And in the flashback they made a point of showing her beating Lex at Chess - so I suppose they're also implying she's 'smarter' than Lex and ambiguous as to what her ultimate goals are.
Spoilers Supergirl - Season 2
- Thread starter Commander Richard
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I don't think the stuff at the end necessarily meant she was a baddie, it just meant that she's up to something. If anything the fact that it was so ominous makes me think it was just a misdirect, and she's actually plotting something good. They have spent so much time setting her up as a friend for Kara and ally of Supergirl I'd really hate to see them undo all of that just to create an unnecessary parallel with her brother and Kara's cousin.
It was a little annoying that everyone just instantly assumed Lena was working with her mother. I understand that they wanted everyone to to assume she had to be evil since she was a Luthor, but I would have thought at this point she would have at least earned herself some benefit of the doubt after everything she has done to help.
We got some nice development on the Kara/Mon-El relationship. I am glad that they put a fairly quick end to the Eve/Mon-El thing, although it does look like we'll have the added complication of Mxyzptlk for at least one episode.
I was a little surprised that the rest of Kara and Alex's friends didn't know about Alex and Maggie.
It was a little surprising to see them kill off Metallo at the end of the episode, with the way the episode was playing out to that point, I thought he was being set up as Lillian's main muscle, but it looks like they're leaving that role to Cyborg Superman. I have to admit, I had forgotten that CS was even still around until he popped back up in the episode. I'm a little disappoint by that actually, because of the two I found Metallo to be more interesting.
It was a little annoying that everyone just instantly assumed Lena was working with her mother. I understand that they wanted everyone to to assume she had to be evil since she was a Luthor, but I would have thought at this point she would have at least earned herself some benefit of the doubt after everything she has done to help.
We got some nice development on the Kara/Mon-El relationship. I am glad that they put a fairly quick end to the Eve/Mon-El thing, although it does look like we'll have the added complication of Mxyzptlk for at least one episode.
I was a little surprised that the rest of Kara and Alex's friends didn't know about Alex and Maggie.
It was a little surprising to see them kill off Metallo at the end of the episode, with the way the episode was playing out to that point, I thought he was being set up as Lillian's main muscle, but it looks like they're leaving that role to Cyborg Superman. I have to admit, I had forgotten that CS was even still around until he popped back up in the episode. I'm a little disappoint by that actually, because of the two I found Metallo to be more interesting.
We're clearly meant to think Lena has some hidden agenda, though it need not necessarily be nefarious. Indeed I'd say at this point that would be the least interesting option.
Side note: beating Lex at chess is no small thing. In most versions of the DC universe (read: ones that aren't fixated on maternal given name coincidences), in terms of raw intellect he's about as intelligent as a human can possibly be. I think the best example is in the Elseworlds book 'Red Son' (for those that don't know, it's basically a "what if Kal-El landed in the Soviet Union" alternate universe.) In it, Brainiac calculates that someone of Lex's intelligence could talk Superman into committing suicide in only 14 minutes.
Side note: beating Lex at chess is no small thing. In most versions of the DC universe (read: ones that aren't fixated on maternal given name coincidences), in terms of raw intellect he's about as intelligent as a human can possibly be. I think the best example is in the Elseworlds book 'Red Son' (for those that don't know, it's basically a "what if Kal-El landed in the Soviet Union" alternate universe.) In it, Brainiac calculates that someone of Lex's intelligence could talk Superman into committing suicide in only 14 minutes.
As it happens, Lex only needed 12 written world to turn Superman's into a sobbing wreck and surrender.
Yes, I definitely think the scene is implying that she is smarter than Lex. And since Lex is considered a very intelligent individual, the fact that she is smarter, is meant to really impress us and maybe even scare us a bit. Whatever Lena's true goals are, she is someone that we should take very seriously.
I think the chess piece was meant to show that she was reflecting on the moment from her childhood when her mother said to her "You may be a Luthor after all." The problem with TV today becoming so driven by plot twists is that viewers (and sometimes writers' rooms, unfortunately) often forget that what should matter most is what a scene means to the characters emotionally, not how it foreshadows or reveals some plot development. Lena has just learned that she's Lex's biological half-sister rather than his adopted sister. That's something she has to process emotionally, an upheaval of her whole sense of identity.
I agree that showing her beating Lex at chess definitely reveals that she must have a remarkable intellect. And yes, it could be meant to hint that she has some larger game in mind (although there's certainly nothing intrinsically sinister about being a chess player). But the emotional meaning of the scene is important too.
Yeah. Like I said, this is at least twice now that they've made us suspect she was bad and had her turn out to be good -- I'd like to see that treated as a settled question and move on, instead of just repeating the same bit. I don't believe she's secretly evil; I think she is good, but the revelation of her biological Luthor-ness may potentially lead her to doubt herself and lose her way, in which case Kara/Supergirl will have to save her from herself.
I dunno, I liked it because we got to see more of Eve. She's really cute.
I do wonder why they even named her Eve Teschmacher, though. She's nothing like Valerie Perrine's character from the movie, and she has no connection to the Luthors (unless it turns out she's secretly been a mole this whole time). It seems like maybe they just put her in as a one-joke character so Cat Grant could yell "Miss Teschmacher!" as a Gene Hackman homage, but they liked the actress so they kept her around.
I did like the bit establishing that Daxamites had no concept of homophobia, that Mon-El didn't think the gender of romantic partners mattered in the least. I wonder, does that mean he's bi?
EDIT I wrote all this before even seeing your suggestion that Eve could be a Mole for the Luthors Christopher. 
I have wondered if part of the inspiration of having Eve Teschmacher on Supergirl is to clarify that she is a unique character.
On Smallville "Tess Mercer" was originally presented as their version of Miss Teschmacher combined with Mercy Graves from Superman The Animated Series. All that was completely overided by the later revelation that she was Lex's half sister with the middle name Lena. Her ultimately joining and helping Clark and his friends fit the pattern of Lena being the good Luthor.
Actually the obvious person to suspect of betraying Kara and Mon-El is Miss Teschmacher. Maybe she works for Lex and/or Lillian and is spying on everyone at CatCo? Though maybe that is too obvious a direction given the character's name comes from another Superman incarnation where she worked for Lex. But given that many fans are assuming it's Lena who is going to turn bad, the writers may be counting on us never even thinking of Eve.
I have wondered if part of the inspiration of having Eve Teschmacher on Supergirl is to clarify that she is a unique character.On Smallville "Tess Mercer" was originally presented as their version of Miss Teschmacher combined with Mercy Graves from Superman The Animated Series. All that was completely overided by the later revelation that she was Lex's half sister with the middle name Lena. Her ultimately joining and helping Clark and his friends fit the pattern of Lena being the good Luthor.
Actually the obvious person to suspect of betraying Kara and Mon-El is Miss Teschmacher. Maybe she works for Lex and/or Lillian and is spying on everyone at CatCo? Though maybe that is too obvious a direction given the character's name comes from another Superman incarnation where she worked for Lex. But given that many fans are assuming it's Lena who is going to turn bad, the writers may be counting on us never even thinking of Eve.
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oooo... My head hurts from watching the last few episodes of SG. They keep beating us over the head that Alex is gay and in a relationship. That's all fine, but they don't have to keep congratulating themselves that they wrote this. And they've been doing it every week since. The whole idea of equality is that they should be no different than the next couple, whatever combination - male/female, female/female, human/alien, white martian/green martian, etc...
Just watched the episode. I thought it was pretty mediocre. I don't find Lillian Luthor to be a compelling villain, and I don't care either way about Lena. Kara's obsession with defending Lena got tiring. I'm also beyond tired of the "will they/won't they" thing with Kara and Mon-El. Overall, this was one of the weakest episodes this season, but hopefully next episode will be better (although I don't like their decision to make mister mxyzptlk a generically attractive CW character instead of something closer to one of the comic appearances).
No, they don't. They just show that she's in a relationship. It's no more "beating us over the head" than it is showing Barry and Iris having romantic beats every week. The fact that being involved with a woman is a novelty for Alex is something that gets a nod maybe once in a given episode at most, and then they move on. (For instance, the only reference last week was Alex saying she took a big romantic risk recently, and that scene was more about encouraging Kara to pursue Mon-El.) And it's perfectly logical for someone who's only just discovered her true orientation to want to acknowledge that. It would be unrealistic if she didn't talk about it.
Seriously? A 30 second scene is beating you over?
Just how is it "different"?
What I love about it is just how cheesy and cute and "regular" it is, and not the usual "sexy lesbians makeout party" for the attention of the male viewership...
Exactly. In last week's episode of THE FLASH alone, we had repeated scenes of Barry and Iris professing their love for each other, Joe West getting serious about his new girlfriend, and Caitlin asking Julian out for drinks in what appears to be the first inklings of a new romantic subplot. And just the week before, we had Cisco and Gypsy flirting with each other nonstop for pretty much the entire episode. All of which got as much or more screen time than Alex & Maggie this week.
Meanwhile, back at Supergirl, I'm pretty sure Kara's romantic angst regarding Mon-El also got a lot more screen time than that little bit with Alex and Maggie (although, yeah, I didn't entirely buy that the rest of the D.E.O. was still out of the loop regarding their relationship status). Plus, now that I think of it, we also had mention of that fact that J'onn was still pining for Miss Martian . . ...
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It's starting to get to the point where I feel like all this talk about Lena being evil/turning to the dark side is the very thing that Kara accuses James and Snapper Carr of in this episode: confirmation bias. It's almost as if, regardless of what the comics source material says, people feel like Lena HAS to be evil just because she's a Luthor - even though the show has gone out of its way to prove, time and again, that being a Luthor doesn't automatically make her bad - which is just sad.
Regarding Maggie and Alex's relationship and the way it's been handled, the show has actually been remarkably "low-key" in terms of the way they've dealt with it, treating it, as noted, as just another facet of the characters' lives and not something that is in any way "special" beyond noting that it's 'new territory' for Alex personally.
Regarding Maggie and Alex's relationship and the way it's been handled, the show has actually been remarkably "low-key" in terms of the way they've dealt with it, treating it, as noted, as just another facet of the characters' lives and not something that is in any way "special" beyond noting that it's 'new territory' for Alex personally.
Exactly. Part of the problem is that the comics source material is decades old and a bunch of reboots ago, and people who are aware of the character of Lena at all know her mostly from the Smallville Tess Mercer version -- who was never originally meant to be Lena at all and was a pseudo-amalgam of Luthor's two most famous "henchwoman" characters. And most other people just assume "Oh, this must be the show creating a female version of Lex to go up against Supergirl," because they don't know the comics history.
Really, I don't know where this "All Luthors are bad" idea came from. I guess it must've been Smallville again, because that introduced the idea that Lex's father was the prototype for Lex. Which was actually pretty revisionist, because part of the core idea of the pre-Smallville Lex Luthor was that he'd built himself up from nothing, that he'd earned his power and wealth through his own efforts and brilliance, which was a key part of why he had so much resentment for Superman having even greater power through an accident of birth and biology. Part of the post-Crisis Lex's backstory, IIRC, was that he'd murdered his parents and obscured all reference to his Suicide Slum origins. The pre-Crisis version was that his parents were good people and had faked their deaths and changed their name (and that of their infant daughter Lena) to Thorul out of shame at being related to the world's most evil supervillain. (Because of course the best way to hide your real name from a supergenius is to very slightly anagram it.)
The opinions/expectations of uninformed general viewers isn't what bothers me about this whole "Lena Luthor is going to turn evil" thing; what bothers me about it is that it's largely coming from people who claim to be familiar with the comics source material from which Supergirl is derived, both past and present, even though the very notion of her being evil flies completely in the face of what the comics have done and what this show has been telling us - and continues to tell us - about her character.
When they showed the video of "Lena" getting the Kryptonite, I was convinced that it was going to turn out to be Miss Teschmacher until they revealed it was Hank Henshaw.
Maybe that explains why Kara is so free with her identity at the DEO: they're a little slow on the uptake.
That said, I am glad that Alex doesn't have to out herself anymore and we can get back to our usual relationship melodrama and angst.
I was kinda surprised that Alex didn't tell any of them already, but I can totally buy they didn't figure it out themselves. People generally see only what they expect to see...
I wonder if this episode was originally written to be produced earlier in the season? Hence the delayed revelation of Alex and Maggie's relationship to the rest of the DEO. Or unrelated why next week's episode is Valentines Day theme instead of airing the night before the actual day???
^ Supergirl might have been pushed back a week. Back in December, I think it was reported that the show would return on January 16th but it actually came back a week later on the 23rd.
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