Supergirl Season 4: When Will Kara Learn Lena’s Secret?

The latest episode of Supergirl saw Lena Luthor hurtling full steam ahead with her experiments to develop a drug that could make humans “super.” With human trials officially underway, Lena is fully committed to the probably ill-fated attempt to create peace by giving humans more power. When she loses Adam at the end of “Rather the Fallen Angel,” it feels like a point of no return. How will Kara feel about Lena’s big secret when she finds out?

“It’s a very Luthor secret to keep,” Melissa Benoist (Kara/Supergirl) told Den of Geek and other reporters gathered on the Supergirl set earlier this month.

While Benoist wouldn’t reveal when Kara might start to clue in to the fact that Lena is keeping a major secret that not only has major ethical repercussions in the short-term, but would drastically shift the human-alien relationship forever, she did speak more broadly about where the Kara/Lena relationship is headed… And it doesn’t sound like it is is anywhere good.

“I think what’s so fun about exploring a Luthor and a ‘Super’ relationship is the slow burn of it,” said Benoist of the Kara/Lena dynamic. “I love that we’re telling in the way that Lex Luthor and Clark Kent were friends before they were enemies. I love that we’re telling that story, too. I would expect that it will be a really slow burn: that realization, reveal.”

Further reading: Katie McGrath On the Kara/Lena Relationship

As for the big secret that Kara is hiding from her best friend—i.e. the fact that she is Supergirl—Benoist made it sound like Kara wouldn’t be “coming out” anytime soon, despite this season’s exploration of the theme of “passing” and how important it can be to have visible role models for marginalized identities.

Further reading: Supergirl Casts Lex Luthor

“I don’t think it would be a Kryptonian story without stories like that,” said Benoist. “That’s just the nature of Clark Kent and Kara Danvers that they have to toe that line. That was the decision Kara made at the end of last season, the end of season three, that she wanted to embrace her life, messy as it could be with two identities, she didn’t have to choose. So I think she’s always going to be juggling both of those things.”

Keep up with all our Supergirl reviews and coverage here.

Kayti Burt is a staff editor covering books, TV, movies, and fan culture at Den of Geek. Read more of her work here or follow her on Twitter @kaytiburt.