the writers idea… u said it, it was their chemistry.
That’s only in your head. It’s what you want to see. Not what happened in reality.
Without doubt there has been subtle exchanges, looks, body language that have suggested more than friends. It is a love unrequited. Can’t understand how people can’t see that. Whether they make it explicit in the finale is probably unlikely but had there been another season we would have seen it payout.
Hi please start a new series on supergirl keep it on it a good show I give it 4 stars don’t take it off bring it back next year thank you
I still can’t believe it’s ending. I always thought it would end after season 7.
I used to think SuperCorp shippers were nuts but the last run of episodes has been dripping with soulmate subtext. I don’t think it’s intentional though, and I doubt it amounts to anything.
I know it’s not going to happen but…as a fan of Merlin, I wish that Lena finds out that she is a descendant of Morgan le Fay connecting the two series somehow.
I agree about Alex’s romance being weird. I always wondered if Nyxly magicked Lex into loving her.
Ugh, Lex’s romance, not Alex’s. Stupid device.
I was thinking William was supposed to be a love interest for Kara when he joined guess that wasn’t gonna happen. I kept thinking when Karas next love interest would show up. Is Mon-el gonna be in the finale at this point hes the only real one she’s had
Is it just me or does it seem Katie McGrath’s characters always end up knee deep in magic? And also their names always end in the vowel “a” (Lena, Morgana).
Hi bring supergirl back next season it a good show I give 4 stars keep it on thank you