Should the ‘Supergirl’ Finale Have Made Supercorp Canon?

If you ask pretty much any fan of The CW’s Supergirl, which finished its run after six seasons tonight with the episodes “The Last Gauntlet” and “Kara”, the question “should Supergirl have made Supercorp canon?” is a stupid one, at best. The fan ‘shipped coupling of Kara Zor-El (Melissa Benoist) and Lena Luthor (Katie McGrath) has overwhelmed almost any other conversation about the series since the latter character was introduced in Season 2. But — and this is an important distinction — the question is whether Supergirl should have made Supercorp canon in the final episode, and the answer to that is far more complicated.

Unlike her brother Lex (Jon Cryer), Lena was never really evil. A Luthor, for sure, but with a complicated morality. The series quickly set up the dynamic between Kara and Lena as allies, both connected not just though shared interests but (though they didn’t know it) by shared secrets. Lena always had some sort of scientific schemes going on in the background, while Kara wasn’t just a mild-mannered reporter at CatCo; she was also Supergirl.

The two also shared an undeniable chemistry, one that launched a deep analyzation of the show by fans looking for clues to whether the duo were supposed be just gal pals, or perhaps something more romantic was in the offing. Do a search for Supercorp on any social media platform and you’ll find the requisite slo-mo ‘shipping montages set to weepy music, side-by-side with deep dives into how specific shots and exchanges on the series parallel not Lex Luthor and Superman in other media appearances, as you might expect, but Lois Lane and Superman.

Whether you agree that the show has been teasing out Supercorp as a romantic relationship for the past five seasons or not, the evidence that the series has used these prior scenes as visual reference is undeniable. Add in that the show already has an LGBTQ+ couple in Kara’s sister Alex Danvers (Chyler Leigh) and Kelly Olsen (Azie Tesfai), and The CW’s general openness to all types of pairings, and it’s not out of the realm of possibility that Supergirl could be romantically tied to another woman.

Still, it hasn’t happened. Both characters have occasionally been tied to men: Kara and then Lena had romantic interest in Jimmy Olsen (Mechad Brooks) before he left the show; and Kara dated Mon-El (played by Benoist’s real-life husband Chris Wood) before he left the show, as well. But for the most part both characters have been single while nearly every other character had a more long-term love interest, further adding fuel to the fire.

That fire became an explosion during the final season in particular, when terms like “SUPERCORP IS CANON” and “SUPERGIRL IS GAY” regularly trended on Twitter; not with the thousand to two thousand tweets you expect from those sorts of microtrends, but often 40 to 50 thousand tweets or more. It was a concentrated effort, and a passionate one. It was also fruitless (something even the trenders had to know) since the series was already filmed and done by the time these final episodes have been airing.

And to clear it out of the way here: no, Supercorp was not made canon in the final episode of the series. Lena and Kara didn’t kiss, they didn’t profess their romantic love for each other, they didn’t even hold hands while walking into a spirit portal a la the somewhat confusing ending of Nickelodeon’s The Legend of Korra. But that doesn’t mean the episode wasn’t completely Supercorp free, and as usual, it’s up to fan interpretation what it all meant.

After dispelling with the conflict that has consumed most of the season — fifth-dimensional imp Nyxly (Peta Sergeant) and Lex Luthor teaming up to control a mystical artifact called the AllStone — most of the episode was instead taken up with the preparations for Alex and Kelly’s wedding. It also featured the surprise return of Cat Grant (Calista Flockhart) through the magic of green-screen and an extremely gauzy filter as she called Kara and offered her the job of her dreams, Editor-in-Chief of the rebooted CatCo.

While the (beautiful and emotional) wedding ran in the foreground, leading to closure for all of the characters, from an upcoming proposal to a surprise child, Kara was grappling with how she could accept this job while still being Supergirl. A large part of the season itself has dealt with her realizing that she can’t be a good reporter and also mysteriously run away from her job at a moment’s notice to save people. Lying and journalism generally don’t mix, so she made the decision to leave her position and concentrate on being Supergirl full time. That, of course, didn’t work either, and one by one her friends tell her she needs to take the offer from Cat and figure it all out later.

The final, climactic conversation of not just the episode, but the entire series, is between Kara and Lena. Seeing her friend sitting alone at the wedding, Lena grabs a chair and asks her what’s wrong. What follows is a discussion of how you can be your true self when you’re hiding part of yourself from the world, and frankly, it’s hard to not read the lines as a thinly veiled reference to coming out.

For Lena, it’s all about how she discovered she’s been a magical witch her whole life, something that was revealed in this final season. She explains that her adoptive mother “basically programmed the magic out of me as a child,” which is a short leap to metaphorically discussing gay conversion therapy. Now, at this lesbian wedding she’s talking about how she’s “living my own life” not to mention wearing goth makeup and a purple pantsuit that… Well, you can figure that one out.

For Kara, it’s all about how she’s been hiding “behind these glasses,” and that “I don’t even know what that would feel like for me. Connecting with someone as my whole self. To not be afraid. To just be who I am.”

Again, it’s very easy to interpret all this as hiding behind being straight, when you’re gay. And the whole conversation feels like a friend who came out, gently coaching another friend who wants to come out, but isn’t sure how to start.

That all said? The words “friendship” and “friends” are dropped into the conversation at key moments, and Lena emphasizes how all of the characters are part of one big family. This is, to give credit where it’s due, one of the strengths of superhero fiction, that you can use these sorts of conflicts — in this case, revealing your superhero identity to the world — as a metaphor for a number of different things, based on how they relate to the individual viewer.

But it’s also hard not to view this scene knowing about the Supercorp ‘ship, and watch with slowly growing eyes and gaping jaw as the duo draw closer and closer physically, wondering if this is all going to end in a kiss. Again: it does not end in a kiss. Instead, Kara cries, they hug, and then head off to watch Alex and Kelly travel to their honeymoon in a flying car. And as they do, Kara leaves her glasses behind, her decision made.

The final scene of the series, just for closure’s sake, is the entire cast at Kara’s apartment drinking wine and playing games, like they have so many times before. Everyone is happy, nobody’s story is fully over, and meanwhile, on screens all over National City, Cat Grant introduces the world to Kara Danvers as Supergirl for the first time in a sit down interview. The series ends with Kara smiling, a whole person for the first time ever.

So to loop back to the original question, should Supercorp have become canon in the final episode? The answer (and bear with me for a second here) is, I think: no. Should Supercorp have become canon earlier in the season, or several seasons ago? Yes. I’m a little biased here, but I think the hundredth episode would have been a perfect time for the series to at least experiment with the couple through the magic of alternate realities. It wouldn’t have been satisfying, necessarily, but it would have helped loosen the pressure valve that is surely exploding online as we speak. Or even better, earlier this season when the Super Friends were trying to unlock the secrets of a mystical love totem, why not use that MacGuffin to reveal that Lena and Kara had feelings for each other that went beyond friendship?

Instead, as far as the continuity of the show is concerned, Supercorp never happened. It’s frustrating not just in terms of the overall plot of the series, which arguably would have been stronger if it had taken this narrative leap, but also because it is [checks calendar] 2021. The Legend of Korra was mentioned earlier, and since then animation has evolved in leaps and bounds: from that hand-holding moment in 2014 which had to be explained by the showrunners after the finale aired; to Catra (AJ Michalka) and Adora (Aimee Carero) literally saving the universe by kissing and confessing their love for each other in the finale of Netflix’s She-Ra and the Princesses of Power in 2020; and many, many other examples in between.

Live action is a different story, of course, and superhero series and movies have been the subject of wide discussions about their general lack of LGBTQ+ representation, leading all the way through the first real canonically gay couple in a Marvel movie being introduced just this past weekend in Eternals. The microcosm of The CW’s so-called Arrow-verse series is a little stronger in this regard, with characters ranging from the aforementioned Alex Danvers and Kelly Olsen, to Sara Lance (Caity Lotz) and Ava Sharpe (Jes Macallan) also getting married this year on DC’s Legends of Tomorrow, to two different lesbian Batwomen (Ruby Rose, Javicia Leslie) on Batwoman over the course of three seasons.

That said? Despite appearances to the contrary, you’re actually legally allowed to have more than one (1) lesbian couple on a TV series at a time… But having Kara and Lena profess their love for each other could have overwhelmed the focus on Alex and Kelly. That’s also a good argument for why it could have (and should have) happened a few episodes back, to allow room for the long-in-the-works wedding in the finale, instead of thousands of nervous fans watching the final episodes, desperately hoping Kara and Lena would seal the deal, instead of focusing on the matters at hand.

But as far as the finale goes, given that we have reached that point and Kara and Lena are not even remotely a couple, or even openly gay in the final episode, the way things are executed refocuses the series on Kara, and Kara alone. That is how it should be: the show started with a focus on Supergirl, the show is titled Supergirl, and it ends with Supergirl making a monumental decision that ties back to her origin story from the pilot. Again, having Kara and Lena kiss at the end of their post-wedding heart-to-heart would have made that the focus of the scene, not Kara’s individual journey.

And though it almost certainly is frustrating for fans, having Kara metaphorically and interpretively beginning her journey as a whole, cohesive personality right at the end here allows for the idea that beyond this point, anything is possible. Will she just continue to be pals with Lena, like those skeletons who were buried embracing each other in Modena, Italy 1,500 years ago because they were such good friends? Or will she profess her love for Lena, and they’ll be buried together like those skeletons from Modena, Italy from 1,500 years ago? Honestly, anything is possible.

I’m being glib (and certainly showing my prejudice for what I believe happens after this show ends), but the good news here is that the story, like so much superhero literature and media, doesn’t end. Kara doesn’t die, she doesn’t head to the future, or run away to live with her parents on Argo City, or any number of endings that would provide more finality to the series. Instead, Kara is just starting out, still fighting the forces of evil, and as the Arrow-verse is currently still running four plus different series (The Flash, DC’s Legends of Tomorrow, Batwoman, Superman & Lois, as well as DC’s Stargirl) there are plenty of opportunities to mention Kara and Lena’s “current” status. The bad news is that Supercorp wasn’t canonized in the context of Supergirl, the TV series. The good news is that through the very last moments of the finale, the show did nothing to negate it, either.

Is that enough for fans? I doubt it. There will almost definitely be calls of “queerbaiting” off this finale, the process where creators hint at an LGBTQ+ romance without actually delivering. I don’t consider myself qualified to weigh in on that specifically, though I’m sure plenty of viewers have evidence stacks a mile high they would pull out, if only this sort of thing had any standing in a court of law.

And see above re: the strides in animation for notes on why taking a leap to couple up Kara and Lena would have not just been progressive, but an entirely reasonable step for the show. But in the context of the 30 minutes that make up post-main conflict final episode of Supergirl, having the focus be on Kara, and Kara alone is laudable. And ultimately it seems a specific choice to have Lena be the final person who helps Kara accept her true self. Make of it what you will (and fans assuredly will make a lot of it), but that’s something, at least.

Also important? The show acknowledges how meaningful the two characters are to each other, by leaving us with this final moment, as Kara cries and takes off her glasses.

“Of all the friends I have ever had, you have pushed me the most,” Kara says, sobbing. “Challenged me the most.”

And as they hug, Lena whispers into Kara’s ear, “You’ve made me a better person. Thank you.”

Perhaps it’s a romantic moment, perhaps not. But it’s inarguable that these two characters have changed each other, and for the better. If that isn’t the core of Supercorp, I don’t know what is.

Where to watch Supergirl