Why Alex Danvers will always be our Supergirl

Supergirl marches on with its fifth season. While we’re excited to see Winn (Jeremy Jordan) return in Sunday’s episode “Back from the Future, Part One”, there’s some new news that has us squealing. Chyler Leigh, who plays pro badass Alex Danvers, posted a fascinating image on Instagram. In it, she’s rocking Melissa Benoist’s hair (in black) and a black-and-blue Supergirl suit of her own.

We have some theories on what it all means, which we will get to. Beforehand, though, we need to talk about why Alex has always been a Supergirl even without the suit or powers or hair. (Kudos to that hair for being one of the better Arrowverse wigs.) 

The most badass character on Supergirl

Alex Danvers is a doctor, a soldier, the youngest director of the DEO, and just an all-around badass. Seriously, she goes into the fray armed with her alien gun, her training, and her tenacity. Whenever Kara (Benoist) has a fight, then her sister is right by her side ready to throw down. 

One of the best episodes to showcase this is “Alex” from season two. In the episode, Alex is kidnapped, locked in a box that is filling with water, and has to think her way to handle the situation. With a calm head and ingenuity, Alex keeps herself alive and tries to save herself. She handles the situation beautifully, which makes the entire episode an ode to how awesome Alex is.

Pre-Crisis this was a multiversal thing as well. When Barry (Grant Gustin) met Earth-1 Alex in Elseworlds, he was quick to declare her a “badass in every universe”. He’s not wrong about that. 

Stronger together

The S on Supergirl’s crest stands for the House of El, but it’s also a reminder of the phrase “El Mayarah”, which means stronger together in Kryptonian. It’s a rallying cry for the Super Friends, but also the Danvers sisters. While Alex and Kara can handle problems on their own, the sisters work best together.

Alex’s love and devotion for her adopted sibling is something really refreshing to see. Most times, in media, we only see the angst of such relationships. Yet Supergirl refreshingly focuses on the relationship between the sisters, making it the core of the show. Alex’s willingness to do anything necessary for Kara has led to some of the best and most heartbreaking moments of the series.

The one that makes us cry buckets is in season four, when Alex voluntarily has knowledge of her sister’s alien heritage and Supergirl identity suppressed in order to protect her. The ending of that episode had us sobbing buckets. 

Living her truth

There’s something scary about coming to a realization of yourself later in life. Alex’s coming out story perfectly captures that fear and showcases her bravery in being true to herself. By admitting that she is a lesbian, something that Alex never examined in her life, she took a big step into living her own honest truth. While her relationship with Maggie (Floriana Lima) was great, Alex continued to come to her own realization about what she wants out of her life.

While the break-up between Alex and Maggie was heartbreaking, we do have to applaud Alex for how she handled it. She wants a child one day and to be a mother. Even though she loved Maggie, she also wanted a romantic partner that would be on the same page as her for that dream of the future. It’s a brave move, ending your first love and putting yourself out there again, which she does with her new girlfriend Kelly (Azie Tesfai). 

What does it mean though?

So what does it mean to see Alex donning a Supergirl suit of her own with the same hair that Kara is currently rocking? Frankly, we have no clue about how we get there, but we do have some theories on it. Sure, this could be some kind of weird dream sequence. Maybe Lex is making the DEO’s director into a human Kryptonian hybrid. We don’t think so.

Our four main theories have to do with the following: the Book of Destiny, Mister Mxyzptlk, virtual reality, or doppelgangers. 

While the Book of Destiny may have been destroyed in Crisis On Infinite Earths “Part Three”, a page did survive with Lex Luthor (Jon Cryer). Now we think he may have used that page in order to secure the Luthors good standing on the new Earth-Prime. So what if he used the page in order to do an Alex-Kara Elseworlds-esque switcheroo? We don’t know why it would change Alex’s hair or the color scheme of the costume, but it sounds viable.

Mister Mxyzptlk, as previously reported, will return. Played by Thomas Lennon this go around, not much is known about this tricksters return to National City. He will, however, be a recurring character going forward. As a fifth-dimensional imp, Mxy can change and bend reality to suit his desires. So what if he decided to make Alex into Supergirl? 

As revealed in “The Bottle Episode”, Leviathan leader Gamemnae (Cara Buono), or “Gemma” as she is known, has plans to use Andrea Rojas’ (Julie Gonzalo) virtual reality tech to make the world go all Ready Player One or Surrogates. So what if Alex is Supergirl in this virtual reality? Like, for whatever reason, Kara can’t enter and Alex takes up her sister’s identity in VR?

Finally, we have another theory that has sprung from what we learned in “The Bottle Episode”: doppelgangers. As we’ve learned, while the multiverse may have been restored, there are still orphans from the Pre-Crisis reality. Some of them appear in the nexus point in Al’s Bar. We don’t know if that’s stopped yet. 

As Batwoman’s “How Queer Everything Is Today!” shows, the nexus is not just limited to National City. It’s entirely likely that this Alex could be an alternate version of Kara Zor-El that looks like Alex Danvers. The Flash and Crisis on Infinite Earths proved that people don’t look the same in every reality, even if they have the same name and powers.

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