Supergirl's Season Premiere Cliffhanger Will Challenge the Super Friends Like Never Before

[Warning: The following contains spoilers for the Supergirl Season 6 premiere. Read at your own risk!] 

We are only one episode into SupergirlSeason 6 but Kara (Melissa Benoist) and the Super Friends are already in more trouble than they've ever faced before. After saving Brainy (Jesse Rath) and teaming up to strip Lex (Jon Cryer) of his new alien powers, the Super Friends thought they had done a pretty great job of saving the world once again, but it turns out Lex doesn't need to be all-powerful to still be the absolute worst. Before being arrested, he managed to get his hands on the Phantom Zone transporter and sent Kara back to her worst nightmare, being stuck in the Phantom Zone absolutely alone. 

Somehow, it gets worse. The Super Friends have no idea where in the Phantom Zone Lex actually sent Kara, so finding her is virtually impossible and National City's greatest hero is stuck with the phantoms crowding in on her for the foreseeable future. Meanwhile, the Super Friends have to work together to continue keeping National City safe while also trying to rescue their leader. It's a lot! 

TV Guide spoke with Supergirl bosses Robert Rovner and Jessica Queller about this heartbreaking cliffhanger and the obstacles it sets up for Kara and her friends in the final season of the show. 

Kara is stuck in The Phantom Zone. What can you say about how the team is going to function without her leading the Super Friends?
Robert Rovner: [The team] is in a much different situation than they've ever been in before. Their main thrust in the first seven episodes is rescuing Kara. It's very emotional and very personal and the stakes for them being the biggest they've ever faced before. [The situation] also shakes up the dynamics because Supergirl is not with them to help shoulder the burden that they're facing in National City as they're simultaneously trying to rescue her.

Jessica Queller: It was very useful to do that analogy about what it feels like to be dumped in quarantine, and not knowing how or when you're going to get out. So that's something we were all experiencing in the pandemic and that actually enhances the season.

Kara has been stuck in The Phantom Zone before, but what makes this time different? 
Rovner: The last time she had the safety of her ship and she didn't have to face the phantoms themselves, which is how the Phantom Zone gets its name. They prey on people's fear, so she is vulnerable to them. She's also there without any of her power, so it's a much more trying predicament than she's ever been in. As Jessica said, she's facing this quarantine, and this imposed isolation, but her journey is about how do you sustain hope when you're in a situation that seems to her as dire as it seems to our heroes, who are trying to rescue her. 

Lex Luthor was apprehended at the end of the episode. While we'll never count him out, what is the biggest threat to National City with Lex supposedly neutralized?
Rovner: There is a big falling out with Lex in the second episode, so that's very exciting for us. But also the big threat are the phantoms that we're dealing both with Supergirl and a few might make their way into National City at some point.

Queller: Lex doesn't stay down for long, and everyone knows that. He's still as formidable as ever. 

We got a Cat Grant name drop at the end of the episode. Is it possible we could see Calista Flockhart return in the final season? 
Queller: Unfortunately, due to COVID and the restrictions, it doesn't look likely that we'll be able to get Calista back but we do have two flashback episodes in which we get to see a young Cat Grant embodied by an actress who can [play] her so beautifully that you will feel like you have seen Cat Grant. 

Andrea is now taking a much more active role at CatCo now that she's ditched Obsidian. How much can we trust her? Is she someone we can get behind now?
Rovner: I think her focus is on rebuilding CatCo. So she is an adversary in that she's pushing. She wants to make breaking news and wants to return CatCo back to its glory. So she is really pushing our reporters to really get stories for her. She takes a more adversarial role in the second half of the season, when she decides the Super Friends should be the story.

Lena and Kara are finally moving in the right direction in their friendship. What can you say about the road back to being best friends is like for them in the final season?
Rovner: Lena becomes a really integral member of the team moving forward and is very integral in the attempt to bring Supergirl back from the Phantom Zone. Then in the second half of the season, she's dealing with her own stuff, but their friendship is very key to the season.

What are you most excited for fans to see in the final season? 
Rovner: I think that I'm most excited about the fans seeing the journey that Kara is on in the first half of the season and dealing with the predicament that she's in and the emotional stakes for the heroes trying to save her. In the second half of the season, I'm excited about our villain, who is unlike anyone we've had before.

Queller: We are also coming full circle between Kara in the pilot as an insecure reporter working for Cat Grant. The growth of the character of Kara Danvers and Supergirl from the beginning of the series until the end is really remarkable and quite profound. I think it's going to be really satisfying for the audience to see how Kara has grown. 

Supergirl continues Tuesdays at 9/8c on The CW.