When Does Lena Find Out Kara Is Supergirl?

With the debut of the newest live-action Supergirl in ‘The Flash‘ movie, we saw the opportunity to go back to the ‘Supergirl’ TV series that ran for six seasons between 2015 and 2021. Long before Sasha Calle was cast as Kara Zor-El, Melissa Benoist wore one of the most-known capes in comic book history. During six seasons and 126 episodes, ‘Supergirl’ introduced many supporting characters, including Katie McGrath’s Lena Luthor. In this article, we’ll examine the relationship between Kara and Lena to tell you when Lena found out that Kara is the Girl of Steel.

Katie McGrath joined the ‘Supergirl’ series as Lena Luthor in Season 2 as the recurring character. In Season 3, she was upped to a series regular and remained as such until the last season. Lena is depicted as the half-sister of Lex Luthor and the CEO of L-Corp (formerly known as Luthor Corp) as she tries to use the company for good after Lex’s incarceration. She eventually became friends with both Kara and Supergirl, but she didn’t know they were the same person until the 22nd and final episode of Season 4. Thinking that her best friend lied to her, Lena became a temporary antagonist but later reconciled with Kara in the 18th episode of Season 5.

The moment you think about the Luthor name, you’d probably think about the enemy of anyone who wears the crest of the House of El. And true, Lena’s last name had put her on the bad side of Supergirl’s allies several times, particularly when she was still a new character. But Kara believed in Lena, and they eventually became good friends. Lena’s character arc was mainly built on the idea of how Luthor and a Kryptonian can be allies and her attempts to prove not all Luthors are bad. Even though she had a temporary villain arc in Season 5, Lena was never a true villain like her mother, Lillian, and her half-brother, Lex. In the following paragraphs, we’ll examine Lena Luthor’s story in more detail.

The history of Lena Luthor’s character

The ‘Supergirl’ series first premiered in 2015 on CBS. After airing the first 20-episode season on that network, the series was moved to The CW, where it remained for the rest of its run. Moving to The CW has also officially made ‘Supergirl’ the canon of the Arrowverse. Apart from not airing on The CW, one big difference the first season of the series had compared to later seasons is that it didn’t feature Lena Luthor.

Lena Luthor wasn’t an original character in the ‘Supergirl’ series. The character was Jerry Siegel (co-creator of Superman) and Kurt Schaffenberger, and she first appeared in ‘Superman’s Girl Friend, ‘Lois Lane’ #23,’ in February 1961. During the Silver Age of Comic Books, she was depicted as the sister of Superman’s arch-enemy Lex Luthor. Regardless of her family name, she was frequently associated with the Superman family as an ally of Supergirl. She even changed her last name to Lena Thorul to distance herself from her family name.

In the Silver Age continuity, Lena’s last appearance was in ‘Superman Family #214’ in January 1982, and three years later, the original Supergirl was killed off in ‘Crisis on Infinite Earths,’ which created a new mainstream universe known as New Earth. The character of Supergirl was eventually revived in 2004, and New Earth’s Lena Luthor first appeared in ‘Superman: Secret Origin’ #1 in November 2009.

This incarnation of the character didn’t last for long since, in 2011, the ‘Flashpoint’ erased New Earth and replaced it with Prime Earth, in which Lena Luthor is depicted as Lex’s paraplegic sister that eventually becomes the villain known as the Ultrawoman.

Lena Luthor’s story in The CW ‘Supergirl’

While Lena Luthor from the ‘Supergirl’ series is arguably the most known live-action incarnation of the character, she wasn’t the first one ever. The character first appeared in the ‘Superboy’ TV series (1988-1992), played by Denise Gossett, with Jennifer Hawkins playing the young version of the character. In the ‘Smallville’ series (2001-2011), Cassidy Freeman played the character Tess Mercer, who was later revealed to be Lutessa Lena Luthor.

The third live-action Lena Luthor, played by Katie McGrath, debuted in the ‘Supergirl’ series in the second season’s first episode in October 2016. In the series, Lena Luthor took control of Luthor Corp after her brother Lex was defeated and imprisoned by Superman (off-screen). Lena changed the company’s name to L-Corp in an effort to distance the company from the Luthor name and fix its reputation.

Although she eventually befriended Kara Danvers, Lena had a hard time due to her family name, which was shown in the “Luthors” episode (2×12) when she was wrongfully arrested, and no one wanted to trust her except Kara. After her name was cleared, Lena and Kara remained good friends, although Kara never revealed to Lena that she was Supergirl.

Lena eventually finds out about Kara’s secret in the season finale of Season 4, which ends her friendship and trust in the Kryptonian. At the beginning of Season 5, Lena plays in front of Kara to make her trust that they’re still on good terms while actually planning her own plot against Kara.

Lena’s villain arc was eventually resolved at the end of the season when she decided to turn against Lex and asked for Kara’s help to defeat him and Leviathan. If you ask us, turning Lena into a villain (at least temporarily) was a good idea to put her character and her friendship with Kara to an ultimate test, but the way it was resolved was the definition of lazy writing. Too bad.

Since Lena’s introduction in the second season, Lena and Kara developed a strong friendship, eventually creating a fanon ship known as Supercorp. While their friendship was indeed strong, full of trust and great chemistry, there were never any indications that they were in love or anything more than that. If you think they were, let us know in the comments.

Was Lena one of your favorite or least favorite characters in ‘Supergirl’? Do you think she would make a good villain, or do you like the way the character was handled throughout the series? Let us know in the comments.

Liked this article? Follow us on Bluesky for the latest Marvel & DC news!