After six seasons, Supergirl is over. It was a conflicting end, especially when it came to the treatment and handling of the star character. Kara Danvers (Melissa Beoist) was, by all accounts, a failure in the final season. While most shows end by celebrating the characters’ journeys and giving them a grand farewell, Supergirl did just the opposite.
The final season was not meant to be the end for the beloved Super Friends. In reality, viewers were often treated to things that should have been presented earlier. This included Lena Luthor becoming an witch and Kelly Olsen taking over as Guardian.
However, the characters at least were making progress in their lives. Kara Danvers was not able to make the same progress as the other characters until the series finale.
Covid-19 had stopped production of Supergirl five slightly earlier than planned. The final run saw Kara (bangs, all) fighting Lex Luthor and was then sent to the Phantom Zone. Melissa Benoist was on maternity leave at that time, so she was unable to film for the first few months of the season. The horrors of Kara’s time in the Phantom Zone, where one’s worst fears are used against you to take away all hope, was not shown to viewers.
After Kara was saved from the Phantom Zone’s clutches, viewers returned from an extended hiatus in order to see her deal with the trauma and determine where her life is headed next.
As the series does every other time, the story was dropped completely. Kara moved forward to face the next threat to National City. This is also when Kara’s story began to get a bit murky.
In the episodes that followed her return, Kara was in the backseat while other characters took the spotlight. This was understandable considering the many characters who were regular series roles. There were also many stories to finish up.
The focus on Kara was only revealed halfway through the last episode. Kara considered a new promotion and then revealed her identity as Supergirl. Too little, too late and certainly not a satisfying story to end the character’s life.
Supergirl was a hero who showed no growth in saving Kara. Kara was always wrong about the right path to follow to defeat the villains. This story was told even in the penultimate episode, when Kara took on more power from sun before realising the harm it was doing to the people she was protecting. She could not stop Nyxly or Lex, constantly losing the same battle to them over and over in the final episode.
Kara was not even a part of the battle against Lex and Nyxly in the last episode, but other characters had some great moments saving the day.
Mon-El saved Kara. Kara did not fight against Lex or Nyxly. They were dragged through the portal to the Phantom Zone in their final moments.
To make the story about National City being capable of protecting itself against all threats, the show dramatic undermined Kara’s status as a hero. It told a story that saw her become worse with time and not celebrating how strong she should be been.
Supergirl was made a side-character on her own TV show and not allowed to share her story. This was evident most when it came to heroes and fighting adaptive villains with the Super Friends, but Kara’s personal story ended on an extremely disappointing note.
Kara’s personal life remained stagnant for so long. Kara witnessed others around her grow throughout season 6. Kelly and Alex were married and had a daughter, Esme. After a turbulent relationship between Nia and Brainy, he decided to leave the future. Then there’s Lena who turned into a witch to learn more about her birth mom before finally leaving the Luthors behind.
Kara mentioned throughout the show that she wants love, family, and romantic love. She ends the show alone, and not in an encouraging way. This is more a result of the unfortunate events of the writers who never intended to tell Kara a decent love story and left only one character as a reasonable lover interest after six years.
No matter what the reason, Kara ended the show single. It’s extremely disappointing to see a character, even in season six episode eight, that said she didn’t want to be with anyone. She wanted the same things Alex found with Kelly and Nia with Brainy.
The question is: Why is Kara likely to be the Arrowverse’s only leading hero, but not with a true partner? Oliver passed away at the end Arrow, and he ended with Felicity. Why was Kara not finding happiness in all aspects of her life a priority at the end of her journey.
We are huge fans of the Supergirl seasons and it is disappointing to see Kara’s story end in such a bad way. Kara revealing herself to the world as Supergirl should have happened much sooner in the series. We now have an entire series in which Kara claimed she was being inauthentic, scared, despite the fact that this is not the case. She also fears for her loved ones, and revealed her identity in the 100th episode of Parallel Universes.
It doesn’t make any sense to be the Editor-in Chief, given how low work was on her priority list… And is anyone going to question the numerous times Kara Danvers used Supergirl in her articles?
Supergirl, much like the rest, ends in a mess. It doesn’t fit into the context of all that has happened before and shows that the powers-that-be didn’t know how to treat Kara Danvers. She is an impressive woman, and canonically, the Earth’s most powerful superhero.
