A listener named Shang wrote in to share opinions on the dichotomy of Kara’s Earthly and Kryptonian identities and how they affect her friendship with Lena Luthor.

Might be an unpopular opinion, but I felt both Kara’s and Lena’s sides having their own points regarding Kryptonite. (Because I see a lot of people siding with Lena.)

As we all know, Kara is Lena’s self-proclaimed number one supporter. Kara Danvers would never believe the worst of Lena, even with Kryptonite involved. (In the episode “Luthors”, Kara watched video footage of Lena taking Kryptonite out of her office safe and still refused to believe Lena was involved?)

Except that we didn’t see Kara Danvers a lot in Season 3. We mostly saw Kara Zor-El. At the beginning of Season 3, Kara lost touch with her Danvers side and I felt the rift as being an accumulation of that disconnect to who she is. We first see her disconnect in the episode titled “Girl of Steel”. We hadn’t had much Kara and Lena either, with James taking up words and sentences for what Kara would have been there for. (I felt as though this is the writers pushing the Super vs Luthor story.). Yes, we have seen Kara with Purity and Imra and how she uses her humanity to try and help, but it was more evident that she kept that alien side of her. (Being Supergirl, rather than actually doing her job, the writers probably had to make Lena her boss or it would just be unrealistic for her not to get fired.)

In “Shelter from the Storm”, the elevator scene is a rare moment for Kara Danvers to hear Lena say that she’ll never trust Supergirl again. That moment was when Kara realizes how disconnected she has become with her best friend and that when the reveal happens, nothing will ever be the same. Kara had been thinking as an alien, threatened by Kryptonite. We are really seeing a Super vs a Luthor. It’s not Kara anymore. It’s Supergirl.

As for Lena, I understood her standpoint. She knew the DEO would have stepped in to take control of the Kryptonite. Sam was her friend. What if they did much worse to her? Lena did what she could. I believe that if Kara told her she was Supergirl, she would have still made the Kryptonite, BUT would have told Kara about it.

As much as I hate the execution of this Kryptonite argument (Kara could bring up way better points of Kryptonite corruption rather than “it can kill her”), we are definitely in for a ride. We have a conflict between two people who love each other. This conflict has the potential to wake Kara up and get her to reveal who she really is before Lena finds out, but this same conflict will tear Lena apart either way. For her to go down and be Kara’s enemy? I don’t think so. But, for her to breakdown emotionally and make bad choices? Definitely.

– Shang

About the author

Rebecca Johnson