Originally published March 31; updated to reflect recent plot developments.
The sixth and final season of “Supergirl” just hit the mid-point and, let’s get honest: Kara Danvers and the Super Friends have been through the wringer many times over at this point. The mid-season finale literally saw most of the super friends experience their deepest fears, thanks to a loose Phantom. It was…rough, to say the least.
Can we finally get them into therapy?
They’ve had a therapist within reach for awhile now: Kelly Olsen (James’ sister), the psychologist specializing in trauma who is currently dating Alex Danvers. And, according to series star Azie Tesfai, who has played Kelly since Season 3, the “Supergirl” cast talks fairly often about this, and like to imagine what an actual Super Friends group therapy session would look like.
“We joke about that all the time on set. Nicole [Maines, who plays Nia Nal/Dreamer], she kind of came up with a cool concept of it, just ’cause Nicole writes fun scenes and does artwork,” Tesfai tells TheWrap. “But she had some funny insights onto what that would look like, in kind of a ‘raise your hand if you’ve ever…’ manner.”
But it’s more than just a “raise your hand if you’ve ever been personally victimized by Lex Luthor” situation.
“Raise your hand if you’ve almost died. Raise your hand if you have died and come back. Raise your hand if you’ve lost someone close to you. Two people? Three people?” Tesfai suggests with a laugh. “There’s a lot of drama in the group of Super Friends.”
Indeed, that drama only compounded in the season six premiere. Of course, that’s largely because the season six premiere was supposed to be the season five finale before COVID prematurely ended the last TV season — and it ended on a finale-worthy cliffhanger.
Let’s recap real quick, shall we? First, the good: Brainy (Jesse Rath) survived, thanks to a last-minute assist from Nia, and the couple are on their way to repairing their relationship. Leviathan was definitively stopped, with Gamenmae (Cara Buono) destroyed by the anti-life equation. The people of the world were saved from Lex Luthor’s (Jon Cryer) mind control, and Lena (Katie McGrath) got to punch her brother in the face, just before he was sent to jail again.
But now, the bad: Supergirl (Melissa Benoist) is back in the Phantom Zone, and the Super Friends have absolutely no idea how to get her back. It’s basically worst-case scenario, and quite literally Kara Danvers’s worst nightmare. At this point though, it’s just another item on the list of terrible things Supergirl has been through. And it’s time we finally address that.
Luckily, Tesfai tells us that some of that drama does start to get unpacked on “Supergirl” this season. We don’t know how, or whose, but we can’t wait to find out. To get ready, we had Tesfai channel her character’s expertise and rank the Super Friends, based on how badly they need therapy.
Though Kelly Olsen is admittedly the most healthy of the group, it was actually M’gann M’orzz (Sharon Leal) that came in at the bottom of this ranking. Next came J’onn J’onzz, aka Martian Manhunter (David Harewood), “because he has M’Gann, and so he’s doing a lot better. You know, he’s got like a partner,” Tesfai notes.
William Dey (Staz Nair) rounds out the bottom three. “William was kind of a dick in the beginning,” Tesfai says. “We’ve got to unpack that ego-masculine, toxic energy a little bit.” (Though it’s important to note that Tesfai considers Nair to be the exact opposite of that vibe in real life).
Surprisingly, it was Braniac-5 that came in next. Why is he not higher on the list, you might ask, considering everything he went through in season five and the start of season six? “He’s really good at compartmentalizing, and I feel like that is a great tool to have,” Tesfai reasons. “And as we learn, Andrea’s not so great at it.”
And so, Andrea Rojas (Julie Gonzalo) clocks in above Brainy. That left us with our core group for the final slots: Alex Danvers (Chyler Leigh), Nia, Kara and Lena. (Note: Eve Tessmacher and Lex Luthor were not included in this consideration because, come on, we KNOW they need therapy bad).
As expected, it came to a battle between Kara Danvers and Lena Luthor for the top spot and the victor was indeed the younger Luthor. “Lena is, in my opinion, the person who needs therapy the most,” Tesfai says definitively. “I mean, her family’s a mess, everything’s a mess. I feel for her. So, Lena. I secretly still want Lena and Kelly therapy scenes.”
Watch the full decision process in the video above.
Incidentally, it’s long been a running joke among fans at this point that Kara and her friends could really use some therapy, and the cast has played into it before. In November, Maines even posted a TikTok poking fun at the matter.
The video followed the “Choose your fighter” trend, in which Maines and her castmates acted as though they were players to be chosen in a “Supergirl” video game. Each had a different strength, but they all had the same weakness: Family trauma. Watch that below.