REALITY TV
TV
MOVIES
MUSIC
CELEBRITY
About Us Contact Us Privacy Policy Terms of Use Accuracy & Fairness Corrections & Clarifications Ethics Code Your Ad Choices
© MEAWW All rights reserved
MEAWW.COM / ENTERTAINMENT / TV

'Supergirl': Lena Luthor could be slowly evolving into her former friend's most formidable enemy yet

Lena Luthor's discovery of Supergirl's secret identity has sent her down a path that may lead her to become Supergirl's greatest challenge.
PUBLISHED OCT 29, 2019

Spoiler Warning - This article contains spoilers for ‘Supergirl’, Season 5. 

“I’m not a villain,” says Lena Luthor in the very first episode of ‘Supergirl’, Season 5. So far this season, though, every step she’s taken appears to be taking her down the path towards her becoming the most dangerous foe Supergirl’s ever faced.

It seems to be an unwritten law of the Superman mythos that the house of El and a Luthor can never be on the same side - at least not for long. Alarm bells rang in many of the fans’ minds when Lena (Katie McGrath) - sister of longtime Superman rival Lex Luthor - first appeared on the show in Season 2. Over time, however, Lena worked hard to overcome the villainy associated with the Luthor name. She’s become one of Kara’s(Melissa Benoist) closest friends, and one of Supergirl’s most helpful allies. That she didn’t know that Supergirl and Kara Danvers are one and the same changed at the end of Season 4, and is one of the main motivations for Lena’s current villainous path. 

Lena was deeply hurt at finding out that Kara had been lying to her for so long. Even though Kara finally revealed her secret identity to Lena on her own, it was too little, too late. Though Lena pretends to forgive Kara’s lying, her confessions to her personal AI, Hope(Kari Wahlgren) show that Lena’s friendship with Kara is over. All pretenses to the contrary are merely Lena’s manipulations of an incredibly useful ally to further her own ends. Those ends are rather ominous in their own right - Lena is attempting to rewrite the minds of humanity as a species. 

What makes Lena especially chilling as a villain is her belief that her cause is so noble, it’s worth doing whatever it takes to achieve them. Granted, this is what nearly every villainous character believes to be true, but it’s different when coming from a character that fans have come to empathize with over the several seasons since her first appearance. Lena has been shown to be clever, competent and compassionate. She’s not just some villain-of-the-week mad scientist with a quick gimmick;  fans have seen just how good of a person Lena has been. The extent to which that goodness is twisted is equal parts heartbreaking and scary.

Her ultimate goal of rewriting the minds of humans on a global scale, while being noble in intent, is ultimately tantamount to the erasure of free will. Lena has succumbed to the classic Luthor trope of believing she knows what’s best for humanity, whether they want it or not. She’s aware of just how controversial her plan is, or she wouldn’t be doing it in secret. She’s already committed several criminal actions, including the imprisonment of Eve Tessmacher(Andrea Brooks) and the subsequent replacement of Eve’s mind with Hope. She’s manipulated Supergirl into helping Lena achieve her goals, and, as of episode 5, has kidnapped and imprisoned Malefic(Phil Lamarr).

That she can imprison a being as powerful as Malefic would be intimidating enough, but considering the focus of her research, it’s only a matter of time before Lena is able to duplicate Malefic’s powers of mental manipulation. Supergirl may be invulnerable to a great many things, but psychic invasion is not one of them. 

With each step Lena takes towards the darkness, fans of the show get to see the evolution of a true villain who may just become Supergirl’s greatest challenge. Is it too late for Lena to be able to turn back, and seek redemption? Only time will tell.

The next episode of ‘Supergirl’, ‘Dangerous Liasons’, airs on the CW on November 3, 2019. 

POPULAR ON MEAWW
MORE ON MEAWW