‘Supergirl’ season 2, episode 12 review: The saga of Lena Luthor
Who is Lena Luthor really? This is a question that was certainly in demand entering Monday night’s new episode of “Supergirl,” and it is a question that we were thrilled to get a little bit of further insight on — though only so much given the way that it ended.
Is the show trying to paint Lena as a hero or a villain? The answer lies somewhere in between, as they seem to relish her being this ambiguous figure with the capability of being either depending on what direction her heart is leaning at a given moment. As of right now, it’s more in the “hero” direction given that regardless of whatever footage the show gives us of her playing chess, she still wanted to do what she could in order to stop Lillian Luthor and Metallo from fulfilling their mission. She only visited her as a means of getting further closure, and there was no ulterior motivation when it comes to a desire for her to see her out of a hope for closure, and of getting to understand further all that had transpired.
There was in this episode some valuable Lena backstory, as we learned that she shared a father with Lex, but not a mother and she was born as a result of an affair. Lillian found growing up with her to be extremely tough, given that she served as a constant reminder of her father at almost every turn. It was something that she struggled to live with, and it’s something that could continue to be a struggle for her if they ever had some sort of a relationship in the future. You do have to remember for a minute here that Lillian was spared death at the episode’s end, as she and Cyborg Superman were able to take off while Metallo over-used his powers and ended up detonating himself in the process.
Kara, Mon-El get closer to being an item – This is the romance that feels inevitable at this point, and in the midst of the saga with helping Lena clear her name, we basically saw these two admit to their shared feelings. It took Kara seeing him potentially be with someone else before realizing how much she cared about him, but sometimes relationships work like that. Critically, there’s no issue with that; our main issue with Kara and Mon-El together is just that it feels a little obvious, and that there was not necessarily any need for us for her to have a love interest this season. This show plays up this angle far more than it needs to, and we’ve already got one stable relationship in Alex and Maggie. (We like the two of them together, and they give us the love quotient for the time being.)
Meanwhile, does anyone else still even remember when Will had a crush of her, and how important that was to the story of the show?
Overall – The fun cliffhanger is going to carry over to getting to see a certain famous imp next week, one who happens to be in love with Kara. As for the remainder of the episode, it was fascinating to get more of Lena’s story, but entirely predictable along the way, especially in how everyone didn’t believe Kara only for them to realize later that she was right in the end. Grade: B.
What did you think of this episode, and do you have a feeling as to which direction Lena truly lies? Share below.