On the Supergirl season 4 finale, Lex revealed to his sister, Lena Luthor, that her best friend and chosen family had been lying to her for years, outing Kara Danvers as National City’s Girl of Steel.
It was a reveal years in the making, as Kara Danvers realized her time to tell Lena Luthor the truth about herself, about being Supergirl, was limited, but Lex Luthor beat her to the punch in his last-ditch attempt to destroy Lena… which, unfortunately, worked. Since Supergirl season 5 began, the aftermath of Lena learning Kara’s true identity has been explored, leading Lena down a dark path as the result of the years of ongoing trauma and betrayal she’s experienced.
However, as “Crisis on Infinite Earths” approaches, there’s an undeniable chance to correct this, giving fans another version of the story and the reveal to Lena. As disappointing as it was for Lex to tell Lena, especially because he only did it to hurt her, it also has explored the darker side of the aftermath. If things changed and Kara revealed the truth herself, what would change, if anything? Should the Supergirl writers follow this path?
Redoing the Supergirl identity reveal
One of the more obvious ways around the mess that Supergirl season 5 has made of Kara Danvers and Lena Luthor’s friendship is to, after “Crisis on Infinite Earths,” undo it. Change the past so that Lena doesn’t find out from Lex, and Kara either has already or has the chance to let Lena know the truth herself, hopefully ending with much better results.
While we may never know for sure, if Kara were to tell Lena the truth, the terrible reaction could be avoided. Coming from Lex, the trauma of the reveal was heightened, as he knew (from years of experience of working to destroy her) exactly where to stick the knife and twist. Everyone with eyes knows that betrayal is Lena’s Achilles heel, as the result of her terrible childhood in the Luthor home.
Stick to the course after the crisis
The other path the writers can take is to stick to the story they’ve created on Supergirl season 5 and continue to work toward building back Kara and Lena’s friendship (or undoing it entirely, making the two enemies, which will probably cause a riot).
Following Supergirl season 5, episode 7 (and more than likely episode 8, too), in which Lena finally revealed her true feelings about Kara keeping this secret from her, these women have a lot of issues to work out. Their friendship is exceptionally shattered, as both Lena and Kara’s fear about reliving and experiencing their traumas was brought into the spotlight. Lena left Kara, alone and trapped with kryptonite, in the Fortress of Solitude, and stole Myriad to continue working on her project to remove humankind’s ability to hurt one another.
If Supergirl intends to avoid the usefulness of “Crisis on Infinite Earths” to reset this and put Lena back on the right path, with little effort, there’s a lot to answer to, especially for Lena. Project Non Nocere has had somewhat good intentions behind it, but Lena’s committed awful acts to move it forward, like inputting Hope’s consciousness into Eve’s body, trapping Malefic in her lab to harness his abilities, and what she most recently did to Kara.
Should the Lena Luthor reveal get a redo?
With “Crisis on Infinite Earths,” this really is a unique chance for the entire Arrow-verse at large to correct some of the wrongs they’ve done over these last seven years. With Supergirl, the Lena reveal is the only thing I can think of that I might want to change. However, it’s not as simple as just redoing it, and sticking to the course might make it impossible for Kara and Lena to have a decent relationship ever again.
As of now, I’m not sure how much damage has been dealt to their friendship, but it could possibly be irrevocable. Lena doesn’t let people hurt her twice outside of her god forsaken blood relatives, as we’ve seen, so she may never be willing to let Kara in again after this. Kara, on the other hand, would, of course, be willing to forgive Lena and move on, but her fear of losing people might cause her to overlook some of the things Lena has done, which is also unacceptable.
In my opinion, I would love for the reveal to be redone, giving Kara a chance to finally tell Lena the truth the right way, which is what we’ve wanted all along. I understand wanting to explore the darker side of Lena and having her find out in literally the worst way possible, but, for me, the writers would make a mistake if they didn’t use the opportunity to their advantage and reset it.
However, before that, Lena and Kara needs to begin to work through their issues. Erasing the past shouldn’t happen before Lena has a chance to (or to begin to) atone for her sins. While her feelings over this reveal have been entirely valid all season, her actions have not, and cleaning the slate without Lena taking responsibility for those actions is not the answer. That’s incredibly lazy writing, and it would give people more of a reason to dislike Lena (not that they really need a reason).
Given the Supergirl writers’ history of writing Lena and Kara’s friendship, I don’t trust them to handle this properly either if they choose to proceed with the course they’re on. So much of their friendship has happened off-screen, and given something enormous like this that has shaken both women so much, this absolutely cannot occur off-screen. If the writers want to put the effort into mending this relationship, they have to commit.
It’ll take quite a while, realistically, for Kara and Lena to get back the relationship they had (and better, with no secrets between them), but it would be more satisfying. Still, I’d prefer a redo, as long as the two have a conversation about everything that’s happened, acknowledge and accept it, and begin the process of moving on. Seeing Kara tell Lena the truth, and Lena having a better reaction, would be worth it.
Haven’t Kara and Lena both had enough emotional trauma inflicted upon them during their lives? Why not undo this little bit which pushed one of them over the edge?
Supergirl airs Sundays at 9 p.m. on The CW!
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