Dear Supergirl Characters: Get a Room!

Thanksgiving may be right around the corner but it's getting steamy Monday nights at 8. Lingering stares. Inhibitions falling away. Seduction against a better judgment that's witless against an unfathomable desire so palpable it can't be denied. And that's just the budding bromance between Mon-El (Chris Wood) and Winn (Jeremy Jordan).

Now that it's crossed over, Supergirl is ready to start pairing people off and raising that tension to CW heights. Through four episodes of its second season, the show hasn't been afraid to shake relationships of the past in a sad breakup, like Kara (Melissa Benoist) and James (Mehcad Brooks), or just making characters disappear altogether so they can't haunt the current relationships. I mean, where did Maxwell Lord (Peter Facinelli) go to anyway?

With so much tension going on, it might be a good idea to run through all the combinations and discuss who might take off, who is destined for unspeakable disaster, and who is stuck on the runway. And we'll start with last lady of Krypton herself, Kara zor-El.

KARA ZOR-EL AND MON-EL

I guess El is a common last name, like the mighty Smith family or the fighting Browns, so much so that it spread to Krypton's enemy sister planet. Things seem to be heating up lately between the pretty humanoids as he shows himself to be douchey but vulnerable and she shows that even a Kryptonian can take haughtiness down a notch or two. I mean, not that much since their bond is starting under the premise that she's responsible for him like a mother hen, the way that she was going to protect her cousin. Mon-El meeting Kara for the first time, choking her, and then throwing her through a window, is also a really weird meet-cute.

But it's hard to imagine that two pretty aliens, hanging out together all the time, both with destroyed home worlds, wouldn't result in at least some light, tender kissing. It's kind of disappointing in a way. Kara and James split up because she wanted to focus on herself but now it seems like we're heading down the path to a Poundtown powered by Earth's yellow sun. While Kara zor-El has been kicking butt and taking names (and sometimes getting her butt kicked and having her name taken), the subplot around Kara Danvers has been a little anemic, boiled down to a now nearly formula growly exchange with Snapper Carr (Ian Gomez) over her articles.

"Finding yourself" is a popular theme in the Berlanti-verse but, unlike The Flash and Arrow, Supergirl's take looked to be more positive, more human, less "time travel is magic." There's a lot of potential in watching Kara find herself in the newsroom, learn how to be more assertive, learn to break down barriers without having to literally punch through them. It would be unfortunate to see a boy steal focus from that.

J'ONN J'ONZZ AND M'GANN M'ORZZ

No wonder J'onn (David Harewood) isn't much of a talker. Back when he was on Mars, people just read each other's minds in place of conversation. You knew everything about a person in six seconds. It's hard to exercise that small talk muscle when you know exactly the last time everyone around you peed their pants. Some folks it might be understandable. For others, it might be hard to even look them in the eye.

It's hard to tell with the consistently stoic J'onn whether or not he has romantic feelings for M'gann (Sharon Leal) or if he's just happy that he can mind-meld with someone. It's been 300 years. Although I'm still not really clear on how invasive that bonding is. Was J'onn downplaying it because he really, really wants to get in her head? Was J'onn overeager about making a friend? Or is he treating this like it's closing time and they are the last two bar patrons on Earth?

In either case, J'onn is probably not going to love that M'gann is really descended from the race that tried to exterminate him, his family, his extended family, and everyone else that wasn't large, monstrous and white. No matter what J'onn's intentions are, this is heading for doom and, while it doesn't seem like M'gann is out to rip anyone apart like the other White Martians seem super into, J'onn can hold a grudge. Maybe these two can find some common ground. However they both feel about each other, they are, indeed, survivors of a lost civilization. I'm curious how that makeout session would be blocked. Seems like a lot of careful positioning.

ALEX DANVERS AND MAGGIE SAWYER

Last week's lingering glances have escalated to a look of disappointment, when Maggie (Floriana Lima) introduced her girlfriend, and, of course, hand-holding. Alex (Chyler Leigh) hasn't declared any feelings or even a persuasion but the writing seems to be on the wall that we're heading for a glorious Maggie and Alex team-up, romantic stylez. What do we call them? Algie? Maggalex? Sanvers? We're going to go with Sanvers because it doesn't sound like pond scum or a Decepticon.

The best part about this (speculative) relationship is how it's growing organically. That was the problem with all the other relationships that tried to happen last season that couldn't happen or didn't happen well: Kara and Adam Foster (Blake Jenner), Kara and James, Winn and Siobhan (Italia Ricci), Lucy (Jenna Dewan-Tatum) and James. The show did a lot of telling us that people like each other and not a lot of showing us how they got to like each other. Whatever is happening between Maggie and Alex is being given a chance to breathe and that's how episodic storytelling should work. Build the tension, parcel the milestones in smaller increments (half-milestones? kilometer-stones?), and give people a chance to fall in love at the same time the characters are. Two episodes into the Sanvers era, it feels like Supergirl found a groove.

That being said, I'm not in the business of speculating and don't want to go too far in crowning the couple until something more concrete happens. My favorite YouTuber recently created an acrostic with his video titles on his secondary channel that read WE ARE PRESENTLY HAVING A BA and then the next video started with an O and featured him and his wife eating pork buns. I'm saying I've been burned before. But I'm cautiously optimistic.

KARA DANVERS AND LENA LUTHOR

Now this is an interesting one. Lena (Katie McGrath) has a powerful demeanor that can come off flirty, especially when someone as meek as Kara walks into the room. Telling her assistant that Kara can come up whenever she wants, no questions asked, only pours fuel on the fire that maybe Lena is trying to scoop on this reporter.

I've mentioned before that I think it was be intriguing (and surprising) if Kara found herself somewhere outside of heteronormative on the sexuality spectrum, whether she is gay, asexual, or polyamorous (talk about being a people pleaser, amirite? Sigh. No rimshots in internet essays), but this might be less of a budding romance so much as it is a version of the Lex and Clark friendship during the early seasons of Smallville. It may be fun to think about Kara having deep thoughts about who she wants to love but we're stymied by two big issues: 1) Supergirl is a high-level DC property now and 2) we're in a Berlanti-verse where leads don't have the capacity to unearth any strong sexuality let alone a strong sexuality that might be controversial.

As much as Lena and Kara would be a power couple that could finally merge the Luthors and the House of El like Montagues and Capulets, it's almost certain that the show is going to leave all of that to the fanciful imaginations of slash-fiction writers at large. Do us proud, fandom.

QUICK SUPER PUNCHES

Mon-El and Winn: Mon-El was probably just using Winn to keep himself from going stir-crazy, but I wouldn't mind a nice Cisco/Barry relationship developing between them. Cisco/Harry might be too much to ask of anyone on any show. Speaking of Barry, though ...

Kara and Barry (Grant Gustin): It's a statistical impossibility and I have no interest in separating the couple of destiny Barry and Iris (Candice Patton), but with the ice cream and the running and the adorableness, wouldn't you want to just see them on one date? A bottle episode with them at a fancy restaurant. It's be the cutest.

Snapper Carr and the Dry Erase Board: I mean, he doesn't treat it right but he's into mixing fluids with it. Spitting into his hand and wiping it on the board might be the most loving relationship he has.

Cat Grant (Calista Flockhart) and Maxwell Lord: Two power players in National City disappear at around the same time. Coincidence? Necessary budget cuts? Naw. They're both standing in the sun on a beach in the middle of clear, blue waters, sipping toxically sweet tropical drinks and lightly, tenderly kissing. Or boning. Neither of them are saddled with a hero worship that restrains human urges.
Supergirl airs Mondays at 8/7c on The CW.

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